Publication
Title
Does organizational adaptation really matter? How mission change affects the survival of US federal independent agencies, 1933-2011
Author
Abstract
Public administration scholars tend to take for granted that organizational adaptation is important. This common notion that public organizations must adapt to stay alive has not been put to the test in the field of public administration, however. Intriguingly, organization ecologists find that adaptation does not matter and might even be counterproductive for individual organizations. They argue that the absence of adaptationwhich they refer to as structural inertiaactually enhances the likelihood of survival. But organization ecologists focus mostly on nonpublic organizations. This prompts the question whether adaptation in public organizations really matters. In this article, we test these contrasting claims (while controlling for design features) on a population of U.S. federal independent public agencies (n=142). Our findings suggest a subtle narrative. We conclude that proactive adaptation increases termination hazards. But inertia does not seem to significantly enhance survival chances.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Governance: an international journal of policy and administration. - Oxford
INSTITUTIONS
Publication
Oxford : 2017
ISSN
0952-1895 [print]
1468-0491 [online]
DOI
10.1111/GOVE.12249
Volume/pages
30 :4 (2017) , p. 663-686
ISI
000408854900009
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Publication type
Subject
Law 
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 03.10.2017
Last edited 09.10.2023
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