Weber and Network Governments: A discussion about network forms within bureaucratic systems

1. IN3 PhD Doctoral Seminar
14th May 2009
Weber and Network Governments:
A discussion about network forms within bureaucratic systems
Ana Waksberg-Guerrini

2. Motivation
Thesis: use of citizen-government interaction data; information flows ->
affects/affected by the organizational structure
Literature: e-government, e-governance, network government, networked public
administrations, information government, institutional theory
References
”Building the Virtual State” – book by Jane Fountain
”Using the lens of Max Weber's Theory of Bureaucracy to Examine E-Government
Research” – article by Aby Jain
”Neither Market nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization” - article by Walter E.
Powell
”Three Traditions of Network Research: What the Public Management Research Agenda
Can Learn from Other Research Communities” - article by Frances Berry, Ralph
Brower, Sang Ok Choi, Wendy Xinfang Goa, HeeSoun Jang, Myungjung Kwon, Jessica
Word

3. Bureaucracy
early 18th century: ”bureau”
Theory of Modern Bureaucracy (Weber)
"Ideal type", but the ”only form of organization able to cope with the complexity of
modern enterprise”.
Central to 20th century public administration
New organizational form that had started to emerge in the 2nd half of the 19th
century.
Before: leadership and authority derived from charisma or tradition
Later: leadership and authority derived from a rational-legal framework /values of
logic, efficiency and reason.
Solving problems (optimum means to given ends).

4. Elements of Weberian Bureaucracy
* Functional differentiation, precise division of labour, clear jurisdictional boundaries
* Hierarchy of offices and individuals
* Files, written documents, staff to maintain and transmit files
* Employees are neutral, impersonal, attached to a particular office
* Office system of general rules, standard operating procedures, performance
programme
Guided by the objectives of efficiency, calculability, predictability and stability.
Criticisms
* Rules become ends in themselves
* "Subotimization"
* Resistance to change
* Poor at innovating or at embracing new ideas
* "Play by the rules" culture - power
* Slow processing time due to batch processing, delay, lags, multiple handoffs
* Long cycles of feedback and adjustment
what we find: some elements have changed, but most remain fixed.

5. Network Forms of Organization
Organizational arrangements that resemble networks more than hierarchies or markets –
increasingly visible (firms, gov't), although predates the internet.
To promote adaptive capacity, innovation, efficiency, and reduced transaction costs.
By 2002: alliances among the largest one thousand US firms – 35% of their total revenue
(1980 – less than 2%)
”[the] diverse literature [on organizational practices and arrangements] shares a
common focus on lateral or horizontal patterns of exchange, interdependent
flows of resources, and reciprocal lines of communication” (Powell)
Emphasis placed on dynamic, multi-party cooperative relationships within and across
(geographic, institutional) boundaries
Key Features Hierarchy Network
communication routines relational
actors preferences dependent interdependent
conflict resolution supervision reputation
normative basis employment relat. complem. strenghts
flexibility low medium

6. "Networks" in public administration: research traditions
social network analysis
role of informal/ weak ties (Granovetter); theory of information diffusion and
communication across networks; gatekeepers of information
policy networks (policy change and the impact of networks on policy outcomes)
Role of social networks – networks of actors across agencies and with the nonprofit and
private sectors are more central to policymaking than formalized governance structures
alone
public management networks
identification of public management networks, how they function, skills and managerial
techniques, impact on decision making, policy outputs and outcomes, and democratic
values of governance

7. More recently: ICTs and government
e-Government as a tool to "reforming" bureaucracy
Online service delivery; citizen-centricity
would require backoffice integration, cross-agency collaboration, systems
interoperability
Digital Era Governance: replacing New Public Management
E-Democracy
E-Participation
E-Governance

8. "network administration" - closely related to the network structure identified by
several authors to characterise the new social morphology of the information society.
* Aided by the intensive use of ICTs
organisation of activities around projects of limited duration, the flexibility in
reconfiguring teams and resources to complete them, the internal decentralisation
and cooperation with other organizations
An organisational form characterised by:
* the connection and interoperation between the information systems and the
management procedures
* more flexible management, more adaptability to changes and with relationships
that are more horizontal than those which predominate in the traditional
administration.
* the networks between the public and the private sector design and manage
public policies, within a contingent and dynamic character, in a political system where
the citizen plays a role as a user of public services as well as co-manager of the
administrative procedures, through the new forms of participation and interaction.

9. QUESTIONS
Are networks replacing bureaucracy or coexisting with it?
Is the bureaucratic state becoming a network state?
Are networks changing bureaucracy as their "use" increases?
What role do digital and interorganizational networks play in institutions?
What are the consequences of network organization in governments?

10. Network Levels, Information Flows
Social networks
Where individuals share and make sense of information in small groups through ongoing
social relations within and across organisations.
Intraorganizational networks
Networks within hierarchies subsume relations between and among actors under a
governance structure that handles conflict resolution and channels behaviour.
Interorganizational networks
Any collection of actors that pursue repeated, enduring exchange relations with one
another and, at the same time, lack a legitimate organizational authority to arbitrate and
resolve disputes that may arise during the exchange.
having in mind... ”Technology Enactment”
Institutional Arrangements (Legal and Formal, Socio-Structural, Cultural, Cognitive)
Organizational Forms

11. "The rapid rise of scholarly interested in network forms, both within and between
organizations, has obscured the fact that most nodes in networks continue to
function within hierarchies. Digital structures shared databases make data
and information available throughout bureaucracy rather than only to
those at particular levels who perform specific functions. A notable result
has been the detachement of information from individuals holding a particular
role. To the extent that information is power, this fundamental structural shift
has important implications for authority and power in government" (Building the
Virtual State - Jane Fountain, p.60)

12. Virtual Agency
Data: emails + calls (nature, service, department), webmetrics (keywords, navigation
patterns, most used) - ”accountant of the administration”

13. BV – answers emails from 5 main entry points; do not ”exist” legally, but work as ombudsman +
global view of the citizen

14. Outcomes
Power, hierarchy
Nodes
Interoperability concerns power (TE), not simply information and meaning
Rules embedded in ”computer code” govern invisibly and powerfully
IT specialists
Accountability
Legislation
Budget Process
"Information-based organizations and traditional bureaucracies are equally rule-based,
and information-based organizationals are perhaps even more highly rationalized. But
the rules embedded within information systems are normally less visible and seemingly
less constraining to bureaucratic discretion"
(Fountain, p. 61)

15. obrigada!