Behavioral Public Administration (BPA) is the study of psychological methods and findings in political administrative settings, that is, cognitive and decision

biases Bias is a disproportionate weight ''in favor of'' or ''against'' an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, ...

and discriminations by

bureaucrats A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can compose the administration of any organization of any size, although the term usually connotes someone within an institution of government. The term ''bureaucrat'' derives from "bureaucracy", w ...

, the interaction between citizens and bureaucrats, and the psychological effects of

public service A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...

failure. It is the study of behaviors and methodology for administrative purposes. It attempts to better understand the cycle of causes and consequences after putting orders or laws into motion to govern or administrate one or many humans within a specific group. It is an interdisciplinary academic discipline that studies

public administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...

"from the micro-level perspective of individual and group behavior and attitudes."

Components of study

Behavioral public administration has three main components: # It uses individuals and groups of citizens, employees, and managers within the public sector as units of analysis (or the framework in which the analysis will be conducted). # It emphasizes the behavior and attitudes of these groups. # It integrates insights from

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

and the

behavioral sciences Behavioral sciences explore the cognitive processes within organisms and the behavioral interactions between organisms in the natural world. It involves the systematic analysis and investigation of human and animal behavior through naturalistic o ...

to study

. The behavioral approach to public administration complements traditional public administration research, adding the ability to make more detailed theories in addition to the previously dominant big-picture theories of public administration. It uses theories and methods from psychology to study the attitudes and behaviors of citizens, public professionals, and public managers. By drawing on these insights, the approach attempts to improve knowledge and the skill of practitioners in public administration and

academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

. For example, the behavioral approach's use of psychology could shed light on improving citizens’ perceptions of performance. In another example, the addition of psychology can help find to what extent nudging works efficiently as a policy tool. This makes the behavioral approach very beneficial to

policy-makers Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an organ ...

and

public officials An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their su ...

. The integration of public administration and

can also benefit

psychologists A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

, by offering insights into how theories developed in controlled environments hold up when tested in complex public environments.

History and development

The growing prevalence of research at the intersection of psychology and

led to the creation of the Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, which published its first issue in 2018. The journal, edited by professors Sebastian Jilke, Joanna Lahey,

Kenneth J. Meier Kenneth J. Meier (born March 3, 1950) is a distinguished scholar in residence at American University and holds faculty appointments at the Cardiff School of Business (UK) and Leiden University (the Netherlands). He is known for his studies on public ...

, and William G. Resh, is dedicated to behavioral and

experimental research An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...

in public administration. The trend of behavioral research within public administration can be traced back to scholars such as

Herbert A. Simon Herbert Alexander Simon (June 15, 1916 – February 9, 2001) was an American political scientist, with a Ph.D. in political science, whose work also influenced the fields of computer science, economics, and cognitive psychology. His primary ...

. In his book ''Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization'', Simon asserts that "

decision-making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the Cognition, cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be ...

is the heart of the

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

, and that the vocabulary of administrative theory must be derived from the logic and psychology of human choice." Other public administration scholars have also argued for a tighter connection between the fields of

and public administration. Some of the leading research studies on BPA are ''Performance information in politics: How framing, format, and rhetoric matter to politicians’ preferences'' (2019) by Martin Bækgaard, ''Street-Level Bureaucrats as Individual Policymakers: The Relationship between Attitudes and Coping Behavior toward Vulnerable Children and Youth'' (2017) by Siddhartha Baviskar and Søren C. Winter, and ''The Creativity of Coping: Alternative Tales of Moral Dilemmas among Migration Control Officers'' (2018) by Lisa Marie Borrelli and Annika Lindberg. Although it is growing in prevalence, psychological methods and theories in the field of public administration are still not applied as often as in other disciplines, such as

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

, and

management studies Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

. In these fields of research, psychology-informed sub-fields have emerged, for example,

political psychology Political psychology is an interdisciplinary academic field, dedicated to understanding politics, politicians and political behavior from a psychological perspective, and psychological processes using socio-political perspectives. The relations ...

behavioral economics Behavioral economics studies the effects of psychological, cognitive, emotional, cultural and social factors on the decisions of individuals or institutions, such as how those decisions vary from those implied by classical economic theory. ...

, and

industrial and organizational psychology Industrial and organizational psychology (I-O psychology), an applied discipline within psychology, is the science of human behavior in the workplace. Depending on the country or region of the world, I-O psychology is also known as occupational ...

. While the number of psychology-informed research studies in public administration might be small, the number is increasing. Public administration scholars have begun incorporating theories from the field of psychology into the study of public leadership and public service motivation, transparency, public service competition, public choice, blame avoidance among policymakers, performance information, and trust of civil servants. The methods and measurement techniques used to study public administration have, to an increasing extent, become influenced by the practices of the psychological field, most notably seen as in the more frequent use of

experiments An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

References

External links

Journal of Behavioral Public Administration

List of scholars of Behavioral Public Administration
at

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...

.
EGPA Permanent Study Group on Behavioral Public Administration
{{Authority control Public administration