1. Instrumental calculation, cognitive role-playing, or both?: self-perceptions of Seconded National Experts in the European Commission
- Author
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Benny Geys, Zuzana Murdoch, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH, and Applied Economics
- Subjects
Europäische Kommission ,Socialisation ,Public Administration ,Sociology and Political Science ,Embeddedness ,Seconded national experts ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Rational action ,rationality ,Seconded National Experts ,Rationality ,Verhalten ,decision ,Socialisation,rational action,European Commission,Seconded National Experts,survey ,Sociology & anthropology ,Sozialisation ,Entscheidung ,Perception ,Allgemeine Soziologie, Makrosoziologie, spezielle Theorien und Schulen, Entwicklung und Geschichte der Soziologie ,ddc:330 ,Institution ,survey ,Sociology ,General Sociology, Basic Research, General Concepts and History of Sociology, Sociological Theories ,European Commission ,media_common ,Abgeordneter ,Rationalität ,Scope (project management) ,business.industry ,behavior ,Socialization ,socialization ,Cognition ,Befragung ,Public relations ,Handlung ,Sachverständiger ,Action (philosophy) ,expert ,Soziologie, Anthropologie ,representative ,rational action ,action ,ddc:301 ,business ,Social psychology - Abstract
This is the authors’ final, accepted and refereed manuscript to the article Most work studying micro-processes of integration – i.e. how agents develop identities and decision-making behaviours within a particular institution – offers explanations based on either instrumental rationality or socialisation. This article proposes a two-dimensional framework that allows analysing under which conditions both logics of social action co-exist. Our empirical analysis employs a unique dataset from a 2011 survey of all 1098 currently active Seconded National Experts (SNEs) in the European Commission. We find that a) instrumental cost-benefit calculation and cognitive role-playing (as semi-reflexive socialisation) often simultaneously influence SNEs’ (perceptions of their) behaviour, and b) this joint presence of both logics of social action depends on certain scope conditions (i.e., SNEs’ education, length of prior embeddedness and noviceness).
- Published
- 2011