Municipal Organizations Research Articles

Interoperability Evaluation of Iranian Organizations through Proposed National E-government Interoperability Framework (Case Study of Tehran Municipality)

Interoperability is a property for connecting systems, information and work methods both inside and outside enterprises in national, regional and local levels. Interoperable enterprises can offer services with better quality and lower prices. In order to obtain interoperability in enterprises, it is necessary to use specific frameworks or models. The purpose of this article is providing an interoperability framework for enterprises through studying different interoperability frameworks and using countries' experiences. The proposed framework has different interoperability dimensions such as business, information, semantic and technical including different components. The framework is evaluated by expert’s opinions. Finally, the level of interoperability in Tehran municipality organizations is assessed with using the proposed framework.

Sociodemographic Data Collection in Healthcare Settings

Federal, provincial, and municipal organizations in Canada have recently begun to promote an equity agenda for their health systems, but much of the necessary data by which to identify those with social disadvantage are not currently collected. We conducted a national survey of 1005 Canadian adults to assess the perceived importance of, and concern about, the collection of personal sociodemographic information by hospitals. We also examined public preference for practical approaches to the future collection of such information. In this sample of Canadian adults, nearly half did not believe it was important for hospitals to collect individual-level sociodemographic data. The majority had concerns that the collection of these data could negatively affect their or others' care; this was especially true among visible minorities and those who have experienced discrimination. There was substantial variation across participant subgroups in their comfort with the collection of various types of information, but greater discomfort in general for current household income, sexual orientation, and education background. There was consistent discomfort reported from older participants. Participants in general were most comfortable providing this type of information to their family physician. The importance of collecting patient-level equity-relevant data is not widely appreciated in Canada, and our survey has shown that concern about how these data could be misused are high, especially among certain subgroups. Qualitative research to further explore and understand these concerns, patient education about data usage and privacy issues, and using the family doctor's office as a linked electronic data collection point, will likely be important as we move toward high-quality equity measurement.

Barriers to Interorganizational Information Sharing in e-Government: A Stakeholder Analysis

Government agencies often face trade-offs in developing initiatives that address a public good given competing concerns of various constituent groups. Efforts to construct data warehouses that enable data mining of citizens’ personal information obtained from other organizations (including sister agencies) create a complex challenge, since privacy concerns may vary across constituent groups whose priorities diverge from agencies’ e-government goals. In addition to privacy concerns, participating government agencies’ priorities related to the use of the information may also be in conflict. This article reports on a case study of the Integrated Non-Filer Compliance System used by the California Franchise Tax Board for which data are collected from federal, state, and municipal agencies and other organizations in a data mining application that aims to identify residents who under-report income or fail to file tax returns. This system pitted the public good (ensuring owed taxes are paid) against citizen concerns about privacy. Drawing on stakeholder theory, the authors propose a typology of four stakeholder groups (data controllers, data subjects, data providers, and secondary stakeholders) to address privacy concerns and argue that by ensuring procedural fairness for the data subjects, agencies can reduce some barriers that impede the successful adoption of e-government applications and policies. The article concludes that data controllers can reduce adoption and implementation barriers when e-government data mining applications rely on data shared across organizational boundaries: identify legitimate stakeholders and their concerns prior to implementation; enact procedures to ensure procedural fairness when data are captured, shared, and used; explain to each constituency how the data mining application helps to ensure distributive fairness; and continue to gauge stakeholders’ responses and ongoing concerns as long as the application is in use.

Vancouver Charter: bringing ski and snowboard helmet legislation to Canada

The Vancouver Charter on Skiing Safety is based on skiing and snowboarding safety and the Turin Charter (approved in the context of the 2006 Turin Winter Olympic Games) and was...

The role of municipal park and recreation agencies in enacting coach and parent training in a loosely coupled youth sport system

Over a decade ago, Vail and Carmichael [More than just facilities: the role of municipal recreation in community sport development, Recreation Canada, 51(1), 24–44, 1993] challenged municipal recreation providers to clarify and recognize the role they play in youth sport delivery. Similarly, more recent calls for youth sport reform have identified the municipal park and recreation agency as perhaps the key player in the youth sports delivery system in the USA [National Alliance for Youth Sports and National Recreation and Parks Association, Recommendations for Communities: National Summit on Raising Community Standards in Children's Sports, West Palm Beach, FL, National Alliance for Youth Sports, 2001]. The research suggests that volunteer coaches and youth sport parents often lack training and are unprepared for the roles that they play in the lives of youth sport participants. Because municipal park and recreation organizations often provide resources and leadership, such as facilities and programmatic support, to voluntary youth sport organizations (VSOs), park and recreation departments are in a unique position to lead on the issue of coach and parent training. This study demonstrated a ‘loose coupling’ relationship between municipal park and recreation agencies in the USA and VSOs involved in youth sport delivery. The research reveals that while the level of influence of municipal agencies over VSOs is positively related to the prevalence of mandatory coach training, no such relationship exists with the prevalence of mandatory parent training. It recommends that municipal agencies could leverage their influence with affiliated VSOs in order to achieve more consistent training of coaches and parents.

