Major Wind Energy & the Interface of Policy and Regulation: A Study of Welsh NSIPs

This article examines how sub-national policy is applied in consenting decisions for major wind energy infrastructure. The study focuses on the Welsh tier of governance and the perspective of the public, building on existing work on ‘territorial politics’ and public participation. It looks explicitly at the regulatory stage of decision-making, which is critical to understanding multi-level governance contexts for energy infrastructure. Two cases of ‘Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects’ (NSIPs) in the UK are assessed and findings show how conflict is fuelled by the ways in which different tiers of policy and regulation interact.     

High value manufacturing (HVM) in the UK: case studies and focus group insights

This paper studies the internal mechanisms that allow organisations to become high value manufacturing (HVM). Using a qualitative methodology, three UK manufacturing companies formed in-depth case studies with semi-structured interviews, observations and historical data. The HVM value matrix of Martinez and co-workers is used to categorise each organisation’s value proposition. Wider benchmarking of the three organisations was carried out against a focus group with an additional seven manufacturing organisations. Thus, data from 10 manufacturing organisations are included in this research. The cases follow the ‘customer intimacy’ HVM discipline. The business processes supporting these value propositions were identified. Interestingly, each organisation’s desired value proposition differs from their current one. ‘Technological integrators’ predominantly rely on new product development (NPD) and Strategy processes, whereas ‘Socialisors’ rely predominantly on Strategy and Customer Relationship processes. Companies can use the findings to better understand their current HVM value proposition and, where necessary, plan their transition to a future desired HVM value proposition.     

Building cultural intelligence: insights from project management job advertisements

This paper examines how organisations that conduct worldwide recruitment of project management professionals can derive insight from the cultural preferences stated within project management job advertisements. Drawing on project management practitioner job advertisements placed by 2040 organisations across seven countries and seven industries, we employ Hofstede’s national cultural framework to categorise cultural preferences which the organisations persistently replicate in their specifications of desired candidate project management practitioner competency. To map global trends and national variations, data analysis is undertaking and utilising exploratory data analysis, Poisson regression and negative binomial regression are used. The paper finds that specific national cultural dimensions – ‘Collectivism’, ‘Uncertainty Avoidance’ and, to a lesser extent, ‘Power Distance’ – are the most salient cultural denominators for advertised project management positions, while this is not the case with ‘Masculinity’ and ‘Individualism’. The findings raise issues about which organisations should seek to become more culturally intelligent, and which relate to the adaptiveness of the cultural preferences that they articulate through their job advertisements, both to project tasks and to cultural contexts for projects.     

The Mutable Nature of Risk and Acceptability: A Hybrid Risk Governance Framework

This article focuses on the fluid nature of risk problems and the challenges it presents to establishing acceptability in risk governance. It introduces an actor‐network theory (ANT) perspective as a way to deal with the mutable nature of risk controversies and the configuration of stakeholders. To translate this into a practicable framework, the article proposes a hybrid risk governance framework that combines ANT with integrative risk governance, deliberative democracy, and responsive regulation. This addresses a number of the limitations in existing risk governance models, including: (1) the lack of more substantive public participation throughout the lifecycle of a project; (2) hijacking of deliberative forums by particular groups; and (3) the treatment of risk problems and their associated stakeholders as immutable entities. The framework constitutes a five‐stage process of co‐selection, co‐design, co‐planning, and co‐regulation to facilitate the co‐production of collective interests and knowledge, build capacities, and strengthen accountability in the process. The aims of this article are twofold: conceptually, it introduces a framework of risk governance that accounts for the mutable nature of risk problems and configuration of stakeholders. In practice, this article offers risk managers and practitioners of risk governance a set of procedures with which to operationalize this conceptual approach to risk and stakeholder engagement.     

Non-Negotiable Developer Obligations in the Spanish Land Readjustment: An Effective Passive Governance Approach that ‘de facto’ Taxes Development Value?

Land Readjustment (LR) is often presented as an alternative ‘third way’ among public and private approaches to governance in urban development. Unfortunately, not much literature analyzes the effectiveness of LR, which depends on its ability to capture land value increases to finance public infrastructure. LR can capture land value increases with taxes and contributions to be levied after the readjustment, and/or with developer obligations. This paper focuses on how non-negotiable developer obligations function within the Spanish LR, and whether they succeed in delivering public infrastructure. The findings also feed into the debates about the effectiveness of public and private governance approaches and the limits of public value capture instruments.     

