Organizational theory and structure: An analysis of three perspectives

This article examines three contemporary organizational theories as they relate to organization structure. The three approaches selected are: social systems delimitation, organization learning, and organizational theory as metaphors. Each view represents a different approach to issues concerning the direction of organization theory and design. It will be argued that, in many respects, the future development of organizational theory will, to a large extent, build upon these approaches and the issues they pose for organization design.     

An education for peace model that centres on belief systems: the theory behind the model

The education for peace model (EFPM) presented in this paper was developed within a theoretical framework of complexity science and critical theory and was derived from a review of an empirical research project conducted in a conflict affected environment. The model positions belief systems at the centre and is socioecologically systemic in design to capture the holistic dynamic of education within community. There is increasing interest, in both academic and development communities, in closing the gaps that exist between theory and practice in educational development in conflict affected settings and providing practioners with practical models. This paper makes a contribution in this through the presentation of the EFPM and the theory that informed its development. There are five key components to the EFPM: belief systems, learning experiences, students, teachers and schools. Belief systems are core as knowledge is generated from culture. Learning experiences are viewed as opportunities for growth, and schools are viewed as environments that provide opportunities and engender cultures for learning and conflict resolution. Teachers, drawn from the local community, are co-creators of these cultures, environments and opportunities and agents of effective change.     

Comment: Good-bye dependency theory,hello dependency theory

Studies in Comparative International Development -     

A cultural theory of budgeting

My aim is to bring together various strands of thought about the relationship between cultures and budgets into a single essay. Cultural theory is a way to bring what different people want and why they want it into budgeting. If cultures are conqruent with budgetary processes, this symmetry should show up in the standard topics of the subject. Thus I shall deal with the form of budgeting, auditing, budgetary balance, and deficits. I shall also examine the place of the budgetary base—agreed understandings on totals and items—among the political cultures. Finally, I shall provide a cultural explanation for the growth of government.     

犯罪控制场论：“场论”延伸的一种尝试

犯罪控制场是社会场均衡机制破缺过程中派生出来的一种特殊社会场,它不仅是一种区别于自然物理场的有序的社会控制状态,而且具有与其他社会派生场明显不同的规定性。它能使犯罪控制系统从无序失衡状态,转变成有序平衡的控制状态,并最终实现减少犯罪、稳定社会等一系列重要作用。本文具体阐述了犯罪控制场的存在和价值、基本特性、空间范围、系统结构、必备要素、场级限定等方面的内容,并试图以此引起理论界的进一步研究和探讨。     

Chronic poverty and entitlement theory

This paper examines chronic poverty in the developing country context within the entitlement theory approach. The dialogue on entitlement theory originally introduced by Sen is extended here to explore poverty and its persistence, or chronic poverty. A conceptual framework is presented, in which poverty and its persistence are explained within the context of the individual's economic and non-economic situation and development incentives. These attributes are influenced by the individual's entitlements. It is shown that poor endowments and resource base are important causes of persistent poverty. Policies aimed at reducing poverty therefore must address problems associated with improving the entitlements of individuals and households. The definition of ‘entitlements’ in the paper is not restricted to material possessions—the economic entitlements of the individual or the household—but is extended to incorporate the individual's skills, education and productive ability—the non-economic entitlements. The discussion is rooted in the increasing awareness of multidimensional poverty. The paper focuses on rural poverty in certain parts of India, where most of India's chronic poverty is situated. Over a million people can be classified as chronically poor in terms of duration, severity and deprivation. This is despite the government's commitment to the eradication of poverty since the early 1950s, with a total expenditure of nearly $7 billion in the past 50 years.     

Toward a theory of induced institutional innovation

In this paper we elaborate a theory of institutional innovation in which changes in the demand for institutional innovation are induced by changes in relative resource endowments and by technical change. We illustrate, from agricultural history, how changes in resource endowments and technical change have induced changes in private property rights and in the development of non‐market institutions. We also consider the impact of advances in social science knowledge and of cultural endowments on the supply of institutional change. In a final section we present the elements of a model of institutional innovation that maps the relationships among resource endowments, cultural endowments, technology, and institutions.     

The developmental parameters of relative deprivation theory

Studies in Comparative International Development -     

Public administration theory a futurist vision

As the world becomes increasingly interdependent, Americans interested in public administration will begin to realize that it is a universal phenomenon and field of inquiry that attracts the attention of researchers and teachers in all countries of the world. This will lead them to stop equating American governance with Public Administration. They will come to see that, in a comparative frame of reference, American bureaucracy, its administrative practices and political functions are quite unique. Comparative Public Administration as a special focus of study will disappear because all administrative studies must be comparative, and “American Public Administration” will gain recognition as one of many parochial foci for research as a country-specific emphasis.

Before this shift in perspective can gain widespread acceptance in America, however, the relevant work of non-American scholars will have to become more generally read in America, and the distinctively American conditions that led to the origin of this field and its subsequent dissemination on a global basis must be recognized.

Among the specific points that this paradigmatic shift will highlight are the following: the reasons why bureauphilia and bureauphobia persist in a context marked by pressure to make administrative studies and performance non-political and to divorce “politics” from “public administration;” the vain effort to gain recognition for Public Administration as either a profession or a discipline; the institutional implications of this false dilemma; the effects of focusing on career civil servants while paying scant attention to other bureaucrats, namely military officers, partisan appointees, retainers and consultants; and the causes and consequences of the American bureaucracy's semi-powered status.     

Transformational change using stratified systems theory

It is argued that leaders and other change agents will be able to transform organizations and the members of organizations only if they possess compelling explanatory frameworks for viewing organizational behavior, structure and dynamics. To illustrate this point, the stratified systems theory of Elliott Jaques is presented in the context of an organizational intervention. The “vision” promoted by stratified systems theory enabled an outside consultant to transform the leadership of an ailing social services agency and was useful in explaining the inability of the organization's administrator and board of directors to act transformationally during a period of rapid change     

Comparative administration: theory and experience

In order to determine the extent to which regional training in management would serve their own diverse national needs, nine African countries with different colonial, economic. political, and economic traditions sponsored a large-scale restarch project .to identify. common behavioral characteristics in the vublic, private. and amstatal sectors. The theory was that if there was a sufficient body of ;cbuind.thtoighout the region, it would be possible to adopt standard training and selection procedures and use similar approaches in improving organizational designs. The theory posited further that comparative studies conducted in sufficient depth could separate the unique from the common elements of managerial behavior and contribute to the desirn of national as well as reeional training systems. Studies conducted with these ends in mind were also expected distinguish between behavioral differences that were associated with the political and cultural context or organizational setting, and those reflecting individual characteristics. The study proceded by gathering reports of “management events” that reflected both “effective” and “ineffective” behavior on the part of administrators in the public, private, and “semi-public” sectors, including government agencies, large industrial corporations, and parastatals or public enterprises. When nearly 2,000 such events wen coded, it became possible to identify Ntecn clearly distinguishable skills that ranked at the top in frequency of use in all threz sectors. In the African context, it was hund certain skills such as the motivation of employees, the interpretation and avvlication of conventional rules and remhtions involving honnel-administration; -and interpasonal skills were more inportant than technical knowledge or the general administrative techniques commonlv taught in academic curricula. The intensity with which these skills an used, however, was found to be different across countries. Motivational issues an involved much mare frequently in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Zambia, for example, than in Tanzania ar Angola Writing skills headed the list in Tanzania but no other country. In the private sector, tcchnical skills were more in demand than motivational skills. Knowledge of procedures was far more important in the public than the parastatal or private sectors. When the results were coded by level of management, however, the dominance of motivational issues was universal. On the other hand, senior managers wae more concerned with negotiations and financial management than were their junior colleagues. Among the general skills least frequently encounted were impact analysis and evaluation, program analysis, computational skills, economic analysis, and Community relations. Among all skills coded in the sample, the worst perfonname was in the field of bureaucratic politics, in which 97% of the incidents were presented as examples of “ineffective performance.” These mults con- the possibility of identifying a common core of skills required by private and public managers, but they also suggest the need for careful adaptation of curricula to emphasize known organizational and national contexts, and they suggest as well a wcedure that can be followed m designing such adaptations. They do not confirm the expectation that private managers are better motivated than public administrators in the African context or that their personal qualities are vay different The major differences appear to be in the technical requirements of their positions, including accounting and writine skills. An isnuortarit caution needs to be observed in the application of the techniiue used in this study: the data do not disclose what skills might have improved performance if they had been present, and they do not predict future needs.     

论犯罪发展研究

犯罪学研究在促进社会主义和谐社会的构建中有着重要的作用,要发挥好这一作用,当前必须在内容上重视研究犯罪发展,尤其是对社会转型时期犯罪发展的特殊性研究,在方法上要大力推重理论联系实际的方法及实证的方法。本文从犯罪学研究的实际出发,就犯罪发展研究及推重理论联系实际的方法及实证的方法谈些认识。