Hard Lessons from Hard Times: Reconsidering and Reorienting the "Managing Decline" Literature

Does the public administration research from the late 1970s and 1980s on managing decline contain useful lessons for todays Great Recession? Do these studies serve our current research needs? Why has decline continued to be a major focus of research in generic management, but not in public administr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public administration review 2010-07, Vol.70 (4), p.557-563
Main Author: Bozeman, Barry
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advancing Cutback Management Research: An Urgent Priority for Public Administration
Bankruptcy
Business management
Business structures
Corporate strategies
Disproportionate Representation
Economic conditions
Environmental management
Essays
Human Resources
Layoffs
Life Cycle
Literature
Management
Management science
Program Termination
Public Administration
Public management
Recession
Recessions
Research Needs
Sex crimes
Sociology
Sociology of organizations
Stability
Studies
Unemployment
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Summary:Does the public administration research from the late 1970s and 1980s on managing decline contain useful lessons for todays Great Recession? Do these studies serve our current research needs? Why has decline continued to be a major focus of research in generic management, but not in public administration? The answers to these questions give some clues as to a possible new, revitalized research agenda for our field. Whereas public administration ofien viewed organizational decline as a self-contained set of problems requiring remedial action, generic management and sociology research on decline tended to view the topic as part of organizational phases and life cycles, linking decline to growth, stability, and change. Viewing decline as part of the organizational life cycle encourages researchers to take a longer view of organizations and their management, and thus its orientation is more strategic than reactive. Three areas of decline studies are identified as relevant irrespective of sector: (1) implications of decline for human resources management, (2) effects of decline on organization structure and design, (3) the relation of strategy and decline.
ISSN:0033-3352
1540-6210
DOI:10.1111/j.1540-6210.2010.02176.x