Political Organizations,Interest Groups and Citizens Engagement: An Integrated Model of Democracy

The paper starts with a theoretical reinterpretation of some classical topics in the public choice literature, where specific elements of contract theory and the theory of the firm are introduced. By putting into contact these completely different fields of economics, it defines a general theoretical framework for political behaviors whose implications go beyond those determined by the standard self-interest assumption. Political organizations, as suppliers of public policies, are supposed to maximize a residual quantum consisting in the public authority that can actually be exercised after all the electoral commitments, with voters and interests groups, have been fulfilled. This residual right—which can be seen also as a degree of discretion necessary for ruling parties to deal with unforeseen contingencies—is based on the reputational capital (goodwill) accumulated over time by political organizations and represents the intangible asset that secures voters’ loyalty and, consequently, the legitimacy to exercise public authority in the long run. When a deficit of goodwill occurs, a chain of “exit” strategies by voters can lead to undesirable results unless an effective “voice” option for citizens exists.     

The Consequences of Conflict: An Evaluation of Racial Disparity and Organizational Performance

The study of public administration is based primarily on two schools of thought; some theorists espousing political control with others supporting the inner check. Heretofore, studies have failed to examine the effects of goal conflict on relationships between political principals and bureaucratic agents. Using Texas school districts, this analysis demonstrates that goal conflict has significant effects on student performance. Goal conflict also influences relationships among school boards, teachers, and school district populations. Overall, this study advances the discipline in that it determines the ramifications of goal conflict for political principals, bureaucracies, and the public being served utilizing the most common form of bureaucracy, school districts. The arguments and implications embedded in this analysis speak to the age-old public administration question of how to reconcile bureaucracy with democracy.     

Dissecting Public Sector Corruption in Bangladesh: Issues and Problems of Control

The public sector in Bangladesh is ridden with corruption of various dimensions and shades. Apart from bribery, rent-seeking and misappropriation of funds, the performance of public organizations is adversely affected by a host of other factors like excessive lobbying, delays in service provision, pilferage and larceny, irresponsible conduct of officials, bureaucratic intemperance, patronage and clientelism. The several institutional mechanisms to combat administrative malfeasance are rendered ineffective by a non-committed political leadership, a blase"d bureaucracy, weak accountability structures, and unproductive legislative labors. The public body for controlling corruption is itself associated with all sorts of malpractices and conducts its affair most unprofessionally. Despite several attempts, the constitutionally authorized ombudsman is yet to find its place in the governance framework.     

‘Strong Personalities’ and ‘Strong Institutions’ Mediated by a ‘Strong Third Force’: Thinking ‘Systems’ in Corruption Control

Corruption in public sector is a complex, ‘messy’ and ‘fuzzy’ phenomenon which involves calculus machinations between actors and constantly growing in sophistication. Consequently, an attempt to prevent, control or fight it requires systems thinking that ranges from public officials with integrity and personal ethics [strong personalities]; administrative rules and procedures as well as governments adopting, enforcing and monitoring appropriate systems [strong institutions]. This paper provides a systems approach to enhancing public sector ethics through ‘a corruption control tripod’ in preventing, controlling and combating corruption in all its forms. This framework discusses three overarching pillars and argues that adopting a reductionist approach in corruption control would yield futility; there is a need for synthesis so that each one would reinforce the other.     

Public Servants’ Trust in Citizens: An Extension of Theory and an Empirical Examination with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)

This study examined trust that public servants have in citizens. We build on the reciprocal nature of trust and applied Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test both the antecedents to public servants?? trust in citizens (e.g., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational politics, public sector motivation and generalized trust) and several of its potential outcomes (exit, voice, loyalty, neglect and cynicism) among Israeli civic servants. A revised and improved model found that organizational politics and generalized trust are the strongest predictors of public servants?? trust in citizens and that exit intention is its major outcome. Implications and suggestions for future studies are presented.     

Decoupling in the age of market-embedded morality: responsible gambling in a hybrid organization

This paper contributes to the understanding of hybrid organizations by refining the concept of decoupling as a strategic response to conflicting objectives and institutional expectations (Meyer and Rowan in Am J Soc 83:340–363, 1977). In today’s popular responsibility discourse one notes a hopeful “win–win” ideal that invites attempts, by companies in particular, to realize and balance conflicting values and to strive to fulfil both profit objectives and responsibility objectives. Although institutional theory has long acknowledged the strategic response of decoupling in organizational contexts, the potential of exploring and refining how this concept may be used to analyse strategic responses in the contemporary era of market-embedded morality has yet to be explored (Shamir in Econ Soc 37:1–19, 2008). There are good reasons to do so as the present-day discourse on the relation between the economy and morality offers a new set of options and challenges for legitimately responding to institutional demands. This paper draws on an explanatory, rich ethnographic and longitudinal case study of a Swedish fully state-owned company operating in the post 1990s gambling market. We suggest that contemporary hybrid organizations positioned at the crossroads of bureaucratic and market schemes of organizing, may find themselves in a particularly tight spot and seek legitimacy by decoupling—not only by adopting certain legitimizing structures, but also and increasingly with reference to market-embedded morality, a commoditizing of responsibility in their contested market setting. Based on the case findings, we suggest a distinction between organization-based decoupling and market-based decoupling and propose that market-based decoupling may be attractive to hybrid organizations owing to it being less sensitive to scrutiny and accountability claims. But at the same time, our findings indicate that market-based decoupling poses a risk to hybrid organizations, as it does not offer the same degree of legitimacy with key stakeholders/the general public as organization-based decoupling does.     

