Hybrid coordination of city organisations: The rule of people and culture in the shadow of structures

Abstract

Under far-reaching reforms, many cities have delegated core tasks previously delivered by their administrations to independent organisations that they formally own, e.g. municipal companies, or supervise, e.g. municipal trust funds. The coordination of these (as we call them) ‘domestic’ city organisations has proven challenging. Extant literature argues that such coordination is achieved through a mix of various hierarchical, market and network mechanisms. Yet it is unclear how these modes are combined. Addressing this gap, we ask: How do governance modes interact in the hybrid coordination of domestic city organisations? Analysing the case of Vienna, where 100 domestic organisations employ about 60,000 people, we find that while cultural mechanisms, rooted in the network mode, are predominant, they unfold in the shadow of latent structural mechanisms, which are associated with hierarchy and market. In the background, structural mechanisms keep cultural coordination effective, while cultural mechanisms allow structural coordination to remain (generally) hidden. This study aims to contribute to the literature on the governance of public organisations by exploring the relationship between governance modes as well as furthering urban governance studies by applying insights from studies on the coordination of public organisations to the city context.

“What is going on in the ‘big tent’?” Current developments in (new) institutional theory and performance measurement and management research

“…(2) Second, there have been changes in terms of the "where" of PMM (i.e. its locus), as "public organizational landscapes" (Leixnering et al, 2021) continue to undergo significant change, alongside the different organisational forms adopted in the public sector (Meyer and H€ ollerer, 2014;Meyer and Quattrone, 2021). Indeed, the diversity of the "animals in the administrative zoo" (Bach and Jann, 2010) keeps expanding.…”

The relationship between the professional, social, and political experience and leadership style of mayors and organisational culture in local government. Empirical evidence from Poland

“…In turn, other authors have confirmed in their studies that the drive for innovation as a cultural norm determines a strategic change in local government [ 4 ] or engagement in collaboration [ 5 , 6 ]. The importance of organisational culture in the hybrid coordination of city organisations is also considered by Leixnering et al [ 7 ], and they prove that cultural coordination, rooted in the network mode, complements structural coordination, which is associated with hierarchy and market. The cultural mechanisms relieve structural coordination while structural mechanisms provide the shadow in which cultural coordination thrives.…”

‘Remaining the same or becoming another?’ Adaptive resilience versus transformative urban change

“…Vienna’s core identity has become defined by a set of values best represented by the motto: a ‘city for everyone’. Accordingly, diverse urban (infra-)structures provide the means to realise these values in various policy fields – not just in housing but also in health and social care, public transport and culture (Leixnering et al, 2020). And it seems that the city has indeed proved rather resilient in this respect.…”