Le tonneau des Danaïdes ou de l’européanisation à l’Est : la grande corruption en Roumanie – types, causes, conséquences

Pourquoi la Roumanie ne réussit-elle pas l'épreuve de l'européanisation? À travers quatre études de cas, ce mémoire souligne le rôle central occupé par les partis politiques dans le développement de la corruption en Roumanie. En adaptant la théorie créée par Jonathan Pinto, Carrie Leana et Frits Pil, il montre que le type le plus répandu de corruption n'est pas individuel mais organisationnel et se propage à travers les partis. Plus précisément, les études de cas servent à comparer les phénomènes de l'Organisation d'Individus Corrompus (OIC) et de l'Organisation Corrompue (OC). En Roumanie, les deux types coexistent. Toutefois, de par l’étendue et la puissance supérieure dans le fonctionnement de l’OC par rapport à l’OIC, de par la définition et tel que le montre l'analyse des études de cas choisies, le phénomène de l’Organisation Corrompue dans sa manifestation à l'intérieur des partis politiques a plus de conséquences négatives sur le développement économique, politique et sur l’intégration européenne du pays comprise dans le sens d’idéal démocratique et de modernité dont tout État membre de l’Union européenne tente de se rapprocher.

L’entreprise familiale est-elle corrompue ?

Is family business corrupt? Since the Enron and WorldCom cases, there has been a growing interest in corruption in the corporate world. A large number of studies having demonstrated that Family Businesses (FB) are the most important forms of organization in the business world, it seemed logical to look at the relationship between FB and corruption. FB being supposed to be concerned by human relationships and to focus on the long term, they should not be concerned by these questions. Nevertheless, the literature underlines that FB could be organizations able to corrupt the political system. Besides, FB could have organizational characteristics that would make it prone to be related to corruption cases.

The Expanded Human Kallikrein (KLK) gene family : genomic organisation, tissue specific expression and potential functions

The tissue kallikreins are serine proteases encoded by highly conserved multigene families. The rodent kallikrein (KLK) families are particularly large, consisting of 13 26 genes clustered in one chromosomal locus. It has been recently recognised that the human KLK gene family is of a similar size (15 genes) with the identification of another 12 related genes (KLK4-KLK15) within and adjacent to the original human KLK locus (KLK1-3) on chromosome 19q13.4. The structural organisation and size of these new genes is similar to that of other KLK genes except for additional exons encoding 5 or 3 untranslated regions. Moreover, many of these genes have multiple mRNA transcripts, a trait not observed with rodent genes. Unlike all other kallikreins, the KLK4-KLK15 encoded proteases are less related (25–44%) and do not contain a conventional kallikrein loop. Clusters of genes exhibit high prostatic (KLK2-4, KLK15) or pancreatic (KLK6-13) expression, suggesting evolutionary conservation of elements conferring tissue specificity. These genes are also expressed, to varying degrees, in a wider range of tissues suggesting a functional involvement of these newer human kallikrein proteases in a diverse range of physiological processes.

The Australian Parliament: A Gendered Organisation

Limited work has been undertaken on the subject of gender and Australian parliamentary institutions. This study of 13 male and 15 female members of the Australian parliament addresses this gap in the literature. Data from the study are used to explore the ways in which the institutions of political office operate as ‘gendered organisations’ (Acker 1990). What emerges from this analysis is the pervasiveness of gender across the processes, practices and discourses of the parliament. This is a space infused with hegemonic masculinity. This gendering is, however, normalised and/or minimised by many of the parliamentarians involved in the study.

ERP success: Does organisation size matter?

Organisations invest enormous sums of money in acquiring Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, presumably expecting positive impacts to the organisation and its functions. Despite the optimistic motives some ERP projects have reported nil or detrimental impacts. This paper studies the proposition that the size of an organisation (e.g. small, large) may have contributed to the differences in receiving benefits reported in prior studies in this domain. The alleged differences in organisational performance are empirically measured using a prior validated model, using five constructs and fortytwo sub-constructs. Information is gathered from three hundred and ten respondents representing twenty-seven public sector organisations. Results suggests that (1) larger organisations have received more benefits compared to small organisations, (2) small organisations demonstrated higher reliance on their ERP systems, (3) employment cohorts demonstrate significant differences in perceived benefits in small and large organisations.

Developing a participatory impact assessment approach and action research culture within a communication for social change organisation in Nepal

Developing an effective impact evaluation framework, managing and conducting rigorous impact evaluations, and developing a strong research and evaluation culture within development communication organisations presents many challenges. This is especially so when both the community and organisational context is continually changing and the outcomes of programs are complex and difficult to clearly identify.----- This paper presents a case study from a research project being conducted from 2007-2010 that aims to address these challenges and issues, entitled Assessing Communication for Social Change: A New Agenda in Impact Assessment. Building on previous development communication projects which used ethnographic action research, this project is developing, trailing and rigorously evaluating a participatory impact assessment methodology for assessing the social change impacts of community radio programs in Nepal. This project is a collaboration between Equal Access – Nepal (EAN), Equal Access – International, local stakeholders and listeners, a network of trained community researchers, and a research team from two Australian universities. A key element of the project is the establishment of an organisational culture within EAN that values and supports the impact assessment process being developed, which is based on continuous action learning and improvement. The paper describes the situation related to monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and impact assessment before the project began, in which EAN was often reliant on time-bound studies and ‘success stories’ derived from listener letters and feedback. We then outline the various strategies used in an effort to develop stronger and more effective impact assessment and M&E systems, and the gradual changes that have occurred to date. These changes include a greater understanding of the value of adopting a participatory, holistic, evidence-based approach to impact assessment. We also critically review the many challenges experienced in this process, including:----- • Tension between the pressure from donors to ‘prove’ impacts and the adoption of a bottom-up, participatory approach based on ‘improving’ programs in ways that meet community needs and aspirations.----- • Resistance from the content teams to changing their existing M&E practices and to the perceived complexity of the approach.----- • Lack of meaningful connection between the M&E and content teams.----- • Human resource problems and lack of capacity in analysing qualitative data and reporting results.----- • The contextual challenges, including extreme poverty, wide cultural and linguistic diversity, poor transport and communications infrastructure, and political instability.----- • A general lack of acceptance of the importance of evaluation within Nepal due to accepting everything as fate or ‘natural’ rather than requiring investigation into a problem.

Management, organisation, and ethics in the public sector

Since the 1980s, in Australia and other developed nations, public sector management philosophies and how the public sector is organized have changed dramatically. At the same time, there have been many demands, and several attempts, to preserve and promote ethical behaviour within the public sector - though few go much beyond the publication of a code. Both developments require an understanding of how public organizations operate in this new environment. Organizational and management theory are seen as providing important potential insights into the opportunities and pitfalls for building ethics into the practices, culture and norms of public organizations. This book brings together the experience and research of a range of "reflective practitioners" and "engaged academics" in public sector management, organizational theory, management theory, public sector ethics and law. It addresses what management and organization theory might suggest about the nature of public organizations and the institutionalization of ethics.