9. Conclusions
The Italian courts are typical of organisations that resist administrative reform. Magistrates constitute a closed group with a homogenous culture, self-government, a weak organisational hierarchy, and few managerial competences. In addition, BPJO was weak and vaguely designed, with no governance at national level. This made the LCM’s success particularly interesting. To test whether and how the programme was responsible for success, and whether case-specific factors interacted with the programme, the present study builds and tests a theory of programme success based on leaders’ engagement, knowledge access, and knowledge transfer.
The LCM case points to an interplay of local and programme features that together account for the success of implementation. While knowledge access is confirmed with no notable qualifications, the evidence in respect of both leaders’ engagement and knowledge transfer warrants further comment. In relation to leaders’ engagement, BPJO represented a ready-made opportunity for would-be innovators. In fact, LCM leaders were active in reforming their office even before the launch of BPJO, but they needed the programme to support their engagement and to provide the necessary momentum. This tends to confirm the ability of public sector leaders to make use of national programmes and political opportunities as focal events in support of their reform projects (Abramson and Lawrence, 2001). It should also be noted that BPJO was not only an enabler (i.e. a provider of resources), but also served as a framework for envisaging a more comprehensive reform strategy, which is congruent with the importance of framing change management efforts within a wider vision (Kotter, 1996, 2014).
