Organizational Commitment,Job Satisfaction and Attitudes toward Organizational Change: A Study in the Local Government

The present study investigates the direct and indirect relationships among job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and attitudes toward organizational change and their dimensions. Results indicated that employees in the investigated departments are highly satisfied with supervision and coworkers, whereas they are slightly satisfied with work conditions and job security, but they have low satisfaction with pay and promotion facets of the job. Results further demonstrated that employees in the investigated departments are remaining with their current departments either because they want to do so, or because they have to do so, but not because they feel they ought to do so.     

Managing Goal Commitment in Public Organizations: The Effects of Goal Conflict

Public personnel policies increasingly adapt performance management systems that focus on goal attainment, and this makes goal commitment a critical issue in contemporary public administration research. Few studies have however empirically investigated the relationship between goal conflicts and goal commitment. This study examines the interplay between public managers’ goal prioritization, goal conflict and employees’ goal commitment. Multilevel data from 73 principals and 1464 teachers in secondary education show that goal conflict has a negative effect on the relationship between goal prioritization and goal commitment. The study thus adds to our knowledge about the conditions for influencing public employees’ goal commitment.     

How Resistance to Change Affects the Implementation of Accrual Accounting in Italian Public Universities: A Comparative Case Study

Following a highly disordered series of reforms, Italian universities will adopt accrual accounting by the end of 2016. This article studies the case of two universities where the new accounting system was introduced early (2013). The aim is to identify the main drivers of resistance to change and determine the types of organizational behavior that can counter this resistance. The results show a positive correlation between overcoming resistance to change and implementing specific organizational practices that may soften its effect. Surprisingly, the article found that resistance was stronger in the university where the situation was less complex.     

The Organization of Purchasing at German Universities: An Empirical Investigation

The objective of this article is two-fold: first, it studies how German universities organize their purchasing activities, and, second, it identifies patterns in the structure of the purchasing function and analyzes factors that influence the design of purchasing. For this purpose, the article develops an analytical framework based on ideas of contingency and organization theory and presents the results of an empirical study which analyzed the purchasing organization of 65 German universities. The results of the study indicate that German universities use a medium level of centralization and specialization to organize their purchasing activities, and that the purchasing process is highly formalized in most universities. As to influential factors of the structure of purchasing, the study indicates that the number of employees, the number of employees with purchasing-responsibility, the purchasing volume, and the number of students enrolled at the university influence the structural variables.     

Computer Self-Efficacy and e-Government Service Adoption: The Moderating Role of Age as a Demographic Factor

This article investigated the moderating role of age on the positive relationship between computer self-efficacy (CSE) and intention to use e-government services.The Technology Acceptance Model was used as the theoretical framework for this study while the data was analyzed with SPSS. The results showed that age as a demographic factor was significant and positively moderates the impact of CSE on the intention to use e-government services. Also, CSE was a significant predictor of the intention to use but age does not have a direct significant impact on the intention to use. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Employee Readiness for Change in Public Higher Education Institutions: Examining the Joint Effect of Leadership Behavior and Emotional Intelligence

This study aimed to examine the effects of leadership behavior and emotional intelligence (EI) on readiness for change and to investigate the moderating effects of organizational commitment on the relationship among leadership behavior, EI, and readiness to change. Data was collected using surveys and Partial least squares structural equations modeling (PLS SEM) was employed. The findings of the study indicated that leadership behavior and EI have significant effects on employees’ readiness for change. More importantly, it confirmed the moderating effect of organizational commitment. This study provides an empirical explanation of the joint effect of some crucial change management determinants.     

The Unintended Consequences of Structural Change: When Formal and Informal Institutions Collide in Efforts to Address Wicked Problems

Significant restructuring of bureaucracies has occurred to facilitate joined-up working. This article draws on new institutionalism to explore the rationale behind the use of structural change for the promotion of joined-up working. It argues that a strong institutionalized myth has emerged which has created isomorphic pressures in the public sector to instigate structural changes in the name of vertical integration. These combine with informal institutions in ways that can be both productive and unproductive, highlighting the need to find a balance between formal institutional change and informal institutionalized practices, which often go unacknowledged as a powerful influence on policy.     

Refugees,Islam, and the State: The Role of Religion in Providing Sanctuary in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Malaysia has a mixed track record in providing Muslims with refuge, yet it increasingly lays claim to being an Islamic country. This article charts a history of the refugee engagement Malaysia has had based mainly on a shared regional and/or shared religious affiliation (Sunni Islam). I argue that the recent Malaysian history of refugee treatment presents a case for Muslim solidarity, but one tempered by a prevalent racism in Malaysia against people from the Indian subcontinent. Nonetheless, Islam provides an alternative history for providing protection to people in need. The UNHCR has pursued this approach in Muslim majority countries that are not signatories to the refugee convention in the hope of carving out a complementary protection space based on Islamic law and practice. This article traces these attempts and situates them within the Malaysian sociopolitical terrain, drawing out the possibilities and limits to such an approach.     

The EU and Multidimensional Forms of Power: Critical Moments and Change in Actorness and Power

This article introduces a framework for studying the European Union (EU) as power by focusing on what EU does rather than what EU is. Conceptualizing EU as a regional international society, EU is constituted along multidimensional lines. While a code of conduct limits internal and external practices, critical moments are important junctures for practitioners to reinterpret norms and rules, leading to the reproduction of EU as power. The practice of minority rights illustrates how a lack of intersubjectivity limits the EU’s power. It is first through practitioners’ engagement with norms and rules that new practices are established.     