A journey around decision-making: Searching for the “big picture” across disciplines

This paper carries out an interdisciplinary literature review to develop an updated framework that integrates all aspects of decision-making. It proposes a framework that combines the evolutionary perspective with the complexity theory to integrate the ontological communalities between the examined disciplines (operational research, psychology and management). Decision-making is regarded as a systemic, multi-tiered information-based process, founded on the interaction of the decision-maker with the environment in a sort of learning path which co-evolves through variation–selection–retention mechanisms nourished by environmental feedback.Such a complex-coevolutionary perspective provides valuable insights concerning some as-yet-unexplored aspects of decision-making, such as inter- and intra-individual differences in decision-making, as well as the interaction of ‘rational’ and ‘intuitive’ processes or some contradictory evidence (regarding ‘fractionated expertise’ and ‘escalation of commitment’).Practical implications on management education are highlighted, as well as methodological limitations and needs for further studies. The journey is not yet over and probably never will be, but, from an evolutionary perspective, it is the journey, not the arrival, that matters.     

Job-related diversity: the comprehensiveness and speed of board decision-making processes—an upper echelons approach

Strategic decision-making processes influence firm-level outcomes. Using the theory of upper echelons, this study investigates how diversity in directors’ skills, knowledge, and industry experience influence board decision-making processes that may impact overall strategic decision-making processes. Such diversity has been commonly accepted to be a ‘double-edged sword’—enhancing comprehensiveness but hindering the speed of decision-making. On the contrary, we used an existing large survey database to show that directors’ diverse educational background, functional background, and industry experience (job-related diversity) have a positive effect on comprehensiveness as well as the speed of board decision-making. In addition, our results indicate that board processes (directors’ use of their knowledge and skills) play an important role by transmitting the positive effects of diversity. The study is in a tradition of exploring how boards may influence firms’ strategic decision-making processes. Our findings provide additional arguments for adding job-related diversity to boards of directors.     

Information is Power: Public Disclosure of Information in the Planning Decision-Making Process

The legitimacy and effectiveness of community engagement in planning lies in the extent to which the public can access the information required for informed decision-making. The control of ‘commercially sensitive material’ by local authorities acting as gatekeepers is a therefore a challenging area of information management within the planning application process. Through the analysis of key cases in England, this paper identifies that regulations do provide for ‘commercially sensitive material’ to be released to communities in many cases, but there is a need to achieve better transparency for communities about what information should be available about a development proposal.     

From Decolonization to Postcolonial Management: Challenging Heritage Administration and Governance in New Zealand

In the 1990s, we witnessed the rise of a new form of management over cultural affairs in the Americas and Oceania as their respective indigenous populations strove for greater participation in governance. This article illustrates the characteristics of this new current in the public sector by examining recent innovations in heritage administration and governance in New Zealand. In particular, this paper deals with organizational, managerial, and professional practices in New Zealand??s cultural sector by focusing on the Museum of New Zealand and the partnership between the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and the indigenous M??ori community.     

The Inherent Politics of Managing the Quality of Urban Green Spaces

Although the term ‘quality’ has a universal positive connotation and typically is framed by a focus on improvements, its application includes as well as excludes the access, values and world views of particular actors and interests. In this article, we highlight the relevance and implications of such ‘inherent politics’ through a case study of a widespread approach to operationalizing quality in urban green space management. We conclude that adoption of any quality model has both limiting and enabling implications for public participation and decision-making and that a critical stance is needed within both research and practice for the development of quality models that connect to values of broader societal relevance.     

Expectations and the performance of governance functions between a board,management and other stakeholders: the case of Robotdalen

Previous research has called for an enhanced understanding of the dynamic and interactional aspects of board work in public sector governance. Using a longitudinal case study of Robotdalen, this paper attempts to meet this call through a processual and qualitative study of board work in public organisations. The aim of the paper is to enhance our understanding of the human side of governance and the interactions between a board, the management in the governed organisation and other stakeholders. We do this by addressing the theoretical concept of an expectations gap. The results demonstrated how funding regimes influence governance functions, structures and practices at the organisational level, and how internal actors such as managers also carry out governance functions. Moreover, the results show how an expectations gap shifts and changes over time. In this way we have contributed a more nuanced theoretical understanding of how the governance function is co-produced and the importance of understanding the expectations gap to further understand the dynamics of public sector board work.     

