Chaos and Transformation Theories: A Theoretical Analysis with Implications for Organization Theory and Public Management

Chaos and transformation theories have emerged as new currencies in social sciences in general and in systems design and management, and in futuristic studies in particular. This article analyzes chaos and transformation theories in historical and contemporary perspectives, their contributions to social science in general, and organization theory and public management in particular. The notions of chaos and order, change and continuity, and uncertainty and certainty are analyzed along with the growing realization of complexity and non-linear dynamic features of modern organizations and the hard reality of a constant necessity to acquire new knowledge and learn to manage organizations with flexibility and innovation. Finally, the article addresses some of the limitations of chaos theory and outlines a number of implications for organization theory and public management in the age of globalization.     

Globalization, State Formation, and Reinvention in Public Governance: Exploring the Linkages and Patterns in Southeast Asia

While the existing studies on globalization widely cover the realms of economy, politics, society, and culture, the discourse is hardly extended to the domain of public governance. Although there are studies on the globalization or cross-national convergence of contemporary neoliberal models of governance – that is, the New Public Management (NPM) model and its revisionist post-NPM alternatives – there is a relative lack of research on how the globalization phenomenon itself has been a major cause of the emergence of such a neoliberal public sector management. In explaining the main causes of these neoliberal reinventions, most scholars highlight issues like fiscal crisis, state failure, and public sector inefficiency. They rarely consider how the dominant actors of globalization may constitute a major force causing the recent neoliberal transformation of the state and market-led reinvention in state policies and management. This article explicates these linkages – between globalization, state formation, and public sector reform – with specific reference to Southeast Asia.     

Innovation in Strategic Human Resource Management: Building Capacity in the Age of Globalization

This article addresses innovation as a strategic instrument in human resource management capacity building in the age of globalization. To meet the challenges of globalization—negative as well as positive—capacity building is needed in areas of organization, management, governance, and public administration all over the world. Innovation is defined, strategic innovations and innovative strategies are explained, capacity building is delineated, and over 22 areas or realms of innovation are identified, explained, and emphasized as strategic instruments of capacity building. Viewing human resources as human capital and beyond, the article argues that without human resources nothing can be accomplished, and without a well-trained, well-developed, well-appreciated, and well-managed human resources, modern organizations of government and business cannot meet the challenges of the globalization age, which demands a new generation of future-oriented, anticipatory managers who can develop effective visions and manage organizations by riding the high waves of change in the turbulent world.     

Mixed Results, Lousy Process: the Management Experience of Organizational Change

This paper reports the findings of a survey of 92 managers, from 14 public and 14 private-sector organizations. The aim was to explore the experience of change, extending the findings of a previous study (Buchanan, Claydon and Doyle, 1999). The survey addressed six themes: communication, evaluation, learning, attitudes and relationships, implementation and change and continuity. Overall, the results present a bleak picture of the process and outcomes of contemporary change. Most managers claim that change responsibility affords valuable personal learning. However, recent change has also been accompanied by stress, work intensification, command and control and management–employee distrust. A comparison of public and private–sector responses suggests that the experience of change in the public sector has been more pressured than in the private sector. Comparison of responses by management level indicates that senior managers are more likely to hold positive views of the change process and its outcomes. Explanations for these differences in experience and perception are considered, along with the implications. It is concluded that an adequate theory of organizational change must address the contradictions and tensions in the lived experience of those implicated, and that effective practice should consider the linkage of change implementation with organizational learning mechanisms which, on this evidence, are absent.     

Doppik und Produkthaushalte als Instrumente strategischen Managements in Kommunen – Eine vergleichende Fallstudie

This study aims at answering the question whether currently adopted approaches of accrual accounting and product-based budgeting are appropriate for strategic management in local government. A comparative case study is undertaken in Nordrhein-Westfalen as one of the leading federal states in Germany to reform its municipalities?? financial management. Generated insights allow deriving determinants of a successful change to accrual accounting and product-based budgeting thus contributing to a research framework for strategic management in local government. Furthermore, implications on how to deal with this paradigm shift are generated for public managers.     

