Publication
Title
Are public organizations suffering from repetitive change injury? A panel study of the damaging effect of intense reform sequences
Author
Abstract
In the last decade, reforms in the public sector have been implemented at an ever‐increasing pace. Hereby, organizations are repetitively subject to mergers, splits, absorptions, or secessions of units; the adoption of new tasks; changes in legal status; and other structural reforms. Although evidence is largely missing in the literature, there is a growing belief that such intense reform sequences may be damaging to organizations. This article aims to fill this gap in the literature by empirically examining the existence of such repetitive change injury for public organizations. To do so, we employ organizational absenteeism rates as an indicator for repetitive change injury and link this to the reform sequences an organization experienced. Results indicate that intense reform sequences disproportionally increase organizational absenteeism rates, supporting the existence of repetitive change injury and suggesting that reforms remain rooted in organizational memories for a longer time than is often assumed.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Governance: an international journal of policy and administration. - Oxford
Publication
Oxford : 2019
ISSN
0952-1895 [print]
1468-0491 [online]
DOI
10.1111/GOVE.12404
Volume/pages
(2019) , p. 1-19
ISI
000492038400006
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Bureaucracy despite reforms: does a history of intensive structural reforms make public sector organizations more bureaucratic (again)?
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 19.03.2019
Last edited 28.11.2024
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