The Dependency of Trust in Public Organization: A critical management study analyzing the conception and implications of the good employee in trust-based management through the perspectives of Kant and Nietzsche

Abstract

Abstract: The areas within public administration have been subject to change and restructuring for some time. Contemporary literature and political reforms in the previous decade sought to de-bureaucratize and introduce less and simplistic control in the public sector leaning away from new public management and into the era of new public governance. Contemporary concepts, especially in public management academia and practice, have seen trust as the main center of attention following the publication of reports and governmental guidelines. To accommodate the requirements of the new political reforms, the management book Management in Real-Life suggests that public organizations introduce the ideas of passion, freedom and independence from management to facilitate trust in their organizations. However, the dominant discourse on public management in contemporary literature and organization studies is primarily concerned with the normative questions on how to establish trust and on the relationship of the trust/control-nexus. By taking a stance of philosophical critique through the introduction of the radical thinkers Kant and Nietzsche, we will put forward new areas of problematizations within the contemporary understanding of trust-based management. We hereby argue that the idea of passion and freedom is in itself a paradox in public organizations and should be acknowledged in context of the widespread appraise of trust-based management. This master thesis contributes new perspectives on how the idea of a good employee can be conceptualized in trust-based-organizations. Based on our analysis, we argue that the good employee in trust-based management can contribute to the organization by self-overcoming and thus every employee has the opportunity to develop themselves, make decisions based on negotiating, and acknowledge themselves as value-creating individuals. Following this, we suggest that employees who do not achieve self-overcoming become counterproductive and restrained by the dogmatic norms of the organization.