Change leadership and change embeddedness in public organizations: Connecting macro-level reform to micro-level implementation

Higgs, Malcolm and Kuipers, Ben and Steijn, Bram (2022) Change leadership and change embeddedness in public organizations: Connecting macro-level reform to micro-level implementation. Public Administration. ISSN 0033-3298

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Abstract

Governments initiate major public sector reforms for various reasons. Although change leadership appears crucial, its role in implementing reforms in public organisations receives scant attention. Insights from public administration and change management literature help to bridge the gap between these macro- and micro-level perspectives. Our multilevel study of two youth care organisations addressing public sector reform explores how leadership behaviour – and in interaction between top and middle managers – contributes to the concept of what we call change embeddedness among front-line employees. The use of leadership behaviours during the reform that are leader centric (shaping) appear to be

associated with greater ambiguity and worse change embeddedness. However, leadership focused on engaging employees and boundary spanning with external organisations seems to support the embeddedness of the reform, especially when these behaviours are connected to a clear sense of purpose around the change.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	10.1111/padm.12833
Dates:	Date Event 21 December 2021 Accepted 22 January 2022 Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Organisational change, Change leadership, Change embeddedness, Multilevel, Public sector reform, Case study
Subjects:	CAH17 - business and management > CAH17-01 - business and management > CAH17-01-09 - others in business and management
Divisions:	Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > College of Accountancy, Finance and Economics Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > College of Business, Digital Transformation & Entrepreneurship
Depositing User:	Malcolm Higgs
Date Deposited:	02 Nov 2022 10:26
Last Modified:	20 Jun 2024 12:05
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/13700

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