The feminist movement of the last two decades decried the dominance of hierarchical structures in public and private organizations. This thesis scrutinizes the differences and overlappings of three major feminist "schools" in regard to their advocacy of non-hierarchical forms of organization. The three strands examined are 'radical feminism', ‘cultural feminism' and ‘difference feminism'. The theoretical positions of two of them (radical and difference feminism) are evaluated through the example of two feminist, egalitarian organizations. The discussion focuses on the problem of maintaining egalitarian structures and achieving a certain level of efficiency and effectiveness in such groups. / Master of Arts

This thesis examines the management of change in bureaucracies, with a study focus on the Egyptian civil service sector. The main research aims are to identify what are the main problems of the Egyptian civil service sector, identify the main barriers against the current change programmes undertaken by the Government of Egypt (GOE) and suggest ways to develop civil servants’ commitment towards those changes. Interview data was triangulated with archival documents and non-participant observation and were drawn from a sample of 33 civil servants working in the Egyptian Ministry of State for Administrative Development (MSAD) which is the civil service entity acting as the change agent responsible for managing the government administrative reforms plan in the civil service sector. All study participants were actually working in one of the change projects/programmes and had a minimum of 12 months of service in the civil service. Interviews were digitally-recorded and transcribed in the form of MS-Word documents, and data transcripts were analysed manually using MS-Excel worksheets and main research themes were developed and statistics drawn using those Excel worksheets. The main research findings suggested that the main problems of the Egyptian civil service sector are (1) the absence of a Reward and Punishment system, (2) the absence of a firm system of governance and control and (3) the current negative civil service culture. The research findings suggested that developing civil servants’ commitment towards change may be achieved by employee involvement and participation in the change process and the careful selection of inspirational change agents. The findings also suggested that change agents play an important role in inspiring civil servants to support change and that middle management is another crucial factor in the change move as it should act as liaison between change agents and employees.

Since 2001, the Army has spent billions of dollars to develop, test, and procure equipment through the Army Rapid Acquisition Process (ARAP), a process at times used in place of the traditional Army Acquisition Process (AAP) when immediacy and customization are a priority. The ARAP was implemented to increase efficiency in delivering adequate equipment to soldiers. The ARAP has been criticized in the literature for its lack of efficiency and effectiveness in the field. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to examine ARAP deficiencies through the lens of a broad cross-section of Army acquisition functional area professionals. The research questions addressed key problems and factors of the ARAP's performance and its alignment with the ARAP, bureaucracy, and post bureaucracy. The conceptual foundation of this study included the theories of bureaucracy and post bureaucracy. Principles of bureaucracy are hierarchical structure and management by strict rules. Principles of post bureaucracy are flat management structures and increased autonomy. Data were collected through semistructured interviews from a cross-section of Army acquisition functional area professionals (N = 19). Data analysis consisted of coding participant responses, which resulted in the emergence of themes and categories. Findings revealed the need for improvements to sustain, transition, and fund equipment and the need for improvements in developing equipment requirements and increasing direct soldier involvement when using the ARAP. This research provides lessons that may inform current and future ARAP initiatives and contributes to social change through procuring the best equipment for soldiers to defend against threats to national security.

The importance of organizations for understanding differences in the working conditions and health of employees is often emphasized but rarely explored empirically. The general aim of this thesis is to describe organizational characteristics of workplaces, and to assess their impact on the psychosocial working conditions and health of employees. In modern working life, it is assumed that employees' working conditions and health are affected by a general transformation of workplaces from bureaucracy to post-bureaucracy.  The organizational data used are based on structured interviews with managers at workplaces in different types of operations in mid-Sweden, whereas the individual data consist of a questionnaire to all employees working in the participating workplaces, resulting in a dataset of 90 workplaces and 4306 individuals. Descriptive analysis was carried out for comparison of organizational characteristics in different types of operations, while multilevel analysis was applied to investigate the magnitude of the organizational impact on psychosocial working conditions, and to analyze associations between organizational characteristics, psychosocial working conditions and health. The results showed that the workplaces were mainly displayed by a combination of bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic characteristics, and these were unequally distributed between types of operations. A systematic variation in the psychosocial working conditions and health of employees was found between workplaces, and the variation in psychosocial working conditions was attributed to several organizational levels. The variation between workplaces was explained by both organizational characteristics of the workplaces and individual characteristics of the employees. Formalization, centralization, job enrichment, individual responsibility, soft control systems, and performance control were associated with psychosocial working conditions when controlled for occupational class, gender and age of employees, and a high degree of customer adaptation was associated with increased sickness absence of employees.   It is concluded that bureaucracy and post-bureaucracy should not be regarded as dichotomies. Organizational characteristics of workplaces have an impact on the psychosocial working conditions and health of employees beyond occupational class. This has implications for both the theory and the practice of occupational health research. / The Healthy Workplace Study

The overall purpose of this essay was to provide a better understanding of the importance of discretion for social workers in direct social services. To answer the purpose three questions were formulated: (1) How do social workers define and describe their discretion and their ability to independently accomplish their work? (2) How do social workers experience that workplace organization, policies and economic conditions interact with their discretion and (3) How do social workers experience that the interaction with the client can affect how they use their discretion in the individual case? The method used was qualitative interviews. The theoretical framework was Michael Lipskys (1980) Street-level bureaucracy and the four themes organization, professional role, skills and interaction. The results showed that the respondents, although they did not consider themselves to be affected by the economy still adapted to budget restrictions when they said that they were cost conscious in their work. This adjustment to budget framework could possibly be what made them not feel limited in their work. The organization around the direct social work varied, in spite of this showed the result a broad consensus in the experiences of discretion in direct social work.

