Committee Assignments Research Articles

Gender, Political Dynasties, and Committee Assignments: Evidence From Indonesia

Abstract The persistence of political dynasties in developed and developing countries has been an interesting puzzle as democracy does not automatically obliterate the domination of familial ties in politics. Prior studies suggest that women are more likely to be dynastic than men. However, it remains unclear on how parties are allocating dynasts into committees and whether it is gendered or not. This paper introduces new observational data on female parliamentary representation, dynastic background and committee membership of 575 sitting parliamentarians in Indonesia. The findings suggest that one in every four members of parliament are dynasts and the proportion among female lawmakers has increased from 42% in 2009 to 44% in 2019. However, the experience of dynastic women in relation to committee assignment is not uniform. The critical variable that influences their placement appears to be the political party to which they belong, particularly in terms of nomination and internal structure. This paper offers initial leads for future research endeavours in connecting the intersectionality between political dynasties and committee assignments in other countries.

Review: The Congressional Black Caucus: Fifty Years of Fighting for Equality, by Sherice Janaye Nelson

Review: <i>The Congressional Black Caucus: Fifty Years of Fighting for Equality</i>, by Sherice Janaye Nelson

Bridging the Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Gap in Gastroenterology

Bridging the Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Gap in Gastroenterology

Performance Analysis of an Information Technology Support Team

This study aimed to describe the competence of members of the information and technology support team at The Document Processing Center in order to optimize the performance of the team. Performance was analyzed based on competencies consisting of education, skills and motivation. Qualitative research methods were used with a descriptive approach. Data collection was through interviews, observations, document review and triangulation. The results of the study showed that the competence of the team members was already good, even though there was no established formal education or training and most did not have an information technology educational background. They were enthusiastic to learn and gain knowledge or skills from the team leader and fellow members, while they also carried out self-learning for their tasks. Their high motivation was evident from the fast service, which was thanks to skills they had learned. Their motivation could be higher if they receive rewards. The team members should receive a transfer of knowledge from once or twice a month to four times a month. In addition, to be reliable in providing services and anticipating changes in the external environment, The Document Processing Center could be supported by implementing job shadowing, coaching, mentoring, apprenticeships, work rotations, and committee assignments. Rotation policies should be in accordance with the expertise of the staff, such as placing a member of the support team who has an educational background into the information technology team.&#x0D; Keywords: performance, competence, knowledge, skills, motivation

Experts, aliens, and everyone in between: Agriculture committee assignments and sector embeddedness in the Argentine Congress

AbstractAgriculture is one of the most important sectors in Argentina's economy. Although most of the time congressional committees play a secondary role regarding agricultural policy, they become crucial in certain situations. In this article, we analyze the political economy of agriculture committee assignments in the Argentine Congress and the embeddedness of their members in the agricultural sector from 2001 to 2019. Conventional wisdom holds that in Argentina—a strongly presidential country with a congress full of amateur legislators and party‐oriented career paths—the standing committee's composition reflects party leaders' preferences rather than constituencies' interests or legislators' backgrounds. Through descriptive analysis and a binary logistic regression, we show that many committee members are in fact experts in agriculture and are highly embedded in the sector, whereas others have no bonds whatsoever. Moreover, constituency preferences have some influence on committee appointments. These findings contribute to understanding better the legislative organization of Congress and the overlap between politics and this fundamental economic sector. They further help to expand the theoretical approach for studying economic committee composition in Argentina.

Extent of Teachers’ Participation in Continuous In-Service Training Programmes for Their Improved Job Productivity in Secondary Schools in Anambra State

