Bringing Networks In: A model of organizational socialization in the public sector

Abstract

Integrating new employees so that they perform well, fit in well and are committed to the agency is a salient concern for public managers. Organizational socialization is the process by which new employees learn the knowledge, skills and values required to become organizational members. This article develops a model of organizational socialization grounded in newcomer social networks and set within a context of public service identity. Social network theory and methods offer a means for examining and interpreting patterns of interactions between newcomers and organizational members. This article concludes with propositions for future studies of organizational socialization and social networks.     

How social enterprises manage their organizational identification: a theoretical framework of identity management approach through attraction,selection, and socialization

Abstract

Social enterprises, as a typical type of hybrid-identity organization, face identification tensions among members, arising from the divergent identities. Prior research has focused on how hybrid identities can be managed at the organizational level. However, the process through which identification emerges in hybrid-identity social enterprises remains relatively unexplored. This study addresses these gaps and aims to contribute to identity and identification theory. This research has taken a qualitative (case study) approach, with in-depth interviews and archival data from nine social enterprises in Taiwan. Our findings reveal three different types of responses to hybrid identities of social enterprises: synthesis, integration, and deletion. It is observed that different hybrid identities management and organizational identification management practices will lead to members’ identification and dis-identification. This research proposes an attraction-selection-socialization model, suggesting that, to foster identification, social enterprises need to manage their hybrid organizational identities and embed the new common identity into members’ daily work through attraction, selection, and socialization processes.     

Do NPM-Type Reforms Lead to a Cultural Revolution Within Public Sector Organizations?

Abstract

Agencification and granting public sector organizations managerial autonomy in particular is believed to change organizational cultures, away from traditional compliance- and detail-oriented bureaucratic cultures and towards organizational cultures which are more oriented towards external customers. There is however very little empirical information on the relationship between managerial autonomy and organizational culture. Using a unique data set on public agencies in Flanders, we not only test how managerial autonomy affects the strength of a customer-oriented culture within public sectors but also examine whether this culture becomes dominant over traditional public administration culture. Analysis shows that managerial autonomy positively affects a customer-oriented culture; however, it does not make it a dominant culture.     

Lone wolves reciprocate less deviance: a moral identity model of abusive supervision*

Abstract

Although previous studies provide diverse perspectives on the influences of abusive supervision, the moral perspective receives little attention in the literature. We rely on social cognitive theory to present a moral identity model of abusive supervision that accounts for the influences of perceiving abusive supervision on organizational and interpersonal deviance. In particular, we propose that employee moral identity mediates the positive relations between abusive supervision, as perceived by followers, and their subsequent organizational and interpersonal deviance. We also test the extent to which lone wolf tendencies alleviate the main negative impact of abusive supervision on moral identity and the indirect effect of abusive supervision on organizational and interpersonal deviance through moral identity. More specifically, when the level of lone wolf tendencies is high, the relationship between abusive supervision and moral identity, and the magnitude of the moral identity mediating mechanism will be weaker. Using multi-wave, multiple-source data collected in China, our findings support most of our hypotheses and offer insightful theoretical directions for mistreatment, morality, and disposition research. Our moderated mediation model serves as a springboard for future research to understand the social cognitive processes that link abusive supervision and deviant behavior from the moral perspective.     

Interactive identity work of professionals in management: a hospital case study

ABSTRACT

Hybrid professional managers appear less effective in introducing management into public professional settings than policymakers hope. To date, research has offered little understanding of professionals’ identity transition challenge and the role of social interactions underpinning this process. We studied the identity work of hybrid doctors inside a large public health-care organization, finding that it takes place through processes of familiarizing with management, rationalizing being a hybrid, and legitimizing the new role-identity. We contribute to the literature by showing that identity work is distributed and enabled by social interactions beyond the professional group. Implications for policymakers and executives are discussed.     

Spacing identity: Unfolding social and spatial-material entanglements of identity performance

In this paper, we analyze how architectural design, and the spatial and material changes this involves, contributes to the continuous shaping of identities in an organization. Based upon a case study of organizational and architectural change in a municipal administration at a time of major public sector reforms, we examine how design interventions were used to (re)form work and professional relationships. The paper examines how engagements with spatial arrangements and material artifacts affected people’s sense of both occupational and organizational identity. Taking a relational approach to sociomateriality, the paper contributes to the further theorizing of space in organization studies by proposing the concept of spacing identity to capture the fluidity of identity performance.     

