Central Proposition Research Articles

Avoiding Theoretical Stagnation: A Systematic Review and Framework for Measuring Public Value

AbstractPublic value theory has become a hot topic in public administration research, but its proponents have long recognised difficulties in empirically testing the theory's central propositions. There has been a lack of clarity about how to measure the extent to which organisations are generating public value, which has rendered researchers unable to quantitatively study the causes, consequences and correlates of public value. The current study systematically reviews the growing literature on public value measurement to identify, evaluate, and synthesise available measures. Through a qualitative synthesis of the themes present in published measures, we identify four key components for measuring public value that appear to be important across a range of policy and national contexts. Our review identifies a promising framework that could be used to structure a comprehensive measure of public value and, in doing so, provides a means to progress theoretical development and testing of the public value approach.

Marketization, inequality, and institutional change: Toward a new framework for comparative employment relations

This article develops a framework for analyzing the social effects of marketization, defined as the imposition or intensification of price-based competition. The conceptual background is debates in comparative employment relations over the liberalization of markets and its consequences across Europe. Our central proposition is that marketization in its diverse forms leads to increased economic and social inequality via its effects on non-market institutions. We outline two mechanisms through which this happens. First, the means used by managers and investors to seek influence shifts from voice to exit, leading to the disorganization of industrial relations and welfare institutions. Second, economic activity shifts from productive toward non-productive activities, leading to changes in market regulation that are insulated from public scrutiny.

Models with graphical representation for innovation management: a literature review

In the last decades, the management of innovation has achieved increasing importance in both academic and business environments. For the companies, an effective engagement in innovation efforts involves the adoption of management models to guide the definition of organizational processes to conduct innovation opportunities throughout the organization. In this context, graphical representations can strongly communicate the central propositions of each model, accelerating the diffusion and influence of such models in both academic and business environments. Based on an academic database search, and snowball procedure, models were selected considering the unique characteristics of their graphical representation. This article contributes to the knowledge in the field by proposing a typology of innovation management models, highlighting model's biases, gaps, strengths and weaknesses, and by identifying important tensions among models that spillover to the innovation management field in both research and practice. This article discusses conflicts regarding the limits of the innovation process (events that start and end the process and complementary approaches), the limits of focusing on processes, the differentiation of research and development and new product development activities. In the end, the article addresses emerging approaches related to radical innovation, design thinking and startups, and stresses contributions for research and practice.

Masked observers and mask collectors: entangled visions from the eighteenth-century Amazon

This essay explores the culture of mask use and mask collection in eighteenth-century Amazonia as a way of bringing together the reciprocal observations undertaken by indigenous, European, and peoples of mixed race and identity in South America during the colonial period. By focusing on masks as physical objects containing attributes that can be studied with reference to historical and contemporary indigenous Amazonian groups, it attempts to disrupt the binary opposition between observers and observed and argues for a more connected set of epistemologies in the study of the colonial world. One central proposition is that European naturalists and those who accompanied them in the tropics may have been implicated in the fluid ontologies that were proposed by the objects worn and wielded by indigenous groups. It thus becomes necessary to reinterpret European ethnographical description to account for the agency of indigenous objects and individuals, leading to a more imbricated vision of engagement and encounter than an earlier generation of scholarship has tended to portray.

Rethinking the Effects of Identity Politics in a Multi-ethnic Society: A Comparative Case Analysis of Zambia and Kenya

ABSTRACTThis paper is an investigation of identity politics and its relevance. It engages the ‘instrumentalist model' in understanding the causal chains that can either stabilise or destabilise multi-ethnic societies. It employs a comparative case analysis of Zambia and Kenya. A substantial similarity in our cases is that identity politics has a hold in both nations and the extreme difference is ethnic identity cleavages appear divisive among Kenya’s elites, thus spilling into communities, whereas Zambia shows positive ethnic cohesion trends due to responsible elite conduct. The central proposition of this paper is that politics founded on identity fosters societal stability as opposed to instability. Politicised identities appear to promote division in a multi-ethnic society only because of instrumentalist causes. Thus, with the aid of cases, we analytically illustrate how and why ‘identity politics’ is not necessarily bad and we demonstrate its relevance in enhancing governing capacity which then translates into social harmony.

