Green Tape and Public Employee Rule Abidance: Why Organizational Rule Attributes Matter

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02039.x
• Date: 01 September 2009
• Author: Leisha DeHart‐Davis
• Published date: 01 September 2009

Green Tape and Public Employee Rule Abidance 901

Leisha DeHart-Davis

University of Kansas

Green Tape and Public Employee Rule Abidance:

Why Organizational Rule Attributes Matter

Big Questions

Facing Public

Administration

Theory

 e signif‌i cance of compliance

to organizational rule

ef‌f ectiveness raises a broader

question for public management

theory and practice: How

can organizational rules be

designed and implemented

to elicit cooperation in rule

implementation? Green tape,

a grounded theory of ef‌f ective

rules, provides one potential

answer to this question.

Ever since Max Weber identif‌i ed

formal rules as one attribute

of bureaucratic organizations,

scholars have uncovered a range

of cooperative and uncooperative

behavioral responses to

organizational rules.  e question

for public management theory

and practice is how to design

and execute organizational rules

in ways that elicit cooperation

rather than resistance. Green

tape, a theory of ef‌f ective rules,

provides one answer to this

question. Green tape theory

argues that the cooperation of

stakeholders—individuals who comply with, explain,

or enforce rules—depends on the presence of f‌i ve rule

attributes.  is article tests the relationship between

these attributes and stakeholder rule abidance using mail

survey data obtained from the employees of four cities in

a Midwestern state.  e results indicate that employee

perceptions of four of the f‌i ve theoretical green tape

attributes are correlated with higher rule abidance.  us,

stakeholder perceptions of organizational rules appear to

matter because they alter the extent of cooperation in rule

implementation.

Ever since Max Weber identif‌i ed formal rules

as one attribute of bureaucratic organizations

(Gerth and Mills 1946, 196), scholars have

learned much about behavioral responses to organi-

zational rules. Within the broad categories of compli-

ance and noncompliance, individuals in organizations

have been observed mostly abiding by rules (March

1994, 73; Maynard-Moody and Musheno 2003, 92;

Stone and Feldman 1976), but also bending parts of

rules (Blau 1963; Sekerka and Zolin 2007), violat-

ing the letter or spirit of rules (Sekerka and Zolin

2007; Gouldner 1954), and completely disregarding

rules (Maynard-Moody and Musheno 2003, O’Leary

2004).  is snapshot of compliance responses repre-

sents just a few of the ways in which individuals who

are subject to rule requirements

can signif‌i cantly inf‌l uence rule

ef‌f ectiveness.

 e signif‌i cance of compliance

to organizational rule ef‌f ective-

ness raises a broader question

for public management theory

and practice: How can organi-

zational rules be designed and

implemented to elicit coopera-

tion in rule implementation?

Green tape, a grounded theory

of ef‌f ective rules, provides one

potential answer to this ques-

tion (DeHart-Davis, 2009).

Green tape theory argues that rule ef‌f ectiveness—the

extent to which a rule achieves its intended purpos-

es—depends on technical prof‌i ciency as well as stake-

holder cooperation. Technical prof‌i ciency refers to the

inherent capacity of rule design and implementation

for achieving rule objectives. Stakeholder cooperation

is def‌i ned as the degree of acquiescence by individuals

who explain, enforce, or comply with rule require-

ments. While these categories may seem distinct, they

are conceptualized as interdependent phenomena

that are expected to act in concert to inf‌l uence rule

ef‌f ectiveness.  is theory delineates f‌i ve attributes of

green tape, each of which is hypothesized to lead to

technical prof‌i ciency or stakeholder cooperation or

both: (1) written requirements with (2) valid means-

ends relationships that are (3) consistently applied, (4)

optimally controlling, and (5) have purposes under-

stood by stakeholders.

 is article focuses on the stakeholder dimension

of green tape theory by examining the relationships

between the f‌i ve theoretical green tape attributes and

stakeholder rule abidance. Five hypotheses are articu-

lated, one for each green tape attribute and its antici-

pated positive rule abidance ef‌f ects. Empirical support

for these hypotheses will indicate how attributes of or-

ganizational rule design and implementation inf‌l uence

Leisha DeHart-Davis is an associate

professor of public administration at the

University of Kansas. Her research interests

include the social psychological effects of

organization structure on public employees

and gender dimensions of the public sector

workplace.

E-mail: lddavis@ku.edu