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Palgrave Macmillan

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

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  • © 2019

Overview

Editors:
  1. Tobias Bach

    1. Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Kai Wegrich

    1. Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, Germany

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Provides important theoretical insights into the organizational underpinnings of successful coordination
  • Identifies causes of supposedly irrational or dysfunctional behaviour of public organizations
  • Discusses implications for institutional design, indiciating how to deal with inherent biases in organizational decision making

Part of the book series: Executive Politics and Governance (EXPOLGOV)

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
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  3. Blind Spots and Attention Bias

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 69-69
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    2. Professional Integrity and Leadership in Public Administration

      • Wolfgang Seibel
      Pages 71-86

    3. The Alarms That Were Sent, but Never Received: Attention Bias in a Novel Setting

      • Helge Renå
      Pages 87-109

  4. Bureaucratic Politics: Reputation, Blame, and Turf

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 111-111
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    2. Why Cooperation Between Agencies is (Sometimes) Possible: Turf Protection as Enabler of Regulatory Cooperation in the European Union

      • Eva Heims
      Pages 113-131

    3. Blame, Reputation, and Organizational Responses to a Politicized Climate

      • Markus Hinterleitner, Fritz Sager
      Pages 133-150

    4. Passing the Buck? How Risk Behaviours Shape Collaborative Innovation

      • Krista Timeus
      Pages 151-170

    5. Media and Bureaucratic Reputation: Exploring Media Biases in the Coverage of Public Agencies

      • Jan Boon, Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen, Koen Verhoest, Mette Østergaard Pedersen
      Pages 171-192

  5. Achilles’ Heels and Selective Perception

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 193-193
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    2. Central Banks and Banking Regulation: Historical Legacies and Institutional Challenges

      • Jacint Jordana, Guillermo Rosas
      Pages 195-216

    3. Why Do Bureaucrats Consider Public Consultation Statements (or Not)? Information Processing in Public Organizations

      • Simon Fink, Eva Ruffing
      Pages 217-238

  6. Implications

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 239-239
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    2. How to Deal with the Blind Spots of Public Bureaucracies

      • Tobias Bach, Kai Wegrich
      Pages 241-261

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 263-269
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Keywords

About this book

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 attempts to make 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.

Reviews

“This volume sheds fresh light on the shortcomings of the evergreen phantasm of synoptic rationality in and across public organizations that still inform expectations to public decision makers. The book is a valuable reminder that in times of information overload, critical awareness of the perspective through which both knowledge, action and analysis are conceived is more important than ever.” (Lotte Jensen, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)

“This book is a treasure trove for those interested in getting fresh, intelligent, and thought provoking accounts of some of the most important recurrent and debilitating pathologies of public administration: attention biases, blind spots, and a chronic failure to operate in a collaborative and coordinated fashion. Leading scholars cast fresh eyes on classic and emerging frameworkssuch as bureaucratic reputation, collaborative governance and institutional leadership. These highly readable essays also offer us glimmers of hope that if we better understand these mechanisms, we can make them work for rather than against the smart and reliable government that citizens expect and deserve.” (Paul ‘t Hart, Utrecht University, The Netherlands)


Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Tobias Bach

  • Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, Germany

    Kai Wegrich

About the editors

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.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

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