Repetitive reform: consequences & underlying mechanisms

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been the latest in a series of unpredictable developments confronting the public sector. It has mercilessly laid bare the flaws and imperfections of public administrative systems around the world. At the same time, in the present era of social media and fake news, public trust in governments is at an all-time low and has already given rise to numerous reforms. As the pandemic continues and the economic and social consequences weigh more heavily on citizens and businesses, public trust in governments suffers even further (GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence, University of Antwerp 2020). This will likely inspire yet another series of public sector reforms, in an attempt to be better prepared for future challenges and regain public trust. However, over the past thirty years many public organizations have already experienced intense and multiple reform waves, attempting to adapt to a changing environment with increasing citizen demands and reduced budgets. Yet literature warns for reform fatigue and reform stress within organizations, suggesting that such a constant exposure to structural changes may in fact undermine the anti-bureaucracy objective of reforms. Reform programs thus may defeat their own purposes. Nonetheless, public administration research has largely neglected the impact of such sequential, repeated and often-conflicting structural reforms on public sector organizations.

Researchers from the GOVTRUST Centre of Excellence (UAntwerp) have therefore begun to examine the consequences of repetitive reform for the public sector, looking at the effects on both the individual and organizational level. Their studies found evidence of the negative impact of repetitive reforms on a number of factors, including:

• absenteeism rates (Wynen, Kleizen, & Verhoest, 2019);
• support for innovative work behavior (Wynen, Boon, Kleizen, & Verhoest, 2019);
• innovation-oriented cultures in public sector organizations (Wynen, Verhoest, & Kleizen, 2017);
• employees engaging in defensive silence (Wynen, Kleizen, Verhoest, Laegreid, & Rolland, 2020a);
• strategic policy autonomy (Kleizen, Verhoest, & Wynen, 2018);
• attention to political signals (Wynen, Kleizen, Verhoest, Laegreid, & Rolland, 2020b).

However, research on the impact of repetitive reforms is still limited and little is known about the underlying dynamics that can explain why these negative effects occur. Therefore, researchers have started a new series of studies, to gain a deeper understanding of how repetitive reforms impact individuals and ultimately, the adaptability and performance of their organizations. Making use of both quantitative and qualitative methods, these studies will look into the harmful side effects of repetitive reform and how it can undermine intrapreneurship, as well as the impact of repetitive change on overall employee wellbeing and job satisfaction.

Having already examined several unintended side-effects, the researchers are now also turning their attention to ways in which such side-effects may be prevented or mitigated and how organizations may stabilize following intensive years of repetitive reform. We for instance investigate how change management may foster employee trust during change, how personal characteristics may moderate effects and how periods of stability may allow organizations to recover. In addition, the role of leadership will be examined and whether it can mitigate negative side effects of repetitive change, such as stress. The effect of leadership will be researched with an innovative method using hair cortisol concentrations, in close cooperation with the Department of Endocrinology-Diabetology and Metabolic Diseases at the University of Antwerp.

Below, you can find more information on the research team, publications and ongoing and completed projects related to this research track on the impact of repetitive reform.

For more information on this research track, contact Jan Wynen.

• Prof. dr. Koen Verhoest – focus on coordination, structures of government, trust and their relationship with repetitive reform
  
• Prof. dr. Jan Wynen – focus on repetitive reform injury theory, HCC analysis and micro-econometric analysis
• Dr. Jan Boon – focus on how public organizations’ reputations may affect reforms and how repetitive reform generates unintended side-effects
• Dr. Bjorn Kleizen – focus on unintended psychosocial and organizational-level side-effects
• Drs. Dries van Doninck – focus on biological markers, stress and the mediating role of leadership
• Drs. Freija Kleijnen – focus on the link between repetitive reform and adaptability of organizations
• Drs. Danika Pieters – focus on change management, personal factors and their moderating/mediating effect on psychosocial side-effects of repetitive reform
• Drs. Stephanie Verlinden – focus on underlying mechanisms generating unintended effects of repetitive reform

