UNDERSTANDING HYBRIDITY IN PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS

This article explores and extends the concept of hybridity to understand current changes in public services organizations, notably as seen from an organizational studies perspective. The notion of hybridity has become more important, given that the public sector increasingly blurs with other sectors...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public administration (London) 2015-06, Vol.93 (2), p.273-289
Main Authors: DENIS, JEAN-LOUIS, FERLIE, EWAN, VAN GESTEL, NICOLETTE
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Corporate identity
Governmental reform
Heterogeneity
Identity
Organization theory
Organizational analysis
Public Administration
Public Sector
Public services
Reform
Social Interaction
Studies
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article explores and extends the concept of hybridity to understand current changes in public services organizations, notably as seen from an organizational studies perspective. The notion of hybridity has become more important, given that the public sector increasingly blurs with other sectors and more social actors. Previous reliance on the use of ideal‐types in characterizing public services reforms has masked expanding heterogeneity. We here move beyond the (i) conventional focus on structural hybridity to consider (ii) institutional dynamics, (iii) social interactions, and (iv) new identities and roles in public services. Based on these four dimensions of hybridity, we review alternative theoretical frameworks. We suggest that bringing together work from the neighbouring disciplines of public administration and organization studies may improve our understanding of public services hybridity and outline a future research agenda.
ISSN:0033-3298
1467-9299
DOI:10.1111/padm.12175