Turnaround management strategies in public systems: the impact on group-level organizational citizenship behavior

The use of Turnaround Management Strategies (TMS) in public administration has received growing interest among both researchers and practitioners who deal with public performance. However, our theoretical and empirical knowledge about TMS suffers from significant lacunae. This research presents results from a unique empirical survey that tests the effect of TMS on group-level Organizational Citizenship Behavior. One hundred and twenty-six senior leaders of English local authorities participated in the study. The findings show that local authorities that implemented repositioning and reorganization at the organizational level to a high extent experienced high levels of group-level Organizational Citizenship Behavior, while high implementation of reorganization at the personnel level was linked to low group-level Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Group-level Organizational Citizenship Behavior was indifferent to retrenchment strategies. Implications and suggestions for future studies are discussed. Points for practitioners Modern public administrations face repeated ups and downs. This being so, public managers are expected to pursue far-reaching organizational changes to achieve goals ranging from maintaining excellence to recovering from poor performance. This study explores the effect of Turnaround Management Strategies (TMS) on organizational behavior. The findings offer two useful lessons for practitioners. First, repositioning and reorganization at the organizational level may be used as a foundation for improving the organizational culture, work relations, morale and cooperation. Second, introducing major personnel changes is likely to produce mixed or even undesired outcomes.