Turnaround management strategies in public systems: The impact on group-level organizational citizenship behavior

The use of Turnaround Management Strategies (TMS) in public administration has received growing interest among both researchers and practitioners who deal with public performance. However, our theoretical and empirical knowledge about TMS suffers from significant lacunae. This research presents results from a unique empirical survey that tests the effect of TMS on group-level Organizational Citizenship Behavior. One hundred and twenty-six senior leaders of English local authorities participated in the study. The findings show that local authorities that implemented repositioning and reorganization at the organizational level to a high extent experienced high levels of group-level Organizational Citizenship Behavior, while high implementation of reorganization at the personnel level was linked to low group-level Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Group-level Organizational Citizenship Behavior was indifferent to retrenchment strategies. Implications and suggestions for future studies are discussed.