The organizational design of nonprofits for people with disabilities

Utilizando información obtenida de los directivos de 105 pequeñas organizaciones sin fines de lucro españolas que, en el año 2007, se dedicaban a la prestación de servicios a personas con discapacidad, hemos analizado como el diseño organizativo –en concreto, los sistemas de recompensas extrínsecas e intrínsecas- influye sobre la delegación, la motivación y la transferencia de conocimiento a la hora de lograr el objetivo de la organización consistente en mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas que viven con una discapacidad. Los resultados muestran que, debido a la carencia de conocimiento técnico, los directivos de estas entidades no lucrativas (ENL) deben delegar derechos de decisión en empleados cualificados y utilizar en mayor medida recompensas intrínsecas y extrínsecas para motivar a los empleados a que transmitan conocimiento entre ellos eficientemente.We use data obtained from managers of 105 small nonprofit organizations (NPOs) providing services to people with disabilities in Spain in 2007 to examine how organizational design—particularly, extrinsic and intrinsic reward systems—impacts delegation, motivation, and knowledge transfer to achieve the NPO’s goal to improve the lives of persons living with disabilities. We find that, due to lack of technical knowledge, managers of these NPOs must delegate decision rights to qualified employees and that they successfully use a higher degree of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards to motivate employees to transfer knowledge among themselves efficiently

Influence of online transparency on efficiency. Analysis of spanish NGDOs

This study examines (a) whether nongovernmental development organizations (NGDOs) disseminate relevant information for their stakeholders through their web pages, information that after being reviewed and evaluated by external organizations such as the Spanish Coordinator of Development NGO or Lealtad Foundation, allowed these NGDOs to obtain a seal of transparency and (b) whether their level of transparency influences efficiency. To determine online transparency, web pages of seal-approved NGDOs were reviewed to assess the availability of relevant information. This paper uses data envelopment analysis to assess the efficiency using an input orientation. To determine the influence of online transparency on efficiency, an ordinary least squares regression was used. Results show that while increased transparency has a significant effect on efficiency, the level of information disclosure of NGDOs through their web pages has considerable room for improvement. Improved transparency leads to best practices and increased competition in obtaining financing and support from society. To improve transparency in the nonprofit sector, external organizations have created a series of seals to certify that an organization complies with the basic principles of transparency. In addition, new technologies make it easier for organizations to disseminate information quickly and economically. This article contributes to the literature regarding web use of NGDOs to disclose relevant information and analyzing the influence of online transparency on organizational efficiency

Georreferenciando la corrupción urbanística en España

Se plantea que, en el vertiginoso incremento de la actividad urbanística acaecida en España a lo largo de la última década, el papel de la propiedad del suelo sigue teniendo un protagonismo clave en la vida económica de nuestro país. Lo inmobiliario o, en un sentido más amplio, lo urbano -pues hay que añadir las infraestructuras- se materializa sobre el soporte suelo. Pero este soporte, esta base se encuentra dividida, fragmentada por la propiedad privada, la cual, a través de una serie de hechos administrativos (planeamiento) persigue su reclasificación (de rústico a urbano), permitiendo a sus titulares la obtención de rentas millonarias. Y es en este marco en el que se fragua la llamada “corrupción urbanística”, que muestra, con claridad meridiana, la subordinación de la política a los intereses de ciertos grupos económicos (propietarios de suelo, constructores y promotores inmobiliarios). Planteado el problema, se emprendió un amplio estudio que, partiendo del análisis de las fuentes periodísticas y estadísticas oficiales (censos de población y viviendas para los años 1991, 2001 y estimaciones para 2008) y de su tratamiento en bases de datos y Sistemas de Información Geográfica (ArcGis 9.2), ha dado como resultado una variada cartografía a diferentes niveles (municipal, provincial y de comunidades autónomas) del llamado “urbanismo irregular” en España en el período 2000-2010.The last decade witnessed an increase in the urban development activity in Spain. Land ownership has played a crucial role within it. Real state processes take place (materialize) around the element of soil, but the soil turns out to be fragmented by private property. And the latter, through administrative mechanisms, pursues its relabeling from “rural” to “urban”. As a result, big owners of land obtain millionaire incomes. In this context, the so-called “urban development corruption” appears: the subordination of politics to the interests of a number of economic groups (land owners, builders and real estate promoters). A thorough study has been undertaken, which analyzed journalistic sources and official statistics. They were later introduced into a database and a Geographic Information system (Arc gis 9.2). This has yielded a cartography of “irregular urbanism” at different scales (municipal, provincial and autonomous communities) in the period from 2000 to 2010

