Managing stakeholder involvement in decision-making

Initiatives to encourage and stimulate the involvement of citizens but also various societal organisations in decision-making can be seen in a wide variety of European countries. Citizens panels, citizens charters, new forms of participation and other forms are being used to increase the influence of citizens on decision making and to improve the relation between citizens and elected politicians. In the Netherlands a lot of local governments have experimented with interactive decision-making that is enhancing the influence of citizens and interest groups on public policy making. Main motives to involve stakeholders in interactive decision making are diminishing the veto power of various societal actors by involving them in decision making, improving the quality of decision making by using information and solutions of various actors and bridging the perceived growing cleavage between citizens and elected politicians. In this article six cases are being evaluated. The cases are compared on three dimensions: - the nature and organisation of participation - the way the process is managed (process management) - the relation with formal democratic institutions These organizational features (both in terms of formal organization and in terms of actual performance) are being compared with the results of the decision-making processes in the six cases. The article shows that the high expectations of interactive decision-making are not always met. It also shows that managing the interactions- in network theory called process management- is very important for achieving satisfactory outcomes

The Impact Of Network Management On Outcomes In Governance Networks

__Abstract__ There is a large amount of literature and research on network management strategies. However, only a limited portion of this literature examines the relationship between network management strategies and outcomes (for an exception, see Meier and O'Toole 2001). Most of the research focuses on managerial activity or networking rather than on the question of which types of strategies matter the most for outcomes of complex processes in networks. This paper attempts to address the question of whether managerial strategies matter for outcomes and also explores which types of strategies have an effect on outcomes.The research is based on a survey sent to respondents involved in environmental projects in The Netherlands. The findings show that the number of employed network management strategies has a strong effect on perceived outcomes. The few variations in the effect of four constructed types of network management strategies found include exploring content, connecting, arranging, and process agreements

Nationale Citymarketing Monitor 2010

Inleiding Citymarketing is volop in beweging. In het begin van de jaren tachtig was het aantal gemeenten met een citymarketingbeleid nog relatief klein; inmiddels doen veel meer gemeenten aan citymarketing1. Anno 2010 is citymarketing één van de gemeentelijke beleidsterreinen. Citymarketing komt terug in collegeakkoorden, er zijn wethouders met citymarketing in de portefeuille en er zijn ambtenaren belast met het ontwikkelen, coördineren en uitvoeren van citymarketing . Ook zien we op meerdere plaatsen externe – vaak deels door de gemeente gesubsidieerde - partijen die een belangrijke rol vervullen in de citymarketing. Soms hebben deze externe organisaties vooral uitvoeringstaken, maar er zijn ook externe organisaties die verantwoordelijk zijn voor het ontwikkelen en coördineren van het citymarketingbeleid. We kunnen ook spreken van een beroepsgroep van citymarketeers. Een goed voorbeeld hiervan is dat er veel professionals lid zijn van de Linked In groep voor citymarketing. Ook kunnen we zeggen dat de aard en omvang van citymarketingactiviteiten in de afgelopen decennia is veranderd. Zo was city branding nauwelijks aan de orde in de jaren tachtig en negentig. Vanaf de millenniumwisseling is de belangstelling voor het gebruik van branding toegenomen

Public Private Partnerships: added value by organisational form or management?

Summary The central idea of public private partnerships (PPPs) is that added value can be achieved from greater co-operation between public and private actors. In general, the literature speaks of PPPs in which public and private actors develop a more or less sustainable co-operation through which they realise products, services, or policies together, share risks and develop an organisation form to arrange this. The assumption is that a higher degree of PPP leads to more and better outcomes because public and private actors combine their knowledge and resources. One can find a wide array of organisational forms in which this co-operation is organized and the literature pays a great deal of attention to these forms. But is this organisational form really so important, or are the intensity and type of managerial strategies more important for the outcomes? Based on a large survey of individuals involved in Dutch environmental projects, we show that although the degree of PPP correlates positively with the outcomes of projects, this correlation disappears when we include in the analysis the number of managerial strategies employed. The organisational form does not have significant impact on outcomes and the conclusion we draw is that scholars and practitioners of public private partnerships should pay greater attention to the managerial efforts necessary to develop and implement PPPs

Managing knowledge in policy networks. Organising joint fact-finding in the Scheldt Estuary.

In this paper we analyse the role of knowledge management in the policy process about the Development Plan 2010 for the Scheldt Estuary (a Dutch-Flemish river basin). The conflicts of interests around this package of measures are sharp. Therefore, knowledge is often strategically used in order to defend stakeholders’ own preferences. The project organisation (ProSes) that prepares the Development Plan organised a joint fact-finding process in order to reach ‘shared knowledge’. In this paper we evaluate this process. Especially the relations between the joint fact-finding process and the traditional democratic decision-making process and the separate organisations, which form part of the policy network, seem to be problematic. We formulate some conclusions about the possibilities and limitations of knowledge management within complex policy processes

Does Disclosure of Performance Information Influence Street-level Bureaucrats' Enforcement Style?

Governments use different regulatory instruments to ensure that businesses owners or "inspectees" comply with rules and regulations. One tool that is increasingly applied is disclosing inspectees' performance information to other stakeholders. Disclosing performance information has consequences for street-level bureaucrats because it increases the visibility of their day-to-day work. Using a survey (n =507) among Dutch inspectors of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, this article shows that the disclosure of performance information has an impact on enforcement style at the street level. Findings show that perceived disclosed performance information positively enhances all three dimensions of street-level bureaucrats' enforcement style (legal, facilitation, and accommodation). This effect is strongest for facilitation and accommodation and weakest for the legal style. Perceived resistance by inspectees partly explains this effect. Contrary to expectations, more perceived disclosure does not result in more but in less perceived resistance of inspectees by street-level bureaucrats