bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Third Way in Mental Health Policy: Negative Rights, Positive Rights, and the Convention
Authors: Fennell Philip
Published: March 2003

Mentally disordered patients may be said to have rights in two senses: negative rights to freedom from arbitrary detention or interference with their person; and positive rights to expect a certain minimum standard of service, be that in terms of treatment as an in‐patient, or as a patient in the community. The Labour government has appointed a ‘scoping group’ to carry out a root‐and‐branch review of the Mental Health Act 1983. The 1983 Act was mainly concerned with in‐patient treatment. The group is to look at the scope for introducing further compulsory powers in the community, enhancing the rights of carers and relatives, and is to take account of recent British and Strasbourg case law. The primary impact of the Convention on psychiatric patients has been in relation to protection against arbitrary detention under Article 5, unsoundness of mind being one of the permitted grounds of deprivation of liberty under Article 5(1)(e). This article explores the potential impact of Convention rights in developing what Gostin referred to in the early 1980s as a ‘new legalism’. The new legalism linked concern for traditional rights to due process and review by the courts or other external bodies with the ‘ideology of entitlement’ to adequate treatment and services. The article outlines the current policy context of mental health services and looks at the development by the European Court of Human Rights of positive Convention rights to services out of Article 5, whose purpose seems at first sight to be the protection of due process rights. It examines the relevance of Convention rights to community powers.
The German Courtroom Film During the Nazi Period: Ideology, Aesthetics, Historical Context
Authors: Drexler Peter
Published: March 2003

This essay examines the films of the Nazi period concerned with questions of justice and the administration of the law. It traces the ways in which law films developed prior to the Nazi era. It notes the apparent paradox of the Nazi obsession with questions of justice, law, and legality which are found in their strictly controlled film output. The use of film as a mass propaganda weapon affected legal subjects and this can be seen as a means of creating consensus. This centred on the role of the state in creating a system which allowed the individual to be integrated into the mythical folk community. Those who threatened this social cohesion were depicted as threats to the common sense of ordinary people and this stretched from propaganda films into comedies.
Organizational Culture: A ten Year, Two‐phase Study of Change in the UK Food Retailing Sector
Authors: Ogbonna Emmanuel , Harris Lloyd C.
Published: March 2003

This paper argues that much of the current motivation for the study of organizational culture is fuelled by research which finds an association between culture and performance as well as by studies which suggest that culture is comparatively easily changed. However, much of the research upon which these claims are based is largely firm‐specific with little critical evaluation of industry macrocultures and the impact that such cultures may have on both the performance of individual firms and the management of organizational culture. Through assessing separate change programmes spaced ten years apart, this paper documents and analyses the similarities and differences in the rationale, form, substance and impacts of two separate culture change initiatives in the same macroculture spaced ten years apart. These analyses suggest a number of conclusions and implications for both theorists and practitioners. In particular, the study argues that researchers examining organizational culture should devote significantly greater attention towards studying the effects of sector or industry macrocultures.
Human Resource Strategy and Competitive Advantage: A Longitudinal Study of Engineering Consultancies
Authors: Boxall Peter , Steeneveld Mike
Published: March 2003

Concepts associated with the resource‐based view of the firm are increasingly finding their way into the strategic HRM debate. Drawing on this literature, this paper reports one of the first industry‐based, longitudinal investigations into the relationship between human resource strategy and competitive advantage. Set in New Zealand, but in an internationally oriented sector, the study examines one of the more neglected spheres of professional services: engineering consultancies. The results indicate that the consultancy firms that survived the major business traumas of the late 1980s and early 1990s adopted similar structural, competitive, operational and HR responses associated with their evolving ‘industry recipe’. In interpreting the relationship between HRM and firm performance, then, it is important to distinguish those features of a firm's HRM which are strategic to ongoing viability from those that might form the basis of a relatively enduring form of competitive advantage. While there is insufficient evidence to conclude that any of the primary subjects in this study have established an enviable form of superiority, the study suggests that opportunities do exist for professional service firms to develop industry leadership through superior HRM. The analysis has implications for the wider work of theory‐building in strategic HRM.
Boards of Directors and the Adoption of a CEO Performance Evaluation Process: Agency — and Institutional — Theory Perspectives
Authors: Young Gary J. , Stedham Yvonne , Beekun Rafik I.
Published: March 2003

Using both agency and institutional theories, we examined factors associated with the board’s adoption of a formal process for evaluating the performance of the corporation’s chief executive officer (CEO). Our sample was drawn from the hospital industry. Results show that an independent board chairperson, the level of market competition and the degree of managed care penetration were significant predictors of whether or not the board had adopted a formal CEO evaluation process. These findings imply that initiatives to improve governance effectiveness based on agency theory should take into account the institutional environment of corporate boards.
Organizational Causes and Strategic Consequences of the Extent of Top Management Team Replacement During Turnaround Attempts
Authors: Barker III Vincent L. , Patterson Jr Paul W. , Mueller George C.
Published: March 2003

