Governance Reforms: the Good,the Bad,and the Ugly; and the Sound: Examining the Past and Exploring the Future of Public Organizations

This paper addresses governance reforms of the last three and a half decades and looks into the future. This is done in three parts. The first part presents a birds-eye view of the massive literature on governance and governance reforms with a focus on the good, the bad, and ugly sides, then in part two argues for an alternative concept or theory of “sound governance” with characteristics and dimensions that overcome the deficiencies of other models of governance. As a consequence of reforms, the third part examines the past and explores the future of public organizations via “going home” as a conclusion with possible scenarios, challenges, and opportunities.     

Business forecasting: the good news and the bad

This paper records a personal view of the wide range of problems, philosophical and pragmatic, currently afflicting ‘business forecasting’. It is based on several years experience in both forecasting methodology development and direct project work with decision makers. The paper is not intended as a review of the current consensus, academic or otherwise but to engage in ‘constructive criticism’. In doing so the author has attempted to keep to the desired structure of ‘decision makers perception’, ‘methodology criticised’ and ‘development suggestions’ but the nature of the problem demands a more interactive approach which has resulted in fuzzy sets rather than distinct clusters of topics.     

HMO marketing: the Cadillac and the Chevy.

The author's bias and goal is to create an effective group practice model. Managed care will play an important role in this model. This article is designed to examine the role of an HMO in this model and to provide a framework for examining the HMO-group practice relationship. The bottom line question : Are HMOs the most effective group practice vehicle for delivering managed care?     

Fraud and abuse: the payer's perspective

As the health care sector consumes an ever-increasing portion of our nation's gross national product (GNP)), forecast to represent 15 percent of the GNP by the year 2000, increasingly intensive efforts are being used to control the growth rate of these costs. Medicare fraud alone is estimated to represent $2 billion yearly. Abusive billing of private health insurers represents a far larger amount. This article discusses the concept of fraudulent and abusive physician billing practices.     

Book Review: Politics and the Environment

Public Organization Review -     

Job relocation: Stress and the role of the family

Job relocation is an accepted feature of the career structure for an ever increasing number of employees. Moving from one work environment to another, coupled with relocating the family, can induce stress and so influence performance at work. This paper reviews the available evidence concerning possible roles the family may play in the relocation process. It is argued that a systemic approach is ideally suited to unravelling the complex relationship between work and home environments that underlies the process of individual and family adaptation to relocation. This relationship must be understood in order to provide constructive advice to employers concerning effective relocation policies.     

时机:决策正误的转换点

决策的时效性作为决策成功的关键要素之一,已为世人所关注.2000年8月,在加拿大多伦多召开的管理学会大会,重点讨论了企业怎样抓住时机快速决策的问题.     

E-commerce: the role of familiarity and trust

Familiarity is a precondition for trust, claims Luhmann [28: Luhmann N. Trust and power. Chichester UK: Wiley, 1979. (translation from German)], and trust is a prerequisite of social behavior, especially regarding important decisions. This study examines this intriguing idea in the context of the E-commerce involved in inquiring about and purchasing books on the Internet. Survey data from 217 potential users support and extend this hypothesis. The data show that both familiarity with an Internet vendor and its processes and trust in the vendor influenced the respondents’ intentions to inquire about books, and their intentions to purchase them. Additionally, the data show that while familiarity indeed builds trust, it is primarily people’s disposition to trust that affected their trust in the vendor. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Re-distributed manufacturing and the food-water-energy nexus: opportunities and challenges

Abstract

Addressing the intersection of two important emerging research areas, re-distributed manufacturing (RDM) and the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus, this work combines insights from engineering, business and policy perspectives and explores opportunities and challenges towards a more localized and sustainable food system. Analysis centred on two specific food products, namely bread and tomato paste reveals that the feasibility and potential of RDM vary with the type of food product and the supply chain (SC) components. Physically, energy efficiency, water consumption and reduction of waste and carbon footprint may be affected by scale and location of production activities and potentials of industrial symbiosis. From the business perspective, novel products, new markets and new business models are expected in order for food RDM to penetrate within the established food industry. Studies on policies, through the lens of public procurement, call for solid evidence of envisioned environmental, social and economic benefits of a more localized food system. An initial integrated framework is proposed for understanding and assessing food RDM and the FEW nexus.     

Click and mortar: Organizations on the web

The webpages of organizations are both a form of representation and a type of narrative. They entertain, persuade, express a point of view, and provide a means to organize collective action and economic exchange. Increasingly, webpages are the primary point of access between an organization and its environment. An organization's online presence offers a major new source of rich information about organizations. In this paper, we develop three perspectives on websites from an organizational point of view: as identity projects, tools, and relational maps. We draw on data from the online and offline presences of “brick and mortar” nonprofit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area to both illustrate how a digital transformation shaped these organizations and identify a host of new methods that can be used to study organizations using webpages. Finally, we reflect on both the strengths of these new sources of data as well as possible limitations and conclude with theoretical implications for organizational scholars.     

Hiring and firing: the right and legal way.

Is any decision higher risk than hiring a new employee? You're betting your time and the organization's dollars, effectiveness, and reputation on your decision. No wonder people want to have candidates CAT scanned! There are ways to reduce the risk of a wrong decision (or, if that happens, to correct it), all within current legal guidelines. We talked with Fred R. Kimmel, a partner with the law firm of Arvey, Hodes, Costello & Burman, Chicago, and a specialist in labor and employment law, about both effectiveness and legality. This article reports on a plan for hiring and firing the right way.     

Beneath the mask:: Examining the relationship of self-presentation attributes and impression management to charismatic leadership

We tested several hypotheses derived from Gardner and Avolio's [Acad. Manage. Rev. 23 (1998) 32.] self-presentational theory of charismatic leadership. We collected multisource field data in an information technology (IT) consulting firm and examined linkages among managers' self-system attributes (i.e., desired charismatic identity, self-monitoring), pro-social and self-serving impression management of managers, charismatic leadership of managers, and two measures of performance. Eighty-three managers provided self-reports of self-system attributes. Six months later, 249 subordinates rated the focal managers' impression management and charismatic leadership styles. Superiors of the focal managers provided performance ratings 7 months after collecting the subordinate ratings. Results indicated that complexity of desired charismatic identity was positively related to self-monitoring. Self-monitoring was negatively related to ratings of pro-social impression management and positively related to ratings of self-serving impression management. Pro-social impression management related positively to charismatic leadership, which predicted managerial and unit performance.