Are public organizations suffering from repetitive change injury? A panel study of the damaging effect of intense reform sequences

Abstract

In the last decade, reforms in the public sector have been implemented at an ever‐increasing pace. Hereby, organizations are repetitively subject to mergers, splits, absorptions, or secessions of units; the adoption of new tasks; changes in legal status; and other structural reforms. Although evidence is largely missing in the literature, there is a growing belief that such intense reform sequences may be damaging to organizations. This article aims to fill this gap in the literature by empirically examining the existence of such repetitive change injury for public organizations. To do so, we employ organizational absenteeism rates as an indicator for repetitive change injury and link this to the reform sequences an organization experienced. Results indicate that intense reform sequences disproportionally increase organizational absenteeism rates, supporting the existence of repetitive change injury and suggesting that reforms remain rooted in organizational memories for a longer time than is often assumed.

Perceptions of the Frontline Craft: Assessing Value Convergence Between Policy Makers, Managers, and Street-Level Professionals in the Prison Sector

“…This externalizes content and makes it inferior and subordinate to measurable output, something that has little to do with honoring key public service values and delivering good work. It also supports emerging literature that indicates that intense reform sequences (Wynen et al, 2019) and regulatory policy changes “constraining the work conditions of frontline public service providers can indeed produce lasting negative motivational effects” (Jensen et al, 2019, p. 1).…”

Keeping a watchful eye in times of turmoil? How repeated structural reform leads to more attention to political signals

“…This tendency to introduce greater control is predicted to result in increased centralization, formalization, groupthink, pressure for uniformity and an overreliance on familiar solutions (Staw et al ). Moreover, peripheral informational cues become less recognized and less accepted within the organization, as stress inhibits cognitive processing, while pressures towards uniformity and centralization increase the sanctioning of deviant positions (Staw et al ; Wynen et al ). Under such circumstances, it is likely that the signals perceived as salient by senior managers are also considered increasingly important within the remainder of the organization.…”

“…In addition to the aforementioned effects on the level of an organization's senior management, lower‐level employees will attempt to mitigate uncertainty by avoiding action that could lead to formal or informal sanctioning by their superiors (Olsen and Sexton ; Wynen et al ). This may include a reduced propensity to speak up regarding issues perceived as controversial, reduced levels of creativity, an increased focus on a civil servant's core tasks and a reduced propensity to pick up peripheral cues (Staw et al ; Amabile and Conti ; Bommer and Jalajas ; Olsen and Sexton ).…”

Repetitive reorganizations, uncertainty and change fatigue

“…Organizational changes can have unintended consequences. Researchers have pointed to emotional exhaustion, stress due to uncertainty, increased turnover rates (Bernerth et al, 2011;De Vries, 2013), and absenteeism (Wynen et al, 2019). This side effect of reorganizations can be called 'reorganization fatigue', 'reform fatigue', or 'change fatigue'.…”