Locating improvisation in public service management : Past, present, and future research directions

Hodgkinson, Ian R. and Hughes, Paul (2023) Locating improvisation in public service management : Past, present, and future research directions. In: The Routledge Companion to Improvisation in Organizations :. Routledge Companions in Business and Management (1). Routledge, London. ISBN 9780367771126

Abstract

The public sector has been a missing ‘context’ in the wider study of improvisation, which has typically focused on traditional business settings. Its absence from the growing and large literature on improvisation is curious given the apparent applicability and relevance of improvisation to public administrations, public service organizations, and public managers alike. Indeed, the public sector is characterized by high levels of uncertainty due to the wide range of stakeholders, openness of the sector, short-term policy horizons, and often turbulent political processes. One explanation for why improvisation has been rarely investigated in the public service management context is because of the dominance of the rational-planning model, which has become ubiquitous to the sector. In this chapter, we explore why this is the case by tracing the past evolution of decision-making processes in the public sector; we then present an integrative framework that locates improvisation research to date in the public sector; upon revealing three distinct streams of improvisation research, the chapter closes with four future research themes and corresponding research questions.