“为官不为”的组织学解释及其治理策略

An Organizational Explanation of Bureaucratic Inaction and Its Governance Strategy

“为官不为”是坚持党的领导、完善中国特色社会主义行政体制所要解决的重要问题。既有研究强调,“为官不为”是官员基于激励、风险等因素综合考量下的避责产物。然而,“为官不为”在容错机制建立后仍然存在,甚至部分地区“不为”的官员实际上一直处于积极作为之中。如何解释这种反差之下的“为官不为”?文章基于组织学视角提出解释:“为官不为”是官员在官僚系统嵌入新制度而产生的“波动”中寻求确定性(特别是“发展窗口”)的产物。问责制冲击了官僚系统内已形成的较为清晰、稳定的官员职业发展路径,加剧其职业发展的不确定性。然而,追求职业发展的官员并不会停下脚步,而是在不确定性中寻找确定性,特别是“低风险、高收益、短耗时”的“发展窗口”。当官僚制的常规运作难以满足官员对“发展窗口”的追求时,官员就倾向通过政治引领使官僚组织将执行行政事务的注意力转向政治任务,组织难以兼顾行政事务进而未能完成既有考核,被贴上“为官不为”标签。文章以Z市创建全国文明城市为案例,论述既有职业发展路径受冲击的Z市官员,通过政治引领政府部门,积极投身具有“发展窗口”特征的“创文”工作来谋求发展,最终导致职能部门无暇完成考核形成的“为官不为”。文章提炼了不同于既有“为官不为”研究的新解释,并提供了三点针对“为官不为”的治理策略。

How to explain bureaucratic inaction in China?Existing research suggests it is a product of officials blame-avoidance behaviors.However,bureaucratic inaction still exists under the fault-tolerant mechanism,and inactive officials have even been active in some regions.How is this contradiction possible?This article explains bureaucratic inaction from on an organizational perspective:bureaucratic inaction results from officials search for certainty in the fluctuations created by the introduction of new institutions in the bureaucratic system(especially the“promotion window”).The accountability system has impacted the clearer and more stable career paths that had developed within the bureaucracy and has increased the uncertainty of officials career development.However,officials pursuing career development do not stop there.Instead,they look for certainty in uncertainty,especially the“low risk,high reward,and short time consuming”promotion window.When the regular operations of the bureaucracy fail to satisfy officials pursuit of the promotion window,officials tend to adopt political leadership,then the bureaucratic organization turns its attention from administrative matters to political tasks,making it difficult to complete the assessment,which in turn results in bureaucratic inaction.The article takes Z city s striving to be designated a national civilized city as a case to show how the development of government officials careers were affected by policies.Officials regard“Competing for National Civilized Cities”as the“promotion window”and utilize political power to intervene in the bureaucratic system.As a result,departments devote themselves to the competition instead of their routine duties,leading to bureaucratic inaction.This articles offers three strategies to address the problem of bureaucratic inaction.