The relation of goal incongruence and self-control demands to indicators of job strain among elderly care nursing staff: A cross-sectional survey study combined with longitudinally assessed absence measures

Background Formerly unconnected lines of research have shown that both the perceived incongruence between personal and organizational goals and meeting self-control demands at work exert adverse influences on indicators of job strain. Objectives Going beyond this research and drawing on recently developed theoretical notions on self-control depleting a limited control resource, the present study examines – in addition to main effects – also interactive effects of both stressors on various indicators of strain that include not only self-report measures (dimensions of burnout, psychosomatic complaints) but also absence data (sum of days absent, absence frequency) as behavioural outcome. Design A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in combination with absence data referring to a time period of 12 months after administration of the questionnaires. Setting A municipal organization for residential elderly care with six nursing homes located in a large German city. Participants Questionnaires were distributed to the whole nursing staff of which 242 staff members filled in the questionnaire and permitted collecting their absence data (67% participation rate). Methods In addition to descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations, hierarchical moderated regression analyses were performed. Results Findings revealed significant main effects of both predictors on the criterion measures with signs corresponding to expectations. Over and above these main effects, the two-way interaction between goal incongruence and self-control demands added a significant amount of incremental variance to the prediction of exhaustion, depersonalization, psychosomatic complaints as well as the time lost index of absenteeism. In the measure of absence frequency, this interaction failed to reach significance. As hypothesized, the form of the interactions indicated that the adverse influences of self-control demands are strengthened with an increase in the perceived mismatch between personal and organizational goals. Conclusions Improving the fit between personal and organizational goals and strengthening the individual control resource could make health care workers less vulnerable against the depleting effects of meeting self-control demands at work.

The functions of social service workers at a time of war against a civilian population

This article identifies the nature of functions that social service workers employed by municipal organisations have to perform during a community disaster and subsequent reorganisation at a time of war. The article also explores to what extent the functions of workers change as a result of the transition from a peacetime routine to a war situation. Using focus groups the study assesses the knowledge of social service workers and ordinary citizens who had direct experience of the second Lebanese war in Israel (2006). Eight major functions needed at a time of disaster are distinguished among various employees. The article discusses the significance of these functions, and the need to make changes in the network of functions at a time of disaster.

Communication quality and added value: a measurement instrument for municipalities

PurposeThis study aims to achieve a better understanding of communication quality and how it can be measured in the municipal context. A previously developed instrument for measuring communication in municipalities is tested and evaluated.Design/methodology/approachThe instrument draws on the balanced scorecard of Kaplan and Norton and quality control procedures as utilised by the European Foundation of Quality Measurement (EFQM). For municipalities, communication quality can be defined as the degree to which communication contributes towards the effectiveness of municipal policy and how it strengthens the relationship between citizens and municipal organisations. Three communication functions are given, and for each function seven quality criteria, for example responsiveness, are defined. The latter serve as an umbrella for several indicators that are assessed on a Likert scale. The results for four municipalities in The Netherlands are presented and compared, and the instrument is evaluated.FindingsThe corporate communication scores were relatively high, while the policy communication scores were low. Of the quality criteria, accessibility and publicity scored high and responsiveness low. The instrument has mainly been developed on the basis of auditor and self‐assessment, as municipalities have, as yet, few facts and figures with which to support the assessment. The measurement instrument needs to be integrated in the organisation's planning cycle, as reflection on the results can help in implementing improvements in quality. The measurement process stimulates dialogue on communication quality and the priorities to be set for communication policy.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is based on four cases. The instrument needs to be tested across a range of governmental‐level organisations.Practical implicationsMunicipalities can use this instrument to improve the added value of communication.Originality/valueA detailed description of the results of applying an instrument, such as this, developed for assessing communication quality, has not until now been published.

Institutional reforms in water supply arrangements in Karachi

Karachi's water supply service has experienced a continuing decline in both quantity and quality and various categories of consumers have suffered owing to these falling standards. The service, which is presently controlled by Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), has been managed through different institutional arrangements involving different municipal organisations. These changes were introduced with the objective of improving the operational status, performance level and financial strength of the utility. Research was carried out to obtain feedback from related stakeholders including utility management, interest groups, relevant experts and civil society organisations. The methodology adopted for this research work comprised a review of institutional records, interviews with key informants and observations of service delivery mechanisms in various parts of the city. An absence of political will across various levels of policy making and implementation, legal anomalies, incomplete integration of KWSB into the main stream city government, ineffective revenue recovery from consumers and rising trends of unaccounted water remain the outcomes of inadequate institutional performance. This paper presents the existing status of water supply arrangements in Karachi with focus on institutional issues. Possible policy options, including ‘no change’, disaggregation, dissolution and consolidation of the utility, are also discussed.

