Positions

Lars Tummers is a Professor of Public Management and Behavior at Utrecht University. Previously, he worked at the Erasmus University Rotterdam as a PhD-student, Assistant Professor, and Associate Professor. Furthermore, he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Oxford and the University of California, Berkeley (based on an EU Marie Curie Grant). He also worked as a management consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). He studied business economics (Master Strategic Management, Tilburg University, Universita Bocconi, Milan) and public administration (Research Master, collaboration Erasmus University Rotterdam, Tilburg University and Utrecht University).

Research focus

In his PhD, he developed a new model of ‘policy alienation’ to examine the problems of professionals with implementing policies set by government. The dissertation laid the foundations of his book “Policy Alienation and the Power of Professionals” (Edward Elgar, 2013) and has its own wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy_alienation).

His main research interests are public management, leadership and government-citizen relations. Related to this, he develops an interdisciplinary field combining psychology and public administration, called 'Behavioral Public Administration'.

Published work on leadership concerns for instance leadership and meaningful work in the public sector, how to measure public leadership and the study book "Understanding Public Leadership". Published work on Behavioral Public Administration considers among else position papers, studies on policy alienation of public professionals and coping during public service delivery.

Grants/awards (selection)

• PhD on Policy Alienation awarded ‘cum laude’ and received Dutch nationwide PhD-award for exemplary social science scholarship (Praemium Erasmianum)
• Best article award for article in Public Management Review on cocreation and coproduction in social innovation, with William Voorberg and Victor Bekkers
• Best article award for article in Journal of Public Administration, Review, & Theory (JPART), developing and testing a model of client deservingness, with Sebastian Jilke.
• Research Prize Erasmus University Rotterdam 2013. The Research Prize is awarded yearly to one promising researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
• EU FP7 Marie Curie Fellowship on stress and coping of public service workers (€180.000) (COPING) (PI)
• EU FP7 Project on social innovation in the public sector (€2.5 Mln) (LIPSE) (co-PI)
• NWO VENI Project on citizen aggression and coping (€ 250.000) (Veni) (PI)
• NWO VIDI Project on stereotypes of civil servants, called 'Lazy Bureaucrats' (€ 800.000) (VIDI) (PI)
• NWO Research Talent Project on service sabotage by public service workers (€ 220.000) (Sabotage) (PI, with student Maurits van Leeuwen and prof. dr. Steven Van de Walle
• Appointed as a member of the Utrecht Young Academy of Utrecht University.