转型期公共政策的价值定位:政府公共管理中功能转换的方向与悖论

中国社会的整体转型和全方位的现代化,政治文明建设的进一步推进,以及中国参与全球化进程和回应全球化的挑战,构成了中国公共政策转型的3个基本的前提和动力。公共政策本身在这一过程中也出现了转型,这给公共政策的价值定位和价值整合带来了更大的复杂性和困难性。由于社会转型的一个客观现象是不断以政策替代重塑公共管理,因此,在多元并存的公共政策价值中寻求平衡点的努力及其难度,决定了重塑中的政府公共管理必然是一种复合型的模式,这样,政府职能转变中出现很多悖论便是自然的现象。这是我们理解转型时期政府公共管理及其职能变迁的基础。     

Governing Diversity: The Impact of Social Heterogeneity on Human Service Delivery

The social environment in which government is embedded has wide implications for public administration. The increasing social heterogeneity in the United States poses various puzzles for the governance structure in public human service programs. Apart from major political and policy changes, contracting out service delivery is considered to be a more appropriate managerial response. Therefore, social heterogeneity in a jurisdiction would be positively associated with the use of contractual networks in service delivery. Using data from a national survey of human service contracting, this study finds that states with higher degrees of social heterogeneity use service contractual networks more often. This further highlights the imperative of capacity building for public administrators when using contractual networks.     

Mean‐Deviation Analysis in the Theory of Choice

Mean‐deviation analysis, along with the existing theories of coherent risk measures and dual utility, is examined in the context of the theory of choice under uncertainty, which studies rational preference relations for random outcomes based on different sets of axioms such as transitivity, monotonicity, continuity, etc. An axiomatic foundation of the theory of coherent risk measures is obtained as a relaxation of the axioms of the dual utility theory, and a further relaxation of the axioms are shown to lead to the mean‐deviation analysis. Paradoxes arising from the sets of axioms corresponding to these theories and their possible resolutions are discussed, and application of the mean‐deviation analysis to optimal risk sharing and portfolio selection in the context of rational choice is considered.     

A Look at State‐Level Risk Assessment in the United States: Making Decisions in the Absence of Federal Risk Values

State environmental agencies in the United States are charged with making risk management decisions that protect public health and the environment while managing limited technical, financial, and human resources. Meanwhile, the federal risk assessment community that provides risk assessment guidance to state agencies is challenged by the rapid growth of the global chemical inventory. When chemical toxicity profiles are unavailable on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Integrated Risk Information System or other federal resources, each state agency must act independently to identify and select appropriate chemical risk values for application in human health risk assessment. This practice can lead to broad interstate variation in the toxicity values selected for any one chemical. Within this context, this article describes the decision‐making process and resources used by the federal government and individual U.S. states. The risk management of trichloroethylene (TCE) in the United States is presented as a case study to demonstrate the need for a collaborative approach among U.S. states toward identification and selection of chemical risk values while awaiting federal risk values to be set. The regulatory experience with TCE is contrasted with collaborative risk science models, such as the European Union's efforts in risk assessment harmonization. Finally, we introduce State Environmental Agency Risk Collaboration for Harmonization, a free online interactive tool designed to help to create a collaborative network among state agencies to provide a vehicle for efficiently sharing information and resources, and for the advancement of harmonization in risk values used among U.S. states when federal guidance is unavailable.     

Bureaucracy and Democracy: A Theoretical Analysis

This article addresses the relationship between bureaucracy and democracy, bureaucratic politics and democratic politics. Bureaucratic theories and politics are discussed, democratic theories and politics are analyzed, and the argument in favor of reconciling bureaucracy and democracy is analyzed with implications for democratic theory and public administration. Persistence of bureaucracy is stressed, deficiencies in democratic theory and practice are noted, and the importance of a functionally balanced and professionally competent bureaucracy is reminded for administration of sound governance in both developed and developing societies. It is hypocrisy to speak of functioning democracy without a balanced professional bureaucracy.     

