An organizational theory approach to the public sector 1 Differences between public and private organizations 4 Characteristics of public organizations 6. Limitation of organization theory to the public sector 8 Bounded rationality, political science and organization theory 10 Dependent variables 12.
About the authors
Tom Christenseni is professor of public administration and organizational theory at the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway. Kjell Arne Røvikis Professor of Organizational Theory at the Department of Political Science, University of Tromsø, Norway.
Preface
The emphasis is on providing examples from empirical research into the working methods of representative public organizations and actual administrative reforms. We have chosen not to include in-text references, but for each chapter we have included a list of readings that cover the themes discussed. We would like to thank our colleagues in Norwegian public administration research who helped us write this book. We also drew on the work of other colleagues in Scandinavia, in other parts of Europe and in Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. States, and to these we express our gratitude.
Acknowledgements
We also wish to express our gratitude to the Department of Political Science at the University of Oslo, the Department of Political Science at the University of Tromsø, the Rokkan Center and the Department of Administration and Organization Theory at the University of Bergen and the Research Council of Norway for funding the English translation. . We are grateful to our publisher, Routledge, for believing in this project. This is a textbook on organizational theory for the public sector with a particular focus on how the public sector is organized in representative democracies.
Organization theory for the public sector
An organization theory for the public sector will be based on democratic theory and theories about decision-making in formal organizations. This means focusing on the sector's base of values, ORGANIZATION THEORY FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR.
An instrumental perspective
In other cases, the starting point is an organization's action alternatives. The organization assesses how valuable the consequences of each alternative are and a choice is made on that basis. A university may be confronted with several possible forms of leadership and it chooses among them depending on the consequences that achieving the goal is likely to entail. In any case, the actions required to perform tasks are characterized by their relationship to an INSTRUMENTAL PERSPECTIVE. An example of this could be cooperation between a ministry and a subordinate agency, or between a ministry and an interest group. The second category demands more from an organization because it needs additional resources, both to distribute and to distribute its own organization. coordinate contact with the environment. An example of this is when a heterogeneous ministry, such as a Ministry of the Interior, has to engage in dialogue with many different actors in the environment, regardless of whether these other actors are public or private interest groups.
A cultural perspective
All these social arguments related to organizational culture can have a potentially instrumental side, that is, informal norms and values can be useful. The institution also influences individual and group identities through socialization to shared informal norms and values.
A myth perspective
For example, one set of recipes is claimed to have emerged from administrative philosophies such as managerialism. The best-known organizational recipes in the public sector today are those that fall under the heading of NPM. Dramatic messages are more easily spread than others because they are exciting and therefore attract the public's attention. The dramatic points are easy to remember and can be easily retold and communicated. Different research traditions offer three possible processes and outcomes when organizations attempt to implement recipes. This can be expressed as theories of rapid coupling, rejection and disengagement. The theory of quick coupling is exemplarily mediated in popular management literature.
Popular organizational recipes are actually well-codified ideas. The decoupling theory maintains that attempts to change organizations through new recipes will often be limited to just such linguistic change, for example managers in a public service agency may talk about balanced scorecards, human resource management, ethical accounting, etc., without actually translate these ideas into new routines and practices. There is, however, something that suggests that new terminology can eventually also give rise to new routines and practices, in other words, speech and action can eventually be linked together. The term 'virus'.
Goals and values
In the early years of oil production in many countries, there was a strong emphasis on technology and economics, and the goals tended to be GOALS AND VALUES. TYPICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF OBJECTIVES IN PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS Public organizations are characterized by generally having complex and unclear objectives and wanting to prioritize several different concerns and activities at the same time. According to the purpose principle, the basis for specialization in the formal structure is the operationalization of goals, and when the purpose changes, this leads to internal reorganization. We can understand this from an instrumental perspective.
In addition, questions are asked about what the likely consequences of an OBJECTIVES AND VALUES will be. Attempts to manage goals in a complex world often run into knowledge-related problems. The goals may prove to be too vague, inconsistent and complex, GOALS AND VALUES. and therefore difficult to fulfill.
Leadership and steering
Olsen describes leaders according to two dimensions: first, whether the actions of a political leader have consequences for the way society develops; second, whether the leader is bound or limited by non-leaders or other conditions. The 'manager as agent' belongs to the first category. This is a leader who has great influence but is also bound. He or she may be a populist who is responsive and sensitive but changes policies according to the swings of public opinion and who does not have an independent point of view or does not use public administration in an independent or strong way. The last category is "leadership LEADERSHIP AND CONTROL. Byrkjeflot divides leadership into six ideal types. The first type according to Weber is "traditional leadership", where the leader is appointed from above, from the king or queen, or from God.
When voters transfer popular sovereignty to political leaders through elections, central aspects of this relationship will be based on trusting politicians to exercise the delegated powers responsibly. This is sometimes called an independent mandate. The transfer of power and authority from Parliament to the executive branch will also be based on this type of accountability. One explanation is that leadership is practiced in different contexts, so thinking and behavior will differ. Contexts can also change over time.
Reform and change
We will also discuss how the course and outcome of processes of reform and change in specific public organizations can be analyzed in the light of the three perspectives. From a hierarchically-based instrumental perspective, organizational changes are desired and planned by an organization's leaders or by higher authorities. The issue of reform and change will be influenced in the first instance by these people's goals and perceptions of the situation at hand. . How can the course and outcome of reforms and changes in the central authority of the Norwegian police be explained.
The national administrative policy was also expressed in the argument that the direction of the division should be carried out mainly according to the MBO. We also interpreted the Ministry of Justice's use of organizational forms that corresponded to prevailing doctrines as an indication of the ministry's desire to gain legitimacy in the environment.
Effects and implications
Looking comparatively at studies of public organizations in many countries, we find relatively little systematic information about the effects of using different organizational forms. The essence of the problem was formulated by the American political scientist B. However, it is unclear whether performance reporting for politically elected officials has become better as a result of the reforms. The further an organization is at one end of the chain of effects, the more difficult it is to operationalize goals and identify outcomes, and the more uncertain the learning curves. One conclusion that can be drawn from these studies is that the design of different market models can vary considerably between countries, tasks, sectors and administrative levels and will have consequences for studies of effects. The implication is that discussions of the effects of the reform should strive for overly precise terminology and should not be applied at a general level.
If, from an instrumental point of view, we define effects narrowly—for example, scientifically tested effects of the final results of an organizational change—the public reform programs of the last decade would not have needed results to initiate the continuing reform effort. Target and results management in the public sector – Experiences and challenges'), in A.L. eds) Lakmannstyre under press, Oslo: Kommuneforlaget. 1975) 'The Uncertainty of the Past: Organizational Learning under Ambiguity', European Journal of Political Research eds) (1996) Lessons from Experience: Experiential Learning in Administrative Reforms in Eight Democracies, Oslo: Scandinavian University Press.
Understanding and design
This can happen by exaggerating institutional features and presenting them in the form of myths. From an instrumental perspective, for example, trying to steer reforms through a hierarchy can be constrained by articulation of interests and negotiations, established organizational cultures and dominant myths in the environment. A prescriptive analysis suggesting how public organizations should be designed must use measurement devices that are grounded in values and considerations rooted in the public sector in general and in the concrete values of specific organizations.
If an organization redistributes goods that cannot be divided - in the sense that if one party receives the goods, the next party does not - the organization will be particularly exposed to criticism. Based on the knowledge we have gained about the redesign and change of public organizations and about their working method and effects, it is possible to outline how one should go about introducing reforms in the public sector.