The Influence of Resistance to Change on Public-Sector Reform Implementation: The Case of Italian Municipalities’ Internal Control System

ABSTRACT

The present research tries to contribute to the academic debate on public management reform adoption, focusing on the reasons for the discrepancies between actual and formal changes and using resistance to change as theoretical basis. The study hypothesizes that high levels of individual and organizational resistance to change may be associated to the formal implementation of public management reforms. The research results allow to confirm the hypothesis when large-size municipalities are considered, while when considering medium-size entities a definite evidence of a relation between resistance to change and the formal implementation of the reforms does not emerge.

KEYWORDS:

• Internal controls
• Italy
• local government
• resistance to change

Acknowledgments

The paper is the result of a joint effort of the three authors. However Elisabetta Reginato wrote sections the 1st and the 2nd sections, Isabella Fadda wrote the 3rd and the 4th sections and Paola Paglietti wrote the 5th and 6th sections.

Notes

¹ The research is based on the implementation of the provisions included in the earlier issue of the TUEL—legislative decree 267/2000. As of 2009, amendments were made to the internal control provisions which are not considered in this study.

² Law 142/1990.

³ Law 241/1990.

⁴ Besides the Law 213 other two provisions were issued to strengthen the Internal Control Decree. The first was issued in 2009—the so-called Brunetta’s Law—which is related to the organizational and personnel performance appraisal; the second was issued in 2011 to systematize the financial and administrative compliance control discipline.

⁵ In August 2014, a decree was issued—legislative decree n. 126/2014—which amended the existing provisions concerning the budgeting and the accounting system.