Zuzana Murdoch is professor in Public Administration and member of the research group "Knowledge, Politics and Organization" at the University of Bergen in Norway. She works, among other things, on the role of organizations' temporal characteristics in complex collaborative networks, the drivers of socialization and adaptation processes in (inter)national bureaucrats, as well as questions related to organizational stigma.

Professor Murdoch has published extensively in journals including American Political Science Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Journal of Politics, Organization Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Public Administration Review, Public Administration, Governance, Journal of European Public Policy, European Union Politics, European Journal of Political Research, and European Journal of International Relations. Her ORCID profile can be accessed here.

Main research fields: Temporality, Network Governance, Representative Bureaucracy, Socialization, European Union Politics.

Selected main publications:

Geys, Benny; Lægreid, Per, Murdoch, Zuzana & Yackee, Susan Webb (2024)
I’m a Survivor: Political Dynamics in Bureaucratic Elites’ Partisan Identification. American Political Science Review, forthcoming.

Vantagiatto, F., Z. Murdoch, H. Kassim, B. Geys and S. J. Connolly (2024), Intra-organizational Mobility and Employees’ Work-related Contact Patterns: Evidence from Panel Data in the European Commission,Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, forthcoming.

Geys, B., P. Lægreid, Z. Murdoch and J. Trondal (2023), Organizational Stability and Resocialization in Public Administration: Theory and Evidence from Norwegian Civil Servants (1986-2016). Public Administration, forthcoming.

Murdoch, Z., M. MacCarthaigh, and B. Geys (2023), It's About Time! Temporal Dynamics and Longitudinal Research Designs in Public Administration. Public Administration Review, 83(6), 1727- 1736.

Geys, B., P. Lægreid, Z. Murdoch and J. Trondal (2023), The Impact of Terrorism on Civil Servants: Longitudinal Evidence from the 22 July, 2011 Attack in Norway. Public Administration Review, 83(6), 1772- 1784.

Geys, B. Z. Murdoch and R. Sørensen (2023), Public Employees as Elected Politicians: Assessing Direct and Indirect Substantive Effects of Passive Representation. The Journal of Politics, 86(1), 170- 182.

Geys, B., S. Connolly, H. Kassim and Z. Murdoch (2023), Staff Reallocations and Employee Attitudes Towards Organizational Aims: Evidence Using Longitudinal Data from the European Commission. Public Management Review, 25(12), 2323-2343.

Geys, B., Z. Murdoch and R. J. Sørensen (2022), Political (Over)Representation of Public Sector Employees and the Double-Motive Hypothesis: Evidence from Norwegian Register Data (2007-2019). Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 32 (2), 326-341.

Kvåle, G. and Z. Murdoch (2022). Shame On You! Unpacking the Individual and Organizational Implications of Engaging with a Stigmatized Organization. Journal of Management Studies, 59 (8), 2024-2066.

Kvåle, G. and Z. Murdoch (2022), Making Sense of Stigmatized Organizations: Labelling Contests and Power Dynamics in Social Evaluation Processes. Journal of Business Ethics, 178, 675-693.

Murdoch, Z., S. Connolly, H. Kassim and B. Geys (2022), Legitimacy Crises and the Temporal Dynamics of Bureaucratic Representation. Governance, 35 (1), 65-82.

Murdoch, Z., M. Gravier and S. Gänzle (2022), International public administration on the tip of the tongue: Language as a feature of representative bureaucracy in the Economic Community of West African States. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 88 (4), 1086-1104.

Geys, B., S. Connolly, H., Kassim and Z. Murdoch (2020), Follow the Leader? Leader Succession and Staff Attitudes in Public Sector Organizations. Public Administration Review, 80 (4), 555-564.

Murdoch, Z., Kassim, H., S. Connolly and B. Geys (2019), Socialization and Attitude Change in Intergovernmental Organizations: Evidence from a Two-wave Survey in the European Commission. European Journal of International Relations, 25(3), 852-877.

Murdoch, Z., S. Connolly and H. Kassim (2018), Administrative Legitimacy and the Democratic Deficit of the European Union. Journal of European Public Policy, 25(3), 389-408.

Murdoch, Z. (2015), Organisation Theory and the Study of EU Institutions: Lessons and Opportunities, Organization Studies, 36(12), 1675-1692.

Course development and teaching 

Zuzana Murdoch is responsible for developing and teaching courses at the graduate level in Organization Theory (GOV320), Quantitative and Qualitative Methods (GOV321; GOV323, as well as a state-of-the-art course in Knowledge, Politics and Organization (GOV327). Previously, she also taught courses in EU foreign policy, the European Union Institutions and Politics, as well as Transnational Governance.