Looking at the IPO from the “top floor”: a literature review

This article aims to assess the current situation and the evolution of the literature on the role of top level decision-makers in initial public offerings. The article combines bibliometric and qualitative reviews of 147 articles published in 57 journals until 2015. Findings show that the debate on the role of top-level decision-makers in initial public offerings has followed an irregular pathway. Research attention has moved from studies on the actors and the dynamics of going public to a focus on the strategic implications of initial public offerings. The paper is a good starting point for future policy-making interventions designed to support top-level decision-making. By enhancing awareness of the strategic role of initial public offerings, we hope to improve the governance practices associated with them. The paper also sheds light on the importance of fostering the corporate transparency of top-level decision-making in firms going public, as an additional tool to increase investors’ trust and attract financial resources. Finally, the paper provides a comprehensive overview of the academic field, examining research trends and the evolutionary pattern. It also suggests future research avenues by identifying un(der)explored issues to advance knowledge on the topic.     

Conflict of values— the central strategy problem

There is growing evidence that the central strategy question for business is no longer ‘what business are you in?’ but‘why are you in business?’ The traditional answers to this question—‘to make profits’, ‘to grow’ and ‘to give an adequate return to the shareholder’, are all being questioned. In their place others are being suggested—‘to provide satisfying jobs’, ‘to help solve social problems’, ‘to assist in urban and regional development’.In this article, Bernard Taylor suggests that the conflict between business goals and social goals has become the central strategy problem. Business enterprises like other organizations tend to develop their own distinctive sub-cultures with their own value systems which may differ markedly from the values accepted in society generally. The more effective the selection, training and reward systems, the more these business values will be reinforced.But this can lead to difficulties when society begins to reject business values in favour of other social goals; particularly at a time when the power and autonomy of management is being challenged and Corporate Planning is being transformed from an internal dialogue between managers at headquarters and managers in divisions into an open debate involving public servants, employees and self-appointed representatives of community interests.     

The façade of consultancy in the Fiji public service

In any common definition consultancy entails the provision of advice to improve the status quo. This paper examines the notion of consultancy in the Fiji public service and highlights the consultancy qualities and their contextual application in Fiji's case. The examination of the role of internal consultancy necessitates a discussion of the general framework of Fiji's political system, in particular the decision-making process, and the cultural values and practices dominant in the public service. The contemporary notion of political neutrality of the public service requires that civil servants are endowed with the qualities of ‘disinterestedness’. The character of the public service is, therefore, emphasised as ‘precise, soulless and machine-like’. This, however, is difficult to achieve in a society divided in two along ethnic lines. The paper argues that while civil servants carry out consultancy functions they are not recognised as such and the boundary between consultancy and project management is blurred by the job and work environment in the public service.     

Governance Choices for Corporate Social Responsibility: to Contribute,Collaborate or Internalize?

Within a competitive business environment where resources are limited, it is increasingly important for senior management to make every investment count. Measuring ‘return on investment’ occurs at every level of operations—so why not also in the arena of Corporate Social activity? Until now, much research has focused on finding the link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and increased business performance. Researchers have not examined the cost implications associated with the different forms of governance utilized by companies to implement their CSR activities, e.g., outsourcing through charitable contributions, developing an in-house program, or creating a more collaborative model, which benefits both the company and the partner nonprofit organization. Careful examination and evaluation of these costs will help senior management choose the governance structure that will maximize the benefits they reap from CSR activities.Drawing upon insights from organizational economics, this article develops a framework to compare the alternative modes of CSR governance and identifies the key drivers that affect governance choice, including associated costs. Most importantly, it provides a decision-making tool that can guide senior management in this vital choice as a way to contribute to the competitive advantage of the firm.     

Key strategic issues for public corporations

The public sector organisations play a dominant role in the economies of many countries and they are particularly important in developing economies. However, management in such organisations face special problems in corporate planning. In particular, they have as yet no clear-cut definition of their social and economic objectives, no accepted way of pricing so as to deal with ‘social overheads’ and no valid way of measuring performance in industries where low profitability is to be expected.     

