Synonyms
Definitions
Actors who help to propel dynamic policy change in the community. Like other entrepreneurs, they engage in the act of creative discovery by creating or exploiting new opportunities to push forward their ideas.
An individual who undertakes purposeful activity to initiate, maintain, or aggrandize one or more public sector organization.
Introduction
The new public management and the call for new and innovative ways of delivering public services have given birth to the idea that public administrators should behave as if they are private sector entrepreneurs, even as the debate continues on whether that is possible. Some consider the phrase “bureaucratic entrepreneur” an oxymoron inasmuch as bureaucrats are not trained in the same skills as their private sector counterparts.
Others have forcefully argued for the existence of bureaucratic entrepreneurs in the public sector, although the different contexts mean they...
References
Bernier L, Hafsi T (2007) The changing nature of public entrepreneurship. Public Adm Rev 67(3):488–503
Buchanan D, Badham R (1999) Politics and organisational change: The lived experience. Human Relations, 52(5): 609–629
Catney P, Henneberry JM (2016) Public entrepreneurship and the politics of regeneration in multi-level governance. Environ Plann C Gov Policy 34(7):1324–1134
Currie G, Humphreys M, Ucbasaran D, McManus S (2008) Entrepreneurial leadership in the English public sector: paradox or possibility? Public Adm 86(4):987–1008
Denhardt RB (1999) The future of public administration. Public Adm and Mgt 4(2):279–292
Fligstein N (2001) Social skill and the theory of fields. Sociol Theory 19(2):105–125
Gioia DA, Chittipeddi K (1991) Sensemaking and sensegiving in strategic change initiation. Strateg Manag J 12(6):433–448
Moore MH (1995) Creating public value: strategic management in government. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Morgan S, Dennehy RF (1997) The power of organizational storytelling: A management development perspective. Journal of Management Development, 16(7): 494–501.
O’Toole LJ Jr (2014) Networks and networking: the public administrative agendas. Public Adm Rev 75(3):361–371
Ottaway RN (1983) The change agent: a taxonomy in relation to the change process. Hum Relat 36(4):361–392
Siffin WJ (1981) Bureaucracy, entrepreneurship and natural resources: witless policy and the barrier islands. Cato J 1(1):293–311
Teske P (2011) Bureaucratic entrepreneurs: the case of city managers. In: Schneider M, Teske P, Mintrom M (eds) Public entrepreneurs: agents for change in American government. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Teske P, Schneider M (1994) The Bureaucratic Entrepreneur: The Case of City Managers. Public Adm Rev 54(4):331–340
Weick KE (1995) Sensemaking in organizations. Sage, Thousand Oaks
Weiss M (2014) ‘Government entrepreneur’ is not an oxymoron. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2014/03/government-entrepreneur-is-not-an-oxymoron/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Ohemeng, F.L.K. (2017). The Entrepreneurial Bureaucrat. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_666-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_666-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences