429 PAQ FALL 2009

IMPLEMENTING ORGANIZATIONAL REFORM

STRATEGIES IN

STATE GOVERNMENTS

KUOTSAI TOM LIOU

RONNIE KOROSEC

University of Central Florida

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the implementation of organizational

reform strategies in state governments. It uses national survey data to

examine the implementation of twelve reforms strategies that cover

three areas: workforce reduction, work redesign, and system change.

The paper further tests the relationship between reform strategies,

individual characteristics, and management factors. The management

factors are based on objective state grading data in five areas: financial

management, capital management, human resources management,

information technology, and managing for results. The empirical

findings show that while public managers tend to be conservative and

cautious in the implementation of reform strategies, they are also likely

to adopt a complete package of related reform strategies in their

implementation plans, rather than a single effort. The findings also

support the relationship between organizational reforms, the length of a

public manager‟s tenure in government service, and the state‟s

performance on capital management and information technology

issues. Implications of the findings are presented in order to enhance

future public management reform studies.

INTRODUCTION

Since the 1990s, we have witnessed a number of

new reform ideas and trends designed to promote effective

public management. Major reform trends have included

the idea of total quality management (TQM), reinventing

government, National Performance Review (NPR), New

Public Management (NPM), President Bush‟s management

PAQ FALL 2009 430

agenda, the human capital movement, and other research on

improving governance (Rainey, 2003). Along with these

reform efforts, new managerial ideas have been

recommended to improve the profession of public

administration. Some of these include issues relating to

quality concerns, customer satisfaction, mission-driven and

results-oriented government, empowerment and

downsizing, strategic planning, performance measurement,

networking and partnership approaches. Based on different

theories and philosophies, reforms have been developed to

change the behavior of public employees, simplify the

structure of government agencies, decentralize decision

making processes, measure public service outcomes, and

develop a new culture of public management.

Among all of the recent reform ideas, one that has

been of considerable interest to both theorists and

practitioners, alike, is the reinventing government

movement. This restructuring effort was first promoted by

the federal government in Gore‟s National Performance

Review (1993) and later expanded to many state and local

governments (National Commission on the State and Local

Public Service, 1993). In recent years, many researchers

have examined the reinventing government movement

among federal agencies (e.g., Thompson, 2000), state

agencies (e.g., Brudney, Hebert, Wright, 1999) and local

governments (e.g., Kearney, Feldman and Scavo, 2000;

Moon and deLeon, 2001). Despite the importance of

reinvention ideas, these studies have reported inconsistent

findings regarding the implementation of reform activities

and the impact of environmental factors on these reforms.

The purpose of this study is to examine the

implementation of organizational reform strategies among

state governments. The reform strategies studied here are

related to major ideas emphasized in the reinventing

government movement, including cutting red tape,

streamlining operations, empowering employees, and

431 PAQ FALL 2009

reducing redundancy (Gore, 1993). In addition to

implementation strategies, we are also interested in

studying the effect of several individual and management

factors on reform strategies. To achieve this, our work

provides a review of research theories and issues, and

provides a discussion of issues relating to the

implementation and correlates of these reforms.

RESEARCH THEORIES AND ISSUES

Lessons from Previous Studies

To improve the operation of public agencies, public

administration scholars and practitioners have emphasized

many reform movements over several decades. Before the

1990s, for example, we experienced a series of reforms that

attempted to improve the operation of the federal

government (Moe, 1992). These reform efforts were

reported in many commissions or committees on reforms,

including The Keep Commission (1905-1909, under

President T. Roosevelt); The President’s Commission on

Economy and Efficiency (1910-1913, under President Taft);

The Joint Committee on Reorganization (1921-1924, under

President Harding); The President’s Committee on

Administrative Management (1936-1937, under President

F. Roosevelt); The First Hoover Commission (1947-1949,

under President Truman); The Second Hoover Commission

(1953-1955, under President Eisenhower); The Study

Commissions on Executive Reorganization (1953-1968,

under Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson); The Ash

Council (1969-1971, under President Nixon); The Carter

Reorganization Effort (1977-1979); and The Grace

Commission (1982-1984, under President Reagan). These

reforms have introduced many important management and

analytical techniques to change government structures and

operations, including: scientific management,

administrative principles, neutral competence,

PAQ FALL 2009 432

management-by-objectives, representation, executive

leadership, performance appraisal, and the development of

professionalism.

