The interplay of governance modes in architectural decision making

Abstract: The suggested deficiencies in bureaucratic and management governance highlighted by  scholars in new public management as well as organizational studies has led to an increased academic interest in alternate forms of governance. One of those forms being collegiality, a governance form often associated with traditional professions such as hospital workers, lawyers, academics and architects. This case study sets out to examine how the interplay between the governance modes of bureaucracy, management and collegiality is manifested in  organizations. To do this, governance interplay in the decision making of architectural production was chosen as the subject of the study, as it has been suggested by prior literature to feature elements of collegiality as well as bureaucracy. A framework derived from the literature on governance modes was formulated to enable the study of governance interplay, and the findings suggest that governance modes are applied in a manner similar to a bricolage or hybrid organization as is recognized within the literature on institutional logics.