The Use of Innovative Practices in the Public and Private Sectors: the Role of Organizational and Individual Factors

Article Abstract:

Many think management reform efforts are impeded by organizational factors commonly found in public bureaucracies and attitudes typical of civil servants. This article looks at organizational structure and culture as well as the characteristics of individual decision makers as factors that might account for managers' willingness to engage in innovative practices. Using evidence from decision makers in government and the private sector in Sweden, the findings obtained challenge expectations based on existing assumptions about innovation in government. Public and private sector managers show very similar patterns of reform implementation. Consistent with expectations based on previous research, factors related to organizational context and individual status are important determinants of reform implementation, but little evidence supports the belief that barriers to change pose significant hindrances to innovative managers. The findings suggest that certain factors need to be taken into account when developing models of organizational reform.

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Using Comparisions of Public and Private Organizations to Assess Innovative Attitudes Among Members of Organizations

Article Abstract:

This article draws on theory and research comparing public and private organizations to propose ways to study innovative attitudes among employees in the two types of organizations but especially the public organizations. A literature review finds inconclusive the research and theory about whether public agencies show more change resistance and less innovativeness than private firms do. In pursuit of such questions as how we can study the impact of markets for the outputs of organizations, or the absence of such markets, on innovative attitudes among organizational members, the article then summarizes propositions from the literature about why member of public organizations are change resistant, if they are. It then proposes questions for use in assessing the validity of these propositions about the innovativeness and change resistance of organizational members.

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New Public Management- Design, Resistance, or Transformation?: A Study of How Modern Reforms Are Received in a Civil Service System

Article Abstract:

This is a study of how new public management (NPM)-related reforms are received by civil servants in Norway. Based on instrumental, cultural, and transformational perspectives, the authors analyze how civil servants experience the relevance and effects of NPM. The main results show that Norway is a reluctant reformer and that NPM as a global reform wave is transformed, edited, and adjusted to national administrative policy and cultural-administrative traditions when dealing with everyday administrative life. The change potential is, however, also evident, and administrative leaders and personnel with staff tasks are pushing for reform, especially the management-oriented ones.

Public officers, Government officials

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