Monstrous rebirth: Re-instating the ethos of bureaucracy in public organization

Abstract

This article explores the complexities encountered in attempts to strengthen the ethos of bureaucracy in public organization. It does so by stressing the ethical and organizational conflicts generated in the aspiration to revive this ethos. Empirically, this exploration is done by examining a code introduced in the Danish state-bureaucracy in the aftermath of a number of political-administrative scandals. We show how the ethos of bureaucracy on the one hand has been repressed and displaced and, on the other hand, in light of the scandals, now reappears as something indispensable. At the same time, the article exposes how the revitalization attempt encounters considerable obstacles. By situating the code in relation to changing bureaucratic structures, semantic ideals, and civil servants’ reflections, we show how the revived ethos takes on monstrous proportions. Despite this transfiguration, we argue that the failed attempt at revitalization is no cause to dispense with the ethos of bureaucracy. The article is distinctive in how it bridges hitherto uncoupled streams of literature that are mobilized in the investigation of a critical case. In so doing, it adds to these literatures and seeks to revive critical organizational theorizing in light of current neo-liberal and populist sources of power.

Consultancies in public administration

“…Similarly, research on “co‐production” stresses that while NPM had a view of public services akin to manufactured goods, enhanced co‐production for public services should include user input (Chauhan et al, 2022; Osborne & Strokosch, 2013). To assist this, bureaucrats should be “entrepreneurial” in finding ways to help citizens be more participatory, even if this highlights tensions over what their roles are and what public ethos is being supported (Lopdrup‐Hjorth & Roelsgaard Obling, 2019). Consultants may help facilitate more citizen participation in policy, and in some countries, like Australia, there is a well‐developed consultancy market for deliberative democracy where consultants act as impartial process managers (Hendriks & Carson, 2008).…”

Mapping the post-bureaucratic landscape: project managers’ perception of bureaucracy in European Union Cohesion policy projects

“…Several researchers have nevertheless pointed out that this development seems paradoxically to have increased bureaucracy rather than dismantle it (Hall, 2012;Hibou, 2015;Farrell and Morris, 2003;Lynn, 2011). Recent scholarship has sometimes referred to 'neo-bureaucracy' instead of 'post-bureaucracy' to highlight the fact that traditional bureaucracy has not disappeared (Clegg, 2012;Farrell and Morris, 2003;Lopdrup-Hjorth and Roelsgaard Obling, 2019). Nevertheless, this article draws on the literature on post-bureaucracy because, as we see it, the use of the 'post-' prefix does not, in fact, entail the erasure of bureaucracy, but rather the transformation of its meaning (cf.…”

Organising through compassion: The introduction of meta‐virtue management in theNHS

“…In applying this approach, we draw attention to some of the practical and normative consequences for the organisation of health care and the conduct of healthcare professionals that follows from this new layer of policy. More specifically, we turn to literature on office and office‐holding and to a particular tradition of ethical thought: the ethics of office, or what is more commonly known as role‐morality (Condren , Du Gay , , Hennis , Lopdrup‐Hjorth and Roelsgaard Obling ). This is a tradition of ethical thought that is often sidestepped in the current landscape of the dominant ethical theories of consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics, but which has a long and influential history, from Cicero's De officiis (44BC/2014) to Pufendorf (1673/1991) to Max Weber (, ) and to sociologist Paul Du Gay's (, ) more recent work.…”