The inefficiencies noticed among many secondary school teachers while performing their teaching responsibilities in the classroom which seems to have negative impact on their job productivity has warranted this present study. Therefore, the present study was designated to find out the extent teachers’ participation on continuous in-service training programmes for their improved job productivity in secondary schools in Anambra State. Three research questions guided this study. A descriptive survey research design was employed in the study. Population for this study constituted 5,674 teachers from 258 public secondary schools within the 6 education zones in Anambra State. Sample size for the study consisted of 1,135 teachers from 129 public secondary schools selected at 20% and 50% from both the teachers’ population and public secondary schools respectively using the stratified random sampling technique. Instrument for data collection was a researcher-developed 23-item questionnaire titled: “Teachers’ Participation in Continuous In-Service Training Programmes and Improved Job Productivity Questionnaire (TPCISTPIJPQ)” and structured on a 4-point scale of Very High Extent (VHE), High Extent (HE), Low Extent (LE) and Very Low Extent (VLE) in order to answer all the three research questions. The questionnaire was validated by two experts from the Department of Educational Management and Policy, and one Measurement and Evaluation expert from the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State. Reliability of the instrument was established through a pilot-test on a sample 32 teachers from 4 public secondary schools in Anambra State. The scores obtained were measured using Cronbach Alpha statistics which yielded coefficient reliability value of 0.75, 0.77 and 0.81 for each cluster respectively, with an overall internal consistency reliability value of 0.78 showcasing that the questionnaire was reliable and dependable to collect the necessary data for the study. Data collated were analyzed using the mean score rated at 2.50 and standard deviation statistics. Findings of the study revealed among others, that the extent of teachers’ participation in the various continuous in-service training programmes (on-the-job, off-the-job &amp; computer-based training programmes) for their improved job productivity were all to a low extent. The study recommended among others that secondary school principals in collaboration with Anambra State Post Primary Schools Service Commission (PPSSC) should to high extent constantly organize on-the-job continuous in-service training programmes through induction and orientation training programmes, shadowing or co-worker training, job rotation, mentorship from older teachers, internship programmes, school seminars and workshops, coaching and committee assignment for teachers improved job productivity in schools.

Party Affiliation and Individual Incentives: Committee Assignments in the Chamber of Deputies in Chile, 1990-2018

Party Affiliation and Individual Incentives: Committee Assignments in the Chamber of Deputies in Chile, 1990-2018

The Determinants of Committee Membership in Belgium and the Netherlands

In this article I analyse whether differences in formal committee structures affect how parliamentary actors organise their work within them. I compare the allocation of members to specialised committees in the Dutch House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) and the Belgian Chamber of Representatives (Kamer van Volksvertegenwoordigers/Chambre des Représentants) to test whether committee assignments are given more serious consideration when committees are strong. Despite many similarities, both parliaments differ in their internal institutional arrangements: committees in the Chamber of Representatives are, at least formally, considerably more powerful than those in the Dutch Lower House. The article uses the congressional theories of legislative organisation as heuristic devices to deduce several rationales of the assignment process. The role of parliamentary party groups is highlighted. The results indicate the presence of stable, reoccurring patterns in both parliaments. Even in the House of Representatives, where committees present lower opportunity structures, assignments are given due consideration.

Board design and governance failures at peer firms

AbstractResearch SummaryOur study introduces board committees as a crucial determinant of board actions. We examine how directors who structurally link different board committees—referred to as multi‐committee directors (MCDs)—explain why some board actions are merely symbolic while others are more substantive. As a baseline, we argue that boards in general respond to financial restatements at peer firms by symbolically appointing new directors who are relatively inexperienced and unlikely to have a substantive impact. In contrast, boards with audit–nomination MCDs are more likely to take the substantive action of appointing new directors with the prior experience necessary to reduce the risk of their own future financial restatement. We combine qualitative interviews and a causal identification strategy using an original dataset covering Russell 3000 firms from 2001 to 2014.Managerial SummaryCommittees play a central role in how boards carry out their governance responsibilities. This study shows that assigning directors to multiple board committees can improve governance performance under certain conditions. Specifically, when external events focus attention on the board's monitoring role, the presence of multi‐committee directors (MCDs) that link the audit and nomination committees is associated with the subsequent appointment of more experienced directors and a reduction in the likelihood of future financial restatements and lawsuits. Because these specific board configurations can have substantive implications for governance effectiveness, we recommend that board leaders be deliberate in how they allocate board committee assignments and treat board committee structure as an intentional organizational design choice that can meaningfully improve governance outcomes.

The Politics of Select Committee Assignments in the British House of Commons

Legislative committees usually combine legislative and oversight functions. Most research has focused on the former. The British House of Commons offers an opportunity to shed light on MPs’ motivations to engage in the neglected oversight aspects of committee work, because its committee system separates lawmaking from investigatory functions. In this article, we examine the politics of assignment to the investigatory select committees. Using an original data set for the 2005–10 and 2010–15 Parliaments, we find that MPs’ long-standing policy interests are a strong and consistent predictor for select-committee assignments, especially when committees’ desirability increases. Our results are largely incompatible with partisan models predicting party loyalty to be a decisive factor in select-committee assignments. Evidence suggests that the “Wright reforms” have consolidated the self-selection mechanism operating in committee assignments. Against expectations of partisan motivations driving committee assignments, our evidence suggests that models based on informational concerns offer the most convincing rationale.

