Academic Governance Arrangements

Governing the quality of academic activities at the institution level is a challenging task. Literature shows that the model of academic governance considers quality but still lacks proper standardization of academic functions and risk minimization in higher institutes. In the current chapter, the authors present a conceptual framework of academic governance, different arrangements settings, and exploring nexus of governance in education sector: how it operates to support the quality of academic activities. Using literature content and qualitative analysis, firstly the chapter explores a few factors of academic governance such as expectations of regulators, standards, and quality, and secondly, it presents influences due to pandemic on academic governance. At the last, this chapter draws inferences to act as a starting point for the study on academic governance, refers knowledge, infuses more research practices, and answers a few questions that might surface from the implementation of academic governance in assuring quality.

Which Competitive Strategy Fits Better to Different Family-Business Profiles?

This chapter belongs to the vein of research that analyses family firms from a configurational approach. This survey explores which combination of competitive strategy, environmental turbulence, family complexity, and family firm management and governance arrangements are present when firm performance is present. This research follows Le Breton-Miller and Miller's call to gain a better understanding of the interaction between competitive strategy, environmental conditions, and family firm features. Literature reports controversial results with regard to family-business strategic preferences and firm performance, and recent research shows that this relationship needs considering both industry and family context. This chapter analyses a sample of 129 Spanish SME-Family-Business that belong to the tourism industry. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, the authors find seven configurations to firm performance presence and one recipe for performance absence.

Staatliche Governance-Kapazität für Nachhaltigkeit: Konzeptualisierung und Anwendung eines Messinstruments in Schweizer Kantonen

Regierungen und Verwaltungen richten ihr Handeln vermehrt auf Nachhaltigkeit aus. Doch wie erfolgreich sind sie dabei? Wir stellen ein Instrument zur Messung nachhaltigkeitsbezogener interner Governance-Kapazität vor. Die Anwendung auf Schweizer Kantone offenbart deutliche Kapazitätsunterschiede und zeigt Möglichkeiten zur Stärkung staatlicher Governance-Kapazität auf.Sustainability has become an important guiding principle that has not only found its way into numerous policies, but also into the “engine rooms” of governance. Governments and administrations have established diverse governance arrangements orienting state actions towards sustainability. How does this integration of sustainability into governmental and administrative activity succeed? This paper proposes an instrument for the measurement and comparison of sustainability-oriented internal governance capacity and operationalizes it in the context of Swiss cantons. The application of the measurement tool documents the diversity of governance arrangements and their different capacities. It shows where, and how, the sustainability governance of governments and administrations can be further strengthened.

Surmounting Boundaries: Closing The Governance Gap Governance Arrangements In Public Sector Ict Shared Services

<p>Hundreds of millions of dollars of public money have been spent creating Public Sector ICT Shared Services (PSISS) based on expectations of improved customer service and cost reduction. Unfortunately, the promised benefits have often failed to materialise and governance has been identified as a barrier to PSISS success. The research first locates the concerns that governance, and in particular arrangements for governing PSISS, is contributing to PSISS failure in the academic and practice literatures on PSISS governance. Our current knowledge of PSISS governance is principally informed by literature from three domains: management, public administration and information systems. These domains, to an extent, exist in silos with unique traditions, perspectives and knowledge claims. As a result, how it informs the governance of PSISS could be at best unhelpful and even confusing to practitioners. This state of knowledge is not assisted by “how to govern” guides that obscure their different theoretical origins and do not appear to address the complexity of PSISS governance. Despite this apparent lack of coherent frameworks in the academic and practice literatures, practitioners are expected to use this literature to develop governance arrangements and perform effective PSISS governance. This lack of coherence led me to ask my first research question: How do practitioners perceive PSISS governance in practice? Exploring how PSISS governance occurs in practice through the lived experience of PSISS governance practitioners led me to select grounded theory as an appropriate methodology and research design to examine 20 years of governance practice for an electronic identity (E-ID) PSISS in New Zealand. My grounded theory of practice enabled construction of a public sector governance model to explore vertical and collaborative governance arrangements through three perspectives: system strategy, delivery and assurance. The model has been extended to provide a system-wide public sector governance lens, which was used to reflexively explore current academic literature and seven practitioner informed critical public sector governance issues to answer my refined secondary research question: How have governance arrangements addressed critical issues in public sector governance?</p>

Surmounting Boundaries: Closing The Governance Gap Governance Arrangements In Public Sector Ict Shared Services

