Perceived Organizational Red Tape and Organizational Performance in Public Services

Abstract

The claim that perceived organizational red tape hampers public services has become a central theme in public administration research. Surprisingly, however, few scholars have empirically examined the impact of perceived red tape on organizational performance. This article empirically analyzes how perceived organizational red tape among managers and frontline staff relates to objectively measured performance. The data consist of survey responses from teachers and principals at Danish upper secondary schools combined with grade‐level administrative performance data. Based on theories of red tape and motivation crowding, the authors hypothesize that perceived organizational red tape reduces performance within such organizations. The empirical result is a small negative relationship between staff perception of red tape and performance and no relationship between manager‐perceived red tape and performance.

From Red Tape to Which Performance Results? Exploring the Relationship Between Red Tape and Various Dimensions of Performance in Healthcare Work Units

“…Work units that are more burdened by the rules they face in their job are less able to produce a high level of output. In the current context, a healthcare service organization, this is likely to be due to constraints because of a lack of time (Jacobsen and Jakobsen ). A compliance burden simply takes time and resources away from work units; as opposed to doing their regular tasks such as showering clients, the employees are spending time filling in paperwork.…”

“…The limited empirical studies on the relationship between red tape and performance have in general found negative effects (Pandey et al ; Walker and Brewer ; Jacobsen and Jakobsen ). In an overview of the findings, Brewer and Walker () conclude that evidence can be seen as inconclusive at most.…”

“…Jacobsen and Jakobsen () show that red tape has a marginal effect on externally determined school added effect, and Brewer and Walker () show that when taking in multiple dimensions of (self‐reported) performance, red tape is differently related to these dimensions. Although Jacobsen and Jakobsen's () study is robust, an important limitation to their study is that they are unable to study multiple dimensions of performance. Previous studies on the impact of management show that dimensions of performance may be differentially influenced (Andrews et al ).…”

“…According to the motivational argument, red tape reduces the effort of employees by reducing their internal motivation for the tasks (Jacobsen et al 2014;DeHart-Davis et al 2015;Jacobsen and Jakobsen 2016). Multiple literatures provide explanations for this.…”

How Do Intrinsic Motivations, Work‐Related Opportunities, and Well‐Being Shape Bureaucratic Corruptibility?

“…Organizational red tape refers to rules, regulations, and procedures that remain in force and entail a compliance burden for the organization but have no efficacy for the rules' functional object (Bozeman ). As Jacobsen and Jakobsen () indicated, the functionality of rules has a perceived aspect, and almost all published studies have measured red tape as a perceptual phenomenon. They defined perceived red tape as “the perception that rules and procedures (formalization) in an organization are detrimental to organizational performance” (Jacobsen and Jakobsen , 26).…”