Institutionalization of risk and safety management at the local governmental level in Sweden

The starting point for this article is the need for empirical knowledge about organizational configuration for societal risk and safety management activities in a modern welfare society. In this paper, we use Sweden as an empirical frame to analyze the administrative management structure at the local governmental level. The analysis is based on statistical analysis of information from a web‐survey with administrative chief/head officials (n = 1283) with responsibilities for different municipal functions and sectors. The sample represented 25% of the Swedish municipalities (n = 290) and the response rate was approximately 60% (n = 766). The responses to two sets of questions (25 and 45 questions) are used for statistical analyses of management structures and task distribution within the municipal organizations. Principal component factor analyses with Varimax and Kaiser's Normalization was applied as a structure detection method. The results indicate a clear and uniform way to institutionalize societal risk and safety management at the local level. Furthermore, the management course of action is found to have different types of value characters. The implications that arise from the patterns identified in this study are considered to be of general relevance and topicality for research and practice in this area.

Transformational Leadership in the Public Sector: Does Structure Matter?

This study contributes to our understanding of leadership in public sector organizations by investigating the effect of organizational structure on the transformational leadership practices of municipal chief administrative officers. Using data from a national survey of senior managers in local government, the findings of this study suggest a number of possible explanations for why public sector organizations exhibit higher levels of transformational leadership than what scholars traditionally expect. Our findings suggest that the structure of these organizations may not be as bureaucratic as commonly believed and that some bureaucratic characteristics had little, if any, adverse affect on the prevalence or practice of transformational leadership behaviors. In particular, although organizational hierarchy and inadequate lateral/upward communication were associated with lower transformational leadership, no relationship was found between transformational leadership behaviors and two types of organizational red tape. Contrary to expectations in the mainstream leadership literature, however, the use of performance measurement by municipal organizations was associated with a significant increase in reported transformational leadership behaviors.

Combating Depopulation in the Northern Periphery: Local Leadership Strategies in two Norwegian Municipalities

This article concerns how the municipal organisation and its leaders respond to challenges posed by the post-industrial era, in the form of shrinking employment opportunities and population decline. By developing distinct policies of supporting cultural and new economic initiatives, they depart from traditional steering modes and engage in ‘networked governance’ to safeguard community viability. This extends the scope of what we normally expect of local government, as it implies practices and de facto decision making outside the public realm. With these strategies, municipal leaders show that they are eager to do something for the people in the municipality. Their relative success in the use of governance methods might be regarded as new ways of legitimising the politicians' and the municipalities' role. In this respect, creating policies that relate to the formation of community identity may be an important asset.

Organizational Change in Local Governments: The Impact of the Danish Local Government Reform

The article explores organizational structures in public organizations that are the results of amalgamations of two or more public organizations. Focusing on the Danish Local Government Reform implemented in 2007, the main questions are whether the new municipalities have decided to organize themselves differently than their predecessors, and whether the interests of centrally placed actors affect such a decision. Data on the political and administrative organization of all Danish municipalities in 2005 and 2007 show that the number of organizational units grew considerably more in the 66 new municipalities than it did in the 32 municipalities whose territory was not changed because of the reform. The analyses show that the increased number of organizational units can in part be explained by new municipal tasks and increased workload due to the new structural conditions. An important part of the increase, however, was caused neither by task related, nor by structural changes. Alternatively, the increase may be explained by political norms stating that all relevant interests should be given a top post in the new organizations.

Evaluating the New Governance of the Welfare State in Finland

This article discusses the new governance of the welfare state in Finland. The basic research question is whether there is a change from old to new governance and as well as defining the underlying “reasons” calling for reform in governance. The five dimensions to be evaluated are modernization of macro level governance structures; reforms of governance, welfare tasks between central government and municipalities, restructuring municipal organizations, and development of citizen participation. The main findings show that the new governance is less hierarchical, more flexible and more networked than the “old” model. It consists of new forms of democratic governance and active citizenship, including commonly shared values and good governance. Service provision is redefined in terms of the interplay between state, municipalities and private and third sector actors.