The mediating impact of psychological capital on mentoring outcomes of trust in management and person-organisation fit - a conceptual model

Though considerable research has happened on mentoring, the outcomes of mentoring have been less explored through the lens of positive organisational behaviour. In this paper, a conceptual model has been proposed describing the mediating impact of psychological capital (PsyCap) on the perceived outcomes of mentoring as measured by person-organisation fit and trust in management. This answers the call for further research on interventions that can increase PsyCap among employees. The central proposition is that high quality mentoring leads to increase in trust in management and person-organisation fit (P-O fit) and that this process is mediated through an increase in PsyCap. Hence this framework expands nomological network surrounding mentoring. It is also proposed that the increase inperson-organisation fit will also lead to increase in organisational commitment. Trust in management will moderate the outcome of effective mentoring as measured by career satisfaction is the final proposition. Research on the antecedents of P-O fit is limited and this understanding will further knowledge on the process through which organisations can enhance person-environment fit and trust in management through formal mentoring programs and describe what managers can do to aid and assist the success of such programs.

The mediating impact of psychological capital on mentoring outcomes of trust in management and person-organisation fit - a conceptual model

Though considerable research has happened on mentoring, the outcomes of mentoring have been less explored through the lens of positive organisational behaviour. In this paper, a conceptual model has been proposed describing the mediating impact of psychological capital (PsyCap) on the perceived outcomes of mentoring as measured by person-organisation fit and trust in management. This answers the call for further research on interventions that can increase PsyCap among employees. The central proposition is that high quality mentoring leads to increase in trust in management and person-organisation fit (P-O fit) and that this process is mediated through an increase in PsyCap. Hence this framework expands nomological network surrounding mentoring. It is also proposed that the increase inperson-organisation fit will also lead to increase in organisational commitment. Trust in management will moderate the outcome of effective mentoring as measured by career satisfaction is the final proposition. Research on the antecedents of P-O fit is limited and this understanding will further knowledge on the process through which organisations can enhance person-environment fit and trust in management through formal mentoring programs and describe what managers can do to aid and assist the success of such programs.

Public Land Movement in Nepal: Expanding Coverage and Diminishing Achievements

In many countries of the developing world, the dominant development discourse is being contested by the emergence of different kinds of social movements and the land rights movements in agrarian socieites is not an exception. Despite having a long historical background, critics suggest that the land governance is largely based on state-centric epistemology and less on the pro-poor discourse of movement and struggle. Building on this critique, this paper highlights different issues, challenges and opportunities of the land-based movements particularly in context of western Tarai region of Nepal. The central proposition of the paper is that there are some significant implications and research gaps to be analyzed under the emerging discourse of “land movement” in Nepal. It therefore argues that ‘public land management’ and ‘public land movement’ are two mutually contested phenomena with contradicting actors, strategies, policy gaps, empirical dilemmas and shifting of power dynamics.

The System Justification Conundrum: Re-Examining the Cognitive Dissonance Basis for System Justification.

In a landmark 1994 publication in the British Journal of Social Psychology, Jost and Banaji proposed the existence of a novel, fundamental system justification motive that drives social behaviors. More specifically, they proposed (a) that people have an epistemic need to support social hierarchies and societal systems, (b) that this system justification motive is inversely related to personal and group interests among members of low status groups, and (c) that it is stronger and more effective for people who arc disadvantaged by societal systems than for those who arc advantaged by them, especially when personal and group interests are weak. This system justification theory (SJT) has faced theoretical opposition from social identity researchers (e.g., Spears et al., 2001; Reicher, 2004; Rubin and lIewstone, 2004). In addition, evidence against the theory has recently accumulated from large scale cross-national studies (e.g., Brandt, 20:13; Kelemen et al., 2014) and experimental studies (frump and White, 2015; Owttarnalam et al., 2 0 16). In the present article, we re-examine the key cognitive dissonance assumptions for SJT 's central proposition that support for unequal systems should be higher among members of disadvantaged groups than among members of advantaged groups when personal and group interests are weak.

A Semiotic Key to The Waste Land

Abstract This paper applies my expanded version of Michael Riffaterre’s theory of the semiotic structure of modern poetry to T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Contrary to Riffaterre, multilingual examples show that modern poetry is built around not one but two central propositions. Moreover, the ability of the modernist work to change the preconceptions of the reader must be accounted for. This involves a triadic system whose interpretant is seen to have a counterpart in the sociolect, which has similar vocabulary but contrasting internal structure – a contrast that produces a change in the mind of the reader. My analysis shows that this long poem is based on just two kernel propositions, which generate two sets of variant images throughout the text. The result is that the poem has the capacity to change the reader’s preconceptions along religious lines. This influential poem has frequently been misunderstood as simply reflecting the depredations of post First World War Europe. From my analysis we can conclude that, while one proposition is concerned with the degraded state of faithless post-war European society, the other constitutes a semiotic key to the rehabilitation of that society.

Regulatory goals in a globalized world

This research examines the impact of a salient global (or local) identity on individual's regulatory goals. Specifically, we show that when people's identity as a global citizen is salient, they are more likely to focus on promotion goals; whereas when their identity as a local citizen is salient, they are more likely to focus on prevention goals. We further show that this arises because people are likely to adopt a more abstract or higher level (vs. concrete or lower level) construal when their global (local) identity is salient. Evidence from three studies supports this central proposition.

