@phdthesis{Bombart2020,
  author    = {Bombart, Diane},
  title     = {The geometry of a complex institution},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-48872},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-488724},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {181},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {Organizations incorporate the institutional demands from their environment in order to be deemed legitimate and survive. Yet, complexifying societies promulgate multiple and sometimes inconsistent institutional prescriptions. When these prescriptions collide, organizations are said to face "institutional complexity". How does an organization then incorporate incompatible demands? What are the consequences of institutional complexity for an organization? The literature provides contradictory conceptual and empirical insights on the matter. A central assumption, however, remains that internal incompatibilities generate tensions that, under certain conditions, can escalate into intractable conflicts, resulting in dysfunctionality and loss of legitimacy. The present research is an inquiry into what happens inside an organization when it incorporates complex institutional demands. To answer this question, I focus on how individuals inside an organization interpret a complex institutional prescription. I examine how members of the French Development Agency interpret 'results-based management', a central but complex concept of organizing in the field of development aid. I use an inductive mixed methods design to systematically explore how different interpretations of results-based management relate to one another and to the organizational context in which they are embedded. The results reveal that results-based management is a contested concept in the French Development Agency. I find multiple interpretations of the concept, which are attached to partly incompatible rationales about "who we are" and "what we do as an organization". These rationales nevertheless coexist as balanced forces, without escalating into open conflict. The analysis points to four reasons for this peaceful coexistence of diverging rationales inside one and the same organization: 1) individuals' capacity to manipulate different interpretations of a complex institutional demand, 2) the nature of interpretations, which makes them more or less prone to conflict, 3) the balanced distribution of rationales across the organizational sub-contexts and 4) the shared rules of interpretation provided by the larger socio-cultural context. This research shows that an organization that incorporates institutional complexity comes to represent different, partly incompatible things to its members without being at war with itself. In doing so, it contributes to our knowledge of institutional complexity and organizational hybridity. It also advances our understanding of internal organizational legitimacy and of the translation of managerial concepts in organizations.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Baerstecher2015,
  author    = {B{\"a}rstecher, Felix Emanuel},
  title     = {Was machen Schulleiter tats{\"a}chlich und welche Faktoren beeinflussen diese ausgef{\"u}hrten T{\"a}tigkeiten?},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-80109},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {301},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {W{\"a}hrend die theoretische Arbeitsbeschreibung und das Rollenbild von Schulleitern vielfach in der Forschung aufgegriffen wurde, gibt es - wie {\"u}brigens im gesamten Bereich Public Management - nur wenige empirische Untersuchungen, die aus einer betriebswirtschaftlichen Managementbetrachtung heraus untersuchen, was Schulleiter wirklich machen, d.h. welchen T{\"a}tigkeiten und Aufgaben die genannten Personen nachgehen und welche Unterschiede sich feststellen lassen. Besondere Relevanz erh{\"a}lt die Thematik durch das sich wandelnde Aufgabenbild des Schulleiters, getrieben insbesondere durch die zus{\"a}tzliche Autonomie der Einzelschule, aber auch durch die Fokussierung auf die Performance und Wirksamkeit der Einzelschule und verbunden damit, die Abh{\"a}ngigkeit dieser von der Arbeit des Schulleiters. Hier bildet das Verst{\"a}ndnis der Aufgaben und T{\"a}tigkeiten eine wichtige Grundlage, die jedoch unzureichend erforscht ist. Mit Hilfe einer explorativen Beobachtung von 15 Schulleiterinnen und Schulleitern und damit einer empirischen Untersuchung von insgesamt 7591 Arbeitsminuten und 774 Aktivit{\"a}ten in Kombination mit ausf{\"u}hrlichen qualitativen, halboffenen Interviews wird durch diese Arbeit eine detaillierte Betrachtung des tats{\"a}chlichen Schulleitungsmanagementhandelns m{\"o}glich. So wird sichtbar, dass sich die Aufgaben und T{\"a}tigkeiten der Schulleiter in zentralen Bereichen unterscheiden und eine Typologisierung entlang von Rollenbeschreibungen und Leadership Behavior zu kurz greift. Es konnte zum ersten Mal in dieser Ausf{\"u}hrlichkeit innerhalb des deutschen Schulsystems gezeigt werden, dass Schulleiter Kommunikationsmanager sind. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus entwickelt das hier dokumentierte Forschungsvorhaben Hypothesen zu den Faktoren, die einen Einfluss auf die Aufgaben und T{\"a}tigkeiten haben und beschreibt dezidiert Implikationen, die diese Erkenntnisse auf die T{\"a}tigkeit des Schulleiters, die weitere Forschung aber auch die politische Rahmengestaltung und, damit verbunden, die Weiterentwicklung des Schulsystems haben.},
