The expansion of organizational professionals in the public sector is often interpreted as a manifestation of increased managerial control and bureaucratisation, raising questions about shifting professional identities in public administration. This study contributes to research on hybrid professionalism and identity work by examining how organizational professionals themselves perceive this trend and how they justify their roles within public organizations. Based on a narrative analysis of interviews with 24 organizational professionals in Sweden, we examine how they construct their professional identity in relation to competing institutional logics. We expand the concept of hybrid professionalism by incorporating a public service logic alongside managerial and professional logics. We find that respondents frame their identity around the notion of performing a support function for frontline services. This positioning enables them to rearticulate managerial activities as supportive rather than controlling, thereby presenting their work as a response to bureaucratisation rather than a source of it. © 2025 The Author(s). Public Administration published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Despite a rich research literature addressing the rise of a genuine multilevel administration (MLA) in the European Union (EU), impacts on municipal bureaucracies remain understudied. This article maps how the MLA affects local bureaucracies, based on a multi-sited qualitative study of public procurement and environmental departments in 20 Norwegian and Swedish municipalities. We find that the studied municipal bureaucrats interact routinely and closely outside their home institutions through inter-municipal coordination arenas, shared work processes and peer learning, revealing a decentralised, horizontal pattern of integration. The analysis further identifies indirect forms of horizontal co-optation operating through leading cities and networked arrangements, beyond direct European Commission influence and control. These findings refine existing MLA research by demonstrating how compatible territorial problem-solving operates as a horizontal mechanism of administrative integration within the EU MLA. © 2026 The Author(s). JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies published by University Association for Contemporary European Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Whereas a considerable literature emphasizes the role and function of municipalities and regions in the European Union (EU) as an expression of multilevel governance, a parallel literature has emerged which projects a view of the EU as an example of multilevel administration. This latter literature directs attention towards emerging vertical linkages implying new chains of accountability and control, yet it is unclear whether and how the subnational level fits into this assumed multilevel union administration. Moreover, its hierarchical focus contrasts with how, especially, the multilevel governance literature has tended to emphasize the opportunities arising from EU governance as much as the potential constraints. Drawing on a study of administrative EU work in Norwegian and Swedish municipalities, the paper argues that insights from the two literatures should be combined to gain a fuller understanding of how the subnational level adapts to an emerging integrated administrative space. © 2025 The Author(s).

Recent research shows that new types of high-skilled administrators, what we in this article label organisational professionals, have amplified their presence in public sector organisations in relation to other types of public sector employees. Our purpose is to analyse how organisational accountability can be seen as a driver behind the expansion of organisational professionals. Intensified political and administrative pressures seem to be driving this process, but there also seems to be internal turfs in which the different parts of the government administration seek to hold each other accountable, a process possibly amplified by professionalising ambitions of the organisational professionals. The article concludes that the bureaucratising effect of accountability demands ought to be highlighted more in critical research of accountability. The study is based on semi-structured interviews and focus groups with public sector professionals in Sweden from different policy sectors and government levels.

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.

Resultatet av politiska beslut påverkas i stor utsträckning av vad som sker i den offentliga förvaltningen. Att studera hur förvaltningen styrs och hur den fungerar är därför helt centralt inom samhällsvetenskaperna. För att analysera den offentliga förvaltningens komplexitet och mångfald behövs ett brett spektrum av teorier, men beroende på vilken teori som används kommer både frågeställningar och svar att variera. Syftet med denna bok är att förmedla kunskap om och inspirera till reflektion över teorier och hur de kan användas i vetenskapliga undersökningar. I boken presenteras olika teoretiska ingångar till studiet av den offentliga förvaltningen. Uppsatsförfattare får exempel på hur en vetenskaplig studie kan läggas upp, olika teoriers styrkor och svagheter samt förslag på hur fallgropar kan undvikas. Perspektiv på offentlig förvaltning riktar sig till studenter och lärare inom offentlig förvaltning.

One recurrent narrative in the discussion about managerial public sector reforms is the growth in organizational professionals as a response to new accountability regimes. New Zealand has experienced modest growth rates in the general public sector workforce. Less studied, though, is whether the composition of the public sector workforce has changed, with an increase in organizational functions supportive to management. Based on descriptive workforce data, followed by follow-up interviews, this article presents a multifaceted and complex picture of a growing new public bureaucracy with the main task of managing chains of accountability. © The Author(s) 2021.