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Defending, prospecting or reacting? Strategic management during cutbacks in the Dutch penitentiary sector
Author(s) -
Schmidt Eduard,
Van de Walle Steven
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
financial accountability and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.661
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1468-0408
pISSN - 0267-4424
DOI - 10.1111/faam.12271
Subject(s) - business , argument (complex analysis) , scholarship , stakeholder , position (finance) , public sector , public relations , strategic management , process (computing) , hierarchy , order (exchange) , marketing , economics , political science , market economy , finance , economy , economic growth , biochemistry , chemistry , computer science , operating system
We analyse how public managers interact with external stakeholders during cutbacks. Relying on strategic management scholarship, we develop an argument on why public managers decide for a closed or an open cutback management strategy. In the former, they try to close off the process for external stakeholders, whereas, in the latter, they actively engage with external stakeholders. A multiple qualitative case study of cutbacks in the Dutch prison sector shows that the choice to actively engage with external stakeholders depends on public managers’ position within the organisational hierarchy, their perception of the stakeholder environment and their process goals. The factors that impact public managers strategic stance can be categorised as contextual, institutional and organisational and environmental determinants. The article contributes to the scholarship on cutback management, accounting and strategic management and shows why these perspectives should be bridged in order to understand managerial behaviour during cutbacks