"In March 2020 I had the good fortune to be on sabbatical in Dakar, Senegal, doing research for this book. As COVID-19 spread Senegal reacted quickly, closing its borders and canceling all commercial flights. It set up public quarantine and contact tracing, established a curfew, and implemented rules for wearing masks and gloves on public transportation. Senegal did all this well before the US or UK had initiated any of these policies. I say "Senegal" reacted quickly, but really, I mean individual Senegalese people. Policy direction came from President Macky Sall, but actual execution relied on tens of thousands of individuals acting in the name of the state. Bureaucrats - employees from the Ministry of Health, doctors on the state's payroll, police officers - were the "Senegal" who did contact tracing, treated the infected, and enforced the curfew to minimize the spread of the virus. As March turned to April, the US State Department organized an evacuation flight from Dakar, urging Americans to take theopportunity to return home. A few days later, my wife, our son, and I joined 150 or so other Americans at Dakar's very empty airport. Many were sad to leave Senegal and quite afraid of what lay ahead in America. Once everyone received a medical check, weentered a repurposed cargo plane that was operated by the US State Department Operations Medicine team. A man named Joseph, wearing a full protective suit, addressed us from the front of the plane"--
This book argues that the performance of our governments can be transformed by managing bureaucrats for their empowerment rather than compliance. Aimed at public sector workers, leaders, academics, and citizens alike, it contends that public sectors too often rely on a managerial approach which seeks to tightly monitor and control employees, and thus demotivates and repels the mission motivated. Mission Driven Bureaucrats suggests that better performance can in many cases come from a more empowerment-oriented managerial approach, which allows autonomy, cultivates feelings of competence, and creates connection to peers and purpose. This enables the mission motivated to thrive.
Arguing against conventional wisdom, Honig asserts that compliance often thwarts public value and that we can often get less corruption and malfeasance with less monitoring. He provides a handbook of strategies for managers to introduce empowerment-oriented strategies into their agency and describes what everyday citizens can do to support the empowerment of bureaucrats in their governments. Interspersed throughout this book are featured profiles of real-life mission driven bureaucrats, who exemplify the dedication and motivation which is typical of many civil servants. Drawing on original empirical data from several countries and the prior work of other scholars from around the globe, Mission Driven Bureaucrats argues that empowerment-oriented management will cultivate, support, attract, and retain mission driven bureaucrats and should have a larger place in our thinking and practice.
Mission Driven Bureaucrats suggests that workers can often do better with more empowerment and less compliance-oriented management. Honig provides strategies for managers and suggestions for what everyday citizens can do to support the empowerment of bureaucrats in their governments.
