Lars Tummers appointed as professor of Public Management and Behavior
As of 1 March 2018 Lars Tummers has been appointed as professor of Public Management and Behavior at the Utrecht University School of Governance (USG) of the faculty of Law, Economics and Governance. Lars Tummers is one of the initiators of the new, interdisciplinary research field combining behavioral science and public administration, called 'Behavioral Public Administration'. Lars Tummers is one of the first professors in this field.
In addition to ongoing and new research activities in the field of Public Management and Behavior, nationally and internationally and strongly related to the strategic research theme Institutions for Open Societies and the focus area Professional Performance of Utrecht University, Tummers will inspire and stimulate young researchers. As member of the Utrecht Young Academy and supervisor of PhD students he is already doing this. Furthermore he will further stimulate education regarding public management and behavior.
I would like to combine insights from behavorial science and public administration to analyse and solve societal issues.
Behavioral Public Administration: a new field with concrete impact
The chair in Public Management and Behavior will give Tummers the opportunity to further integrate behavioral science and public administration.
‘I consider field experiments to be very promising. Field experiments are not often conducted by public administration scholars. They can be useful if we for instance want to analyse how we can design a working environment where professionals experience less stress but still perform highly, but also when we aim to improve the relationship between government and citizens. I would like to combine insights from behavorial science and public administration to analyse and solve societal issues,’ says Tummers.
He will contribute to scientific and societal impact activities, also through the Utrecht Young Academy. Together with the city of Utrecht the Utrecht Young Academy is producing a movie entitled ‘Living together in Utrecht’, for which several groups of presumably different groups (immigrants, refugees, students and native middle class citizens) are brought together to get to know and understand each other better.
Striving for interdisciplinary collaborations on a structural basis and stimulating international research in public management and behaviour are important goals for Tummers. At this moment he is Vice President Europe for the IRSPM, an international organisation of public management scholars and an active member of international collaborations such as the Behavioral Public Administration Network.
Lars Tummers
Lars Tummers studied business economics and public administration, and completed the Master Research in Public Administration and Organizational Science at Utrecht University. In his PhD at Erasmus University Rotterdam he developed the model of policy alienation. The policy alienation model can be used to analyse why professionals have problems with the governmental policies. His PhD was received cum laude and won the Award for outstanding PhD-thesis in humanities and social sciences (Praemium Erasmianum Foundation).
Tummers worked as a management consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). At Erasmus University Rotterdam he worked as a PhD-student, an Assistant Professor and an Associate Professor. Furthermore, he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley (based on a EU Marie Curie Grant).
Next to his scholarly work, Tummers works regularly with practitioners, among else with various Ministries, organisations in healthcare and education and consultancy firms. This combination allows him to combine theoretical with practical insights, inspiring research and concrete impact in society at the same time.
More information
Would you like to read more on Lars Tummers, please visit his personal webpage.