Evaluación del rendimiento y delegación de autoridad en las ONGD españolas

El funcionamiento interno de las organizaciones ha sido siempre un tema considerado de interés, pero muy poco tratado en la investigación. El objetivo del presente trabajo es valorar el equilibrio de dos decisiones clave en el diseño organizativo: la delegación de autoridad a los empleados y el establecimiento de medidas de valoración del rendimiento para controlar como utilizan esos empleados su discrecionalidad. Se plantea un modelo simultáneo para estas dos decisiones, considerando la delegación y las medidas de valoración del desempeño como variables endógenas. Los resultados del análisis empírico, llevado a cabo en las más importantes ONGD españolas, evidencian que las decisiones sobre delegación de derechos de decisión y medidas de evaluación del rendimiento son interdependientes.The internal structure of organizations has always been considered a relevant topic, but scarcely treated in the literature. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the balance of two key organizational design choices: delegation of authority and the implementation of performance measures to control how lower-level employees are using their discretion focusing on non-governmental development organizations (NGDOs). A simultaneous model is developed, considering these two choices as endogenous variables. The results of the empirical analysis, performed in the most prominent Spanish NGDOs, provide evidence that delegation of decision rights and performance measurement are interdependent

Learning process: Multi-Agent Tutoring System

A multi-agent architecture has been developed for tutorial assignation scheduling. It has two main types of agents: the students and the teachers. These two are coordinated by an algorithm which assigns the classes in order of arrival. The architecture will provide the necessary tools to the students, so they get the maximum profit from the tutorials. Students and Lecturers can coordinate their tutorial meeting in an efficient way with the help of the multi-agent system

Rejuvenation and memory in model spin glasses in three and four dimensions

We numerically study aging for the Edwards-Anderson model in three and four dimensions using different temperature-change protocols. In D=3, time scales a thousand times larger than in previous work are reached with the Spin Update Engine SUE machine. Deviations from cumulative aging are observed in the nonmonotonic time behavior of the coherence length. Memory and rejuvenation effects are found in a temperature-cycle protocol, revealed by vanishing effective waiting times. Similar effects are reported for the D=3 site-diluted ferromagnetic Ising model without chaos. However, rejuvenation is reduced if off-equilibrium corrections to the fluctuation-dissipation theorem are considered. Memory and rejuvenation are quantitatively describable in terms of the growth regime of the spin-glass coherence length

A statics-dynamics equivalence through the fluctuation-dissipation ratio provides a window into the spin-glass phase from nonequilibrium measurements

We have performed a very accurate computation of the non-equilibrium fluctuation- dissipation ratio for the 3D Edwards-Anderson Ising spin glass, by means of large-scale simulations on the special-purpose computers Janus and Janus II. This ratio (computed for finite times on very large, effectively infinite, systems) is compared with the equilibrium probability distribution of the spin overlap for finite sizes. Our main result is a quantitative statics-dynamics dictionary, which could allow the experimental exploration of important features of the spin-glass phase without requiring uncontrollable extrapolations to infinite times or system sizes

Matching microscopic and macroscopic responses in glasses

We first reproduce on the Janus and Janus II computers a milestone experiment that measures the spinglass coherence length through the lowering of free-energy barriers induced by the Zeeman effect. Secondly, we determine the scaling behavior that allows a quantitative analysis of a new experiment reported in the companion Letter [S. Guchhait and R. Orbach, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 157203 (2017)]. The value of the coherence length estimated through the analysis of microscopic correlation functions turns out to be quantitatively consistent with its measurement through macroscopic response functions. Further, nonlinear susceptibilities, recently measured in glass-forming liquids, scale as powers of the same microscopic length

Nature of the spin-glass phase at experimental length scales

We present a massive equilibrium simulation of the three-dimensional Ising spin glass at low temperatures. The Janus special-purpose computer has allowed us to equilibrate, using parallel tempering, L = 32 lattices down to T ≈ 0.64Tc. We demonstrate the relevance of equilibrium finite-size simulations to understand experimental non-equilibrium spin glasses in the thermodynamical limit by establishing a time-length dictionary. We conclude that non-equilibrium experiments performed on a time scale of one hour can be matched with equilibrium results on L ≈ 110 lattices. A detailed investigation of the probability distribution functions of the spin and link overlap, as well as of their correlation functions, shows that Replica Symmetry Breaking is the appropriate theoretical framework for the physically relevant length scales. Besides, we improve over existing methodologies to ensure equilibration in parallel tempering simulations

A statics-dynamics equivalence through the fluctuation-dissipation ratio provides a window into the spin-glass phase from nonequilibrium measurements

The unifying feature of glass formers (such as polymers, supercooled liquids, colloids, granulars, spin glasses, superconductors, ...) is a sluggish dynamics at low temperatures. Indeed, their dynamics is so slow that thermal equilibrium is never reached in macroscopic samples: in analogy with living beings, glasses are said to age. Here, we show how to relate experimentally relevant quantities with the experimentally unreachable low-temperature equilibrium phase. We have performed a very accurate computation of the non-equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation ratio for the three-dimensional Edwards-Anderson Ising spin glass, by means of large-scale simulations on the special-purpose computers Janus and Janus II. This ratio (computed for finite times on very large, effectively infinite, systems) is compared with the equilibrium probability distribution of the spin overlap for finite sizes. The resulting quantitative statics-dynamics dictionary, based on observables that can be measured with current experimental methods, could allow the experimental exploration of important features of the spin-glass phase without uncontrollable extrapolations to infinite times or system sizes