Empowering employees in state agencies: a survey of recent progress

Employee empowerment involves the delegation of decision-making to employees, while holding them accountable for outcomes. Survey data show that while sixty-two percent of state agencies in correction, transportation, health, education and welfare use empowerment in at least one service function, only six percent of agencies use empowerment throughout more than 75 percent of the agency. Empowerment is frequently implemented through coordination across units and through mid-level management teams. Training is also widely used. Agency directors report that employee empowerment has a positive impact on group decision-making ability, communication throughout units and commitment to stakeholders, as well as quality and productivity improvement.     

Reinventing urban government in the Netherlands: an American perspective

National agricultural policies intended to stabilize farm price and income may have different impacts on different agricultural sector of a state or a region. A policy which influences a region's agriculture also may affect the general economy of that region, depending on the degree to which agriculture is linked to the general economy. This study evaluates the economywide impact of the Flexible Planting Program (FPP) -- a recent policy designed to encourage farmers to respond more to market than to the government incentives. The study employs an integrated modeling framework which links the national and state farm sectors to the region's non-farm sectors. Because of reductions in real U.S. market prices and, in turn, Tennessee market prices of some farm commodities under FPP, production of most agricultural outputs are expected to decline in Tennessee by 1995. Study results indicate that as a result of price reductions, the agricultural sector will lose about 15 percent of output, income, and employment. These losses cause significant negative impacts on the business-related service sector. The service sector suffers a loss of 31 million dollars in total output and 523 jobs. The total income lost by the service sector (18 million dollars) will be much higher than agriculture sector (11.99 million dollars). Thus, though the FPP may deliver its intended good at the national level, the policy has the potential to cause undesirable impacts on certain regions.     

Structural budget deficits in the federal government: A theoretical perspective

Survey data show managerial motivations and behaviors are statistically linked to numerous aspects of computer use in public agencies. Motivations to enhance service quality and work environments seem to be particularly influential in using technology to enhance productivity. Empirical research in public administration should be attentive to individuals’ perceptions regarding the impacts of computers. Normative deliberation, however, is needed to determine the appropriate role of managers.     

The IMF in sociological perspective: A tale of organizational slippage

This article examines the origins and evolution of IMF lending practices through the lens of sociological theories about organizations. Organizations founded on multilateral agreements are prone to having unusually ambiguous mandates. With such loose formal bureaucratic moorings, organizations like the IMF tend to be influenced by the dominant ideas and interests in their environments. Sarah Babb is assistant professor of sociology at Boston College. She is author ofManaging Mexico: Economists from Nationalism to Neoliberalism, and co-author with Marion Fourcade-Gourinchas of an article analyzing the historical antecedents of neoliberal reforms in four countries (forthcoming in theAmerican Journal of Sociology). Many thanks to Fred Block for persistently supporting and critiquing several earlier versions of this paper. Thanks also to Jane D’Arista and Laurel Smith-Doerr for clarifying my thinking on a number of points.     

Reinventing government: a critique from an institutional perspective(1)

This paper critically examines the recent reinventing government movement from an institutional perspective, focusing on principal-agent problems in management and political contexts of public agencies. Based on this perspective, it analyzes the problems and prospects of the National Performance Review in the United States and suggests that an institutional perspective can prove useful in redesigning government--not by achieving a single set of insights common to all contexts, but rather by focusing attention to particular situations and institutional contexts.     

The transnational state and the BRICS: a global capitalism perspective

It is commonplace for observers to see the increasingly prominent role of the BRICS in international economic and political affairs as a Southern challenge to global capitalism and the power of the core Trilateral nation-states. Extant accounts remain mired in a tenacious realist debate over the extent to which the BRICS are challenging the prevailing international order. I suggest that we shift the paradigmatic focus in discussion of the BRICS phenomenon towards a global capitalism perspective that breaks with such a nation-state/inter-state framework. Global integration and transnational capitalist class formation has advanced significantly in the BRICS. BRICS protagonism is aimed less at challenging the prevailing international order than at opening up space in the global system for more extensive integration and a less asymmetric global capitalism. The article examines agricultural subsidies, US–China relations and international trade agreements as empirical reference points in arguing that the concept of the transnational state provides a more satisfying explanatory framework for understanding the BRICS phenomenon than the variety of realist approaches. By misreading the BRICS critical scholars and the global left run the risk of becoming cheerleaders for repressive states and transnational capitalists in the South. We would be better off by a denouement of the BRICS states and siding with ‘BRICS from below’ struggles of popular and working class forces.     

