L'utilisation de la méthode des cas et des jeux de simulation dans l'enseignement de l'administration publique

Sommaire. La méthode des cas et les jeux de simulation ne sont pas utilisés sur une très grande échelle dans l'enseignement de l'administration publique. Le présent article décrit ces méthodes d'enseignement et fait le point sur le matériel pédagogique actuellement disponible. Il apparait que I'on dispose d'un nombre sans cesse grandissant de cas et de jeux conGus pour former les administrateurs publics et clue ces méthodes d'enseignement sont appelées à connaître un développement considérable dans l'avenir. Abstract. Case studies and simulation games are not used to a very great extent in the teaching of public administration. This article describes these teaching methods as well as the didactic material presentlv available. It would seem that there is an ever increasing number of cases and games directed towards the training of public administrators. It is evident that case studies and simulation games will become increasingly popular in the near future.     

Keeping a watchful eye in times of turmoil? How repeated structural reform leads to more attention to political signals

An important rationale for the creation of semi-autonomous agencies is to create some distance between politics and administration. As such, agencies are expected to shield policy implementation from the daily concerns of political life. However, political actors and politically controlled ministries still influence agencies in various intended and unintended ways. This article focuses on intensive long-term series of structural reforms and how they may undermine the original design philosophy underpinning agencification. We utilize a dataset combining staff surveys and a structural reform database to perform multilevel analyses of employees nested in organizations. We find that the frequency with which agencies have experienced structural reform affects the weight that employees attach to signals from political and ministerial principals. Frequent structural reform may lead to heightened perceptions of the importance of political signals. Hence, frequent structural reforms may increase the risk of political influence on agencies that were designed to operate impartially.     

Mapping Organizational Change in the State: Challenges and Classifications

The article discusses possible answers to the question of what constitutes different types of change of state organizations. Drawing upon contributions from organization theory and public administration, classifications of different types of births, survivals, and deaths, are discussed and outlined, providing a mapping of organizational change in state administration along the horizontal as well as the vertical dimension. As an illustration, the article also shows how a detailed classification has been used in the Norwegian State Administration Database.     

Agencification and Corporatization in Norway 1947–2011

We explore agencification and corporatization in the Norwegian central government. While these types of organizational change have often been linked to the NPM and post-NPM doctrines of recent decades, we will extend our analysis back to the post-World War II period. The empirical data are drawn from the Norwegian State Administration Database. The main focus will be on changes along the vertical dimension, i.e., conversions of ministerial units into state agencies and from state agencies to state-owned companies, or in the other direction. A main question is the organizational dynamics of agencification and corporatization. Why have the structure and organization of government changed, how and to what degree do the pattern of change reflect global trends in NPM and post-NPM reforms, and is the central government subject to the politics of structural choice. Moreover, what is the importance of national administrative doctrines, party constellations in government, and deliberate actions of administrative policy-makers?     

Failures in agricultural innovation due to poor understanding of farmers’ predispositions

Development projects in Madagascar have increased and evolved for half a century, yet they have failed to enhance farmers’ performances. Related literature attributes the causes of failure as external to the project instigators, who are mostly institutions and funders. This article aims to highlight the role of development agents and their responsibility in unsuccessful projects. Participant observation of participatory learning and action research conducted in the Malagasy highlands revealed that non-consideration of the target audience’s rationale makes the innovation processes provided by development projects obsolete.     

Environmental conditions associated with shark attacks against humans: a case report about territoriality

This article describes the autopsy findings of a victim of a shark attack that took place off the coast of Pernambuco, Brazil. The victim was rescued and immediately taken to a nearby hospital but did not survive, even though the lapse of time between the attack and verification of death did not exceed 15 minutes. The presence of a single, large, contused and incised, semiarched wound with a serrated aspect was decisive in elucidating the event. Thus, this study discusses aspects related to the aggressor species, to the autopsy, to the type of wound, and to the causes that have led to a significant increase in this type of event in the area. It was concluded that the lesion was produced while the victim was still alive and that it was the cause of death.     

Mapping Organizational Units in the State: Challenges and Classifications

The article discusses possible answers on three key questions for attempts at mapping the pattern of state organizations:

1. What constitutes a state organization?

2. What constitutes one state organization?

3. What constitutes different types of state organizations?

The main focus is on structural relations within and between organizational units, but the article also draws upon other classifications of units from the academic literature in organization theory and public administration. As an illustration, the article also outlines how these questions have been handled in the development of the Norwegian State Administration Database.