International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior

Cirincione, Carmen

1998 International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior

doi: 10.1108/IJOTB-01-04-1998-B001

Performance monitoring systems are typically designed to assess the achievement of a single program or agency. In recent years, there have been efforts to integrate programs addressing a particular policy area (e.g., workforce development). The evolving systems incorporate multiple programs, agencies, funding streams, service providers, information systems, and goals. The design of integrated performance monitoring systems requires applying measures, standards, and comparisons to multiple levels of assessment. The author differentiates between traditional and integrated performance monitoring systems, identifies the levels that must be addressed by integrated systems and the obstacles that must be overcome in developing them, and discusses the benefits of integrated performance monitoring systems.

Weeks, Brenda S.; Helms, Marilyn M.; Ettkin, Lawrence P.

1998 International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior

doi: 10.1108/IJOTB-01-04-1998-B002

The TQM literature suggests that success comes to organizations ready for a change in climate. Determining levels of readiness or conversely resistance to change is an important step, yet few organizations assess readiness in starting a TQM (Total Quality Management) implementation. This paper highlights an assessment of a major hospital's readiness to implement a continuous quality improvement process. Discussion of the survey of both managers and employees regarding these characteristics are presented. The case highlights the need for establishing a common vision and providing training for teamwork. Perceptions of management and employees are important because these groups function as if perceptions are real. Background information and implications of findings are also included. Ways to diagnose and identify ways to remove potential hurdles to TQM are identified. Suggestions for implementing the methodology using the assessment framework and model are included. The findings can be used to assist in formulating plans for TQM implementations assessments in other hospitals.

Rosenbloom, David H.; Segal, Zeev

1998 International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior

doi: 10.1108/IJOTB-01-04-1998-B003

How suitable is the New Public Management (NPM), which developed in parliamentary systems, to presidential democracies? The answer is important to reform efforts in the U.S. federal government and in several Latin American nations. According to Fred Riggs, the requirements of successful public administration in “presidentialist” and parliamentary systems differ considerably. Israelʼs experience with reform presents a natural experiment that supports Riggs” theory of presidentialisi administration. Israel embarked on NPM-style reforms when it was a pure parliamentary democracy. Its reform program was revised in ways that fit Riggsʼ prescriptions for presidentialism after the country adopted major electoral and structural changes that made it “semi-presidentialist.” Although a single case study of limited duration, the Israeli experience suggests that there is a distinctive logic to presidentialist administration that is readily understood by government officials who perforce must assess the demands of constitutional structure on administrative arrangements.

P. Kelly, Eileen

1998 International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior

doi: 10.1108/IJOTB-01-04-1998-B004

Labor-management participation efforts have grown dramatically under such forms as quality circles, total quality management, participation teams, and employee councils. Employers promote participation efforts as a means to increase employee commitment, product quality, customer satisfaction and company profitability. Nonetheless participation efforts are under assault both legally and ideologically. Segments of the labor movement challenge participation efforts as subterfuges for union busting and violations of existing labor laws. This article constructs an historical framework against which to cast the current debate over participation efforts. It traces the roots of differing ideological perspectives on participation efforts by examining the rise of the industrial democracy movement in the 1920s and the use of representation plans and company unions. The historical roots of differing legal perspectives on participation efforts are also examined. The article discusses the historical reasons why contemporary labor statutes were written with such strong circumscription of employee-employer participation efforts.

König, Klaus

1998 International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior

doi: 10.1108/IJOTB-01-04-1998-B005

Since Max Weber analysed the process of the historical differentiation of religion, politics, law and economics, it is now accepted that it is functional differentiation into relatively autonomous subsystems and spheres of action, together with the rationalization of these areas according to their own principles, that fundamentally determines the modern. This immediately focuses the spotlight on public administration characterized as a type of bureaucracy with a system of official responsibilities, a hierarchy of offices, an official routine, adherence to a set of rules, a career public service. Between the basic bureaucratic character of public administrations in the west and the various manifestations of the nation state, it is possible to identify certain politico-cultural communities in the Anglo-Saxon area on the one hand and Continental Europe on the other which enable a distinction to be made between civic culture administration and the classic system of administration

Neck, Christopher P.; Ashcraft, Robert F.; VanSandt, Craig V.

1998 International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior

doi: 10.1108/IJOTB-01-04-1998-B006

Nonprofits often have a top-down, control oriented leadership focus, neglecting the potential of developing leadership capabilities at all levels of the organization. We expand on current nonprofit management literature by positing a comple-mentary leadership approach that focuses on employee self-leadership at all levels of the establishment, thereby enhancing personal and organizational effectiveness.

David Edwards, J.

1998 International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior

doi: 10.1108/IJOTB-01-04-1998-B007

This paper presents a discussion of the influence of managerialist values on the field of public administration. The author begins by developing a definition of managerialism consisting of four components: efficiency as the primary value guiding managers1 actions and decisions; faith in the tools and techniques of management; a class consciousness among managers; and a view of managers as moral agents. The paper next considers the influence of managerialism on the development of the field of public administration. The analysis centers on the early history of the field, but also discusses the ongoing influence of the managerialist mindset. The author then turns to consideration of three alternative approaches to public administration theory and practice which have arisen as challenges to the dominance of the managerialist mindset within the discipline. Specifically, the values and assumptions underlying the work of selected writers associated with the New PA, the Blacksburg group, and PA Theorists are discussed. The paper closes by contrasting these alternative views of public administration to managerialism and considering the extent to which they represent major challenges to its dominance or simply reflect variations of the same theme.