The Politics of ‘Social Accountability’ in England and Germany: Democratic Control and Moral Imperatives

This article investigates how politicians in England and Germany approach social accountability during the introduction of markets in the national health care systems. It analyses the discourse among members of parliament during the law making process of the 2012 NHS Health Care Act in England and the 2011 Act for Financing of Statutory Health Insurance in Germany. Generally, the new social accountability reform agenda is attractive to policy makers as it foregrounds public engagement and bottom-up participation (Peters 2001). Social accountability refers to institutional practices that favour participatory and horizontal mechanisms that depart from traditional hierarchical Principal-Agent forms.     

Promoting Public Trust in Public Organizations: Explaining the Role of Public Accountability

This paper is aimed at explaining the role of public accountability in promoting public trust in public organizations. Initially a conceptual model was developed. Then, the model was tested empirically in Iran. The result shows that public accountability influences the public trust by improving citizens’ satisfaction. In other words, legal, ethical, financial, functional, and utmost political accountability affect public trust through influencing citizens’ satisfaction. This study also confirms that changes in social trust, citizens’ trust in government, and media will moderate trust in public organizations.

Uses of Management Control Tools in the Public Healthcare Sector

This study focuses on identifying the specific uses of management control tools in public organizations. This research is based on interviews with managers from 43 organizations in the healthcare sector. Data was analyzed and interpreted through the methodology proposed by Gioia et al. Organizational research methods, 16(1), 15-31, (2013). The different uses specified by managers of these organizations were compared with Henri’s work Accounting, organizations and society, 31(1), 77-103, (2006). Findings show matching elements, as well as differences in public sector specificities. This study ends with a discussion about the non-use of existing tools, the multi-uses of tools and the observable dichotomy between political and management uses.

     

National Defense,Environmental Regulation,and Overhead Democracy: A View from the “Greening” of the U.S. Military

This study examines the patterns of politics accompanying efforts to hold the United States military accountable to U.S. environmental and natural resources (ENR) laws in the post-Cold War era. This analysis (1) uses three cases to describe what happened, and why, (2) to test several propositions related to military accountability to ENR laws in the post-Cold War era; (3) to offer a typology of tactics used that may help inform future research on intragovernmental regulation more generally; and (4) argues that public agencies have a responsibility to comply with the regulatory processes that hold them accountable to U.S. ENR laws.     

组织公正和心理契约违背对管理者行为的影响

整合了心理契约和组织公正领域的多元变量,对512位组织管理者进行问卷调查,检验了管理者对组织公正性的不同感受对组织心理契约违背与管理者EVNL行为关系的影响.发现,组织心理契约违背与组织程序公正、人际公正对管理者呼吁行为存在交互作用,组织心理契约违背与组织人际公正对管理者组织忠诚存在交互作用,而组织公正对组织心理契约违背与管理者消极行为(退出行为和忽略行为)没有关系.     

‘I Feel Mad So I Be Bad’: The Role of Affect,Dissatisfaction and Stress in Determining Responses to Interpersonal Deviance

Interpersonal deviance relates to a range of destructive individual and organizational outcomes. To date, however, scholars have largely failed to explore this issue from the perspective of the targeted individuals; and in particular how and why such negative outcomes manifest. To provide insights into this question, and based in principles of critical realism, we utilized semi‐structured in‐depth interviews to explore employees’ interpersonal deviance experiences, their responses and determinants of response selections, including: (1) emotions and feelings; (2) dissatisfaction and stress. We found that the traditional model, where responses are driven by dissatisfaction and confined to exit, voice, loyalty and neglect (EVLN), is inadequate. We therefore extend the EVLN model to include retaliation (EVLN‐R) and identify a range of other responses, including venting and seeking social support for inclusion in the typology. Moreover, contrary to traditional theorizing, we found that responses were determined first and foremost by emotions and feelings, followed by stress, with dissatisfaction of little to no importance. We propose a new, multi‐dimensional response typology including self‐orientated responses and make suggestions for future research to test our typology, before closing with the implications for practice.     

