It All Depends, But on What? Testing Contingency in Public Strategic Implementation

Abstract

This article examines the factors that lead to the successful implementation of strategic initiatives by U.S. municipalities by testing a contingent model of strategic implementation using project management theory, concluding that situational context alters the relationships between implementation tactics and implementation efficiency. Specifically, this study demonstrates that there are different sets of success factors in four contexts defined by a 2 × 2 typology based on high and low levels of initiative priority and implementation complexity. The tests are conducted utilizing a sample of 218 strategic initiatives gathered from 44 U.S. municipalities. The study also highlights the importance of a dedicated budget allocation for an implementation effort. Collectively, the study endorses contingent implementation approaches based on situational context and calls for further study to identify specifically the most effective contingent implementation approaches.

Keywords:

• contingency
• implementation
• public management
• strategic management

Notes

Notes

1 PMBOK was first published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in 1983 in an attempt to document and standardize best practices in project management. As of 2006, PMI maintains a membership of 220,000 and has certified over 50,000 Project Management Professionals. Most of the various certification standards are based on PMBOK.

2 A fixed effects regression model was also considered for these analyses, as there are multiple strategic initiatives for each municipality included in the sample. A joint significance of the fixed effects test can be used to determine whether the fixed effects are so significant to reject the use of an OLS model (Croissant & Millo, 2008; Leslie, Slaughter, Taylor, & Zhang, 2012; Torres-Reyna, 2010). In all cases, the test indicated that a fixed effects model was not required.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Mitchell

David Mitchell is an assistant professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of Central Florida, and the chair of the ASPA Section on Public Performance and Management.