Uncertainty during organizational change: Types, consequences, and management strategies

This research tested a model that classifies change uncertainty into three interrelated types: strategic, structural, and job-related. We predicted that control would mediate the effects of job-related uncertainty upon psychological strain, and that management communication and participation in decision-making (PDM) would reduce uncertainty and increase feelings of control. The model was tested in a public sector organization and the results supported it. Control was found to mediate the effects of job-related uncertainty upon psychological strain. Management communication was negatively related to strategic uncertainty, whereas PDM was negatively related to structural and job-related uncertainty, suggesting different mechanisms to deal with the types of uncertainty during change. Finally, PDM was positively associated with feelings of control and negatively associated with psychological strain. These results suggest that PDM can short-circuit the damaging effects of uncertainty by allowing employees to have a say in change related organizational affairs, thereby instilling a sense of control over their circumstances.

A comparative analysis of entrepreneurial approaches within public healthcare organisations

This article examines the development of two distinct models of organising allied health professionals within two public sector health service organisations in Australia. The first case illustrated a mode of organising that facilitated a culture that focused on asset protection and whose external orientation was threat oriented because its disparate multiple identities operated as a fractured, fragmented and competitive set of profession disciplines. In this milieu, there was no evidence of entrepreneurial approaches being used. In contrast, the second case study illustrated a mode of organising that facilitated an entrepreneurial culture that focused on asset growth and an external orientation that was opportunity oriented because of the evolution of a strong superordinate allied health identity that operated as a single united health services stakeholder. This evolution was coupled with the emergence of a corporate boardroom model of management that is consonant with Savage et al. (1997) IDS/N model of management. Once this structure and strategy were in place, corporate entrepreneur ship became the modus operandi. Consequently, because the case study was a situation where corporate entrepreneurship existed in the public sector, it was possible to compare the factors that stimulate corporate entrepreneurship in Sadler's (2000) study with factors that were observed in our study.

Fragmented coherence: Solid waste management in Colombo

Notwithstanding the increasingly fragmented organizational relationships within Colombo's urban governance system, the cooperative nature of stakeholder relationships lends a high level of coherence to the overall system. Since 1995, Colombo's solid waste management system has been characterized by the increased role of the private sector, community-based organizations and NGOs. Whilst the increasingly fragmented nature of this system exhibits some deeply ingrained problems, there are also a number of positives associated with the increased role of civil society actors and, in particular, the informal sector. Reforming regulatory frameworks so as to integrate some of the social norms that are integral to the lives of the majority of urban residents will contribute to regulatory frameworks being considerably more enforceable than is currently the case. Such reform requires that institutional and regulatory frameworks need to be flexible enough to adapt to the changing social, political and economic context. In the Colombo case, effective cooperation between public sector and civil society stakeholders illustrates that adaptive institutional arrangements grounded in pragmatism are feasible. The challenge that arises is to translate these institutional arrangements into adaptive regulatory frameworks - something that would require a significant mind shift on the part of planners and urban managers.

The impact of leadership and change management strategy on organizational culture and individual acceptance of change during a merger

This article reports a longitudinal study that examined mergers between three large multi-site public-sector organizations. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis are used to examine the effect of leadership and change management strategies on acceptance of cultural change by individuals. Findings indicate that in many cases the change that occurs as a result of a merger is imposed on the leaders themselves, and it is often the pace of change that inhibits the successful re-engineering of the culture. In this respect, the success or otherwise of any merger hinges on individual perceptions about the manner in which the process is handled and the direction in which the culture is moved. Communication and a transparent change process are important, as this will often determine not only how a leader will be regarded, but who will be regarded as a leader. Leaders need to be competent and trained in the process of transforming organizations to ensure that individuals within the organization accept the changes prompted by a merger.

Public and private psychiatry: Can they work together and is it worth the effort?

