Political Pressure, Conformity Pressure, and Performance Information as Drivers of Public Sector Innovation Adoption

Abstract

Why public organizations adopt and abandon organizational innovations is a key question for any endeavor to explain large-scale developments in the public sector. Supplementing research within public administration on innovation with the related literature on policy diffusion, this article examines how external factors such as conformity pressure from institutionalized models, performance information from other organizations, and political pressure affect innovation adoption. By the use of two survey experiments in very different political contexts-Texas and Denmarkand a difference-indifferences analysis exploiting a reform of the political governance of public schools in Denmark, we find that public managers respond to political pressure. We find no indications that they emulate institutionalized models or learn from performance information

Trajectories of local open government: An empirical investigation of managerial and political perceptions

“…This study develops a model for explaining open government adoption by focusing on decisionmakers' perceptions of organizational resource endowment and open government willingness. The study adds to the research on innovation adoption in the public realm, although government innovations and their adoption have already been studied (e.g., Kim and Lee 2009;Moynihan and Pandey 2010;Hansen 2011;Andersen and Jakobsen 2018). Similar to Grimmelikhuijsen and Feeney (2017), this study aims to explain the adoption of local open government, a government innovation that differs from previous innovations in terms of various aspects: First, adopting open government not only involves change by the organization itself but also influences the external environment of the organization.…”

Evolving willingness and ability interfaces: An innovation led transformation journey

“…Let’s look at the transformation journey in a public sector organisation from this vantage point. Typically, there is a likelihood for a fair level of initial willingness in the senior management, partly induced by political pressure, to align with the wider public-sector mandate for change ( Andersen and Jakobsen, 2018 ). Overtime, this willingness might change contingent on factors like top leadership commitment and resourcing, and performance experience of design and implementation ( Hambrick et al., 1996 ).…”

Policy Adoption, Innovation, and Performance Management: The Case of Performance-funding Policies in State Postsecondary Education

“…Understanding why public-sector organizations adopt or abandon policy and management innovations, practices, and reforms is essential for explaining large-scale developments in the public sector (Andersen and Jakobsen 2018). State and local governments have adopted and implemented a wide range of policies and reforms in response to a number of factors challenging their survival and legitimacy, such as climate change, economic crises, shrinking budgets, rapid demographic changes, among others (Andersen and Jakobsen 2018; De Vries, Tummers, and Bekkers 2018). Increasingly, public-sector organizations are adopting and implementing these reforms in response to political pressure (Andersen and Jakobsen 2018).…”

“…State and local governments have adopted and implemented a wide range of policies and reforms in response to a number of factors challenging their survival and legitimacy, such as climate change, economic crises, shrinking budgets, rapid demographic changes, among others (Andersen and Jakobsen 2018; De Vries, Tummers, and Bekkers 2018). Increasingly, public-sector organizations are adopting and implementing these reforms in response to political pressure (Andersen and Jakobsen 2018). In some cases, such as in public higher education, these reforms may come as top-down mandates from political bodies.…”