Does the Motivation for Market-Based Reform Matter? The Case of Responsibility-Centered Management

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Rutherford, Amanda; Rabovsky, Thomas
• 署名单位: Indiana University System; Indiana University Bloomington
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3352
• DOI: 10.1111/puar.12884
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 626-639
• 关键词: higher-education; performance management; public-sector; organizational performance; policy diffusion; american states; ACCOUNTABILITY; universities; GOVERNMENT; decentralization

摘要

Organizational theorists have long examined the implications of market-oriented policies for public agencies. Current research often aims to understand the effects of policies imposed on organizations by external stakeholder groups, but few studies have attempted to gain a better understanding of what mechanisms cause agencies to select into these strategies. The purpose of this article is to understand, first, which factors make an organization more likely to adopt a decentralized, market-based budgeting systemtermed responsibility-centered management (RCM)and, second, whether this type of system has implications for organizational performance. Using data on doctorate-granting public and private nonprofit four-year universities in the United States, the authors find that mission, resource dependence, and state party control influence the take-up of RCM. In terms of effects, RCM creates winners for graduation rates (white students) and degree production (science, technology, engineering, and math departments), which raises questions of equity across groups. Evidence for Practice Responsibility-centered management (RCM) has grown in popularity over the last decade and has been touted as a way to improve the cost efficiency, innovation, and performance of large organizations such as universities. Universities that are both highly reliant on state financial resources and located in states with a high share of Republican legislators are more likely to adopt this reform. RCM increases degree production in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math) but has no effect on the production of humanities degrees. While RCM appears to increase graduation rates, the increase is driven by white graduation rates, with little change in graduation rates for minority students, which may be attributable to the underrepresentation of these students in STEM fields.