Coping with organizational changes due to executives’ succession: the role of personal and contextual resources for job crafting

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-03-2022-0085
• Published date: 07 December 2022
• Date: 07 December 2022
• Pages: 64-78
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management
• Author: Filomena Buonocore,Marcello Russo,Davide de Gennaro

Coping with organizational

changes due to executives’

succession: the role of personal

and contextual resources

for job crafting

Filomena Buonocore

Department of Law, University of Naples Parthenope, Napoli, Italy

Marcello Russo

Department of Management, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy and

Bologna Business School, Bologna, Italy, and

Davide de Gennaro

Department of Management and Innovation Systems, University of Salerno,

Salerno, Italy and

Department of Management, Scuola Nazionale dell’Amministrazione, Roma, Italy

Abstract

Purpose –Each time there is a government change (indeed a very frequent scenario for Italy), and the

leadership team of strategic offices and operations in the public administration is usually replaced. Using

the job crafting theoretical framework, the purpose of this study is to investigate how the uncertainty

generated by changes in the leadership teams of public offices shapes the public managers’coping

strategies.

Design/methodology/approach –This study adopts a deductive qualitative approach. Data for this study

were collected through 47 interviews conducted with public managers working at the Italian Presidency of the

Council of Ministers.

Findings –The results of the study suggest that job crafting –a proactive approach aimed at customizing the

content and nature of one’s job –represents a frequent strategy that public managers undertake, drawing on

the personal and contextual resources at their disposal, to reduce perceived uncertainty associated with

manager transition.

Originality/value –Questions related to the positive or negative impact of managerial transitions generated

conflicting opinions in the literature. The authors demonstrate that job crafting could represent a valuable

strategy adopted by executive managers to cope with increasing uncertainty associated with managerial

transition due to government change, especially when these strategies enable to gain valuable personal and

contextual resources for managers.

Keywords Job crafting, Coping, Organizational change, Managerial transitions, Public managers

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Italy is one of the countries with the most frequent managerial succession in Prime Minister

and key ministry roles in the world. Since 1946, the average length of the Italian government

has been of 14 months (Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive) [1]. Although changes in

government are somehow positive, as they bring to a country a new leadership team, new

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Declarations of interest: none

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public,

commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/0951-3558.htm

Received 30 March 2022

Revised 6 July 2022

7 October 2022

Accepted 11 October 2022

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 36 No. 1, 2023

pp. 64-78

© Emerald Publishing Limited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-03-2022-0085