The National Performance Review (NPR, 1993)

represented one of the latest efforts to improve the

management of American governments. Influenced by

Osborne and Gaebler‟s reinventing government work

(1992), the NPR identified many root problems associated

with management of federal government agencies, and

attempted to foster change by encouraging them to become

more entrepreneurial (Gore, 1993). The problems

associated with the federal government included out-of-

date bureaucratic rules and procedures, hierarchical

organization designs and structures, political issues, and

distrust in public employees. The NPR‟s suggestions for

creating entrepreneurial organizations are based on such

principles as: (1) cutting red tape and asking employees to

be accountable for achieving results; (2) putting customers

first and insisting on customer satisfaction; (3) empowering

employees to achieve more effective outcomes through

labor-management cooperation, and employee training and

assistance; and (4) reexamining programs and procedures

and re-engineering how employees do their work to make

government work better and cost less.

Many of the reinventing government ideas were

later emphasized by state and local governments. For

example, the National Commission on the State and Local

Public Service (1993, the so-called Winter Commission)

emphasized many similar ideas to promote high

performance for state and local governments, The

Commission‟s suggestions included: (1) empowering

leaders to act by putting them in charge of lean and

responsive agencies; (2) recruiting and nurturing

knowledgeable and motivate employees; (3) giving

employees the freedom to be more innovative in

accomplishing the agency‟s mission; and (4) involving

433 PAQ FALL 2009

private citizens in the business of government.

Besides the recommendations provided by the

reform committees, many public administration researchers

have collected data and conducted empirical studies to

examine the implementation and effect of the reinvention

movement. At the federal level, Thompson (2000)

examined the impact of NPR by conducting a broad review

of government-wide survey results with an in-depth

investigation of the Social Security Administration. He

found that many of the NPR‟s higher-order objectives have

not been met on a systemic basis and pointed out

implementation errors that are related to political

exigencies (e.g., diversion of funds away from capacity-

enhancing purposes) and design flaws (e.g., the

contradictory elements between downsizing and innovation

and employee buy-in).

For state governments, Brudney, Hebert, and

Wright (1999) examined the extent to which state agencies

implemented 11 reinvention reforms. They reported that

these agencies selectively adopted some specific

reinvention reforms, that a few states were more active than

others in reform measures, that agency leaders attempted to

implement several of the reforms rather than just one, and

that a concerted reinvention movement did not appear to be

underway across state governments. In their study of

reinvention of public personnel administration among state

governments, Kellough and Selden (2003) also noticed that

a broad set of personnel reforms were adopted to promote

reinvention ideas, and that there was significant variation

among states in their willingness to implement dramatic

changes to their personnel systems.

Similar to the state experiences, researchers have

also studied the reinvention management ideas among local

governments. For example, Kearney, Feldman and Scavo

(2000) studied city managers attitudes towards and actions

taken to implement principles of reinventing government

PAQ FALL 2009 434

(including 16 attitude items and 12 actions items). They

reported that despite the fact that a large majority of

managers supported key principles of reinvention, a smaller

proportion of managers actually took action to recommend

adoption of reinvention programs. Similarly, Moon and

Deleon (2001) examined the adoption of 12 reinvention

items. Not only did they suggest that many chief

administrators were cautious about the outcome of

reinvention efforts, they also found that reinvention values

were widely held by chief city administrators, and that

reinvention programs were diffused into many municipal

governments.

In addition to the study of new reinvention

strategies, public administration researchers have examined

different factors that may be related to the adoption or

implementation of reform ideas. The factors considered

and tested are grouped in different categories, including, for

example, environmental and organizational contexts

(Kellough and Selden, 2003); managerial/political values,

socio-economic and institutional factors (Moon and

deLeon, 2001); community and local government

characteristics (Kearney, Feldman, and Scavo, 2000); and

reform effort, agency type, agency characteristics,

environmental influence, and agency director‟s background

and attitudes (Brudney, Hebert, and Wright, 1999). These

studies have provided inconsistent findings about the effect

of environmental factors on the reinvention strategies.