  language  = {de}
}
@book{FischerAdamsHahnetal.2019,
  author    = {Fischer, Caroline and Adams, Henna and Hahn, Michelle and Zeidler, Dominik and M{\"o}ller, Johanna-Katharina and Metzger, Lena and Preller, Lisa-Sophia and Bertheau, Clementine and Hiller, Johannes and Paffhausen, Felix and Heyn, Georg and Hardwiger, Aylin and Martin, Friederike and Hobracht, Pauline and Breiner, Catherine and Hammer, Simon and Proeller, Isabella},
  title     = {Zukunftsszenarien f{\"u}r die digitale Verwaltung},
  editor    = {Fischer, Caroline and Proeller, Isabella},
  issn      = {2190-4561},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-43559},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-435593},
  publisher      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {139},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Dieses Sonderheft der Schriftenreihe des Lehrstuhls f{\"u}r Public und Nonprofit Management pr{\"a}sentiert Ergebnisse eines studentischen Beratungsprojekts aus dem Wintersemester 2018/19. Dabei wurde eine Vision f{\"u}r eine digitalisierte {\"o}ffentliche Verwaltung entworfen. Unter Anwendung von Szenariomethoden wurden Zukunftsszenarien entwickelt und getestet, die sich entweder mit B{\"u}rger*innen und Unternehmen als Kund*innen der Verwaltung, den {\"o}ffentlich Besch{\"a}ftigen oder der Aufbau- und Ablauforganisation in der Verwaltung besch{\"a}ftigen.},
  language  = {de}
}
@misc{Karwat2014,
  type      = {Master Thesis},
  author    = {Karwat, Alexandra},
  title     = {Entwicklung von Strategien zur Attraktivit{\"a}tssteigerung von Fortbildungen im Gesundheitsmanagement},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-76151},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {VII, 45, XI},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {Die Herausforderungen des 21. Jahrhunderts bewirken sowohl im Bundesministerium der Finanzen BMF als auch im franz{\"o}sischen Wirtschafts- und Finanzministerium MINEFI, der Gesunderhaltung der Besch{\"a}ftigten besondere Aufmerksamkeit zu schenken. Beide Verwaltungen sehen dabei die Referatsleiter/innen (RL) in der Pflicht und bieten deshalb Fortbildungen im Gesundheitsmanagement an. Das Interesse der RL f{\"u}r dieses Angebot ist bisher gering. Die vorliegende Masterarbeit untersucht die Ursachen f{\"u}r das in der deutschen und franz{\"o}sischen Finanzverwaltung unterschiedlich geringe Interesse und kommt zu dem Schluss, dass die Hemmnisse im MINEFI st{\"a}rker durch soziokulturelle und institutionelle Faktoren (republikanische Elitenbildung und Positionsmacht der jeweiligen Hierarchiestufe) bedingt sind, w{\"a}hrend im BMF institutionelle und pers{\"o}nlichkeitsspezifische Gr{\"u}nde zusammentreffen. Die Beh{\"o}rdenkultur beider Ministerien fokussiert die Arbeitsergebnisse der RL und l{\"a}sst ihr Verh{\"a}ltnis zu den Referatsangeh{\"o}rigen weitestgehend außer Acht. Eine Attraktivit{\"a}tssteigerung des Fortbildungsangebots im Gesundheitsmanagement setzt in beiden Verwaltungen voraus, Marketingstrategien innerhalb der Beh{\"o}rde zu etablieren, die die Wertigkeit des Gesundheitsmanagements im Organisationsgef{\"u}ge erh{\"o}hen und dadurch die RL st{\"a}rker motivieren. Dieser Change-Prozess erfordert Ausdauer und Geduld.},
  language  = {de}
}
@misc{SeewannVerwiebeBuderetal.2022,
  author    = {Seewann, Lena and Verwiebe, Roland and Buder, Claudia and Fritsch, Nina-Sophie},
  title     = {"Broadcast your gender."},
  series = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  journal   = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  number    = {152},
  issn      = {1867-5808},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-56628},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-566287},
  pages     = {16},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Social media platforms provide a large array of behavioral data relevant to social scientific research. However, key information such as sociodemographic characteristics of agents are often missing. This paper aims to compare four methods of classifying social attributes from text. Specifically, we are interested in estimating the gender of German social media creators. By using the example of a random sample of 200 YouTube channels, we compare several classification methods, namely (1) a survey among university staff, (2) a name dictionary method with the World Gender Name Dictionary as a reference list, (3) an algorithmic approach using the website gender-api.com, and (4) a Multinomial Na{\"i}ve Bayes (MNB) machine learning technique. These different methods identify gender attributes based on YouTube channel names and descriptions in German but are adaptable to other languages. Our contribution will evaluate the share of identifiable channels, accuracy and meaningfulness of classification, as well as limits and benefits of each approach. We aim to address methodological challenges connected to classifying gender attributes for YouTube channels as well as related to reinforcing stereotypes and ethical implications.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Schrameier2015,