Local government projectification in practice – a multiple institutional logic perspective

ABSTRACT

During the last couple of decades, we have witnessed a proliferation of the project as an organizational solution in sectors as diverse as IT, housing, social services, education and culture. Despite a growing interest in the phenomenon, we know surprisingly little of how processes of public sector projectification unfold in practice, especially at local government level. This article uses an institutional logic perspective to illustrate and argue that public sector projectification can be understood and conceptualized as the enactment of multiple, co-existing institutional logics, but where one particular logic is of growing importance – the project logic. It is argued that even though the project form is often perceived as more flexible than that of the bureaucracy, the practical outcome seldom represents a radical break with traditional, bureaucratic management models. Rather, it appears to aid a rediscovery and reuse of central bureaucratic practices and procedures such as reporting, documentation and standardization.     

The agency perspective and the future of local government administration

Much of the recent political dialogue in the U. S. A. has included criticism of government bureaucracy.An especially significant response to this criticism was developed by Gary L. Wamsley and others in what has been c:alled the ‘Blacksburg Manifesto.’ They use the concept of the Agency Perspective to provide a basis for the legitimacy of a role in the governance process for public administration.

This essay explores the application of the concept of the Agency Perspective, which was developed primallly with reference to the national government, to local government and considers the implications of the Agency) Perspective for the future role of local government administration.

The essay concludes that the concept of the Agency Perspective fits local governments as well. If these arguments meet with widespread acceptance, this suggests a growing, more active role for public administration in U. S. local governments.     

The Atlantis of personnel: The lost world of public employee discipline in the state government

Though there are many procedural job protections afforded public employees, there is a surprising amount of disciplinary actions meted out. A survey of 50 State governments showed that the magnitude of employee discipline is relatively high; there is a positive relationship between states which have low disciplinary records, and their lack of control of the disciplinary process; and there is a “progressive disciplinary profilet” prototypes state that exhibits a high degree of discipline when corrective and minor disciplinary actions are multiples of major disciplinary actions.     

Limits of regulatory governance change in the post-developmental state: Korean telecommunications market restructurings from a comparative perspective

This study explains the limits of institutional transformation in Korea from the developmental state to a post-developmental state, in terms of regulatory institutions instead of developmental institutions. The Korean state has taken advantage of the government's discretionary policy changes and power formed by both informal state institutions and informal policy networks, while the regulatory state has placed a special emphasis on social consensus as well as political support for changes of market institutions. New market rules and laws have also been inefficient and ineffective for fair market competition. Limits of regulatory governance change have occurred due to misalignments between informal regulatory institutions in the developmental state and formal regulatory institutions in the post-developmental state. State managers have created discretionary state intervention in policy implementation, politicized the roles of regulatory agencies, and brought ministry-type regulatory state institutions back in. The establishment of effective market institutions has failed due to informal market institutions (unfair and illegal market practices) that have interfered with the policy implementation of new formal market regulations.     

The development of an interorganizational network in state government: Improved performance through action research

In unstable, changing environments we have seen that organizations become more interdependent and seek to form interorganizational relationships. This is especially true in public sector agencies where financial and human resources are becoming more scarce and unpredictable. In an attempt to develop an interorganizational system in Florida state government, the authors used an action research approach to design and implement a network of individuals from six agencies seeking to improve individual and organizational performance. The program of research and development involved 30 participants and occurred in three distinct phases: 1) the identification phase; 2) the action learning phase; and 3) the evaluation and planning phase. Findings from the project have shown improved effectiveness and personal growth for program participants. Network interaction analysis and other data sources show a viable interorganizational network emerging with the potential for improving performance in the agencies and the state government as a whole.     

New Zealand: the dynamics behind a reinvented government

Within the last ten years, the New Zealand government has reformed its management and accounting systems to such a degree that it has attracted the attention of government officials from around the world. The new business-like methods adopted include realignments in managerial authority, accrual budgeting and accounting, asset revaluations, capital charging, and budgeting for outcomes. This paper provides a look at the dynamics behind these revisions with specific emphasis on changes in budgeting processes. Additionally, an explanation is provided as to why it would be very difficult to adopt these methods in the U. S.     

