Increased Complexity in Public Organizations — the Challenges of Combining NPM and Post-NPM

Abstract

Modern public organizations are complex and they seem to be becoming even more so. One reason for this is that modern democracies are institutionalizing administrative policies and are implementing different generations of modern public reforms at an increasing pace (Christensen and Lægreid 2007b). Reform efforts have resulted in a complex and multiple-layered system (Streeck and Thelen 2005), where certain elements of structure and culture have remained relatively stable, others have become strengthened and institutionalized, and others still have been reorganized, modified or deinstitutionalized (Røvik 1996).