Mount Stirling: The Politics of Process Failure

This paper analyses the political decision-making process associated with the attempts to develop the tourism potential of Mt Stirling in the Victorian Alps (Australia). Its concern is with the failure of policy making since 1980 to bring about a strategic economic development programme that meets the needs of the regional community for a sustainable tourism industry. Using Public Choice theory to approach the analysis of collective failure, it is possible to identify the competing interests involved in the development debate and the causes of the impasse in government decision making. The paper examines the capacity of the disparate community interests to work together to generate alternatives to the government's own proposals which had consistently failed to incorporate regional economic interests in their planning procedures. The issues exposed in this example of process failure are not confined to Mt Stirling alone. They serve, perhaps, to illustrate a broader pattern of growing alienation and conflict between regional tourism interests seeking a greater voice in determining the sustainability of their own futures, and the demands of centralised urban decision-making systems.     

Income Provision in Old Age

Few areas of public policy impinge more directly on individual lifetime welfare than those directed at retirement income. While policy initiatives implemented since the start of the 1970s fall short of major reform, there have nevertheless been substantial changes in the real value of pensions, the coverage of pensions, and the tax treatment of various forms of retirement income. The objective of this article is to catalogue these changes in policy, and to identify the combination of political philosophy and socio-economic pressures underlying them. It also analyses some of the economic consequences of these policies and examines the question of national superannuation. The article concludes that, for the present at least, any reforms in the area of retirement income provision seem likely to be limited to the refinement of the status quo.     

What a Mess! Participation as a Simple Managerial Rule to 'Complexify' Organizations

This paper adopts a view of organizations as complex adaptive systems and makes a case for making organizations more complex internally through the use of a fairly simple managerial rule – using participative decision making. Participation in decision making enhances connectivity in organizations, which in turn, gives the organization the opportunity to self-organize and co-evolve in more effective ways than when there is minimal connectivity (i.e., autocracy). The paper uses a specific body of research to support the arguments about why participation can benefit the practice of management in modern organizations.     

Effective Communications in Growing Pre-IPO Start-Ups

SUMMARY

This study discusses the establishment and evolution of effective internal communications in pre-IPO start-ups, with a focus on 6 variables: employee communications, organizational structure and culture, public relations and communication models, leadership styles, decision-making approaches, and employee motivation. The qualitative study explores how these variables establish effective internal communications in growing pre-IPO start-ups. In addition, the study provides an ideal internal communications model to guide entrepreneurs in establishing start-ups. The findings also emphasize human resources (HR) as a 7th influential variable.     

A qualitative study of high-reputation plant managers: Political skill and successful outcomes

There has been little systematic study of what plant managers actually do on a day-to-day basis that accounts for their success in achieving organizational outcomes. In our field interviews and observations of high-reputation plant managers from 11 manufacturing plants, we found that effective political skill enabled them to influence subordinates in ways that contributed positively to organizational outcomes. Political skill is an interpersonal style that combines social astuteness with the ability to relate well, and otherwise demonstrate situationally appropriate behavior in an engaging way that inspires confidence, trust, and genuiness [Ferris, G.R., Perrewé, P.L., Anthony, W.P., Gilmore, D.C., 2000. Political skill at work. Organizational Dynamics 28 (4), 25–37]. We observed that effective plant managers possessed a configuration of dispositional traits (self-motivation, sense of humility, and affability), systematically employed interpersonal behaviors (creating accountability, leading by example, and developing trust), and focused on managerial processes (stretch goals, influencing and learning from below, and empowering direct reports). By juxtaposing the political skill and power literatures, we propose a theory of plant manager effectiveness as a combination of political skill and the use of unobtrusive and systemic power to achieve both affective and substantive outcomes.     

Strategy and Tactics in Strategic Communication: Examining their Intersection with Social Media Use

While public relations industry leaders have proposed a strategic approach to social media, industry research has found that social media practices may be more tactical than strategic. Likewise, scholarly research has focused more on specific parts of strategic planning, such as message—and channel-level communication in social media, but little research has been done to understand program-level communication planning. The purpose of this study was to examine the confluence of current trends in social media use with strategic communication processes through in-depth interviews and a national survey of public relations practitioners. The in-depth interviews revealed two overarching themes: (1) social media use should be guided by strategic planning and (2) social media tactics should revolve around conversations. The survey results showed that practitioners are involved in social media strategy development and tactical implementation, yet see their involvement as linked mostly to their organizations’ strategic rather than tactical social media activities. In addition, practitioners delineate social media strategies and tactics differently than theoretical conceptualizations.