The training and development of top executives in developing countries: A tanzanian approach

The training and development of public service employees is now accepted to be a major contributor to organizational performance. In the Third World, however, much of the training effort has been directed at junior, supervisory and middle-level personnel. Top personnel were, for a long time, presumed to be ‘above training’. There is now, however, an awakening to the need for training all categories of personnel. The major constraint in most countries remains the lack of facilities and trainers able to handle senior personnel. Tanzania has recently embarked on a concerted effort to train its top public service personnel through the mobilization of all management/administrative training capabilities in a joint, concerted endeavour, under the aegis of the Ministry of Manpower Development and a body known as the National Standing Training Team on Top Executive Development (NSTT). More than 20 6-week courses have been run and a recent evaluation of the programme suggests that they are popular and have reactivated an interest in training among top executives. There is, however, no evidence to suggest that the training has resulted in improved performance in public organizations although some executives have introduced some innovations in their organizations which they derived from the training programme.     

Vietnam: a case of military obsolescence in developing countries

ABSTRACT

Military obsolescence affects the capability of all militaries as it relates to serviceability and performance when countering potential opponents, and more specifically in the case of developing countries lacking strong indigenous defence industries. The gradual nature of this military concern has not been studied systematically, in contrast to military modernisation. This paper presents a synthetic framework composed of several indicators to examine military obsolescence. Vietnam has been selected for the application of the framework for its large number of Cold War legacies and the strategic pressure from China. Hanoi's ageing assets would undermine its position vis-à-vis Beijing, and its defence investment policies face the dilemma of choosing to spend more on naval and aerial power, or ameliorating its army which is technologically lacking compared to its Chinese counterpart.     

Managing research institutions in developing countries: Test of a model

This article proposes a model for the analysis, management and development of research institutes in developing countries which incorporates four interdependent dimensions: (i) a strategic management dimension concerned with the management of the organisation's internal and external environments and their interrelationships; (ii) a dimension concerned with ‘collaborative institutional arrangements’; (iii) an internal management and supervision dimension; and (iv) a ‘research operations’ dimension. A preliminary corroboration of the model's validity is derived from a review of relevant published literature and summaries of evaluation studies of research institutions in developing countries.     

Comments on ‘Enhancing organizational effectiveness in developing countries: The training and visit system revisited’

This article comments on the above-titled article which appeared in Public Administration and Development (PAD), Vol. 12. It argues that Hulme's article: (i) does not, as it professes to, bring out the organizational impact of the training and visit (T&V) system of extension and, more seriously, does not suggest what improvements are needed to the system, and whether any such improvements have been tried anywhere and with what results; (ii) dismisses the rigorous statistical analysis of the impact of the system by Feder and Slade, and approvingly cites Antholt's methodologically unsustainable comparison between states in India, without giving convincing reasons for this choice; and (iii) ignores the important developments regarding T&V extension in the recent past, and relies on earlier papers on the subject. Some of the recent developments regarding the implementation of T&V in Africa are given in this article, including a summary of recent evaluations done in Kenya and Burkina Faso. The article concludes with an account of the managerial issues posed by T&V.     

Policy entrepreneurship in developing countries: A systematic review of the literature

What can be learned from two decades of studies on policy entrepreneurship in developing countries? Policy entrepreneurship is a rapidly evolving analytical concept. A growing number of studies exploring public policy in developing countries use policy entrepreneurship as an explanatory theoretical concept. However, a substantial part of this research relies on qualitative case study analysis, lacking a comprehensive overview of the concept of policy entrepreneurship. This paper conducts a systematic review of the literature on policy entrepreneurship in developing countries. A total of 47 papers addressing policy entrepreneurship in the developing world, published between 1993 and 2017, have been analysed. The purpose and contribution of this paper are to offer a clearer picture of policy entrepreneurship in the developing world by concentrating on two aspects. First, we describe the characteristics of the studies on policy entrepreneurship in the developing world. Second, we analyse such studies, identifying the lessons that can be drawn on the phenomenon of policy entrepreneurship in the developing world. We conclude with an agenda for future studies, examining new theoretical, methodological, and empirical opportunities to advance the understanding of policy entrepreneurship in developing countries.     

