Search results for "bureaucracy"
showing 10 items of 56 documents
Leveraging a Wiki to EnhanceVirtual Collaboration in the Emergency Domain
2008
In a crisis situation, critical success factors include good preparedness, the availability of trustworthy information and reliable people, and the responders' ability to improvise with the available, functioning tools. Wikis can be used as collaborative group support systems to support these activities, especially for communities of practice that must operate as high reliability organizations. The advantages of using a wiki are especially beneficial in volatile environments, such as those in the emergency domain, where critical real-time decision making is required. An international wiki emergenciWiki.org - has been created and is being used by both practitioners and academics. The conclus…
The Evaluation of Public Managers’ Performances in the Light of Italian Public Administration Reform
2011
One of the most important element in the analysis of public administration’s performances is the management. In fact it is the connection point between objectives (fixed at political level) and the system of outputs and outcomes, achieved by public personnel at different levels. This is the main reason why during the last decades, the reform of Italian public administration has concentrated on improving public action performances, by a regulation of public management and the connected introduction of two key words: autonomy and accountability. This means that managers should be endowed of greater autonomy in the execution of their managerial activities and, at the same time, they are fully …
The Role of Contextual Factors in the Influence of ICT on Street-Level Discretion
2017
Public service workers in the frontline have traditionally enjoyed a wide freedom to make decisions during policy implementation. Research shows that technology has both constraining and enabling effects on public service workers affecting their ability to exercise discretion. What remains unclear is under which circumstances discretion is influenced by technology. Using a case study approach and drawing on neo-institutional theory, this paper studies a court to identify contextual factors affecting the phenomenon. Findings show that technology has no unilateral effect on street-level discretion, and is found moderated by contextual factors such as the degree of social complexity in a case,…
From development to power relations and territorial governance: Increasing the leadership role of LEADER Local Action Groups in Spain
2015
Abstract The establishment of Local Action Groups (LAGs) within the framework of LEADER with the participation of public and private actors through a bottom–up approach (i.e., the empowerment of local society) and the management of local development strategies constitutes one of the major innovations in the field of rural policy in Spain. The protagonism of local society and the local management of development processes entail the introduction and experimentation of previously unknown mechanisms of territorial governance. However, the efficacy of this rhetoric has been seriously limited in its practical implementation, with difficulties conceiving truly integrated and multi-sectoral strateg…
Two Decades of Change in Spanish Higher Education
1999
The 1983 Reforms The current structure of higher education was established by the 1983 University Reform Act, which greatly revised the legal framework of Spanish universities. Formerly completely controlled by the central government, universities have gained in autonomy and now depend more on regional governments. The legal reforms also democratized the internal structure of universities. Power was transferred from the state bureaucracy to university-level governing bodies, including nonacademic staff and students, that have decision-making powers in matters concerning the institution and departments and in electing the rector, deans, and department heads.
Empreendedorismo, inovação e internacionalização: o papel moderador das instituições
2021
Abstract The favorable effects of innovation and internationalization on the development of the economies of countries have been prominent factors in multiple management studies. The objective of this document is to make a theoretical review of the studies contained in the ScienceDirect (Elsevier) and ResearchGate databases, to offer an integrating framework of those institutional factors in the countries that favor the positive spillover of these two strategic actions carried out by companies: innovation and internationalization. As a result, we observed that an institutional framework characterized by a simplification of bureaucratic administrative procedures to access the financial resou…
Smart Cities and Municipal Building Regulation for Energy Efficiency
2015
The “Smart Cities & Communities Initiative” of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan is the strategic European response to lead cities and regions to a carbon free future. In this contest energy efficiency in buildings has a crucial role and must be considered in a holistic approach to the urban planning. In order to implement the minimum requirements stated by the European Directive about the Energy Performance of Buildings, and in order to consider different planning layers with the view to a smart city planning, local regulations are a key factor aiming at sustainable territorial planning. This paper investigates the possibility to draft a basic structure of Municipal Building Regulat…
The Changing Role and Contribution of Social Science to Nuclear Waste Management in Finland
2008
This article explores both the social and political usage of social science research and its effectiveness, as perceived by experts, in the process of planning and decision-making in the context of Finnish nuclear waste management. The argument is that public participation in the process is important, but to reach some kind of public acceptability the actors in charge of “solving” the nuclear waste problem have to govern the societal process and respond to the claims and the needs of the public. This requires the integration of social science research into the process responsible for developing the nuclear waste management model. In trying to understand the uniquely positive nuclear waste …
Representative Bureaucracy and the Role of Expertise in Politics
2015
This is an open access journal from Cogitatio http://www.cogitatiopress.com The vast majority of existing studies on bureaucratic representation focus on bureaucracies’ permanent and internal staff. Yet, the rising sophistication of modern democracies and the technocratization of political life are gradually inducing an increased reliance on external experts to assist in the development and implementation of policy decisions. This trend, we argue, raises the need to extend studies of bureaucratic representation to such external and non-permanent experts in governmental affairs. In this article, we take a first step in this direction using seconded national experts (SNEs) in the European Com…
Accounting for centralization in the European Union : Niskanen, Monnet or Thatcher ?
2002
Centralisation at the level of the European Union takes the form, not so much of increased, staff or budget, but of enlarged responsibilities and an increased share in regulation. The paper first reviews possible explanations of that trend that are based on a view of bureaucracy inspired by, or closely related, to William Niskanen's. It then turns to a discussion of the extent to which any characteristic of the EU machinery can develop without the acquiescenceor agency of a majority of the member-state governments, and of the discussion of whether centralisation as a process is not simply a way to implement, in the manner suggested by Jean Monnet, the "ever closer union" that was - and, to …