Reviewhybrid2023

Top managers in public organizations: A systematic literature review and future research directions

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Public Policy and Administration Research Public Administration and Governance Public Administration and Political Analysis

Abstract

Abstract Despite increasing attention, top management research has been heavily dominated by a focus on private companies with much less emphasis on the top managers in public organizations. We present a systematic literature review of 212 studies focused on public sector top managers published between 2005 and 2020. First, the paper provides descriptive results suggesting that the empirical focus on top managers in the public sector is increasing, though still limited compared to research on upper echelons in private firms. Second, we develop an empirically based “systems” model illustrating the role and function of top managers in public organizations. We use the model to show that the components of top management are interdependent, adaptive, and embedded in complex relationships in the system, and to identify avenues for future research.

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References

2009Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement 1984Upper Echelons: The Organization as a Reflection of Its Top Managers 2009Strategic leadership: theory and research on executives, top management teams, and boards 2006Phases of the Adoption of Innovation in Organizations: Effects of Environment, Organization and Top Managers1 1980A model for diagnosing organizational behavior 1999Modeling the Impact of Public Management: Implications of Structural Context 1988All Organizations are Public: Bridging Public and Private Organizational Theories.2015Organizations and Organizing

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