“Striking out on your own”—A study of research information management problems on university campuses

AbstractHere, we report on a qualitative study that examined research information management (RIM) ecosystems on research university campuses from the perspectives of research information (RI) managers and librarians. In the study, we identified 21 RIM services offered to researchers, ranging from discovering, storing, and sharing authored content to identifying expertise, recruiting faculty, and ensuring the diversity of committee assignments. In addition, we identified 15 types of RIM service provision and adoption problems, analyzed their activity structures, and connected them to strategies for their resolution. Finally, we report on skills that the study participants reported as being needed in their work. These findings can inform the development of best practice guides for RIM on university campuses. The study also advances the state of the art of RIM research by applying the typology of contradictions from activity theory to categorize the problems of RIM service provision and connect their resolution to theories and findings of prior studies in the literature. In this way, the research expands the theoretical base used to study RIM in general and RIM at research universities in particular.

Shelter in a Storm: Campaign Fundraising, Party Competition, and the Changing Nature of Congressional Committee Assignments

In the article, we argue that closer competition for control of the House of Representatives and increases in the cost of campaigns have elevated the importance of campaign fundraising in the committee assignment process. When the majority party holds a narrow margin, we expect them to give freshmen and electorally marginal lawmakers abnormally lucrative committee assignments. We test this argument using both a novel measure of committee fundraising quality and data on committee assignments, campaign contributions, and election results from 1985 to 2012. We find support for our expectation regarding freshmen, but not marginal lawmakers. Our findings are consistent with the view that party leaders are using committee assignments to increase their party’s total fundraising when control of the chamber is close, possibly at the expense of other goals. We show how recent political trends are changing the dynamics of the committee assignment process, with implications for both the institution’s function and lawmaker behavior.

Philanthropy—or tax-exempt lobbying?

Follow the Money Major corporations appear to fund their charitable foundations in part to cater to politicians who are important to the firm's profitability. Integrating corporate tax returns, lobbying data, and data on U.S. congressional committee assignments, Bertrand et al. show that donations from a given corporate-funded foundation to charities in a particular congressional representative's district, or for which a congressional representative is a board member, ebb and flow according to whether the representative sits on a committee that is of interest to the corporation. The patterns parallel spending by political action committees (PACs). Around 7% of charitable giving (∼$1.2 billion annually) appears to be politically motivated, amounting to about 2.5 times the annual PAC spending and one-third of the total federal lobbying spending—and it is tax exempt and thus subsidized by taxpayers. Am. Econ. Rev. 110 , 2065 (2020).

Are Women Less Effective at Passing Bills? Exploring the Direct and Indirect Effects of Gender

Are women as effective as men at passing legislation? What are the institutional pathways through which gender affects bill approval? I argue that gender does not have a direct effect on a legislator’s ability to gain legislative approval. Instead, women are marginalized in their access to influential institutional positions—committee leadership positions, influential committee assignment, and bill content—which may have consequences for bill approval. I examine these relationships using causal mediation analysis on bill data from Argentina from 1983 through 2007. I do not find a direct effect of gender on bill approval. Instead, women are negatively affected by their lack of access to committee leadership positions. While women do not experience legislative consequences directly, by virtue of being women, they do face indirect consequences through the positions they receive. This article makes important methodological and substantive contributions to understanding relationships between gender and legislative outcomes.

Nonmarket Strategies of New Entrants and Incumbents: Evidence from Ridesharing and Taxi Firms

