International executives: Transformative bureaucracies or Westphalian orders?

Abstract:

Public Administration is in an era of change. This article studies one under-researched part of public administration, the executive arms of International Governmental Organisations (IGOs). These are referred to as International Executives (IEs). The article provides a conceptual mapping and an empirical illustration of three important dynamics of IEs - intergovernmental, supranational and transgovernmental dynamics. The study also offers a middle-range organisation theory perspective that suggests five independent variables that affect the behaviour and roles of IE civil servants. The variables are (H1) the organisational properties of IEs, (H2) the degrees of institutionalisation of IEs, (H3) the recruitment procedures of the IEs, (H4) characteristics of the relationships between IEs and external institutions, and finally (H5) demographic characteristics of the IE civil servants. The empirical illustrations are drawn from the European Commission, the OECD Secretariat and the WTO Secretariat. The article highlights that the IEs of the EU, the OECD and the WTO seem to share important behavioural dynamics due to organisational similarities.