Chief executive succession and the performance of central government agencies

Lead Research Organisation: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Department Name: Politics

Abstract

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Description Little was previously known about the effect of changing the chief executive of a public organisation on that organisation's performance, especially compared to research on private firms. Our project constructed the first ever comprehensive database of chief executives of UK central government executive agencies. These organisations handle the executive functions of the central state and each has a set of performance targets formally set for them by ministers. Our dataset covers the period 1988-2012 with 220 agencies existing at some point during this period and having 441 chief executive successions (excluding interim appointments).



We asked whether the effects of succession on mission, budget and performance differed according to whether the chief executive came from inside the agency, the broader civil service, the broader public sector or the private sector. 36 percent of all successions involved a formerly non-civil service executive between 1988 and 2012. We found that, overall, there is not a significant effect of chief executive succession on agency mission, budget or performance. However, in the year after a change of leader, our research showed that a change from an agency insider to an outsider (either from the private or wider public sector but not the civil service) is associated with a boost in performance by around 10%. Our qualitative work suggests that this improvement occurs because non-civil service outsiders bring new perspectives to the organisations they lead but these are eroded over time by changes to targets and new challenges faced by the organisations.
Exploitation Route Better planning of succession events in the public sector.
Better consideration of the fit between managerial 'publicness' backrgound and the needs of chief executive posts in the appointments process.
More consideration of the impact of managerial background on leadership strategies.
Sectors Government

Democracy and Justice

Other
URL http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/politics/research/projects/executiveagencies/
 
Description The project team has been able to make a contribution to the policy debate on reform of arms-length bodies and the civil service that has been taking place during the life of the project. Project members took part in a roundtable event at the Institute for Government in London on 12th July 2011 entitled 'Unfinished Business: Where Next for Executive Agencies?' to launch an IfG review of Executive Agencies by Kate Jenkins. The project team organised and contributed to a panel (expert session 1) entitled 'Rationalisation of Agencies in Times of Crisis' at the COST/ CRIPO high level conference 'Structuring Government in the 21st Century: Managing and Controlling Public Agencies at National and EU-level in Times of Crisis' in Brussels, on 27/05/2011. The event was aimed at high level officials and policy makers from across the EU and COST/ CRIPO member countries. We presented findings from our analysis of agency termination within this panel. Other contributors included the Deputy Director, Public Bodies and Workforce Reform of the Cabinet Office, the UK Chair of the Association of Chief Executives and the Chair of the Irish Association of Chief Executives of State Agencies and other agency chief executives and senior civil servants. We organised a panel on the theme of 'Chief Executive Succession Planning' as part of the Association of Chief Executives of State Agencies (ACESA) Annual Conference in Dublin, on 30/05/2013. The panel was comprised of researchers from the project team, UK and Irish agency chief executives, a member of the Irish Top Level Appointments Commission and the Chair of the UK Association of Chief Executives (ACE), the representative body for Executive Agency Chief Executives. As a consequence of this event we have several chief executives with whom we are in contact and who have asked to be notified of our findings. Copies of our policy briefing (see below) will be distributed to these people. We gave written evidence, based on our project findings, to the Public Administration Select Committee's Inquiry into on the future of the Civil Service. Our evidence is incorporated in the official report within the written evidence (Section CSR33/ http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/public-administration/combinedwrittenevidenceCSR6June.pdf).
First Year Of Impact 2010
Sector Government, Democracy and Justice
Impact Types Policy & public services
 
Description 'Rationalisation of Agencies in Times of Crisis' at the COST/ CRIPO high level conference 'Structuring Government in the 21st Century: Managing and Controlling Public Agencies at National and EU-level in Times of Crisis' in Brussels, on 27/05/2011.
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
 
Description Public Administration Select Committee's Inquiry into on the future of the Civil Service. Our evidence is incorporated in the official report within the written evidence (Section CSR33/
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
 
Title Replication Data for: James/Petrovsky/Moseley/Boyne (2016 BJPolS): The Politics of Agency Death: Ministers and the Survival of Government Agencies in a Parliamentary System 
Description Replication Data for: James/Petrovsky/Moseley/Boyne (2016 BJPolS): The Politics of Agency Death: Ministers and the Survival of Government Agencies in a Parliamentary System 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2016 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Data and code for: James, Oliver, Nicolai Petrovsky, Alice Moseley, and George A. Boyne. 2016. "The Politics of Agency Death: Ministers and the Survival of Government Agencies in a Parliamentary System." British Journal of Political Science 46 (4): 763-784. (2015-01-20) 
URL https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/NCI9RM