| Book Review | Environmental History, 11.4

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| Book Review | Environmental History, 11.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Environmental Protection Agency: Structuring Motivation in a Green Bureaucracy. By Robert McMahon. Brighton, U.K., and Portland, Ore.: Sussex Academic Press, 2006. xiii + 219 pages. Bibliography, index. Cloth $69.50

In his book titled The Environmental Protection Agency: Structuring Motivation in a Green Bureaucracy, Robert McMahon explores the difference between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Environmental Agency for England and Wales. In the introduction McMahon says he intends to examine the motivations of officials and political appointees in the two agencies, referring to them as "green bureaucracies." His method is to use testimonies from officials and political appointees in order to illustrate the motivations of those who work in the two green bureaucracies. He explains in the preface that he has two lenses with which to examine the EPA and EA—institutions and culture. The central theme is that institutions and cultures viewed together explain the motivation of officials and political appointees in the two organizations. Thus McMahon presents a comparison of motivations in the EPA and the EA and bases his research about motivation upon anecdotal information and accounts of motivations presented by staff in each of the two agencies. He does not go deeply into political and historical context. McMahon states his purpose is to combine institutional structures and cultural identification to better understand motivation. The thesis is that success or failure in achieving organizational goals, in this case of public sector organizations, occurs as a result of motivations of the organization. Clearly his concerns are sociological, and his methodology that of sociology. His concerns are: (1) the motivation of members of the two bureaucracies, and (2) how the motivations of officials affect the ability of the organization to achieve its goals.

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