Maturité organisationnelle des organisations publiques et management des connaissances

Mass retirements from the public service and non‐renewal of roughly half the workforce create challenges both for the intergenerational transfer of knowledge and knowledge management more generally. This article reviews the literature on organizational learning, learning organizations and intelligent organizations, concluding that these concepts are not well linked together. It reports on findings from interviews with 50 executives from the Quebec public service, which create a portrait of knowledge management and transfer practices and how they could be improved. The article then develops a model of organizational maturity in five phases, based on these findings, linking the concepts of organizational learning, learning organizations and intelligent organizations.     

Minimizing the threat of a positive majority deficit in two-tier voting systems with equipopulous units

The mean majority deficit in a two-tier voting system is a function of the partition of the population. We derive a new square-root rule: For odd-numbered population sizes and equipopulous units the mean majority deficit is maximal when the member size of the units in the partition is close to the square root of the population size. Furthermore, within the partitions into roughly equipopulous units, partitions with small even numbers of units or small even-sized units yield high mean majority deficits. We discuss the implications for the winner-takes-all system in the US Electoral College.     

Personality Traits and Educational Identity Formation in Late Adolescents: Longitudinal Associations and Academic Progress

Changes in personality traits in late adolescence and young adulthood are believed to co-occur with changes in identity, but little research is available that supports this hypothesis. The present study addressed this relatively understudied area of research by examining longitudinal associations of Big Five personality traits (i.e., Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) with dimensions of identity formation (i.e., identification with commitment and exploration in depth) in the domain of education. For this purpose, we used four annual waves of longitudinal data on 485 Belgian late adolescents (87.4% female; mean age at T1 = 18.6 years) covering a 3-year period. Multivariate growth models revealed that changes in Big Five personality traits were related to changes in identification with commitment and exploration in depth. Cross-lagged panel models uncovered that, except for Openness, all Big Five traits predicted educational identity dimensions. Educational identity dimensions only predicted Neuroticism. In addition, adolescents with higher levels on the personality trait of Conscientiousness faced fewer study delays. In sum, the present study adds to the growing literature that explores the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of personality trait development by uncovering the interplay of personality traits, educational identity dimensions, and academic progress in late adolescents.     

The Interplay of Loneliness and Depressive Symptoms Across Adolescence: Exploring the Role of Personality Traits

Based on current theories of depression, reciprocal links between loneliness and depressive symptoms are expected to occur. However, longitudinal studies on adolescent samples are scarce and have yielded conflicting results. The present five-wave longitudinal study from mid- to late adolescence (N=428, M age at T1=15.22 years; 47% female) examined the direction of effect between loneliness and depressive symptoms, using cross-lagged path analysis. In addition, the robustness of these prospective associations was tested by examining the role of the Big Five personality traits (i.e., extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness) as explaining factors and moderators. Results indicated that loneliness and depressive symptoms influenced one another reciprocally, and these reciprocal associations were not attributable to their mutual overlap with personality traits. In addition, neuroticism was found to be a moderator, in that the bidirectional effects between loneliness and depressive symptoms were only found in adolescents high in neuroticism. Practical implications are discussed, and suggestions for future research are outlined.     

When is Parental Monitoring Effective? A Person-centered Analysis of the Role of Autonomy-supportive and Psychologically Controlling Parenting in Referred and Non-referred Adolescents

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Over the last few years, the protective role of parental monitoring on adolescent adjustment (i.e., active parental efforts aimed at setting limits and tracking...     

Are Preferences for Fiscal Discipline Endogenous

Differences in voters' fiscal preferencesare examined taking advantage of theexceptional Swiss institutional setting.Empirical evidence suggests thatpreferences are determined by strictlycultural patterns (cultural area measuredby language). Thus, fiscal preferences canbe considered as being largely exogenous.This implies that, except for specialcases, it is not possible to find simpleproxy variables for fiscal preferences. Anad hoc index of fiscal preferencesought to be built up when the introductionof this variable is required forcomprehensive explanatory models of fiscaldiscipline or for other related studies.     

L'ajustement mutuel dans le fonctionnement organique du système multiorganisationnel d'aide et de services aux sans‐abri de Montréal