Towards intellectual globalization: A theoretical exploration and its implications for research

Globalization is a complex process which changes as well as has the potential to change the various events in the world at multiple levels. It is widely recognized that there are multiple facets of globalization including political, economic and cultural. In this paper, I advance the concept of intellectual globalization—a process of knowledge creation, transformation, and diffusion that goes beyond the immediate theoretical confines of knowledge management. The roots and functioning of this process are examined at the level of the nation, organization, and the individual. Implications for future research on the relationship of this aspect of globalization with various cultures of the world are discussed.     

THE BASIC PUBLIC FINANCE OF PUBLIC–PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) have been justified because they release public funds or save on distortionary taxes. However, the resources saved by a government that does not finance the upfront investment are offset by giving up future revenue flows to the concessionaire. If a PPP can be justified on efficiency grounds, the PPP contract that optimally balances demand risk, user‐fee distortions, and the opportunity cost of public funds has a minimum revenue guarantee and a revenue cap. The optimal contract can be implemented via a competitive auction with reasonable informational requirements. The optimal revenue guarantees, revenue sharing agreements, and auction mechanisms are different from those observed in the real world. In particular, the optimal contract duration is shorter in demand states where the revenue cap binds. These results also have implications for budgetary accounting of PPPs, as they show that their fiscal impact resembles that of public provision, rather than privatization.     

The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure

There is an extensive private sector literature on organizational change management. However, recent studies have suggested that the specific context of public organizations may have consequences for the management organizational change. This study examines to what extent different change approaches and transformational leadership of direct supervisors contribute to the effective implementation of organizational change in public organizations, and to what extent the bureaucratic structure of public organizations makes the implementation of organizational change s3pecific. The implementation of an organizational change in a Dutch public organization is studied using quantitative methods and techniques. The results indicate that bureaucratic organizations may effectively implement organizational change with both planned and emergent change approaches. The contribution of transformational leadership depends on the type of change approach and organizational structure. Transformational leadership behavior of direct supervisors contributes little to planned processes of change, but is crucial in emergent processes of change in a non-bureaucratic context. Although the literature on change management mostly emphasizes the leadership of senior managers, the leadership role of direct supervisors should not be overlooked during organizational change in public organizations.     

Managing international business operations in a changing institutional context: The case of the St. Petersburg hotel industry

This article advances the institutional view of business strategy by analyzing the post-socialist institutional transition in Russia and its implications for business strategies in the St. Petersburg hotel industry. The development of the institutional context is divided into three periods: socialist, early transition and late transition. The strategies of foreign hotel enterprises characteristic of each period are investigated with respect to entry/ownership mode, product, supply and human resource management strategies, and sales and marketing. The study is based on 24 semi-structured interviews with hotel managers, and a variety of local archival sources.The analysis shows how tightly companies are integrated with the formal and informal macro- and industry-level institutional context of Russia. In the case of the hotel industry, the impact of the change in the institutional context from a centrally planned to a market economy centers on the connections of the hotel enterprise with public and private sector actors. Here, empirical analysis shows that first, the degree of integration varied between the three time periods examined, second, many relevant institutional effects are observed at industry level, and third, foreign and local enterprises differ especially during the period of rapid institutional change.     

Financial Market Globalization,Symmetry‐Breaking,and Endogenous Inequality of Nations

This paper investigates the effects of financial market globalization on the inequality of nations. The world economy consists of inherently identical countries, which differ only in their levels of capital stock. Each country is represented by the standard overlapping generations model, modified only to incorporate credit market imperfection. An integration of financial markets affects the set of stable steady states, as it changes the balance between the equalizing force of the diminishing returns technology and the unequalizing force of the wealth‐dependent borrowing constraint. The model is tractable enough to allow for a complete characterization of the stable steady states. In the absence of the international financial market, the world economy has a unique steady state, which is symmetric and stable. In the presence of the international financial market, symmetry‐breaking occurs under some conditions. That is, the symmetric steady state loses its stability and stable asymmetric steady states come to exist. In the stable asymmetric steady states, the world economy is endogenously divided into the rich and poor countries; the borrowing constraints are binding in the poor but not in the rich; the world output is smaller, the rich are richer and the poor are poorer in any of the stable asymmetric steady states than in the (unstable) symmetric steady state.     

