scholarly journals Explanations of Research Misconduct, and How They Hang Together

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamarinde Haven ◽  
René van Woudenberg
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Prospect Theory ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Research Misconduct ◽  
New Public ◽  
Full Explanation ◽  
The Individual

AbstractIn this paper, we explore different possible explanations for research misconduct (especially falsification and fabrication), and investigate whether they are compatible. We suggest that to explain research misconduct, we should pay attention to three factors: (1) the beliefs and desires of the misconductor, (2) contextual affordances, (3) and unconscious biases or influences. We draw on the three different narratives (individual, institutional, system of science) of research misconduct as proposed by Sovacool to review six different explanations. Four theories start from the individual: Rational Choice theory, Bad Apple theory, General Strain Theory and Prospect Theory. Organizational Justice Theory focuses on institutional factors, while New Public Management targets the system of science. For each theory, we illustrate the kinds of facts that must be known in order for explanations based on them to have minimal plausibility. We suggest that none can constitute a full explanation. Finally, we explore how the different possible explanations interrelate. We find that they are compatible, with the exception of explanations based on Rational Choice Theory and Prospect Theory respectively, which are incompatible with one another. For illustrative purposes we examine the case of Diederik Stapel.

The Changing Face of British Public Administration

Politics ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
R A W Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Government Relations ◽  
New Public ◽  
The Subject

This paper explores the changes in the study of Public Administration during the 1980s It documents the continuing contribution of organisation theory in the study of central-local government relations and government-industry relations; the failure of state theory; the challenge of rational choice theory; and the meteoric rise of the new public management. Public Administration experienced contradictory trends. The institutionalist tradition underwent a long lingering decline and was replaced by many competing approaches. The institutional base of the subject was eroded in the 1980s as the subject was absorbed by business schools and research funding evaporated. The New Right was the wellspring of ideas for government reform while ‘indifference’ best describes official attitudes to Public Administration. But against this inauspicious back cloth, there were clear signs of intellectual vigour with important innovations in, for example, bureaumetrics, policy networks and rational choice models of bureaucracy.

Organisation des Luzerner Forstdienstes – konsequente Entflechtung von hoheitlichen und betrieblichen Aufgaben | Organisation of the forestry services in Lucerne – differentiating between sovereign and management tasks

2001 ◽  
Vol 152 (11) ◽  
pp. 453-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Iselin ◽  
Albin Schmidhauser
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Work Force ◽  
Forest Reserve ◽  
New Public ◽  
Forest Regions ◽  
Management Project ◽  
Forestry Services ◽  
The Individual

During the past ten years most cantonal forest services have undergone re-organisations. Lucerne's cantonal forest administration initiated a fundamentally new way of providing forestry services by differentiating between sovereign tasks and management tasks. By examining the individual steps of the process we demonstrate how starting with the mandate,goals were developed and implemented over several years. Product managers assumed responsibility for products, as defined in the New Public Management Project, on a cantonal-wide basis. Work within a matrix organisation has led to significant changes. Territorial responsibilities are increasingly assumed by district foresters, who have modern infrastructures at their disposal in the new forestry centres. The re-organisation has led to forest districts being re-drawn and to a reduction in the number of forest regions. To provide greater efficiency,state forest management has been consolidated into a single management unit. The new forest reserve plan removes almost half of the state forest from regular forest management,resulting in a reduction in the volume of work and in the work force. We show how effective the differentiation of sovereignty tasks and management tasks has been in coping with the effects of hurricane Lothar.

Performance auditing and neoliberal governmentality: future research directions

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarek Rana ◽  
Dessalegn Getie Mihret ◽  
Tesfaye T. Lemma
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
New Public ◽  
Concurrent Development ◽  
Performance Auditing ◽  
The Individual

