hh.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Accountability as the Driver of a New Bureaucracy?: An Interpretive Study of Organisational Professionals in Sweden
Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden.
Lund University, Lund, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5458-3120
Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand.
2022 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

There is a growing academic interest in the paradox that while public sector reform-makers are aiming to reduce bureaucratic layers we are witnessing new forms of bureaucratization. This extant body of literature has so far tended to focus on red-tape (Bozeman & Feeney, 2007) and administrative intensity (Andrews et al. 2017). This paper takes an alternative approach to bureaucratization by investigating the relationship between public sector reforms and the increase of new types of ‘bureaucrats’ within public organizations. We apply the concept of organizational professionals to define a special category of professional administrators with managerial, corporate or strategic functions in organisational communication, human relations, project management, quality assurance, sustainability, inclusiveness, equity etc.

Hitherto, the growth in numbers and status of organizational professionals has been seen in the literature as the outcome of New Public Management-inspired reforms and/or the ‘professionalizing’ aspirations of occupational groups themselves (Nordengraaf et al., 2014). We contend that a focus on NPM is too narrow when it comes to understanding the drivers of bureaucratization. Following Halligan (2020) it seems like managerialism is only one part of the storyline, while politicization of the public sector has been equally significant. What seems to unite these three elements (managerialisation, professionalisation and politicization) is the emphasis on accountability. Based on Bovens (2007) we separate between five different accountability relationships mentioned by our respondents: political, legal, professional, social, and administrative.

Based on qualitative interviews and focus groups with organizational professionals working in various parts of the public sector in Sweden, and applying an interpretive methodological approach, we ask in this paper how those organisational professionals perceive changing professional roles and the chains of accountability. While the increase in organizational professionals is conceived as an organizational response to external demands for accountability, our empirical data also suggests that the organisational professional groups are responding to internal demands for enhancing accountability mechanisms (as well as themselves generating such demands). The organizational professionals themselves describe this as a tension between supporting and steering, On the one hand they describe their role as hiving off administrative chore from managers and core service professionals, and on the other hand, assuring that the same actors adhere to the policies and guidelines they themselves have created. Our results suggest that a broad discourse of accountability in public organisations serve to justify an increase in organisational professional staff.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022.
National Category
Political Science Public Administration Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-48496OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hh-48496DiVA, id: diva2:1704818
Conference
European Group for Public Administration (EGPA), Lisbon, Portugal, September 6-9, 2022
Available from: 2022-10-19 Created: 2022-10-19 Last updated: 2022-10-20Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Authority records

Alamaa, Linda

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Alamaa, Linda
Political SciencePublic Administration Studies

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 222 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf