‘What insights do fitness landscape models provide for theory and practice in public administration?’

ABSTRACT

This paper assesses the extent to which a fitness landscape (FL) perspective on complex social systems offers useful insights for both theory and practice in public administration. It has been claimed that FL models have strong potential for integrating existing theory and facilitating the development of models for theory development and testing as well as offering the prospect of a better understanding of  the adaptive moves of agents in search of a better ‘fit’ with their environment. In this paper, we examine these claims through a thematic synthesis of recent literature purporting to adopt this perspective in public management. Through a systematic review of the literature, we identify the key themes in the application of FLs to theory and practice and the extent to which authors are reaching any conclusions on the precise use of each of the elements of FL models in public management contexts. We conclude that the use of FL models is underdeveloped and that further development would be particularly useful in the context of governance network theory. We close with four specific recommendations for further research and development.

KEYWORDS:

• Complexity
• fitness landscape
• systematic review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. A gene is a stretch of DNA or RNA that determines a certain trait. Genes mutate and can take two or more alternative forms; an allele is one of these forms of a gene. For example, the gene for eye colour has several variations (alleles) such as an allele for blue eye colour or an allele for brown eyes. (http://www.diffen.com/difference/Allele_vs_Gene – accessed 4 March 2015).

2. This article is not precisely aimed at PA, but the authors do point out that their findings have a broad range of applications in organizational theory, including PA.

3. Complexity Governance & Networks and Journal on Policy and Complex Systems.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mary Lee Rhodes

Mary Lee Rhodes (B.A., M.Sc., MBA, Ph.D.) is Associate Professor of Public Management at Trinity College, Dublin. Her research is focused on complexity, public service systems, and the dynamics of performance. Prof. Rhodes has published numerous articles on housing as a complex adaptive system and her most recent book on Complexity and Public Management was published by Routledge in 2011. Her current research is on the nature and dynamics of social impact and she is developing research on social innovation, social finance, and well-being.