Translating Agency Reform: Rhetoric and Culture in Comparative Perspective (Public Sector Organizations)

202 Pages·2010·0.6 MB·English

by  Amanda Smullen

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Translating Agency Reform
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Public Sector Organizations
Editors: B. Guy Peters, Maurice Falk Professor of Government, Pittsburgh
University, USA, and Geert Bouckaert, Professor at the Public Management
Institute, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Organizations are the building blocks of governments. The role of
organizations, formal and informal, is most readily apparent in public
bureaucracy, but all the institutions of the public sector are composed of
organizations, or have some organizational characteristics that affect their
performance. Therefore, if scholars want to understand how governments
work, a very good place to start is at the level of the organizations involved
in delivering services. Likewise, if practitioners want to understand how to
be effective in the public sector, they would be well-advised to consider
examining the role of organizations and how to make the organizations
more effective.
This series will publish research-based books concerned with organizations
in the public sector and will cover such issues as: the autonomy of public
sector organizations, networks and network analysis, bureaucratic politics;
organizational change and leadership and methodology for studying
organizations.
Titles include:
Geert Bouckaert, B. Guy Peters, Koen Verhoest
THE COORDINATION OF PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS
Shifting Patterns of Public Management
Amanda Smullen
TRANSLATING AGENCY REFORM
Rhetoric and Culture in Comparative Perspective
Koen Verhoest, Paul G. Roness, Bram Verschuere, Kristin Rubecksen and
Muiris MacCarthaigh
AUTONOMY AND CONTROL OF STATE AGENCIES
Comparing States and Agencies
Public Sector Organizations Series
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–230–22034–8 (Hardback) 978–0–230–22035–5
(Paperback)
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing
order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address
below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above.
Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
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Translating Agency
Reform
Rhetoric and Culture in Comparative
Perspective
Amanda Smullen
Assistant Professor, Department of Politics, University of Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
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© Amanda Smullen 2010
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2010 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
HampshireRG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-0-230-58072-5 hardback
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
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Contents
List of Tables viii
Acknowledgements x
Part I Setting the Scene 1
1 Translating Agency Reform 3
Introduction 3
The purpose of the book and theoretical background 4
Theoretical perspectives 7
The selection of countries and role of comparison 9
Defining agency talk 12
The plan of the book 14
2 Agency Reform: Tracing a Public Management Fashion 16
Introduction 16
The international agency story from solution to problem 16
Agency reform initiatives in The Netherlands, Sweden and 20
Australia
The contours of Dutch agency reform 20
The contours of Swedish agency reform 24
The contours of Australian agency reform 30
Conclusion 38
Part II Theory and Trajectories of Talk 41
3 Theoretical Concepts and Tools: Rhetoric and Culture 43
Introduction 43
Agency talk and social construction 44
The study of rhetoric 45
The New Rhetoric 46
Grid Group Cultural Theory: context and talk 55
GGCT and the cultural flavour of public management talk 58
Translating agency reform: putting rhetoric and culture 62
together
Conclusion 64
v
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vi Contents
4 The Trajectory of Agency Talk Across The Netherlands, 65
Sweden and Australia
Introduction 65
The selection of official documents 66
The trajectory of Dutch agency talk 1991–1998 68
Dutch agency rhetoric: agencies as a unique and 69
accountable alternative
The cultural flavour of Dutch agency talk over time 76
The trajectory of Swedish official agency talk 1983–1997 80
Swedish agency rhetoric: agencies for democracy 82
The cultural flavour of Swedish agency talk over time 89
The trajectory of Australian agency talk 1997–2004 94
Australian agency rhetoric: agencies for customer service 95
The cultural flavour of Australian agency talk over time 102
Conclusion 107
Part III Comparing and Explaining Agency Talk 109
5 Comparing Official Agency Talk: National Speaking 111
Styles and the Role of Cultural Context?
Introduction 111
Comparing rhetorical situations across high and low 112
group political cultures
Comparing rhetorical styles across high and low group 116
political cultures
National styles of speakingacross high and low group 126
political cultures
Similarities in talk: a role for political culture and 128
transnational stories?
The correspondence between political culture and 130
national styles of speaking
Conclusion 132
6 The Role of Culturally Flavoured Stories and 135
Their National Translations
Introduction 135
Comparing common cultural flavours and their 136
rhetorical styles
Agency talk and an individualist rhetorical style 136
Agency talk and a hierarchical rhetorical style 139
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Contents vii
Agency talk and an egalitarian rhetorical style 143
Hood’s predictions and the rhetorical elements 147
of cultural world views in agency talk
Shifts in the cultural flavour of agency talk: 150
reactions of rhetoric or the rhetorical situation?
The national limits of shifts in the cultural flavour 153
of talk
Translating fashionable agency stories 155
Conclusion 156
7 Conclusion 159
Introduction 159
National styles of speaking and fashionable 159
management stories
Theoretical contributions and evaluation 163
Reflecting on public management knowledge 166
Speaking persuasively in high and low group 169
political cultures
Appendix A– Analysing the Documents 170
Appendix B– Selection of Documents 173
References 176
Index 185
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List of Tables
Table 2.1 A chronology of Dutch agency reforms 23
Table 2.2 A chronology of Swedish agency reforms 29
Table 2.3 A chronology of Australian agency reforms 37
Table 3.1 Conceptual framework: The New Rhetoric 55
Table 3.2 Four ways of life: grid group cultural theory 56
Table 3.3 Four stories in public management according 61
to a cultural theory framework
Table 4.1 An overview of the selection of documents 67
Table 4.2 The rhetoric of Dutch agency accounts 77
1991–1998
Table 4.3 The cultural flavours of Dutch agency talk 79
over time
Table 4.4 The rhetoric of Swedish agency accounts 90
1983–1997
Table 4.5 The cultural flavour of Swedish agency talk 91
over time
Table 4.6 The rhetoric of Australian agency accounts 103
1996–2004
Table 4.7 The cultural flavour of Australian agency 105
talk over time
Table 5.1 Comparing the rhetorical situations of 114
agency talk in high group political cultures
Table 5.2 Comparing similarities and differences in 118
the universal audiences
Table 5.3 Comparing similarities and differences in 119
particular audiences
Table 5.4 Comparing National Styles of Speaking 128
Table 6.1 Comparing individualist rhetorical styles 139
across high and low group political cultures
Table 6.2 Comparing hierarchical rhetorical styles 142
across high and low group political cultures
Table 6.3 Comparing egalitarian rhetorical styles 146
across high and low group political cultures
viii
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List of Tables ix
Table 6.4 Hood’s predictions for the rhetorical styles 148
of cultural flavours
Table 6.5 Translating an individualist story of public 155
management
Table 6.6 Translating a hierarchical story of public 156
management