Organizational size and public service performance: a meta-analysis and an agenda for future research

Abstract

The question whether small or large organizations are associated with the best public service performance has long been a subject of debate in public administration research, and has had profound ramifications for practice. This article seeks to bring clarity to this debate by conducting a meta-analysis of studies scrutinizing the relationship between organizational size and public service performance (45 articles, 122 effect sizes). Meta-analytical and metaregression results show mostly null findings. We discuss the circumstances in which organizational size matters for public service performance, and propose rekindling venerable research agendas about nonlinearity and contingency in the size-performance relationship.

Myanmar Budget Dynamics and Their Effect on Multiple Performances of Public Service Delivery: A Multilevel Approach

“…However, some researchers have proposed the multiple dimensions of public values, i.e., efficiency, effectiveness, and equity (fairness), to evaluate organizational performance (Brewer & Selden, 2000;Davis et al, 2013). Moreover, to comply with the argument of Walker et al (2024) that the budget should be viewed as a dynamic rather than a static aspect, this study contributes to the PET literature by examining how the different patterns of budget changes we define affect three dimensions of performance (the 3Es). Furthermore, most of the prior studies have focused on only one single sector or policy domain.…”

“…This is one emphasis of this study. However, some studies have stated that different evaluations are used for the quality of public service performance between citizens and government servants (Scott & Enu-Kwesi, 2018) and that assessing the complexity of public service performance should involve using perceptual and archival data collected from both internal and external stakeholders (Walker et al, 2024). Therefore, future research that aims to examine the quality of public service performance should utilize perceptual and archival data collected from both public servants and service recipients.…”

“…Xu and Flink (2022) reported that severe budget cuts make minority representation at a managerial level of public schools more difficult and, as a result, reduce organizational performance. Walker et al (2024) stated that increased resources result in improved services, but effective management is essential to ensure better services. To improve organizational performance, it is obvious that we need to consider several types of resources other than simply increasing financial resources.…”

“…However, a budget is one of the measurements of organizational size, and changes in organizational size have different effects on performance outcomes. Therefore, a budget should be viewed as a dynamic rather than a static aspect (Walker et al, 2024). This study also assumes that budget changes may have different magnitudes and directions and that these different changes lead to different performance outcomes.…”

Governmental management of social housing as an element of state social policy: Bibliometric analysis

“…Access to decent and affordable housing is a basic human need and right (Walker et al, 2024). Over 100 million individuals in the UNECE region who fall within the low-and middle-income brackets face challenges with housing affordability; they allocate more than 40% of their available income toward housing expenses (Swiatkiewicz, 2022).…”