Leadership succession and organizational success: when do new chief executives make a difference?

Abstract

When do new chief executives in the public sector make a difference to organizational performance? Theory suggests that executive succession has both adaptive and disruptive effects on public organizations, and the balance between these is likely to depend on the performance of the organization in the period before a new top manager takes office. We test this proposition on several years of data on all 148 English principal local authorities. Our results suggest that chief executive succession makes a difference to performance, and that succession has a positive effect where prior performance is low, but a negative effect where it is high.

Acknowledgement

We thank the ESRC Public Services Programme for support (grant number RES-166-25-0026).

Notes

* Our sources include local government web pages, data from the Audit Commission, all editions of the Guardian's Local Authority Directory, archival data from 2004 provided by Oscar Research Ltd, various editions of the Municipal Yearbook and the Local Government Chronicle.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

George A. Boyne

George A. Boyne is Professor of Public Sector Management, Cardiff University, UK.

Oliver James

Oliver James is Professor of Political Science, University of Exeter, UK.

Peter John

Peter John is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, University College London, UK.

Nicolai Petrovsky

Nicolai Petrovsky is Assistant Professor, Martin School of Public Policy & Administration, University of Kentucky, USA. Author order is alphabetical: All make an equal contribution to the article.