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Hybridising the institutional logics of performance improvement and budgetary stewardship in English and Welsh local government

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Laurence Ferry, Dr Peter Eckersley

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This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Sage Publications Ltd. , 2018.

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Abstract

This article highlights how conflicting institutional logics can negotiate and compromise in a collegiate manner, as well as fight for supremacy on a ‘battlefield’. Drawing on a study of 70 local authorities in England and Wales, it introduces a three-stage process for tracking how the conflicting logics of performance improvement and budgetary stewardship interacted and resulted in these organizations adopting a ‘hybrid’ logic. It stresses that the second of these phases, negotiation, can be ‘peaceful’ in contexts where compromises are commonplace, such as in political organisations. In these cases, the metaphor of a ‘smoke-filled room’ is more relevant than a ‘battlefield’ to describe the arena within which hybrid institutional logics develop. The study also found that the resulting hybrids in English and Welsh authorities were not identical, because councils in the two countries were subjected to different levels of external pressure to change their working practices.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Ferry L, Eckersley P

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Public Policy and Administration

Year: 2018

Volume: 35

Issue: 1

Pages: 45-64

Print publication date: 01/01/2020

Online publication date: 12/06/2018

Acceptance date: 02/04/2018

Date deposited: 14/04/2016

ISSN (print): 0952-0767

ISSN (electronic): 1749-4192

Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.

URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0952076718781433

DOI: 10.1177/0952076718781433

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