The Role of the Individual – A Key to Learning in Preparedness Organizations

A well functioning societal response to crises is benefited by individuals having adequate skills and knowledge. From a municipal perspective this requires the creation of a learning organization. The objective of this study is to determine whether individual municipal employees, who have the responsibility for preparedness planning, reason and act in ways that promote learning about crises and preparedness issues throughout the municipal organization. Analysis of interviews with preparedness planners in six Swedish municipalities on their strategies for preparedness planning, reveal that preparedness planning too often becomes a demarcated activity, restricted to not more than a handful of individuals. This study indicates that one reason for why the preparedness work becomes demarcated is that individuals central to the preparedness planning are not taking on roles for acting in ways that are required in order for a learning organization to be established.

Understanding North–South municipal partnership conditions for capacity development: A Dutch–Peruvian example

In the discourse on development cooperation through North–South partnerships, there is a lack of knowledge on the conditions for good partnering among local authorities to reach maximum potential for capacity building in municipal organisations. Findings are presented of an empirical study of a Dutch–Peruvian municipal partnership, discussing the conditions under which institutional strengthening has taken shape in the municipality of Villa El Salvador, Peru. It is argued that municipal partnerships have potential to be demand-driven, based on existing needs and facilitated by a high level of understanding between two institutions with similar characteristics. Northern counterparts can fill a niche to meet the capacity needs of Southern municipalities that may be excluded from international assistance, due to negative perceptions on working with public institutions in the South.

Strategic Compensation

Given that continued pressure will be levied on public sector organizations to provide higher levels of service while maintaining low costs, the importance of considering an organization's relative position in the regional labor market should not be understated. Using efficiency wage theory as a theoretical foundation, this research examines the use of market-clearing wages as a tool for strategic compensation in the public sector. Two separate survey instruments were distributed to municipalities in the Chicago suburban metropolitan area: a salary and fringe benefits survey and a reputational service quality (RSQ) questionnaire. The primary finding of this research indicates that efficiency wage rates are a significant predictor of increased reputational service quality, suggesting that municipal organizations may be able to leverage their reputation as a tool for increasing economic development and attracting more affluent residents to the community.

The Diffusion of Organizational Practice: Institutional Factors Affecting The Adoption of Self-Managed Work Teams

This study applies the diffusion framework to examine the utilization of a management practice, self-managed work teams, among municipal government organizations. Using survey data gathered from 204 American cities, the study investigates three institutional aspects: regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive aspects of institutions. The empirical analyses found support the hypotheses regarding the normative and cultural-cognitive aspects of institutions. Professional networks were significantly positively related to the likelihood of using self-managed work teams in the city. Likewise, the belief shared in service quality management by city employees was significantly positively related to the likelihood of using self-managed work teams in the city.

Enhancing ecosystem management through social-ecological inventories: lessons from Kristianstads Vattenrike, Sweden

Environmental policy increasingly emphasizes involvement of local users and land owners in ecosystem management, but conservation planning is still largely a bureaucratic-scientific endeavour of identifying biological values for protection. Neither biological inventories nor stakeholder analyses, that tend to focus on conflicting interests, capture human resources in the landscape or the social structures and processes underlying biological conservation values. Social-ecological inventories are therefore proposed during the preparation phase of conservation projects as a means to identify people with ecosystem knowledge that practise ecosystem management. The method presented here focuses on local steward groups acting outside official management plans. In a social-ecological inventory of a river basin of southern Sweden, local steward groups, their ecosystem management activities, motives and links to other actors involved in ecosystem management were identified through interviews, participatory observations and a review of documents and other written material. Several hundred active local stewards were organized in 10 local steward groups that managed and monitored a range of ecosystem services at different spatial scales. Contributions of local stewards included on-site ecosystem management, long-term and detailed monitoring of species and ecosystem dynamics, local ecological knowledge, public support for ecosystem management and specialized networks. Two conservation projects are used to illustrate how local steward groups came together in multi-level networks and collaborated around specific conservation issues. The projects have been linked to ecosystem management at the landscape level through a flexible municipality organization, the Ecomuseum Kristianstads Vattenrike (EKV). EKV has acted as a ‘bridging organization’, coordinating and connecting many of the local steward groups to organizations and institutions at other levels. The process has been guided by social capital and shared visions for the whole landscape. The study shows that ecosystem management likely relies on multi-level collaboration and social-ecological inventories may help identify actors that are fundamental in such management systems. Social-ecological inventories should be employed in any attempt to develop and implement ecosystem management.

The urban governance of transport and the environment in the city of Kristiansand

This paper studies local institutions established for better co-ordination of environmental and transport policies. The empirical case is an institution called the Land-use and Transport forum (ATP) in the city area of Kristiansand in Norway, where municipal, county and state organisations have been brought together in decision making and implementation processes. ATP's relationship with private business organisations is also analysed. It is argued that the case is an example of how groups of actors and partnerships can shape new discourses. The paper shows that urban governance relations are changing from a sectorally focused mode of governance to a more open and inclusive style in Kristiansand.