Minor Parties and Independents in Times of Change: Scottish Local Elections 1974 to 2007

This article explores the electoral performance of minor party and Independent candidates in Scottish local elections from 1974 to 2007. This is a period which began with a major restructuring of local government and ended with a change in the electoral system from first-past-the-post to the single transferable vote. It encompasses a second restructuring in the 1990s, the consolidation of the Scottish National Party as an electoral force, and the creation of the Scottish Parliament. Throughout the period, while there have been ebbs and flows, Independents and minor parties have remained significant players in local electoral politics in Scotland.     

Task Environment Matters for Intra-ministerial Change: The Interaction of International Environment,Organizational and Opportunity Factors

Why, how, and when does intra-ministerial change take place? Previous answers to these questions suggest that political factors, such as cabinet reshuffling, are the most decisive drivers of inter-ministerial change. By contrast, this article begins with a distinction between the mechanism responsible for intra-ministerial and inter-ministerial change of ministries, the latter discusses which of these has been given more attention in previous research. Data covering the intra-ministerial change of 11 ministries in Germany between 1949 and 2006 can demonstrate that environmental as well as organizational factors are decisive in order to explain the timing and type of intra-ministerial change. The main finding is that a clearly definable threshold of tasks, organizational units, and a horizontal dispersion of jurisdictions – all of which react to the international environment – can explain intra-ministerial change in German ministries.     

The Effects of Empowerment Practices on Perceived Barriers to Innovation: Evidence from Public Organizations

While governments have adopted employee empowerment practices around the world, they are also concerned with and wish to reduce barriers to innovation in the public sector. Using the 2012 Australian Public Service Commission (APSC)’s “the State of the Service data,” this article examines the association between four empowerment practices and perceived barriers to innovation. The results reveal that a unit increase in granting power to employees has a very large effect on reducing perceived barriers to innovation, suggesting for policy makers that granting power to employees is a crucial practice which can reduce perceived barriers to innovation. Additionally, while providing information is positively associated with perceived barriers to innovation, offering rewards and providing access to knowledge and skills are negatively associated with perceived barriers to innovation. This article discusses the implications of these results.     

People,personal projects and the challenging of social structures: a contribution to the reflection on the challenges of teaching development studies

Abstract

This article makes a critique of using Post-Development as a tool in teaching an introductory course in development studies. Such a debate was initiated by Harcourt in a previous issue of Third World Quarterly as she reflected on her teaching experience in a European Institution. Harcourt concludes that the lack of engagement of some of the students in the course reflects the unwillingness of privileged middle-class pupils to challenge western lifestyles. I draw on a critical realist meta-theory about the process of learning in higher education to challenge the ontological support of that conclusion and invite her to reconsider her teaching strategy.     

The benefits of norm ambiguity: constructing the responsibility to protect across Rwanda,Iraq and Libya

Over the past two decades, International Relations scholars have highlighted the importance of efforts by hegemonic states and norm entrepreneurs to foster norm clarity when promoting the establishment, institutionalisation, and internalisation of norms. Yet, such analyses obscure the benefits of norm ambiguity in facilitating consensus, flexibility, and compliance. The authors offer a framework positing that hegemonic and institutional ambiguity can help create consensus and facilitate incremental reform necessary to sustain that consensus. Empirically, the authors then show how such ambiguity has facilitated the development of the responsibility to protect norm, tracing Rwanda-era debates over humanitarian intervention, Iraq-era backlash over interventionist abuses, and Libya-era norm implementation.     

The New Mode of Public Governance and Public Accountability in Developing Countries: An Analysis with Particular Reference to Bangladesh

Public accountability is a fundamental element of good governance. All countries all over the world strive to ensure the accountability of public officials by adopting different kinds of mechanisms. Following the liberal democratic tradition, most countries in the world have relied on the legislative instruments, executive means, judicial and quasi-judicial processes, official rules, codes of conducts, official hierarchies, public hearings, interest groups, media scrutiny and so forth for ensuring public accountability. However, in recent years, the new mode of public governance has brought new dimensions to the discourse on public accountability. This new mode focuses largely on the market- and society-centered mechanisms. This article is an attempt to assess the effectiveness of these market- and society-centered mechanisms in ensuring public accountability in Bangladesh. The article has the following objectives:

(a) to explore contemporary debates on the market- and society-centered mechanisms of public accountability;

(b) to sketch the state of public accountability in Bangladesh; and

(c) to analyze the effectiveness of the market- and society-centered mechanisms in view of the contemporary socio-economic and political dynamics of Bangladesh.     

“Dieselgate:” How Different Approaches to Decentralization,the Role of NGOs,Tort Law and the Regulatory Process Affected Comparative U.S. and European Union Outcomes in the Biggest Scandal in Automotive History

ABSTRACT

The VW diesel emissions scandal (“dieselgate”) recounts how Volkswagen became ensnared in a self-inflicted and staggeringly costly cheating scandal that started in the U.S. and then spread to the European Union. This case study shows how fundamental differences in comparative public administration (CPA) between the U.S. and the European Union (EU) led to different consequences for one of the world’s largest and most highly-regarded European auto manufacturers with respect to four institutional variables: (a) approaches to decentralization, (b) the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), (c) civil (tort) law, and (d) regulatory environment.