The impact of employee perception on the successful institutionalisation and implementation of performance management systems in developing countries: The perspective from Ghana's public service

Performance management (PM) has become a key instrument in the quest to ensure optimal operations by organisations in the public sector. Some scholars, though, believe that PM has failed because of employees' negative perception and management's exclusion of employees from its development. Studies on the relationship between employee perception of PM and its effectiveness in the public sector are limited. We argue that management must value employee perception more highly than they do at present because it is unlikely employees would be willing to take an active part in implementing a change with which they disagree or that they see as having no value. This study examines the effect of employees' perception on the institutionalisation and implementation of PM in developing countries, with specific reference to Ghana.     

Making a difference: On the constraints of consensus building and the relevance of deliberation in stakeholder dialogues

This article illuminates the contribution of stakeholder dialogues to environmental policy making. It makes a distinction between stakeholder dialogues as consensus building and stakeholder dialogues as deliberation. Although consensus building seems to be the dominant approach in participatory environmental policy making, this article questions the merits of consensus building and it uses the experience of the Dutch stakeholder dialogue project Climate OptiOns for the Long term (COOL) to explore, in a deliberative design, the shortcomings of a consensus-building approach and how they are possibly dealt with. The article presents the results of two deliberative methods that have been used in the COOL project – the repertory grid analysis and the dialectical approach – to demonstrate how a deliberative design can help policy makers to critically assess arguments in favor of and against a broad range of policy options, and deal with stakeholder conflict in an early phase of the policy process.     

发展中国家转型中的政治合法性危机探析

对合法性本质、来源、基础的分析提供了认识合法性问题的理论工具.发展中国家转型中的合法性危机表现出敏感性、普遍性、爆发性及层面深的特征,其原因可以从现代性的挑战、转型带来的政府"超载"、阶级和阶层冲突以及公共权力失控中找到.合法性的维护应致力于创建现代性的合法性结构.     

信息化国际关系:现实与发展中国家的抉择

本文认为在全球化时代 ,信息化国际关系的影响日渐突出。文章对现实中信息技术与国际关系的互动进行了梳理 ;对发展中国家如何面对信息化国际关系进行了思考。文章认为 ,以更新的观念、更开放的姿态进入全球化信息传播时代 ,应当是发展中国家的普遍性选择 ,也是最符合其利益的出路     

新型工业化道路初探

走新型工业化道路 ,基本实现工业化 ,是党的十六大制定的我国本世纪前 2 0年的重要任务之一。新型工业化是相对于传统工业化而言的 :是被赋予了信息化的新内容 ,与信息化相互促进的工业化 ;是以保护环境和资源为前提的可持续的工业化 ;是以人为本 ,实现充分就业的工业化 ;是既充分利用国外资源 ,又坚持独立自主、自立更生 ,不断提高国际竞争力的工业化。     

Decentralizing water supply services in developing countries: Factors affecting the success of community management

This article examines the problem of extending access to potable water through conventionally controlled government services and describes the roles of non-governmental organizations and community management associations in improving service delivery and maintaining local water systems. Six sets of factors that are crucial to the success of community management are identified: adequate incentives, sufficient skills and resources, appropriate processes for water systems operations and maintenance, effective interorganizational relationships, appropriate technology, and effective systems of monitoring, evaluation and feedback. The components that must be taken into consideration in designing and implementing programmes for decentralizing water supply systems through community management are set out.     

Waiting for privatization in developing countries: Towards the integration of economic and non-economic explanations

The intention of this paper is to examine the political and administrative limits on the effective implementation of privatization in developing countries and so to present a challenge to the view that slow progress is primarily attributable to economic constraints. After examining these economic aspects, the paper provides an explanatory framework which incorporates those political and administrative processes central to an understanding of what happens to state economic policies in practice. The significance of these processes is demonstrated by drawing on research material from India, Pakistan, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. The conclusion drawn is that responses to pressures for economic reform will be determined, not so much by economic criteria as by the political and bureaucratic resources available to decision makers. Since policy processes in developing countries show considerable variety it is likely that there will be substantial variations in the practical achievement of privatization objectives.     

Fighting corruption in developing countries: Some aspects of policy from lessons from the field

Corruption persists in developing countries despite the proliferation of legal, institutional, and other measures that have been put in place to fight said corruption. The cancer of corruption has therefore spread exponentially in most developing countries with devastating socioeconomic and governance consequences. This practitioner perspective draws on the author's field experience and backed up by the research literature. It identifies, outlines, and discusses some aspects of policy in 3 areas—institution strengthening, the development and implementation of national anticorruption plans/strategies, and political will and leadership—and the conclusions that can be drawn from them for policy development and implementation in the ongoing quest to fight corruption in developing countries.     