Researchers have argued that top management team changes are an important force spurring change at declining firms. Yet, studies find that top executives at some firms are able to avoid being replaced even though their firms perform poorly. Also, despite support from numerous case analyses, there is little systematic evidence that replacing top managers leads to substantial organizational change at declining firms. In this study, we examine these issues by looking at levels of top management team replacement at a sample of declining firms attempting turnarounds. We find that top management team replacement levels vary with the presence of inertial or change‐creating forces within firms. In particular, reduced levels of top management team replacement occur during turnaround attempts at large firms and those that have followed the same strategic orientation for a long period of time. Meanwhile, increases in outsider control of the board are associated with increased levels of replacement. We further find that higher levels of top management team replacement are associated with greater changes in firm competitive strategy and firm structure and controls during turnaround attempts. Overall, our findings show that organizational‐level forces play an important role in top management and strategic change processes at declining firms.
Self‐Serving Attributions in Corporate Annual Reports: A Replicated Study
Authors: Tsang Eric W. K.
Published: March 2003

This study is a replication of Bettman and Weitz (1983) in the Singapore context. Data from Letters to Shareholders in 208 annual reports published in 1985 and 1994 were used to analyse the patterns of causal explanations for corporate performance outcomes. The general self‐serving pattern of attributions found in the original study was also identified in this study. However, the data of the original study do not unequivocally support either the motivational or informational explanation for the existence of self‐serving attributions, whereas the latter explanation is strongly supported by the data of this study. This finding is consistent with the growing evidence provided by cross‐cultural psychological research indicating East Asians’ greater sensitivity to situational influences when making causal attributions. In short, the present study clearly illustrates the important role of replication in the knowledge accumulation and theory development of strategy research.
Generativity‐Stagnation: A Five‐Category Model
Authors: Bradley Cheryl L. , Marcia James E.
Published: March 2003

The main task of generativity–stagnation, Erik Erikson’s seventh stage of normative psychosocial development, is to establish and guide the next generation through one’s acts of care. Five statuses, or prototypic styles of resolving the issues of this stage, determined using a new, semistructured interview measure, are defined using combinations of (1) an individual’s level of involvement, or active concern for the growth of the self and others; and (2) an individual’s inclusivity, or scope of caregiving concern. Construct validation efforts sought concurrent validity using two different scale measures of generativity, and discrimination between status profiles using the NEO Personality Inventory and Loevinger’s Sentence Completion Test of ego development. Results generally support the new status model and point to areas of conceptual convergence and divergence between this approach and other generativity measures.
Hope and Coping with Cancer by College Women
Authors: Irving Lori M. , Snyder C. R. , Crowson, Jr. J. Jeffrey
Published: March 2003

The relations of dispositional hope to various self‐reported cancer‐related coping activities were examined in 115 college women. Dispositionally high‐ as compared to low‐hope women were more knowledgeable about cancer, and this relationship remained when the shared variances due to previous academic achievement, experience with cancer among family or friends, and positive and negative affectivity were removed. Additionally, high‐ as compared to low‐hope women reported more hope‐related coping responses in four separate imagined phases of cancer (prevention/risk, detection, temporal course, and impact), and these relationships remained when shared variances related to previous academic achievement, knowledge about cancer, experience with cancer, and negative affectivity were removed. Hope is discussed as means of maintaining a “fighting spirit” for coping with cancer.
Metatraits and Self‐Schemata: Same or Different?
Authors: Siem Frederick M.
Published: March 2003

Traitedness (Baumeister & Tice, 1988) and self‐schemata (Markus, 1977) have each been proposed as factors that moderate the relationship between personality traits and behavior, with traited or schematic individuals being judged more predictable than untraited or aschematic individuals. The purpose of the present study was to compare the similarity of the two types of measures and to test the hypothesis that traited individuals will respond quicker to self‐descriptive trait words than untraited individuals (Britt, 1993). A personality inventory was administered to a sample of 389 military recruits. Measures of traitedness were computed based on the variability of item responses, and self‐schema scores were computed based on response latencies to the items. The results supported Britt’s 1993) hypothesis, insofar as traitedness and self‐schema scores were significantly, albeit moderately, correlated. Given the modest evidence for convergent validity between the two types of proposed moderators, future research is proposed to establish their divergent validity.
Why Should We Lower Our Defenses About Defense Mechanisms?
Authors: Norem Julie K.
Published: March 2003

