Perspectives on cutback management in public organisations : what public managers do

Schmidt, J.E.T. (2020)

Doctoral Thesis

Managing cutbacks has been an important task for many public managers. Given that demands for high-quality public services are ever-present and public organisations cannot simply choose to stop their services, public managers are often asked to find ways to “do more with less.” This dissertation examines what public managers do when they are confronted with cutbacks. In this dissertation, different public management perspectives are applied to study managerial behaviour during cutbacks. The perspectives are used to analyse how public managers, during cutbacks, manage upward to their political superiors, downward to their employees, outward to external stakeholders and, finally, how values of public managers manifest themselves in cutback decision-making. The results shed light on the enormous task that public managers face when having to manage cutbacks.

• Cutback management
• Leadership
• Political-administrative relationships
• Strategic management
• Public management
• Austerity
• Cutbacks
• Top civil servants

• All authors: Schmidt, J.E.T.
• Supervisor: Groeneveld, S.M.; Van de Walle, S.
• Committee: Ashworth, R.E.; Kickert, W.J.M.; Muller, E.R.; Raudla, R.; Wal, Z. van der
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Institute of Public Administration, Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs (FGGA), Leiden University
• Date: 2020-01-30
• ISBN (print): 9789463613859
• Sponsorship: This dissertation was funded by the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). Research Talent Grant project ‘Explaining cutback management strategies in public sector organisations: change leadership in times of crisis’ (project number 406-13-041)