Top Management Turnover and Organizational Performance: A Test of a Contingency Model

• Published in: Public administration review Vol. 71; no. 4; pp. 572 - 581
• Main Authors: Boyne, George A., James, Oliver, John, Peter, Petrovsky, Nicolai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-07-2011; Wiley Subscription Services; American Society for Public Administration
• Subjects: Business management; Chief executive officers; Collective action; Collectives; England; Government services; Human resources; Job performance; Leadership; Local Government; Management; Management audits; Management science; Organizational change; Organizational effectiveness; Performance management; Performance tests; Public administration; Public sector; Senior management; Spotlight on Public Sector Performance; Studies; Teams; United Kingdom; Upper management; United Kingdom > UK
• ISSN: 0033-3352; 1540-6210
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2011.02389.x

A crucial test of whether "management matters" is whether changes in the team at the top of an organization make a difference. Focusing on turnover in the collective senior team rather than successions of individual chief executives, this article argues that the impact of leadership succession is contingent upon prior organizational performance. The evidence on English local government shows that changes in the top management team lead to improvements when initial performance is bad, but result in deterioration when initial performance is good. The results support the view that high-performing organizations should attempt to retain members of their senior management team, whereas low performers should seek to replace them.