Ellinas, Antonis and Suleiman, Ezra. (2007) "Reforming the Commission: Has the pendulum swung too far?". In: UNSPECIFIED, Montreal, Canada. (Unpublished)
Abstract
The article uses evidence from an original survey of 200 top Commission officials to suggest that, despite some positive developments, the Kinnock reforms have led to the “bureaucratization” of the organization through the proliferation of burdensome rules and cumbersome procedures. The article suggests that, unless reversed, the recent trend towards bureaucratization risks producing the opposite results than those intended by the modernizers. The expanded body of rules helps guard the Commission against accusations of fraud and mismanagement, but it also risks creating a culture of risk aversion that paralyzes initiative and undermines autonomy. Moreover, the bureaucratization of the Commission risks diffusing individual responsibility, hence exacerbating the problem it originally sought to solve. Despite strong demands from the top management about the reversal of the trend towards bureaucratization, the article suggests that the political nature of the reform drive makes it hard to reverse it.
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