Signe Pihl-Thingvad

An important question in public management is whether public organizations should prefer or avoid specialist managers (i.e., managers whose professional backgrounds match the work they oversee). Research has shown that specialist managers are associated with better field‐specific performance in public organizations, and theory suggests that they lead differently than nonspecialist managers. However, there is no empirical evidence to support this latter claim. To remedy this, we investigate whether specialist managers prioritize core service provision more and communicate better than nonspecialist managers. Through multilevel regressions of employee reports of leaders' behaviors in the contexts of schools, eldercare, daycare, and employment, we find that specialist managers prioritize core service provision more in all contexts but schools and communicate better in eldercare and employment but not elsewhere. These findings are consistent with the theoretical expectations and thus emphasize the importance of educational background in shaping managerial behavior.

Although absenteeism is a key concern in most western societies, research on reducing absenteeism in public sector organizations is scarce, particularly regarding the impact of organizational relationships. By building on the concept of workplace social capital (WSC) and using a large longitudinal cohort of Danish municipal employees, this study shows that three types of WSC (bridging, direct-leader-linking, and top-level-linking WSC) reduce absenteeism, while there is no significant effect of bonding WSC. Our empirical results further suggest that the relationships with the immediate leader and the top management (direct-leader-linking and top-level-linking WSC) are most important for employees’ absenteeism.

Occupational stress has immense economic and health-related consequences for individuals, organizations, and societies. In this context, the question of whether and how stress among managers transmits to their subordinates is highly interesting, yet not profoundly researched. This study aims to empirically investigate the effect of manager occupational stress on the development of subordinate stress and for how long such effects last in time. We exploit a unique panel dataset based on three different surveys among employees from a large Danish municipality, covering 5,688 employees and their 473 immediate managers between 2016 and 2020. We analyze this data using a fixed effects estimator with clustered robust standard errors, allowing us to significantly reduce potential endogeneity issues. The study shows that managers do in fact ‘transmit’ stress onto their employees, that the relationship is detectable a full year after the initial transmission of stress occurred, and that such an effect fades within additional two years. Our study serves to emphasize the great importance of the psychosocial wellbeing of managers as ‘nerve centers’ for entire job teams and urges organizations to treat stress among personnel on management levels with a high degree of concern.

Occupational stress has immense economic and health-related consequences for individuals, organizations, and societies. In this context, the question of whether and how stress among managers transmits to their subordinates is highly interesting, yet not profoundly researched. This study aims to empirically investigate the effect of manager occupational stress on the development of subordinate stress and for how long such effects last in time. We exploit a unique panel dataset based on three different surveys among employees from a large Danish municipality, covering 5,653 employees and their 452 immediate managers between 2016 and 2020. We analyze this data using a fixed effects estimator with clustered robust standard errors, allowing us to significantly reduce potential endogeneity issues. The study shows that managers do in fact ‘transmit’ stress onto their employees, that the relationship is detectable a full year after the initial transmission of stress occurred, and that such an effect fades within additional two years. Our study serves to emphasize the great importance of the psychosocial wellbeing of managers as ‘nerve centers’ for entire job teams and urges organizations to treat stress among personnel on management levels with a high degree of concern.

This article discusses how a central performance management system in Danish job centers affects employees’ perceptions of accountability, autonomy, common goals, and dialogue. Dysfunctional behavioral effects are explored in qualitative analyses based on four case studies. Results indicate that the expected positive effects of performance management do not materialize at the Danish job centers because the focus of the implementation process gradually shifts from results to process goals. This is related to a series of dysfunctional behavioral effects which, instead of creating commitment, frustrate and stress the employees.

Professional ideals are crucial in terms of guiding and committing journalists in modern media organizations. But what happens if there are discrepancies between the journalists’ professional ideals and their daily working practice? Research suggests negative consequences, such as withdrawal of commitment, but until now these assumptions have never been empirically examined. This article provides new knowledge of the relationship between professional ideals and daily practice in journalism by describing the contours of the existing discrepancies in the generation of news in Denmark. In addition it examines the journalists’ reactions to discrepancies in relation to their organizational commitment. The results suggest that discrepancies do have a negative impact on journalists’ commitment. Further implications for research and practice of the findings are discussed.