Agency Management in a Time of Crisis

Abstract

Much of the analysis of agency proliferation has been framed in the context of the fragmentation of organizational structures brought about by New Public Management (NPM) and delegated forms of governance (Pollitt and Talbot 2004; Pollitt et al. 2004; Christensen and Laegreid 2007; Verhoest et al. 2010). Until recently, however, little attention has been devoted to the issues of agency termination and the process of ‘de-agencification’. These processes have emerged in importance as governments seek to achieve budgetary cutbacks through various austerity measures including the ‘rationalization’ of state structures. Following an examination of what is meant by an agency, the issue of agency termination is explored in this paper by unpacking the different forms through which agency terminations or ‘rationalizations’ are pursued. The paper then considers the issues arising from recent agency rationalizations, including the criteria proposed by governments and other organizations for retaining or terminating agencies, and the problems emerging in terms of agency management and control. In so doing, the paper also considers the hybrid forms of organization that emerge as a result of rationalization processes. The primary data will be provided by the Irish case and a time-series database of Irish state institutions between 1922 and 2011.