Escape from the Iron Cage? Organizational Change and Isomorphic Pressures in the Public Sector

Institutional theory suggests that organizations pursue legitimacyby conforming to isomorphic pressures in their environment.We extend previous research on institutional theory by distinguishingbetween two definitions of conformity (compliance and convergence)and by taking a comprehensive view of the organizational characteristicsthat might be subject to isomorphic pressures. This frameworkis applied to change between 2001 and 2004 in the internal characteristicsof 101 public organizations in England. We find substantialevidence of compliance but more limited support for convergence.Furthermore, the impact of isomorphic pressures was strongeron organizational strategies and culture than on structuresand processes. Thus, the relevance of institutional theory tochange in the public sector depends on the definition of conformitythat is used and the organizational characteristics that areexamined.     

Strategic Management and the Performance of Public Organizations: Testing Venerable Ideas against Recent Theories

Miles and Snow, among others, argue that strategy content isan important influence on organizational performance. Theirtypology, applied recently to public organizations in the UnitedKingdom, divides strategic actors into four general types: prospectors,defenders, analyzers, and reactors. This article begins by integratingwork on strategy content or strategic management into the O'Toole-Meierformal theory of public management. This study shows that strategycontent is a subset of generally accepted management functionsin public organizations. The article then proceeds to test thestrategic management concepts in a large, multiyear sample ofpublic organizations. The results show that strategy can beseparated out from other elements of management for a distinguishableassessment of its impact on organizational performance. Unlikethe predictions of Miles and Snow and the empirical findingsof Boyne and Walker, however, we find that the defender strategyis the most effective for the primary mission of the organizationand that the prospector and reactor strategies work best inregard to the goals of the more politically powerful elementsof the organization's environment.     

Representative Bureaucracy, Organizational Strategy, and Public Service Performance: An Empirical Analysis of English Local Government

The theory of representative bureaucracy suggests that organizationsperform better if their workforces reflect the characteristicsof their constituent populations. The management literatureimplies that the impact of representative bureaucracy is contingenton organizational strategy. Our empirical evidence on Englishlocal government is inconsistent with the basic theory of representativebureaucracy but supports a moderating effect of organizationalstrategy. Representative bureaucracy is negatively associatedwith citizens' perceptions of local authority performance. However,organizations pursuing a prospector strategy are able to mitigatethis negative relationship.     

Performance Targets and Public Service Improvement

Theories of rational planning suggest that organizational performanceimproves if targets for future achievements are set. We testthis proposition using panel data for 147 English local educationauthorities between 1998 and 2003. The dependent variables inthe analysis are exam results for school pupils. We find that,controlling for other variables, the extent of performance improvementis influenced positively by the presence of a target. Thus,the results are consistent with the view that clear and quantifiedstrategic priorities lead to better organizational outcomes.     

The Spatial Strategy of Equality and the Spatial Division of Welfare

In this paper we argue that little is known about either the geographical objectives or the spatial outputs of the welfare state. Conclusions of geographical inequality are problematic for three main reasons. First, the geographical aims of the welfare state, "the spatial strategy of equality", are unclear. Second, the geographical distributional paradigm is rarely placed in the wider context of local and national welfare states, and the tension between spatial equity and local autonomy is ignored. Third, the geography of welfare, "the spatial division of welfare" is often based on simplistic and confused evidence. Much of the existing work implicitly takes a centralist perspective, assuming that all geographical inequalities are defects. Issues of local government, local politics and local welfare states are ignored. All detected inequality may not be "bad", and greater spatial equity may not necessarily be "good". The spatial division of welfare should not be examined in an analytical vacuum, isolated from the wider contextual issues of national and local services and the trade-off between local autonomy and territorial justice. If the "default value" is that all detected geographical variations are assumed to be defects, then the arguments for localism are doomed to failure.     

Centralization, Organizational Strategy, and Public Service Performance

We test the separate and joint effects of centralization andorganizational strategy on the performance of 53 UK public serviceorganizations. Centralization is measured as both the hierarchyof authority and the degree of participation in decision making,whereas strategy is measured as the extent to which serviceproviders are prospectors, defenders, and reactors. We findthat centralization has no independent effect on service performance,even when controlling for prior performance, service expenditure,and external constraints. However, the impact of centralizationis contingent on the strategic orientation of organizations.Centralized decision making works best in conjunction with defending,and decentralized decision making works best in organizationsthat emphasize prospecting.