Allocation Of Authority Research Articles

Managing Product Transitions: A Bilevel Programming Approach

We model the hierarchical and decentralized nature of product transitions using a mixed-integer bilevel program with two followers, a manufacturing unit and an engineering unit. The leader, corporate management, seeks to maximize revenue over a finite planning horizon. The manufacturing unit uses factory capacity to satisfy the demand for current products. The demand for new products, however, cannot be fulfilled until the engineering unit completes their development, which, in turn, requires factory capacity for prototype fabrication. We model this interdependency between the engineering and manufacturing units as a generalized Nash equilibrium game at the lower level of the proposed bilevel model. We present a reformulation where the interdependency between the followers is resolved through the leader’s coordination, and we derive a solution method based on constraint and column generation. Our computational experiments show that the proposed approach can solve realistic instances to optimality in a reasonable time. We provide managerial insights into how the allocation of decision authority between corporate leadership and functional units affects the objective function performance. This paper presents the first exact solution algorithm to mixed-integer bilevel programs with interdependent followers, providing a flexible framework to study decentralized, hierarchical decision-making problems.

Multi-scale politics in climate change: the mismatch of authority and capability in federalizing Nepal

ABSTRACT Nepal’s transition to federalism in 2015 involved a significant redistribution of authority across three levels of government, with a greater level of autonomy granted to provincial and local levels. We examine multi-scale climate policy and politics in Nepal, focusing on three elements that are important for policy development and implementation: (a) the authority to make decisions; (b) the knowledge and expertise to develop and implement policies; and (c) the ability to access and mobilize resources, primarily external funding, by government bodies at different levels. Our findings show that the newly decentralized local governments are constrained in their ability to develop and implement climate change-related policies and practical responses by a mismatch between the authority granted to them and existing institutional capabilities. These governmental bodies have limited opportunities to develop, access and mobilize knowledge of climate and development and financial resources, which are needed to put new policies into action. Based on this analysis, we argue that decentralization of governmental authority is not likely to produce effective climate policy outcomes if this mismatch remains unaddressed. KEY POLICY INSIGHTS The ability of the provincial and local governments in federal Nepal to respond to climate change has been constrained by a pervasive mismatch between authority granted and institutional capabilities, in terms of opportunities to access and mobilize knowledge and financial resources. The devolution of power is not adequate for effective climate change responses; rather, there is a need to strengthen the institutional capabilities and opportunities of the decentralized local governments to address climate change. Formal allocation of authority is always blurred in practice, as agencies at different levels of governance engage in power struggles within and beyond formally delineated boundaries. This suggests the need for more operational clarity on policy implementation procedures. There is a need for a clear exchange of knowledge and a flow of resources to the level where responsibilities lie to respond to climate change.

Critical Success Factors for Safety Program Implementation of Regeneration of Abandoned Industrial Building Projects in China: A Fuzzy DEMATEL Approach

The regeneration of abandoned industrial buildings (RAIBs) has received extensive attention in urban renewal efforts to achieve urban sustainable development goals. Meanwhile, the construction safety performance of RAIBs is a major challenge with increasing RAIB projects in China. Safety programs have been considered as one of the proactive methods to effectively reduce accidents and injuries in the construction industry. Various studies have conducted critical success factors (CSFs) that influence the effective implementation of safety programs in new buildings. However, the CSFs affecting the construction safety program implementation of RAIBs were ignored. The aim of this study is to determine CSFs that affect the safety program implementation of RAIB projects. First, sixteen factors were identified combining characteristics of RAIBs with literature reviews and experts’ opinion. Second, the fuzzy set theory and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) approach are proposed to identify the influencing degree of the factors and categorize these factors into cause-and-effect groups. Then, according to the causal diagram, management support (C1), allocation of authority and responsibility (C3), control of subcontractor (C5), personal attitude (C9), and safety inspections and hazard assessment (C14) are identified as the CSFs for the safety program implementation of RAIBs’ construction. This study guides the managers and stakeholders to especially concentrate on these CSFs in order to improve the efficiency of the safety program implementation of RAIB projects with limited resources. This study also will contribute to the improvement of safety performance and to the sustainable development goal of RAIB projects.