Reprint of: Spacing identity: Unfolding social and spatial-material entanglements of identity performance

In this paper, we analyze how architectural design, and the spatial and material changes this involves, contributes to the continuous shaping of identities in an organization. Based upon a case study of organizational and architectural change in a municipal administration at a time of major public sector reforms, we examine how design interventions were used to (re)form work and professional relationships. The paper examines how engagements with spatial arrangements and material artifacts affected people's sense of both occupational and organizational identity. Taking a relational approach to sociomateriality, the paper contributes to the further theorizing of space in organization studies by proposing the concept of spacing identity to capture the fluidity of identity performance.     

Dispositional and organizational sources of job satisfaction: a cross-national study

ABSTRACT

Job satisfaction has proven to be a resilient contributor to employee motivation, productivity, organizational commitment, absenteeism, and turnover. Utilizing cross-national data from five Asian countries/settings and the United States we examine the impact of organizational and psychological factors on job satisfaction. This study contributes to the literature by showing that while organizational factors, such as performance appraisals and leadership behaviours are important sources of job satisfaction, what matters most is whether individuals perceive themselves to be efficacious in their jobs. Self-efficacy was found to be the strongest determinant of job satisfaction in both, the U.S., and the Asian contexts. Based on cultural characteristics of power-distance and collectivism, this study also examines cross-national differences in the level of public employee job satisfaction.     

Place,Organization, Democracy: Three Strategies For Municipal Branding

Abstract

We develop a typology for analysing branding processes in municipalities: a place, organizational and democracy branding strategy. Our main contribution is to expand the view of municipalities as places, taking the debate on the branding of cities, regions and municipalities in a more nuanced direction. Our findings show that the place branding perspective is insufficient for understanding branding efforts; in fact, organizational branding is the most prevalent strategy. However, democracy branding is also strongly present. Using logistic regression, we conclude that the place branding debate should be nuanced by what we know about municipal size, identity and perceived media influence.     

An integrated artificial intelligence framework for public management

ABSTRACT

Artificial intelligence (AI) extends the limits of current performance in data processing and analysis many times over. Since this states a great improvement in managing public data, this conceptual study discusses the use of AI in public management structures in connection with their risks and side effects. The exercise of state power and public influence through intelligent machines make ethical and political guidelines essential for their operation, constituting the cornerstones of the AI framework model developed here. The organizational structure and technical specification are additional aspects of the AI that determine design and functionality of the framework model in practical application.     

Managing Change,or Changing Managers? The role of middle managers in UK public service reform

Abstract

Drawing upon interview data from three case study organizations, we examine the role of middle managers in UK public service reform. Using theory fragments from organizational ecology and role theory, we develop three role archetypes that middle managers might be enacting. We find that rather than wholesale enactment of a ‘change agent’ role, middle managers are balancing three predominant, but often conflicting, change-related roles: as ‘government agent’, ‘diplomat administrator’ and, less convincingly, ‘entrepreneurial leader’. Central government targets are becoming the main preoccupation for middle managers across many public services and they represent a dominant constraint on allowing ‘managers to manage’.     

Bridging the gap between corporate social responsibility and new green product success: The role of green organizational identity

In this study we explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility and new green product success based on organizational identity theory. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 150 companies in China. The results indicate that corporate social responsibility positively affects both green organizational identity and green adaptive ability. We also find that green organizational identity and green adaptive ability are positively influences on new green product success. In addition, we find that green organizational identity partially mediates the relationship between corporate social responsibility and green adaptive ability. Moreover, green organizational identity fully mediates the link between corporate social responsibility and new green product success. This means that corporate social responsibility indirectly and positively affects new green product success through green organizational identity. These results suggest that managers should seek to enhance their organizational sense of green identity and improve their organizational green adaptive ability, which will facilitate their firm's sustainable development. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for environmental policy are also discussed.     

Absorptive Capacity in a Non-Market Environment

Abstract

Improved performance by public sector organizations is a political imperative in numerous countries. There are particular challenges in turnaround of poorly performing organizations. Theoretical explanations of the performance trajectories of public organizations, and especially the causes of failure, highlight the importance of knowledge processes, often from an organizational learning perspective. Absorptive capacity provides an alternative way of theorizing the relationships between organizational performance and knowledge processes, derived from the resource-based view of the firm and the broader concept of dynamic capabilities. The article reviews the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological implications of applying absorptive capacity to the performance of public organizations. It concludes that the approach has value and presents a number of propositions to be tested through empirical study, alongside some more general challenges for researchers who wish to study the concept further. The high political salience of public organizations' performance, and the costs of failure, mandates a major research effort on these issues.     