Public organizations, stakeholders and the construction of publicness. Claims and defence of authority in public action

This article seeks to highlight the conditions in which organizations with different levels of 'publicness' interact in the framework of policy-making. In France, decision making and implementation is shared among public, semi-public and private organizations. The specific responsibility and influence of public organizations within institutional collective action however is a source of ambiguity. It becomes therefore a matter of political authority for public organizations to invest in the structuring of public problems and policies. The case analysed here shows that the publicness of implemented policies is a construction which stakeholders may try to influence. Responses by public organizations show that publicness does not only relate to the plurality of organizational forms but also to the existence of a form of hierarchy within systems of governance themselves.     

Community involvement: a function of local government innovation

This paper discusses the implications of community involvement for the delivery of public services. It discusses exemplary case studies of community involvement in government, and provides an in-depth discussion of community participation in the affairs of the Engineering Traffic Division in San Diego, California. It finds a positive relationship between community involvement, and responsiveness, customer satisfaction, efficiency and effectiveness.     

Investing in the Market of Violence: Toward a Micro-Theory of Terrorist Financing

Terrorist financing is the dedicated pursuit of adequate capitalization within a market of violence, wherein terrorist organizations seek to extract resources and funding from the social, political, and economic environment in which they operate. At the same time, the effectiveness of a terrorist group in this pursuit is highly dependent on their organizational type and design, its leadership capabilities, and its capacity for organizational learning—factors that shape the ability of terrorist groups to identify and exploit a limited set of investment and rent-seeking opportunities.     

Nationalism in the USSR: a historical and comparative perspective

The late 1980s and early 1990s were characterized by the sudden rise of nationalist movements in almost all Soviet ethnic regions. It is argued that the rise of political nationalism since the late 1980s can be explained by the development of cultural nationalism in the previous decades, as an unintended outcome of Communist nationalities policy. All ethnic regions are examined throughout the entire history of the USSR (49 regions, 1917–1991), using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. This paper aims to make at least three contributions to the field. First, it is a methodological contribution for studying nationalism: a “quantification of history” approach. Having constructed variables from historical data, I use conventional statistical methods such as SEM. Second, this paper contributes to the theoretical debate about the role of cultural autonomy in multiethnic states. Finally, the paper statistically proves that the break between early Soviet and Stalinist nationalities policy explains the entire Soviet nationalities policy.     

Forming government elites in a new democracy: The case of Poland

In this article we describe a study of the construction of governments in Poland by concentrating on the recruitment of individuals to government positions. (1) We therefore consider social, political, and institutional factors in the construction of the government's cabinets. (2) We examine the question of the path to the highest government positions—where did the people exercising power come from and what qualifications do they have? Finally, we discuss the results in the context of institutionalization of political life in Poland.     

Creating a new organizational culture: the key to total quality management in the public sector

Total Quality Management (TQM) as a business strategy has been recognized by managers in the public sector since the late 1980s. While much has been written about the need for TQM and its strategies such as quantitative measurement and statistical analysis, team work and worker participation, few empirical and theoretical studies have been carried out or published on the connection of organizational culture to the implementation of TQM. Many leaders in the field have asserted that significant organizational cultural change will be required to ensure the success of TQM. This paper examines the changes that may be required in the process, and presents a synopsis of the need to (perhaps) reexamine the definition of organizational culture and the perspective of management, public or private, to make the culture of an organization more compatible with desired values.     

Ethics in organizations: a perspective on reciprocation

Some scholars have assigned the responsibility for ethical conduct in the public sector to individual administrators. Supporters of this perspective contend that individuals are able to introduce ethics into the administrative process by assuming personal responsibility for ethical action. The inference is that organizations cannot be expected to assume responsibility for ethical conduct.

Conversely the contention that individual ethics are inadequate in organizations is posed as a counter argument. Supporters of this contention argue that individual integrity does not mean that organizations will act ethically. They argue that organizational ethics are independent of individual ethics. Hence, they are treated as separate entities that do not compliment each other.

An argument that organizations and individuals engage in complimentary actions which lead to ethical conduct is largely absent in the literature. I argue that there is a reciprocal relationship between individuals and organizations. Thus, individual and organizational ethics are not separate but interactive entities