Personality and social psychologists already use ideas that are closely related to defense mechanisms, but few of our paradigms include extensive theoretical or empirical treatment of such mechanisms. Yet defense mechanisms focus on negative affect and protection of the self, and many of the controversies, issues, and impasses contemporary researchers confront also concern negative affect and self‐protection. This article discusses whether we might find systematic consideration of defense mechanisms and defensive processing to be broadly useful across several related areas of personality and social psychology in which the relationships between self and affect are implicated. Areas considered include positive illusions and adaptation, the interpretation of reports of negative affect, and related concepts from the coping, self‐regulation, affect regulation, and goals literature. Thinking about defense mechanisms would seem to have both specific value for sharpening our understanding of different possible interpretations of our data, and broad heuristic value for thinking about personality integration and social behavior.
Perspective on Personality: The Relative Accuracy of Self Versus Others for the Prediction of Emotion and Behavior
Authors: Spain Jana S. , Eaton Leslie G. , Funder David C.
Published: March 2003

This study compares the relative accuracy of targets’ self‐reports and other‐reports of personality in predicting two criteria: (a) emotional experience in daily life and (b) behavior in the laboratory. Ratings of the targets’ extraversion and neuroticism were obtained from two knowledgeable informants and the targets themselves. Target participants wore an electronic signaling device (‘beeper’) for eight days and rated positive and negative emotions at four randomly selected times each day. The participants also interacted with an opposite‐sex stranger in a laboratory context and their behavior was coded from videotapes. Targets’ self‐reports of personality were consistently more accurate than other‐reports in predicting daily emotional experience. Self‐ reports also outperformed other‐reports in predicting extraversion‐related laboratory behaviors, but not neuroticism‐related behaviors. The relative accuracy of self‐ and other‐reports of personality would seem to depend on the criterion employed; self‐reports are clearly better for the prediction of emotional experience, while for behavior the picture is mixed.
Suppression, Repressive‐Defensiveness, Restraint, and Distress in Metastatic Breast Cancer: Separable or Inseparable Constructs?
Authors: Giese‐Davis Janine , Spiegel David
Published: March 2003

A longstanding hypothesis links affective and behavioral inhibition with cancer incidence and progression though it does not clarify psychometric distinctions among related constructs. We hypothesized that repressive defensiveness, suppression, restraint, and distress would be separable factors in our sample of metastatic breast cancer patients. Our results support the discriminant validity of these constructs in our total sample, and the stability over 1 year in our control group. Using factor analysis, we found 4 separate factors at our prerandomization baseline corresponding closely to hypothesized constructs. Additionally, associations in a multi‐trait, multi‐occasion (baseline and 1 year) matrix met each of the 3 Campbell and Fiske (1959) criteria of convergent and discriminant validity. Future research testing the links between psychological, physiological, and survival outcomes with affective inhibition in cancer patients will be clearer when informed by these distinctions.
Analytical and Numerical Study of a Smart Sliding Base Isolation System for Seismic Protection of Buildings
Authors: Madden Glenn J. , Wongprasert Nat , Symans Michael D.
Published: March 2003

The seismic response of a single–story steel building frame with a smart base isolation system is evaluated. The isolation system consists of sliding bearings combined with an adaptive fluid damper. The damping capacity of the fluid damper can be modulated in real time based on feedback from the earthquake ground motion and superstructure response. The adaptive capabilities of the fluid damper enable the isolation system displacement to be controlled while simultaneously limiting the interstory drift response of the superstructure. This paper concentrates on the development of analytical models of the smart isolation system and control algorithms for operation of the system. In general, the results from numerical simulations demonstrate that, for disparate earthquake ground motions, the smart isolation system is capable of simultaneously limiting both the response of the isolation system and the superstructure.
Reading Wittgenstein
Authors: Stock Guy
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed in this essay:

Robert Arrington and Hans‐Johann Glock (eds), Wittgenstein & Quine

John Koethe, The Continuity of Wittgenstein’s Thought

P.M.S. Hacker, Wittgenstein’s Place in Twentieth‐Century Analytic Philosophy

Hans Sluga and David G. Stern (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Wittgenstein

Marie McGinn, Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations
‘The Possible as the Art of Politics’: Understanding Consensus Politics
Authors: Heffernan Richard
Published: March 2003

