Accountability as the Driver of a New Bureaucracy? : An Interpretive Study of Organisational Professionals in Sweden

• 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.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Studier av offentlig förvaltning (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Public Administration Studies (hsv//eng)

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