Organizational Decision Making And Participation In An Interorganizational Service Network

The purpose of the study was to determine if, how, and to what degree the Niger Community Center and its Inter-organizational Relationships (IORs) elicited community participation in program decision-making. The research uses the qualitative methodology, specifically interviews, documentation, and participation-observation. This examination used as a tool the community-based programming (CBP) process developed by Boone (1997). Using CBP processual tasks 1-9 (see Appendix A), as a check-list, the following research questions were framed, described, and analyzed: 1. How did the organization define and use community-based programming? 2. How did the organization network, link, and involve its community to identify issues? 3. How was consensus achieved in defining the selected issues formulated and utilized for programming? The themes, which emerged from the data, included organizational and personal mission: compatibility and conflict, understanding community through social networks, and citizen involvement versus citizen action. Within these three themes, the findings are presented and discussed from an examination of the Niger Community Center (NCC), the inter-organizational relationships (IORs), and the community. The research revealed citizen participation in program decision-making at the NCC. However, citizen participation varies by the emphasis placed on objectives of participation, service delivery and social action. Whereas participation that elicits citizen involvement solicits responsible suggestions from grassroots people and suggestions are meant to improve services, insofar as they do not jeopardize organizational viability. On the other hand, participation that elicits citizen action promotes the needs and wishes of grassroots people, promotes social action, subordinating organizational viability. The research revealed the practice of citizen involvement was overwhelming on the part of the NCC and its IORs. Implication for practice implies service delive.

As organizations have grown in scale and scope of activities, so have social pressures on every aspect of organizational activity from personnel policies to waste disposal practices. This volume is a rare example of a multidisciplinary approach to an important theoretical problem--the proper means of interorganizational decision making in light of these new pressures. This complex subject is here attacked by nineteen prominent behavioral scientists from a variety of disciplines.The study of interorganizational decision-making is aimed at moving game situations from conditions of conflict or mixed conflict-cooperation to conditions of pure cooperation. It seeks means of facilitating the coordination of decisions whenever interdependencies exist between the decision units. The book discusses variables, which may affect decision making, including awareness of individual and collective payoffs, choice of an organizational structure, response of boundary personnel, and the decision technology that exists to guide the decision makers.The book contains studies on all interorganizational decision making situations, including individual and joint decisions, those at the interface of government and business, and decision making at the international level. Contributions are balanced between quantitative building approaches and practical empirical applications, suggesting avenues for both theoretical and practical work in this new field. The book will be of profound interest to all behavioral and management scientists.

Network governance has received much attention within the fields of public administration and policy in recent years, but surprisingly few books are designed specifically to help students, researchers, and practitioners examine key concepts, synthesize the growing body of literature into reliable frameworks, and to bridge the theory-practice gap by exploring network applications. Network Governance: Concepts, Theories, and Applications is the first textbook to focus on interorganizational networks and network governance from the perspective of public policy and administration, asking important questions such as: How are networks designed and developed? How are they governed, and what type of leadership do they require? To whom are networks accountable, and when are they effective? How can network governance contribute to effective delivery of public services and policy implementation? In this timely new book, authors Naim Kapucu and Qian Hu define and examine key concepts, propose exciting new theoretical frameworks to synthetize the fast-growing body of network research in public policy and administration, and provide detailed discussion of applications. Network Governance offers not only a much-needed systematic examination of existing knowledge, but it also goes much further than existing books by discussing the applications of networks in a wide range of management practice and policy domains—including natural resource management, environmental protection, public health, emergency and crisis management, law enforcement, transportation, and community and economic development. Chapters include understudied network research topics such as power and decision-making in interorganizational networks, virtual networks, global networks, and network analysis applications. What sets this book apart is the introduction of social network analysis and coverage of applications of social network analysis in the policy and management domains. PowerPoint slides and a sample syllabus are available for adopters on an accompanying website. Drawing on literature from sociology, policy sciences, organizational studies, and economics, this textbook will be required reading for courses on network governance, collaborative public management, cross-sector governance, and collaboration and partnerships in programs of public administration, public affairs, and public policy.

Inter-organizational relations (IOR), the study of Strategic Alliances, Joint Ventures, Partnerships, Networks and other forms of relationship between organizations, is a field of study that has burgeoned over the last four decades, but is fragemented, drawing contributions from a wide variety of disciplines, theoretical bases, and sectoral interests. The Oxford Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations provides a structured overview of the field. With contributions from leading international experts on their particular areas of expertise, it is an authoritative introduction to its research findings. The material is organized in three main sections. The first relates to research that focuses on particular manifestations of IORs such as industry, supply, policy and project networks, public and voluntary sector partnerships, strategic alliances, and so on. The second section relates to research that stems from distinct disciplinary or theoretical bases, including, institutional theory, social networks, evolutionary theory, transaction cost economics, management process, psychology, critical theory political theory, economic geography, and the legal perspective. The third section focuses on key topics in contemporary IOR topics--or those that will become so in the future. These include, trust, power, development interventions, social capital, learning and knowledge, dynamics and change, and evaluation. About the Series Oxford Handbooks in Business & Management bring together the world's leading scholars on the subject to discuss current research and the latest thinking in a range of interrelated topics including Strategy, Organizational Behavior, Public Management, International Business, and many others. Containing completely new essays with extensive referencing to further reading and key ideas, the volumes, in hardback or paperback, serve as both a thorough introduction to a topic and a useful desk reference for scholars and advanced students alike.

Excerpt from Organizational Trust and Satisfaction With Participation in Organizational Decision Making Deutsch (1955) defined social trust as an individual's willing ness to rely on the actions of another where the potential costs of such dependence outweigh its benefits. Gamson (1968) extended the notion of trust to decision making in political systems. For Gamson, a political system consisted of competing groups with differing interests who seek to influence decision making. Trusting individuals and groups expected decisions within the system to favor their interests in the long run and thus had less need to exert their influence through participation. They were satisfied with the existing process. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Trust and Participation in Organizational Decision Making as Predictors of Satisfaction This study examines two of these explanations that rest on behavioral definitions of participation rather than a feeling of involvement. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.