Bureaucratic Decision-Making

In his analysis, Michael Lipsky (1980, p. 13) identifies the primary area in which government bureaucrats have discretionary decision-making power. Bureaucrats exercise discretion in decisions about citizens with whom they interact. Over time, the sum total of the exercise of this discretion and the decisions made by these bureaucrats becomes the agency's culture or behavior. Both Lipsky's and Brehm & Gates' (2000) analysis demonstrates that bureaucratic decision-making processes are heavily reliant on two important factors. First, bureaucratic decision making is dependent on the way supervisors filter agency policy down to subordinates. Second, decision making in government agencies relies heavily on each individual bureaucrat's functional preference for the tasks he or she is required to perform.

In their analysis, Brehm & Gates (2000, p. 73) attempt to explain the seeming rigidity and lack of accountability that pervades bureaucratic decision-making by referencing the tendency of most bureaucrats to conform to the decision-making processes

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Category: Psychology - B