Order Without Design: Information Production and Policy MakingStanford University Press, 1989 - 201 pages 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. |
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Order Without Design: Information Production and Policy Making Martha S. Feldman No preview available - 1989 |
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1981 No relevant action agreement ambiguity areas assistant secretary behavior bosses bounded rational bureaucratic analysts called Chapter coal leasing coal slurry pipelines concurrence list context Counsel staff member Daniel deadline decision process Department of Energy discussed document draft Economic Regulatory Administration Edna effect eminent domain ergy expertise facts and concerns Fossil Energy garbage can model goals impact assistance important included influence interests Interstate Commerce Commission involved Isa French issue interpretation knowledge Lindblom lysts March Marvin meeting memo ment methanol report natural gas negotiate NETS office director organization organizational paper paper-writing participants person Policy Analysis policy makers policy office policy staff member position problem-solving perspective produce information proposed rational report writing represent Resource Applications responsibilities revenue adequacy role routines Secretary's office sent solutions specific Staggers Rail Act statement superiors synfuel Synthetic Fuels task order tion understanding Week written