The evolution of research on organizational termination

Abstract

Over recent decades, termination research has experienced a transformation from an obscure field to one undergoing rapid growth. Since the inception of the research in the 1970s, ever-increasing worldwide calls for government austerity have demanded a systemic understanding of organizational termination. This article examines the evolution of organizational termination research from case-based to statistical studies. It then makes several suggestions regarding ways to move organizational termination research forward. Points for practitioners This article offers practical lessons to practitioners who are interested in understanding organizational termination. Offering the evolution of the research on organizational termination from its inception to the present, the article presents a succinct overview of organizational termination. As such, it will be beneficial to those who have to operate in today’s world of increasing fiscal austerity pressures.

Nature or nurture? Agency life‐cycles as a function of institutional legacy, political environment, and organizational hardwiring

“…Our study points to the complexity of explaining reform over time in public organizations. Not only do the birth characteristics and environmental approaches studied in previous contributions have a (sometimes unexpected) role to play, internal “institutional legacy” perspectives also seem to form an important piece of the puzzle (Kuipers et al, 2018; Lim, 2021). Therefore, this study adds important evidence to the extant body of knowledge on public organizations' life‐cycles.…”

The Death of the European Agency for Reconstruction

“…The same has happened with institutions at national level across many European countries. Driven by this tendency, scholars of public administration have studied the termination phenomenon in the public sector since the 1970s (Lim, 2021). Termination is defined as "the deliberate conclusion or cessation of specific government functions, programs, policies, or organizations" (Daniels, 2001).…”

Exploring Agency Termination in Colombia: Understanding the Impact of Political and Economic Factors on the Survival of Public Organizations

“…The above discussion has resulted from research conducted mainly in the US, European countries, and Korea. The causes of termination in public organizations are still absent from a scholarly understanding in countries other than those mentioned (Lim, 2021), especially in Latin America. There are some academic works in the region that offer an overview of how political control over public organizations can affect the organizational structure of these entities more than the process of termination itself.…”

“…This phenomenon of permanent administrative reform poses important conceptual, empirical, and methodological challenges to the current knowledge on the termination of public organizations in non-Global North countries. As Jae Young Lim (2021) puts it in a recent article about the evolution of research on the causes of termination in public organizations, "a large number of countries therefore continued to be absent from a scholarly understanding of organizational termination. Therefore, there needs to be further research on organizational termination in single non-European countries, as well as studies conducting cross-country comparisons" (199).…”