Insights from local government managers: Navigating crises through organizational capacities and perceptions

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Barbera, Carmela; Dom, Bernard; du Boys, Celine; Korac, Sanja; Saliterer, Iris; Steccolini, Ileana
• 署名单位: University of Bergamo; Nottingham Trent University; Aix-Marseille Universite; University of Freiburg; University of Essex; University of Bologna
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3352
• DOI: 10.1111/puar.13859
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 717-736
• 关键词: Public organizations; STRATEGIC ISSUES; HIGH-RELIABILITY; resilience; variance; Retrenchment; PERSPECTIVE; performance; threats; governance

摘要

Recent years have shown that strategic responses to crises by local governments (LGs) depend on the type of crisis, the institutional environment, but also internal capacities and sensemaking processes. However, such relationships have not been tested widely yet. Based on a survey of managers (n = 590) from cities with more than 15,000 inhabitants in France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, this study explores the role played by specific organizational capacities (critical thinking, bricolage, and financial capacities) and crisis perceptions (valence-i.e., threat vs. opportunity; and controllability) in shaping adaptive or regressive response strategies. Results show that these capacities are associated with how LGs' managers perceive crises and the type of responses adopted. Higher financial capacity, bricolage, and critical thinking are associated with stronger sense of organizational controllability, but they have different relationships with threat and opportunity perceptions. The study confirms the importance of distinguishing valence (threat and opportunity) from controllability perceptions.