The Quest for Responsibility: Accountability and Citizenship in Complex Organisations

by Mark Bovens

• ISBN13: 9780521481632
• ISBN10: 0521481635
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-03-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The search for responsibility in complex organisations often seems an impossible undertaking. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach combining law, social science, ethics and organisational design, Mark Bovens analyses the reasons for this, and offers possible solutions. He begins by examining the problem of 'many hands' - because so many people contribute in so many different ways, it is very difficult to determine who is accountable for organisational behaviour. Four possible solutions - corporate, hierarchical, collective and individual accountability - are analysed from normative, empirical and practical perspectives. Bovens argues that individual accountability is the most promising solution, but only if individuals have the chance to behave responsibly. The book then explores the implications of this approach. What does it mean to be a 'responsible' employee or official? When is it legitimate to disobey the orders of superiors? What institutional designs might be most appropriate?

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Part I The quest for responsibility	3	(42)
1 Complex organisations and the quest for responsibility	3	(6)
Organisational deviance and the quest for responsibility	3	(2)
Public and private organisations	5	(1)
The plan	6	(3)
2 Complex organisations as corporate actors	9	(13)
The age of complex organisations	9	(2)
Complex organisations as corporate actors	11	(4)
A new asymmetry in society	15	(4)
Complex organisations as Chinese boxes	19	(3)
3 Two concepts of responsibility	22	(23)
The problem of many responsibilities	22	(4)
Two concepts of responsibility	26	(2)
Passive responsibility	28	(4)
Active responsibility	32	(6)
Responsibility and the control of complex organisations	38	(7)
Part II Passive responsibility	45	(98)
4 Accountability: the problem of many hands	45	(8)
The paradox of shared responsibility	45	(5)
Passive responsibility: four models	50	(3)
5 Corporate accountability: the organisation as a person	53	(21)
Passive responsibility of complex organisations	53	(5)
The complex organisation as a rational person	58	(2)
The problem of prevention	60	(2)
The limited rationality of complex organisations	62	(2)
The lack of external insight	64	(2)
The impotence of morality	66	(2)
The limits of the law	68	(2)
The organisation as a semi-autonomous social field	70	(2)
Corporate accountability and personal accountability	72	(2)
6 Hierarchial accountability: one for all	74	(19)
The pyramid of accountability	74	(1)
Managers are outsiders	75	(3)
Blameworthiness: the Achilles' heel of the hierarchical model	78	(2)
The hierarchical scheme in criminal law: the Slavenburg affair	80	(5)
The shortcomings of ministerial responsibility	85	(4)
Amending hierarchical accountability	89	(4)
7 Collective accountability: all for one	93	(13)
Collective actors and collective responsibilities	93	(4)
Internal and external accountability	97	(4)
The over-inclusiveness of collective accountability	101	(1)
Conditions for collective accountability	102	(4)
8 Individual accountability: each for himself	106	(37)
The ideal of individual accountability	106	(2)
The organisation as a Gordian knot	108	(2)
Accountability of the whole and of its parts	110	(3)
Ten excuses	113	(12)
The impotence of private morality	125	(7)
The demanding nature of responsibility	132	(2)
Preconditions and possibilities	134	(9)
Part III Active responsibility	143	(88)
9 Virtue: citizenship in complex organisations	143	(33)
The responsible functionary: four cases	143	(5)
Five conceptions of bureaucratic responsibility	148	(1)
Hierarchical responsibility: strict loyalty to superiors	149	(8)
Personal responsibility: loyalty to conscience	157	(3)
Social responsibility: loyalty to peers	160	(1)
Professional responsibility: loyalty to the profession	161	(2)
Civic responsibility: loyalty to citizens	163	(2)
Individual loyalty and employee responsibility	165	(1)
Employee citizenship	165	(3)
Employee civil disobedience	168	(4)
The basic forms: exit, voice, and loyalty	172	(4)
10 Exit: resignation and refusal	176	(17)
Passive employee disobedience	176	(1)
The hierarchical answer: resignation	177	(4)
The civic answer: a right to refuse	181	(2)
Framing a limited right to refuse	183	(7)
11 Voice: whistleblowing and leaking	190	(25)
Whistleblowing and citizenship	190	(3)
The plight of whistleblowers	193	(1)
Justifying whistleblowing	194	(3)
The effects of whistleblowing	197	(4)
Whistleblowing provisions: some American experiences	201	(5)
Framing whistleblowing provisions	206	(6)
The limits of the law	212	(3)
12 Loyalty: responsibility as a by-product	215	(16)
Responsibility as a by-product	215	(1)
Tinkering with the structure	216	(4)
Internal forms of voice	220	(4)
Individual loyalty and organisational learning	224	(4)
Epilogue: the quest for responsibility never ends	228	(3)
References	231	(16)
Subject index	247	(2)
Name index	249