They have emphasized the importance of further

investigation to examine the implementation of various

types of reform strategies and to clarify the impact of

additional factors on the reform implementation.

Issues in This Study

To study organizational reforms among state

governments, we used 12 reform strategies that address

three major areas of workforce reduction, work redesign,

435 PAQ FALL 2009

and system changes (Cameron, 1994). Workforce

reduction focuses on headcount and elimination of

employees, including such activities as attrition, layoffs,

early retirement, and buy-out packages. Work redesign

focuses on jobs (levels and units) and elimination of work,

consisting of such activities as combining functions,

merging units, redesigning jobs, and eliminating layers.

Systemic change focuses on culture and the elimination of

the status quo, including such activities as „involving

everyone‟ in planning and redesigning activities,

simplifying processes, promoting change from the bottom

of the organization up to the top, and targeting hidden

costs.

The 12 reform strategies were selected on the basis

of two issues. First, these strategies are important topics in

the study of general organizational management because

they include major components of employees, jobs,

structures, behaviors, processes, and changes (Rainey,

2003). Next, the reform items are also closely related to

key principles of reinventing government, such as cutting

red tape, empowering employees, and reexamining

programs and procedure (Gore 1993). It is important to

notice the difference between the present study and

previous studies. While previous studies examined items

related to general reinvention ideas (e.g., employee

training, strategic planning), this study focuses on major

areas of organizational management (e.g., employees,

structure, and system changes). The inclusion of these

strategies will provide an opportunity to test the findings of

previous studies and make additional contributions to the

study of public management reform. Our first research

question is, “What are popular organizational reform

strategies that are implemented in state governments?” We

hypothesize that public managers will like those reform

strategies that cost less and are easy to implement because

they are less time consuming and involve fewer political

PAQ FALL 2009 436

issues.

Similar to previous studies, this study also examines

the relationship between environmental factors and reform

strategies. Specifically, we focus on the effect of individual

characteristics and managerial factors on reform strategies.

The individual characteristics include manager‟s current

position and title, the number of years he/she has been in

his/her current position, and the number of years he/she has

been employed by government. These variables were also

tested in previous studies of reinventing government (e.g.,

Kearney, Feldman, and Scavo, 2000). Our second research

question is, “Are the individual characteristics of a public

manager related to reform strategies?” We hypothesized

that public manager‟s position and tenure will affect their

view on reform strategies. For example, senior managers

may not support reform strategies with fundamental

changes.

In addition to the influence of individual variables,

we also tested the effect of external institutional variables

on reform efforts. We focused on five management areas

that have been emphasized in recent grading government

projects (e.g., Barrett and Greene, 2001), including

government performance in financial management, capital

management, human resources management, information

technology, and managing for results.

Our final research question is, “Are the state‟s

management factors related to reform strategies?” We

hypothesized that the implementation of reform strategies

will be affected by the management conditions of the state

government. For example, we postulate that states with

high management scores in human resources, financial

practices and information technology will be in a better

position to implement reform strategies than those with

lower scores in these same areas.

437 PAQ FALL 2009

RESEARCH, DATA, AND METHODS

To examine the implementation of organization

reform strategies, we used both subjective survey data and

objective grading data to study various management issues

among state governments. A mailed survey regarding

reinventing government issues was sent to 223 state

administrators in the areas of administration, information

technology, and procurement and contracting. We received

52 responses with a response rate of 23 percent.1 The

objective grading data were taken from the Government

Performance Project conducted by the Maxwell School at

Syracuse University. The data issues relating to a

„management report card‟ in the areas of financial

management, capital management, human resources

management, information technology, and managing for

results (Barrett and Richard, 2001).

