Organizational Linkages Research Articles

Addressing wrong-way driving as a matter of policy: The Florida Experience

Wrong-way driving (WWD) incidents garner considerable interest from the media, elected representatives, and policy makers. Almost a half-century after Hulbert and Beers (1966), the National Transportation Safety Board and others continue to research WWD countermeasures. The recent increase in WWD re-kindled a national discussion in the United States of America, and is bringing about a significant change in the approach to addressing this crash type. The main purpose of this work is to present a policy-oriented framework toward addressing WWDs in a systematic manner and to suggest a systemic discipline for transforming policy objectives to actionable outcomes. To accomplish this goal, the leadership of the Florida Department of Transportation played a pivotal role in converting strategy to reality by promoting organizational linkages and active collaboration. The method included: (a) implementing pilot projects; (b) conducting a statewide study with crash evaluation and field reviews, identifying interchange types, and developing countermeasures; (c) evaluating and deploying experimental devices specifically approved by the Federal Highway Administration; (d) conceptualizing a human factors study; (e) transforming recommendations to design guidance; (f) discussing with planners on interchange types susceptible to WWDs; (g) retrofitting exit ramps with the recommended countermeasures; and (h) leveraging the media to promote awareness and to educate the public about the dangers of driving under the influence. The result of this policy push is that, from an engineering view point, design changes were made; from an education perspective, WWD awareness was prioritized; and from an enforcement angle, the Florida Highway Patrol proactively detects and addresses WWD crashes.

Clientelism and economic policy: hybrid characteristics of collective action in Greece

ABSTRACTHow does clientelism affect policy-making? Can patrons in government discard groups of clients in order to pursue reforms in conditions of crisis? The article argues that clientelism goes beyond the exchange of votes and may permeate organizations with the capacity for collective action such as labour unions. This merger gives rise to a clientelist-collective system that changes both patron–client relations and the context of collective action with important implications for the design of economic policy. As evidence from Greece shows, patrons in government are better off avoiding reforms that deprive their client groups of collective and personal benefits (clientelist bias in policy-making). Labour unions infiltrated by party clients have weak autonomy from the patron party but, operating inside the party network, they can effectively safeguard their access to club goods. Interdependent preferences and organizational linkages between the patron party and its client organizations favour collaboration and co-optation over open confrontation in policy-making processes.

Political entrepreneurs, clientelism, and civil society: supply-side politics in Turkey

How do citizens in developing democracies launch political careers? Despite the large literature on electoral politics in developing countries, we know surprisingly little about how individuals become political candidates. This article examines an important mechanism of political recruitment in developing democracies: party-civil society organization (CSO) linkages. Existing theories treat CSOs as arenas of civic participation rather than as political agents in their own right, which leads scholars to overlook their impact on electoral competition. This article argues that the distinct resource portfolios of CSOs influence their relative impact on candidate selection, and consequently, local politics. CSOs that represent the material interests of their constituents, such as resource-rich business groups and vote-rich identity groups, have significant influence over candidate selection. Issue-oriented CSOs tend to have less impact. Party-CSO relations often facilitate clientelist linkages between parties and voters, weakening democratic governance. Evidence is provided with an in-depth case study of CSO-political party relations in the industrial periphery of Istanbul, Turkey.

HRD Practices in Co-operative Sugar Mills in North Coastal Andra Pradesh

Human resources are considered as most valuable strategic assets to the organization. The success of any organization depends on efficient use of human resources in the organization. This paper aims to analyze the various Human resource development (HRD) practices in co-operative sugar industry in north coastal Andrapradesh. The study measured an evaluation of HRD practices in the sugar industry. A sample of 100 employees from five co-operative sugar mills responded to a questionnaire which measured the evaluation of HRD practices and improve the values. HRD practices like training and development, performance appraisal system, quality of work life and development were positively related to organizational values of humane treatment. However, performance appraisal system, career planning, and contextual analysis variables were negatively associated with values such as trust and creativity. The analysis was limited to existing HRD practices. Further studies are needed on a larger sample to examine why some HRD practices and contextual analysis contributed negatively to organizational values. The result of the study can be useful in designing effective employee development programs that promote cherished organizational values. Little empirical knowledge exists on HRD practices and organizational values linkages in the context of co-operative sugar industry in Andrapradesh. The paper makes a modest attempt to fill the gap.

