The human side of managing organizations at a time of change: the russian perspective

Theories concerning social developments are considered to be only partially universal. To a degree, they are culture-specific. Nevertheless, experience and theoretical knowledge gained from exploring social phenomena in one society can provide valuable insights for the analysis of a different formation. This paper outlines the major changes that make up the present-day Russian reality, and discusses the resulting situation in the area of the management of Russian public organizations. Certain possible strategies of revising the old practices are formulated in the light of existing American theories of management and administration. The paper analyzes two alternative policies for improving the performance of Russian public organizations through restructuring the general mode of organizing and through enhanced supervisor-employee relations.     

From semi-presidentialism to parliamentarism: Regime change and presidential power in Moldova

This article examines Moldova's constitutional change in 2000 from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary regime and analyses what the Moldovan case tells us about the nature of executive power. One of the interesting issues that this case raises is whether our definition of regime really captures the locus of political power. While Moldova has evolved from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary regime, the president is more powerful under the current regime than previous presidents were in a semi-presidential regime. The consolidation of the president's party in the parliament explains the concentration of executive power more than constitutional prerogatives.     

Tracing experiences of NHS change in England: a process philosophy perspective

For over three decades public services have been the subject of unprecedented change. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the English National Health Service (NHS) where despite the effort expended on change there is growing evidence that such restructuring is largely ineffective. Drawing on a study of culture modification in the English NHS, this paper utilizes Chia's (1999) account of the metaphysics of processual change to consider why attempts to restructure public services are not always successful. The paper contributes to our understanding of public management reform by considering how an ontology of becoming, and a loosening of control, might alter how we approach reforming. Further, the paper offers a theoretical justification for the use of standard research methods for novel processual ends. The paper concludes with a reflection on the implications of a processual perspective for the future management, organization and study of change in public administration.     

Suicidality and Suicide Bombing Revisited: A Rejoinder to Merari

Ariel Merari purports to demonstrate a tendency on the part of suicide bombers to be motivated by depression and suicidal tendencies. However, he misconstrues the present authors' critique of his work and misinterprets their research. By clarifying both issues, this article seeks to substantiate three claims: (1) Merari's sampling procedure precludes generalization; (2) interviewer and contextual effects probably bias his findings; (3) evidence challenges his inferences.     

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.     

Organizational development and change in Africa(1)

Little is known about organizational functioning and managerial behavior in Africa. The need for organizational development and change is urgent. Current attempts to reform African public sector organizations tend to focus on mechanistic measures, neglecting the complexity of organizational life. Western approaches to organizational development tend to reflect their cultural milieu and may contain elements which are irrelevant or inimical to African contexts. There is a need to develop concepts and approaches to organizational development and change which are effective and sensitive to African contexts.

Most African nations have been independent for less than four decades. Immense changes have taken place on the African continent during that time. ‘Development’ remains the most common word in the rubric of Africa. Many governments still claim to be ’revolutionary,’ although change since independence has generally not been radical. ’Change’ in education has meant more schools, more teachers, more colleges, more universities: more and more of the Western assumption that education and learning inevitably means schooling. ’Change’ in health provision has meant more hospitals, more imported drugs, more complex procedures, more university trained medical practitioners: more and more of the health arrangements which the rich countries of the West can afford less and less. ’Change’ in organizational arrangements has meant more -- and bigger -- bureaucracies, more ministries, more departments, more parastatal corporations, more bureaucrats, more procedures, more forms, more control mechanisms: more and more of the organizational structures and practices which are now seen to retard change and development.     

From War to Peace: The Nepalese Maoists's Strategic and Ideological Thinking

In February 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) initiated a bloody war to establish a Mao-style “people's republic.” A decade later, however, they signed a peace agreement with the government, joined the mainstream political parties in parliament and in an interim government, and participated in democratic elections. This article provides some insight into the Nepalese Maoists's strategic and ideological thinking. More specifically, this article shows the reason behind the party's change of tactics and goals and describes the process in which these changes materialized.     

Socialist Serbia's Narratives: From Yugoslavia to a Greater Serbia

The essay surveys various attempts of Serbian intellectual and political elites to define Serbian national goals in relation to a socialist Yugoslavia. I suggest that even though rhetorical devices and policies applied throughout the entire socialist period have appeared to be the same (e.g., that all Serbs should live in one state), different contexts in each of the subperiods of socialist Serbia and Yugoslavia yielded entirely different results (e.g., in favor of Yugoslavia, or in favor of a Greater Serbia). In the paper, I identify four distinct, yet interrelated, Serbian national discourses: conservative–socialist, socialist–reformist, national–liberal, and xenophobic nationalist. They are evaluated in relation to official Yugoslavism in the early 1960s and Serbian reformist policy of civic nationalism in the late 1960s to early 1970s, debates over the 1974 Constitution, and, finally, Serbian intellectual and political responses to the Yugoslav political crisis in the late 1980s to early 1990s. These moments have been chosen because of their particular relevance for understanding the mutations of Serbian national discourse in the former Yugoslavia.