Do Managers Make Use of Increased Autonomy? Evidence from Large Scale Organizational Reform

TY - JOUR

T1 - Do Managers Make Use of Increased Autonomy? Evidence from Large Scale Organizational Reform

AU - Blom-Hansen, Jens

AU - Serritzlew, Søren

AU - Villadsen, Anders Ryom

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - The question of what is the right amount of managerial autonomy has been widely debated. The new public management movement argues that increased autonomy will be used by managers to improve organizational performance. Skeptics argue that managers in the public sector are likely to shy away from using increased autonomy. To bring the literature forward we theorize the link between reforms awarding managers increased autonomy and subsequent organizational performance outcomes. We identify four steps in this causal chain, which are easily conflated. We demonstrate empirically the potential of focusing on the intermediary mechanisms of increasing managerial autonomy. A large-scale municipal amalgamation reform in Denmark provides a unique opportunity to study the immediate impacts of changes in managerial autonomy in public schools. The results indicate that granting public managers more freedom has intermediary effects on factors such as hiring patterns and organizational demographics.

AB - The question of what is the right amount of managerial autonomy has been widely debated. The new public management movement argues that increased autonomy will be used by managers to improve organizational performance. Skeptics argue that managers in the public sector are likely to shy away from using increased autonomy. To bring the literature forward we theorize the link between reforms awarding managers increased autonomy and subsequent organizational performance outcomes. We identify four steps in this causal chain, which are easily conflated. We demonstrate empirically the potential of focusing on the intermediary mechanisms of increasing managerial autonomy. A large-scale municipal amalgamation reform in Denmark provides a unique opportunity to study the immediate impacts of changes in managerial autonomy in public schools. The results indicate that granting public managers more freedom has intermediary effects on factors such as hiring patterns and organizational demographics.

KW - managerial autonomy

KW - municipal amalgamation

KW - new public management

KW - organizational performance

KW - public sector reform

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85200987878&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/15309576.2024.2378468

DO - 10.1080/15309576.2024.2378468

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1530-9576

VL - 47

SP - 1453

EP - 1481

JO - Public Performance and Management Review

JF - Public Performance and Management Review

IS - 6

ER -