Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Linking Organizational Performance, Leadership, and Strategy in the Policy Context

(Public and Non-Profit Management and Finance)

In the golden age of evidence based practice, public organizations are more interested than ever in performance management and evaluation. As the conduits for the execution or policy and social service, organizational performance measurement is an important part of the policy process. Scholarship seeking to explain organizational performance as policy conduits must do so in the context of examining the roles of organizational strategy and leadership. As part of a continued effort to link organizational theory to public policy, this proposed panel includes four papers that address the roles of organizational strategy and leadership issues in the policy context. This theme is vital to implementing evidence based public policy. Public policy and social service initiatives at the federal (and other) levels are usually implemented through organizations and agencies. Evaluating the potential impact, and ex-post impact, should include evaluations of organizational performance. Much of the Public Administration literature seeks to understand the determinants of public and nonprofit organizational performance, but this literature is largely disconnected from public policy research (Bozeman, 2013). This panel seeks to help to bridge this gap. This panel includes both macro-organizational and micro-organizational approaches to organizational theory in the policy context. The macro papers link organizational theory and performance with external policy goals and performance measurement. Using organizational and financial data from a set of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the first macro paper investigates the influence of public revenue on organizational efficiency when the revenue is accompanied by public ownership. The second macro paper involves investigating the impact of performance measurement and program evaluation as combined federal practice. The micro papers involve organizational leadership in the public sector. The first micro paper involves a large, longitudinal study seeking to capture the effects of leadership training on public service leaders of transformational and transactional styles. The second micro paper involves the influence of informal networks on the individual organizational commitments of public sector workers. We hope this panel generates a vibrant discussion of organizational context as a policy consideration. Our panel is diverse by many criteria as well, including long established scholars, junior faculty, and doctoral students in a range of roles. We are ethnically and racially diverse, and authors have primary affiliations both domestically and abroad.