The ‘Public Interest’ Agency of International Organizations? The case of the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance

This article seeks to outline and explore some of the conditions necessary for International Organizations (IOs) to perform in a public interest fashion through a case study of the Principles of corporate governance formulated by the OECD. Rather than the more commonly documented pathological and dysfunctional behavioural forms of IOs, the case of the Principles, both in their formulation by the OECD, and in their assessment by the World Bank through the ROSC process, represent an episode of IO agency protecting and promoting a wider public interest. In exercising their agency, IO staff, have made the Principles more agreeable to a wider range of interested parties, giving them a general interest orientation, in accordance with a proceduralist definition of public interest. This case should therefore encourage IPE scholars to consider carefully and systematically the sets of circumstances and conditions, which might be required for IO agency to take more socially useful forms. In the final section, three indicators are identified which might be evaluated in future research into the positive public interest agency of IOs across a range of cases.

How Organizations Engage with External Complexity: A Political Action Perspective

This paper offers a new insight into how organizations engage with external complexity. It applies a political action perspective that draws attention to the hitherto neglected question of how the relative power organizational leaders enjoy within their environments is significant for the actions they can take on behalf of their organizations when faced with external complexity. It identifies cognitive and relational complexity as two dimensions of the environment with which organizations have to engage. It proposes three modes whereby organizations may engage with environmental complexity that are conditioned by an organization's power within its environment. It also considers the intention associated with each mode, as well as the implications of these modes of engagement for how an organization can learn about its environment and for the use of rationality and intuition in its strategic decision-making. The closing discussion considers how this analysis integrates complexity and political action perspectives in a way that contributes to theoretical development and provides the basis for a dynamic political co-evolutionary approach. © The Author(s) 2011.

Mapping public sector organizations:An agenda for future research

This article summarizes the key findings from the five mapping case studies presented in this special issue and relates them back to the conceptual, definitional, and theoretical issues presented in the opening article (MacCarthaigh & Roness, 2012). In so doing, the article considers the alternative ways in which organizational change can best be captured, mapped, and explained and the key issues to be considered when conducting such exercises. As well as identifying how the case studies have advanced the possibilities for mapping public sector organizational change over time in a cross-national context and the benefits this offers for other aspects of public administration research, the article identifies some impediments to future research and collaboration in the field and suggests ways to overcome them. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Analyzing longitudinal continuity and change in public sector organizations

This article provides the introduction to a special edition that presents for the first time a series of detailed country case studies concerned with the matter of organizational life cycles. Building on some recent scholarship, it begins by surveying the development of the field, before setting out some of the key methodological and theoretical issues and challenges involved in adopting a longitudinal perspective to the study of organizational change. It proposes that by capturing the variety of ways in which public sector organizations emerge, survive, and terminate, new perspectives on how administrative systems evolve can be presented and compared. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Assessing the information needs of staff in two long-term care organizations

As alternate care levels are transferred from hospital to community settings, health care workers in long term care are caring for individuals where conditions are more medically complex. In response to this situation decision makers in long term care are pursuing the goal of practice based on the best evidence. Identifying the information needs of health care workers in this environment represents the first step towards cultivating a best practice culture in long term care. The purpose of this study was to identify what information resources staff need to improve clinical and managerial decision making. The perceptions of health care workers at two long term care organizations were investigated through quantitative and qualitative methods, using a questionnaire and focus groups. In each of the settings there were gaps in the availability of resources and perceived needs for education. The findings from both settings revealed the need for more information resources to assist staff to improve individual care of residents and develop better approaches to health problems.

The two-way relationship between the Balanced Scorecard and Management Control Systems in organizations:Lessons from a Case Study

This paper reports a case study conducted in Quinta da Aveleda, one of
the three largest Portuguese wine companies. Our aim was to explore the
relationship established between a newly implemented Balanced Scorecard
(BSC) and the elements of the Management Control System (MCS) in the
organization. Thus, two specific objectives were pursued. Firstly, to identify
the influences (barriers, opportunities) of the existing MCS on the implementation
of the BSC. Secondly, to identify the impacts the BSC implementation
was able to exert on the configuration of the organization’s MCS.
We found that the budgeting process, the planning system, the information
infrastructure, and the organizational structure and culture were the elements
of the previous MCS that influenced the BSC implementation process.
Eventually, the BSC implementation led to important changes in the budgeting,
planning, reporting systems and processes. In order to explain these
findings, we briefly explored the main issues and factors accounting for the
scope and nature of the BSC’s impacts on Quinta da Aveleda. These issues
and factors were the mobilized organizational resources, the implementation
approach, the communication, and the organizational support.

Power and the Construction of Independence in ICTD Organizations

How do powerful vested interests continue to influence ICT for development (ICTD) projects? In this paper, instead of adopting a macro-level analysis, I take an in-depth, ethnographic approach to focus on work practices at one NGO involved in producing information and communication technologies for use in developing countries. Staff decisions at this NGO were influenced by particular powerful organizations, and I draw on theoretical insights from organization studies in order to understand this. The approach yields surprising results. Staff members appeared able to "stand back" from the pressures coming from donors and other influential parties, and to critically reflect upon these. Paradoxically, rather than fueling resistance, this sense of independence appeared to reinforce dependency on these powerful organizations. Moreover, the fact that this NGO was engaged in ICTD work further heightened these effects. This study extends existing understandings of how power operates within ICTD organizations, by highlighting the ways in which a sense of independence can paradoxically exacerbate donor influence over work activities.

Consensus in organizations:Hunting for the social choice conundrum in APA elections

According to the axiomatic literature on consensus methods, the best collective choice by one method of preference aggregation can easily be the worst by another. Are award committees, electorates, managers, online retailers, and web-based recommender systems stuck with an impossibility of rational preference aggregation? We investigate this social choice conundrum for seven social choice methods: Condorcet, Borda, Plurality, Antiplurality, the Single Transferable Vote, Coombs, and Plurality Runoff. We rely on Monte Carlo simulations for theoretical results and on twelve ballot datasets from American Psychological Association (APA) presidential elections for empirical results. Each of these elections provides partial rankings of five candidates from about 13,000 to about 20,000 voters. APA preferences are neither domain-restricted nor generated by an Impartial Culture. We find virtually no trace of a Condorcet paradox. In direct contrast with the classical social choice conundrum, competing consensus methods agree remarkably well, especially on the overall best and worst options. The agreement is also robust under perturbations of the preference prole via resampling, even in relatively small pseudosamples. We also explore prescriptive implications of our findings.