Supranational Bureaucrats' Attitudes to Organisational Change: Driven by Rational Calculation, Influenced by Formative Environments but Immune to EU Ideology

Bauer, Michael W. (2011) Supranational Bureaucrats' Attitudes to Organisational Change: Driven by Rational Calculation, Influenced by Formative Environments but Immune to EU Ideology. [Conference Proceedings]

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Abstract

Growth in membership and intensifying responsibilities require much greater adaptability in organisational structures and administrative arrangements at international than at national levels. The ongoing transformation towards multilevel governance seems to empower international organisations and thus shines a new spotlight on international civil servants. We know little, however, about what motivates this growing class of bureaucratic elite. Against this background, this article explores the question as to how officials of the European Commission relate to the recent management modernisation within their institution (Kinnock reform). Competing explanatory approaches (opportunity, socialisation and EU ideology) are used to develop hypotheses about the relationship between Commission officials and their acceptance of or opposition to administrative reform. The main finding is that the individual attitudes of Commission officials towards administrative change can best be explained by the opportunity model, which emphasises the rational calculation of individual costs and benefits. This finding has implications for how scholars of governance may conceive of the behaviour of international bureaucrats and their impact on organisational change and policy-making at international level.

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