  author    = {Schrameier, Matthias},
  title     = {Zielsteuerung im {\"o}ffentlichen Sektor und deren Integration in die Managementroutinen},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-79659},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {206},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Die Arbeit geht der Frage nach, wie Innovationen in einer Organisation des {\"o}ffentlichen Sektors aufgenommen wurden und zu welchen Ver{\"a}nderungen dies f{\"u}hrte. Im Vordergrund steht hier nicht die Innovation selbst, sondern vielmehr die Anpassungsmechanismen in der Organisation. Folgende Forschungsfragen wurden dazu gew{\"a}hlt: 1. Wie wurde das Instrument Zielsteuerung bzw. Zielvereinbarung im {\"o}ffentlichen Sektor eingef{\"u}hrt und in die Managementroutinen integriert? 2. Welche Faktoren f{\"u}hren zu einer Integration der Zielsteuerung in die Managementroutinen? 3. Welche Empfehlungen f{\"u}r die Praxis lassen sich daraus ableiten? Dazu wurde ein Landesbetrieb in Brandenburg detailliert untersucht und 31 Interviews mit F{\"u}hrungskr{\"a}ften der zweiten und dritten Managementebene gef{\"u}hrt. In dieser Organisation wurde im Rahmen der deutschlandweiten Reformbewegung in der {\"o}ffentlichen Verwaltung das Instrument Zielsteuerung bzw. Zielvereinbarung eingef{\"u}hrt und mit ganz konkreten Erwartungen verbunden. Als Untersuchungseinheit der m{\"o}glichen Anpassungen und Ver{\"a}nderungen wurde das Konstrukt der Managementroutinen herangezogen, welche als kollektive Handlungsmuster ganz bewusst individuelle Verhaltensweisen ausklammerten. Die Arbeit konnte eine Reihe von fr{\"u}heren Erkenntnissen best{\"a}tigen und zudem nachweisen, dass, entgegen des h{\"a}ufigen Vorurteils, Innovationen aus dem privatwirtschaftlichem Raum doch auch zu positiven Ver{\"a}nderungen in Organisationen der {\"o}ffentlichen Hand f{\"u}hren k{\"o}nnen. Es kam hier jedoch nicht zur Entwicklung neuer, sondern zu einer Anpassung der bestehenden Routinen. Auf dieser Basis konnte festgestellt werden, dass ein stufenweiser Einf{\"u}hrungsvorgang zun{\"a}chst auf der Ebene der ver{\"a}nderten Zielvorstellungen der F{\"u}hrungskr{\"a}fte zum Erfolg f{\"u}hrte. Erst nach der Anpassung auf dieser „ostentativen" Ebene kam es mit etwas Verz{\"o}gerung zu einer Ver{\"a}nderung auf der Ebene der konkreten Handlungen. Im Hinblick auf die Einflussfaktoren der Innovation konnte festgestellt werden, dass viele Aspekte der Zielsetzungstheorie nach wie vor relevant sind und instabile politische Rahmenbedingungen zu wesentlichen Einschr{\"a}nkungen der Entfaltungsm{\"o}glichkeiten der Innovation f{\"u}hren k{\"o}nnen. F{\"u}r viele Einflussfaktoren konnten allerdings sowohl positive als auch negative Wirkungen identifiziert werden.},
  language  = {de}
}
@phdthesis{Dribbisch2017,
  author    = {Dribbisch, Katrin},
  title     = {Translating innovation},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-104719},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {VIII, 217},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {This doctoral thesis studies the process of innovation adoption in public administrations, addressing the research question of how an innovation is translated to a local context. The study empirically explores Design Thinking as a new problem-solving approach introduced by a federal government organisation in Singapore. With a focus on user-centeredness, collaboration and iteration Design Thinking seems to offer a new way to engage recipients and other stakeholders of public services as well as to re-think the policy design process from a user's point of view. Pioneered in the private sector, early adopters of the methodology include civil services in Australia, Denmark, the United Kingdom, the United States as well as Singapore. Hitherto, there is not much evidence on how and for which purposes Design Thinking is used in the public sector. For the purpose of this study, innovation adoption is framed in an institutionalist perspective addressing how concepts are translated to local contexts. The study rejects simplistic views of the innovation adoption process, in which an idea diffuses to another setting without adaptation. The translation perspective is fruitful because it captures the multidimensionality and 'messiness' of innovation adoption. More specifically, the overall research question addressed in this study is: How has Design Thinking been translated to the local context of the public sector organisation under investigation? And from a theoretical point of