Bureaucratic Red Tape: A Bibliometric and Meta-Analytic Study

Red tape is one of public administration research’s defining topics and has amassed a considerable amount of publications. This paper analyses 60 years of red tape research as reflected in articles published in journals listed in the SSCI Database. It combines bibliometric and meta-analytic methods to identify major academic debates and to elaborate on the most important correlates of red tape. Our results indicate that public management is at the core of red tape scholarship, but applications include a variety of disciplines, among them health care and economics. The analysis reveals that red tape negatively relates to beneficial attitudes and behaviours (e.g., job satisfaction and employee commitment) while it fosters detrimental attitudes and behaviours (e.g., negative affect and employee turnover). However, some of the evidence on red tape’s correlates is sparse (alienation, deviance, trust) or contradictory, for example with regard to performance. We conclude by outlining a research agenda for red tape theory and measurement.