Assessing the relevance of governmental characteristics to address wicked problems in turbulent times

James S. Denford, Gregory S. Dawson, Kevin C. Desouza and Aroon P. Manoharan

Public Management Review, 2024, vol. 26, issue 4, 927-948

Abstract: Governments have long faced traditional bureaucratic problems and developed a set of mechanisms to handle them, but few studies have examined the government’s underlying characteristics in addressing such problems. Wicked problems – those with unclear definitions, causal complexity and conflicting goals – are increasingly emerging and are frequently observed in highly turbulent environments – those where variables behave in unpredictable ways. We study the relevance of a range of governmental characteristics during the COVID-19 pandemic and find that, while all government characteristics are sometimes relevant, no single characteristic is always relevant and so they are best treated as a portfolio.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2022.2124535

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