The Impossibility of a Neutral Hierarchy

Hammond, Thomas H.; Thomas, Paul A.

doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.jleo.a036962

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Through structures, politicians (principals) “manufacture” efficient incentive structures within organizations, adjust monitoring costs and information asymmetries to satisfy their needs. Through particular vertical or horizontal recasting of organizational units and jurisdictions, structure may affect to a large extent the policy outcomes of bureaucratic decision‐making (Hammond, 1986, 1993; Hammond & Thomas, 1989; Moe, 1995).…”

Section: The Politics Of Structural Choice: Merits and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The design of public bureaucracies is far from neutral. The structure of bureaucracies is the result of political decisions and compromises over bureaucratic control, political accountability, and policy choices (Bertelli & Sinclair, 2018; Daniels, 1995; Hammond & Thomas, 1989; Hogwood & Peters, 1983; Lewis, 2003; Moe, 1995). While the creation and termination of bureaucratic agencies may reflect radical policy changes, more intermediate but substantive changes find their expression in more subtle structural changes: the change of names of bureaucratic agencies and of the units within them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What's in a name? The politics of name changes inside bureaucracy

Yesilkagit

Bezes

Fleischer

2022

Public Administration

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In this article, we examine the effects of political change on name changes of units within central government ministries. We expect that changes regarding the policy position of a government will cause changes in the names of ministerial units. To this end we formulate hypotheses combining the politics of structural choice and theories of portfolio allocation to examine the effects of political changes at the cabinet level on the names of intra‐ministerial units. We constructed a dataset containing more than 17,000 observations on name changes of ministerial units between 1980 and 2013 from the central governments of Germany, the Netherlands, and France. We regress a series of generalized estimating equations (GEE) with population averaging models for binary outcomes. Finding variations across the three political‐bureaucratic systems, we overall report positive effects of governmental change and ideological positions on name changes within ministries.

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Section: The Politics Of Structural Choice: Merits and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What's in a name? The politics of name changes inside bureaucracy

Yesilkagit

Bezes

Fleischer

2022

Public Administration

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5 Public Administration and Organization Studies

Kelman

2007

The Academy of Management Annals

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The study of public organizations has withered over time in mainstream organization studies research, as scholars in the field have migrated to business schools. This is so even though government organizations are an important part of the universe of organizations-the largest organizations in the world are agencies of the U.S. government. At the same time, the study of public administration, once in the mainstream of organization studies, has moved into a ghetto, separate and unequal. Centered in business schools, mainstream organization research became isomorphic to its environment-coming to focus on performance issues, which are what firms care about. Since separation, the dominant current in public administration has become isomorphic with its environment. In this case, however, this meant the field moved backward from the central reformist concern of its founders with improving government performance, and developed instead a focus on managing constraints (i.e., avoiding bad things, such as corruption or misuse of power, from occurring) in a public organization environment. Insufficient concern about performance among public administration scholars is particularly unfortunate because over the past 15 years, there has occurred a significant growth of interest among practitioners in improving government performance. The origins and consequences of these developments are discussed, and a research agenda for organization studies research that takes the public sector seriously is proposed.

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Does Partisan Heritage Matter? The Case of the Federal Reserve

Falaschetti¹

2002

Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization

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The Impossibility of a Neutral Hierarchy

Cited by 11 publications

References 25 publications

What's in a name? The politics of name changes inside bureaucracy

What's in a name? The politics of name changes inside bureaucracy

5 Public Administration and Organization Studies

Does Partisan Heritage Matter? The Case of the Federal Reserve

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