Roth S., Santonen T., Heimstädt M., Clark C., Trofimov N., Kaivo-oja J., Atanesyan A., Laki B., and Sales A. (2019), government.com? Multifunctional cabinet portfolio analysis of 201 national governments, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 32 No. 6, pp. 621-639 [SSCI 1.185, Scopus, CNRS**, FNEGE**, CABS**].

This article won an Emerald Literati Award 2020 for Highly Commended articles and has therefore been made freely available for a certain period. Please click here to access the free version of the article on the journal website or download it here once the courtesy period has expired.

Purpose: This study examines how much value national governments worldwide place on political, economic, scientific, artistic, religious, legal, sportive, health-related, educational, and mass media-related issues. This knowledge is critical as governments and policies are typically expected to be congruent with the importance these issues have for society.
Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on theories of polyphonic and multifunctional organization, we recoded and analyzed a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) directory to test the cabinet portfolio of a total of 201 national governments for significant biases to the above issues.
Findings: The results suggest that governments worldwide massively over-allocate their attention to economic issues.
Originality/value: We conclude that this strong pro-economic governance-bias likely translates into dysfunctional governance and development at both the national and supra-national level.

Keywords: Governments; cabinet portfolios; polyphonic organization; functional differentiation; social systems.

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