Middle Managers’ Upward Roles in the Public Sector

Chen, Chung‐An; Berman, Evan M.; Wang, Chun-Yuan

doi:10.1177/0095399714546326

Cited by 27 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 80 publications

(87 reference statements)

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“…Although we endeavoured to make our experimental design as robust as possible, there are some alternative explanations for our findings on bureaucrats' implementation intentions. In terms of bureaucratic discretion, we mainly conceptualise it by focusing on the level of discretion SLBs perceive in policy implementation, but variation in exercising discretionary power may be conditional on other factors, such as their personality or their relationship with superiors and middle managers (Prottas, 1979;Brehm and Hamilton, 1996;Riccucci et al, 2004;Tummers and Bekkers, 2014;Chen et al, 2017). If SLBs are able to build closer relationships with their elected politicians or they have a personality that leads them to be more open to a change, then it will positively affect bureaucrats' willingness to implement the politicians' policy change.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What motivates street-level bureaucrats to implement the reforms of elected politicians?

Lee

Park

2021

Policy &Amp; Politics

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The aim of this article is to explore the motivations of street-level bureaucrats when implementing change initiated by elected politicians. We analyse experimental data on more than 1,800 local civil servants from all 243 local governments in South Korea and find that street-level bureaucrats are more likely to implement change instigated by local elected politicians when their own policy positions are reflected in the reforms. Moreover, the degree to which street-level bureaucrats are likely to execute reforms instigated by local politicians is greater when bureaucrats perceive themselves as having more freedom to exercise discretion. These findings reveal a behavioural insight into the conditions in which bureaucrats are more likely to respond to change championed by elected politicians versus conditions where they are more likely to follow existing rules in the policy implementation process.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What motivates street-level bureaucrats to implement the reforms of elected politicians?

Lee

Park

2021

Policy &Amp; Politics

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“…Other such factors can be time availability and organizational boundaries as studied by Kuratko, Ireland, Covin, and Hornsby (2005). Similarly, a study by Chen, Berman, and Wang (2014) in public sector organizations found that job security, connections with stakeholders and autonomous motivation are some of the most important predictors of middle managers upward influencing roles. An acculturated view of issue selling is proposed by Ling, Floyd, and Baldridge (2005), where the authors argue that managers at lower tiers of an organization, socialized by different national cultures vary in their choice of issue selling and the degree to which their intent to sell issues is influenced by several contextual cues.…”

Section: Organization and Contextmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Managerial control systems (Marginson, 2002) HR practices (Chen et al 2014;Hornsby et al 2002;Kuratko et al 2005;Mantere, 2005) Involvement in strategy process (Mantere, 2005;Vilà & Canales, 2008) TMT support (Hornsby et al 2002;Kuratko et al 2005;Mantere, 2008;Vuori & Huy, 2016;(Zimmermann, Raisch, & Birkinshaw, 2015) Formalization and decentralization…”

Section: Organizational Structure and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Role of Managers in Nurturing Disruptive Innovations

Sadiq¹,

Hussain²

2018

BER

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This paper presents a conceptual framework of managerial activities to foster disruptive innovations. Despite wide recognition of managerial role at middle and lower tiers of organization towards shaping its long-term strategy, the existing research, so far, has lacked in explicitly explaining the managerial activities directed towards the development of disruptive innovations. Authors explored the extant literature on disruptive innovation theory and identified three phases of the disruption process where managers at the middle and lower tiers can play an active role. The authors named this role of managers as their disruptive innovation activities (DIA). Furthermore, manager's DIA is explored in the context of existing antecedents of manager's strategic activities and a conceptual framework is proposed along with a resource map for future research, in this direction.

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“…Altman, 1979;Do¨ring et al, 2015). In particular, public managers can play a central role in promoting organizational responsiveness, innovation, and policy renewal (Chen et al, 2017;Vigoda, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public managers’ networking and innovative work behavior: the importance of career incentives

Zandberg

Morales

2017

International Review of Administrative Sciences

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From theories on middle managers’ entrepreneurship in private organizations, it is known that the structural network position of middle managers influences their innovative work behavior. Our study investigates if in a governmental setting, the intra-organizational networking behavior of public managers has a similar positive influence on innovative work behavior. As networking mechanisms may depend on the particular context and organizational norms, we also investigate the influence of networking motivations. According to social network research in private enterprises, social network links can be used to advance individual careers. According to public management and Public Service Motivation theories, public managers have a collective orientation aimed at producing public goods. Therefore, we investigate if, next to intra-organizational networking, an individual career motive or a collective motivation for networking explains innovative work behavior. In a case study on public managers of a municipality in Mexico City, we find a strong influence of networking on innovative work behavior. We also find support for additional influences of individual career motives, but no evidence for collective motivations. Points for practitioners Intra-organizational networking of public managers leads to increased innovative behavior in a governmental setting. In addition, when aiming at increasing innovative behavior, individual career motives seem to have stronger positive effects than collective motivations (such as teamwork-related motivations).

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Middle Managers’ Upward Roles in the Public Sector

Cited by 27 publications

References 80 publications

What motivates street-level bureaucrats to implement the reforms of elected politicians?

What motivates street-level bureaucrats to implement the reforms of elected politicians?

Exploring the Role of Managers in Nurturing Disruptive Innovations

Public managers’ networking and innovative work behavior: the importance of career incentives

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