Drawing on the Kuhnian model of scientific paradigms, this article suggests consensus politics should be conceptualised not as an agreement or a settlement but as a political framework that derives from an ideationally informed policy paradigm. Such a consensus constrains the autonomy of governing elites, encouraging them to conform to an established policy agenda that defines the ‘mainstream’ wherein ‘the possible is the art of politics’. In Britain, as demonstrated by the replacement of a post-war social democratic paradigm by a contemporary neo-liberal successor, periods of policy continuity and incremental reform have been matched by occasions of dramatic political change. Any appreciation of consensus politics has therefore to explain change as well as account for stability, something considerably under emphasised in the existing literature. Consensus politics are therefore best defined as a constrained space within which politics is conducted and political actors differ, a paradigmatic framework from which political outcomes emerge, and never as an agreement freely entered into. Looking at consensus politics beyond the much commented upon post-war example, this article uses British politics since 1945 as an exemplar of consensus politics and an illustration of how a consensus can be forged, how it can endure and how it may change.
Membership, Fair Play, and Political Obligation
Authors: Dagger Richard
Published: March 2003

In recent years a number of theorists have maintained that the obligation to obey the law is best conceived and justified as an associational obligation. Not consent or utility or fair play but membership is the source of political obligation. These theorists are wrong, I argue, but they are wrong in interesting and illuminating ways. For an examination of the advantages and disadvantages of the membership account of political obligation underscores the merits of a rival account of obligation grounded in the principle of fair play.
Two Conceptions of State: Antonio Gramsci and Michael Mann
Authors: Moran Jonathan
Published: March 2003

Gramsci revised classical Marxist accounts of the role of the state in society, culture and ideology, and stressed the autonomy of the political process from the economic base. Sociologists often labelled neoWeberian also focus on social change, the state and the political process. Michael Mann, whilst remaining discrete from Marxism has nevertheless moved away from classical Weberian sociology, engaging deeply with materialism in analysing the state. This article compares the work of Gramsci and Mann regarding the state, to examine whether a genuine synthesis is possible between Gramsci (perhaps the first ‘neo-Marxist’) and Mann, a neoWeberian.
Executive Cognitive Functioning and Risk for Substance Abuse
Authors: Giancola Peter R. , Tarter Ralph E.
Published: March 2003

Individuals with a substance use disorder (SUD) exhibit deficits in executive cognitive functioning (ECF). ECF is involved in the regulation of goal-directed behavior and includes abilities such as attentional control, strategic goal planning, organization, and cognitive flexibility. The prefrontal cortex is believed to be the primary cortical substrate that subserves ECF. Children deemed at high risk for drug abuse because they have parents with SUD similarly demonstrate cognitive limitations suggesting an ECF deficit. High-risk children, as a group, also exhibit deviations in temperament, an attenuated amplitude of the P300 event-related potential, and heightened aggressivity compared with control groups. These latter characteristics are associated with low ECF capacity and are believed to reflect dysfunction within the prefrontal cortex. It is hypothesized that deviations on these traits form a core disorder of affective, cognitive, and behavioral dysregulation that serves as a general vulnerability factor for SUD.
Learning to Time (LET) or Scalar Expectancy Theory (SET)? A Critical Test of Two Models of Timing
Authors: Machado Armando , Keen Richard
Published: March 2003

Two theories of timing, scalar expectancy theory (SET) and learning to time (LeT), make substantially different assumptions about what animals learn in temporal tasks. In a test of these assumptions, pigeons learned two discriminations: On Type 1 trials, they learned to choose a red key after a 1-s signal and a green key after a 4-s signal; on Type 2 trials, they learned to choose a blue key after a 4-s signal and a yellow key after a 16-s signal. Then, two psychometric functions were obtained by presenting them with intermediate durations (1 to 4 s and 4 to 16 s). The two functions did not superpose, and most bisection points were not at the geometric mean of the training stimuli (contra SET); for most birds, the function for Type 2 trials was to the left of the function for Type 1 trials (contra LeT). Finally, the birds were exposed to signals ranging from 1 to 16 s and given a choice between novel key combinations (e.g., red vs. blue). The results with the novel key combinations were always closer to LeT's than to SET's predictions. Observations of the birds' behavior also suggest that, more than being a mere expression of an internal clock, behavior constitutes the clock.
Perception of the Mccollough Effect Correlates with Activity in Extrastriate Cortex: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study
Authors: Humphrey G. Keith , James Thomas W. , Gati Joseph S. , Menon Ravi S. , Goodale Melvyn A.
Published: March 2003

The McCollough effect is a striking color aftereffect that is linked to the orientation of the patterns used to induce it. To produce the McCollough effect, two differently oriented grating patterns, such as a red-and-black vertical grating and a green-and-black horizontal grating, are viewed alternately for a few minutes. After such colored gratings are viewed, the white sections of a vertical black-and-white test grating appear to be tinged with green, and the white sections of a horizontal grating appear to be tinged with pink. We present evidence from a functional magnetic resonance imaging study that the perception of the McCollough effect correlates with increased activation in the lingual and fusiform gyri—extrastriate visual areas that have been implicated in color perception in humans.
Misremembrance of Options Past: Source Monitoring and Choice
Authors: Mather Mara , Shafir Eldar , Johnson Marcia K.
Published: March 2003

