Institutional Fleecing: The Slow Death of Dutch Provinces

Many theories on organizational change depart from the assumption of change for the better, that is, change in order to gain a stronger position in relation to its competitors, to become more effective or efficient, or at least to improve the organization. It is our idea that the theories developed on this basis are biased. Contrasting to this dominant approach, this article gives a longitudinal analysis of the development in an organization in decline. It is directed at explaining the downfall of a Dutch province. In the medieval empire of Charlemagne it was one of the most powerful duchies of Europe. Later it became one of the seven provinces in the powerful Dutch Republic, and nowadays it has lost nearly all its tasks and functions. Departing from neo-institutional theory this paper seeks the major causes for this downfall and specifies some of the relations in the theoretical model of punctuated equilibrium. It concludes that the historical institutional dynamics can be seen as a self-enforcing process in which punctuations can be explained by the increasing distance between individual preferences within the organization, and the pressures originating from developments in the environment.Dr. M.S. de Vries is professor in Public Administration at the Radboud University Nijmegen. Address: Thomas van Aquinostraat 5 (room 5.1.56). P.O. Box 9108, 6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands, tel;++31 24 3615691.     

江苏省基层医务人员工作压力研究

对905名基层医务人员进行问卷调查,了解基层医务人员工作压力情况及其影响因素,为建立适合基层卫生机构的良性人才发展机制提供依据。基层医务人员整体工作压力得分为56.54分;单因素方差分析显示,不同性别、年龄、婚姻状况、学历、职称、机构类型、工作量、工作年数、受患者尊重程度和社会地位的医务人员工作压力得分差异具有统计学意义;多元线性回归分析结果显示,社会地位、工作量、工作年数、受患者尊重程度、最高学历和性别对基层医务人员工作压力的影响具有统计学意义。需要着重关注乡镇卫生院医生的工作压力情况,重点应放在提升基层医务人员社会地位、及时关注中坚力量等方面,从而减轻其工作压力,提高工作积极性。     

边疆民族地区小学教师校本培训评估

借鉴柯氏四级评估法的评价指标,运用问卷调查法和访谈法实地调研了边疆民族地区小学教师及学校管理者,从参训教师及学校管理者的不同视角对校本培训的反应层、学习层、行为层、结果层四个层级来评价培训的实施成效。评估结果显示,边疆民族地区小学教师校本培训的改进方向是确定教师培训需求、优化培训内容以及维持受训教师行为水平。     

社会嵌入与社区集体经济发展——来自中国城市社区的经验证据

当前中国城市社区集体经济的传统发展模式越来越难以适应新形势的要求,很多城市相继建立了以社区股份合作公司为主要形式的市场化运作模式。然而,社区集体经济发展不仅是经济的发展,更是社区与社会的发展,社区集体经济的市场化无疑偏离了社区发展的轨道,面临着社会脱嵌的风险。具体来看,社区集体经济的社会脱嵌表现为行动脱嵌、规则脱嵌和资源脱嵌,浙江杭州高沙社区的集体经济发展态势为此提供了经验证据。社区集体经济市场化导致的社会风险需要引起地方政府的关注与重视,地方政府应实施积极的干预政策以纠正社区集体经济发展的方向。     

Distribution of exotic monk parakeets across an urban landscape

Monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) are the most abundant and widely distributed of the naturalized parrots in the United States. Their presence is simultaneously encouraged by some humans (through use of bird feeders) and discouraged by others (through removal of their nests) and, as a result, they show an interesting spatial distribution across urban areas. We used an online public survey and field surveys to examine the influence of human activities and land use on the distribution of this exotic species around Chicago, IL (USA). These efforts resulted in detection of 249 nesting structures and approximately 778 birds across the region. A CART analysis successfully separated nesting sites from random sites and correctly classified 90?% of the nesting sites. The most important factor in the model was land use, with nests typically found in areas with less than 84?% residential zoning. We found nests on a wide variety of substrates including trees, cell phone towers, and stadium lights. Spatial point pattern analysis indicated that nests in trees and nests in built substrates were significantly dissociated with each other at all scales. Nests on built substrates were closer to railroads and highways or in areas with lower human population density, suggesting either a difference in substrate availability or human tolerance between these settings. While humans may have a positive effect on distribution of monk parakeets at large spatial scales, at the scale of this study we see a potentially negative effect of too many humans on the distribution of monk parakeet nests.     

