Peter Aagaard

The Challenge of Adaptive Capability in Public Organizations

Abstract This article describes an attempt within the Danish Crime Prevention Council to improve adaptive capability. The article applies a complex adaptive system perspective and analyses the organizational identities of the Council to determine how processes of integration, differentiation and fragmentation influence adaptive capability. The findings emphasize the importance of path dependency in actors attempts to adapt. Based on this finding, the article suggests that the complex adaptive system perspective can be enriched by an institutional theory.

Can Public Managers Make Their Welfare Organizations Adapt to the New Performance Landscape Shaped by the Current Austerity

How has the current austerity changed the public welfare organizations’ performance landscape in modern welfare states? Can public managers make their organizations adapt to the new performance landscape shaped by the austerity? These questions are answered on the basis of the Danish case of the provision of the services to the citizens with disabilities and/or social disadvantages. The result has implications, especially for public management in praxis. The case study shows that the managers’ most important managerial tool to make their organizations adapt to the new landscape is the challenging and decision-oriented dialogue.

How to Make the Mix Matter: A Case Study of Post-Transformational Leadership in Hybrid Public Management

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to explain how public managers can influence the mix of institutional logics in a process of organizational change. To do this, the concept of post-transformational leadership is related to institutional logics. The article is based on a case study of the Danish Crime Prevention Council. The study shows how post-transformative leaders are urged to move from strategies of collaboration to strategies of manipulation, hypocrisy, and the hijacking of institutional logics.