This article highlights the importance of ethical environment in enhancing organizational performance. It is vital that organizations set ethical standards for their employees alongside providing an environment that fosters trust and commitment, provides leadership, and creates a high quality of workforce to improve organizational performance. To study the impact of ethical environment on organizational performance, we employ elements from André de Waal's high-performance organization (HPO) framework. Data for this study come from a national survey conducted in four states in the United States, which are classified as at-will employment states: Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Florida. We find evidence that ethical environment plays an important role in determining organizational performance. This is particularly important in the context of at-will employment, where state governments are facing the challenge to maintain employee commitment while improving organizational performance.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the impact of New Public Management (NPM) reforms/practices on innovation in public sector organizations. Although much is written on NPM, the assumption that NPM reforms stimulate organizational innovation has not been empirically tested. The present study is an attempt to bridge this research gap.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on open-systems approach, institutional theory, and innovation research, this study argues that organizational innovation occurs in response to stimuli in the external (environmental factors) and internal environment (organizational factors), considering NPM reforms/practices as a proxy for external or environmental factors. Organizational factors include formal structural complexity, senior management support and job security. The study tests this model using data from a national survey conducted in five states in the US.FindingsThe study provides empirical insights into our understanding of the factors that drive innovation in public sector organizations. The study finds that although environmental factors are as significant as organizational factors in driving innovation in the public sector, senior management support remains the most important predictor of innovation.Originality/valueThis paper fulfils an identified need to study the effect of NPM reforms and practices on innovation in public organizational settings.

Over the last 25 years, municipal governments responded to an environment of increasing health care costs by implementing workplace wellness programs. Research reveals that workplace wellness programs can produce performance benefits ranging from reduced health care costs to productivity improvements. However, there is no systematic study of local government wellness programs that identifies the practices that produce cost reductions and productivity improvements. This article presents the results of a national survey of wellness programs in U.S. municipalities. We develop an index of program success using performance data from our sample. Statistical analysis reveals that targeted investments and performance monitoring, at both the individual and program level, serve to reduce costs and improve employee productivity. This research, thus, provides evidence for best practices in local government wellness programs. Given the array of potential benefits of wellness programs and the locus of employers in the provision of health care benefits, it is necessary to further investigate wellness programs in U.S. local governments.

No abstract

In the nonprofit sector, effective communication with stakeholders is pivotal for promoting a good reputation, gaining financial resources and, eventually, pursuing an organization’s mission. Although nonprofits increasingly use and diversify their communication channels, such as social media platforms, existing research falls short of explaining how nonprofits institutionalize their different communication strategies. Drawing on institutional theory, this study attempts to bridge this research gap by exploring how nonprofits invest in their communication channels, both non-social media and social media communications, using a sample of U.S. nonprofit museums. The results of the study provide empirical evidence that nonprofits do not treat their non-social media and social media communication channels in the same way. In particular, a significant positive association between advertising expenses and social media channels indicates that nonprofit museums institutionalize their social media communication as the main function of public relations. Further theoretical and practical implications of the results are also discussed.