The impact of terrorism on civil servants: Longitudinal evidence from the July 22, 2011 attack in Norway

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Geys, Benny; Laegreid, Per; Murdoch, Zuzana; Trondal, Jarle
• 署名单位: BI Norwegian Business School; University of Bergen; University of Agder; University of Oslo; BI Norwegian Business School
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3352
• DOI: 10.1111/puar.13694
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 1772-1784
• 关键词: Leadership; IDENTITY; aftermath; threat; performance; disorders; attitudes; CONFLICT; employee; event

摘要

Building on a growing literature assessing the societal impact of terrorism, this article analyzes whether and how a terror attack targeting public institutions affects civil servants in their day-to-day work. This is an important question to enhance our understanding of how terrorism can (or cannot) affect the operation of core government functions. Theoretically, the study contributes to a broader account of the political consequences of terrorism by combining insights from social identity and organization theory. Empirically, we exploit a two-wave survey fielded before and after the 2011 terror attack in Norway, which allows us to study the same civil servants (N = 186) before and after this event. While terrorists wish to disrupt public institutions, our findings indicate that a terror attack targeting core government institutions strengthens internal cohesion and increases attention to political signals in work tasks. We discuss implications of these effects for the functioning of democratic government.