A Micro-Level Perspective on Joint Inspections : How Teamwork Shapes Decision Making

In street-level bureaucracy studies, inspectors are often seen as frontline workers with individual discretion. Inspectors, however, increasingly operate in intra- or inter-organizational teams and perform joint inspections to more effectively tackle the complexity of multi-problems and wicked issues in society. Nevertheless, how street-level bureaucrats work together in teams, and how teamwork shapes decision making on the ground has not been given much scholarly attention in public administration. Based on findings from the few published studies on this topic, this chapter argues that the social dynamics and decision-making processes in joint inspections may be different than those in one-on-one inspector–inspectee encounters. It therefore calls for more research to better understand how teamwork shapes decision-making at the micro-level, and how challenges can be dealt with

"Lost in digitization" : a spatial journey in emergency response and pragmatic legitimacy

International audienceInstitutional and technological changes can conduct organizations to strengthen or defend their pragmatic legitimacy, in particular through digitization. In this vein, some organizations in the emergency sector have triggered massive investments to address their stakeholders' informational needs, thereby defending their pragmatic legitimacy. However, knowledge remains scarce about the practical influence of organizational search for pragmatic legitimacy on operations, especially in emergency settings. Inspired from pragmatist thinking and grounded theory principles, Anouck Adrot and Marie Bia-Figueiredo propose space as an intermediary concept to better understand the materiality of emergency organizations' pursuit for pragmatic legitimacy. They propose a relational frameworks that depicts emergency response as a spatial journey. Composed of six mutually imbricated occupational areas, the proposed framework highlights how Sigma, a firefighting organization, attempted to defend occupational balance in operations. Our contribution is double. First, we highlight how materiality can be reused by practitioners to develop reflexivity about practice and institutions. Second, we outline that a spatial approach to operations can help anticipate potential side effects of transformation, that can endanger pragmatic legitimacy

ESICM LIVES 2016: part two : Milan, Italy. 1-5 October 2016.

Meeting abstrac