<p>The thesis concentrates on the psychological consequences ofthe contemporary work. Two focal question of the thesis are,first, why do employees’psychological resources becomeconsumed in the contemporary working life? Second, how tocreate regenerative work enabling employees’developmentin the present situation? The latter question aims todistinguish the conditions for sustainable individual andcollective development at work. The empirical research consistsof two studies; the Empirical Study I with explorative casestudies in two »new economy« companies and theEmpirical Study II with action research case studies in apublic hospital and a tenants’union. In the EmpiricalStudy II, the case organizations defined their problemsrelating to human resources consumption. The subsequent actionresearch projects aimed to work on these problems and togenerate ideas for regenerative work.</p><p>The case studies indicate that many contemporary workinglife problems relate to fundamental changes at work. Confinedbureaucratic work is gradually changing into more complex andboundaryless work. Instead of bureaucratic impersonality, suchwork requires comprehensive personal presence from employees.However, organizational arrangements have not followed thedevelopment. Organizational structures and practices are stillaimed at controlling and guiding compartmentalized, stablework. Consequently, post-bureaucratic work realities exist inbureaucratic work organizations; the clashes between the twooperation logics lead to negative consequences at individualand organizational levels.</p><p>The thesis studies the reasons for the gap betweenbureaucratic organizational logic and post-bureaucratic worklogic. Furthermore, organizational and individual approachesleading to more comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful workare explored. When it comes to organizational approaches, theredoes not seem to exist a certain structure for apost-bureaucratic organization; such an organization is a stateof collective and individual mind rather than a fixed solution.At individual level, bureaucratic thinking has to grow intopost-bureaucratic thinking at all hierarchical levels.Responsibility taking and complex thinking are needed. Mentalmodels enabling versatile functioning within an organizationare required.</p><p><b>KEY WORDS:</b>good work, personal development, professionaldevelopment, stress, human resources, regenerative work,consuming work, bureaucracy, post-bureaucracy, actionresearch.</p>

The thesis concentrates on the psychological consequences ofthe contemporary work. Two focal question of the thesis are,first, why do employees’psychological resources becomeconsumed in the contemporary working life? Second, how tocreate regenerative work enabling employees’developmentin the present situation? The latter question aims todistinguish the conditions for sustainable individual andcollective development at work. The empirical research consistsof two studies; the Empirical Study I with explorative casestudies in two »new economy« companies and theEmpirical Study II with action research case studies in apublic hospital and a tenants’union. In the EmpiricalStudy II, the case organizations defined their problemsrelating to human resources consumption. The subsequent actionresearch projects aimed to work on these problems and togenerate ideas for regenerative work. The case studies indicate that many contemporary workinglife problems relate to fundamental changes at work. Confinedbureaucratic work is gradually changing into more complex andboundaryless work. Instead of bureaucratic impersonality, suchwork requires comprehensive personal presence from employees.However, organizational arrangements have not followed thedevelopment. Organizational structures and practices are stillaimed at controlling and guiding compartmentalized, stablework. Consequently, post-bureaucratic work realities exist inbureaucratic work organizations; the clashes between the twooperation logics lead to negative consequences at individualand organizational levels. The thesis studies the reasons for the gap betweenbureaucratic organizational logic and post-bureaucratic worklogic. Furthermore, organizational and individual approachesleading to more comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful workare explored. When it comes to organizational approaches, theredoes not seem to exist a certain structure for apost-bureaucratic organization; such an organization is a stateof collective and individual mind rather than a fixed solution.At individual level, bureaucratic thinking has to grow intopost-bureaucratic thinking at all hierarchical levels.Responsibility taking and complex thinking are needed. Mentalmodels enabling versatile functioning within an organizationare required. KEY WORDS:good work, personal development, professionaldevelopment, stress, human resources, regenerative work,consuming work, bureaucracy, post-bureaucracy, actionresearch. / <p>NR 20140805</p>