Nigeria's bureaucratized ombudsman system: An insight into the problem of bureaucratization in a developing country

This paper is a case study of the bureaucratization process in Nigeria's ombudsman institution, otherwise known as the Public Complaints Commission. Proceeding from the premise that the efficacy of modern bureaucratic organizations is predicated on the ability to control bureau—pathologies, an attempt is made to determine success in keeping the bureaucracy in the Public Complaints Commission at an optimum level and thereby mitigating possible negative consequences. The paper argues that, contrary to the situation in most other places, Nigeria's ombudsman institution has developed into an enormous, wasteful and inefficient bureaucracy. The reasons for this situation are largely sociocultural. The Public Complaints Commission has a long history of close, intimate association with the civil service. This has transformed the Commission, more or less, into an arm of the civil service and virtually eliminated its unique ombudsman features. The situation of the Public Complaints Commission is, of course, not peculiar. It is true of most other non-civil service institutions, such as public enterprises and educational institutions, in Nigeria and most other developing countries. The paper concludes with a number of policy suggestions.     

The impact of the introduction of premiums into a SCHIP program.

This paper examines the introduction of premiums into the SCHIP program in Kentucky. Kentucky introduced a $20 monthly premium for SCHIP coverage for children with family incomes between 151 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level in December 2003. Administrative data between 2001 and 2004 is used to estimate a Cox proportional hazard model that predicts enrollment duration in this premium-paying category. The results suggest that a premium reduces the length of enrollment, with the impact concentrated in the first three months after the introduction of the premium. Similar results are not found for the non-premium-paying category.     

The impact of sector employment on party choice: A comparative study of eight West European countries

Abstract.  In this article, the impact of sector employment on party choice in eight West European countries is examined. The empirical analysis is organised into three parts. First, the impact of sector on party choice treated as a nominal-level variable is analysed. Then the impact of sector within various social classes is focused upon, and finally sector employment is considered in relation to the division between socialist and non-socialist parties. The impact of sector employment is large in Denmark; moderate in Britain, France and Italy; small in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands; and insignificant in Ireland. The impact of sector employment is much greater within the service class than any of the other social classes. The party families of the left, and also the greens, get stronger support from the public employees, while the main party families among the non-socialist parties, apart from the Christian Democrats, get strongest support from private-sector employees. Sector employment is most strongly correlated with socialist/non-socialist party division in Denmark followed by France and Britain, with only minor or insignificant correlation in the other countries.     

The portfolio allocation paradox: An investigation into the nature of a very strong but puzzling relationship

Abstract.  Perhaps the strongest empirical finding in political science is 'Gamson's Law': the near-perfect relationship that exists in parliamentary systems between a coalition party's seat contribution to the government and its quantitative allocation of cabinet portfolios. Nevertheless, doubts remain. What would happen if the salience or importance of the various portfolios was also taken into account? Should it not be the case that payoffs correspond with bargaining power rather than seat contributions? And perhaps most significantly, would addressing these issues produce evidence that the parties designated to form governments extract disproportionately large payoffs for themselves, as predicted by 'proposer' models of bargaining? Utilizing the results of a new expert survey of portfolio salience in 14 Western European countries, the authors of this article explore each of these questions. Their basic finding is that salience-weighted portfolios payoffs overwhelmingly mirror seat contributions, contra proposer models and any other models based on bargaining power. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for formal models of bargaining.     

Qualitative investigation of the impact of internationalization of education on host community's eating habit

Although education tourism has over the years enjoyed great attention by scholars largely because of its impact in shaping both the economic and political landscape of nations, an ample number of such studies have focused on the impact of the host community on the adaptation and survival of the sojourning foreign students or education tourists. There has been significant research into student's acculturation, mobility, and the likes, but research on the reverse impact of sociocultural interaction of these education tourists on their host communities is scarce. North Cyprus, a small island state with economic dependence on education, is a thriving host community for a substantial number of an education tourist. This study explores the influence of internationalization of education on the food consumption habit of indigenes of their host community. Data generated from a focus group of North Cyprus indigenes were used to examine how the influx of educational tourists have altered and shaped their eating behavior and culture. Current study contributes to both literature and tourism sectors by showcasing the importance of cultural transfer of education tourism.