Policy design and governance in hierarchical, risk-oriented organizations: a Danish Armed Forces case study

Abstract This article examines how institutional governance mechanisms shape administrative policy design in risk-oriented, hierarchical public organizations, drawing on two cases from the Danish Armed Forces. The analysis shows how leader-centric governance, role segmentation, and compliance-oriented routines constrain collaborative process demands. These mechanisms restrict dialogue, limit upward communication and reflection, and reinforce established routines while resisting adaptation. Although such structures support operational clarity, they reduce responsiveness when extended into administrative policymaking. The study demonstrates how embedded governance logics and institutional routines condition the feasibility of collaborative policy design, even amid reform ambitions. It contributes to public administration and policy design scholarship by highlighting how hierarchical institutions govern internal policymaking and how institutionalized governance logics constrain adaptation, inclusion, and learning capacity.