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Synopsis
In this lively and, ultimately, disturbing study of policy analysts who are employed in bureaucracies, the author finds a startling paradox. The analysts know that the papers they so painstakingly prepare will not be used; as one analyst remarked, "Either it won't get done in time, or it won't be good enough, or the person who wanted it done will have left and no one will know what to do with it, or the issue will no longer exist." Yet the analysts continue to work at producing these papers.
The means of producing information is at the heart of the paradox. The process systematically produces information that is difficult to use directly in decision-making. Yet analysts can do little to alter the constraints of the process. They continue to produce papers because it is their job, they value doing it, and it is their major means of influencing policy. In so doing they make a unique, though indirect, contribution to policy making.
Drawing on eighteen months of observation and participation in the work of the policy office of the U.S. Department of Energy, the author fully investigates the conditions that create the paradox and the positive as well as the negative implications of the process of information production in organizations.
The means of producing information is at the heart of the paradox. The process systematically produces information that is difficult to use directly in decision-making. Yet analysts can do little to alter the constraints of the process. They continue to produce papers because it is their job, they value doing it, and it is their major means of influencing policy. In so doing they make a unique, though indirect, contribution to policy making.
Drawing on eighteen months of observation and participation in the work of the policy office of the U.S. Department of Energy, the author fully investigates the conditions that create the paradox and the positive as well as the negative implications of the process of information production in organizations.
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About the Author
Martha S. Feldman is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan.
Review
"It's a gem—clear, well-written, and sharply focused. It addresses important issues that cross disciplines, outlines its arguments well, and provides useful examples drawn from observations and interviews. It presents a persuasive conception of decision making in an organizational context."
—Peter K. Manning
,Michigan State University
"A splendid book. . . . What I find most attractive is Feldman's uncanny ability to boil down a most uncertain matter to a swiftly moving interpretive tale that gets past disciplinary interests to wrestle with policy formulation in the warrens of a government bureaucracy. It is a book that anyone seriously attempting to account for the making of policy will have to address."
—John Van Maanen
,Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Order Without Design : Information Production and Policy Making
Published by
Stanford University Press, 1989
ISBN 10: 0804717249
ISBN 13: 9780804717243
Used
Softcover
Seller: Better World Books: West, Reno, NV, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. Former library copy. Pages intact with possible writing/highlighting. Binding strong with minor wear. Dust jackets/supplements may not be included. Includes library markings. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good. Seller Inventory # 17017443-75