Does management by objectives stifle organizational innovation in the public sector?

Abstract. Does management by objectives stifle organizational innovation in the public sector? The authors explore this possibility by describing five common characteristics of mbo and then contrasting them with four characteristics of innovative organizations. The comparison suggests that mbo -pressures lead to organizational stress that is often resolved by the creation of two working environments; one for the pursuit of innovative objectives, and one for the pursuit of regular objectives. This could lead to dysfunctionalism in the form of abandoned objectives-objectives that might have been achieved if mbo were not used. The authors conclude with four implications for public-sector managers: (1) the practice of including innovation objectives along with traditional objectives in the same set of objectives is questionable; (2) broader objectives, perhaps pointing in the general direction of the innovations sought, might be more productive in some cases than specific objectives; (3) possible incompatibility between mbo and innovation might be lessened if innovative ventures are pursued in ad hoc organizational structures; and (4) management by objectives and innovation are not necessarily compatible.     

Diversity as a policy goal: The case of television

Diversity in communications is most appropriately understood as a free flow of ideas. In order to implement diversity, a comprehensive model of the communication process must be used for policy research, so that the various participants in the process can be properly restrained from abridging the free flow of ideas. The setting of priorities for implementing diversity has been illustrated using available studies of broadcast and cable television.     

“TOTALS”: Transfer of technology approached logically and systematically

Most efforts in transferring technology to a specific location are carried out following essentially a research approach. However, imposing the research approach onto a situation for which a specific solution needs to be created or restructured represents an inappropriate transfer of technology. A planning and design approach (PDA) is called for. “TOTALS” is based on planning and design concepts adapted to solving the problems of technology transfer. It is composed of six time-based and repeating phases, comprised of nineteen steps. It is based on four important concepts: a systems view of technology, a Technology Transfer Equation, five different purposeful perspectives regarding technology transfer activities, and a holistic PDA. No particular approach, technique, model or body of knowledge can be said to be predominant.     

Experiments in filtering political opinions

Changes in the wording of core measures of political attitudes in the American National Election Studies have generated a good deal of controversy about artifactual sources of change in the U.S. electorate. This research, based on several field experiments and replications, investigates the effects of using or not using various types of opinion filter questions that have appeared in the SRC/CPS series over the years. The analysis shows that the use of a filter interacts significantly with a respondent's level of education and interest in politics, particularly the latter, in determining whether a respondent will offer an opinion on a given public policy issue. But the study also demonstrates that such an interaction occurs primarily when the question about interest in politics is askedafter, rather thanbefore, a set of political issue items. In interpreting these order-and-context effects the authors develop a self-perception model of how respondents infer their interest in politics from information that isavailable in memory about their own behavior in the survey interview.