Purpose Drawing upon new institutional theory and blame avoidance theory, this paper aims to examine how stakeholder pressure has an impact on the implementation and use of risk management practices in public administrations. Furthermore, this paper investigates whether top management support mediates this proposed relationship. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a survey among public financial managers of German municipalities and federal agencies. Data from 136 questionnaires were used to evaluate the model. Findings The results indicate that top management support fully mediates the relationship between stakeholder pressure and risk management practices. This finding suggests that top management support is crucial for the successful implementation of accounting techniques, such as risk management, in public administrations. Research limitations/implications This study is based on subjective answers by public financial managers. Moreover, this study is based solely on German data. Hence, future research could use a mixed-method approach and data from other countries. Originality/value This paper examines whether stakeholder pressure exerts an impact on the sophistication of public risk management practices.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reshaped administrative relations and put emphasis on the digital transformation of public administration that is urgently needed to support a sustainable recovery from the pandemic crisis and future sustainable development in the post-pandemic era. This paper presents a comparative study on the ways the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted general administrative authorities on the local level with respect to various aspects of their functioning and digitalization in five European countries. With a sample of 926 respondents from the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Romania, and Slovenia, the study shows that the pandemic-imposed changes are very similar in these countries. The results reveal that, except for Germany, the biggest problems of pandemic-related regulations are their obscurity. For all countries under study, parties to the procedures are shown to be the main driver of digitalization and not the public administration itself, generally lagging behind in this sense. Nevertheless, the pandemic has also created several potential opportunities, whereby public managers, especially in Germany, have acknowledged the importance of digitalization right after the protection of health, as confirmed by the wider use of ICT equipment, particularly in Germany and the Czech Republic. Moreover, Germany and Romania exhibit the greatest potential to accelerate digitalization. Finally, the critical factors influencing accelerated digitalization after the pandemic are also identified. The paper’s evidence-based findings could prove useful while formulating recommendations for the sustainable practices of public administrations during this and any future pandemic crisis.

PurposeDrawing on the literature on public service motivation, the authors investigate the relationship between public service motivation and defensive decision-making. Further, the authors explore risk propensity and risk perception as potential antecedents of defensive decision-making.Design/methodology/approachBased on survey data from 144 German public financial managers of municipalities and federal agencies, the authors find no significant direct relationship between public service motivation and defensive decision-making.FindingsHowever, the authors can show that risk propensity fully mediates the relationship between public service motivation and defensive decision-making. The findings also indicate that beyond the public service motivation and individual risk propensity of public financial managers, their risk perception does influence their decision making.Originality/valueThe study makes three contributions to the literature. First, the authors contribute to the relatively small amount of research on the risk-taking behaviour of public managers by explaining the indirect impact of PSM on their risk-taking behaviour. Second, this paper furthers the understanding of the influence of risk perception and risk propensity on decision-making and enhances the models of Sitkin and Pablo (1992) and Sitkin and Weingart (1995). Third, the paper also contributes to the call for more international research on German public administrations.

This paper analyses the impact of the use of digital communication tools in administrative procedures on the effectiveness of local administrative authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. It considers COVID-19-driven changes in the legal competence of the institutional unit and administrative authorities’ orientation to good governance as mediators of this relationship. By applying partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to survey data (N = 610) from five central European countries, we show that the accelerated use of digitalized communication tools driven by the COVID-19 situation has a positive effect on the effectiveness of local administrative authorities. Our data also indicate that the new laws, instructions and good governance driven by the COVID-19 situation – based on mostly convergent administrative traditions and European trends – partially mediate the relationship between the use of digital communication tools and administrative effectiveness. These findings do not significantly differ between participating countries and bureaucratic traditions. Consequently, the COVID-19 crisis proved to be a joint facilitator of responsive public governance that remained compliant with the rule of law, regardless of whether the national administrative systems were traditionally more legalistically or managerially oriented.

Das Risikomanagement und die daraus gewonnenen Informationen sind auch für Behörden von essentieller Bedeutung. Doch nur wenige öffentliche Institutionen auf Bundes-, Landes- und Kommunalebene betreiben ein behördenspezifisches Risikomanagementsystem. Durch weitgehend fehlende gesetzliche Vorgaben ist es ihnen selbst überlassen, ob und wie sie mit Risiken in der Verwaltung umgehen. Was ein verwaltungsgerechtes Management von Risiken auszeichnet, beleuchtet dieser Band des Arbeitskreises "Steuerung und Controlling in öffentlichen Institutionen", dem neben renommierten Wissenschaftlern hochrangige Vertreter aus 20 Bundes- und Landesbehörden angehören.