Sommaire : Notre étude de l'organisation du secteur de l'aide et des services aux sans‐abri à Montréal Centre met en lumière un système multiorganisationnel de services de santé et de services sociaux qui n'est pas intégré hiérarchiquement dans son ensemble et qui n'est pas soumis à une « entente de gestion et d'imputabilité» globale propre à une gestion fondée sur la normalisation des résultats. L'étude présente un système d'ensemble de type « organique » plutôt que bureaucratique, largement fondé sur des ajustements mutuels entre les nombreux acteurs publics et « communautaires » de ce secteur. La coordination des services se réalise alors essentiellement dans les interactions entre les intervenants alors qu'ils accomplissent leur travail, et ce avec le soutien des gestionnaires. À l'aide de nombreux extraits d'entrevues, nous étudions le fonctionnement de ce système « organique » sous la forme de trois catégories de processus d'ajustement mutuel qui se superposent et se complètent pour assurer la valeur des services : disjoint unilatéral, conjoint bilatéral et conjoint multilatéral. Selon les sciences de l'organisation, un tel système est potentiellement mieux adaptéà composer avec la complexité des connaissances et des valeurs caractéristiques des services humains, qu'un à système formellement intégré et contrôlé par des règles, des indicateurs et des cibles quantifiables. Abstract: This study of the organization of the sector dedicated to providing aid and services to the homeless in Central Montreal reveals a multiorganizational health and social services system that is neither hierarchically integrated as a whole nor subject to a comprehensive “management and accountability agreement” specific to standardized results‐based management. The study details a comprehensive system that is “organic,” rather than bureaucratic, and broadly organized based on mutual adjustments among the numerous public and “community” practitioners in this sector. The coordination of services is therefore essentially achieved through the interaction of the workers as they perform their jobs, with the support of management. This study draws on a number of extracts from interviews to examine how this “organic” system operates, in the form of three distinct processes of mutual adjustment that are superimposed and complementary to ensure the value of the services: “unilateral disjoined,”“bilateral joined” and “multilateral joined.” According to organizational science, this type of system is potentially more likely to address the complexities inherent in the knowledge and values that are characteristic of human services than a formally integrated system that is controlled by rules, indicators and quantifiable targets.     

A power measure analysis of Amendment 36 in Colorado

Colorado’s Amendment 36 proposed to switch Colorado’s representation in the Electoral College from winner-takes-all to proportionality. We evaluate unilateral and uniform switches to proportionality both from Colorado’s perspective and from an impartial perspective on the basis of a priori and a posteriori voting power measures. The present system is to be preferred to a unilateral switch from any perspective on any measure. A uniform switch is to be preferred to the present system from Colorado’s perspective on an a priori measure, and from an impartial perspective on an a posteriori measure. The present system is to be preferred to a uniform switch from Colorado’s perspective on an a posteriori measure (with some qualifications), and from an impartial perspective on an a priori measure. We conclude with a discussion of the appropriateness of these measures.     

A Structural Model of Autonomy in Middle and Late Adolescence: Connectedness,Separation, Detachment,and Agency

This study presents a comprehensive 4-factor model of autonomy in middle and late adolescence. Partially overlapping sets of scales on adolescent individuation and family functioning were correlated with each other in 2 independent studies. Data for the first study were taken from a sample of high school students in Grades 9–12 (N = 601), whereas the data for the second study were derived from a sample of 1st-year university students (N = 374). Confirmatory factor analysis on all of the scales and derivative subscales in both studies revealed a model that comprised 4 different but related factors, that is, Connectedness, Separation, Detachment, and Agency, all of which occupy a central place in different theories of adolescent autonomy. Connectedness and Detachment, and to a lesser extent Connectedness and Separation, were inversely related to one another. Correlations between Agency and the 3 other factors were much lower. Results are discussed with respect to the different views on autonomy that exist in the literature, and with respect to the term autonomy, which should be used as an umbrella term only. Implications for the conceptual basis of the Emotional Autonomy Scale are also outlined.     

Hair analysis of opiates in mothers and newborns for evaluating opiate exposure during pregnancy

The increasing interest in toxicological hair analysis as a marker of human exposure to xenobiotics such as illicit substances or therapeutic drugs, has been made feasible by the extension of mass spectrometry, a highly sensitive method of detection. A newborn exposed to drugs in utero can suffer from a varying degree of withdrawal syndrome, a few days after birth. If of opiate origin, the withdrawal syndrome can be treated with morphine, among other therapeutics, but it is not easy to diagnose because of atypical symptoms presented by neonates and especially when maternal drug addiction has not been revealed. To assess and measure toxicological factors linked with the appearance and the severity of this syndrome, maternal and neonatal matrices such as urine, meconium and hair were collected during a protocol approved by the ethical committee. Opiates in particular were measured with GC-MS and potential combined dependences (cannabis, cocaine, amphetamine, LSD and benzodiazepines) and/or substitutive therapeutics (methadone or buprenorphine) were also assessed in 17 mother/neonate couples. Gestational opiate exposure profiles were drawn up and linked with the observed withdrawal syndromes. A withdrawal syndrome seems to appear more frequently after foetal exposure to an association of opiates/substitutive molecules (8 out of 10 withdrawal syndromes observed in this study), although the impact of cocaine and benzodiazepines must also be taken into account. The results obtained in neonatal hair make it possible to affirm foetal drug exposure and are in accordance, for the majority, with the appearance of a neonatal withdrawal syndrome (NWS). Neonatal hair analysis could contribute to assess in utero exposure to opiates, particularly when results in urine and meconium are negative or when these matrices are not available.