The More You Give,the More You Get? The Impact of Corporate Political Activity on the Value of Government Contracts

Firms have been relying on corporate political activity (CPA) to achieve access and to affect public policy change for decades. Most research on CPA and public policy outcomes has implicitly assumed that access afforded by CPA results in an either‐ or (dichotomous) policy outcome such as votes or election outcomes. Based on recent research on how CPA can be a strategic signal to government agencies, however, it is possible that CPA may in fact, have a linear association with public policy outcomes as opposed to merely a dichotomous one, and we explore this relationship in the unique public policy context of government contract awards. We specifically analyze how higher levels of CPA impact the financial value of government contracts awarded to firms. Utilizing the S&P 1500 sample for 16 years (1997–2012) we find that CPA has a one to one association with the value of contract awards, indicating that CPA and public policy outcomes can be linked in ways that motivate firms to continuously invest in CPA, to maximize their political rents. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this finding in light of extant research on CPA and its direct impact on public policy outcomes.     

New CEO Openness to Change and Strategic Persistence: The Moderating Role of Industry Characteristics

Drawing on the upper echelons, managerial discretion and strategic contingency perspectives we examine the relationships between newly chosen CEOs' openness to change and firm strategic persistence in the post-succession phase. This study is different from prior studies on the consequences of CEO succession in that it focuses on specific characteristics of the new CEO (that reflect his/her knowledge-base and cognitive orientations) and the industry context rather than purely on the event of succession. Based on a sample of 132 successions in 118 firms in the US manufacturing sector, and after controlling for industry concentration, board power, firm size and pre-succession performance, we find a negative relationship between CEOs' openness to change and post-succession strategic persistence. Interestingly, our findings indicate that this relationship is moderated by industry characteristics in that the negative association between CEO openness to change and strategic persistence is significant in high-discretion but not in low-discretion industries. Contributions of the paper to the CEO succession and strategic change literatures along with the managerial implications of our findings are discussed in the concluding section of the paper.     

Career Mobility in a Global Era: Advances in Managing Expatriation and Repatriation

The surge of interest in expatriation and repatriation within the broader discourse on labor mobility of professionals and high-skilled labor, human capital development, and the theory and practice of people management serves as the backdrop to this paper. We propose that expatriation and repatriation be framed in the context of global careers and embedded in the wider social-economic environment of globalization through the lens of a career ecosystem theory. We chart the evolution of scholarly publications on career mobility over the past four decades and highlight current trends, in particular the emergence of self-initiated expatriation as a pivotal change in the direction of expatriation studies and derived practice. We assess the rigor of empirical findings, weigh theoretical underpinnings, offer a research agenda for future research, and outline managerial implications.     

上市公司高管更替模式对企业绩效的影响

本文以上市公司2005-2009年间高管更替数据为研究样本,引入了高管团队重组和战略连续性作为中介变量,探讨了不同高管更替模式对企业绩效的影响路径。研究结果表明,上市公司高管强制更替外部聘任对高管团队重组有正向影响,对战略连续性有负向影响,对企业绩效有负向影响,其中高管团队重组和战略连续性在强制更替外部聘任与企业绩效之间起到中介效应;上市公司高管强制更替内部聘任对高管团队重组影响不显著,对战略连续性有正向影响,对企业绩效有正向影响,其中战略连续性在强制更替内部聘任与企业绩效之间起到中介效应;另外,高管团队重组对企业绩效有负向影响,战略连续性对企业绩效有正向影响。     

Administration, Globalization, and the Arab States

Globalization involves risks and opportunities for the Arab world. Realistic knowledge of these possibilities is essential for adaptation of governance and reform of public administration to deal more effectively with the unfolding processes of globalization. To be participants rather than mere subjects, the Arab states have to recognize opportunities and limit potential negative consequences. Success requires good governance and professional public management. Public administration in the Arab world has to transform traditional methods of command and control and nepotism into a more collaborative management that relies on institutional capabilities and practicing managerial values of accountability, performance evaluation, transparency, and ethics.