Blended Approaches: A Q-Methodology Study of Hybrid Forms of Governance
Open Access DepositedCivil service leaders face a politically charged, turbulent environment in which they must blend approaches and ideologies to address complex challenges extending across organizational missions and cultures. These blended approaches are not well understood. Civil service leaders enact blended approaches, referred to in the scholarly literature as hybrid forms of governance (Carstensen et al., 2023; Chan, 2022; Kuitert et al., 2023; Peters et al., 2022; Sørensen & Torfing, 2019; Torfing et al., 2020), by blending the core ideas from across different ideologies, referred to in the scholarly literature as governance paradigms (Carstensen et al., 2023; Torfing et al., 2020). This dissertation investigated the viewpoints of civil service leaders on the blended approaches in hybrid forms of governance. Using Q-methodology, 16 participants prioritized statements originating in three governance paradigms—traditional public administration, new public management, and emerging public service—and elaborated during a follow-on interview. This study found three viewpoints—the Modern Traditionalists, the Connectivists, and the Adaptive Solutionists—each with a different blended governance approach. Additionally, there were three commonalities across participants: serving in the public interest; navigating the complexities of fairness, efficiency, standard processes, and flexibility; and government as different than business. I offer eight recommendations for hybrid governance research and theory and five recommendations for hybrid governance practitioners.
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Bontempo_gwu_0075A_17178.pdf | 2025-04-11 | Open Access |
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