A systems approach to assessing organisational viability in project based organisations

Purpose – Extant literature highlights the increasing inability of project-based organisations (PBOs) to meet infrastructure client’s expectations, particularly as it concerns the delivery of socio-economic outcomes during the delivery process. Unclear communication channels and poor processing of information especially as it pertains to client’s strategic objectives results in a misalignment of objectives among participating parties. As its central proposition, the purpose of this paper is to hold that unclear communication channels between parties within infrastructure project PBOs affects their degree of internal cohesion hence posing strong challenges to their overall viability. Design/methodology/approach – Applying the Viable Infrastructure Delivery Systems Model (VIDM); a model premised on the tenets of the Viable Systems Model, this qualitative study proceeds to assess a particular PBO within a developing country to understand its communication and control channels and to identify where gaps likely to affect the internal cohesiveness of the PBO, if any, existed. Whereas semi-structured interviews and project/policy documents were used as data collection tools, data were analysed using pre-set themes. Findings – According the study’s findings, an absence of a prevalent common identity was observed among the various parties to the PBO. Contractors’ capabilities to deliver on time and to budget based on their expertise remained pivotal within the PBO thus abandoning the attainment of the client’s pre-defined socio-economic objectives. Cases of faulty and ineffective organisational architecture, functional and communication issues were observed. Research limitations/implications – Based upon these findings, it is recommended that the VIDM be adopted at the commencement of the PBO lifecycle and used at various intervals by project managers and other stakeholders for assessing the levels of organisational viability. Originality/value – The methodology and findings resulting from this study represent information from fieldwork conducted by the author and as such have not been used elsewhere.

The materiality of discourse: relational positioning in a fresh water controversy

ABSTRACTThis project adds to current theorising in organisational communication on the interconnection between discourse and materiality through the refinement of a relational ontology perspective. The central proposition of this project is that in a relational ontology perspective, associations are performed such that relationships and thereby ontologies are communicatively negotiated. To illustrate the arguments of the project, a fresh water management controversy is examined by using public hearing and field research data. The case study illustrates how the materiality of discourse functions to position freshwater, communities, and organisational texts in various and shifting ways to each other.

Revisiting the relationship between maximizing and well-being: An investigation of eudaimonic well-being

Research on the relationship between maximizing (i.e., the general tendency to seek only the best option and not settle for “good enough” options) and subjective well-being has led to conflicting findings. Although earlier studies suggested that maximizing is associated with lower well-being, more recent studies have challenged this conclusion arguing that it is based on improper measurement of the maximizing construct. Unlike prior research that has looked for answers to the maximizing–well-being question by addressing measurement issues of maximizing, this article offers an alternative perspective by addressing measurement issues of well-being. Specifically, the central proposition of this article is that research on maximizing and well-being needs to consider not only hedonic well-being, as has been the case so far, but also eudaimonic well-being (i.e., well-being derived from the development of one's best potential and the fulfillment of self-expressive goals). This research proposes and finds that maximizing is positively associated with eudaimonic well-being (Study 1) and this holds even after accounting for hedonic well-being (Study 2). These findings suggest that eudaimonic well-being is a useful construct that explains unique variance in maximizing. Implications for theory and research on maximizing, decision making and well-being are discussed.

Ontological Security and Private Car Use in Sydney, Australia

Successful promotion of alternative transport modes needs to be underpinned by better understandings of a seemingly cemented collective preference for private car use. This paper contributes to these understandings and proposes that automobility's dominance can be explained by a series of benefits intimately linked to the car. These benefits extend beyond those associated with utilitarian factors such as saving time. The concept of ontological security is used to propose that attachments to the private car are underpinned by an innate desire for predictability, autonomy and acceptance in modern lives increasingly characterised by insecurity. Empirical evidence on the journey to work in Australia's largest city, Sydney, is applied to examine the way mobility is practised and inform the paper's central proposition.

Productividad de recursos humanos, innovación de producto y desempeño exportador: Una investigación empírica

Purpose: The objective of this research is to examine the relationships between human resource (HR) productivity, product innovation, and export performance of the Spanish manufacturing SMEs. Our central proposition is that HR productivity enables the development of product innovation to increase firms’ export performance.Design/methodology: The proposed conceptual model, is tested using the technique of variance-based structural equation modeling and the estimation method of partial least squares, on a sample of 858 Spanish manufacturing SMEs.Findings: The empirical analysis supports our theory.Research limitations/implications: This research only focuses on the role of product, innovation in the relationship between HR productivity and export performance. Further research may study the mediating role of organizational capabilities based on other types of innovation (e.g., process, organizational, or marketing innovation).Practical implications: Suggest to entrepreneurs of SMEs, that increased HR productivity can lead to such impacts are captured by innovation, resulting in the generation of new products, which will lead demand shocks, and consequently a higher increase in firms’ exports.Originality/value: This research explains conceptually and empirically shows, that product innovation is a key intermediate mechanism, through which the Spanish manufacturing SME can increase its export results by exploiting the productivity of its talent base.