Geographies of Cluster Internationalization: Inter- organizational Linkages on the Baltica

The following research paper addresses the issue of cluster internationalization process. The methodological approach is based on analyzing pan-European projects of transnational inter-organizational cooperation, while giving emphasis on identifying networked linkages across the spatial reach of the Baltic region. Research results reveal a number of geographical locations that exhibit active cross-border regionalization processes, successfully implementing the international cluster initiative policies. A ponderable correlation between the level of urbanization of a territory and the number of ongoing international cluster initiatives is found. The distribution of international cluster initiatives in the Baltic region by specialization is presented, as well as the comparative analysis with the established cross-border clusters is given.

Effects of an Organizational Linkage Intervention on Inter-Organizational Service Coordination Between Probation/Parole Agencies and Community Treatment Providers.

Weak coordination between community correctional agencies and community-based treatment providers is a major barrier to diffusion of medication-assisted treatment (MAT)--the inclusion of medications (e.g., methadone and buprenorphine) in combination with traditional counseling and behavioral therapies to treat substance use disorders. In a multisite cluster randomized trial, experimental sites (j = 10) received a 3-h MAT training plus a 12-month linkage intervention; control sites (j = 10) received the 3-h training alone. Hierarchical linear models showed that the intervention resulted in significant improvements in perceptions of interagency coordination among treatment providers, but not probation/parole agents. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Practice-Based Research: The Role of HUSK in Knowledge Development

Practice research involves curiosity about practice. It is about challenging complex practices through a critical and co-productive examination of concrete practices and how ideas are created, adopted, and spread. By involving the relational complexities within practice and by strengthening the relational and organizational linkage between research and practice, the relevance of research may transcend the process of generalizing and disseminating research findings. In this analysis, the author uses the theoretical approach of actor relations to analyze the HUSK projects in their efforts to develop new forms of collaboration between research, practice, education, and service users to build knowledge about improving the quality of social services.

Relating coalition capacity to the adoption of science-based prevention in communities: evidence from a randomized trial of Communities That Care.

Coalition-based efforts that use a science-based approach to prevention can improve the wellbeing of community youth. This study measured several coalition capacities that are hypothesized to facilitate the adoption of a science-based approach to prevention in communities. Using data from 12 coalitions participating in a community-randomized trial of the prevention strategy Communities That Care (CTC), this paper describes select measurement properties of five salient coalition capacities (member substantive knowledge of prevention, member acquisition of new skills, member attitudes toward CTC, organizational linkages, and influence on organizations), as reported by coalition members, and examines the degree to which these capacities facilitated the community leader reports of the community-wide adoption of a science-based approach to prevention. Findings indicated that the five coalition capacities could be reliably measured using coalition member reports. Meta-regression analyses found that CTC had a greater impact on the adoption of a science-based prevention approach in 12 matched pairs of control and CTC communities where the CTC coalition had greater member (new skill acquisition) and organizational capacities (organizational linkages).

