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dc.contributor.authorEgeberg, Morten
dc.contributor.authorStigen, Inger Marie
dc.date.accessioned2019-01-18T13:55:06Z
dc.date.accessioned2019-01-21T12:46:39Z
dc.date.available2019-01-18T13:55:06Z
dc.date.available2019-01-21T12:46:39Z
dc.date.issued2018-12-10
dc.identifier.citationEgeberg M, Stigen IM. Explaining government bureaucrats’ behaviour: On the relative importance of organizational position, demographic background, and political attitudes. Public Policy and Administration. 2018en
dc.identifier.issn0952-0767
dc.identifier.issn0952-0767
dc.identifier.issn1749-4192
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10642/6531
dc.description.abstractA basic insight in public governance and administration research is that career officials tend to play an important role in public policy development as well as in its implementation. Surprisingly, however, despite of being an enduring theme on the research agenda, the jury still seems to be largely out as regards how to account for bureaucrats’ actual decision behaviour, a fact reflected in the numerous competing theories and perspectives available. By applying a novel large-N questionnaire survey as well as an alternative method, this paper sheds new light on this highly contested area of research. We find that government bureaucrats’ (formal) organizational position is by far the most important explanatory factor, while classical demographic factors like geographical background, gender and age play a rather minor role. Among officials’ many early experiences, only their educational background and former job experience really count. Nor the political attitudes of officials seem to matter. The crucial role of bureaucrats’ organizational position for understanding their behaviour does not seem to depend on intra-organizational socialization. Importantly, the key role of factors that may be relatively subject to deliberate change, such as organization structure and the former job experience and educational background of those recruited, entails a considerable potential for organizational design.en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherSAGE Publicationsen
dc.relation.ispartofseriesPublic Policy and Administration;
dc.rightsEgeberg M, Stigen IM. Explaining government bureaucrats’ behaviour: On the relative importance of organizational position, demographic background, and political attitudes. Public Policy and Administration. © The Author(s) 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0952076718814901en
dc.subjectBureaucratsen
dc.subjectDecision-makingen
dc.subjectCivil servantsen
dc.subjectDemographical compositionsen
dc.subjectFormal organizational positionsen
dc.subjectOrganizational designsen
dc.titleExplaining government bureaucrats’ behaviour: On the relative importance of organizational position, demographic background, and political attitudesen
dc.typeJournal article
dc.typeJournal articleen
dc.typePeer revieweden
dc.date.updated2019-01-18T13:55:06Z
dc.description.versionacceptedVersionen
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0952076718814901
dc.identifier.cristin1648743
dc.source.journalPublic Policy and Administration


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