The present paper introduces and compares two alternative perspectives on hybridity. One is the perspective of hybrids being located at the interface of dominant 'sectors' such as the private for-profit sector, the public sector and the civil society or nonprofit sector. The alternative perspective focuses on a combination of sector-specific governance mechanisms. The paper discusses the characteristics as well as the advantages and disadvantages of those two perspectives and what a combination of both implies for further research with an emphasis on the analysis of organizational pathologies and managerial coping.

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Both the private for-profit and the non-profit (or 'third') sectors provide what economists call public goods. The division of labour between these sectors, however, differs substantially across countries in terms of both qualitative and quantitative dimensions. Such cross-national differences are illustrated in the present paper with respect to France and West Germany. The autonomy of the state, the nature of the dominant actors and their style of interaction are identified as crucial variables shaping the linkage patterns of government/third-sector relationship. The cross-national comparison allows for the hypothesis that different patterns of government/third-sector linkages also shape different degrees of institutional adaptiveness in a changing political and economic environment. Government/third-sector relationships

From 4 September 2010 on, a series of earthquakes shattered New Zealand for more than one year the most devastating of which caused the Canterbury TV (CTV) building in downtown Christchurch to collapse on 22 February 2011. One hundred and fifteen people were killed. A Royal Commission found out that, in 1986, the Christchurch City Council (CCC) had granted a building permit despite concerns about structural design issues. Moreover, the authority did not insist on structural analyses of the building after the initial earthquake of 4 September 2010. Thorough investigations after the disaster of 22 February 2011 revealed that the early concerns about insufficient joints between floors and shear walls had been entirely justified since the failure of the joints, according to all likelihood, had triggered the collapse of the building.

Studying the so-called refugee crisis in Germany, this article asks about the effectiveness of crisis management by a large number of local administrations, each acting upon the same crisis impulse of a high number of asylum seekers who entered the country in 2015 and 2016. Instead of theorizing the exact administrative design features fit for an effective crisis response, the focus is on the ability of administrations to adjust. We conceptualize such shifts in administrative practices as informal and temporary (latent) deviations from routine action along two dimensions of organizational behavior typically dominant in private and nonprofit sector organizations, respectively: internal flexibility and citizen participation (hybridity). Novel survey data from 235 out of 401 German district authorities are reported. We test the effects of different forms of latent hybridization on administrative effectiveness using regression modeling. Findings indicate that changes in administrative practices towards more flexible and participatory action had a positive impact on self-reported crisis management effectiveness. The effect of flexible action was especially pronounced in districts that were allocated higher shares of asylum seekers. These findings advance theory on crisis management and bottom-up implementation, highlighting the ability of local agencies to shift practices as a key explanatory factor for effective administrative action in exceptional situations.