Can Chinese IT Firms Develop Innovative Capabilities within Global Knowledge Networks?

China’s opportunities to build innovative capabilities in the IT industry differ from those faced earlier by Japan and East Asian newly industrializing economies (NIEs). China has a unique combination of advantages in a booming market for electronics products and services, the world’s largest pool of low-cost and easily trainable knowledge workers, the emergence of sophisticated lead users and test-bed markets, and policy efforts to strengthen China’s innovation system. As a later latecomer, China can learn from the achievements and mistakes of earlier latecomers.The international environment is also dramatically different. Most important is the expansion of global knowledge networks, which have extended beyond markets for goods and finance into markets for technology and knowledge workers. Taking into account these important differences, this chapter addresses two questions: Does integration into global knowledge networks facilitate the efforts of Chinese IT firms to develop innovative capabilities? If yes, precisely what type of capabilities are they developing?The findings of this chapter can be summarized as follows:• Integration into global knowledge networks exposes Chinese IT firms to leading-edge technology, “best-practice” management, and sources of knowledge. • Knowledge about its own markets and production sites helps Chinese IT firms to exploit these opportunities.• Successful Chinese firms have not attempted to compete head-on with global leaders through radical innovations. Instead, they have focused on incremental and architectural innovations that support technology diversification strategies.• Integration into global networks needs to be supported by a strong domestic innovation system.These findings contradict a pessimistic literature that appraises China’s innovative capabilities as weak. They also contradict fears, sometimes played up for political purposes, that Chinese firms could make radical innovations that would challenge U.S. technology leadership. A central proposition here is that Chinese IT firms make the most progress in areas that escape the attention of both pessimists and proponents of an emerging technology threat.

«Провинциализм», «туземство» и факторы интеллектуальной «столичности» в социальном познании

“Provincial”, “indigenous” and “capital” sciences (according to terms used by M. Sokolov and K. Titaev) are compared with each other in terms of their audibility to the world’s scientific community and their intellectual mobility. The appeal of scientists’ workplaces and living space is revealed as three types of comfort: life sustenance comfort, social comfort and spiritual comfort. The recognition of their scholarship and personal reputation form the foundation for scientists’ social comfort, and they depend on the significance and novelty of their research. Spiritual comfort is defined by a sense of genuine learning, a sense of participating in “true science”. This “authenticity” can be confirmed only by long-term recognition, which brings us back to the theme of “capitalness” as a central proposition in intellectual networks. Thirteen factors of the successful attainment of a “capital” status are marked out according to the case of the Chicago School of Sociology. The opportunity to record and use them in the current situation of social sciences in Russia is revealed as a means of overcoming the long-standing split between “provincial” and “indigenous” sciences.

Shared services – shared necessity: Austerity, reformed local government and reduced budgets1

Abstract Shared services are now established as a core delivery model in local and regional governance arrangements. Shared services have emerged as a ‘common sense’ delivery vehicle with attendant efficiency and effectiveness gains. There is, however, a more complex intellectual provenance to a reliance on shared services. In essence, shared services are the logical outcome of the deliberate turn to neo-liberal thinking and the various iterations of the new public managerialism methodology which has progressively established itself in local and regional governance over the past thirty years or so. This paper explores the neo-liberal provenance of shared services and considers the consequential vulnerabilities to austerity, administrative reform and reduced public sector budgets. The central proposition of the paper is that while neo-liberal ideas have created the justification for shared services, this has embedded a set of systemic tensions in the delivery model.

An investigation on allocative efficiency and implications of new funding plans for the Australian universities

In 2013 and 2014, the Australian Federal Government introduced the Gonski reforms and fee deregulation measures to reform the prevailing financing provisions for education sectors in Australia. The central proposition of the proposed new measures was to reduce the funding of public universities by the Federal Government. One likely consequence of the proposed measures was thus decreased government funding. In the given context, public universities were pressured into designing new strategies to cope with decreasing government funding. This paper examines the productive efficiency of public universities as a potential strategy. Using a concept of cost efficiency in production economics, cross-sectional data, correlation analysis, and regression analysis, this study explores the scope of allocative efficiency for public universities. Finally, this study recommends the intensive use of non-teaching staff in order to cope with any budgetary challenges.