Effect of an Organizational Linkage Intervention on Staff Perceptions of Medication-Assisted Treatment and Referral Intentions in Community Corrections

IntroductionMedication-assisted treatment (MAT) is effective for alcohol and opioid use disorders but it is stigmatized and underutilized in criminal justice settings. MethodsThis study cluster-randomized 20 community corrections sites to determine whether an experimental implementation strategy of training and an organizational linkage intervention improved staff perceptions of MAT and referral intentions more than training alone. The 3-hour training was designed to address deficits in knowledge, perceptions and referral information, and the organizational linkage intervention brought together community corrections and addiction treatment agencies in an interagency strategic planning and implementation process over 12months. ResultsAlthough training alone was associated with increases in familiarity with pharmacotherapy and knowledge of where to refer clients, the experimental intervention produced significantly greater improvements in functional attitudes (e.g. that MAT is helpful to clients) and referral intentions. Corrections staff demonstrated greater improvements in functional perceptions and intent to refer opioid dependent clients for MAT than did treatment staff. ConclusionKnowledge, perceptions and information training plus interorganizational strategic planning intervention is an effective means to change attitudes and intent to refer clients for medication assisted treatment in community corrections settings, especially among corrections staff.

Political Parties in Zambia, Burundi and Togo: Organization, Cohesion and Party-Voter Linkage

This dissertation compares political parties in three countries of sub-Saharan Africa: Zambia, Burundi and Togo. It draws on fieldwork that included 71 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with party representatives and ordinary members (23 in Zambia, 24 in Burundi, and 24 in Togo). The interviews were conducted mostly in provincial urban centres over a period of four months in 2011 and 2012. The study conceives political parties as strategically acting organizations embedded in unique socio-political contexts; it argues that two hitherto neglected terms are especially useful for understanding and comparing them: cohesion and party-voter linkage. The argument is grounded on three key features of sub-Saharan party politics: a hostile operating environment, the prevalence of face-to-face political communication, and the supposed absence of ideology (which is re-interpreted as the presence of a single dominant ideology - development). The study conceptualizes cohesion as a prerequisite of Panebianco's (1988) institutionalization. A new, expanded classification of party – voter linkage types is formulated and a distinction is made between linkage proper and the genre in which it is enacted. Cohesion and linkage are combined in a comparative framework that enables generation of specific hypotheses about parties’ behaviour.

Urban agglomerations, knowledge-intensive services and innovation: establishing the core connections

This paper investigates how resources available in urban agglomerations influence the organizational form, innovation activity and collaborative linkages of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms. Compared with their counterparts elsewhere, KIBS located in Norwegian large city labour market regions are more likely to be independent of multi-establishment business organizations and thus reliant on resources available externally, in their locations. This is most pronounced in the central and Western business districts of the capital, wherein independent KIBS exhibit high turnover of professionals and are less inclined to engage actively in innovation. Yet, those that do engage use the capital region economy as a platform for engaging with both domestic and international collaboration partners. Only by consecutively analysing these aspects and accounting for the selection processes involved is the empirical analysis able to uncover contrasting firm-level responses to the same urban economy resource base.

State of Compliance and Implementation of National Internal Audit Mandates by Local Government Units in the Philippines

Internal auditing is gaining more and more recognition as an important tool for improving organizational performance. In many countries, both public and private sectors advance internal audit as a profession, process and body of knowledge. The Philippines is one such country having put in place the policy framework mainstreaming internal audit in government operations. However, at the local level, confusion has emerged among the local government units as a result of conflicting policy pronouncements by the national government. This paper presents a fairly substantial description of the current state of internal audit practice and compliance to relevant policies among Philippine local government units. Specifically, it establishes a preliminary profile of the internal audit units within the local government units in terms of organizational placement, staff composition, linkages and key activities. The findings indicate that the local government units possess good potential for meeting local and international standards for internal auditing. But this would require addressing a range of issues they are currently faced with from compliance to rules and regulations to the need for capacity building for professional internal audit advancement.

