Trust and influence in the Gulf of Mexico's fishery public management network

© 2019 by the authors. Sustainable fishery management is a complex multi-sectoral challenge requiring substantial interagency coordination, collaboration, and knowledge sharing. While scholars of public management network theory and natural resource management have identified trust as one of the key ideational network properties that facilitates such interaction, relatively few studies have operationalized and measured the multiple dimensions of trust and their influence on collaboration. This article presents the results of an exploratory study examining the Gulf of Mexico fishery management network comprised of more than 30 stakeholder organizations. Using an empirically validated survey instrument, the distribution of four types of trust, three gradations of influence, and the degree of formality and informality in actor communications were assessed across the fishery public management network. The analysis reveals generally low levels of interorganizational procedural trust and a high degree of network fragmentation along the international border. Civil servants based at U.S. organizations reported nearly no interactions with Mexican agencies, and vice versa. Rational (calculative) trust was the most important in bringing about reported change in other organizations, while dispositional distrust and affnitive (relational) trust also had significant effects. The results suggest that, although transactional interorganizational relationships prevail in Gulf of Mexico fishery governance, well-developed professional relationships contribute meaningfully to the reported success of public fishery network management and warrants further policy attention in order to help ensure sustainability

Improving substate government productivity through technology

Issued as Report, Project no. B-44

Ideologies implicated in IT innovation in government: a critical discourse analysis of Mexico’s international trade administration

We develop a perspective of IT innovation in the public sector as a process that involves three complementary areas of ideology and concomitant dispute: first, the widespread view of e-government as a transformative force that leads to major improvements of public sector functions for the benefit of society at large; second, ideologies concerning the substantive policies enacted by public sector organizations; and third, ideology regarding public sector modernization. Our research examines how the objectives of IT projects and their actual effects in government are influenced by such ideologies and contestations that surround them. We develop our theoretical contribution with a critical discourse analysis that traces the ideological underpinnings of two consecutive IT projects for the administration of international trade in Mexico. This analysis associates the objectives of the IT projects with the emergence and ensuing contestation in Mexican politics of two ideologies: the first ideology concerns free international trade as imperative for economic development; the second ideology concerns public sector modernization that sought to overcome historically formed dysfunctionalities of public administration bureaucracies by adopting management practices from the private sector. The analysis then identifies the effects of the ideologically shaped IT projects on two key values of public administration: efficiency and legality. The insights of this research on the role of ideology in IT innovation complement organizational perspectives of e-government; socio-cognitive perspectives that focus on ideas and meaning, such as technology frames and organizing visions; and perspectives that focus on politics in IT innovation

Impacts of national security and sustainable development, The: comparative study of shared protected areas

2012 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.National security and sustainable development paradigms shape national goals, priorities and policy in shared protected areas. The two paradigms define the physical, economic, social, and political infrastructure of shared protected areas through competing frameworks of national interests and environmental protections. This comparative study builds on international thinking about the relationship between sustainable development to answer the hypothesis that national security impacts most the environmental pillar of sustainable development. The research methodology is a triangulation of comparative document analysis with qualitative and quantitative interviews for a rich description of the two paradigms in two shared protected areas. Sustainable development is assessed in the four park conservation management plans using the Lockwood and Kothari traditional versus emergent sustainable development indicators as independent variables and the organizing framework. The impacts of national security doctrine, policy and projects are systematically assessed on sustainable development in the parks. This research formalizes one step toward the study of national security and sustainable development and the challenges of developing environmental protections in a national security environment

Ordering the Elephants to Dance: Consent Decrees and Organizational Behavior

This Article analyzes some of the organizational factors associated with the positive influence that consent decrees assert. This Article also acknowledges those organizational factors that inhibit the attainment of the consent decree\u27s intended goals. This discussion relies on a consent decree case involving a controversy over a major urban freeway in California, the Century Freeway or 1-105

Determinants of electronic data interchange adoption in international buyer -supplier communications

In spite of the increased interest in supply chain management in recent years, few studies have examined the adoption of the technologies that facilitate information flows along the supply chain. Information flows have been shown to have a positive effect on economic efficiency and supply chain partner satisfaction. The adoption and use of information technologies to communicate with suppliers can also stimulate small business growth and foster regional economic development. This dissertation develops and empirically tests a model of the determinants of the adoption of interorganizational information systems, specifically electronic data interchange (EDI), between buyers and suppliers in international supply chains. Plant level data from the Mexican maquiladora industry allows focusing specifically on international supply chains. EDI use is measured both as a binary variable, and as a set of metric dimensions. As the main determinants of EDI adoption, this study compares economic efficiency, operationalized as the perceived benefits of EDI use, and institutional factors, operationalized as external pressure to adopt EDI. In addition, hypotheses are tested on the impact of plant size, industry, and type of purchase, on EDI adoption. Multivariate statistical analysis is used to test the hypothesized relationships, and logit and tobit models are also used to assess the impact of variables on dichotomous and metric EDI use variables respectively. This study provides valuable insight into the process of technology adoption in multinational corporations and new information on the use of information technology in the maquiladora industry. The conclusions drawn from this study are useful for economic development and planning, supplier development, and the management of multinational firms and supply chains