This study reveals that when remembering past decisions, people engage in choice-supportive memory distortion. When asked to make memory attributions of options' features, participants made source-monitoring errors that supported their decisions. They tended to attribute, both correctly and incorrectly, more positive features to the option they had selected than to its competitor. In addition, they sometimes attributed, both correctly and incorrectly, more negative features to the nonselected option. This pattern of distortion may be beneficial to people's general well-being, reducing regret for options not taken. At the same time, it is problematic for memory accuracy, for accountability, and for learning from past experience.
Searching for One Versus Two Identical Targets: When Visual Search Has a Memory
Authors: Gibson Bradley S. , Li Libo , Skow Emily , Brown Kimberly , Cooke Lauren
Published: March 2003

A recent study has suggested that observers' visual explorations of the external world can proceed unimpaired when the visual environment precludes the operation of memory processes (as, for instance, when the display elements change locations every 100 ms). One theoretical limitation of this study was that distractors were the only elements that had the potential to be tagged during visual search. The present study sought to clarify the amnesic-search hypothesis by investigating whether memory processes can guide search in other contexts in which targets also have the potential to be tagged. Accordingly, the experimental conditions of the previous study were repeated using a different search task in which observers had to decide whether one target or two were present among a variable number of similar distractors. Under these search conditions, the present findings provided strong evidence that memory processes can guide visual search.
Left-Hemisphere Activation and Deficient Response Modulation in Psychopaths
Authors: Bernstein Amit , Newman Joseph P. , Wallace John F. , Luh Karen E.
Published: March 2003

Psychopathic offenders have difficulty processing contextual or secondary cues once they have initiated goal-directed behavior or allocated attention to a primary task. To test the hypothesis that this deficit in response modulation is specific to conditions in which psychopaths' left-hemisphere resources are engaged, we administered a serial recall task to 21 incarcerated psychopaths and 21 control subjects. Subjects were instructed to memorize eight words that were presented one at a time, each in one of the four corners of the visual display. Subjects' primary task was to recall the words in serial order. Then, without forewarning, they were asked to recall the words' locations. As predicted, psychopaths performed as well as control subjects in recalling words from the left and right spatial fields, but recalled significantly fewer locations from the right spatial field. Thus, psychopaths' deficient response modulation was specific to conditions in which their left-hemisphere resources were actively engaged.
Revisiting the Perception of Upside-Down Faces
Authors: Murray Janice E. , Yong Esther , Rhodes Gillian
Published: March 2003

In two experiments, the effect of orientation on face perception was assessed. Using a scale from 1 (normal) to 7 (bizarre), participants rated normal, unaltered faces and faces in which changes had been made to spatial-relational properties (eyes and mouth inverted or relative position of the eyes and mouth altered) or to component properties (eyes whitened and teeth blackened). For unaltered and component-distortion faces, bizarreness ratings increased linearly as orientation increased from 0° to 180°. For spatial-distortion faces, a discontinuity in the function relating orientation and bizarreness was in evidence between 90° and 120°. The results provide support for the view that there is a qualitative difference in the processing of upright and inverted faces due to the disproportionate effect of inversion on the encoding of spatial-relational information.
H.M., Word Knowledge, and Aging: upport for a New Theory of Long-Term Retrograde Amnesia
Authors: James Lori E. , MacKay Donald G.
Published: March 2003

This study develops a new theory of long-term retrograde amnesia that encompasses episodic and semantic memory, including word knowledge. Under the theory, retrograde amnesia in both normal individuals and hippocampal amnesics reflects transmission deficits caused by aging, nonrecent use of connections, and infrequent use of connections over the life span. However, transmission deficits cause severe and irreversible retrograde amnesia only in amnesics who (unlike normal persons) cannot readily form new connections to replace nonfunctioning ones. The results of this study are consistent with this theory: For low-frequency but not high-frequency words, a famous “hippocampal amnesic” (H.M.) at age 71 performed worse than memory-normal control participants in a lexical decision experiment and a meaning-definition task (e.g., What does squander mean?). Also as predicted, H.M.'s lexical decision performance declined dramatically between ages 57 and 71 for low-frequency words, but was age-invariant for high-frequency words.
The Integration of Body Movement and Attention in Young Infants
Authors: Robertson Steven S. , Bacher Leigh F. , Huntington Noelle Lalley
Published: March 2003

