政府部門的「行政團隊」（admini s t rat ive team）是「實存」（reality）？還是「修辭」（rhetoric）？欲維繫一個行政團隊，信任無疑是關鍵要素，首長間信任尤其具有影響力，並表現在跨機關合作成果上。引人好奇的是：首長間是否容易與如何建立互信關係？在這過程中可能遭遇哪些阻力？作者檢閱官僚研究的重要文獻，並聚焦於政治任命者的組成關係，以及其等與常任文官之間互動兩項議題，作為訪談資料的分析架構。研究發現顯示，首長間信任並無法一廂情願地達成，在客觀因素制約下，首長間信任經常面臨一些挑戰。其次，跨機關合作是一種多層次關係，除了水平關係外，政治任命者仍須就部門立場與底下文官達成共識，因此，政治任命者難以迴避「角色衝突」問題。面對上述困境，當民選首長之行政領導力明顯不足時，則其對外所宣稱的「行政團隊」，很可能只淪為一種政治修辭之用。

Does “administrative team＂ in the government sector be-long to a “reality＂ or “rhetoric＂? Actually, trust is a key ele-ment of the teamwork; political executives' mutual trust particu-lar ly makes a great impact on the interagency cooperat ion. Against this background, we are curious about the following ques-tions: for those political executives, if it is easy and how to build trust in their relationships? What factors might potentially hinder the possibilities for building trust among them? The author firstly reviewed crucial related researches in the fields of public bureau-
cracy, and then concentrated on two issues as a way to analyze the
data: the composition of political appointees, and the interaction between the political executives and career civil servants. Accord-ing to our findings, it reveals that political executives' mutual trust can't be built on his or her way. Within the context of the public sector, political executives' activities of trust-building of-ten confront challenges. In addition, interagency cooperation is mul t i-layer relat ionships; that is, pol i t ical appointees not only have to deal with the trust between the horizontal relationships but also have to achieve consensus with their subordinates on the basis of the agency's aim. Hence, it is difficult for political ap-pointees to avoid “role conflicts＂. When facing such dilemma, the so cal led “administrat ive team＂ wi l l become a pol i t ical rhetoric if top elected politician can't exert administrative leader-ship well.