Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 26th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview III. PA Reform Author(s) Matus Sloboda Comenius University Bratislava Slovakia Sicakova-Beblava Emilia, Title Effects of formalized Selection Proceedings in CEOs´ Allocations to Slovak public Companies File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Matus Sloboda Abstract As part of the transformation of providing public services, various new organizational approaches have been applied in Slovakia, among others a corporatization of providing public services. Examples of such provision of public services include city-owned companies, which can be regarded as a form of hybrid organizations. To Pollitt and Talbot (2004) these organizations stand at the crossroads of the state, market and civil society. A significant part of the public resources of the local government is therefore under the control of those forms of organizations. In that context several scholars indicate the risk of party patronage in inter-organizational public appointments of hybrid organizations' CEOs (e.g. Kopecky, Mair and Spirova, 2012). One of the ways to constrain political power is to conduct formalized selection processes. This paper thus focuses on 139 CEOs of local public companies and explores whether conducting a prior formalized selection process generates different outcomes, and whether there an observable common pattern related to the qualities of the CEOs selected. It shows that although two different institutional settings were employed for selection of CEOs, the outcomes indicate a pattern emerging in relation to who manages local companies in Slovakia. It also shows that although CEOs' political affiliations are not ruled out when selection processes are formalized, this could still lead to strengthening the professionalization of the positions as it encourages education and managers from the public as well as private sector.