Objective: Partnerships in mental health care, particularly between public and private psychiatric services, are being increasingly recognized as important for optimizing patient management and the efficient organization of services. However, public sector mental health services and private psychiatrists do not always work well together and there seem to be a number of barriers to effective collaboration. This study set out to investigate the extent of collaborative 'shared care' arrangements between a public mental health service and private psychiatrists practising nearby. It also examined possible barriers to collaboration and some possible solutions to the identified problems. Method: A questionnaire examining the above factors was sent to all public sector mental health clinicians and all private psychiatrists in the area. Results: One hundred and five of the 154 (68.2%) public sector clinicians and 103 of the 194 (53.1%) private psychiatrists returned surveys. The main barriers to successful collaboration identified by members of both sectors were: 'Difficulty communicating' endorsed by 71.4% of public clinicians and 72% of private psychiatrists, 'Confusion of roles and responsibilities' endorsed by 62.9% and 66%, respectively, and 'Different treatment approach' by 47.6% and 45.6%, respectively. Over 60% of private psychiatrists identified problems with access to the public system as a barrier to successful shared care arrangements. It also emerged, as hypothesized, that the public and private systems tend to manage different patient populations and that public clinicians in particular are not fully aware of the private psychiatrists' range of expertise. This would result in fewer referrals for shared care across the sectors. Conclusions: A number of barriers to public sector clinicians and private psychiatrists collaborating in shared care arrangements were identified. The two groups surveyed identified similar barriers. Some of these can potentially be addressed by changes to service systems. Others require cultural shifts in both sectors. Improved communications including more opportunities for formal and informal meetings between people working in the two sectors would be likely to improve the understanding of the complementary sector's perspective and practice. Further changes would be expected to require careful work between the sectors on training, employment and practice protocols and initiatives, to allow better use of the existing services and resources.

CONSÓRCIO INTERMUNICIPAL DE SAÚDE/AMUNPAR: UMA HISTÓRIA REVISITADA

A temática sobre redes organizacionais tem ocupado um lugar importante no campo de estudos da ciência social aplicada à administração dado o grau de interesse dos pesquisadores compreenderem o fenômeno da coopetição nos mercados e sua relação entre os atores na economia. A análise proposta neste estudo apresenta o sistema de consorciamento de municípios tendo como ponto central da rede o CIS/AMUNPAR em torno das políticas públicas de saúde. A proposta foi de entender quais foram os ganhos/conquistas que o consórcio obteve a partir dos conceitos da teoria de redes. Dado esse contexto, buscou-se revisitar nesta pesquisa a memória social do CIS/AMUNPAR caracterizado como uma rede de cooperação intergovernamental, sendo apoiada pelo SUS como parte integrante das políticas públicas de saúde no período de democratização e municipalização do setor de saúde no Brasil. Os Consórcios Intermunicipais de Saúde assumiram a responsabilidade de atendimento das especialidades no Estado, deixando de serem apenas um mero coadjuvante e passando a ser um ator social principal na prestação de serviços de saúde no país. A partir do processo de redemocratização política do país, os consórcios foram criados objetivando a aproximação dos municípios com os usuários do sistema SUS. Trata-se portanto, de uma pesquisa metodologicamente calcada na abordagem qualitativa, exploratória e descritiva, valendo-se da história oral e análise documental. Os procedimentos de análise dos dados foram baseados no modelo analítico geral e bibliografia fundamentada. Os dados permitiram compreender que o CIS/AMUNPAR passa por uma fragmentação na parceria estabelecida na rede em sua gênese e que precisa unir esforços para planejar suas ações em conjunto, assim como se caracteriza uma rede cooperativa efetiva. A pesquisa ainda revelou que isoladamente os municípios não conseguiriam oferecer toda a assistência necessária e requerida pela União a partir do processo de descentralização da saúde e que a estratégia mais adequada para a região do noroeste do Paraná seria na forma de consorciamento dos 28 municípios que compreendiam esta região.

Benchmarking project management practices of Caribbean organizations using analytic hierarchy process

Effective management of projects is becoming increasingly important for any type of organization to remain competitive in today’s dynamic business environment due to pressure of globalization. The use of benchmarking is widening as a technique for supporting project management. Benchmarking can be described as the search for the best practices, leading to the superior performance of an organization. However, effectiveness of benchmarking depends on the use of tools for collecting and analyzing information and deriving subsequent improvement projects. This study demonstrates how analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a multiple attribute decision-making technique, can be used for benchmarking project management practices. The entire methodology has been applied to benchmark project management practice of Caribbean public sector organizations with organizations in the Indian petroleum sector, organizations in the infrastructure sector of Thailand and the UK. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of a proposed benchmarking model using AHP, determines problems and issues of Caribbean project management in the public sector and suggests improvement measures for effective project management.