Purpose This paper aims to interpret the role and professional issues of public sector performance auditing (PA) as a mechanism of neoliberal governmentality in the New Public Management (NPM) era by drawing on a Foucauldian conceptual lens to chart directions for future research. Design/methodology/approach The study uses the Foucauldian concepts of visibility and identity to interpret PA against the background of neoliberal imperatives of public sector management. Findings As the growing emphasis on PA in recent decades can be understood as driven by the concurrent development of neoliberal and NPM rationalities, the relatively underexploited concepts of visibility and identity allow further inquiry into important PA issues. This paper identifies avenues for future research under the following three themes: the issue of visibility in neoliberal governmentality and potential for auditors-general to expand the domain of influence of National Audit Offices through the PA role; the potential for PA as a unified distinct specialisation; and the neoliberal idea of professional identity as the individual expert and its interplay with the potential emergence of PA as a distinct function within the accounting profession. Research limitations/implications This conceptual paper is anticipated to stimulate future PA research. Key areas in this respect include the position and authority afforded to PA and the possibility of transformation in auditors’ conception of their professional worldview. Originality/value This paper charts direction for future research by interpreting PA using Foucauldian concepts of visibility and identity that remain to be exploited in PA research.

scholarly journals Worker Commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour in the Age of Wisdom: Critical Evaluations

2018 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
pp. 13-21
Author(s):  
Remi Chukwudi Okeke ◽  
Desmond Okechukwu Nnamani
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Organizational Citizenship ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Knowledge Worker ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
New Order ◽  
Homo Economicus ◽  
Contentious Issue ◽  
The Individual

This study interrogates the notion of an envisaged age of wisdom whereby, the current information / knowledge worker era will be succeeded by a new order, in which information and knowledge will be impregnated with purpose and principles. The study thus examines the issue of worker commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour in the assumed age of wisdom. The analytical framework of the study is the rational choice theory. Precedent to the envisioned age of wisdom is the condition of putting service before self. We argued in the study that the age of wisdom-position contextually discountenances with a fundamentally contentious issue in human affairs, which has to do with whether the individual in the society is an inherently self-interested or an innately altruistic being. In the study’s re-imaginations, worker commitment and organizational citizenship behaviours will (contrary to the assumptions of the age of wisdom) continue to be influenced by the intrinsic tendencies (of the homo economicus), in the regards of subjective rationality. In contrast to the assumed precedent-condition of putting service before self in the imminent age of wisdom, this study sees general continuity in subjective rationalities but with massive increases in universal productivity, arising from enduring human inventiveness and sundry efforts.

scholarly journals Capital theory and rational choice

Sociologija ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-204
Author(s):  
Natasa Golubovic
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Economic Science ◽  
Marxian Theory ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

Almost from the very beginning of economic science the notion of capital has been the subject of numerous controversies. The main reason for the concept's controversial nature is that it explains interest and profit. In Marxian theory, where 'manner of production' determines forms of activities, mutual relationships and life of individuals, capital appears as a social phenomenon i.e. social relation. Goods and money are not capital by themselves but become capital in the capitalist way of production. Economics mainstream is based on methodological individualism upon which explanation of social phenomena and processes must be derived from individual behavior and motivation. Capital, therefore, is not a product of capitalism as a socially and historically specific form of economic organization, but is rather perceived as connected to the individual and his or her rational behavior. Rational choice is the basic and sometimes the only explanatory factor in the neoclassic theories of capital. Although theories of human and cultural capital point out the interdependence between individual activity and choice on the one hand, and social position on the other hand in the process of capitalization, the connection remains in the background and somehow unclear. A more explicit indication of the interdependence between social structure and choice can be found in the theory of social capital. The goal of this paper is to explore the role of rational choice theory in explaining the nature of capital.

scholarly journals The New Public Management and Public Management Studies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewan Ferlie
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Extreme Case ◽  
The United States ◽  
Professional Staff ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
New Public

