Behavioral public strategy

How can we stimulate policymakers to make strategic decisions that enhance public service performance? Traditional strategy theories have not enabled us to answer this question. These theories focus on strategy processes or content in public organizations and networks and directly link these to public service performance. This article defines and elaborates on a conceptual framework that uses theory from behavioral science to unravel how policymakers can make strategic decisions that actually enhance the performance of public organizations and networks. This conceptual framework is labeled ‘behavioral public strategy’ and conceptualizes public strategy as a social process shaped by the individuals, teams and tools underlying it. Behavioral public strategy thus focuses on the micro-foundations of public strategy and how these micro-foundations influence strategic decisions. Moreover, behavioral public strategy links meso- and micro-levels by proposing a bathtub model where the relationship between public strategy and public service performance at the organizational and network levels is explained by the relationship between the micro-foundations of public strategy and the ensuing strategic decisions at the individual and team levels. This article connects three research streams that have been like ‘ships that pass in the night’, namely public strategy, behavioral public policy and behavioral public administration.