Reputation and Structural Reforms of Public Organizations: Explaining Temporal Dynamics.

This proposal studies the temporal dynamics between the reputation of public organizations and the structural reforms they experience. Public organizations perform important services in society. When performance of these organizations is perceived to be problematic, political and administrative actors are often urged to initiate structural reforms (e.g., reshuffling tasks between organizations, merging or changing the legal status of organizations). Therefore, reforms have symbolic value as signals to society that problems concerning public sector performance are being perceived and acted upon. However, no studies have examined on a large sample how the perceived performance of public organizations (i.e., their reputation) affects these organizations' chances for being reformed. Neither do we know how structural reforms in turn impact organizations' future reputations. This proposal addresses these gaps. The dynamics between reputation and reforms through time are studied on a diverse set of 60 Flemish public organizations. Specific attention goes to the moderating role of reputation management strategies of these organizations and to several organizational and environmental conditions. The proposal will benefit from the most recent developments in machine learning techniques to automatically collect data on the multiple facets of the reputation and reputation management of public organizations. Advanced statistical models allow to analyze the complex relations through time.

Keywords:PUBLIC MANAGEMENT

Disciplines:Belgian public administration, Public administration organisations, Public management