Search results

The purpose of this study is to identify factors that approach and that separate the Brazilian bureaucracy from the model advocated by Max Weber. Efforts were concentrated on the discussion of aspects of historical and social foundations of society and the Brazilian state that influence its bureaucracy and in the reforms undertaken in the state apparatus. The authors selected some of its iconic moments, within the framework of patrimonialism, seeking to identify evidence of its influence in Brazilian public administration.

This study is qualitative and has interpretative background with descriptive purposes. The whole process of research was based on the literature. The interpretation of data relied on content analysis based on Bardin.

The study reveals that the prevailing bureaucratic model in Brazil, although it contains some characteristics of rational-legal model, is not yet produced the expected disenchantment, at least in public administration. In addition, it was noted that the patrimonialism bases, in which society and the Brazilian State still rely, seems to prevent the bureaucracy that was advocated by Max Weber from installing fully.

Studies dealing with bureaucracy in the context of public administration are still welcome and necessary in Brazil. This is because this country still does not admit the bureaucracy to function according to the model advocated by Max Weber.

This paper aims to explore the effects of formal police organizational structure on child sexual abuse case attrition.

Data from two surveys were merged for this analysis: a 1988 survey of child abuse enforcement in US police departments, and the 1987 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) database produced by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Based on the structure‐performance link that is rooted in structural contingency theory, this study examines the effects of both global and specific structural features on two case disposition ratios. Because structure is more easily malleable than other factors that may affect performance, such as environment and context, it is important to know whether certain structural arrangements produce more desirable outcomes than others.

The results indicate that the global structural variables included in this analysis play a small role in child sexual abuse case attrition. None of the variables included in the model influence the rate at which cases are designated as “founded”. The size and height of police agencies and the rate at which they designate cases as founded both influence their arrest rates for child sexual abuse cases.

The small sample size made it difficult to estimate the models. Future research should test the findings reported here using larger samples.

To the author's knowledge this is the first study to compare the effects of global and specific structures on police outputs.

The article shows that the concept of patrimonialism is useful for the analysis not only of nation-states, but also of local and imperial power structures. Highlighting the limits of empires, we consider how local conditions shaped the strategies of colonial states in the process of empire building. We argue that the strength of local patrimonial networks before colonization, coupled with the sequencing of colonial conquests, either facilitated or hindered the French colonial and imperial project. Using a comparative-historical approach based on the analysis of two cases, Algeria and Tunisia, we find that the French colonial state employed markedly differing strategies of domination in each case. In Algeria, the French initially attempted and failed to destroy local patrimonial networks and the social practices associated with them through extensive military action. The failed attempt to destroy local practices resulted in over a century of resistance and bloodshed. When military rule became too costly, the French opted instead to rely on decentralized control that used the very structures they originally sought to eradicate. With constant reminders of the misguided colonial strategy in Algeria, the French used a different form of rule in Tunisia. They incorporated the existing Tunisian bureaucracy into their own political project, using it to limit the power of local patrimonial networks and transforming them instead through the development of capitalistic agriculture. The article illustrates the importance of paying close attention to local patrimonial networks in the analysis of colonial and imperial strategies.

Places recent trends in policing in the USA into historical context, emphasizing the critical importance of political, economic, and social forces on the formation and development of police institutions and practices. Specifically, this paper describes four major developments in policing in relation to the US political economy: pre‐industrial police, industrial police, modern police, and postmodern police. Each of these developments has unique characteristics. At the same time, each retains certain structural imperatives which transcend the particulars and ultimately tend to preserve the police as front line defenders of the status quo. It is through an analysis of historically specific characteristics of, and fundamental structural conditions for policing that this paper contributes to a better understanding of the potential of contemporary police agencies to play a role in achieving either greater social justice or just greater social control.

While liberals agree that the best society is one that supports the equal exercise of personal liberty, there is little agreement among them on what policies best achieve this end. Conflicts within liberalism over the place of socially derived goals vis-à-vis personal liberty and autonomy create tension and skew public discourse on policy alternatives. In this article, I characterize the debate among dominant strands of liberal ideology and consider the effort of Charles Taylor to resolve these tensions. Finding his resolution unsatisfying, I explore the alternative conception offered by American pragmatism. I argue that liberal theories fail because they fall prey to the problem of principles-they attempt to justify axiomatic thinking rather than perpetuate society and culture. Pragmatism provides a justification for liberal public discourse as the best mechanism for constructing, evaluating and revising policies that support cultural adaptation to social, economic and technological contingencies.