PhD Supervision

Professor Murdoch is currently co-supervisor for one PhD student, Vibeke Kroken. Her work studies the role of organizations' temporal characteristics in complex governance networks.

Academic article

• Geys, Benny; Lægreid, Per; Murdoch, Zuzana et al. (2024). I’m a Survivor: Political Dynamics in Bureaucratic Elites’ Partisan Identification. (external link)
• Vantaggiato, Francesca P.; Murdoch, Zuzana; Kassim, Hussein et al. (2024). Intraorganizational mobility and employees’ work-related contact patterns: evidence from panel data in the European Commission. (external link)
• Geys, Benny; Murdoch, Zuzana; Sørensen, Rune Jørgen (2023). Public Employees as Elected Politicians: Assessing Direct and Indirect Substantive Effects of Passive Representation. (external link)
• Geys, Benny; Lægreid, Per; Murdoch, Zuzana et al. (2023). The impact of terrorism on civil servants: Longitudinal evidence from the July 22, 2011 attack in Norway. (external link)
• Geys, Benny; Lægreid, Per; Murdoch, Zuzana et al. (2023). Organizational Stability and Resocialization in Public Administrations: Theory and Evidence from Norwegian Civil Servants (1986-2016). (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana; MacCarthaigh, Muiris; Geys, Benny (2023). It's about time! Temporal dynamics and longitudinal research designs in public administration. (external link)
• Geys, Benny; Connolly, Sara; Kassim, Hussein et al. (2023). Staff reallocations and employee attitudes towards organizational aims: evidence using longitudinal data from the European Commission. (external link)
• Geys, Benny; Murdoch, Zuzana; Sørensen, Rune Jørgen (2021). Political (Over)Representation of Public Sector Employees and the Double-Motive Hypothesis: Evidence from Norwegian Register Data (2007-2019). (external link)
• Kvåle, Gro; Murdoch, Zuzana (2021). Shame On You! Unpacking the Individual and Organizational Implications of Engaging with a Stigmatized Organization. (external link)
• Kvåle, Gro; Murdoch, Zuzana (2021). Making Sense of Stigmatized Organizations: Labelling Contests and Power Dynamics in Social Evaluation Processes. (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana; Gravier, Magali; Gänzle, Stefan (2021). International Public Administration on the Tip of the Tongue: Language as a Feature of Representative Bureaucracy in ECOWAS. . (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana; Connolly, Sara Jane; Kassim, Hussein et al. (2021). Legitimacy Crises and the Temporal Dynamics of Bureaucratic Representation. (external link)
• Geys, Benny; Connolly, Sara Jane; Kassim, Hussein et al. (2020). Follow the Leader? Leader Succession and Staff Attitudes in Public Sector Organizations.. (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana; Connolly, Sara; Kassim, Hussein (2018). Administrative legitimacy and the democratic deficit of the European Union. (external link)
• Trondal, Jarle; Murdoch, Zuzana; Geys, Benny (2018). How pre- and post-recruitment factors shape role perceptions of European Commission officials. (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana; Kassim, Hussein; Connolly, Sara et al. (2018). Do international institutions matter? Socialization and international bureaucrats. (external link)
• Hollman, Michelle; Murdoch, Zuzana (2018). Lobbying cycles in Brussels: Evidence from the rotating presidency of the Council of the European union. (external link)
• Kuehnhanss, Colin; Murdoch, Zuzana; Geys, Benny et al. (2017). Identity, threat aversion, and civil servants’ policy preferences: Evidence from the European Parliament. (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana; Trondal, Jarle; Geys, Benny (2016). Representative bureaucracy and seconded national government officials in the European Commission. (external link)
• Trondal, Jarle; Murdoch, Zuzana; Geys, Benny (2015). Representative Bureaucracy and the Role of Expertise in Politics. (external link)
• Trondal, Jarle; Murdoch, Zuzana; Geys, Benny (2015). On Trojan Horses and revolving doors: Assessing the autonomy of national officials in the European Commission. (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana (2015). Organization Theory and the Study of European Union Institutions: Lessons and Opportunities. (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana; Trondal, Jarle; Gänzle, Stefan (2014). Building foreign affairs capacity in the EU: The recruitment of member state officials to the European External Action Service (EEAS). (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana; Geys, Benny (2014). Institutional dynamics in international organisations: Lessons from the recruitment procedures of the European External Action Service. (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana; Trondal, Jarle (2013). Contracted Government: Unveiling the European Commission's Contracted Staff. (external link)
• Geys, Benny; Murdoch, Zuzana (2012). Instrumental Calculation, Cognitive Role-Playing, or Both? Self-Perceptions of Seconded National Experts in the European Commission. (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana (2012). Negotiating the European External Action Service (EEAS): Analyzing the External Effects of Internal (Dis)Agreement. (external link)
• Geys, Benny; Murdoch, Zuzana (2010). Measuring the 'Bridging' versus 'Bonding' Nature of Social Networks: A Proposal for Integrating Existing Measures. (external link)
• Geys, Benny; Murdoch, Zuzana (2008). How to make head or tail of ‘bridging’ and ‘bonding’?: addressing the methodological ambiguity. (external link)

