Understanding Public Management between Discontinuity and Continuity

Democracy as efficient and effective system of governance for people should providesustainableinstitutionsthatenablepublicadministrationandpublicmanagement tomeettheneedsofcitizens,businessesandcivilsociety.Thereby,thedynamicsofpolitical systems in terms of instability and uncertainty concern the political address of governments and politicalmajority. Following a strategy-structure paradigm, political systemsdrivetheeffectivefunctioningofpublicmanagementandpublicadministration. Followingahistoricalpathandexcursus,theaimofthisstudyistoelucidatehowpolitical discontinuityanduncertaintyaresourcesforsustainabilitydrivingpublicmanagementto faceandsolveproblemsovertime.Despitetheincreasingattentionforpublicleadership in complex environment, research neglected the effects of policy and organizational changesonpublicmanagementbehaviors.Political system in Italyhasknownover the years frequentgovernment turnovers,making thegovernmentaverage institutional life very short. Horovitz, Hoff andMilanovic (2009) define political instability as “a basic sourceofvariationininstitutionsandpractices(…whose)frequencyandcharacterdepend onvoterpreferences,politicalinstitutions,andsalienteventsandissues”(p.107).Political instabilitydependingonfrequentgovernmentturnoversentailsbothaleadershipchange –whichisbasedonachangeintheinstitutionalpartiesthatconstituteamajoritycoalition –andanideologychange–whenthenewmajoritycoalitionexpressesasubstantiallynew ideology.Thispaperelucidatesadiscussiononhowchangeinthepublicadministration environment could create a perceived uncertainty among top–managers whose assignmentwill endwith the collapseof thegovernment.Thisuncertaintyaffects their competencies(i.e.themotivationtolead),intermsofeffortstheyexerttoperformtheir highleveladministrativeleadershipduties,andonplanningactivity,intermsofthegoals’ difficultyrelatedtotheirprojectsorexecutiveprograms.