Management Strategies and Budgetary Politics

The study of public sector budgeting, particularly at the state level, has been dominated by incremental models of decision making. As a result, the budget has not always been viewed as an effective management tool for governors and other senior state officials. However, there are several critical issues which state leaders repeatedly face and for which the budget is the principal instrument for implementing decisions. This article identifies four key issues for the strategic management of state government and relates alternative approaches to each issue to the nature of budgetary politics. The first section raises the issues in the form of four questions. The next sections present alternative answers and discuss their political implications. Where appropriate, examples from the state of New York are included.     

Extravasation of plasma proteins in brain trauma

The cellular distribution of extravasated plasma proteins in cortical contusions was studied with an immunoperoxidase method using polyclonal antibodies against human plasma albumin, alpha 1-acid glycoprotein, alpha 2-macroglobulin, alpha 1-antitrypsin, transferrin, hemopexin, haptoglobin, fibrinogen, fibronectin and immunoglobulin G. The material consisted of 24 human autopsy brains with a primary diagnosis of cerebral contusion due to blunt trauma. The time interval between injury and death ranged between minutes and 7 years. Immediately after the trauma, a complete breakdown of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) occurred with hemorrhage and extravasation of all types of plasma proteins. This was followed by spreading of edema fluid within the extracellular space in and around the wound. Uptake of extravasated protein by glial cells began on the 3rd day followed by proliferation of reactive astrocytes whose ample cytoplasm appeared to serve as a reservior for the extravasated plasma proteins. Within the reactive astrocytes, plasma proteins and S-100 protein had a similar and diffuse distribution in the immunostained sections. The plasma proteins once incorporated into the glial cells remained unchanged for several years with little sign of degradation. It is suggested that the extravasated plasma proteins subsequent to uptake and processing by the glial cells, may serve some important physiological function in wound healing.     

Building successful technology transfer teams: A theory of cascading commitment

The attempt to transfer a technology from a publicly funded laboratory to a profit-oriented manufacturer can be a lengthy and complex process, involving several organizations and several key individuals within each organization. For example, a product technology transfer team may include the public lab itself, one or more end user organizations during product development and trial, a transfer agency, a public funding agency, the receptor manufacturer, and a private funding agency. Studies of such multi party transfers have suggested many factors that have contributed to their success or failure. We feel that most of these factors can be organized under the rubric of a more general theory of cascading commitment. Specifically, in this paper we propose that the likelihood of a transfer's success can be substantially affected by excellent management of the team building process by the public lab's R&D manager/director. Successful teams are built by gaining the commitment of appropriate individuals from appropriate organizations in a sequential cascading effect, by insightful and customized solicitation of each new team member to join at the appropriate stage of commercialization. To do this, the manager must be cognizant of, and individually appeal to, each new team member's perceptions of three sets of variables: evidence of the prior members' credibility, evidence of the prior members' commitment, and the set of personal benefits to be gained from participation.     

When random assignment fails: Some lessons from the Minneapolis Spouse Abuse Experiment

In this paper, we consider what may be done when researchers anticipate that in the implementation of field experiments, random assignment to experimental and control groups is likely to be flawed. We then reanalyze data from the Minneapolis Spouse Abuse Experiment in a manner that explicitly models violations of random assignment. As anticipated, we find far larger treatment effects than previously reported. The techniques developed should be useful in a wide variety of settings when random assignment is implemented imperfectly.