Coevolution of job automation risk and workplace governance

This paper analyses the interplay between the allocation of authority within firms and workers’ exposure to automation risk. We propose an evolutionary model to study the complementary fit of job design and workplace governance as resulting from the adoption of worker voice institutions, in particular employee representation (ER). Two organizational conventions are likely to emerge in our framework: in one, workplace governance is based on ER and job designs have low automation risk; in the other, ER is absent and workers are involved in automation-prone production tasks. Using data from a large sample of European workers, we document that automation risk is negatively associated with the presence of ER, consistently with our theoretical framework. Our analysis helps to rationalize the historical experience of Nordic countries, where simultaneous experimentation with codetermination rights and job enrichment programmes has taken place. Policy debates about the consequences of automation on labour organization should avoid technological determinism and devote more attention to socio-institutional factors shaping the future of work.

Integrationists, Critical Europeanists and Pessimist Europeanists: EU attitudes among students in a German university

We investigate attitudes toward the EU of a sample of students enrolled in a German university by using a mixed-methods data design. We conducted an online survey among students at the University of Göttingen (N=730) and asked them closed questions on the EU enlargement, the allocation of authority at the EU level, the way democracy works at the EU level, and an open question on their wish for the future of the EU. We then ran a latent class analysis of the recoded answer categories from the open question and of our set of closed questions. Our three-class solution highlights variation in support for the EU among students. Indeed, while the vast majority of the respondents take highly supportive attitudes towards the EU, we can distinguish between ‘Integrationists’ (in favour of pursuing the EU integration project; 68% of the sample), ‘Critical Europeanists’ (supportive of the EU but dissatisfied with the way democracy works at the EU level; 20.50% of the sample) and ‘Pessimist Europeanists’ (supportive of the EU but afraid of the implosion of the EU; 11% of the sample). Our study highlights the importance of the use of non-standardised measures and mixed-methods data collection for understanding citizens’ attitudes towards the EU in a more nuanced way.

Effects of Organizational Structure Centralization on Employee Performance in Narok County Government

Organizational structure describes the formal arrangement of jobs and tasks in organizations. It describes the allocation of authority and responsibility, and how rules and regulation are executed by workers in firms. Locally, studies on the relationship between organizational structure and organizational performance remain inconclusive and contradictory as evidenced from previous studies. This study used Kenyan data and government institutions by investigating the likely impact of organizational structure on performance of County governments of Kenya taking a case of Narok County government. The specific objectives of the study examine the effect of organizational structural centralization on employee performance. The study was anchored on Goal theory and equity theory. This study adopted a descriptive research design. Both primary and secondary data was used in this study. Primary data was obtained by use of questionnaires while secondary data by use of existing records. The population of the study was all staff working in Narok County Government. The study targets a total population of 5345 distributed in all departments and a sample size of 372 respondents was obtained from it. The County Executives, chief officers and directors will be randomly selected from the county. Other employees were selected using stratified random sampling thus the study draw 10% of each department employees using strata method. The collected data was processed and analyzed using SPSS Version 26.0 where linear regression was used to establish the relationship between (structural complexity, structural centralization, and structural formalization) and employee performance. The study has a lot of significance to Narok County Government as it will shed light on the importance of utilizing and improving effective organizational structure in order to enhance the performance of individual employees. The findings of this study are likely to benefit researchers in their efforts towards understanding the relationship between organizational structure and the performance of employee which is directly related to their organization productivity.

