Original
Rethinking Top Public Management Through Relational Dynamics: A Systems‐Informed Study of Senior Executives
Abstract
ABSTRACT The complex nature of top public managerial work is widely acknowledged in theory but rarely examined empirically. Existing research has mostly analyzed bivariate relationships among core components of top managerial work in government, including managers' attributes, practices, outcomes, and contexts. Drawing on a systems‐based framework, we investigate how effective top managerial work unfolds as a complex relational practice. We analyze seven cases of long‐serving, distinguished Chilean senior executives through a comprehensive and process‐oriented lens, based on 27 semi‐structured interviews with the managers and members of their personal and professional networks. Our findings indicate how the relational dynamics in which senior public executives engage shape their managerial attributes and practices. Specifically, strategizing, motivation building, and technical expertise are best understood as emerging primarily through interactions within agencies and with external sociopolitical environments. These results qualify perspectives that explain senior public management effectiveness by overemphasizing executives' individual attributes and views, and underscore the need for personnel policies and governance environments that equip managers with the capacities called for by a systems approach to top public management.
中文
以关系动态重思高层公共管理：一项系统导向的高级行政人员研究
摘要
高层公共管理工作的复杂性在理论上得到广泛承认，但很少受到实证检验。既有研究大多分析政府高层管理工作的核心组成部分之间的双变量关系，包括管理者的属性、实践、结果与情境。我们借鉴一个基于系统的框架，考察有效的高层管理工作如何作为一种复杂的关系实践而展开。我们通过一个全面且注重过程的视角，分析七位长期任职且表现卓越的智利高级行政人员的案例，基于对管理者本人及其个人与职业网络中成员的27次半结构化访谈。我们的发现表明，高级公共行政人员所参与的关系动态如何塑造其管理属性与实践。具体而言，战略谋划、激励构建和技术专长最好被理解为主要产生于机构内部的互动以及与外部社会政治环境的互动之中。这些结果修正了那些通过过度强调行政人员个体属性与观点来解释高级公共管理有效性的视角，并凸显出有必要制定人事政策与治理环境，使管理者具备系统式高层公共管理方法所要求的能力。
关键词
高层公共管理、关系动态、系统方法、高级行政人员、智利、公共部门人力资源管理、管理效能