Innovation in project management practices:a case of Indian organization in the petroleum industry

The Indian petroleum industry is passing through a very dynamic business environment due to the liberalisation of many government policies, vertical integration among organisations and the presence of multinational companies. This caused a competitive environment among the organisations in the Indian petroleum industry in the public sector. Effective project management for developing new infrastructures and maintaining the existing facilities has been considered one of the means for remaining competitive in this business environment. However, present project management practices suffer from many shortcomings, as time, cost and quality non-achievements are part and parcel of almost every project. This study focuses on identifying the issues in managing projects of the organisation in the Indian petroleum sector with the involvement of the executives in a workshop environment. This also suggests some remedial measures for resolving those issues through identifying critical success factors and enablers. The enablers not only resolve the present issues but also ensure superior performance. These are analysed in a quantitative framework to derive improvement measures in project management practices.

Knowledge management in the energy sector:review and future directions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the state of knowledge management (KM) in the energy sector and more broadly, and consider future directions for research and practice. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the literature on KM and the practice of KM as relevant to the energy sector. Findings – There are many examples of good practice in KM in the sector, and some organisations, especially in the oil industry, are seen as leaders in KM practice. However, other organisations have yet to embark on explicit KM initiatives or projects at all. In addition, some parts of the energy sector discuss KM without any reference to the more general KM literature. Originality/value – Although some parts of the energy sector have justifiably earned a good reputation for KM, other parts are completely unaware of the field, as is apparent from the literature. This review helps to raise awareness and guide future work.

Estimating additionality and leverage:between public and private sector equity finance in Ireland (2000 – 2002)

This paper aims to contribute to the debate about the role of the public sector in stimulating greater use of private sector equity for business start-up and growth in two ways. First, to examine the extent to which the provision of public sector equity finance enables individual firms to raise additional funds in the private sector market place. Second, to consider the methodological implications for an economic impact assessment of industrial policy interventions (especially those which include an equity component) at the level of the individual firm. We assess the extent to which there may be indirect positive effects (externalities) associated with public sector financial assistance to individual firms and if so how they distort standard evaluation methodologies designed to estimate the level of additionality of that support. The paper draws upon the results of a recent study of the impact of Enterprise Ireland (EI) financial assistance to indigenous Irish industry in the period 2000 to 2002. The paper demonstrates that a process of re-calibration is necessary in estimates of economic impact in order to account for these positive externalities and the result in this study was a ‘boost’ to additionality. In operational and conceptual terms, the study underlines the importance of the relationship between private and public sector sources of equity finance as an important dynamic in the attempt by industrial and regional policy to stimulate the number of firms with viable investment proposals accessing external equity finance.

Reforming public services in the UK:Bringing in the third sector

In the UK, the government continues its project to reform public services. Earlier projects have focused on the modernization of public sector organizations; in the latest round of reform, New Labour has focused on widening choice and the personalization of services. To this end, the government has been working with Third Sector (TS) organizations to expand their role in shaping, commissioning and delivering public services. The government's vision is predicated on a normative assertion, that, unlike traditional public sector organizations, TS bodies create public value by being more innovative, are inspired by altruistic aims and values, and have greater commitment to their clients. This paper reviews recent policy and questions whether the government's policy is flawed, contradictory and risks damaging the attributes of the TS admired by New Labour. © 2007 The Author. Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Intelligence agents (knowledge management)

Reports some insights into knowledge management (KM) derived from UK one-day workshops with six businesses, three non-profits and one public sector organization. Lists the four questions posed to participants and discusses the themes which emerged, e.g. the need for a KM strategy to make raw information more useable, KM performance measurement etc. Stresses the need for commitment from a top-level champion and a wide range of employees to make this work and identifies three types of solutions for improving KM strategy: technological (e.g. databases and intranets), people (e.g. motivation, retention, training and networking) and processes (e.g. procedural instructions and balancing formal/informal knowledge sharing methods). Finds that accountants and senior managers do not generally see KM as very important but argues that management accountants are suitable knowledge champions who could develop explicit links between KM and organizational performance.