Search

Understanding where (ineffective) organizational rules come from is of vital importance for both public administration scholars and practitioners. Yet little is known about the underlying mechanisms that explain why external rules may cause organizational rule breeding and, as a by-product, red tape. Using a combination of archival and interview data, the authors empirically study rule-breeding processes in the case of Gasunie, which is a heavily regulated Dutch gas transport organization. The archival findings indicate that rule stocks have increased substantially over time at every policy level. Furthermore, the interview data support the notion that policymakers at different levels are jointly responsible for excessive rule breeding and, ultimately, organizational red tape.

Aid effectiveness has been situated in the central debate of development studies and, particularly, among foreign aid policy making community. As the Netherlands was one of the unique countries which focused extensively on the needs of its recipient, it is important to investigate the Netherlands’ recent practice of its development aid, particularly to Bangladesh and the associated goal ambiguity. This article attempts to answer the question, “to what extent does goal ambiguity in Dutch development aid affect the effectiveness of Dutch development aid given to Bangladesh?” This analysis is based on independent assessments of Dutch official development aid (ODA) to Bangladesh and Dutch coalition agreements in 2005-2010 and 2011-2016. This study finds that, in the second period, goal ambiguity has increased, while the aid effectiveness has decreased. This change is unlikely to be attributed to the conditions for aid effectiveness since these remained largely stable or even in slightly in favour of the second period. While the comparison of different sectors between timeframes lacks full robustness, there is direct evidence that goal ambiguity has played a role in lower effectiveness in the water related aid in the second period. Therefore, this study suggests that aid effectiveness in Bangladesh has decreased in the period 2011 to 2016 due to an increase in goal ambiguity caused by increasing self-interests in Dutch ODA policy.

Management tools are often argued to ameliorate public service performance. Evidence has indeed emerged on positive outcomes related to the usage of management tools in a variety of public-sector settings. Despite these positive outcomes, there is wide variation in the extent to which public organizations use management tools. Drawing on normative isomorphism and contingency theory, this paper investigates the determinants of both organization and client-oriented management tool usage by top public-sector executives. We test our hypotheses based on data from a large-N survey of 4,533 central government executives in eighteen European countries. Country and sector fixed-effects OLS regression models indicate that contingency theory matters more than normative isomorphism. Public-sector executives working in organizations that are bigger, have goal clarity and executive status are more likely to use management tools. The only normative pressure that has a positive impact on management tool usage is whether public-sector executives have a top hierarchical position. ispartof: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW vol:79 issue:3 pages:330-342 status: Published online

In recent years, the subsidiarity principle has been underlined in Sport-for-All policies in countries such as Germany, Austria and Belgium. According to this organising principle, issues need to be handled by the lowest possible political and administrative level, and as close to the citizens as possible. The 2007 decree concerning Sport-for-All policies at the local level in Flanders (Belgium) clearly referred to this. It emphasised the decentralisation of the Sport for All policy, and highlighted the regulatory and coordinating role of local sports authorities. As a consequence, they may face conflicting roles of being coordinator, regulator and provider of mass sport at the local level. In this paper, a mixed-method approach is used to give a closer insight in the role perceptions of local sports authorities in Flanders, and their position towards private sport providers. The results show that local sports authorities consider the coordination and regulation of mass sport in their municipality as their primary task. Yet, it appears that private sport providers also perceive competition from local sports authorities. Moreover, a considerable number of the local sports authorities believe they can combine the roles of provider and coordinator. As there appears to be considerable goal ambiguity, it is necessary for local sports authorities to formulate clear goals. Referring to the principle of subsidiarity, it is argued that sports authorities should only intervene when (non-)profit sport providers are not able to achieve the desirable outcomes with regard to sport and the welfare agenda.

Çevrelerinde yaşanan mikroekonomik zorlanmalar, siyasal oluşumlar ya da sanayinin rekabetçi güçlerinden kaynaklanan hızlı değişim şartlarından dolayı örgütler belirsizlikle yüzleşmektedir. Örgütler, yeni oluşan durumlara adapte olamadıklarında bu durum örgütün faaliyetleri ve performansı üzerinde olumsuz bir etki yaratmaktadır. Örgütlerin değişimlere adapte olamama seviyeleri arttıkça belirsizlikle başa çıkabilme ihtimalide azalmaktadır. Örgütün iş çevresinde deneyimlediği bütün olumsuz durumlar belirsizlik yaratmaktadır. Bu bağlamda bu çalışmada, en kritik süreçler olduğunu varsaydığımız insan kaynakları alt süreçlerinde algılanan belirsizliğin, çalışanların performansına nasıl etki ettiği ortaya konulmaya çalışılmaktadır. Araştırma sorusu belirli oranda iş yaşamındaki kuruluşlardan gözlemlenerek türetilmiştir. Örgütlerde rol tanımlamaları, bireysel ve kurumsal kariyer planlamaları, performans geri bildirimi uygulamaları ve hedef tespiti konularında kurumsal yapıların oluşturulamadığı gerekçesinden hareketle bu araştırmanın gerekliliğine karar verilmiştir. Araştırma kapsamında analiz edilecek veriler anket yöntemi kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Ankette, araştırma kapsamında sorgulanan 5 ayrı değişkeni ölçümlemek üzere 46 ifade, çalışanların demografik özelliklerini tespit etmeye yarayan 6 ifade olmak üzere toplam 52 ifadeye yer verilmiştir. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of perceived role, career, goal and performance ambiguity on employee's task and conceptual performance. The research is designed on the firms in three different sectors such as automotive, textile and food. The research model was constructed around four independent variables (role, career, goal and performance ambiguity) and a dependent variable (task and conceptual performance). Five scales used to measure the perceptions included from the related literature. The cronbach alpha values for each survey were over 0.85. To determine the validity level of the surveys, we conducted confirmatory factor analysis and found that all surveys we implicated are between acceptable limits of goodness of fit index. Totally 239 employees respond the surveys. First, we used Principle Components Analysis (PCA) to create indices for ambiguity perception. The principle component analysis shows us that the employees included in the study generally were in role, goal, career and performance ambiguity. Then, to estimate the effects of the perceived role, career, goal and performance ambiguity on employee's task and conceptual performance, the multiple linear regression analysis were conducted. The results show us that there is a statistically significant effect of role and goal ambiguity on employee's task performance. The other main result from the multiple linear regression analysis is that there is a statistically significant effect of role and performance ambiguity on the employee's conceptual performance. 129

