Environmental Turbulence, Organizational Stability, and Public Service Performance Academic Article

abstract

• A turbulent external environment is widely believed to have damaging effects on public service performance. Much less consensus has been reached on whether the best response to turbulence is to retain or alter existing organizational structures. We provide the first comprehensive empirical analysis of these issues by testing the links between turbulence, structural stability, and performance in a large sample of public organizations. Our results show that turbulence has a negative effect on performance, and that this is compounded by internal organizational change. Thus public managers can mitigate the harmful effects of volatility in the external environment by maintaining structural stability.

authors

• Meier, Kenneth

published proceedings

• ADMINISTRATION & SOCIETY

altmetric score

• 1

author list (cited authors)

• Boyne, G. A., & Meier, K. J.

citation count

• 122

complete list of authors

• Boyne, George A||Meier, Kenneth J

publication date

• January 2009

publisher

• SAGE Publications  Publisher

published in

• Administration and Society  Journal

keywords

• Organizational Structures
• Performance
• Turbulence

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1177/0095399708326333

start page

• 799

end page

• 824

volume

• 40

issue

• 8

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0095399708326333