Managerial autonomy: does it matter for the performance of water utilities?

Abstract

The public administration literature asserts that autonomy is central to performance. In this article we develop a managerial autonomy index, which we apply to 22 water utilities in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The 16 items that underlie our composite autonomy index display a high degree of internal consistency. This speaks for the validity of the autonomy concept. We find that the autonomy scores of the 22 utilities vary widely. We also find strong and positive associations between autonomy scores and six out of eight key performance indicators. Our results support the idea that autonomy is central to the performance of water service providers. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The application of new public management doctrines in the developing world: An exploratory study of the autonomy and control of executive agencies in Tanzania

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Status and Analysis of Formal and Actual Human Resource Management, Financial and Policy Autonomy of State-Owned Enterprises in Pakistan

“…SOEs play more important role in the improvement of economy of developing countries as they are created for political, ideological and economic reasons (Smith and Trebilcock, 2001). Majority of the literature agrees that SOEs are given maximum autonomy so that they can function productively (Braadbaart et al, 2007). However, formal autonomy cannot always ensure the de facto autonomy or the autonomy that an organization can have in practice (Yesilkagit and Thiel, 2008).…”

Autonomy matters: Insights from U.S. water utility managers on governance structure

“…Autonomy is a central theme in the debate over the influence of governance factors on the performance of publicly owned enterprises in the wake of New Public Management reforms (Groves, Hong, McMillan, & Naughton, ; Lioukas, Bourantas, & Papadakis, ; Verhoest, Peters, Bouckaert, & Verschuere, ); however, results from empirical analyses on the strength of the autonomy–performance relationship are a mixed bag. Higher productivity and improved outcomes were observed following the shift of decision‐making responsibility from state to firms in China (Groves et al, ), and managerial autonomy was positively associated with six performance indicators in water utilities in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East (Braadbaart, Eybergen, & Hoffer, ), whereas Lioukas et al () measured a negative relationship between perceived intensity of state control and the performance of Greek state‐owned enterprises. One explanation for this divergence in findings is variance in how the concepts autonomy and performance are defined and measured.…”

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