To provide a concept for a different policing organizational model, founded upon democratic policing principles and a victim‐centered philosophy, which may be more useful for a postmodernist society.

The paper presents an alternative model of policing; based upon a literature review of authoritative material concerning the postmodernist environment, the historical background of policing, police organizational research, and the philosophy of victim‐centered policing.

The paper presents a literature review, which identifies that the bureaucratic model of policing may no longer be functional for policing post‐modern society and inconsistent with modern governance principles. A more democratic heteronomous model of policing, where management determines the broad philosophical principles and co‐ordination of tasks while the policing practitioner makes localized decisions, may improve organizational effectiveness. A philosophy of victim‐centered policing may assist in achieving a policing legitimacy and the development of a new administrative approach. An existing model of this new approach may be found in the community beat officer, which is currently operating in many jurisdictions.

The implementation of the principles espoused in this paper may improve the policing legitimacy in heavily fragmented societies, reduce deviant behavior by police officers while increasing job satisfaction, support restorative justice issues for victims, and assist the maintenance of public order.

The paper may be of value of policy‐makers, police administrators, police union officials, anti‐corruption units, and criminal justice academics/practitioners.

This chapter offers a distinction between traditional bureaucracy and an emerging organizational form, which we call positive organization, a byproduct of intervention techniques such as appreciative inquiry. We suggest that the root of the distinction lies in positive organization's greater reliance on a heretofore underexploited institutional pillar (Scott, 2001), which we label the relational–emotional. The relational–emotional pillar, unlike its regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive counterparts, owes its potency to attachment phenomena (Bowlby, 1969). We expand on the distinction by viewing the positive organization as one of three aspects of Ouchi's clan form, the other two being normative bureaucracy and cognitive bureaucracy. We conclude with a contingency theory of transaction cost reduction. Regulative (traditional) bureaucracy is most effective in reducing transaction costs when environmental uncertainty and vulnerability to opportunism are both moderate, normative bureaucracy when environmental uncertainty is moderate but vulnerability to opportunism is high, cognitive bureaucracy when environmental uncertainty is high but vulnerability to opportunism is moderate, and positive organization when both environmental uncertainty and vulnerability to opportunism are high.

The paper reviews the operation and management of a long established estate office within a university. It identifies the drivers for change and the potential consequences of these changes on the staff. Further it examines the potential for conflict during the period of change. The paper suggests that by adopting a teamwork response uncertainty and stress can be minimised. The paper concludes by emphasising the need for interaction between team members as an organisation undergoes the change from property driven to one where customers drive the process.

Despite its persistence as a form of leadership, paternalism has received limited attention within organizational studies. In order to develop a construct definition of paternalism in a contemporary organizational context for this study, a literature review of paternalism is synthesized with qualitative field data collected in Mexican organizations and U.S. organizations that are owned and operated by Mexican immigrants. This analysis is conducted within a framework of leadership, and it suggests that paternalism combines paternalists’ benevolent acts with their subtle control over subordinates’ flexibility in meeting employment terms. Leaders express benevolence through their supportiveness and by providing for employees’ welfare both within the organization and their personal needs outside of the organization. Furthermore, both paternalistic leaders and subordinates frame their relationships in terms of social exchange, offering new insights into the dynamics within these exchange relationships.

Family firms have been the subject of various scientific studies. This interest derives not only from their unique characteristics in terms of their management but more specifically in terms of their succession in a dimension that does not impact on other companies in the same way. Hence, and as a complex field of research, this study seeks to map out and analyse the intellectual knowledge on research into family firms in Asian contexts.

As regards the statistical and analytical methods, the authors made recourse to the bibliometric, co-citation and cluster analysis techniques. In order to evaluate any potential patterns among the articles, the authors analysed the ways in which the articles are jointly cited. This furthermore applied hierarchical cluster analysis to the totality of the articles subject to co-citation analysis within the scope of grouping the interrelated articles into distinct sets. In order to graphically map the bibliographic co-citation analysis, the authors deployed the network and cluster determination theories.

The results enabled the identification and the classification of various theoretical perspectives on the domain of family firms into four main approaches: (1) family business behaviour; (2) family versus non-family CEOs; (3) business family performance; and (4) business family and people.

This study identifies, explores, analyses and summarises the main themes, contributing towards deepening the literature through the means of identifying the priority areas in relation to Asian family businesses able to guarantee international standards of excellence in comparison with their respective competitors.