ON IRON CAGES AND SUBOPTIMAL CHOICES: AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST OF THE MICRO-FOUNDATIONS OF ISOMORPHISM IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

This study integrates experimental and qualitative data from a sample of public employees to investigate the micro-foundations of the isomorphic pressures that may lead to suboptimal decision making in the context of public administration. When asked to choose between two equally performing systems, subjects in our sample were inclined to favor the alternative that was encouraged by either a coercive, a mimetic, or a normative pressure. Participants tended to give in to isomorphic pressures, even when informed that the encouraged option was inferior. However, letting subjects autonomously infer the inferiority of the encouraged option from numerical data—rather than through an explicit textual prompt—proved effective in neutralizing the risk of sub-optimal decisions under isomorphic pressures. A consequent qualitative inquiry revealed that trust in the recommending institution or group, speculation about alternative performance dimensions, and compatibility with existing standards were the main drivers of suboptimal decision making.     

Between 'traditional' and 'new' Catholic church religious discourses in urban, Western Mexico

Abstract — This paper analyses processes of belonging, identity formation and construction of knowledge within and between 'new' and 'traditional' Catholic groups in a low-income neighbourhood of Guadalajara. It argues that these two expressions of the Church carry through distinctive 'progressive' and 'conservative' messages in matter of engagement with, and empowerment in social reality, notions of personal responsibility, relation to non-human agents and embodiment of experience. However, those groups are not internally homogeneous and to a certain extent the 'new' Church–the CEBs–is similar to the 'traditional' Church in terms of subtle hierarchical control of production, transmission and withholding of knowledge.     

FOR LACK OF ANYTHING BETTER? INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND GLOBAL CORPORATE CODES

This paper analyses the two most important international programmes for the voluntary regulation of corporate behaviour: the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Corporations and the UN Global Compact. It argues that international organizations adopted them mostly for reasons of political feasibility: by imposing minimal constraints on constituents the codes circumvented the most pressing problems of political acceptability associated with standard setting. It finds no clear evidence, however, that the network solutions adopted are technically more effective than traditional forms of regulation. The paper concludes that while it is unlikely that corporate behaviour will change simply as a result of participation in these programmes, if the programmes increase their ability to consistently discriminate between good and bad performers, the resulting ‘soft’ sanctioning power has the potential to alter corporate behaviour in the long run.     

Innovation Policy in Italy (1993–2002): Understanding the Invention and Persistence of a Public Management Reform

The literature on the politics of public management reform in Italy broadly contends that the country's legalistic administrative tradition suppresses reform. This article questions and qualifies this line of argument on the basis of a newly reported case of public management reform that endured for more than 10 years. The study tracks and explains the emergence of the policy issue of “government innovation” and its persistence on the specialized policy agenda of the Ministry for Public Administration. The initial emergence of the government innovation policy in Italy and its directional stability is explained by applying event‐centric approaches to historical analysis, together with the institutional concept of policy subsystems. The article shows the need for modifying central arguments—both substantive and theoretical—about the politics of public management reform in Italy.