Collaboration outcomes in a public sector: impact of governance,leadership, interdependence and relational capital

Collaboration between public agencies is critical to address social issues effectively. The main objective of this research was to identify the factors that lead to successful achievement of desired collaboration outcomes that could eventually lead to societal outcomes. The factors identified were: transformational leadership, governance, interdependence, and relational capital. An integrated framework was developed based on collaboration governance framework (CGF) of Ansell and Gash (J Public Adm Res Theory 18:543–571, 2008). The CGF framework has integrated the following four broad variables that are responsible for achieving the desired collaboration outcomes: starting conditions, institutional design, leadership, and collaborative process. The study was conducted in Malaysia by sending questionnaires to 500 officers in various ministries who were involved in planning, formulating, and implementing public policies. The main findings of this study are: (1) transformational leadership influences governance, interdependence, relational capital, and collaboration outcomes; (2) governance has impact on relational capital, interdependence, and collaboration outcomes; (3) relational capital and interdependence result in positive collaboration outcomes; (4) dimensions of governance are inter-related; and (5) interdependence and relational capital are strongly correlated. This research adds significantly to the literature on collaborative governance. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.     

Situationen gestalten,um Ärzte am Krankenhaus zu halten

The situation at work in a hospital is often exhausting for medical doctors. Besides deteriorating health, doctors report a diminishing quality of their work. As a consequence, the willingness to change the hospital one is employed by is increased. Aside from important political decisions, doctors and others of responsibility can design their working situation more positively. The authors discuss the doctors’ challenges based on a current survey and introduces situational design—an approach to design working situations optimally so that they positively enhance wellbeing and productivity.     

Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Public Involvement in the Immigration Plan for the Nanji Islands, China

A centralized political context such as China provides a harsh environment for public involvement program that intends to share decision-making power with the public, however, there are still learning opportunities that can survive and prepare the public for a meaningful participation in the future. This article illustrates this point by designing a public involvement program that is implementable and educational in Nanji Islands, China. The public involvement program is designed to solve conflicts and tension regarding to an immigration plan between the public and local government and organized by a third party. It includes information sharing, public representatives election, and negotiation meeting between public representatives and governmental officials. The six-dimension framework from Alterman’s classic work is employed to test its feasibility within the local context.

Disaffected Loyalties in a Changing Contractual Environment

In this paper we examine the effects of the changing employee-employer relationship on loyalty – a construct we developed along Hirschman’s model. The impact on perceptions of loyalty during a downsizing is assessed using a design that manipulates HRM policies toward the use of temporary employees, retraining, employee voice, seniority and community coordination. We introduce ideological orientation as a variable that will have direct and indirect affects. Both MBA students and managers (N = 269) participated in the study. All HRM policies and ideological orientations have direct affects; in addition some indirect effects for ideological orientation emerged. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

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.

Corporate social responsibility: the organizational view

Designing strategies for corporate social responsibility (CSR)-practice nowadays has become essential for organizations. Notwithstanding, how organizations appear internally in a socially responsible context toward their employees has been insufficiently investigated. This study aims at ascertaining how Internal CSR can be conceptualized as well as how it affects employees’ commitment. To do so, the manifestations of Internal CSR are discussed based on social identity theory and further literature, while the developed research model is checked for suitability through a survey generating 2081 employee responses from an international pharmaceutical company. As one result, it can be stated that the factors proposed to constitute Internal CSR are confirmed. Further, the findings entail the following conclusions: Internal CSR has a notable influence on employees’ Affective Organizational Commitment whilst relatively moderate impacting Normative Organizational Commitment. Additionally, Affective Organizational Commitment adopts a mediating function regarding Normative Organizational Commitment.     

The Impact of Performance Audit on Public Sector Organizations: The Case of Estonia

The results of a survey of 118 Estonian public officials show that auditees can perceive performance audit to be useful even if it does not lead to specific changes in policies or organizational practices. No trade-off between the accountability and improvement functions of performance audit could be observed, though a surprisingly low percentage of the respondents considered performance audit to have been used to hold the audited organization accountable for their actions. While the factors internal to the audit process – including the perceived expertise of the auditors, their openness to dialogue with the auditees and the quality of audit report – influenced the perceived usefulness of the audit, they had less bearing on the adoption of changes by the audited organizations. The study indicates that when parliamentarians pay attention to performance audit and when media attention leads to political debate, the adoption of changes recommended by the performance audit report is more likely.     

Agency conflicts,executive compensation regulations and CEO pay-performance sensitivity: evidence from Sweden

Based on a unique country set up with concentrated ownership of firms, strong representation of major shareholders on boards and one of the highest percentages of firms with dual-class shares worldwide I study CEO pay-performance sensitivity in Swedish listed firms in the years 2001–2013. Focusing on Type II agency conflict, I find that that pay-performance sensitivity in family-controlled firms with family CEOs is significantly lower than in other types of firms, and that dual-class firms have significantly lower sensitivity of pay to accounting performance than non-dual-class firms. The results suggest that in firms with type II agency conflicts compensation practices may be driven either by family ties or by the power preferences of the controlling shareholder that uses compensation to align CEO’s interest with his/her will rather than with financial performance. The study also documents that the link between CEO pay and performance disappears in the 2010–2013 period following the implementation of the European Recommendations regarding executive compensation. This finding is in contrast to the stipulated goal of the European Commission, ‘to ensure pay for performance’ (European Commission 2009).