Managing Complex Governance Systems: Dynamics,Self-Organization and Coevolution in Public Investments

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the substitution and complementarity effect that organizational social capital generates between two different types of performance information: nonroutine and routine performance information. The study of this topic is important since it offers a better understanding of how public managers inform their decision-making. Using department level data from 57 counties in Florida, this article finds that departments with higher levels of organizational social capital are more likely to complement the use of both routine and nonroutine performance information. Thus, the article reinforces the role and importance that organizational social capital plays into well-established and consolidated managerial practices.     

Comparing Public and Private Sector Employees’ Innovative Behaviour: Understanding the role of job and organizational characteristics,job types,and subsectors

Abstract

Innovation is argued to be of key importance in the public sector. Little is known about possible sector differences in innovative behaviour. The stereotype in literature is that public employees are less innovative. We analyse whether sector is associated with innovative behaviour and the influence of job/organizational characteristics. We test this by using a three-country representative survey in Scandinavia with 8,310 respondents. We control for subsectors/industries and job functions. We do not find that public employees are less innovative. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the importance of understanding the major differences in innovative behaviour between different subsectors/industries and job types.     

Respect,bullying, and public sector work outcomes in Vietnam

ABSTRACT

This article examines empirical links between a subordinate’s felt recognition respect from his/her supervisor, the subordinate’s appraisal respect for that supervisor, and bullying, work engagement, and organizational citizenship behaviour in Vietnam’s public sector. Data from 274 employees in six branches of a public sector agency were used to test the hypothesized model. Within Vietnam’s public sector, the followers who receive recognition respect from the leaders have greater appraisal respect for their leaders, experience less bullying, and reveal higher work engagement and organizational citizenship behaviour. This article theoretically and empirically contributes to the respect literature developed in the Western context.     

Weakening the glass ceiling: does organizational growth reduce gender segregation in the upper tiers of Danish local government?

ABSTRACT

The theory of representative bureaucracy highlights gender segregation in the public sector and its detrimental implications for public policy outcomes. Focusing attention on organisational responses to this protracted problem, we supply evidence on whether organizational growth provides potential for change in the upper echelons of the public sector. An evaluation of the relationship between new hires and gender representation within the management tiers of Danish local government reveals an association between the recruitment of additional employees and improved gender integration. This is particularly pronounced for public organizations that employ fewer women. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Employee isolation and support for change in the public sector: a study of the internal audit profession

ABSTRACT

We investigate the preferences of public sector internal auditors for changes in their work practices. Informed by the literature, we posit that feelings of trust in the workplace and/or frustrations arising from perceived organizational ‘isolation’—a dimension of work alienation—motivate support and acceptance of change. We also argue that professional bodies directly and indirectly influence these relationships. These conjectures are tested using structural equation modelling and a survey of Canadian public sector internal auditors. The findings provide valuable insights into the process of adaptation and transformation in public sector settings across countries, jurisdictions, and accountability functions.     

A diagnosis of leadership effectiveness in the Irish public sector

Abstract

As Ireland has followed other countries in modernizing its public sector according to the principles of ‘new public management’ (without introducing market mechanisms on the same scale as its Anglo-Saxon counterparts), the capacity of its public managers to supply the leadership required to drive this programme forward has been identified as a crucial factor affecting its sustainability. A broadly representative sample of Irish public managers has been surveyed using the Leadership Effectiveness Analysis diagnostic instrument to identify those behaviours that need to be developed since they are infrequently used or can moderate the liabilities associated with frequently used behaviours. The findings of this study are interpreted within the context of a broader literature that debates the distinctiveness, significance and malleability of organizational leadership, in general, and the possibility of achieving a balance between different and, at times, conflicting public leadership behaviours, in particular.     

Constructing an entrepreneurial life: liminality and emotional reflexivity in identity work

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the identity work of a budding entrepreneur through a longitudinal case study based on his ongoing personal reflections as he tries to construct an entrepreneurial life. In particular, we investigate the role of emotional reflexivity and liminality, concepts that give us analytical purchase in exploring the complex dynamics of this identity work. The liminal condition of multiple identity positions enables our informant to experiment with and integrate several parallel identity narratives as he tries on socio-political constructions of ‘the entrepreneur’ for size; and it is the permanence of the liminal condition that makes emotional reflexivity necessary so he can handle the constant lack he experiences. The contribution of our work lies in exploring how the operation of the discourse of enterprise never closes on the centre of subjectivity that is imputed in that discourse, and how our subject, through emotional reflexivity, deals with this fundamental lack.