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

Beschreibung

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.
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.
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

Autor*in

Tobias Bach

Themen in »The Blind Spots of Public Bureaucracy and the Politics of Non‐Coordination«

bounded rationality organization theory coordination selective perception bureaucratic politics public sector organizations unintended consequences administrative limits executive government organization of bias attention bias complexity hybridity path dependency myths and symbols

Stimmen zu »The Blind Spots of Public Bureaucracy and the Politics of Non‐Coordination«

“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)

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