在經歷了長時間俄國的官僚體制演進歷程，俄國由原先俄帝國「官階表」(Table of Ranks)，到蘇聯時期產生了所謂的「職官名錄制」的體制，這龐大的官僚傳統，經過逐漸演化，衍生出了貪污、效率緩慢、特權制、為特定國家組織服務的「恩庇侍從」的脈絡。一九九一年解體後，葉爾欽繼承了蘇聯這龐大的官僚，而且其規模還逐年增加，但效率卻沒有明顯的上升，反而在國家公務人員體系內部產生了嚴重的性別、教育、以及工作年資上退化的情形；葉爾欽看到了，設立了「國家公務人員部」(Roskadry) 、「俄羅斯國家公務人員學院」(Russian Academy of State Service, RAGS)等一連串的機關，並通過「俄羅斯聯邦公務人員原則法」(Fundamentals of State Service)等，想要解決這種情形；但這段時間的地方、中央衝突，解體初期俄羅斯未完善的法律、官僚貪腐集團的阻礙，加上葉爾欽健康上、政權上的不穩定，使得他的改革沒有多大的成效。 兩千年總統大選後，俄羅斯的公務人員改革再度透過四份文件展開：「俄羅斯聯邦國家公務人員制度改革構想」(The Conception of the State Service System Reform of the Russian Federation)、「俄羅斯聯邦國家公務人員體制」(About the System of State Service of the Russian Federation)、「俄羅斯聯邦公務人員體制」(About the Civil Service of the Russian Federation)、「俄羅斯聯邦國家公務人員改革計畫」(State Service Reform in the Russian Federation)：二零零三~二零零五年的改革計畫。 以上四份文件，加上普欽上任後，逐漸中央集權，收回其權力，並打擊寡頭，使得俄羅斯的公務人員的人才教育、與培訓制度地逐漸上了軌道，並確立了公民公平進入公職體系、軍事和法律執行領域的職員加入公務體系的三種類劃分方法、層級劃分，加上競爭性的升遷、和職業性任用的「功績制」到此逐漸地成熟，根除腐敗公務人員的決心，可以看出俄國的確做了很大幅度的進步。然而，俄羅斯的公務人員在薪水、社會地位仍嫌低下，使得俄國的公職體系沒有開放改革後的私有部門、私人企業等的吸引力，而其公務人員在職業資格上，仍是需要改進的地方，作者認為俄羅斯的官僚政治改革，並不會在短時間之內成功，除非改革能由俄羅斯大眾的基本社會意識型態轉變下手，由基礎的意識形態、社會觀感下手，加上改善上述官僚利益的阻礙、公務人員的薪水、職業任用程度等問題，俄羅斯的公務人員才能享受更高的社會地位，更符合韋伯的官僚效率，使得俄羅斯國家機器運轉地更順，更有效率。

Today the Swedish education system faces major challenges. This research deals with school segregation and the differences in and among Swedish municipalities, more specifically between Kalmar and Karlskrona. There are well-established national goals with the aim to reduce and counteract school segregation, however we tend to find huge differences in the system and performance of schools. All schools have different grounds, conditions and needs and it forces the local government, principals and teachers to act according to factors as resources, priorities, goals and expected behavior within institutions. Deficiencies create the prerequisites for conducting, completing and maintaining the business to the extent that it can be based on the design of the requirements on national level. That brings a great decentralized responsibility and gives room for maneuver and freedom of action for street-level bureaucrats, that may not maintain national standards. The purpose of this research is to analyse how enforcement of national goals in each municipality, at local schools,  that either are segregated or may become and then compare them to see the difference. In conclusion the analysis show that national goals are used as guidelines in municipalities, but all municipalities establish their own goals according to the conditions and needs of the school. The difference that exist between schools depends on local circumstances.

Submitted by Erica Ruiz (ericafari@gmail.com) on 2014-04-16T19:30:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 O efeito da burocracia no desempenho escolar_EFR.pdf: 1352449 bytes, checksum: 739ec0bd076ae031d9b83cf645aa0443 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by PAMELA BELTRAN TONSA (pamela.tonsa@fgv.br) on 2014-04-16T19:32:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 O efeito da burocracia no desempenho escolar_EFR.pdf: 1352449 bytes, checksum: 739ec0bd076ae031d9b83cf645aa0443 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-04-16T19:32:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 O efeito da burocracia no desempenho escolar_EFR.pdf: 1352449 bytes, checksum: 739ec0bd076ae031d9b83cf645aa0443 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-17 / A educação constitui-se como um dos mecanismos mais eficazes na correção das desigualdades socioeconômicas, nos mais diversos contextos. Por esse motivo, pesquisas educacionais no Brasil e no mundo têm buscado compreender que mecanismos são capazes de promover um ensino de melhor qualidade. Os principais estudos da área, a exemplo do que fora proposto pela própria Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação, têm se voltado principalmente a avaliar os resultados educacionais a partir dos insumos indispensáveis ao desenvolvimento do processo de ensino-aprendizagem, na busca de fatores associados ao sucesso escolar. Nesta pesquisa, porém, ao invés de se manter o foco nos insumos de que as escolas dispõem, são analisados os diferentes comportamentos do diretor na gestão dos recursos e na liderança das práticas de ensino, que visem ao melhoramento dos estudantes. Em um contexto no qual as reformas educacionais são crescentes e os mecanismos de avaliação são centralizados, o papel do diretor mostra-se crucial à compreensão dos objetivos e metas propostos à escola e no acompanhamento da implementação das políticas. Cabe, portanto, ao diretor escolar, enquanto burocrata de nível médio, constituir-se como o intermediário entre a formulação e implementação das políticas públicas, adequando suas ações ao contexto em que a escola está inserida e buscando garantir um maior aprendizado de seus alunos, dados os insumos educacionais disponíveis.