The survey questions for reform strategies are major

research variables that provide answers to the research

issues about popular reform strategies. Organizational

reform strategies consist of 12 statement questions

addressing such reform areas as employee changes,

structural changes, and system changes. Specific variables

are attrition activities, combining agency functions,

involving everyone in agency activities, laying-off

employees, merging units, simplifying rules and

procedures, encouraging early retirement, redesigning jobs

and positions, introducing bottom changes, introducing

buy-out packages, eliminating different layers, and

targeting hidden costs. The question items are related to

reform strategies identified by Cameron (1994). To

measure the level of implementation, responses are

measured on a 5-level Likert scale, from 1= no

consideration; 2 = considered, no action yet; 3 = action

planned; 4 = partially implemented; and 5 = fully

implemented. The 5 levels of measurements are similar to

PAQ FALL 2009 438

the measurements used in previous studies (e.g., Brudney,

Hebert, and Wright, 1999).

The questions about individual characteristics (from

the survey) and management factors (from the grading

card) are independent variables designed to examine their

relationships with reform strategies. The individual

characteristics include three variables about the

respondent‟s position, years in government services, and

years in the current position. The position variable is

measured as: (1) for manager and chief administrator, (2)

for finance and budge director, (3) for information

technology director, and (4) for others. The tenure

variables are the real numbers of years in government and

in the current position. The management factors are state

grades in financial management, capital management,

human resources management, information technology, and

managing for results, as well as a total „average‟ scores.

The grade variables are measured from 0 to 11, with 0 = F,

1 = D-, 2 = D, … 10 = A-, and 11=A, and so on.

The first research issue about the implementation of

reform strategies was examined in two ways. First, we

used a descriptive analysis of means and standard

deviations to show the ranking of the reform strategies.

Next, we conducted a factor analysis (Principal Component

Analysis) to see if these strategies can be grouped into

different factors to show the relationship of some reform

strategies. The second and the third research issues (about

the relationship between reform strategies and independent

variables) were also analyzed through two stages. The first

stage of analysis reported descriptive data (means and

standard deviations) of the 9 independent variables and

correlation analysis of these data. The second stage of

analysis involved multivariate regression analyses to

examine the effect of individual characteristics and

management factors (i.e., independent variables) on the

implementation of reform strategies (i.e., dependent

439 PAQ FALL 2009

variables).

RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

As revealed in Table 1, state governments have

reported various levels of implementation of the 12

organizational reform strategies. The reform strategy with

the highest mean score relates to attrition activities (3.05,

with the standard deviation score of 1.31). The strategy

with the lowest score is associated with introducing buyout

packages (1.61, with the standard deviation score of 1.071).

Most of the reform strategies have scores between 2 and 3,

which indicates the situation of “considered, but no action

yet.” Two strategies had scores below 2, indicating that

they are associated with “no consideration”, or with

“introducing bottom change” or “introducing buy-out

packages”. The findings provide answers to the first

research issue regarding the implementation of popular

reform strategies.

The results of the factor analyses (see Table 2)

showed four general factors representing the

implementation of reform strategies (with an Eigen value

greater than 1.00). As the major factor (with a 2.049 Eigen

value and 24.893 percent of variance value), Factor 1

consists of four mixed reform strategies, including

combining functions, eliminating layers, simplifying units,

and attrition. Factor 2 (with a 2.122 Eigen value and

17.683 percent of variance value) includes three reform

strategies that are related to introducing bottom change,

merging units and introducing buy-out packages. Factor 3

(with a 2.049 Eigen value and 17.076 percent of variance

value) also includes three reform strategies that are related

to redesigning jobs, targeting hidden costs, and involving

everyone in the operation. These strategies are clearly

more time consuming in relation to implementation. Factor

4 (with a 2.001 Eigen value and 16.674 percent of variance

PAQ FALL 2009 440

value) includes two strategies that are related to employee

changes, encouraging early retirement and laying-off

employees.

