Tension in democratic administration: Does managerial confidence in administrative capacity reduce citizen participation in organizational decision‐making?

2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (3) ◽  
pp. 675-695
Author(s):  
Fengxiu Zhang ◽  
Justin M. Stritch ◽  
Eric W. Welch
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Organizational Decision Making ◽  
Administrative Capacity ◽  
Democratic Administration

Citizen Participation and Its Impact on Performance in U.S. Nursing Homes

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 840-854 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna A. Amirkhanyan ◽  
Ohbet Cheon ◽  
Jourdan A. Davis ◽  
Kenneth J. Meier ◽  
Fei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Nursing Homes ◽  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Performance Appraisal ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Client Participation ◽  
Organizational Decision Making ◽  
Nursing Home Administrators ◽  
Managerial Practices ◽  
Lower Health

Fundamental to democratic societies, citizen participation is an important tool for promoting active, informed, and empowered citizenry as well as responsive and accountable administration. Past literature on citizen participation has focused on its determinants, forms, and prevalence. This study examines the relationship between a specific form of citizen participation—client participation—and organizational performance. We use hybrid data on U.S. nursing homes that combine a survey of nursing home administrators’ managerial practices with federal performance appraisal data. Our empirical findings suggest that more intense levels of client participation, such as the use of clients’ feedback in decision-making, are positively associated with performance: They increase the overall five-star ratings and lower health deficiencies. In contrast, less intense client participation efforts, such as merely communicating with client/family groups, are not significantly related to performance. This study highlights the role of participation intensity, suggesting that public administrators should not only go beyond informing and listening to their stakeholders, but also take steps to use the obtained feedback in organizational decision-making.

scholarly journals Differentiating Participation: Identifying and Defining Civic Capacities Used by Latino Immigrants in Participatory Budgeting

2021 ◽  
pp. 153568412199347
Author(s):  
José W. Meléndez ◽  
Maria Martinez-Cosio
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Participatory Planning ◽  
Immigrant Community ◽  
Participatory Budgeting ◽  
Civic Discourse ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Civic Skills ◽  
Budgeting Process

Participatory planning has faced challenges engaging predominantly Spanish-speaking immigrants beyond the bottom rungs of Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation. Participating at any level of the ladder requires individual civic skills, or capacities, that are integral to participatory processes. However, the specific skills necessary for collective action are less certain, due in part to a lack of clear definitions and a lack of clarity about how these capacities work in practice. Drawing on two years of data from a participatory budgeting process in an immigrant community in Chicago, Illinois, the authors identify key civic capacities that Spanish-speaking immigrants activated while engaging in civic discourse, and they explore the role these capacities played in moving ideas toward collective decision making. The authors present an organizational schema that aligns the study’s findings of 17 unique civic capacities with capacities identified in the literature as helping participants engage more meaningfully in decision-making processes.

scholarly journals The Biography of an Algorithm: Performing algorithmic technologies in organizations

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 263178772110046
Author(s):  
Vern L. Glaser ◽  
Neil Pollock ◽  
Luciana D’Adderio
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Organizational Decision Making ◽  
Computational Tools ◽  
Dynamic Perspective ◽  
Over Time

Algorithms are ubiquitous in modern organizations. Typically, researchers have viewed algorithms as self-contained computational tools that either magnify organizational capabilities or generate unintended negative consequences. To overcome this limited understanding of algorithms as stable entities, we propose two moves. The first entails building on a performative perspective to theorize algorithms as entangled, relational, emergent, and nested assemblages that use theories—and the sociomaterial networks they invoke—to automate decisions, enact roles and expertise, and perform calculations. The second move entails building on our dynamic perspective on algorithms to theorize how algorithms evolve as they move across contexts and over time. To this end, we introduce a biographical perspective on algorithms which traces their evolution by focusing on key “biographical moments.” We conclude by discussing how our performativity-inspired biographical perspective on algorithms can help management and organization scholars better understand organizational decision-making, the spread of technologies and their logics, and the dynamics of practices and routines.

Has Lean improved organizational decision making?

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 536-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascale Simons ◽  
Jos Benders ◽  
Jochen Bergs ◽  
Wim Marneffe ◽  
Dominique Vandijck
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Lean Management ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Organizational Decision Making ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Contexts ◽  
Sustainable Improvement ◽  
Care Processes ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – Sustainable improvement is likely to be hampered by ambiguous objectives and uncertain cause-effect relations in care processes (the organization’s decision-making context). Lean management can improve implementation results because it decreases ambiguity and uncertainties. But does it succeed? Many quality improvement (QI) initiatives are appropriate improvement strategies in organizational contexts characterized by low ambiguity and uncertainty. However, most care settings do not fit this context. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether a Lean-inspired change program changed the organization’s decision-making context, making it more amenable for QI initiatives. Design/methodology/approach – In 2014, 12 professionals from a Dutch radiotherapy institute were interviewed regarding their perceptions of a Lean program in their organization and the perceived ambiguous objectives and uncertain cause-effect relations in their clinical processes. A survey (25 questions), addressing the same concepts, was conducted among the interviewees in 2011 and 2014. The structured interviews were analyzed using a deductive approach. Quantitative data were analyzed using appropriate statistics. Findings – Interviewees experienced improved shared visions and the number of uncertain cause-effect relations decreased. Overall, more positive (99) than negative Lean effects (18) were expressed. The surveys revealed enhanced process predictability and standardization, and improved shared visions. Practical implications – Lean implementation has shown to lead to greater transparency and increased shared visions. Originality/value – Lean management decreased ambiguous objectives and reduced uncertainties in clinical process cause-effect relations. Therefore, decision making benefitted from Lean increasing QI’s sustainability.

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