An Organizational Approach to Public Governance: Understanding and Design

by Morten Egeberg, Jarle Trondal

Overview

Climate change, economic crises, migration, and terrorism are among the many problems that challenge public governance in modern societies. Many of these problems are spanning political and administrative units; horizontally, vertically, and both. This makes public governance particularly challenging and turbulent. Since public governance mainly takes place through public organizations, like international organizations, ministries, and regulatory agencies, this book examines what difference organizational factors make in the governance process.

The volume launches a general organizational approach to public governance. It outlines key theoretical dimensions that cut across governance structures and processes horizontally as well as vertically, thus paving the way for integrating separate empirical analyses into a coherent theoretical whole. Moreover, the organizational (independent) variables outlined in this book represent classical dimensions in the organization literature that are generic in character. This allows for generalizations across time and space. The volume also examines (organizational) design implications: By building systematic knowledge on how organizational factors shape governance processes on the one hand, and how organizational factors themselves might be deliberately changed on the other, the book offers a knowledge base for organizational design.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198825074
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/11/2018
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Morten Egeberg is Professor of Public Policy and Administration in the Department of Political Science and in the ARENA Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo. His publications include Multilevel Union Administration. The Transformation of Executive Politics in Europe (Palgrave 2006) and Towards a New Executive Order in Europe? (edited with D. Curtin, Routledge 2009).
His main areas of academic interest include the role of organizational factors in political systems - such as the relationship between organizational and institutional forms on the one hand and decision-making processes on the other hand - but also changes in organizational and institutional forms. The research focuses especially on the European Commission, EU agencies, national executives, and the relationship between the EU level and the national level.

Jarle Trondal is Professor of Political Science and Management at the University of Agder and a Professor in the ARENA Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo. His publications include An Emergent European Executive Order (OUP, 2010) and Governance in Turbulent Times (edited with K Ansell and M Ogard, OUP, 2016). His main academic interests include public administration and public governance, the EU as a political system, European integration and transformation, and the study of international public administration.

Table of Contents

1. An Organizational Approach to Public Governance: Understanding and Design2. How Organizational Structure Affects Actual Power Relationships between Territorial Levels of Government3. The Logic of Supranational Organization: The Case of the European Commission4. Organization Structure, Demographic Background and Actual Behaviour: A Critical Case5. Colliding Coordination Structures in Multilevel Systems of Government (and how to live with it)6. Political Steering and Bureaucratic Autonomy: How Does Agencification Affect Public Governance? 7. Agencification and Location: Does Organizational Site Affect Public Governance? 8. Meta-Governance: On the Geographical Decentralization of Central Government Agencies9. Organizing Public Governance: Design Implications

Editorial Reviews

"The book is a valuable contribution to understanding public governance." — A. R. Abootalebi, University of Wisconsin, CHOICE

"This volume is an excellent compilation of theoretically informed applications of the all too often undefined 'organization matters' argument..." — Lena Schulze-Gabrechten, University of Potsdam, Public Administration

"Serious scholars of organizational theory and scholars interested in organizations will want a copy to consult in their own teaching and research." — Kenneth J. Meier, American University, Governance

From the Publisher