Table 1. Ranking of Organizational Reform Strategy

Reform Strategy Mean S.D. Ranking

Attrition activities 3.05 1.31 1

Involving everyone 2.82 1.50 2

Redesigning jobs/positions 2.48 .99 3

Combining agency functions 2.46 1.22 4

Targeting hidden costs 2.45 1.15 5

Merging units 2.23 1.14 6

Eliminating different layers 2.19 1.09 7

Encouraging early retirement 2.18 1.27 8

Simplifying Units 2.15 1.08 9

Layoff Employee 2.00 1.26 10

Introducing bottom-up change 1.70 .77 11

Introducing Buy-out packages 1.61 1.07 12

Note: Levels of implementation are based on the Likert Scale - 1 (No

consideration), 2 (Considered, not action yet), 3 (Actions planned), 4

(Partially implemented), 5 (Fully implemented).

441 PAQ FALL 2009

Table 2. Factor Analysis of Reform Strategy

Reform Strategies F 1 F 2 F 3 F 4

(Change focus) (Mixed) (Bottom) (Time) (Employee)

Combining agency functions

(.904) .120 .252 -.105

Eliminating different layers

(.836) .285 .186 .055

Simplifying Units

(.812) .312 -.151 .132

Attrition activities

(.682) -.150 .314 .383

Introducing bottom-up change

.004 (.948) .020 -.154

Merging units

.358 (.634) -.011 .268

Introducing buy-out packages

.200 (.514) .054 .118

Redesigning jobs/positions

.090 .417 (.808) .124

Targeting hidden costs

.393 .126 (.749) .373

Involving everyone

.066 -.315 (.748) -.209

Encouraging early retirement

.057 -.056 .193 (.899)

Layoff Employee

.087 .221 -.119 (.841)

Rotation Sums

Eigen value (>1) 2.987 2.122 2.049 2.001

% of variance 24.893 17.683 17.076 16.674

Note: Extraction based on Principal Component Analysis and Rotation

based on Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. Reform items in each

factor are indicated in the parenthesis.

Table 3 provided means and deviations of nine

PAQ FALL 2009 442

independent variables representing individual

characteristics and management factors. The individual

characteristics showed that most respondents were

managers and chief administrators with 3.84 years of

experience in the government and 1.6 years experience in

their current position. The management factors showed

that most state governments received an average grade

between B- (7 points) and B (8 points) in financial

management, capital management, human resources

management, and information technology. The item

„managing for results‟ received the lowest average score

(6.40) and the largest standard deviation (2.33) and it is

graded between C+ and B-.2

The results of multivariate regression analyses

provide answers to the research questions about the effect

of individual characteristics and management factors on the

reform strategies (see Table 4). Respondent‟s tenure in

government is negatively related to the implementation of

reform Factor 3, which includes strategies of redesigning

jobs, targeting hidden cost and involving everyone. This

may mean that senior managers do not favor the

implementation of these strategies because they are related

to fundamental changes or because they are too time

consuming.

443 PAQ FALL 2009

Table 3. Responses of Individual Characteristics and

Management Factors

Item Mean S.D.

Individual Characteristics

Current Position (Position) 1.90 1.315

Years in Government (Y Government) 3.84 1.712

Years in Position (Y Position) 1.60 .904

Management Factors

Financial Management (FM) 7.63 1.720

Capital Management (CM) 7.27 1.856

Human Resources Management (HRM) 6.96 1.865

Information Technology (IT) 7.02 1.995

Managing for Results (MFR) 6.40 2.330

Average Grade (AG) 7.08 1.623

Note: N ranging from 49 to 50. Current position is measured as: 1=

manager or chief administrator, 2 = finance/budget director, 3 =

information technology director, 4 = others. Years in government and

positions are actually number of years of service.

Management factors are based on calculated scores of state report card

in the 5 management areas, from F=0, D-=1, D=2, D+=3, C-=4, C=5,

C+=6, B-=7, B=8, B+=9, A-=10, A=11 (see Barrett and Greene, 2001).

