Behavioral Public Administration: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

The last decade has seen remarkable growth in the field of behavioral public administration, both in practice and in academia. In both domains, applications of behavioral science to policy problems have moved forward at breakneck speed; researchers are increasingly pursuing randomized behavioral interventions in public administration contexts, editors of peer‐reviewed academic journals are showing greater interest in publishing this work, and policy makers at all levels are creating new initiatives to bring behavioral science into the public sector. However, because the expansion of the field has been so rapid, there has been relatively little time to step back and reflect on the work that has been done and to assess where the field is going in the future. It is high time for such reflection: where is the field currently on track, and where might it need course correction?

Designing to Debias: Measuring and Reducing Public Managers’ Anchoring Bias

“…The impact of biases on decision‐making has led scholars to suggest that biases should be taken into account when designing the architecture of jobs and tasks (Bellé, Cantarelli, and Belardinelli 2018; Vaughn and Linder 2018). However, in general, research demonstrating biases is more widespread than research on solving bias‐related problems (Bhanot and Linos 2020). It seems to be “more newsworthy to show that something is broken than to show how to fix it” (Larrick 2004, 334).…”

Compassion towards clients: a scale and test on frontline workers’ burnout

“…However, behavioural public policy has not caught up. The state of the art has been criticized for its methodological singularity (Bhanot & Linos, 2020). Compassion towards clients is, however, a perceptual measure making surveys a suitable method.…”

“…Methodologically, a measurement scale is developed by using a large-scale survey (n = 828). We thus contribute to methodological diversity of behavioural public policy and administration studies by moving beyond the almost sole focus on experimental methods (Bhanot & Linos, 2020;Gofen et al, in press).…”

Essays on Motivation and Leadership in the Public Sector - Habilitation dissertation

“…Article 2 also uses survey data but, in this case, the data were collected at multiple time points (panel data). Finally, Articles 3 and 6 respond to the call for a "Behavioral Public Administration" (Bhanot & Linos, 2019;Grimmelikhuijsen et al, 2017) and use experimental designs. The applied statistical methods reflect this multitude of research designs, ranging from simple group comparisons (t-test and ANOVA) and linear regressions to hierarchical linear models and panel regressions.…”