view: What can we learn from translation theory about innovation adoption processes? Moreover, there are only few empirical studies of organisations adopting Design Thinking and most of them focus on private organisations. We know very little about how Design Thinking is embedded in public sector organisations. This study therefore provides further empirical evidence of how Design Thinking is used in a public sector organisation, especially with regards to its application to policy work which has so far been under-researched. An exploratory single case study approach was chosen to provide an in-depth analysis of the innovation adoption process. Based on a purposive, theory-driven sampling approach, a Singaporean Ministry was selected because it represented an organisational setting in which Design Thinking had been embedded for several years, making it a relevant case with regard to the research question. Following a qualitative research design, 28 semi-structured interviews (45-100 minutes) with employees and managers were conducted. The interview data was triangulated with observations and documents, collected during a field research research stay in Singapore. The empirical study of innovation adoption in a single organisation focused on the intra-organisational perspective, with the aim to capture the variations of translation that occur during the adoption process. In so doing, this study opened the black box often assumed in implementation studies. Second, this research advances translation studies not only by showing variance, but also by deriving explanatory factors. The main differences in the translation of Design Thinking occurred between service delivery and policy divisions, as well as between the first adopter and the rest of the organisation. For the intra-organisational translation of Design Thinking in the Singaporean Ministry the following five factors played a role: task type, mode of adoption, type of expertise, sequence of adoption, and the adoption of similar practices.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{vonKaphengst2019,
  author    = {von Kaphengst, Dragana},
  title     = {Project's management quality in development cooperation},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-43099},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-430992},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {xvii, 237},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {In light of the debate on the consequences of competitive contracting out of traditionally public services, this research compares two mechanisms used to allocate funds in development cooperation—direct awarding and competitive contracting out—aiming to identify their potential advantages and disadvantages. The agency theory is applied within the framework of rational-choice institutionalism to study the institutional arrangements that surround two different money allocation mechanisms, identify the incentives they create for the behavior of individual actors in the field, and examine how these then transfer into measurable differences in managerial quality of development aid projects. In this work, project management quality is seen as an important determinant of the overall project success. For data-gathering purposes, the German development agency, the Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), is used due to its unique way of work. Whereas the majority of projects receive funds via direct-award mechanism, there is a commercial department, GIZ International Services (GIZ IS) that has to compete for project funds. The data concerning project management practices on the GIZ and GIZ IS projects was gathered via a web-based, self-administered survey of project team leaders. Principal component analysis was applied to reduce the dimensionality of the independent variable to total of five components of project management. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis identified the differences between the separate components on these two project types. Enriched by qualitative data gathered via interviews, this thesis offers insights into everyday managerial practices in development cooperation and identifies the advantages and disadvantages of the two allocation mechanisms. The thesis first reiterates the responsibility of donors and implementers for overall aid effectiveness. It shows that the mechanism of competitive contracting out leads to better oversight and control of implementers, fosters deeper cooperation between the implementers and beneficiaries, and has a potential to strengthen ownership of recipient countries. On the other hand, it shows that the evaluation quality does not tremendously benefit from the competitive allocation mechanism and that the quality of the component knowledge management and learning is better when direct-award mechanisms are used. This raises questions about the lacking possibilities of actors in the field to learn about past mistakes and incorporate the finings into the future interventions, which is one of the fundamental issues of aid effectiveness. Finally, the findings show immense deficiencies in regard to oversight and control of individual projects in German development cooperation.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Muriu2017,
