What to Do Here? What to Do There? The Effect of Change in Organization Size on Public Management

ABSTRACT

For a long time, researchers have been interested in the consequences of creating larger public organizations. The outcomes of changes in the size of public organizations have been relatively widely studied; however, much less is known about the internal processes through which these outcomes are actually achieved. This article explores whether changes in organizational size affect public management. As endogeneity is an inherent problem when studying outcomes of organizational size, we apply a quasi-experimental design in order to establish the causal linkage between size and different elements of public management. We use unique survey data collected before and after a large reform that changed the size of most Danish municipalities. The results suggest that public management related to daily operations is generic and not affected by size, whereas public management related to overall tasks such as creating a vision, servicing the mayor, and maintaining external relations is positively affected by size changes.

Notes

The statistical analysis was run on 95 municipalities out of the total sample of 98 due to missing answers on some of the included items.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah M. L. Krøtel

Sarah M. L. Krøtel ([email protected]) is an assistant professor at Department of Management at Aarhus University’s School of Business and Social Sciences. Her research interests includes public sector modernization, turnover and absenteeism, public management, and organizational diversity. Her research has been published in journals such as Public Administration and Local Government Studies.

Anders R. Villadsen

Anders R. Villadsen ([email protected]) is a professor at the Department of Management at Aarhus University’s School of Business and Social Sciences. His research interests are public management, state–firm relations, and organizational diversity. His research has been published in journals such as Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, Public Administration, and International Public Management Journal.

Morten B. Hansen

Morten B. Hansen ([email protected]) is a professor at the Department of Political Science at Aalborg University. His research interests includes management, evaluation, administrative reform, and innovation in the public sector. His research results have been published in journals including American Journal of Evaluation, Public Administration, Public Management Review, and International Review of the Administrative Sciences.