<p>Hundreds of millions of dollars of public money have been spent creating Public Sector ICT Shared Services (PSISS) based on expectations of improved customer service and cost reduction. Unfortunately, the promised benefits have often failed to materialise and governance has been identified as a barrier to PSISS success. The research first locates the concerns that governance, and in particular arrangements for governing PSISS, is contributing to PSISS failure in the academic and practice literatures on PSISS governance. Our current knowledge of PSISS governance is principally informed by literature from three domains: management, public administration and information systems. These domains, to an extent, exist in silos with unique traditions, perspectives and knowledge claims. As a result, how it informs the governance of PSISS could be at best unhelpful and even confusing to practitioners. This state of knowledge is not assisted by “how to govern” guides that obscure their different theoretical origins and do not appear to address the complexity of PSISS governance. Despite this apparent lack of coherent frameworks in the academic and practice literatures, practitioners are expected to use this literature to develop governance arrangements and perform effective PSISS governance. This lack of coherence led me to ask my first research question: How do practitioners perceive PSISS governance in practice? Exploring how PSISS governance occurs in practice through the lived experience of PSISS governance practitioners led me to select grounded theory as an appropriate methodology and research design to examine 20 years of governance practice for an electronic identity (E-ID) PSISS in New Zealand. My grounded theory of practice enabled construction of a public sector governance model to explore vertical and collaborative governance arrangements through three perspectives: system strategy, delivery and assurance. The model has been extended to provide a system-wide public sector governance lens, which was used to reflexively explore current academic literature and seven practitioner informed critical public sector governance issues to answer my refined secondary research question: How have governance arrangements addressed critical issues in public sector governance?</p>

Effective Governance and Policy Implementation in Governing High Seas Fisheries: A Comparative Study of Three Regional Fisheries Management Organizations

<p>Two-thirds of fish stocks commercially fished on the high seas are either depleted or overexploited. Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) are key international actors having the legal competence to establish fishery conservation and management measures to improve the optimal and sustainable utilization of high seas fisheries resources. The literature suggests that their effectiveness is varied. While some RFMOs are making progress towards more sustainable fisheries, some are facing fish stock depletion. The literature indicates that organizational governance design and quality of implementation are central to the disparities. Thus far, while most of the discussion has focused on the effectiveness, and how to enhance the transparency of RFMOs, very little research has explored the designs of governance arrangements and implementation of RFMOs. Accordingly, this study contributes to the literature on governance arrangements and policy implementation of the high seas by offering in-depth case studies of the selected RFMOs. It employs qualitative methods to analyze data collected from semi-structured interviews with 24 actors (i.e., officials, delegations, and fisheries experts), as well as a collection of published and unpublished documents regarding three selected RFMOs. The three selected RFMOs are the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), and the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO). The findings show that it is possible to apply Ostrom’s (1990) design principles to uncover how RFMOs can be designed for higher performance in governing high seas fisheries. However, adjusted and additional design principles are necessary to have a better understanding of the factors that contribute to sustainable high seas fisheries. For example, the design principles should include policy learning and adaption, particularly in the regional and global contexts, so as to address complexities and uncertainties. Furthermore, the research reveals a number of critical factors of RFMO policy implementation, such as strong political will and commitment, the availability of proper resources and coalitions. This study concludes with recommendations for policymakers of the RFMOs to better achieve their overarching objectives.</p>

Effective Governance and Policy Implementation in Governing High Seas Fisheries: A Comparative Study of Three Regional Fisheries Management Organizations

<p>Two-thirds of fish stocks commercially fished on the high seas are either depleted or overexploited. Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) are key international actors having the legal competence to establish fishery conservation and management measures to improve the optimal and sustainable utilization of high seas fisheries resources. The literature suggests that their effectiveness is varied. While some RFMOs are making progress towards more sustainable fisheries, some are facing fish stock depletion. The literature indicates that organizational governance design and quality of implementation are central to the disparities. Thus far, while most of the discussion has focused on the effectiveness, and how to enhance the transparency of RFMOs, very little research has explored the designs of governance arrangements and implementation of RFMOs. Accordingly, this study contributes to the literature on governance arrangements and policy implementation of the high seas by offering in-depth case studies of the selected RFMOs. It employs qualitative methods to analyze data collected from semi-structured interviews with 24 actors (i.e., officials, delegations, and fisheries experts), as well as a collection of published and unpublished documents regarding three selected RFMOs. The three selected RFMOs are the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), and the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO). The findings show that it is possible to apply Ostrom’s (1990) design principles to uncover how RFMOs can be designed for higher performance in governing high seas fisheries. However, adjusted and additional design principles are necessary to have a better understanding of the factors that contribute to sustainable high seas fisheries. For example, the design principles should include policy learning and adaption, particularly in the regional and global contexts, so as to address complexities and uncertainties. Furthermore, the research reveals a number of critical factors of RFMO policy implementation, such as strong political will and commitment, the availability of proper resources and coalitions. This study concludes with recommendations for policymakers of the RFMOs to better achieve their overarching objectives.</p>

Blame Avoidance, Crisis Exploitation, and COVID-19 Governance Response in Israel

Surprisingly, although the Israeli government adopted unregulated, unorganized, inefficient, uncoordinated, and uninformed governance arrangements during the first wave of COVID-19, the public health outcome was successful, a paradox that this theoretically informed article seeks to explain. Drawing on insights from blame avoidance literature, it develops and applies an analytical framework that focuses on how allegations of policy underreaction in times of crisis pose a threat to elected executives’ reputations and how these politicians can derive opportunities for crisis exploitation from governance choices, especially at politically sensitive junctures. Based on a historical-institutional analysis combined with elite interviews, it finds that the implementation of one of the most aggressive policy alternatives on the policy menu at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis (i.e., a shutdown of society and the economy), and the subsequent consistent adoption of the aforementioned governance arrangements constituted a politically well-calibrated and effective short-term strategy for Prime Minister Netanyahu.