The Motivations for the Adoption of Management Innovation by Local Governments and its Performance Effects

This article analyses the economic, political, and institutional antecedents performance effects of adoption shared Senior Management Teams (SMTs)—a management innovation (MI) that occurs when a team senior managers oversees two or more public organizations. Findings from statistical analysis 201 English local governments interviews with organizational leaders reveal SMTs are adopted to develop capacity in resource-challenged, politically risk-averse governments, response coercive mimetic pressures. Importantly, sharing may reduce rather than enhance efficiency effectiveness due redundancy costs political transaction associated diverting resources away high-performing partner support their lower-performing counterpart.