Transition Management Between an Autonomous Vehicle and a Real Human Driver, in a Context of Take-Over Request

This paper presents a new shared lateral control approach to deal with the transition management between the human driver and the autonomous system. The objective of this shared control is to realize a smooth and safe switching between the two agents steering inputs during a lane keeping maneuver. The different driving modes including the transition system are detailed. Two transition modes are defined. The human driver acts on the vehicle's lateral control. The autonomous system consists of longitudinal and lateral controller developed based on Super Twisting Sliding Mode (STSM) control approach. Then, the control authority allocation is performed using the mixing shared control that permits the fusion of two inputs via a fusion parameter. To do that, a coordinator based on a decision algorithm is developed for the driving modes and the fusion parameter determination. Finally, validation of the proposed shared control is done on the “SCANeR Studio” (OKtal) professional simulator with the human in-the-loop through the “Logitech G29” steering wheel for two different scenarios.

Governance structure affects transboundary disease management under alternative objectives

BackgroundThe development of public health policy is inextricably linked with governance structure. In our increasingly globalized world, human migration and infectious diseases often span multiple administrative jurisdictions that might have different systems of government and divergent management objectives. However, few studies have considered how the allocation of regulatory authority among jurisdictions can affect disease management outcomes.MethodsHere we evaluate the relative merits of decentralized and centralized management by developing and numerically analyzing a two-jurisdiction SIRS model that explicitly incorporates migration. In our model, managers choose between vaccination, isolation, medication, border closure, and a travel ban on infected individuals while aiming to minimize either the number of cases or the number of deaths.ResultsWe consider a variety of scenarios and show how optimal strategies differ for decentralized and centralized management levels. We demonstrate that policies formed in the best interest of individual jurisdictions may not achieve global objectives, and identify situations where locally applied interventions can lead to an overall increase in the numbers of cases and deaths.ConclusionsOur approach underscores the importance of tailoring disease management plans to existing regulatory structures as part of an evidence-based decision framework. Most importantly, we demonstrate that there needs to be a greater consideration of the degree to which governance structure impacts disease outcomes.

Human–Machine Cooperative Control of Intelligent Vehicles for Lane Keeping—Considering Safety of the Intended Functionality

Reasonably foreseeable misuse by persons, as a primary aspect of safety of the intended functionality (SOTIF), has a significant effect on cooperation performance for lane keeping. This paper presents a novel human–machine cooperative control scheme with consideration of SOTIF issues caused by driver error. It is challenging to balance lane keeping performance and driving freedom when driver error occurs. A safety evaluation strategy is proposed for safety supervision, containing assessments of driver error and lane departure risk caused by driver error. A dynamic evaluation model of driver error is designed based on a typical driver model in the loop to deal with the uncertainty and variability of driver behavior. Additionally, an extension model is established for determining the cooperation domain. Then, an authority allocation strategy is proposed to generate a dynamic shared authority and achieve an adequate balance between lane keeping performance and driving freedom. Finally, a model predictive control (MPC)-based controller is designed for calculating optimal steering angle, and a steer-by-wheel (SBW) system is employed as an actuator. Numerical simulation tests are conducted on driver error scenarios based on the CarSim and MATLAB/Simulink software platforms. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The Allocation of Authority in Organizations: A Field Experiment with Bureaucrats

AbstractWe design a field experiment to study how the allocation of authority between frontline procurement officers and their monitors affects performance both directly and through the response to incentives. In collaboration with the government of Punjab, Pakistan, we shift authority from monitors to procurement officers and introduce financial incentives in a sample of 600 procurement officers in 26 districts. We find that autonomy alone reduces prices by 9% without reducing quality and that the effect is stronger when the monitor tends to delay approvals for purchases until the end of the fiscal year. In contrast, the effect of performance pay is muted, except when agents face a monitor who does not delay approvals. Time use data reveal agents’ responses vary along the same margin: autonomy increases the time devoted to procurement, and this leads to lower prices only when monitors cause delays. By contrast, incentives work when monitors do not cause delays. The results illustrate that organizational design and anti-corruption policies must balance agency issues at different levels of the hierarchy.