Background Goal ambiguity influences the effectiveness of performance management systems to drive organizations toward enhanced results. The literature analyzes the antecedents of goal ambiguity and shows the influence of goal ambiguity on the performance of U.S. federal agencies. However, no study has analyzed goal ambiguity in other countries or in health care systems. Purpose This study has three aims: to test the validity of a measurement instrument for goal ambiguity, to investigate its main antecedents, and to explore the relationship between goal ambiguity and organizational performance in a large, public, Beveridge-type health care system. Methodology A nationwide survey of general managers of the Italian national health system was performed. A factor analysis was used to validate the mono-dimensionality of an instrument that measured goal ambiguity. Structural equation modeling was used to test both the antecedents and the influence of goal ambiguity on organizational performance. Results Data from 135 health care organizations (53% response rate) were available for analysis. The results confirm the mono-dimensionality of the instrument, the existence of two environmental sources of ambiguity (political endorsement and governance commitment), and the negative relationship between goal ambiguity and organizational performance. Practice implications Goal ambiguity matters because it may hamper organizational performance. Therefore, performance should be fostered by reducing goal ambiguity (e.g., goal-setting model, funding arrangements, and political support). Mutatis mutandis, our results may apply to public health care systems of other countries or other "public interest" sectors, such as social care and education.

For over a generation, social scientists have tried to categorize the relationship between journalists and politicians. Which side holds power and influence over the other? Some scholars propose “active” theories: journalists have preferences and the power to impose them on anyone seeking media attention. Other scholars argue journalists are essentially “reactive,” dutifully writing down what politicians say with little ability to add alternate perspectives. In this dissertation, I propose both camps are extremes based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how journalists can apply their preferences on news content. Politicians and other sources provide information to reporters, bloggers and other new media writers. Each writer then chooses how to respond to this information. Journalistic power – whether we are discussing traditional media outlets or newer partisan media organizations – is best understood as a set of if : then propositions.The empirical sections of the dissertation consist of three separate studies, each of which focuses on one set of inputs and the output from a particular set of news organizations. The first study focuses on how presidents schedule press conferences at particular times and places. I find scheduling influences how much attention journalists give a conference, which in turn influences the balance of opinion found in stories. The second study shows how journalists resist but may ultimately give in to evasive responses, by examining quotations on a statement-by-statement basis. The third study examines some of the most popular phrases from the 2008 election, comparing how a wide range of media organizations responded to the same set of political and non-political ideas. Put together, these studies offer a common theoretical framework for comparing traditional and new media organizations, allowing for commonalities as well as differences.

Planning on the 4-disk version of the Tower of London (TOL4) was examined in stroke patients and unimpaired controls. Overall TOL4 solution scores indicated impaired planning in the frontal stroke but not non-frontal stroke patients. Consistent with the claim that processing the relations between current states, intermediate states, and goal states is a key process in planning, the domain-general relational complexity metric was a good indicator of the experienced difficulty of TOL4 problems. The relational complexity metric shared variance with task-specific metrics of moves to solution and search depth. Frontal stroke patients showed impaired planning compared to controls on problems at all three complexity levels, but at only two of the three levels of moves to solution, search depth and goal ambiguity. Non-frontal stroke patients showed impaired planning only on the most difficult quaternary-relational and high search depth problems. An independent measure of relational processing (viz., Latin square task) predicted TOL4 solution scores after controlling for stroke status and location, and executive processing (Trail Making Test). The findings suggest that planning involves a domain-general capacity for relational processing that depends on the frontal brain regions.

The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0170840607088017 Human artifacts lie on the interface between their inner environments and their outer environments. Organizations, therefore, are apt subjects to be studied through a science of the artificial. Furthermore, organizational design happens at two interfaces: first, at the interface between organizational founder(s) and the firms they design, and second, between the firms and the environments in which they operate. We use recent developments in the study of entrepreneurial expertise to show why an effectual logic of design is necessary at the first interface, and what its consequences are for designing at the second. In particular, we use the exemplar case of Starbucks to codify three key characteristics of the design problem at the first interface — namely, Knightian uncertainty, goal ambiguity and environmental isotropy. We then use an ‘alternate histories’ method to trace four strategic options — namely, planning, adaptation, vision and transformation — for designing at the second interface. In the final analysis, organizational design is important because effectuators using transformational approaches not only design organizations, but concurrently end up designing the environments we live in.

The Navy's primary mission is combat warfare in the defense of our country. To achieve this mission it is vital that Naval Officers in operational billets assigned to ships, submarines, aircraft squadrons and afloat staffs maintain the highest degree of readiness and tactical expertise. The objective of the present research was to identify those factors that a line officer perceives as enhancing or constraining his opportunity to learn and practice tactical employment of his weapons and combat systems. Prepared for: Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California 93940 and Navy Personnel Research and Development Center, San Diego, California 92152 http://archive.org/details/tacticalcompeten00drog