Management and Culture in an Enlarged European Commission

This book explores how the European Commission faced the challenge of enlargement. Based on extensive interviews, the work provides a lively and readable picture of life within the Commission, exploring how thousands of newcomers were recruited and socialized and how they changed the organization, including its gender balance.

"This work represents an important contribution in several...In line with Abélès and Bellier´s study of the culture of compromise at the Commission, this book offers a description of this institution drawing on political anthropology, which fills a gap in recent studies. Management and Culture in an Enlarged European Commission is based on impressive efforts at data collection: over six years, from 2006 to 2012, Carolyn Ban conducted about 140 semi-structured interviews with EU officials in Brussels and 91 semi-structured interviews with managers inside the governments of six new member states... The fact that she conducted the interviews by herself contributes appreciably to the quality of the collected information."

Stéphanie Novak of the Hertie School of Governance, Germany.

Read the full review at The Council for European Studies website at the following link: http://councilforeuropeanstudies.org/critcom/management-and-culture-in-an-enlarged-european-commission-from-diversity-to-unity/

Autorentext
Carolyn Ban is Professor and former dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. She has worked as a manager in the public and private sector and as Professor at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Her works include How Do Public Managers Manage? Bureaucratic Constraints, Organizational Culture, and the Potential for Reform.

Inhalt
List of Tables Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Structure, Culture, and Management: The Status Quo Ante 2. The European Commission and the Process of Enlargement 3 The Kinnock Reforms: Preparing for Enlargement, Changing Culture? 4. The Outsiders Come in: Self-selection, Selection and Socialization of Entry-level Staff 5. Fitting in or Standing out? The Arrival of Managers from the New Member States 6. Nationality: Why it Matters Less than Expected 7. Gender: Why it Matters More than Expected 8. Language, Culture, and Management: the Impact of Enlargement on Language Use in the Commission Conclusions Bibliography