Of Stewards and Stakeholders: Getting the Government Ownership Question Right

• Published date: 01 January 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/bl.30009
• Date: 01 January 2015
• Author: Neal Buckwalter

6 BOARD LEADERSHIP

Of Stewards and

Stakeholders: Getting the

Government Ownership

Question Right

By Neal Buckwalter

Neal Buckwalter, PhD, assistant professor in the School of Public, Nonprot &

Health Administration at Grand Valley State University (Grand Rapids, MI, USA)

shares with us some of the insights from his research on examining the interplay

between administrative and democratic institutions, including the impacts of

administrative decisions on public perceptions of governance structures.

Imagine waking up one day to find that

your cell phone no longer makes

phone calls. Everything seems to be in

working order, but when you access the

dial pad to place a call, a voice comes

from the phone and says: “I’m sorry,

[your name here]; I no longer do that.

But I have a great mapping tool. I can

give you directions to almost anywhere.

I find that is what people really need

these days.” You look at the device in

disgust: “No, what I need right now is to

make a call!”

The idea of a tool dictating what

is best for its owner may seem like a

warmed-over plotline from a dystopian

science fiction movie. Unfortunately,

however, such a scenario is commonly

attributed to the real world of govern-

ment organizations. Accurate or not,

government agencies are often per-

ceived as taking on a life of their own,

moving even contrary to the wants and

desires of the public they intend to

serve.

At the heart of this issue is a funda-

mental question: Who owns govern-

ment? Perhaps it is the elected official,

chosen to represent citizens within the

government body. Or maybe the profes-

sional administrator, employed to bring

expertise to the day-to-day operations

of government agencies. Within demo-

cratic societies, both elected officials

and professional administrators have

special positions of stewardship as

government insiders, but they are not

the owners of government. That title

belongs to the public, whose lives and

interests are impacted by how the afore-

mentioned stewards engage in their

respective responsibilities. If we get the

ownership question right, then perhaps

we can stave off the potential nightmare

of the tool becoming the master.

Impediments to Government

Responsiveness

How does it happen that an orga-

nization created by the people and

for the people may ultimately become

nonresponsive to the people? In the

paragraphs that follow, I will briefly

highlight three significant paradigmatic

impediments to government responsive-

ness. While obviously not exhaustive of

all possible roadblocks, I choose these

three because they tend to operate near

the level of the subconscious. Discussing

them here may serve to raise awareness

of how they might impact efforts to

engage organizational owners, and I will

conclude this article with a discussion

of ideas for overcoming these impedi-

ments to government responsiveness

that can help reposition the public to a

more central role in its own governance.

The Competing Values of

Democracy and Bureaucracy

The term bureaucracy is frequently

used with derision by those who imme-

diately associate it with long waits,

endless paperwork, and impersonal

service. While there are certainly

instances where this reputation has

been earned, it may be useful to try

to dispel a few misconceptions about

bureaucracy up front (a task admittedly

beyond the parameters allowed in this

brief article). First, bureaucracy is not

synonymous with government. As an

organizational form, bureaucracy is

found across all sectors. Indeed, some

of the biggest bureaucracies exist in

private businesses. Second, contrary

to popular belief, not all bureaucracies

are inherently inefficient. The classic

description of bureaucracy comes from

Max Weber, who identified a number

of its featured characteristics, including

(among other things) top-down author-

ity, division of tasks, a reliance on rules

and procedures, and the employment

of experts. These characteristics can

greatly aid the efficient administration

of large organizations, though in the

extreme they can tilt the organization

toward inefficiency (e.g., too many lay-

ers of management, too many rules,

employees too narrowly trained).

Bureaucracy is a tool, much like the

cell phone described in the opening

sentences of this article. It is a structure

used to carry out collective activities

toward common goals and has actually

proven to be quite effective (hence its

staying power). To put it another way,

WRITINg foR

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