Fatal Choices The Routinization of Deceit, Incompetence, and Corruption

Abstract

The work of government requires high standards of rationality and commitment. These are threatened by large-scale, often well-publicized practical mistakes and ethical failings. Rationality and commitment are also at risk in the more mundane everyday life of public sector organizations when minor human failings are incorporated into the ongoing routines of organizational practice. Case material from federal and state agencies suggests that as minor instances of deceit, incompetence, and corruption are tolerated, excused, and even justified, organizations suffer erosion in the conduct of current operations--and in their very capacity to consider alternative courses of action in the future.

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