Does organizational adaptation really matter? How mission change affects the survival of US federal independent agencies, 1933-2011

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Boin, Arjen; Kofman, Celesta; Kuilman, Jeroen; Kuipers, Sanneke; van Witteloostuijn, Arjen
• 署名单位: Leiden University; Leiden University - Excl LUMC; Tilburg University; University of Antwerp; Cardiff University
• 刊物名称: GOVERNANCE-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POLICY ADMINISTRATION AND INSTITUTIONS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0952-1895
• DOI: 10.1111/gove.12249
• 发表日期: 2017
• 关键词: institutional change; POPULATION ECOLOGY; public-sector; performance; management; FAILURE; LESSONS; inertia; termination; strategies

摘要

Public administration scholars tend to take for granted that organizational adaptation is important. This common notion that public organizations must adapt to stay alive has not been put to the test in the field of public administration, however. Intriguingly, organization ecologists find that adaptation does not matter and might even be counterproductive for individual organizations. They argue that the absence of adaptationwhich they refer to as structural inertiaactually enhances the likelihood of survival. But organization ecologists focus mostly on nonpublic organizations. This prompts the question whether adaptation in public organizations really matters. In this article, we test these contrasting claims (while controlling for design features) on a population of U.S. federal independent public agencies (n=142). Our findings suggest a subtle narrative. We conclude that proactive adaptation increases termination hazards. But inertia does not seem to significantly enhance survival chances.