The Benefits of Bureaucracy: Public Managers' Perceptions of Political Support, Goal Ambiguity, and Organizational Effectiveness

Stazyk, Edmund C.; Goerdel, Holly T.

doi:10.1093/jopart/muq047

Cited by 127 publications

(115 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The main reason for this seemed to be that the higher managers did not understand the importance of themselves playing an active role when their organization was under media scrutiny, by meeting media representatives together with the manager in question, for instance, or by taking over contact with the media. As Stazyk and Goerdel (2011) showed, support in managerial work is important, the superior manager in the study could thus play a considerable role in directing the media's focus from the manager as a person to the organization as a whole. Another person within the organization who might be helpful in keeping the focus on the organization is the information specialist.…”

Section: Managers' Strategies For Self Protectionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Swedish Healthcare Managers and the Media – A Study of Strategies and Support During Mass Media Attention

Wilmar

Ahlborg

Dellve

et al. 2017

Scandinavian Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology

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The aim of this study was to explore how Healthcare managers handle media attention focused on themselves or their organizations and the kind of support they seek and receive at such times. Altogether 40 persons were interviewed, of which 24 were managers with recent experiences of being the focus of mass media attention and 16 were people working with or otherwise familiar with the managers. Thematic analysis was used to extract themes from the data. The results showed that managers used both problem-focused coping such as openness and emotion-focused coping as avoidance of dealing with media representatives. The data implied that earlier experience of meeting the media influenced the coping with media attention, more positive experiences contributed to more openness. The openness strategy could be proactive or reactive, and the avoidance strategy could entail either avoiding information from media or contact with reporters. The managers identified several potential sources of social support that they seek within their organizations. However, receiving support from close actors within the organizations seldom occurred. The main support came from people who were particularly trusted by the managers as information specialists or family members. The findings contribute to an understanding for the complexity of interpersonal behavior and communication. It also makes us aware of the relevance of shared strategies with regard to communication with the media.

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Section: Managers' Strategies For Self Protectionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Swedish Healthcare Managers and the Media – A Study of Strategies and Support During Mass Media Attention

Wilmar

Ahlborg

Dellve

et al. 2017

Scandinavian Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology

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show abstract

“…Jung, 2014;Rainey and Jung, 2010;Stazyk and Goerdel, 2011;Stazyk, Pandey and Wright, 2011). When organizational goals are ambiguous and unclear, employees must work harder to understand the relationship between the activities that they undertake and the resulting performance of the organization.…”

Section: Organizational Goal Ambiguity and Senior Managers' Engagementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organizational goal ambiguity and senior public managers’ engagement: does organizational social capital make a difference?

Andrews

Mostafa

2017

International Review of Administrative Sciences

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The Job Demands-Resources model highlights that aspects of the work environment that place high demands on employees are potential job stressors, which can reduce their levels of engagement with their work and organization. By contrast, social support for employees is a resource that can sustain their engagement and enable them to cope with high demands. We analyse the separate and combined effects of two key job demands and resources on the engagement of more than 4,000 senior public managers in ten European countries: organizational goal ambiguity, which may demotivate employees; and organizational social capital, which can prompt employees to share knowledge in constructive and helpful ways. The statistical results suggest that there is a negative relationship between goal ambiguity and engagement, and a positive one between social capital and engagement. Further analysis revealed that organizational social capital weakens the negative goal ambiguity-engagement relationship.

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“…Based on this understanding, initial organizational structure of China's state-owned enterprises, including Guitang, was largely bureaucratic. Bureaucracy could allow organizations to manage intensive administrative tasks and minimize uncertainties in decision making [41]. In Guitang's case, adopting a bureaucratic management system likely helped to build structure and authority of a brand-new organization under the new-born nation's institutional resource constraints [19].…”

Section: Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organizational Boundary Change in Industrial Symbiosis: Revisiting the Guitang Group in China

Shi

Chertow

2017

Sustainability

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This study revisits the Guitang Group, one of the best known industrial symbiosis cases in the sugar industry. Our goal is to offer an evolutionary understanding of industrial symbiosis at the Guitang Group. This article focuses on the organizational boundary change of the Guitang Group over time, and acknowledges this process as one of the seven industrial symbiosis dynamics proposed by Boons et al. We offer a historical view of the critical forces behind Guitang's industrial symbiosis evolution since the 1950s; particularly how these changes were influenced by broader economic and institutional contexts of importance in China. These insights include the role of institutionalized research and development (R&D) as well as technology-oriented leadership as driving forces for Guitang's innovation, particularly since the 1990s, when greater efficiency and productivity were emphasized, leading to the establishment of further symbiotic relationships in the company's evolutionary process. As a result, the Guitang Group grew from 2 internal to 11 internal and external symbiotic exchanges and is now a conglomeration with more than 3000 employees generating more than 1 billion RMB (150 million USD) in revenue annually.

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The Benefits of Bureaucracy: Public Managers' Perceptions of Political Support, Goal Ambiguity, and Organizational Effectiveness

Cited by 127 publications

References 41 publications

Swedish Healthcare Managers and the Media – A Study of Strategies and Support During Mass Media Attention

Swedish Healthcare Managers and the Media – A Study of Strategies and Support During Mass Media Attention

Organizational goal ambiguity and senior public managers’ engagement: does organizational social capital make a difference?

Organizational Boundary Change in Industrial Symbiosis: Revisiting the Guitang Group in China

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