Adaptive authority allocation-based driver-automation shared control for autonomous vehicles

To avoid crashes caused by driver error in avoiding obstacles, a driver-centered steering assist controller with an adaptive authority allocation system is proposed for cooperative control purposes. To begin with, a concept of space collision risk (SCR) is introduced creatively for assessing the vehicle’s safety status in which the relative distance and the relative angle between the vehicle and the obstacle are taken into consideration. Meanwhile, the SCR-based authority allocation system is addressed to allocate steering authorities between the human driver and the assist controller adaptively to reduce SCR to zero as soon as possible. After that, an autonomous steering controller based on the model predictive control (MPC) technique and the artificial potential field (APF) method, considering not only the vehicle stability constraints but also roads and obstacles constraints, is developed to aid the human driver when necessary. In the end, the proposed algorithm is simulated in the CarSim-Simulink co-simulation platform under a series of typical scenarios, which shows the feasibility and effectiveness of the presented shared steering control method.

Designing Regulation Across Organizations: Assessing the Functions and Dimensions of Governance

AbstractIn recent years, regulation scholars and policymakers have increasingly turned their attention to the role of inter‐governmental organizational design in effective governance. The existing literature on regulatory design has provided important insights into the advantages and disadvantages of alternative structural options. This article synthesizes and builds on that literature by describing a novel framework for characterizing, analyzing, and structuring authority across public institutions. Drawing on examples from a range of jurisdictions, it highlights the value of this framework in identifying the values tradeoffs that should drive policymakers' decisions to choose among competing structural alternatives. The framework is founded on two important points. First, inter‐governmental allocations of authority can be structured along three different dimensions. Failing to appreciate the existence of, and differences among, these dimensions can prompt misassessments of the reasons for existing regulatory failures and selection of structural allocations that do not suit the problems intended to be addressed. Second, allocations of authority can, and in many cases should, vary for disparate governmental functions. Differential functional allocations of authority can minimize obstacles to needed structural reforms and tailor inter‐governmental relations in ways that best promote chosen regulatory values, such as efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability, as well as how allocational choices may and perhaps should vary depending on the governmental function being performed. Finally, the article suggests how future regulation and governance scholarship can harness this emerging framework to help build a body of empirical evidence upon which policymakers can draw in future regulatory design endeavors.

A Unified Bi-Directional Model for Natural and Artificial Trust in Human–Robot Collaboration

We introduce a novel capabilities-based bi-directional multi-task trust model that can be used for trust prediction from either a human or a robotic trustor agent. Tasks are represented in terms of their capability requirements, while trustee agents are characterized by their individual capabilities. Trustee agents' capabilities are not deterministic; they are represented by belief distributions. For each task to be executed, a higher level of trust is assigned to trustee agents who have demonstrated that their capabilities exceed the task's requirements. We report results of an online experiment with 284 participants, revealing that our model outperforms existing models for multi-task trust prediction from a human trustor. We also present simulations of the model for determining trust from a robotic trustor. Our model is useful for control authority allocation applications that involve human-robot teams.

New Public Management Reform ideas and the remaking of the Italian and Danish health systems

ABSTRACT This article explores the role of New Public Management (NPM) ideas in the reform of the Italian and Danish health systems. In particular, it investigates the arguments that have supported changes in their institutional and territorial dimensions. Whereas the institutional dimension is concerned with the allocation of authority between layers of government, the territorial dimension is related to the definition of the size of subnational governments. By adopting an argumentative approach to policy analysis and focusing on the role of ideas in policy formulation, the article shows how Italian and Danish policymakers have shaped the institutional and territorial changes that have taken place in their national health systems. Through document analysis and in-depth interviews with experts and decision-makers, we show that the relationship between changes in size and authority in relation to NPM ideas is not clear-cut. Whereas in Italy arguments about the need to change the allocation of authority were not tied to a discourse about the size of subnational governments and health agencies, in Denmark discourses about size and authority have run in parallel. The present study confirms previous findings and provides additional evidence suggesting that NPM ideas have spread widely through governments following a path of implementation that varies from one national context to another.