A Deliberative Method for Ranking Risks (II): Evaluation of Validity and Agreement among Risk Managers

A deliberative method for ranking risks was evaluated in a study involving 218 risk managers. Both holistic and multiattribute procedures were used to assess individual and group rankings of health and safety risks facing students at a fictitious middle school. Consistency between the rankings that emerged from these two procedures was reasonably high for individuals and for groups, suggesting that these procedures capture an underlying construct of riskiness. Participants reported high levels of satisfaction with their groups' decision-making processes and the resulting rankings, and these reports were corroborated by regression analyses. Risk rankings were similar across individuals and groups, even though individuals and groups did not always agree on the relative importance of risk attributes. Lower consistency between the risk rankings from the holistic and multiattribute procedures and lower agreement among individuals and groups regarding these rankings were observed for a set of high-variance risks. Nonetheless, the generally high levels of consistency, satisfaction, and agreement suggest that this deliberative method is capable of producing risk rankings that can serve as informative inputs to public risk-management decision making.     

Corporate governance and management practices: stakeholder involvement, quality and sustainability tools adoption

Local public services are the field in which New Public Management (NPM) and Public Governance issues are most in evidence. The local public services are characterized by the rethinking of the role played by local government in the provision of services. An evolution has taken place. From a traditional configuration in which local public services were managed by local governments they moved to a configuration where a separation has taken place between the local government role (which continues to be the guarantor of the satisfaction of public needs) and the role of local public utilities (LPUs) (responsible for delivering the services). This transformation implies both the delegation of resources and authority to lower organisational levels within the public sector and the reconfiguration of accountability chains between the state institutions and the society. In recent years, an intense debate has developed regarding the introduction of new tools and control systems. Particular attention has been paid to planning and control systems, human resources management systems, and performance management systems, leaving a few pioneers to develop their analysis on corporate governance mechanisms with regard their relationships with both the external (stakeholders) actors and the internal (management) ones. On one hand, the OECD wrote guidelines in order to ensure good corporate governance practices, focusing on relations with stakeholders. On the other hand, the dialogue between corporate governance and stakeholders has been already tackled by a number of International organizations guidelines or principles, following a debate on corporate governance that has progressively combined a stakeholder perspective with a more classic shareholder-maximizing model of governance. This article contributes to the debate on the stakeholder involvement process. By means of both a theoretical discussion and an empirical research conducted on 37 Italian LPUs, this paper attempts to analyse specific management tools which can be used to improve the quality of corporate governance in LPUs, by extending the stakeholder involvement. Some NPM’s tools, such as quality standards and sustainability tools imply an effort to offer new forms of organizational behaviour in the decision-making processes (i.e. the choice of the performance indicators and the reporting tools) and to create a dialogue between the enterprise and its stakeholders. In particular, in our study we focus on the adoption of quality standards (ISO 9000 and Customer Satisfaction) and sustainability tools (sustainability reports and ISO 14000 standard) as NPM’s tools to facilitate the stakeholder involvement practices.     

Remote control: measuring performance for value creation and governance of globally distributed knowledge work

This article examines the governance of globally distributed knowledge work. To measure performance in knowledge work, it is important to focus on what the knowledge workers do and hence view knowledge as something one does, namely the practices, instead of something one has. By following the practices of knowledge work, it was possible to evaluate the effect of measures related to organizational processes, and identify what was not well covered by the measurement tool. Strategic and long term needs such as learning and employee competence are better managed through projects. This article shows how work performance in international organizations needs two different measures: one tool for measuring short-term value creation linked to the organizational processes; and, one tool for measuring long-term value creation linked to the practices of service work made in projects. Global governance of distributed employees is therefore successfully managed through key performance measures and through understanding projects through their multiple contributions, at both an individual and an organizational level. Global long term governance needs are strategic for the entire firm. The paper rests on an in-depth empirical case study of an international professional service firm.     

The edge of reason: A thematic analysis of how professional financial traders understand analytical decision making

This study uses thematic analysis to investigate accounts of Type 2 (analytical, rational and reflective) decision-making processes in professional financial traders working in the City of London. Previous studies have focused on using qualitative methods to examine trader understanding of Type 1 decision-making (intuition and ‘gut feeling’). No published study has investigated how traders view Type 2 decisions. Findings from semi-structured interviews with 14 traders revealed two overarching themes derived from four subthemes. The first overarching theme (‘Knowledge gap’) demonstrated that traders do not find their analytical decision-making processes as accessible as dual-process theory predicts. In particular, traders failed to label processes such as reading research or evaluating data as analytical. In contrast, they viewed Type 2 decisions in a ‘saviour’ role where these processes offered traders psychological or emotional support during loss making periods. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the decision-training of traders, their management, and practice.