The Blind Spots of Public Bureaucracy and the Politics of Non‐coordination

ISBN-13: 9783030095529 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 269 str.

Tobias Bach; Kai Wegrich

Spis treści

Part I: Conceptual foundations

1. Blind spots, biased attention, and the politics of non-coordination

Tobias Bach and Kai Wegrich

2. Accounting for blind spots

Martin Lodge

3. Blind spots: organizational and institutional biases in intra- and inter organizational contexts

Tom Christensen

Part II: Blind spots and attention bias

4. Professional integrity and leadership in public administration 

Wolfgang Seibel

5. The alarms that were sent, but never received: attention bias in a novel setting

Helge Renå

Part III: Bureaucratic politics: reputation, blame, and turf

6. Why cooperation between agencies is (sometimes) possible: turf protection as enabler of regulatory cooperation in the European Union

Eva Heims

7. Blame, reputation, and organizational responses to a politicized climate

Markus Hinterleitner and Fritz Sager

8. Passing the buck? how risk attitudes shape collaborative innovation in public organizations

Krista Timeus

9. Media and bureaucratic reputation: exploring media biases in the coverage of public agencies

Jan Boon, Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen, Koen Verhoest, and Mette Østergaard Pedersen

 

Part IV: Achilles’ heels and selective perception

10. Central banks and banking regulation: historical legacies and institutional challenges 

Jacint Jordana and Guillermo Rosas

11. Why do bureaucrats consider public consultation statements (or not)? information processing in public administration 

Simon Fink and Eva Ruffing

Part V: Implications

12. How to deal with the blind spots of public bureaucracies

Tobias Bach and Kai Wegrich

O autorze

Tobias Bach is Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration at the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway.

Kai Wegrich is Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, Germany.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Blurb

How to better coordinate policies and public services across public sector organizations has been a major topic of public administration research for decades. However, few attempts have been made to connect these concerns with the growing body of research on biases and blind spots in decision-making. This book makes that connection. It explores how day-to-day decision-making in public sector organizations is subject to different types of organizational attention biases that may lead to a variety of coordination problems in and between organizations, and sometimes also to major blunders and disasters. The contributions address those biases and their effects for various types of public organizations in different policy sectors and national contexts. In particular, it elaborates on blind spots, or ‘not seeing the not seeing’, and different forms of bureaucratic politics as theoretical explanations for seemingly irrational organizational behaviour. The book’s theoretical tools and empirical insights address conditions for effective coordination and problem-solving by public bureaucracies using an organizational perspective.

Tobias Bach is Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration at the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway. 

Kai Wegrich is Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, Germany.