MPC-Based Haptic Shared Steering System: A Driver Modeling Approach for Symbiotic Driving

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) aim to increase safety and reduce mental workload. However, the gap in the understanding of the closed-loop driver–vehicle interaction often leads to reduced user acceptance. In this article, an optimal torque control law is calculated online in the model predictive control (MPC) framework to guarantee continuous guidance during the steering task. The research contribution is in the integration of an extensive prediction model covering cognitive behavior, neuromuscular dynamics, and the vehicle-steering dynamics, within the MPC-based haptic controller to enhance collaboration. The driver model is composed of a preview cognitive strategy based on a linear-quadratic-gaussian, sensory organs, and neuromuscular dynamics, including muscle coactivation and reflex action. Moreover, an adaptive cost-function algorithm enables dynamic allocation of the control authority. Experiments were performed in a fixed-base driving simulator at Toyota Motor Europe involving 19 participants to evaluate the proposed controller with two different cost functions against a commercial lane keeping assist system as an industry benchmark. The results demonstrate the proposed controller fosters symbiotic driving and reduces driver–vehicle conflicts with respect to a state-of-the-art commercial system, both subjectively and objectively, while still improving the path-tracking performance. Summarising, this article tackles the need to blend human and ADAS control, demonstrating the validity of the proposed strategy.

A simplified dynamic model with driver’s NMS characteristic for human-vehicle shared control of autonomous vehicle

Since the large-scale application of fully autonomous vehicles is difficult to be commercialized in the short term, human-vehicle shared control (HVSC) is a promising technique. To implement the control authority allocation and observe the driver characteristic, it is essential to develop an efficient HVSC dynamic model with the driver’s neuromuscular characteristic (NMS). To further our previous research, a simplified HVSC dynamic model is proposed in this paper. This model simplifies the non-critical NMS parameters such as muscle spindle feedback, which has no significant feedback effect while retaining essential NMS characteristics such as stretch reflection and intrinsic properties. The model consists of a model predictive controller (MPC) coupled with a driver NMS model and a 2 DOF vehicle model. The stability is proved by Lyapunov stability theory. Moreover, a field experiment was conducted for validation of the model. The V-Box is utilized to measure the vehicle’s state signals, such as steering wheel angle and pedal stroke. Subsequently, the adaptive genetic algorithm (AGA) is employed to identify the model parameters based on the experimental results. The comparison between the experiment and the model output shows that the proposed model can accurately represent the driver’s NMS characteristics and vehicle dynamic parameters. This paper will serve as a theoretical basis for the control authority allocation for L3 class autonomous vehicles.

An archaeological discourse analysis of physical education as challenging in South Korea primary schools

ABSTRACT South Korean society tends to undervalue Physical Education (PE) and overemphasizes academic subjects such as Korean, English, mathematics and science. This study problematizes the challenges within PE in the South Korean primary school context, where teachers find it difficult to deliver quality PE. Data were collected from archives and interviews with 11 South Korean primary school teachers to identify the challenges of PE that they faced. An archaeological discourse analysis, based on a Foucauldian framework, was employed to trace how the discourse of PE as challenging arose. Findings highlight not only the dominant discursive constructions of the challenges facing primary school PE but also the possible historical conditions intricately connected with social structures and institutions, surrounding primary school PE and beyond the individual’s control, in and outside the South Korean school system. The findings were: (a) PE as lacking equipment and facilities and school principals holding the budget allocation authority (b) PE as inconsequential and PE with little or no role in students’ entry in university (c) PE as accident-prone and absence of legal safeguards and social support for teachers. This paper provides readers with a fresh analytical insight in the area of PE research.

