Abstract

Since politicization persists threatening public sector governance and management, there is a need to further understand this phenomenon and its consequences. Previous empirical studies conducted predominantly in the U.S. have found a negative impact of politicization on performance, however, the reasons behind this relationship remain elusive. In this paper, we inquire into the effect of politicization on organizational performance, and we propose that such influence can be explained by a deterioration of human resource management (HRM) practices. Using data from a national survey of municipal managers and mayors in Chile, our results confirm the negative impact of politicization on the performance of public agencies, which is partially mediated by politicization’s deleterious effect on their HRM practices.