EU Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management: Roles, Institutions, and Policies by Eva Gross & Ana Juncos

Author:Eva Gross & Ana Juncos [Gross, Eva & Juncos, Ana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, International Relations, General, Political Freedom
ISBN: 9781138829893
Google: -dK1oAEACAAJ
Amazon: B004QM9OIC
Barnesnoble: B004QM9OIC
Goodreads: 20027982
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-09-11T08:39:30+00:00

The performance of institutions: an (inefficient) organizational logic

Sociological institutionalism has its roots in sociology and organization theory (Peters 1999: 26) and it has incorporated many of the insights from these disciplines. What these studies highlighted was the fact that, in contrast to rationalist approaches to institutions, the activities of organizations often deviated from the original purposes of their creators; that their routines and procedures made them resistant to change and innovation; and that organizations were usually conflictual and loosely coupled (Allison and Zelikow 1999; Brunsson and Olsen 1998; Pressman and Wildavsky 1973). In sum, this perspective captures well the independent dynamics affecting institutions that sometimes make them rather ineffective, producing unintended results.

In order to understand the way organizations perform, we must first introduce the concept of organizational routines, also known as standard operating procedures (SOPs), which refers to ‘those specific rules of behaviour that are agreed upon and (in general) followed by agents’ (Lowndes 2002: 103) or ‘the routines for dealing with standard situations’ (Allison and Zelikow 1999: 178, emphasis in the original). In a context of uncertainty and complexity, organizations rely upon SOPs. Organizations fit problems, no matter the specificities of a particular situation, into ‘standard’ solutions or SOPs. These institutional routines are ordered into institutional programmes and repertoires that are then applied to a specific situation. SOPs allow for concerted action by the members of a given organization in response to a problem. On the downside, SOPs are difficult to change and the routinization of organizational action means that, as a result, organizational behaviour can be at times reactive, inappropriate or too formalistic (Allison and Zelikow 1999: 169–70).

On the other hand, to better deal with uncertainty, there is a tendency among organizations to fragment and divide issues according to areas of responsibility (Allison and Zelikow 1999: 166). This compartmentalization of responsibilities, with different organizations/units being responsible for different policy areas, facilitates their task and specialized attention to a specific problem, but it also makes coordination more difficult. Unintended consequences might be the result of the complexity of joint action (Pressman and Wildavsky 1973). In large organizations, the existence of contradictory and overlapping routines and rules at different levels increase the chances of clashes and problems. Moreover, organizations might try to colonize or take control of new areas of activity (Pressman and Wildavsky 1973: 181, note 76). This process of colonization or exploration can also be expected in the interactions between different EU organizations (Schroeder 2007).

Finally, an organizational approach points at the possibility that officials might use their expertise and exploit their autonomy from the principals when operationalizing the broader objectives set up in the organization’s mandate into concrete tasks (Allison and Zelikow 1999). In this way, organizations dispose of certain autonomy when it comes to the implementation of the mission. Political decisions might also deviate from original objectives because of the dysfunctional performance of institutions. This does not always occur, and in general organizations increase the capacity of political leaders, but political masters should be wary of the possibility of unintended consequences and dysfunctional behaviour by institutions.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.