Corporate governance for NGOs?

Official aid funding for the development NGO sector grew fast in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These halcyon days are over. Thinkers within the NGO community are concerned with how to adapt to the end of the funding boom, and to correct its adverse effects. However, in spite of many calls to reorganize, re-think, and professionalize, one major set of issues has been largely ignored: the scope for introducing collective self-regulation of the organizational structure and procedures of NGOs in developing countries. The authors argue that this could make a major contribution to solving several problems currently faced by NGOs.     

The Strategic Sources of Foreign Policy Substitution

While a growing body of work provides empirical support for the notion that political leaders "substitute" foreign policies depending on a variety of domestic political and economic conditions, little work examines the underlying strategic causes of substitution. This article argues that foreign states behave strategically in order to (a) avoid becoming the targets of domestically troubled executives or (b) to take advantage of the domestic trouble another state endures. Such "strategic interaction" delimits the set of foreign policies reasonably available to leaders in trouble at home, thus producing the impetus for policy substitution. This article develops a theoretical model of strategic behavior and policy substitution and reports empirical results of a multivariate probit model.     

The National Labor Relations Act and health care institutions: the persistent paradox.

In the wake of 1974 amendments to the NLRA, nonprofit health care institutions have been involved in a steady stream of labor relations cases. This article examines some of the new labor relations problems facing these institutions, and it provides valuable information and analysis to help administrators keep abreast of the legal and practical developments stemming from the cases.     

The chief administrative officer in urban administration

One cause of the urban crisis in America id ineffectual executive leadership and administration. Charter reorganization often fails to improve the city' condition because objectives are not clear. As such authorities as Lineberry and Fowler, and Adrian have noticed, larger cities often seek better executive andds administrative performance through the strong mayor-council form of government, thereby leaving the reform tradition's model council-manager form. But close observation of several large cities reveals the position of Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) as a close asociate of the mayor and a substitute for a City Manager (CM). Although more than 2000 cities have a CAO, the city management professional literature has created an ambiguous, somewhat critical view of the position. Criticisms expressed are that a CAO is only the personal assistant of the mayor, lacks full appointive and budget powers, and is not as profesional as a CM. However, study of the charters of several cities such as San Francisco, Albuqerque, and New Orleans, and results of analyses by Hogan, Sayre, Nolting, and others indicate that CAOs possess significant appointive, policy and budget authority and are highly successful professionals. The need for strong executive political leadership in larger cities is often more than the CM institution can acomodate. The city management profession has not fully recognized the mayor-CAO combination as a valuable alternative to the council-manager government. However, the succes of the CAO position in numerous cities, and the close working realtion acheived betwen mayors and CAOs uncovered by Hogan, indicate that the CAO is here to stay, and merits a place alongside the venerable CM Institution in the constant effort to improve American city management.     

Invited Commentary: Positive Youth Development and Human Complexity

The process of positive development for adolescents includes struggling to address a wide variety of complex, often unstated bio-psycho-social-cultural challenges. These include formulating workable values, learning self-regulation, preparation for adult work roles—and innumerable other un-tidy puzzles. Variable-based research can only scratch the surface of how youth go about these processes; nonetheless, systematic longitudinal research like this can provide valuable information about developmental pathways and directions of change. Highlights from these papers include the finding that older youth report more goals aimed at meaningful connection with others and contributing to society; yet also that moral character did not differ by age. The papers suggest that relationships adults, hope, school engagement, participation in out-of-school programs, and intentional self-regulation can serve as mediators of positive development. Yet, a striking finding was that comparatively few youth in the study manifest a pattern of change marked by the coupling of increases in positive youth development and decreases in risk/problem behavior. We believe there is much beneath the surface to be uncovered.