PAQ FALL 2009 444

Table 4. Results of Multiple Regression Analyses

Variables F 3 Early Introducing Eliminating

(Time) Retirement Buyout Package Layers

B (SE) B (SE) B (SE) B (SE)

Individual Characteristics

Position

-.096 (.322) -.101 (.202) -.076 (.180) .008 (.210)

Y Government

-.665 (.251)* -.105 (.158) -.041 (.146) -.041 (.152)

Y Position

.008 (.356) .201 (.357) -.248 (.303) -.150 (.333)

Management Factors

FM

-.360 (.425) .004 (.281) .167 (.254) .484 (.275)

CM

-.256 (.293) -.425 (.199* -.376 (.160)* .020 (.219)

HRM

-.503 (.457) .115 (.285) .218 (.249) .484 (.331)

IT

-.713 (.322) .375 (.232) .010 (.192) .530(.228)*

MFR

-.670 (.360) .156 (.198) .273 (.194) .166 (.203)

AG

2.071 (1.228) -.468 (.736) -.549 (.656) -1.668 (.773)*

(Constant)

5.618 (2.518) 4.537 (1.616) 4.388 (1.381) 2.388 (1.845)

R Square .562 .349 .427 .307

Adjusted

R Square .070 .083 .105 -.005

F score 1.141 1.310 1.325 .984

* indicating significance <.05

445 PAQ FALL 2009

Besides the tenure variable, the regression analyses

further support the impact of several management factors

on reform strategies. Capital management is negatively

related to the strategies of encouraging early retirement and

introducing buy-out packages. Because these two

strategies involve extensive financial cost and therefore

may not be appealing to managers, we believe these

findings are reasonable. Information technology is

positively related to the strategy of eliminating layers. This

finding is also important as it suggests that technology is

seen as an essential element in successful organizational

reform. Finally, the average grading score is negatively

related to the strategy of eliminating layers. This may

mean that states with total, good performance grades do not

support the strategy of eliminating layers because they

perceive themselves to already be efficient, and (therefore)

do not see any additional need to implement this strategy.

RESEARCH DISCUSSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

The results of the empirical analyses have provided

answers to our research questions. First, on the issue of

popular reform strategies, the mean scores of reform

implementation supported our general understanding of

bureaucratic behavior. Similar to previous research

findings, public managers tend to be conservative and

cautious in the implementation of reform strategies

(Brudney, Hebert, and Wright, 1999; Moon and deLeon,

2001; Thompson, 2000). The top two strategies (attrition

activities and involving everyone, with the mean score

close to 3) do not require major structural or policy changes

with financial, and/or political costs. The three strategies

receiving low scores (laying-off employees, introducing

bottom change and introducing buyout packages), tend to

have financial costs, and may involve other political issues.

The findings from the factor analysis are interesting, as

PAQ FALL 2009 446

they indicate that public managers do not tend to adopt

single reform items, but instead prefer to adopt a whole

package of related reform strategies. The findings are

similar to previous studies using correlation analysis (e.g.,

Brudney, Hebert, and Wright, 1999). The results of the

factor analysis indicate some difficulties of measuring the

implementation of particular reform agendas in state

governments.

The findings of multiple regression analyses have

provided answers to the second and the third research

questions. On the relationship between reform strategies

and public manager‟s individual characteristics, we found a

negative relationship between the manager‟s tenure in

government and reform factor 3 (long-term change). This

means that senior public managers do not support reform

strategies involved in long-term commitment. The negative

relationship between manager‟s tenure and reinvention

reform is also noticed in the study of Kearney and his

colleagues (2000). The difference between our study and

Kearney‟s is that the latter report a negative relationship for

the tenure in the current position, not in the government

service. After comparing the findings from two studies, we

believe our finding is sound, as we have seen a consistent

negative relationship for the tenure in the government

service, where their findings showed both positive and

negative relationships for the tenure in current position

(Kearney, Feldman, and Scavo, 2000).

On the relationship between reform strategies and

management factors, our study revealed the importance of

two management factors, capital management and

information technology. For the financial condition, the

study shows the negative relationship between capital

management and two reforms strategies (encouraging early

retirement, introducing buyout package) that have financial

consequences. The study, however, did not find a

significant relationship between financial management and

447 PAQ FALL 2009

reform strategies. The difference between capital

management and financial management is that the former

examines the state‟s management of capital assets and

future needs, while the latter assesses the government‟s

current financial operation and management (Barrett and

Greene, 2001). The previous findings on this issue have

been mixed as some studies indicated a significant

relationship between fund balance and reform attitude, but

not reform actions (e.g., Kearney, Feldman, and Scavo,

2000). Again, we think our findings are valid because of

the importance of the financial variables being so closely

related to the nature of the reform strategies. State

governments with good capital management scores do not

support the implementation of reform strategies that

requires major financial outlays.

