Hybrid Context, Management Practices and Organizational Performance: A Configurational Approach

Employing a configurational approach we explore how ‘hybrid context’ shapes organizations’ adoption, and performance implications, of management practice. We do because hybrid contexts have been a policy aim of many governments seeking to blurr the distinction between the public, private and not‐for‐profit sectors. To conceptualize hybrid contexts we employ the dimensions of market authority and (the multiple) political authority. Employing data from UK care homes, our findings suggest that: (i) the adoption, and performance effects, of management practices are conditioned by dimensions of hybrid context; (ii) there is significant variation across the configurations in terms of the mix of management practices that lead to high and low performance; and (iii) there is a high degree of symmetry between high and low performance, with good management practices being a necessary condition for high performing as compared to low performing organizations.