Departmental audit committees and governance: Making management and accountability the priority from the top down

Abstract: One of the key policies arising from the Federal Accountability Act 2006 was the requirement for deputy heads to establish “department and agency audit committees.” These committees comprise retired public servants, academics and leaders from the private sector. This policy requires deputy heads to take advice from “outside” advisers for the management of their departments or agencies. This is unprecedented. The author examines the reform antecedents of this policy, key implementation considerations, and what this is likely to mean for management in the federal public service.     

The university and approaches to problems of state and local governments

There is a growing interest within universities in the operation of state and local governments, and in the services they provide. An example of this interest is the Program for Urban and Policy Sciences (UPS) at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.Since its inception two years ago, it has been the operating policy of the Program to direct its principal research activities to real and immediate problems facing state and local governments in the New York area. In each of the collaborative efforts undertaken with an outside agency, we have seen our role as that of both problem analysts and catalytic agents for bringing about change. This means our faculty and students actively participate in the policy formulation and policy implementation processes. A case study of a cooperative effort undertaken with the Environmental Protection Administration of New York City illustrates these ideas.We believe that a successful university program should combine research with real world experience; the university should encourage the faculty to broaden the scope of their activities; and students, particularly those from minorities, should be trained for professional careers as planning and program analysts.Work reported in this paper has been supported by the National Science Foundation under grant GI-5. A similar version of the paper was presented at the American Political Science Association Conference, September 6–11, 1971, Chicago, Illinois and at the ORSA Conference, October 28, 1971, Anaheim, California.     

Organization character -construct of barnardian scholars

Early scholars, inspired by Chester I. Barnard's insights, saw clearly the tribal nature of human organizations. The idea of organization character emerged as the understructure for the uniqueness of the behavior of the organization. The theoretical basis for deriving the character of an enterprise was drawn, together with the powerful implications of such subtle sensibilities. Indeed, the entire idea of organization character - of necessity -preceded later thinking on culture since the character of an organization dictates its culture. These concepts are the substance and spirit of the article that follows.     

Revolutionary Discourse in Mao's China,by David E. Apter and Tony Saich

Abstract

As early as Edgar Snow's pioneering Red Star over China (1937), Yan'an was seen as the “defining moment” of the Chinese Communists' rise to power. Beginning in 1935, Mao Zedong set his personal imprint on the party as he successfully guided it from the disaster of the Long March to the “Congress of Victors” in 1945. This set the stage for the final showdown with Chiang Kai-shek and the hapless Nationalists in the civil war of 1946-49. With the victory of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949, the experiences of Yan'an became the blueprint for the reconstruction of China along the lines first laid out in that remote and impoverished town in the northeast.