• Kleizen, B., Wynen, J., Boon, J., & de Roover, J. (2023). Bullying and Harassment as a Consequence of Workplace Change in the Australian Civil Service: Investigating the Mediating Role of Satisfaction With Change Management. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 43(1), 56-79. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X211036732
• Wynen, J., Verhoest, K., Boon, J., Kleizen, B., Van Doninck, D., Pieters, D., Verlinden, S. (2021, February 24). Repetitive reform: doing more harm than good? [Blog post]. Do Better by Esade - EsadeGov.
• Wynen J., Kleizen, B., Verhoest, K., Laegreid P., & Rolland, V. (2020a). Just keep silent… Defensive silence as a reaction to successive structural reforms. Public Management Review, 22(4), 498-526.
  
• Wynen, J., Kleizen, B., Verhoest, K., Laegreid, P., & Rolland, V. (2020b). Keeping a watchful eye in times of turmoil? How repeated structural reform leads to more attention to political signals. Public Administration, 98(3), 570-590.
• Wynen J., Boon, J., Kleizen, B., & Verhoest, K. (2019). How multiple organizational changes shape managerial support for innovative work behavior: evidence from the Australian Public Service. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 3, 491-515.
• Wynen J., Kleizen, B., Verhoest, K. (2019). Are public organizations suffering from repetitive change injury? A panel study of the damaging effect of intense reform sequences. Governance, 32(4), 695-713.
• Wynen, J., Verhoest, K., & Kleizen, B. (2017). More reforms, less innovation? The impact of structural reform histories on innovation-oriented cultures in public organizations. Public Management Review, 19(8), 1142-1164.

Video abstracts

1. Kleizen B., Verhoest K., & Wynen J. (2018). Structural reform histories and perceptions of organizational autonomy: do senior managers perceive less strategic policy autonomy when faced with frequent and intense restructuring? Public Administration, 96(2), 349-367.

Ongoing projects

• Do organizational changes paradoxically undermine the adaptability of organizations? A study of the impact of repetitive organizational change on decision-making within organizations
  Doctoral research, Verlinden, S. (Start date: August 2020).
  This research project examines how repetitive organizational changes affect the decision-making processes of organizations, and how these in turn affect the ability of organizations to adapt to their constantly evolving environment.

• Are continuous changes paradoxically reducing organizational adaptability? Linking continuous change, change fatigue and intrapreneurship
  Doctoral research, Kleijnen, F. (Start date: October: 2020)
  This doctoral research focuses on the relationship between continuous change and intrapreneurship and studies the psychological elements of change fatigue as the underlying mediating mechanism of this relationship.

• Avoiding repetitive reform injury in the public sector. Can leadership behaviour reduce the damaging effect of repetitive reforms?
  Doctoral research, Van Doninck, D. (Start date: January 2021)
  The research project focusses on the role of leadership in repetitive reform injury. The central question is how leadership can mitigate the negative side-effects of intense reform cycles (stress, uncertainty, etc.), while reaping the benefits of these often necessary reforms (adaptability).

• Slow healing wounds: how public organizations organizations and employees deal with and recover from long-term reform trajectories
  Doctoral research, Pieters, D. (Start Date: October 2019)
  This doctoral research focuses on the impact of long-term and complex reform trajectories on the well-being of civil servants, with a focus on variables such as job satisfaction and emotional well-being. It devotes specific attention to ways organizations can mitigate, prevent or recover from unintended side-effects.
  

Completed projects

• ​Does the constant exposure to anti-bureaucratic reforms paradoxically undermine the entrepreneurial nature of public sector organizations?
  VENI grant, NWO Vernieuwingsimpuls (2018-2021)

• How history matters for public sector organizations: examining the effect of past changes on organizational autonomy
  Research Foundation Flanders - FWO (2015-2018)

• How history matters for public sector organizations: examining the effect of past changes on organizational autonomy
  KU Leuven research fund (2014-2015)

• Legacies of the past: how structural reform histories can impact public organizations
  UAntwerp research fund (2015-2020)