Individual responses to using management control practices for hybridizing public-sector organizations: evidence from an emerging country

• Published in: International public management journal Vol. 26; no. 2; pp. 199 - 220
• Main Authors: Nguyen, Dai Huu, Hiebl, Martin R. W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Stamford Routledge 04.03.2023; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Case studies; Emerging markets; Hybridization; Management; Management controls; Organizations
• ISSN: 1096-7494; 1559-3169
• DOI: 10.1080/10967494.2021.1937414

In this article, we aim to examine the responses of individual actors to the use of management controls during the hybridization of public-sector organizations. We draw on an institutional logics perspective and the literature regarding the role of management controls in hybridizing organizations to analyze findings derived from a single case study of a public university in Vietnam. We find that the partial hybridization of an organization is a factor that may explain individuals' responses toward competing institutional logics. In the Vietnamese university we studied, the management controls in use were not contested, unlike their contents and formulae. Similarly, the compartmentalization strategy by the organizational leaders was uncontested due to traditional institutional logics being left mostly untouched. To the literature on hybrid organizations, we add the notion of "partial hybridization" and offer an emerging markets case, as evidence of the role management controls play in hybridizing emerging-market public-sector organizations has thus far been scant.