The normal development of adaptive behavior in humans depends on the integration of visual attention and body movement, yet little is known about the initial state of movement-attention coupling at the beginning of postnatal life. We studied 1- and 3-month-old infants during extended periods of visual exploration and found that spontaneous shifts of gaze are preceded by rapid changes in general body movement. The results reveal a tight link between motor activation and overt attention on a time scale of seconds or less. This link undergoes substantial developmental change in the first few weeks after birth. During that time, phasic motor activation may play a key role in visual exploration by helping to unlock gaze when the environment is unchanging.
Absolut® Memory Distortions
Authors: Assefi Seema L. , Garry Maryanne
Published: March 2003

Can the simple suggestion that you have consumed alcohol affect your memory for an event? Alcohol placebos affect social behaviors but not nonsocial ones, and have not previously been shown to affect memory. We investigated the effect of alcohol placebos using materials that revealed both the social and the nonsocial influences of memory. Subjects drank plain tonic water, but half were told it was a vodka and tonic; then all subjects took part in an eyewitness memory experiment. Subjects who were told they drank alcohol were more swayed by misleading postevent information than were those who were told they drank tonic water, and were also more confident about the accuracy of their responses. Our results show that the mere suggestion of alcohol consumption may make subjects more susceptible to misleading information and inappropriately confident. These results also provide additional confirmation that eyewitness memory is influenced by both nonsocial and social factors.
Comparative Biography and Leadership in Whitehall
Authors: Theakston Kevin
Published: March 2003

The article discusses (1) the uses, advantages and drawbacks of the biographical approach in the study of public administration and (2) the application of theories of leadership to senior British civil servants. The argument is advanced that biographical case studies ‐ looking at the personal qualities, careers and achievements of top mandarins ‐ can illuminate the exercise of leadership in Whitehall and the changing role and culture of the civil service.
Utilizing The Delphi Technique In Policy Discussion: A Case Study Of A Privatized Utility In Britain
Authors: Critcher Chas , Gladstone Bryan
Published: March 2003

A challenge for social policy makers is to explore consensus and dissensus in issues where approaches such as roundtable meetings and focus groups are not feasible or likely to provide accurate information. The Delphi survey technique is a powerful tool for exploring social policy issues not as widely used as it deserves. This article explores Delphi and describes its application to a major and highly contentious public policy issue; how the electricity supply industry should respond to customers in debt. Our experience demonstrates how expertise and opinions of individuals who either would not or could not normally cooperate can be brought together to achieve a consensus, resulting in policy changes that lead to measurable social welfare gains. It illustrates Delphi’s strength as a policy tool that recognizes the multiplicity of interests involved in such issues, the value of different kinds of front‐line expertise and the desirability of proceeding on the basis of a consensus of informed opinion.
What Drives Machinery of Government Change? Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, 1950–1997
Authors: Davis Glyn , Weller Patrick , Eggins Susan , Craswell Emma
Published: March 2003

Machinery of government arrangements attract a diverse and detailed literature, but surprisingly little comparative research. This article provides a graphically presented indication of functional changes in the architecture of national government in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom between 1950 and 1997. An analysis finds interesting national differences, with sharp changes in practice in Australia and Canada, but more gradual incremental adjustment in the United Kingdom. The correlation between parties and machinery change is weak for Canada and the United Kingdom, but all countries demonstrate stronger links between elections, new prime ministers and machinery of government changes. Further, all tend to oscillate between many specialist departments and fewer, broader agencies

The explanation for such machinery change, we argue, is found in the political, policy and administrative calculations made by prime ministers in Westminster‐style parliamentary systems
Representing the People? Testing Assumptions about Local Government Reform
Authors: Rao Nirmala
Published: March 2003

The publication of a new report from the Audit Commission, coupled with the Labour government’s declared intention to modernize local authority decision making, marks the return to the policy agenda of long‐familiar questions. This paper tests some of the assumptions underlying the reform programme against recent research evidence. Moves to improve effectiveness through establishing a ‘cabinet’ system, or delegation to officers or ‘lead’ councillors are considered in the light of councillors’ own preferences and practices. The ways in which councillors spend their time and their perceptions of the appropriateness of its distribution between activities is explored. The paper then examines the extent to which authorities have chosen to experiment with and adapt their own structures, and considers whether central imposition of radical change is either necessary or advisable.
Competition as Public Policy: a Review of Challenge Funding
Authors: Foley Paul
Published: March 2003

