TY - JOUR A1 - Kühler, Jakob A1 - Drathschmidt, Nicolas A1 - Großmann, Daniela T1 - ‘Modern talking’ BT - narratives of agile by German public sector employees JF - Information polity N2 - Despite growing interest, we lack a clear understanding of how the arguably ambiguous phenomenon of agile is perceived in government practice. This study aims to alleviate this puzzle by investigating how managers and employees in German public sector organisations make sense of agile as a spreading management fashion in the form of narratives. This is important because narratives function as innovation carriers that ultimately influence the manifestations of the concept in organisations. Based on a multi-case study of 31 interviews and 24 responses to a qualitative online survey conducted in 2021 and 2022, we provide insights into what public sector managers, employees and consultants understand (and, more importantly, do not understand) as agile and how they weave it into their existing reality of bureaucratic organisations. We uncover three meta-narratives of agile government, which we label ‘renew’, ‘complement’ and ‘integrate’. In particular, the meta-narratives differ in their positioning of how agile interacts with the characteristics of bureaucratic organisations. Importantly, we also show that agile as a management fad serves as a projection surface for what actors want from a modern and digital organisation. Thus, the vocabulary of agile government within the narratives is inherently linked to other diffusing phenomena such as new work or digitalisation. KW - agile government KW - agility KW - narratives KW - public administration KW - public sector organizations KW - fashion KW - digital transformation KW - interpretative research Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3233/IP-230059 SN - 1570-1255 SN - 1875-8754 VL - 29 IS - 2 SP - 199 EP - 216 PB - IOS Press CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hickmann, Thomas A1 - Fuhr, Harald A1 - Höhne, Chris A1 - Lederer, Markus A1 - Stehle, Fee T1 - Carbon Governance Arrangements and the Nation-State: The Reconfiguration of Public Authority in Developing Countries JF - Public administration and development N2 - Several scholars concerned with global policy-making have recently pointed to a reconfiguration of authority in the area of climate politics. They have shown that various new carbon governance arrangements have emerged, which operate simultaneously at different governmental levels. However, despite the numerous descriptions and mapping exercises of these governance arrangements, we have little systematic knowledge on their workings within national jurisdictions, let alone about their impact on public-administrative systems in developing countries. Therefore, this article opens the black box of the nation-state and explores how and to what extent two different arrangements, that is, Transnational City Networks and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, generate changes in the distribution of public authority in nation-states and their administrations. Building upon conceptual assumptions that the former is likely to lead to more decentralized, and the latter to more centralized policy-making, we provide insights from case studies in Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil, and India. In a nutshell, our analysis underscores that Transnational City Networks strengthen climate-related actions taken by cities without ultimately decentralizing climate policy-making. On the other hand, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation tends to reinforce the competencies of central governments, but apparently does not generate a recentralization of the forestry sector at large. KW - authority KW - climate politics KW - decentralization KW - developing countries KW - global south KW - public administration KW - REDD KW - transnational city networks Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1814 SN - 0271-2075 SN - 1099-162X VL - 37 SP - 331 EP - 343 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hustedt, Thurid A1 - Salomonsen, Heidi Houlberg T1 - Ensuring political responsiveness: politicization mechanisms in ministerial bureaucracies JF - International review of administrative sciences : an international journal of comparative public administration KW - central administration KW - ministers and civil servants KW - political advisers KW - political responsiveness KW - politicization KW - public administration Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852314533449 SN - 0020-8523 SN - 1461-7226 VL - 80 IS - 4 SP - 746 EP - 765 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reichersdorfer, Johannes A1 - Christensen, Tom A1 - Vrangbaek, Karsten T1 - Accountability of immigration administration comparing crises in Norway, Denmark and Germany JF - International review of administrative sciences : an international journal of comparative public administration N2 - Accountability can be conceptualized as institutionalized mechanisms obliging actors to explain their conduct to different forums, which can pose questions and impose sanctions. This article analyses different crises' in immigration policies in Norway, Denmark and Germany along a descriptive framework of five different accountability types: political, administrative, legal, professional and social accountability. The exchanges of information, debate and their consequences between an actor and a forum are crucial to understanding how political-administrative action is carried out in critical situations. First, accountability dynamics emphasize conventional norms and values regarding policy change and, second, formal political responsibility does not necessarily lead to political consequences such as minister resignations in cases of misbehaviour. Consequences strongly depend on how accountability dynamics take place. KW - accountability dynamics KW - accountability mechanism KW - administration KW - asylum KW - civil service KW - immigration KW - minister responsibility KW - public administration Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852313478251 SN - 0020-8523 VL - 79 IS - 2 SP - 271 EP - 291 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER -