ORGANIZATIONAL STATUS AND PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF THE SWEDISH PHARMACIES

In recent years, studies of the relationship between organizational status and success have focused largely on organizations transferring from the public to the private sectors: pharmacies in Sweden provide a case study of organizational status change in the reverse direction. Popular belief suggests progressive deterioration in the performance of an organization where ownership changes from owner-manager to public corporation, market conditions change from competition to monopoly, and internal management becomes increasingly command orientated. This article explores change in various performance and organizational variables in the National Corporation of Swedish Pharmacies, from its creation in 1971 until 1990. The corporation displays a high degree of stability amongst its senior management team, task specialization amongst employees is low, whilst standardization of working methods is high. Decentralization of authority has occurred over several years. A review of several measures of success, including productivity, financial ratios and innovation, demonstrates substantial progress over the period, comparing favourably with other Swedish public sector organizations. It is concluded that public sector ownership and monopoly supply need not result in deteriorating performance and lack of innovation, provided that criteria for success are clearly stated and properly monitored.     

Backpacking to Hailuogou Glacier

MOSTof the world's highest mountains are clustered along the barren, jagged area where Tibet, Nepal, and Pakistan meet, but Gongga Shan-in China's western Sichuan province -stands apart. A Western mountaineering team first reached its summit in 1935, and a Chinese team made the climb in the 1950s. The last team to attempt it perished in an avalanche.     

Workers, worries and welfare states: Social protection and job insecurity in 15 OECD countries

Abstract.  This article examines a model of the domestic political economy of subjective employment insecurity in advanced industrial societies. Based on data on people's attitudes toward their job as well as levels of and kinds of social protection collected in 15 OECD countries, it shows that there are distinct manifestations of job insecurity that are affected differently by distinct aspects of social protection programs. While the analysis shows that social protection measures reduce employment insecurity, it also reveals that overall levels welfare state generosity do not have any systematic effect on whether workers feel secure. The article's findings suggest the need to decompose the different components of employment insecurity as well as disaggregate national systems of social protection when examining the impact of welfare states on job insecurity.     

Ideology and party support in comparative perspective

Abstract. From the original Downs (1957) conceptualization to the Enelow and Hinich (1984) reformulation, ideology has been the key organizing dimension for electoral competition in the spatial model. The unidimensional spatial model is best suited to responsible multiparty systems where left-right position is known to be an important determinant of individual political behaviour. We contrast the traditional spatial model with the directional model recently proposed by Rabinowitz and Macdonald (1989) and test the models using data from six northern European democracies. Based on 57 different parties, the results suggest that even in this unidimensional ideological context the cleavage-oriented directional model provides a better explanation of mass attachments to political parties.     

REPRESENTING CUSTOMERS’INTERESTS: THE CASE OF THE PRIVATIZED WATER INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND AND WALES

Privatization has been one of the most important and controversial policy initiatives to emerge in the UK over the last decade. However, to date there has been little attempt to assess the impact of privatization on customers, despite the fact that much of the justification for the privatization of the public utilities was couched in terms of the benefits it would bring for customers. In the case of the water industry opportunities for competition are virtually non-existent, and the ten regional water authorities were privatized with their monopoly position intact. Consequently customers’interests have been represented and protected through new regulatory arrangements operated by the Office of Water Services. The purpose of this article is to offer some provisional assessment of the effectiveness of these new regulatory arrangements. In doing so, the article regards the model of private sector consumer sovereignty as inappropriate given the continued absence of competitive arrangements for the representation of customers’interests against some of the criteria currently being discussed in the development of more consumer-oriented approaches to the delivery of public services.