Technological innovations by digital platform-based firms have led to public debates about the legitimacy of new entrants’ business strategies in a range of industries, prompting governments to revisit industry regulations – and triggering competition between new entrants and incumbents in the nonmarket environment in order to shape the future “rules of the game”. In this paper, we examine the lobbying strategies employed by market incumbents and new entrants to shape emerging industry regulations. Our central thesis is that the asymmetry in political resources and capabilities of incumbents and new entrants will result in them pursuing divergent lobbying strategies. Focusing on the key legislator attributes of committee assignment, seniority, and ideology, we hypothesize that incumbents will leverage their superior political experience and relationships to lobby members of industry-relevant committees and more senior legislators. On the other hand, new entrants circumvent the resulting political barriers to entry by focusing on legislators outside of the committee, those who have more recently been elected, and those who are relatively more pro-competition. We also argue that the response of firms to their rivals’ lobbying will be contingent on the nature of their political support, and as such, incumbents and new entrants will respond differently to the lobbying actions of their rivals. Utilizing a novel dataset of lobbying contacts made by incumbent taxi firms and new entrant Uber with legislators in Toronto from 2014 - 2016 we find support for our hypotheses. Our findings emphasize how heterogeneous political resources drive nonmarket actions of firms when they compete with each other to influence policy outcomes.

Committee Politics in the Antebellum Senate

Although the Senate did not have standing committees for its first several decades, the system adopted in the early nineteenth century has endured for over two centuries. Previous research on early Senate committees focuses broadly on their general development and evolution or explores how parties came to control committee politics. While both of these approaches advance our understanding of the Senate’s institutional development, we know comparatively less about which interests were represented on committees. In order to better understand this component of committee politics, I examine how sectional and state-level interests influenced the politics of committee assignments in the antebellum Senate.

What Drives U.S. Congressional Members’ Policy Attention on Twitter?

Social media platforms like Twitter enable policymakers to communicate their policy preferences directly and provide a bird's‐eye view of their diverse policy agendas. In this article, we leverage politicians’ social media data to study political attention using a supervised machine‐learning classifier that detects policy areas in individual tweets. We examine how individual diversity and institutional factors affect differential attention to public policy among members of the U.S. Congress. Our novel approach to measuring policy attention builds on work by the Comparative Agendas Project, in order to study members’ political attention in near real‐time and to uncover both intragroup and intergroup differences. Using this classifier, we labeled more than one million tweets and found statistically significant differences in both the level and distribution of attention between parties, chambers, and genders. However, these differences were small enough to suggest that other Congressional members’ characteristics are also at play. We explored institutional factors (e.g., committee assignment, caucus), partisan issue preferences (e.g., issue ownership), and the political environment (e.g., partisan issues, confirmations, etc.) that may help explain the patterns of political attention that appear in Congress's tweets.

The Chair's Role in Leveraging Multigenerational Workforce Strategies in Times of Crisis

The Chair's Role in Leveraging Multigenerational Workforce Strategies in Times of Crisis

Are popular and powerful committees more representative? Evidence from the ninth European Parliament

The standing committees of the European Parliament perform crucial policy-making functions and, accordingly, the question of how they are composed assumes great relevance. Unlike previous studies, which primarily looked at committee assignments from the perspective of individual MEPs, we assess the representativeness of entire committees by comparing their preference distributions with those we find in the plenary on the left/right and pro/anti EU dimension. For our analysis, we combine new data on committee memberships in the ninth European Parliament with data on policy preferences of national parties from the Chapel Hill Expert Survey. In order to assess committee representativeness, we calculate the extent to which the preference distributions of committees and the plenary overlap. We show that committee representativeness is a function of committee popularity and power. Committee popularity provides party groups with a larger pool of applicants to choose from and since popular committees are often also quite large, the formation of representative committees is facilitated. Moreover, the party groups of the European Parliament have stronger incentives to form balanced committee contingents for powerful committees, resulting in higher committee representativeness. However, this latter finding is qualified by two outliers and we only find the hypothesized relationship to hold on the pro/anti EU dimension.

“Mr. Cobb Knows Nothing About Architecture”: Committee Assignment Requests in the Pre-Civil War US House of Representatives

Using letters addressed to two Speakers—James K. Polk (TN), 24th–25th Congresses, and Nathaniel P. Banks (MA), 34th Congress— this article examines committee assignment requests in the pre-Civil War House of Representatives. It begins by outlining the circumstances which concentrated enormous power over assignments in the hands of the Speaker. It then draws on existing literature on the modern House to propose several hypotheses, before explaining the challenges of applying conventional research methods to the collection and study of nineteenth-century data. That data is then analyzed to calculate the success rate of requests, rank committees by their attractiveness, and categorize the motives which drove members to seek a particular assignment. The article finds certain basic continuities with the modern House in these three aspects of the committee allocation process, and suggests explanations for the most striking discontinuities.