Human–Machine Adaptive Shared Control for Safe Driving Under Automation Degradation

In this article, a human–machine adaptive shared control method is proposed for automated vehicles (AVs) under automation performance degradation. First, a novel risk assessment module is proposed to monitor driving behavior and evaluate automation performance degradation for AVs. Then, an adaptive control authority allocation module is developed. In the event of any performance degradation, the control authority allocated to the automation system is decreased based on the assessed risk. Consequently, the control authority allocated to a human driver is adaptively increased and thus requires more driver engagement in the control loop to compensate for the automation degradation and ensure the vehicle’s safety. Experimental validation is conducted under different driving scenarios. The test results show that the approach can effectively compensate for vehicle automation performance degradation through human–machine adaptive shared control, ensuring the safety of automated driving.

South Korea’s Decentralization: Experience and Lessons from President Moon’s Initiatives

A central campaign of President Moon, Jae In’s Government was to make strong progress on decentralization. This was in response to the realization that an institutional mechanism of a balanced distribution of authority is a requisite to establish a stable and fair society. The basic approach for authority allocation is to expand the institutional arrangement for a democratically competitive system. Contrast to past governments where authority allocation’s focus was on the institutional arrangement between the central and local government, President Moon’s Government emphasized an institutional arrangement securing a competitive system between the representative and the residents. The Decentralization Master Plan encapsulated this philosophy and associated strategies. This principle also melted into the contents to expand resident rights within the comprehensive amendment to the Local Autonomy Act. Major achievements of this initiative include (1) the comprehensive amendment to the Local Autonomy Act, (2) the enactment of the Omnibus Regional Transfer Law, (3) adoption of the Local Police System, and (4) implementation of the 1st Stage in Fiscal Decentralization. In pursuing these decentralization activities, the following lessons emerged. First, Government’s political will and intent is extremely important. Particularly, the President’s will is most important. This is because decentralization is fundamentally a problem of power reallocation. It is also an unstructured problem. Thus, pushback occurs from political parties and among government agencies. To overcome this, the most senior decision-maker’s attention and will is extremely important for a bureaucratized government organization culture. Second, formulation of policy discourse is indispensable. For the unstructured problem and the power reallocation problem, policy discourse formulation is extremely important to secure policy appropriateness. The Policy Discourse Formulation Group comprised of main committee members, professional members, operation of a taskforce team, and advisory member all centered around the Presidential Committee on Autonomy and Decentralization played an important role. Third, precise evaluation instrument (implementation instrument) is needed. Although government agencies are subject to decentralization performance evaluations, the majority of the tasks are inseparable from legislative tasks in generating results. Thus, it is more effective to employ an evaluation framework where evaluation is on implementation efforts using a process evaluation index rather than a framework on goal fulfillment. Fourth, it is important to maintain trust among agencies associated with decentralization. Power allocation problem entails sharply opposing interests among political parties in the legislative body and among government agencies outside of the Government. It is vital to communicate and share information among relevant institutions along with a balanced work implementation in order to form trust within policy implementation. The trust maintaining process contributes to mitigating opposition.

Citizens\u2019 attitudes towards local autonomy and inter-local cooperation: evidence from Western Europe

Recent decades have seen a strengthening of local autonomy in many European states. At the same time, local governance capacities were strengthened through intermunicipal structures and territorial consolidation to prepare local authorities for additional tasks. In this paper, we assess what citizens think about strengthening local autonomy and strengthening inter-local cooperation. We argue that citizens’ attitudes towards local autonomy and inter-local cooperation are a function of their behavioural, emotional and ideological connection to the local. Using data from a population-based survey in eight West European metropolitan areas in France, Germany, Switzerland and the UK, we show that local autonomy and inter-local cooperation supporters have divergent ideological positions concerning the allocation of political authority across state scales. Inter-local cooperation is supported by voters of new progressive left parties but opposed by right-wing nationalist partisans—who in contrast favour local autonomy. This suggests that the demarcation–integration divide which structures citizens’ attitudes towards international integration also matters for subnational and local governance reforms.