Since their introduction in 1984 Challenge funds have been widely adopted by central government. They are now used by twelve government departments to distribute competitively more than £3,250 million of Exchequer funds. The introduction of Challenge funds appears to have been politically driven, usually focusing on the objectives of cost and efficiency rather than quality and equity. They represent a further manifestation of the introduction of competition and ‘market style’ structures. This paper examines the key features of 41 Challenge funds and their operational characteristics. Numerous benefits, such as cost savings and innovation, arising from the introduction of Challenge funds have been put forward. By reviewing other studies, which have investigated the impact of the introduction of competition in producer and consumer markets, and through comparison with previous schemes it is possible to examine the potential impact of Challenge funds. Administrative and monitoring mechanisms are found to be centralizing control, despite assertions to the contrary. There is a growing concern that the level of information collection required is too arduous and it is used to control and regulate schemes rather than as a method of investigating where operations could be improved. Leverage from Challenge funds has been no more successful than earlier non‐competitive initiatives. Competitive bidding could stifle innovation and participatory democracy is not encouraged or facilitated by Challenge funds.
A Guide to the Esrc’s Whitehall Programme, 1994‐1999
Authors: Rhodes R.A.W
Published: March 2003

This article introduces a symposium based on the findings of the ESRC’s Whitehall Programme. It describes the Programme’s origins, covering its objectives and themes. It provides a summary of the Programme’s activities and publications. It allows the Programme Director to identify some of his personal highlights under the headings: from goverment to governance; publications; interdisciplinary work; international links and élite seminars. In the conclusions I identify four broad topics for future research: network steering, decentralization, anti‐foundational epistemology and methods, and comparing Westminster systems. Finally in Appendix 1, I list all the programme publications so far and, in Appendix 2, I provide a list of projects along with the contact details for the principal investigator.
Regulation of Government: Has it Increased, is it Increasing, Should it be Diminished?
Authors: Hood Christopher , James Oliver , Scott Colin
Published: March 2003

This article examines arms‐length ‘regulation’ of UK government – the public‐sector analogy to regulation of business firms — and assesses the precepts for public‐sector regulation embodied in the Blair Labour government’s official vision of public‐man‐agement reform, its Modernising Government White Paper of 1999. As a background to assessing the recipes for public‐sector regulation in Modernising Government, the article shows that such regulation grew markedly both in the two decades up to 1997 and in the plans and activities of the Blair government from 1997 to 1999. Against that background, the design principles for public‐sector regulation contained in Modernising Government are assessed. The White Paper was notable for embracing a doctrine of ‘enforced self‐regulation’ for the public sector that involved aspirations to both more and less public‐sector regulation in the future. It put its faith in a mixture of oversight and mutuality for ‘regulating regulation’. But in spite of the radical‐sounding tone of Modernising Government, the measures proposed appeared limited and half‐hearted, and two well‐known institutional design principles for regulation seemed to be missing altogether from the Blair government’s view of administrative ‘modernity’.
Labour’s Modernization of Local Government
Authors: Brooks Josie
Published: March 2003

The modernization of local government is central to the government’s plans to revitalize the UK’s constitutional arrangements. Implicitly managerialist, the modernizing local government project also contains centralist and localist themes. Translated into policy, these themes are articulated as leadership, community, democracy and regulation. However, these elements are potentially contradictory and may produce tensions in the project that may be difficult to resolve. By reviewing the government’s aims to promote leadership, community and democracy in local government, it is also argued that the planned modernization of local government will extend further and into new areas the regulation of local authorities.
Europeanization, Whitehall Culture and the Treasury as Institutional Veto Player: A Constructivist Approach to Economic and Monetary Union
Authors: Dyson Kenneth
Published: March 2003

This article examines Europeanization in Whitehall, using EMU as a case study. It argues that how the EMU policy community has developed within Whitehall, and its outcomes, cannot be captured using a narrow, rationalist game‐theoretic frame‐work. Although strategic behaviour is important, as Dyson and Featherstone (1999) argue, the primary question is how Whitehall players have defined British interests, formed a collective identity and given a specific meaning to the EMU game. The article applies a cultural approach to Whitehall, focusing on the macro structures of belief within which EMU policy is made.
Urban Governance And Policy Networks: On The Urban Political Boundedness of Policy Networks. A French Case Study
Authors: Le Galès Patrick
Published: March 2003

The paper analyses the changes within two policy domains in one French city. The aim is not so much to demonstrate the role of policy networks but to stress the importance of their articulation within a given political space. The paper does not conclude on the emergence of a new type of network governance but rather shows how urban political élites have deliberately encouraged the formation of policy net‐works in Rennes. That strategy makes sense in their attempt to strengthen an urban collective actor. Policy networks therefore should not be analysed autonomously as their impact is largely shaped by the interest and collective goals of the existing regime of governance in Rennes.
Design principles for the development of measurement systems for research and development processes
Authors: Kerssens‐van Drongelen Inge C. , Cooke Andrew
Published: March 2003