Short communication

• Murdoch, Zuzana; Geys, Benny; Sørensen, Rune Jørgen (2023). Political Representation of Public Sector Employees. (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana; Connolly, Sara Jane; Kassim, Hussein (2018). JEPP blog post: Administrative legitimacy and the democratic deficit of the European Union. (external link)
• Trondal, Jarle; Murdoch, Zuzana; Geys, Benny (2015). The Autonomy of National Officials in the European Commission. (external link)
• Trondal, Jarle; Murdoch, Zuzana; Geys, Benny (2015). National officials working for the Commission display a surprising amount of independence from their own governments. (external link)

Popular scientific article

• Bogen, Øivind Johnsen; Murdoch, Zuzana; Geys, Benny (2023). The Bigger, the Better? Population Size and Satisfaction with Municipal Services. (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana; Geys, Benny; Sørensen, Rune Jørgen (2023). Political Representation of Public Sector Employees. (external link)
• Kvåle, Gro; Murdoch, Zuzana (2021). "The Dos and Don'ts of Engaging with a Stigmatized Organization". (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana; Trondal, Jarle; Gänzle, Stefan (2013). 'Making the Grade, Keeping the Gate': The recruitment of member-state diplomats to the European External Action Service (EEAS). (external link)

Academic chapter/article/Conference paper

• Kiland, Charlotte; Murdoch, Zuzana (2021). Leadership of organisations: Theory and evidence from the development of Norwegian scenic routes. (external link)
• Berg, Laila Margaret Nordstrand; Murdoch, Zuzana (2019). Bureaucracy of Gender Equality: Europeanisation in Nordic Context?. (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana; Trondal, Jarle (2015). The temporary Commission bureaucrat. (external link)
• Murdoch, Zuzana; Trondal, Jarle (2015). The advance of a European executive order in foreign policy? Recruitment practices in the European External Action Service. (external link)

Lecture

• Murdoch, Zuzana (2021). Introduction and Q& A. (external link)

Academic lecture

• Winge, Alfa Sefland; Murdoch, Zuzana (2021). Workshop til AORG326 - politisk organisering og flernivåstyring. (external link)
• Berg, Laila Nordstrand; Murdoch, Zuzana (2017). Likestillingsbyråkratiene: Europeisering i nordisk kontekst?. (external link)

Report

• Trondal, Jarle; Murdoch, Zuzana; Gänzle, Stefan (2013). The Origins of Common Action Capacities. Observations on the recruitment of Member States’ diplomats and officials to the European External Action Service (EEAS). (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Zuzana Murdoch is a Work Package leader in the HorizonEurope "DemoTrans" project (ca. 2.7 mill EUR; 2022-2026) and principal investigator of the Norwegian Research Council project: "Longitudinal perspectives on local, central and supranational public bureaucracies" (ADM-IN-TIME; 1,070 mill. NOK; 2021-2023). Her work in the former project concentrates on the temporal characteristics of network governance members, while the latter project takes an explicitly longitudinal approach to the study of public bureaucracies.

She is currently also involved in three other research projects:

• A first project studies the roles, values, and attitudes of (inter)national civil servants. This is joint work with Hussein Kassim (University of East Anglia), Sara Connolly (Norwich Business School), Benny Geys (BI Norwegian Business School), and Susan Webb Yackee (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• A second project - joint work with Magali Gravier (Copenhagen Business School) - explores the recruitment and decision-making behaviour of public employees through the theory of Representative Bureaucracy.
• A third project - joint work with Gro Kvåle (University of Agder) - studies the social negotiation processes underlying the development and re-construction of organizational stigma.