Dealing with Dysfunction

Jorrit de Jong is Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. He is also Academic Director of the Innovations in Government Program at the Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research and teaching focus on the challenges of making the public sector more responsive and more resilient through innovation.

De Jong, whose original perspectives on the public sector have already attracted wide attention, has written a thoughtful and highly readable book that should be required reading for officials at all levels who want to tackle their own situations of bureaucratic dysfunction, but don’t know quite where to start."- John Alford, Professor of Public Sector Management, Australia and New Zealand School of Government;"Drawing on all-too-recognizable examples of how citizens experience official dysfunction, this book provides a wonderfully engaging overview of theories of bureaucracy, along with accounts of how bureaucratic failures can be remedied. Highly recommended."- Geoff Mulgan, CEO, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), United Kingdom;"De Jong has successfully taken on a conceptually knotty and practically important problem: in the bureaucratic tangles that seem so absurd from one perspective lie the unresolved conflicts of important public values which we citizens would like to see realized in government operations. Because different public agents defend specific dimensions of public value, the solution, he finds, lies not in some general, sweeping reform, but in the close examination of specific instances of bureaucratic dysfunction resolved through collaborative design efforts."- Mark Moore, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School;"There is nothing so practical as a good theory: as Ombudsman, I deal with complaints about government. De Jong’s ideas and analytic tools serve as a compass for diagnosing the root causes as well as a road map for continuous improvement. An invaluable contribution!"- Arre Zuurmond, Ombudsman, Greater Amsterdam Area, The Netherlands;"Real world complexities can twist attempts at reform into adverse or even perverse outcomes. Professor de Jong identifies this “bureaucratic dysfunction” and explores a unique synthesis of theory, research, and practice to offer a systematic guide for diagnosis and correction. Policy professionals will find this both fascinating and useful."- Peter Wallace, City Manager, City of Toronto, Canada