Based on a comprehensive literature review and the activities of numerous case study companies, it is argued in this paper that performance measurement in R&D is a fundamental aspect to quality in R&D and to overall business performance. However, it is apparent from the case companies that many companies still struggle with the issue of R&D performance measurement. Excuses for not measuring are easily found, but there are also empirical examples and literature available with suggestions how it can be done. In this article this literature is reviewed and placed within the context of general performance control and contingency theory. Furthermore, the main measurement system design parameters are discussed and some basic system requirements are described as well as several design principles that can be useful for those who accept the challenge of establishing a meaningful measurement system.
The impact of research and development promotion schemes in the Taiwanese electronic component industry
Authors: Wang Jiann‐Chyuan , Tsai Kuen‐Hung
Published: March 2003

This paper explores the effect of government research and development (R&D) promotion schemes on R&D expenditures in the electronic component industry. We investigated the impact of three promotion tools: R&D tax credits, exemption from tariffs, and accelerated depreciation. A total of 124 firms was interviewed. A two‐limit model was used in the data analysis.

Our empirical analysis indicates the scheme generated a rate of increase in industrial R&D investments of about 16%. Furthermore, on average, the impacts of R&D tax credits, exemption from tariffs, and accelerated depreciation, were about 10%, 4%, and 2%, respectively. In addition, we found that the larger the firm, the weaker the influence of the promotion scheme on R&D expenditures in the industry.
On allocating R&D budgets among and within projects
Authors: Gerchak Yigal
Published: March 2003

Choosing how to allocate resources to R&D projects is challenging, due to their uncertain success rates and achievement levels. We address the issue of allocating a given R&D budget among projects, and to parallel teams within each project. The achievement level of each team is assumed to be stochastically increasing in its funding level. We consider the objectives of maximizing: 1. the weighted sum of the probabilities that best team in each project achieves a threshold; 2. the weighted sum of expected achievement levels; and 3. the weighted sum of the expected number of teams attaining their threshold. Numerical results for a particular family of distributions are provided. The nature of the objective is seen to have a substantial impact on the optimal allocation.
The Purpose and Process of Science: Contrasting Understandings in UK Research Establishments
Authors: Cohen Laurie , Duberley Joanne , McAuley John
Published: March 2003

This paper is based on an ESRC‐funded study into scientists’ perceptions of management. Changes in the organisation, purpose and process of science were heralded with the publication of the White Paper (Cm2250 1993). However, to date there has been little empirical work into how research scientists understand such issues. Our research, based on qualitative interviews conducted with scientist/managers in seven government‐funded research establishments, found that scientists’ notions of scientific purpose varied, not just according to the nature of their work, but also evolved as careers progressed and the contexts within which they worked changed (in particular as the need to generate income through commissioned work has increased). The data also reveal a diversity in scientists’ understanding of the relationship between discovery and applied science. Of central importance to R&D managers is the extent to which these scientists saw their aspirations as achievable within the changing context of public sector science. From the data we generate an Ideal Type model of approaches that may be taken to reconcile the imperatives of applied and fundamental research and develop an understanding of the key role of senior management in creating an effective interface with external stakeholders and the development of culture and vision within the laboratory that will enable effective synergy.
Basic research in Italian industry
Authors: De Marchi Mario , Rocchi Maurizio
Published: March 2003

This paper analyses the importance of basic research in the Italian manufacturing sector. Analysis is based mainly on the results of a specific survey on the subject, and the resulting data are processed to test general hypotheses on the innovative strategies of firms and to describe the present situation in Italian industry. From the theoretical point of view, test results appear consistent with the hypotheses put forward on the spontaneous behaviour of firms. From the descriptive point of view, the prospects for Italian industry are far from being reassuring as far as basic research is concerned.
Information systems in fast cycle development: identifying user needs in integrated automotive component development
Authors: Söderquist Klas , Nellore Rajesh
Published: March 2003

Product development literature strongly emphasizes the need for open communication between suppliers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). There is a widespread expectation that computer‐aided communication networks will enable organizational members to work more flexibly, to share knowledge and competencies, and to span functional and company boundaries. However, few studies merge the possibilities of new information technologies and the operational needs of specific groups of users, for example product development engineers. The research reported in this paper aims to fill that gap. Through in‐depth case studies of two development projects involving one auto OEM, one of its systems suppliers (working directly with the OEM) and five medium‐sized expert suppliers (working either directly with the OEM or through the systems supplier), we identify three groups of user needs that are not currently satisfied by existing information system solutions: improvement of coordination and communication; enhancement of the access to new technological information; and support for the development of an organizational memory. We then explore what kind of information systems might help satisfy the above‐mentioned needs. Potential barriers to efficient implementation of information systems in terms of the motivation of people using the systems, the reliability of the information, and the willingness to render information more transparent are discussed. It is concluded that when implementing information systems to support operational development work, it is essential to ground the system specification in clearly identified user needs that reflect the double nature of product engineering, namely the continuous interplay between routines and cognitive processes.