Ownership,empowerment, and productivity: Some empirical evidence on the causes and consequences of employee discretion

Abstract This paper uses a sample of professional engineers employed in the public and private sector to investigate the effect of sector employment, indicators of task complexity, organization size, number of rules, importance, and attentiveness and agreement among various principals (customers or clients, peers, mid‐ and top‐level management, and politicians) on both employee discretion and a subjective measure of employee productivity. The results show that disagreement among important and attentive proximate principals (mid‐level managers) expands discretion, but disagreement among important and attentive distant principals (top executives and politicians) reduces discretion. Sector has no direct or indirect effect on discretion. When customers or clients and peers are important and attentive principals, discretion increases, and so does productivity. Monitoring by mid‐level management has no effect on productivity. Because disagreement among distant principals is greater in the public sector, devolution of authority alone is unlikely to increase public sector productivity. © 2000 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

国外消费者权益保护制度的几种类型

<正> 消费者保护是一种由国家采取的综合性措施,共类型与一国的经济制度及管理体制密切相关。因此,社会经济制度的差异和各国主观认识上的不同,导致它形成了几种典型的类型。一、以市场行政监督管理和民事法律手段为特征的资本主义类型这一类型以发达资本主义国家为代表。在垄断资本主义条件下,垄断组织依靠自己的经     

房山区垃圾"瘦身"从厨余开始

北京市垃圾分类、垃圾减量工作启动以来,房山区委、区政府高度重视,建立了"政府主导--专业管理--属地负责--社区(村庄)发动--居民参与"的垃圾分类模式,在全市率先提出建立垃圾分类指导员队伍,先行成功后得到全面推广.为了进一步提高垃圾减量,垃圾无害化工作水平,探索更加有效、科学的垃圾分类处理模式,房山区把厨余垃圾的生化处理作为突破口,投资350万元,引进厨余垃圾微生物处理机,在分类试点地区附近投资建设了良乡餐厨垃圾处理站.     

个人信息侵权行为现状及保护措施研析

近年来,人们在享受科技发展与网络信息技术普及带来的便利的同时,也正经历着个人信息侵权的困扰。个人信息侵权行为具有侵害手段的技术性、侵害方式的隐蔽性、侵害领域的无地域性、侵害后果的严重性的特点,而相对于个人信息侵权行为,个人信息保护的立法却相对滞后,个人信息的界定狭窄,个人信息的法律保护无系统、比较零散,法律保护范围比较狭窄,而且保护手段比较单一,因此,必须完善个人信息侵权行为的保护,加快个人信息保护的立法进程和行业自律建设。     

“全球化背景下高等教育特色发展模式论坛”综述

“全球化背景下高等教育特色发展模式论坛”围绕着高等教育的发展特色,高等教育如何与社会接轨、如何为社会服务,高等教育的培养目标、教育方法等热点问题进行了充分的交流。强调信息化时代对高等教育提出了新的挑战,教育要具有适应性和弹性;强调高等教育必须服务于社会需求;强调高等教育必须注重内涵建设;引入了公安教育的新视角——私人保安教育与培训,为我院公安教育的深入研究和发展提供了新的思路、拓展了新的领域。     

The Neglected Power of Elite Opinion Leadership to Produce Antipathy Toward the News Media: Evidence from a Survey Experiment

Today, most Americans dislike the news media as an institution. This has led to considerable debate about why people dislike the media and how their public standing could be improved. This paper contributes to this literature by using a survey experiment to test the effect of several different considerations on evaluations of the media. It finds, consistent with the broader literature on political persuasion, that elite partisan opinion leadership can powerfully shape these attitudes. Additionally, it finds that tabloid coverage creates antipathy toward the press regardless of predispositions and that horserace coverage has a negative effect on opinions among politically aware citizens on both sides of the political spectrum. Contrary to some claims in the literature, this study finds no detectable effect of news negativity.     

Social Science and the Public Interest

Social Science and the Public Interest

Social Science and the Public Interest November/December 2010     

In Arms We Trust: the Economic and Strategic Factors Motivating China-Iran Relations

This article examines contemporary China-Iran relations, focusing on the economic and strategic ties that have helped solidify the relationship since 1979. We begin with an overview of the arms and technology transfers that mark the early years of the relationship, analyzing the benefits each side gained from these transactions. In addition to discussing the short-term financial benefits behind forging stronger ties, we examine how the regional ascent of both states has also presented several long term factors that helped motivate their cooperation. These developments shed light on the important role the U.S. has played, both in terms of where it has tried to intervene and what success it has had influencing the Sino-Iranian relationship.     

江苏高校廉洁教育状况的调研报告

高校作为传授知识、传承文明、培养人才、创新知识的重要场所,肩负着弘扬和创造先进文化、为社会培养合格建设者和可靠接班人的重任。因此,高校的廉洁教育不仅事关高校自身的反腐倡廉建设,而且对整个社会的反腐倡廉建设都将产生深远的影响。课题组选取省内20多所不同层次与类型的高校发放问卷10000多份,从廉洁教育的基本概念到接受廉洁教育的对象、从廉洁教育的形式与内容到接受廉洁教育的渠道和途径、从高校开展廉洁教育的基本情况到影响廉洁教育成效的原因、从高校反腐倡廉教育对廉洁教育的影响到师生员工对党风廉政建设的满意度等方面,就各校开展廉洁教育的现状进行了调研。全省高校共有12508名师生参与了此项调查,课题组通过对调查所示的各种信息与数据的统计处理与分析,进而探讨了如何通过创新高校廉洁教育的形式与内容,进一步增强高校廉洁教育的针对性和有效性,从而实现从源头上预防与消除腐败。