Professional Ethics – a Managerial Opportunity in Emerging Organizations

Professional Ethics, viewed as a managerial challenge and opportunity in this study, deals with the often overlooked conceptions, actions and behavior of individuals who see themselves both as members of a profession and as members of an organization. Managers have to deal with this dual loyalty and inherent potential for conflict. This is of particular importance for new types of organizations when wanting to develop and sustain an ethical platform for the ultimate goal – assuring that future business decisions of individuals are in "ethical balance" with the organization's own values and goals.     

Lessons from Lowell, Massachusetts (1821–62): The Shifting Sands of Managerial Beneficence

Far more than a mechanism to voyeuristically delve into the past to satisfy trivial interests, management history can be used to provide insight into contemporary practices and guide us away from repeating past mistakes. Using historiography, this paper offers a glimpse into the nature of the employer–employee relationship, comparing events from the earliest days of industrialization to the present. Set in the historical site of Lowell, Massachusetts, the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, this research addresses the progression of events that seem to predictably occur when well-meaning entrepreneurial enterprises face environmental turbulence and subsequently alter their labor philosophy from paternalism to social Darwinism. In the early 1800s, Lowell's textile mills represented a progressive environment. A close-knit, planned community was created which allowed the women opertives to grow socially and intellectually. However, economic downturns resulted in cycles of wage-cutting and cost-saving efforts. Eventually, the women were replaced with immigrants who were willing to tolerate substandard working conditions. By the 1860s, the owners had completely abandoned their concept that corporations should have souls. In history, market forces are continually in flux and often so is management's perception about whether the worker is a valuable asset or an easily discarded econom ic liability. Reactions to this unpredictability are addressed.     

The dominant logic: Retrospective and extension

This paper briefly reviews some history of the concept of dominant logic, and then elaborates some of the ways in which the authors have further developed this concept in recent years. Discussion focuses on the dominant logic as a filter, on the dominant logic as a level of strategic analysis, on the unlearning (forgetting) curve, on the dominant logic as an emergent property of organizations as complex adaptive systems, and on the relationship between organizational stability and the dominant logic. Throughout emphasis is given to the inherent nonlinear nature of organizations and the mental models that they create.     

Transparency of nonprofit organizations: An integrative framework and research agenda

Over the past 20 years, as the study of transparency has evolved into a burgeoning multidisciplinary field, nonprofit scholars have developed an impressive body of research on the antecedents and outcomes of the transparency of nonprofit organizations (NPOs). From both theoretical and practical purposes, it is necessary to develop an overall picture of such antecedents and outcomes, to allow scholars and NPOs to understand why, when, and how transparency should be implemented. Current studies provide a fragmented view, focused on specific elements of NPO transparency; with a systematic literature review of 76 articles, this article offers both an integrative framework of the antecedents and outcomes of NPO transparency and an agenda for research, based on a critical analysis of the integrative framework. Four relevant research orientations emerge: (1) direction of NPO transparency, (2) distinguishing actual from perceived transparency, (3) the dark side of NPO transparency, and (4) NPO transparency contingency factors. Research along these four orientations could add nuance to existing knowledge of transparency and provide key insights with regard to why, when, and how transparency works.     

跨界鱼群保护与渔业管理组织一一基于集体干预理论的实证分析

跨界和高度洄游鱼群因特殊的生活习性涉及多国管辖海域。沿海国采取单边措施难以起到理想的保护作用,需要国际社会集体干预。国际社会集体干预理论的实践创造了较成熟的国际渔业管理组织模式。跨界鱼群协定对渔业管理组织模式进行了有效规制。我国与周边沿海国家在养护与管理跨界和高度洄游鱼群方面的争端较多。如果能够通过渔业谈判建立必要的渔业管理组织,将在很大程度上缓解此类特殊鱼群衰竭之势并有效化解渔业管理权争端。     

非政府组织与可持续生态经济建设关系探究——基于经济学视角的分析

借助已有的NGOs研究文献,对NGOs与可持续生态经济建设之间的关系进行探讨,得出以下几点结论:第一,市场和政府都不是万能的,在一定情况下都存在失灵,作为第三部门的NGOs由于自身特点及实际表现,能够承担起与市场和政府进行平衡以促进和改善可持续生态经济建设的重任。第二,NGOs促进和改善可持续生态经济建设的机制是复杂的,但通过对不同类别的NGOs影响可持续生态经济建设的机制进行分析以获得更多地了解。分析表明,NGOs通过在生态环保、扶贫助困、文化教育、医疗卫生等方面起到市场和政府不可替代的作用,能够有力地推动可持续生态经济建设。     

关于城市社区管理的几点思考

城市社区管理的深入开展和预期成就的取得有赖于社区管理体制的创新和完善。然而,当前我国社区管理体制还很不健全,因此本文就城市社区管理体制建设、存在的问题及解决措施加以讨论,力图为社区管理者的社区管理体制的创新工作提供帮助。     

民间非营利组织财务管理问题浅议

本文针对当前民间非营利组织财务管理存在的问题,提出完善法律法规、加强监督力度、提高财务信息披露等对策,进而在一定程度上增加民间非营利组织运作的公开性和透明度,促进组织的良性发展。     

Why People Co-Produce: Analysing citizens’ perceptions on co-planning engagement in health care services

Abstract

The aim of this article is to comprehend the motivation of citizens to co-produce. More specifically, it considers citizens’ motivations to engage in co-planning activities of health care services. The article brings together theoretical insights and empirical data. First, we integrate insights from different strands of literature. We combine literature on citizen participation, political efficacy, co-production, volunteerism, public service motivation, and customer engagement to offer a first understanding of citizens’ motivations to actively engage as co-producers of public services. Next, empirical data are derived from one specific case: citizens participating in client councils in health care organizations. Q-methodology, a method designed to systematically study persons’ viewpoints, is used to distinguish different perspectives citizen have on their engagement in co-production. Our analysis of citizens’ motivations to engage in client councils enables us to identify four types of citizen co-producers, which we label: the semi-professional, the socializer, the network professional, and the aware co-producer. Implications for future research studying citizens’ motivations in a broader range of co-production cases are discussed.     

Downward accountability for a natural disaster recovery effort: Evidence and issues from Australia's Black Saturday

This study provides evidence on the nature and extent of downward accountability rendered by key government agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to victims during the extended period of recovery from Australia's 2009 ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires disaster. It also provides a critical assessment of the interplay between downward, upward (or hierarchical) and internal (or identity) accountability. It questions whether the concept of ‘downward accountability’ loses meaning when applied to the published special-purpose disaster recovery reports of the organizations leading the recovery effort. Document analysis is undertaken on the traits of downward accountability displayed in the text and images published in the disaster recovery reports of the controlling government authority, a government/NGO partnership coordinating the appeals fund and three separate participating Christian-denominated NGOs. These report traits include readability by, closeness to and empowerment of beneficiaries. Subsequent interviews with senior financial and communications executives of these organizations shed light on the motivation for the preparation of the recovery reports. The findings have implications concerning the problematization of downward accountability. The appearance of downward accountability traits in these reports appears to be an artifact of the motivation for upward and internal accountability. Moreover, downward accountability through the mode of charitable deeds-based recovery actions seems to be devoid of principal–agent expectations. For these reasons, in the context of a natural disaster, downward accountability does not sit well, conceptually, in a stakeholder-oriented accountability typology framework.