From Rational Myth to Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? Understanding the Persistence of Means–ends Decoupling as a Consequence of the Latent Functions of Policy Enactment

Organizations operating in pluralistic institutional environments are facing ever greater pressures to adopt and implement policies and practices that have few if any benefits for their core functions. This situation is characterized by Bromley and Powell as reflective of means-ends decoupling. Current theory suggests that this form of decoupling can be difficult to sustain unless the logic of confidence in the policy/practice is maintained, i.e. actors believe that it is useful, relevant and important. In this study, I argue that part-time working in the UK police service illustrates a sustained case of means-ends decoupling in that its official purpose (to retain the skills and experience of (mainly female) police officers) not only appears to have few benefits for the subunits in which it is implemented, but the practice itself is seen to interfere with the achievement of operational goals, generating efficiency gaps. Despite this situation, the logic of confidence in this practice is maintained. Using Merton's distinction between the manifest and latent functions of a policy, I argue that this situation can be understood by examining how the policy on part-time working functions latently to increase managers' accountability regarding the accommodation of part-time working. This means that managers are unwilling to refuse requests for part-time working but its manifest function (the retention of skills and experiences) operates to ameliorate efficiency gaps through a process I term institutional satisficing'. Furthermore, the manifest function of part-time working can be used as a rhetorical tool by managers to justify potentially controversial methods of accommodating part-time officers in frontline roles which can result in the serendipitous recoupling of part-time working to its intended purposes.