Rationales Shaping International Linkages in Higher Education: A Qualitative Case Study of the ASU-ITESM Strategic Alliance

abstract: This qualitative case study examines the rationales of the relationship between Arizona State University (ASU)--an American public research university--and Tecnologico de Monterrey (ITESM), a Mexican private not for profit research university. The focus of the study is to document the different meanings participants attached to the rationales of this international inter-university relationship. The conceptual framework draws from internationalization of higher education and interpretive policy analysis literature. Qualitative methodologies were utilized in both data collection and analysis. Data consisted of institutional policy documents, a ranking survey, and semi-structured interviews with faculty, administrators, and senior leadership from both universities. This study demonstrates that the rationales of the ASU-ITESM relationship are complex and dynamic. They have a function (e.g., declared, interpreted, enacted) and meanings attached (e.g., type, scope, and priority). Declared rationales were expressed in an ideal state in institutional policy. Those were interpreted by the participants according to their individual sense-making framework, thus becoming the interpreted rationales. Participants acted upon such understandings; these enacted rationales refer to the real rationales shaping the inter-university relationship. Findings also show there were three different categories of meanings participants attached to rationales, based on their type, scope and priority. In terms of type, rationales took the form of values, interests and needs, or expected benefits; they can also be academic, economic, political, or social/cultural. In scope, rationales are broad or specific addressing the relationship overall or specific initiatives within; they target individual, organizational, or societal levels. As for priority, participants interpreted and acted upon rationales with high, moderate or low importance influenced by their job position (e.g., faculty, administrators, senior leadership).Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 201

Managing Interorganizational Networks: Leadership, Paradox and Power. Cases from the U.S. Inmigration Sector

Aquest estudi qualitatiu empíric de quatre xarxes d'organitzacions no lucratives que promouen els drets dels immigrants als EUA vol contribuir a la bibliografia sobre gestió de xarxes centrant-se en dues tensions paradoxals inherents a la xarxa: unitat/diversitat i cooperació/confrontació. Així mateix, identifica quatre activitats fonamentals, activating, facilitating, framing, capacitating, com a fonts per generar unitat i mantenir la diversitat interna de la xarxa. Aquesta unitat i diversitat mencionades proporcionen poder a les xarxes, el qual es conceptualitza com a "power to" i té quatre bases principals: coneixement, recursos financers, legitimitat i accés. A més a més, l'estudi mostra que les xarxes utilitzen aquest poder, que elles mateixes han generat i a les quals es destina, juntament amb dues activitats més strategyzing, mobilizing per cooperar amb els actors estatals més poderosos i, al mateix temps, enfrontar-s'hi. Aquesta investigació, que utilitza com a eix principal les tensions paradoxals inherents a les xarxes, desenvolupa la bibliografia sobre gestió de xarxes, especialment sobre el lideratge i el poder de la xarxa, i té com a objectiu proporcionar als professionals reflexius un marc conceptual de referència.Este estudio cualitativo empírico de cuatro redes de organizaciones no lucrativas que promueven los derechos de los inmigrantes en los EE. UU. pretende contribuir a la literatura de la gestión de redes centrándose en dos tensiones paradójicas inherentes a la red: unidad/diversidad y cooperación/confrontación. El estudio identifica cuatro actividades fundamentales, activating, facilitating, framing, capacitating, como fuentes para generar unidad y mantener la diversidad interna en la red. Dicha unidad y diversidad dan poder a las redes, conceptualizado como "power to", y que tiene, principalmente, cuatro bases de poder: conocimiento, recursos financieros, legitimidad y acceso. El estudio, además, muestra que las redes utilizan este poder generado por y para ellas, junto con dos otras actividades strategyzing, mobilizing para cooperar y enfrentarse a actores estatales mucho más poderosos. Usando las tensiones paradójicas inherentes a las redes como foco principal, esta investigación desarrolla la literatura sobre gestión de redes, en particular sobre el liderazgo y el poder de la red, y pretende proveer a los profesionales reflexivos de un marco conceptual de referencia.This empirical qualitative study  of four interorganizational non-profit networks promoting immigrant rights in the US  contributes to the interorganizational network management literature by focusing on the management of two inherent paradoxical tensions: unity/diversity and cooperation/confrontation. Four leadership activities  activating, facilitating, framing, and capacitating  are found to generate unity and maintain diversity. Unity and diversity, together, build the networks' power: conceptualized as "power to" and as four power bases, namely, knowledge, financial resources, legitimacy, and access. In turn, the networks' power together with two other leadership activities  strategizing and mobilizing  is found to be used by the immigration non-profit networks to both cooperate with and confront powerful state actors. By using paradoxical tensions inherent to networks as its focus, this research further develops both the network leadership and network power literatures, and also aims at providing reflexive practitioners with a guiding conceptual framework