  author    = {Muriu, Abraham Rugo},
  title     = {Performance management in Kenya's public service},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-403281},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {x, 150},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {This study was inspired by the desire to contribute to literature on performance management from the context of a developing country. The guiding research questions were: How do managers use performance information in decision making? Why do managers use performance information the way they do? The study was based on theoretical strands of neo-patrimonialism and new institutionalism. The nature of the inquiry informed the choice of a qualitative case study research design. Data was assembled through face-to-face interviews, some observations, and collection of documents from managers at the levels of the directorate, division, and section/units. The managers who were the focus of this study are current or former staff members of the state departments in Kenya's national Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries as well as from departments responsible for coordination of performance related reforms. The findings of this study show that performance information is regularly produced but its use by managers varies. Examples of use include preparing reports to external bodies, making decisions for resource re-allocation, making recommendations for rewards and sanctions, and policy advisory. On categorizing the forms of use as passive, purposeful, political or perverse, evidence shows that they overlap and that some of the forms are so closely related that it is difficult to separate them empirically. On what can explain the forms of use established, four factors namely; political will and leadership; organizational capacity; administrative culture; and managers' interests and attitudes, were investigated. While acknowledging the interrelatedness and even overlapping of the factors, the study demonstrates that there is explanatory power to each though with varying depth and scope. The study thus concludes that: Inconsistent political will and leadership for performance management reforms explain forms of use that are passive, political and perverse. Low organizational capacity could best explain passive and some limited aspects of purposeful use. Informal, personal and competitive administrative culture is associated with purposeful use and mostly with political and perverse use. Limited interest and apprehensive attitude are best associated with passive use. The study contributes to the literature particularly in how institutions in a context of neo-patrimonialism shape performance information use. It recommends that further research is necessary to establish how neo-patrimonialism positively affects performance oriented reforms. This is interesting in particular given the emerging thinking on pockets of effectiveness and developmental patrimonialism. This is important since it is expected that performance related reforms will continue to be advocated in developing countries in the foreseeable future.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{KhalilKohlerTjaden2022,
  author    = {Khalil, Samir and Kohler, Ulrich and Tjaden, Jasper Dag},
  title     = {Is There a Rural Penalty in Language Acquisition? Evidence From Germany's Refugee Allocation Policy},
  series = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  journal   = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam},
  address   = {Potsdam},
  issn      = {1867-5808},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-56626},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-566264},
  pages     = {1 -- 11},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Emerging evidence has highlighted the important role of local contexts for integration trajectories of asylum seekers and refugees. Germany's policy of randomly allocating asylum seekers across Germany may advantage some and disadvantage others in terms of opportunities for equal participation in society. This study explores the question whether asylum seekers that have been allocated to rural areas experience disadvantages in terms of language acquisition compared to those allocated to urban areas. We derive testable assumptions using a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) which are then tested using large-N survey data (IAB-BAMF-SOEP refugee survey). We find that living in a rural area has no negative total effect on language skills. Further the findings suggest that the "null effect" is the result of two processes which offset each other: while asylum seekers in rural areas have slightly lower access for formal, federally organized language courses, they have more regular exposure to German speakers.},
  language  = {en}
}