Abstract
Public-sector organizations (PSOs) are increasingly created to reduce inequities, yet we know little about how they operationalize ambitious mandates in complex systems. We study Aotearoa New Zealand’s Te Aka Whai Ora / Māori Health Authority (MHA), established in 2022 and disestablished within two years, using an interpretive analysis of 26 interviews with former staff along with available official documents and news reports. This paper conceptualizes operationalization as a dynamic achievement: an operating model must stabilize decision rights, routines, inter-organizational interfaces, and performance controls to translate policy intent into coordinated action. We identify six recurring misalignment patterns that pushed the MHA from visionary intent to operational marginality as system conditions disrupted authority–accountability congruence, interface specification, capacity stability, and performance control. This research introduces recursive system fit, showing how capabilities and system conditions co-shape viability of PSOs. Policymakers should specify operationalization inputs at planning stage rather than retrofit them during implementation.