Generalised Rank Regression Estimator with Standard Error Adjusted Lasso

One of the standard variable selection procedures in multiple linear regression is to use a penalisation technique in least‐squares (LS) analysis. In this setting, many different types of penalties have been introduced to achieve variable selection. It is well known that LS analysis is sensitive to outliers, and consequently outliers can present serious problems for the classical variable selection procedures. Since rank‐based procedures have desirable robustness properties compared to LS procedures, we propose a rank‐based adaptive lasso‐type penalised regression estimator and a corresponding variable selection procedure for linear regression models. The proposed estimator and variable selection procedure are robust against outliers in both response and predictor space. Furthermore, since rank regression can yield unstable estimators in the presence of multicollinearity, in order to provide inference that is robust against multicollinearity, we adjust the penalty term in the adaptive lasso function by incorporating the standard errors of the rank estimator. The theoretical properties of the proposed procedures are established and their performances are investigated by means of simulations. Finally, the estimator and variable selection procedure are applied to the Plasma Beta‐Carotene Level data set.     

Beyond Contact? Policy approaches to work with families of looked after children in four European countries

In England, placement within the looked after system is not viewed as a desirable long‐term solution for most children, and policy has prioritised continued contact with parents, and swift return home, wherever possible. This review examines policy approaches to work with families of looked after children in England and in three other European countries: Denmark, France and the Netherlands, aiming to identify areas for shared learning in relation to this challenging area of policy and practice. The research highlights relationships between care populations and policy understandings of the purpose of work with families, including understandings of children's and/or parents’ rights.     

Danish and Norwegian hospital social workers’ cross-institutional work amidst inter-sectoral restructuring of health and social welfare

Starting in the 2000s, Denmark and Norway have undergone extensive restructuring of their health-related social benefit programmes, including how they are governed. Several reforms have sought to enhance inter-sectoral collaboration. Aiming at ensuring patients’ faster return to work, policy-makers have instituted economic incentives to both individuals and the health and welfare organisations who handle them. Through an institutional logics approach, this paper explores how hospital social workers in these countries are experiencing these changes. The ‘social’ part of post-treatment care and rehabilitation receives more attention in the Norwegian institutional set-up than in the Danish, and whilst challenges are experienced in both countries, in group interviews Danish social workers in particular express concerns about the implications of the accelerated return-to-work focus. In both countries, they report increasing difficulties in ‘making their way through’ the state-municipal bureaucracy. However, by drawing on the formal health knowledge derived from medical settings and the symbolic capital it bestows on them, they often manage to negotiate the work-and-welfare services, thereby transforming the social context for the patients.     

Dose‐Response Models Incorporating Aerosol Size Dependency for Francisella tularensis

The effect of bioaerosol size was incorporated into predictive dose‐response models for the effects of inhaled aerosols of Francisella tularensis (the causative agent of tularemia) on rhesus monkeys and guinea pigs with bioaerosol diameters ranging between 1.0 and 24 μm. Aerosol‐size‐dependent models were formulated as modification of the exponential and β‐Poisson dose‐response models and model parameters were estimated using maximum likelihood methods and multiple data sets of quantal dose‐response data for which aerosol sizes of inhaled doses were known. Analysis of F. tularensis dose‐response data was best fit by an exponential dose‐response model with a power function including the particle diameter size substituting for the rate parameter k scaling the applied dose. There were differences in the pathogen's aerosol‐size‐dependence equation and models that better represent the observed dose‐response results than the estimate derived from applying the model developed by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP, 1994) that relies on differential regional lung deposition for human particle exposure.