The New Public Management (NPM) is a major and sustained development in the management of public services that is evident in some major countries. Its rise is often linked to broader changes in the underlying political economy, apparent since the 1980s, associated with the rise of the New Right as both a political and an intellectual movement. The NPM reform narrative includes the growth of markets and quasi-markets within public services, empowerment of management, and active performance measurement and management. NPM draws its intellectual inspiration from public choice theory and agency theory. NPM’s impact varies internationally, and not all countries have converged on the NPM model. The United Kingdom is often taken as an extreme case, but New Zealand and Sweden have also been highlighted as “high-impact” NPM states, while the United States has been assessed as a “medium impact” state. There has been a lively debate over whether NPM reforms have had beneficial effects or not. NPM’s claimed advantages include greater value for money and restoring governability to an overextended public sector. Its claimed disadvantages include an excessive concern for efficiency (rather than democratic accountability) and an entrenchment of agency-specific “silo thinking.” Much academic writing on the NPM has been political science based. However, different traditions of management scholarship have also usefully contributed in four distinct areas: (a) assessing and explaining performance levels in public agencies, (b) exploring their strategic management, (c) managing public services professionals, and (d) developing a more critical perspective on the resistance by staff to NPM reforms. While NPM scholarship is now a mature field, further work is needed in three areas to assess: (a) whether public agencies have moved to a post-NPM paradigm or whether NPM principles are still embedded even if dysfunctionally so, (b) the pattern of the international diffusion of NPM reforms and the characterization of the management knowledge system involved, and (c) NPM’s effects on professional staff working in public agencies and whether such staff incorporate, adapt, or resist NPM reforms.

Can managerialism promote organisational transformation in private universities?

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 221258682110672
Author(s):  
Maeda Kazuyuki
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Private Universities ◽  
University Reform ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public ◽  
Autonomous Management ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Organisational Level

Used as a method of university reform, new public management (NPM) involves an ideology of managerialism that conflicts with collegiality and causes ‘hybridisation’. In management organisations, when organisational goals are not shared at the individual level, this adjustment mechanism shifts to the organisational level. This study aimed to examine whether there are coordination mechanisms at the organisational level in universities by focussing on those in Japan, particularly private universities that require autonomous management. Multi-level analysis results revealed that although there is hybridisation associated with increased managerial pressure, there are no organisational-level mechanisms to reduce conflict. In conclusion, the authors point out the difficulty of organising private universities based on managerialism and suggests that university reform in Japan may be ‘hollowing out’ in the public sector as well. Further, the study emphasises the importance of undertaking a comparative study of governance arrangements in China’s private universities in the future.

Ambiguity Aversion Phenomenon and Rational Choice Theory

2011 ◽  
pp. 16-34
Author(s):  
I. Pavlov
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Ambiguity Aversion ◽  
Individual Behaviour ◽  
Economic Agents ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Individual

The paper analyzes ambiguity aversion that is one of the main anomalies characteristic for the individual behaviour of economic agents making choice in the face of uncertainty. It shows that this phenomenon plays a major role in the contemporary rational choice theory and hence is widely discussed both by economic theorists and experimental economists. The article further elaborates on the nature of this phenomenon and considers its main causes.

scholarly journals Self-poisoning of the mind

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1538) ◽  
pp. 221-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Elster
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Wishful Thinking ◽  
Preference Formation ◽  
Irrational Behaviour ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Adaptive Preference

Rational-choice theory tries to explain behaviour on the assumption that individuals optimize. Some forms of irrational behaviour can be explained by assuming that the individual is subject to hedonic, pleasure-seeking mechanisms, such as wishful thinking or adaptive preference formation. In this paper, I draw attention to psychic mechanisms, originating in the individual, which make her worse off. I first consider the ideas of counterwishful thinking and of counteradaptive preference formation and then, drawing heavily on Proust, the self-poisoning of the mind that occurs through the operation of amour-propre.

scholarly journals Revisiting Trade Unions’ Response to New Public Management: A Case From Zambia

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clever Madimutsa ◽  
Leon G. Pretorius
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
New Public ◽  
Public Sector Unions

This article discusses the strategic responses by public-sector unions to new public management (NPM) reforms in Zambia. The article is based on a qualitative research methodology focusing on the Civil Servants and Allied Workers Union of Zambia. The study shows that public-sector workers in developing countries are more vulnerable to the effects of externally imposed NPM reforms, which include job cuts. However, the implementation of these reforms faces opposition especially from trade unions. In line with the assumptions of strategic choice theory, union responses to NPM reforms are strategic. Despite the high vulnerability of public workers in developing countries, their unions use strategies that can also be observed in developed countries to mitigate the negative consequences of NPM reforms on the public sector. These strategies follow a three-stage process, namely, opposing the reforms, negotiating for favorable reform measures, and shifting from centralized structures to networks.

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