Not With A Bang, But A Whimper

• Author: Kenneth J. Meier,John Bohte
• Date: 01 March 2003
• Published date: 01 March 2003
• DOI: 10.1177/0095399702250351
• Subject Matter: Articles

10.1177/0095399702250351ARTICLEADMINISTRATION & SOCIETY / March 2003Meier, Bohte / EXPLAINING ORGANIZATIONAL FAILURES

NOT WITH A BANG, BUT A WHIMPER

Explaining Organizational Failures

KENNETH J. MEIER

Texas A&M University

JOHN BOHTE

Oakland University

This article uses an ideal stereotypical approach to examine the process of the organiza-

tional failures. Private sector stereotypesof government organizations are used to generate

hypotheses about when public organizations fail. The hypotheses are tested using 1,000

school districts in Texas.In direct contrast to the hypotheses, the extentof bureaucracy is not

related to failures. The only consistent resultsare that failures are linked to multiple goals

and more difficult tasks.

Keywords: organizational failure; path dependence; education policy; schools

Organizations sacrifice (Simon, 1947). When faced with problems, they

try alternatives marginally differentfrom current activities and determine

whether the situation improves. Organizationsact, therefore, in a series of

trial and error moves. This decision-making process virtually guarantees

that all large-scale formal organizationsmake mistakes. Although the pro-

cess of failure is crucial to a satisfying decision process, the public admin-

istration literature pays little attention to organizational failures and then

usually only with case study data (Binkin, 1976; Poveda, 1990). Because

we believe that studying a system’s failures provides more crucial infor-

mation about how the system operates and its capabilities than studying a

104

AUTHORS’ NOTE: An earlier version of this article was presented at the 58th National

Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 27-30, 2000, ChicagoIllinois.

Wewould like to thank Lee Ann Krause, Sandy Gordon, and Brandice Canes-Wronefor their

helpful insights. All data and documentation to replicatethis analysis are available from the

National Public Management Research Archive (http://bush.tamu.edu/pubman/).

ADMINISTRATION & SOCIETY, Vol. 35 No. 1, March 2003 104-121

DOI: 10.1177/0095399702250351

© 2003 Sage Publications

system’s successes, this article takes an explicit multiorganizationallook

at the phenomenon of organizational failures. Our concern is not macro-

failures (the collapse and demise of the organization) simply because

organizations, like comatose patients, can be kept on life support indefi-

nitely (e.g., the Selective Service System). Rather our concern is micro-

failures, the failure to produce the outputs requested by political sover-

eigns. Unlike macro-failures, which are relatively rare, micro-failures

should occur with sufficient frequency to allow systematic study.

The study proceeds in several steps. First, we introduce a way to view

public organization failures by using logic from the mythology of the pri-

vate sector. Second, this approach generates a series of testable hypothe-

ses about the micro-failures of organizations. Third, a data set on public

schools is introduced that can be used to test these hypotheses, and spe-

cific measures will be introduced. Fourth, the hypotheses are examined

using a pooled time series analysis of more than 1,000 public organiza-

tions over a 4-year time period. Finally, the implications of this research

for the study of organizations are discussed.

ORGANIZATIONS:

AN IDEAL STEREOTYPICAL APPROACH

Max Weber (1946) introduced the “ideal typical” approach to bureau-

cracy.He described an ideal rational organization and proposed that anal-

ysis proceed by comparing reality to that standard. Our approach is simi-

lar, but we use the stereotypes applied to public and privateorganizations.

Wemake no claims that these ideal stereotypes describe real world organi-

zations, only that they provide a contrasting rationale that will generate

some interesting hypotheses. The key stereotype is of the rational, profit-

maximizing private organizationsituated in a system of pure competition.

A ruthless market thus provides a process for weeding out failing organi-

zations and rewarding those that make correct decisions. In contrast, the

ideal stereotypical government organization does not maximize profits

and holds a monopoly over the provision of services (Downs, 1967). The

literature on private sector organizations providesmost of the logic for an

ideal stereotypical approach to organizational failures.

When discussing the term organizational failures,management schol-

ars typically point to events that seriously affect the competitiveposition

or very existence of an organization. One set of observers(Miles & Snow,

1994) suggest that some failures result when organizations’ incorrectly

Meier, Bohte / EXPLAINING ORGANIZATIONAL FAILURES 105