Relative Managerial Networking and Performance: The Moderating Role of Environmental Context

Rho, Eunju; Han, Sumin

doi:10.1111/puar.13164

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…In addition to the independent variables, we included measures of innovative culture/previous innovative practices, financial status, and leadership that are commonly applied in high‐quality public administration research (see Rho and Han 2020; Yi and Chen 2019; Zhang and Zhu 2020). First, to proxy for the potential influence of an innovative culture on the adoption of MI, we included an annual count of the companies operated by each district council, drawing on information in their annual accounts.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Motivations for the Adoption of Management Innovation by Local Governments and its Performance Effects

Andrews

Bellò

Downe³

et al. 2021

Public Administration Review

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This article analyses the economic, political, and institutional antecedents and performance effects of the adoption of shared Senior Management Teams (SMTs)-a management innovation (MI) that occurs when a team of senior managers oversees two or more public organizations. Findings from statistical analysis of 201 English local governments and interviews with organizational leaders reveal that shared SMTs are adopted to develop organizational capacity in resource-challenged, politically risk-averse governments, and in response to coercive and mimetic institutional pressures. Importantly, sharing SMTs may reduce rather than enhance efficiency and effectiveness due to redundancy costs and the political transaction costs associated with diverting resources away from a highperforming partner to support their lower-performing counterpart. Evidence for Practice• To capture economies of scale and cut costs, English local governments are introducing a management innovation, shared Senior Management Teams (SMTs). • Governments that adopt shared SMTs do so when the political circumstances are favorable and coercive and mimetic institutional pressures are present. • The sharing of a SMT leads to reduced public service efficiency and effectiveness, but can help local governments build much-needed organizational capacity.P ublic organizations are increasingly called upon to design and implement innovative management practices to become more effective and efficient (Brown, Osborne, and Walker 2016;Kim and Warner 2016). However, despite the growing emphasis on management innovation (MI) in the public sector, evidence on the economic, political, and institutional factors that lie behind its adoption is only slowly emerging (Damanpour and Aravind 2011; Singla, Stritch, and Feeney 2018). More significantly, very little is known about whether MIs generate the anticipated organizational improvements (De Vries, Bekkers, and Tummers 2015; Walker, Chen, and Aravind 2015). In this article, we investigate the antecedents and performance effects of MI in public service organizations. Specifically, we examine shared Senior Management Teams (SMTs) in English local governments-a MI that occurs when two or more local governments formally agree that their service delivery will be overseen by a single group of senior managers.Broadly defined, MI involves the introduction of a new structure, process, system, program, or practice in an organization or its units which changes how managers manage (Birkinshaw, Hamel, and Mol 2008). MIs are therefore distinct from other innovation types (e.g. service, partnership) that entail material changes to what an organization provides to its external stakeholders (Damanpour and Aravind 2011). Because the adoption of MIs may result in the redesign and redevelopment of management systems and processes, it is often radical rather than incremental in orientation (Walker, Damanpour, and Devece 2011). MI may therefore be particularly challenging for public organizations, where changes to established rules and routine...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Motivations for the Adoption of Management Innovation by Local Governments and its Performance Effects

Andrews

Bellò

Downe³

et al. 2021

Public Administration Review

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“…For task-environmental variables, complexity in policy tourism is concerned with the heterogeneity of the principal clients-racial diversity, language diversity, and income inequality (Rho & Han, 2021). Specifically, complexity is measured using the percentage of minority groups (African American, Hispanic, and other racial groups), the percentage of people over age 5 who speak English less than "very well," and the percentage of people living in poverty; all of them are collected from the ACS dataset.…”

Section: Macro-level Diffusion Explanationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Environmental complexity refers to the diversity and categorization of task-environment components or the heterogeneity/homogeneity of the operating environment in general (O'Toole Jr. & Meier, 2004). A rise in societal complexity instigates greater uncertainty for managers to cope with unexpected situations engendered by intricate needs, which influence how and to what extent organizations can process information (Rho & Han, 2021). In this study, city participants in policy tourism seek innovative policies to better serve diverse and geographically distributed clients and customers with varying demands and policy preferences.…”

Section: Meso-level Environmental Explanationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies in public policy mostly focus on the characteristics of policy tourism (Cook et al, 2014; González, 2011), its advantages (Wood, 2014), and disadvantages (Cook et al, 2014; Hudson & Kim, 2014). Scholars in public management describe a similar externally and horizontally oriented networking effort as “managerial networking,” or specifically “managing outward,” and examine its impact on performance in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors (Johansen & LeRoux, 2013; Li & Zhang, 2007; Rho & Han, 2021). Despite these efforts, policy tourism has rarely been conceptualized as a manifestation of policy diffusion, through which policy practices and ideas get communicated across cities (Hudson & Kim, 2014; Ma, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Executive leadership, policy tourism, and policy diffusion among local governments

Liu

2022

Public Administration Review

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Policy tourism is an important but rarely studied phenomenon describing a widespread practice, through which local public and business leaders form delegations, choose target cities, and implement intercity policy diffusion, business exchange, and economic collaboration. Our research examines how executive leadership characteristics, city-level contextual factors, and interdependence mechanisms relate to cities' decisions to visit. Using two-stage probit selection models with instrumental variables on a dyadic balanced panel dataset recording all policy tourism events between major U.S. cities from 2007 to 2016, we answer this question accounting for potential endogeneity problems. Our findings suggest that cities with experienced yet newly appointed, minority leaders tend to visit cities with experienced white or female leaders. Additionally, policy tourism happens among cities embedded in highly complex, munificent, and turbulent environments. Finally, cities tend to learn from peers with higher economic prosperity or interact with their competitors. Evidence for Practice• Local public and business leaders form delegations, which facilitate intercity policy diffusion. • Cities tend to visit competitors that are similar to them in demographic, political, and socio-economic characteristics, but with a better economic trajectory. • Intercity visits happen among cities experiencing high environmental complexity, munificence, and turbulence.

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“…Rho and Han (2020) use a panel of data from school districts to explore the nonlinear effects of relative levels of networking on performance. They then investigate how relative networking interacts with varying organizational conditions and task environments.…”

Section: The Issue At Handmentioning

confidence: 99%

Through the Editor's Lens: Understanding the Editorial Role Through Metaphor

Hall

2021

Public Administration Review

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Relative Managerial Networking and Performance: The Moderating Role of Environmental Context

Cited by 11 publications

References 70 publications

The Motivations for the Adoption of Management Innovation by Local Governments and its Performance Effects

The Motivations for the Adoption of Management Innovation by Local Governments and its Performance Effects

Executive leadership, policy tourism, and policy diffusion among local governments

Through the Editor's Lens: Understanding the Editorial Role Through Metaphor

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