Sharing the Experience of Diaspora Investment Governance: Lessons from a Chinese Island Economy

This paper explores the dynamic of investment governance from the perspective of Diaspora investment governance in an island economy in China. It is not a study of investment governance as understood in the conventional developed sense. The study took place in a system absent of business angel, where trust is a big problem and new business venture faces a plethora of problem including incomplete contract, high transaction cost and political uncertainty. Never the less, entrepreneurship has taken its root and thrived, and new forms of organizational linkage and governance structure emerge with the arrival of foreign direct investment and human capital creating new linkages from the old and changing business practices which gradually transform the nature of institutions and governance structure. It is the focus of this paper to explore certain dynamic aspects of Diaspora investment governance from the perspective of institutional change during the process of industrial development. The starting point of the analysis is on a broader set of actors whose relationship dynamics shape the process of entry and driving the change in the governance structure of the island economy. Questions on how to enter a new territory, finding trustworthy partners, and developing partnership and negotiating entry are fundamentally a question of how to deal with ambiguity in business life as a result of information asymmetry and principal agent problem. New institutional design emerges to provide norm and standard to regulate the conduct of businesses. In the context of the island, a process of induced institutional change is partly simultaneous and partly driven by the developmental state although the actual process has more layers of intricacy and complexity beyond the theories of political economy. The paper takes its starting point in analyzing the changing nature of institutional relationships during entry and acquisition and explores wider implications for understanding the dynamic of institutional change.

Analysis of Linkages among Organizations Involved in Agricultural and Rural Development of Ogba Area in Rivers State , Nigeria

The study examined areas of linkage existing among public and private organizations involved in agricultural and rural development programmes in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni areas of Rivers State. Thirty Agricultural Extension Agents (EAs) participated in the study and questionnaire was employed to elicit information from them. Percentages and mean scores were utilized for data analysis. The study found that inter-organisational linkages existed among the three agencies (RISADEP, NAOC and ELF) involved in agricultural and rural development in the study area with common focus of helping to raise the standard of living and conditions of farmers and the people. The major areas of relationship of the development agencies include: periodic joint workshop, training programmes and extension fairs; teaching of improved agricultural production, processing and storage practices; collaborative negotiation and provision of infrastructure and social services; joint diagnosis and solution of field problems; joint supervision and evaluation of extension activities, among others. The study, however, identified certain constraints to effective linkages among the organizations. To strengthen and sustain organizational linkages among the agencies, increased funding of development activities, massive community enlightenment programmes, adequate work incentives and high prioritization of agency linkage system are paramount.

A cluster randomized trial of an organizational linkage intervention for offenders with substance use disorders: study protocol.

BackgroundSubstance use disorders are highly prevalent in community correctional populations, yet these settings frequently are ill-equipped to identify and refer offenders to community-based treatment services. In particular, community corrections staff are often opposed to the use of medication in addiction treatment because of inadequate knowledge, resources, and organizational structures to facilitate client linkages to evidence-based services.Methods/designEach of the NIDA-funded Research Centers recruited 2 criminal justice agencies to participate in the study. Eligibility rules required study sites that were focused on community corrections (i.e., probation or parole), had few or no formal relationships with treatment providers for referring clients to medication-assisted treatment, and had no state or local policies prohibiting such relationships. Sites under the oversight of the same parent agency were eligible only if they were in geographically distinct catchment areas, and could be assigned to different study arms without cross-contamination at any level. The 18 clusters consisted of community corrections officers and their offender caseloads nested within agencies, each of which was partnered with at least one community-based substance abuse treatment program. Randomization was blocked by Research Center, within which one cluster was randomly assigned to a training-only condition (comparison) and the other to training followed by a strategic organizational linkage process (intervention). Line staff received a scientifically-grounded, systematically-delivered training session that addresses gaps in existing knowledge, perceptions, and information about medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and local availability of MAT services. Key decision-makers subsequently were asked to collaborate in a strategic planning process to enhance formal and informal linkages between criminal justice agencies and local MAT providers. It was hypothesized that the two implementation intervention components together would be more likely than staff training alone to improve the process of referring opioid- and alcohol-dependent adults under community supervision to appropriate addiction pharmacotherapy. Outcomes were measured at the client (referrals), line staff (attitudes), and organizational (linkage) levels.DiscussionThrough closer collaboration among criminal justice agencies and treatment providers, improved linkages to effective substance abuse treatment should yield significant clinical, public health and public safety benefits.Trial registrationClinical Trials gov registration number NCT01344122.

