Public Management Decision Making: Effects of Decision Content

One obvious aspect of public management decisions and decision making has largely escaped attention—decision content. We examine the effects of decision content by asking the following questions for budget cutback and information technology decisions: How does content affect the time required for decision making? How does content affect who participates? How does content affect the decision criteria employed? How does content affect the information quality used in the decision-making process and red tape? The results suggest that information technology and budget cutback decisions differ in important ways. For information technology decisions, cost-effectiveness is not a significant criterion, average decision time is much longer, and decisions are generally viewed as permanent and stable. For cutback decisions, cost-effectiveness is a significant criterion, decisions are made much more quickly, and they are viewed as unstable and changeable. Surprisingly, decision content does not appear to affect the number of participants.     

Rigging elections with violence

In most developing countries even today, political parties spend a substantial fraction of their resources in attracting voters through ideological exhortation as well as force. In this paper we present a model of political contest between two parties that compete in two distinct arenas though the goal of the contest in both arenas is the same-to garner more political support. In the first, which we call “ideological”, the contest involves no use of force. In the second, which we call “conflictual”, party activists use violence either to force ideological supporters of the competing party to vote in their favor or restrain them from voting. We show that a party with lower initial political support will resort to more political violence, ceteris paribus and as the fraction of undecided voters goes up, elections will tend to be less conflictual. We also show that if there is an incumbency advantage, then the resources devoted to creating political unrest increase in equilibrium and political competition is more violent. We also provide some historic and journalistic evidence that supports our results.     

Allele frequency profile of three STR loci in nine North Indian populations

POPULATION: Bhargavas (n=120), Chaturvedis (n=120), Brahmins (n=120), Muslim Sunni (n=120), Muslim Shiya (n=120), Kayastha (n=120), Mathurs (n=120), Rastogies (n=120), and Vaish (n=120).     

Is There a Nonprofit Advantage? Examining the Impact of Institutional Context on Individual–Organizational Value Congruence

This article addresses an important question: do nonprofit organizations have an advantage over public organizations in fostering individual–organizational value congruence? The authors argue that nonprofit organizations do have an advantage. This is because institutional differences between the two sectors become manifest through nonprofit status and the extent of external control, which influences the organization and the individual. External control and sector status (nonprofit versus public) determine the extent of centralization, organizational goal ambiguity, and work autonomy. In turn, these three organizational characteristics shape individual–organizational value congruence. Although the results provide support for the nonprofit advantage thesis, it is worth noting that organizational effects on individual–organizational value congruence are more powerful. Indeed, the results suggest that managerial and organizational actions, compared with sector status, are more likely to influence individual–organizational value congruence.     

Unplanned Complex Suicide—A Consideration of Multiple Methods

Detailed death investigations are mandatory to find out the exact cause and manner in non‐natural deaths. In this reference, use of multiple methods in suicide poses a challenge for the investigators especially when the choice of methods to cause death is unplanned. There is an increased likelihood that doubts of homicide are raised in cases of unplanned complex suicides. A case of complex suicide is reported where the victim resorted to multiple methods to end his life, and what appeared to be an unplanned variant based on the death scene investigations. A meticulous crime scene examination, interviews of the victim's relatives and other witnesses, and a thorough autopsy are warranted to conclude on the cause and manner of death in all such cases.