Finally, our finding about the positive relationship

between information technology and reform strategy of

eliminating layers is important not only for the studies of

organizational reforms but also for the research on

electronic government (E-government). Our study reveals

that state governments with high scores on information

technology development also reported high scores on the

strategy of eliminating layers. Previous studies about the

impact of information technology or E-government on

public organizations have provided inconsistent findings.

On one hand, studies report that the adoption of E-

government has improved service delivery, reduced costs,

made government more efficient (e.g., West, 2000) and has

contributed to enhanced performance management and

reduced red tape (e.g., Brown, 1999; Moon and

Bretschneider, 2002). Other studies, however, have shown

mixed results about specific effects. For example, Moon

(2002) reported that municipal E-government development

has not made a significant contribution to cost savings,

revenue generating, or downsizing--even though it has

brought changes in procedural practices and task

PAQ FALL 2009 448

environments. Heintze and Bretschnieder (2000) found

that information technology adoption has direct effects on

the performance of the organization and decision-making,

but little impact on agency‟s structure and communication.

Again, our finding here has provided empirical evidence to

support the effect of information technology and to clarify

some confusion in previous studies.

CONCLUSION

This study examined the implementation of

organizational reform strategies among US state

governments. Based on the analysis of both subjective

survey data and objective grading data, we reported

findings about the implementation of reform strategies and

the effect of individual characteristics and management

factors on the reforms. The findings have provided

empirical evidence to clarify old questions in previous

studies and also indicated new issues for futures studies.

These issues about the reform experience and lessons are

important for public administration researchers to develop

additional theories about administrative reform (Caiden,

1999; Rosenbloom, 1998).

The present study has contributed to the literature

on reinventing government as it examined several new

variables that are related to key concepts of the reinvention.

Specifically, this study focuses on specific organizational

variables that are related to three important areas of

organizational reforms. First, workforce reduction covers

employee changes in the organization. Second, work

redesign addresses position and structural changes in the

organization. Finally, system changes refer to attitude and

cultural changes in the organization. These changes are

central to the reinventing government movement (e.g.,

cutting red tape, empowering employees, introducing new

changes).

449 PAQ FALL 2009

The results of the empirical analyses have provided

evidence to clarify previous research questions and indicate

the new issues. For example, the study confirms the ideas

that public managers tend to be conservative and cautious

in the implementation of any reform strategies, and that

public managers tend to adopt a package of related reform

strategies. In addition, the study tests the relationship

between reform strategies and individual characteristics and

management factors, and indicates the effect of tenure in

government service, capital management performance, and

information technology development. The findings

associated with tenure and information technology are

similar to some earlier studies, and are useful in clarifying

old or inconsistent findings. The importance of capital

management is a new finding in the explanation of

organizational reforms. Future studies of public

management reforms may want to follow our approach by

considering these new issues in the development of

research questions and selection of research variables.

NOTE

The authors thank comments and suggestions from

anonymous reviewers on the findings of factor analysis and

the explanation of regression analysis.

1. The survey was sent to state administrators in the areas of

administration, information technology and procurement/contracting.

It was addressed to the highest level manager in each organization. Our

active pool of responses was 223. After two follow-up mailings, we

received 52 responses, for a response rate of 24 percent. Due to the

low response rate, we used a follow up, phone based version of the

survey to sure that we have achieved at least one response from each

state.

2. We also tested the correlation of these independent variables. The

results of correlation analyses show that the tenure variable (years in

the government) is negative related to the grade of information

PAQ FALL 2009 450

technology (with the significant correlation coefficient of -.361) and

human resources management (with the significant correlation

coefficient of -.303).

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