On Becoming (Un)Committed: A Taxonomy and Test of Newcomer Onboarding Scenarios

How does the bond between the newcomer and the organization develop over time? Process research on temporal patterns of newcomer’s early commitment formation has been very scarce because theory and appropriate longitudinal research designs in this area are lacking. From extant research we extract three process-theoretical accounts regarding how the newcomer adjustment process evolves over time: (1) Learning to Love; (2) Honeymoon Hangover; and (3) High Match, Moderate Match, or Low Match. From these scenarios we develop a taxonomy of newcomer adjustment scenarios. Further, we empirically verify these different scenarios by examining naturally occurring “trajectory classes,” which are found to display strengthening, weakening, or stabilizing of the employee–organization linkage. For this, we use a sample of 72 Ph.D. graduates whose organizational commitment history was recorded in their first 25 consecutive weeks of new employment. In closing, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the scenario-based approach.

Organizational linkages in Japan’s female labor market: Information exchanged in networks

The form of institutional linkages between schools and employers changed during the decade-long economic recession in Japan. This article explores why institutional linkages between women’s colleges and large Japanese firms in the secondary labor market have survived, despite a long-term restraining of labor demand. From a network theory perspective, employers value information about applicants’ residency status, as it is conducive to reducing personnel management costs; information can be reliably obtained via these institutional linkages. Employers expect schools to use such information to select nominees. By using the data from the school’s applicant pool, the results from logistic regression analysis showed that schools tend to nominate candidates who are living with their parents, and no candidates who lived without parents were hired. Additionally, a candidate’s academic performance and personality evaluation, which can also be obtained through the linkages, as well as more formal recruitment processes, did not have a significant impact on employee selection.

ATTITUDES TOWARDS LINKAGE MECHANISM RESEARH OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND EXTENSION

The aim of this study is to examine how linkages between the actors in the research and extension system in Jordan can be improved to enhance their effectiveness. Likert scales were used as tools for data collection to measure attitudes towards management, organizational and universities linkages using a convenient sample of 121 extension agents and researchers. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were above 0.80 for the three scales, which indicates good reliability. Parametric and non-parametric tests were used to analyze the data, based on approximations of the scales to the normal distribution. Overall attitudes towards linkages were found to be generally high. Researchers’ attitudes were significantly higher for some of the managerial interventions, many of the organizational linkages and towards the applicability of the university research. Researchers appear to be relatively younger and more educated, but less experienced. More experienced and trained were more likely to value highly stronger linkages. No significant associations were observed between attitudes and most of the personal characteristics. Positive attitudes to measures that formally integrate research providers and extension contribute to establishing a unified system, with more focused and applied research programs that effectively address high priority local needs.

Organizational change, restructuring, innovation, modeling, and industrial linkages: a pioneering engineering institute in India

Organizational change, restructuring, innovation, modeling, and industrial linkages: a pioneering engineering institute in India

ICTS – new organizational form linkage in the Australian context: Theoretical model and research instrument

Since the publication of the seminal article 'Management in the 1980s' (Leavitt and Whisler, 1958), the relationship between Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and organizations has been one of the most challenging issues for management scholars and researchers. Despite a long tradition of research that has been looking into the relationship between ICTs and organizations, the findings remain inconclusive. In particular, the specific mechanisms by which new information technologies affect and are affected by organizational forms have not been described in any systematic manner. This paper aims to make a contribution to address the above gap in research by developing an instrument and theoretical model that relates ICT and the attributes of new organizational forms (NOFs). Likert-type scale items were used for all scale items. Of the 3770 emails sent to top Australian managers, 312 were completed and returned. An Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to identify the underlying constructs in this research. The research findings provide an instrument whose properties were validated and ready to use in future research.