GLOBALIZATION AND LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES
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Bureaucratic Politics Bureaucratic politics can complicate decision-making. The bureaucratic model assumes that policies are made through the interactions of various agencies. Each bureaucracy is also influenced by its own goals and standard operating procedures. Where each bureaucracy stands depends on where it sits. Globalization has complicated the use of the bureaucratic model in understanding the crises of today because of the involvement of global actors in policy making. “The actual locus of contemporary policy advice is now a broadly based, but complex, set of influential players all seeking access to the key political actors. Never has Allison’s (1971) concept of “bureaucratic politics” been so applicable to contemporary policy making: “Where you sit is where you stand. One needs further clarity on who advises and on how, where, when, with whom, and why they advise” (Kouzmin and Jarman 2004, p. 398). To understand the goals of the international actors is very complicated because they are intertwined with the socio-political and economic contexts. The bureaucracy is different in every country. It makes the tasks of coordination extremely difficult when the administrators have to deal with different bureaucracies of the world. Garbage Canners Decision-making is complicated by the involvement of different actors. The complexity of decision-making is explained by the garbage-can theory (Cohen et al. 1972). This theory assumes that an organization is a collection of choices, striving to find solutions to the complex problems: “The theoretical breakthrough of the garbage can model is that it disconnects problems, solutions and decision makers from each other unlike traditional decision theory. Specific decisions do not follow an orderly process from problem to solution but are outcomes of several relatively independent streams of events within the organization” (Daft 1978, p. 139). According to Daft, (1978), the four streams are: (1) problems occur both inside and outside the organizations and leaders go through the garbage for solutions; (2) solutions: participants may be attracted to special solutions; (3) Choice opportunities for making the decisions; (4) participants may have favorite solutions. In a globalized world, public leaders may face problems for which there are no easy solutions based on the garbage can. They need to be very innovative in finding the solutions. Cohen et al. (1972) suggest that leaders can make a difference in the “garbage can” by carefully timing issue creation, and by being sensitive to shifting interests and involvement of participants.
