Do Better Monitoring Institutions Increase Leadership Quality in Community Organizations? Evidence from Uganda

We offer a framework for analyzing the impact of monitoring—a commonly recommended solution to poor leadership—on the quality of democratically elected leaders in community organizations in low‐income countries. In our model, groups may face a trade‐off between leader ability and effort. If the group's ability to monitor the leader is low, then the leader may exert too little effort. A higher level of monitoring increases leader effort, raising the value of the public good. However, more intense monitoring may also drive higher‐ability members to opt out of candidacy, reducing public‐goods value. The result is an inverted U‐shaped relationship between the level of monitoring and the value of the public good. The trade‐off between leader effort and ability, however, only exists in the presence of sufficient private‐income opportunities. These predictions are assessed using original data gathered from Ugandan farmer associations.     

Walk and Die: An Unusual Presentation of Head Injury

Abstract:  We report three deaths in young adult males following closed blunt trauma to the head and face where the affected individuals were able to walk away from the incident, before subsequently collapsing and dying a short distance from the site of the assault. In each case, due to the rapidity of the posttrauma collapse, the pathologist was faced with a diagnostic difficulty at autopsy; the external examination revealed multiple injuries to the head and face, but internal examinations showed limited findings with no structural explanation for the death. We discuss possible mechanisms that could account for this scenario, the implications of alcohol consumption with a concussive head injury, and parallels that can be drawn with the so-called "talk and die,""talk and deteriorate," and "second impact syndrome." Finally, the possible role of so-called "postexercise peril" is discussed in relation to these deaths.     

Contributions of Academic Research to Industrial Performance in Five Industry Sectors

Results are presented of a National Academy of Engineering consensus study that documents the contributions of academic research to the growth and competitiveness of five industries – aerospace; financial services; medical devices; network systems and communications; and transportation, distribution, and logistics services. Academic research has made substantial contributions in varying degrees to all five industries. These have ranged from graduates trained in modern research techniques, to fundamental concepts and “key ideas” out of basic and applied research, to the development of tools, prototypes, and marketable products, processes, and services. In network systems, there is a history of university involvement in serving as test beds for new networking concepts and in spawning firms. The academic medical center provides a distinctive environment for testing and incremental improvement of medical devices and for conducting essential clinical trials. In financial services, academic economics and mathematics research contributions have been important, in spite of the lack of a well-developed R&D infrastructure for the industry. Challenges and opportunities for enhancing academic research contributions are presented in the areas of regulatory research and innovation, service sector innovation, information technology, intellectual property rights, and the role and identity of the university.     

The relationship management function of public affairs officers in Chile: Identifying opportunities and challenges in an emergent market

Research on the public affairs profession in both South and Latin America is one of the leading limitations today in international public relations research. This study helps to lessen such a gap by offering more realistic insight into the ideologies and pressures that govern public affairs practice in Chile. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 15 experts who are current senior‐level public affairs practitioners in the Chilean capital of Santiago. Results offer three key insights: First, the core function of public affairs in Chile surrounds behaviors of lobbying and governmental relations. Second, leveraging cohesion between organizational private interest and the public interest is a key to leveraging pressure on elected officials and governmental agencies. Lastly, there is significant concern regarding public trust in the lack of transparency in the Chilean public affairs field, facilitated by insufficient governmental regulation. Such research offers practical and grounded insights for public affairs and public relations scholarship.     

From environmental policy concepts to practicable tools: Knowledge creation and delegation in multilevel systems

The problem‐solving capacity and problem‐generating potential of multilevel systems entail the need for the delegation of authority. When the problem concerned is about how to put an abstract policy concept into a practicable policy tool, the choice of the respective delegation trajectory depends on the policy models or the policy‐relevant knowledge that the respective political levels can supply. When regarding the European Union (EU) level as the starting point of knowledge creation and delegation trajectories, and concentrating on transaction costs, policy knowledge and models generated at the international level provide the most cost‐effective solution. Only when the international level is not able to provide further policy knowledge and innovation does the EU delegate its definitional authority, first downward to the member states and then sideways to EU agencies. We illustrate the plausibility of our dynamic understanding of multilevel governance by using Environmental Policy Integration as an example.     

The policy process: an institutionalist perspective

Abstract: The stages model of the policy process constitutes the conventional wisdom about the policy-making for much of political science and public administration. That model has performed a number of important tasks for these disciplines, but also contains a number of fundamental weaknesses. These include its assumptions concerning linearity and the temporal ordering of the stages, and the difficulty of the model in coping with policy change. Further, outcomes of the stages model tend to be determined by the environment of politics, rather than by the actors and institutions within government. The analysis presented in this article attempts to restore institutions (including the public bureaucracy) to a more appropriate central position in the formulation and determination of policy choices. The use of institutional analysis not only reflects more clearly the complex reality of policy-making and the interaction of organizations within the public sector, but it restores value concerns to a central place in the analysis and interpretation of public policy. Sommaire: Le modèle d'étapes utilisé dans le processus d'élaboration des politiques constitue le modèle conventionnel par excellence pour une bonne partie des sciences politiques et de l'administration publique. Bien que ce modèle ait permis de mener à bien des tâches importantes dans ces disciplines, il fait preuve de faiblesse sur certains points fondamentaux. Mentionnons notamment ses hypothèses sur la linéarité et l'ordonnancement temporel des étapes, ainsi que ses difficultés à tenir compte des changements de politiques. De plus, les résultats obtenus avec ce modèle tendent àêtre déterminés par l'environnement des politiques, plutôt que par les intervenants et les institutions au sein du gouvernement. L'analyse présentée dans cet article tente de redonner aux institutions (dont la bureaucratie publique) la place plus centrale qu'elles méritent dans l'élaboration et la détermination des politiques. Le recours à une analyse institutionnelle ne se contente pas de refléter plus clairement la réalité complexe de l'élaboration des politiques et l'interaction des organisations au sein du secteur public, mais il redonne une place essentielle aux questions de valeurs dans l'analyse et l'interprétation des politiques publiques.     

Administration in the year 2000: serving the client

One component of the increasing emphasis on management in the public sector is an emphasis on serving the “customer” of public sector agencies. Although it is difficult to argue that the clients of the public agencies should not be served courteously and efficiently, there are a number of questions about whether they should be thought of as customers in the same way as in the private sector. Some of those questions are empirical, related to difficulties in clearly identifying the customers of agencies. Other questions are normative, related to the proper definition of the role of the clients of public agencies and the definition of the public interest. These problems require serious rethinking of any simplistic adoption of a customer orientation in government.