Educational institutions have remained remarkably unchanged throughout the last century, even when the political, cultural and social environments have undergone very significant transformation (cf. Duderstadt, 2005; Fullan, 2007; Rowan & Miskel, 1999). Because of the noted similarity among educational institutions and the institutions perceived inability to change, I wanted to identify a significant change at an educational institution, and examine the context and policy process that promoted this change. The focus of this study was the process of policy development within one type of educational institution, the university.<p> In this case study, I examined the policy process involved in establishing a joint, interdisciplinary school, the School of Policy and Research. Data were gathered from three sources: interviews, documents, and policies. I conducted semi-structured interviews with thirteen participants who had some connection to the School, and analyzed the data by coding emergent themes. These were not discrete themes, but rather were interconnected and reflected the complexity of the policy development process. From the findings, the concept of policy windows, as suggested by Kingdon (2003), was evident in the policy origin stage. The policy stream, the political stream, and the problem stream came together at a critical juncture as a confluence of forces that allowed the initiative of the joint interdisciplinary policy School to move forward into adoption and implementation. Due to this presence of a policy window, the initiative moved through the adoption stage relatively smoothly, at least initially. The policy actors were essentially the same at both universities; there was a core group of grassroots level faculty members who were involved in policy work and believed in the potential of the interdisciplinary policy School. They were supported by senior administrative personnel who saw this initiative as one way to address perceived problems confronting the institutions. However, the implementation stage at both universities was messy and difficult as the proponents of the School encountered many tensions, including issues around securing resources, program development, the proposal approval process, and several sources of resistance to change. The discipline-driven culture of the universities appeared to be an impediment to innovative practices that bridge disciplinary boundaries. Although the timing of this study obviated full consideration of the evaluation stage, the participants did speculate upon several intended impacts of the School, and they proposed possible collateral impacts. Implications of this investigation for practice included a need for individual organizations to conduct a thorough examination of situation-specific organizational practices that promote or inhibit innovation, including reviews of current practice for determining what programs need to be discontinued, for articulating how to monitor progress in achieving outcomes, and for identifying how to promote a more collaborative culture. In terms of implications for research, further exploration of the implementation stage of successful policy development was seen to have some potential. In change theory, further research could address the stark absence of the voice of resistors to change. Two elements of neoinstitutional theory that merit further research are the roles of agents in initiating change, and the role of isomorphic processes (coercive, normative, and mimetic) in inhibiting change in organizations. One theoretical implication of this study was the relevance of certain lenses (political, temporal, organizational, and cultural) in examining change. Additionally, the theoretical dichotomy of incremental and transformative change merits further examination in relation to the dynamics of the policy process.

Educational institutions have remained remarkably unchanged throughout the last century, even when the political, cultural and social environments have undergone very significant transformation (cf. Duderstadt, 2005; Fullan, 2007; Rowan & Miskel, 1999). Because of the noted similarity among educational institutions and the institutions perceived inability to change, I wanted to identify a significant change at an educational institution, and examine the context and policy process that promoted this change. The focus of this study was the process of policy development within one type of educational institution, the university.<p> In this case study, I examined the policy process involved in establishing a joint, interdisciplinary school, the School of Policy and Research. Data were gathered from three sources: interviews, documents, and policies. I conducted semi-structured interviews with thirteen participants who had some connection to the School, and analyzed the data by coding emergent themes. These were not discrete themes, but rather were interconnected and reflected the complexity of the policy development process. From the findings, the concept of policy windows, as suggested by Kingdon (2003), was evident in the policy origin stage. The policy stream, the political stream, and the problem stream came together at a critical juncture as a confluence of forces that allowed the initiative of the joint interdisciplinary policy School to move forward into adoption and implementation. Due to this presence of a policy window, the initiative moved through the adoption stage relatively smoothly, at least initially. The policy actors were essentially the same at both universities; there was a core group of grassroots level faculty members who were involved in policy work and believed in the potential of the interdisciplinary policy School. They were supported by senior administrative personnel who saw this initiative as one way to address perceived problems confronting the institutions. However, the implementation stage at both universities was messy and difficult as the proponents of the School encountered many tensions, including issues around securing resources, program development, the proposal approval process, and several sources of resistance to change. The discipline-driven culture of the universities appeared to be an impediment to innovative practices that bridge disciplinary boundaries. Although the timing of this study obviated full consideration of the evaluation stage, the participants did speculate upon several intended impacts of the School, and they proposed possible collateral impacts. Implications of this investigation for practice included a need for individual organizations to conduct a thorough examination of situation-specific organizational practices that promote or inhibit innovation, including reviews of current practice for determining what programs need to be discontinued, for articulating how to monitor progress in achieving outcomes, and for identifying how to promote a more collaborative culture. In terms of implications for research, further exploration of the implementation stage of successful policy development was seen to have some potential. In change theory, further research could address the stark absence of the voice of resistors to change. Two elements of neoinstitutional theory that merit further research are the roles of agents in initiating change, and the role of isomorphic processes (coercive, normative, and mimetic) in inhibiting change in organizations. One theoretical implication of this study was the relevance of certain lenses (political, temporal, organizational, and cultural) in examining change. Additionally, the theoretical dichotomy of incremental and transformative change merits further examination in relation to the dynamics of the policy process.

In this work we make analysis of the tax evasion practices which have become widely used by the small and medium enterprises in the Russian transitional economy. Taxation has always been the issue best describing relations between state and private business; in Russian economy taxation has come to characterize specificity of interactions between authorities at different levels of government and businessmen. We look at the current situation through the theoretical framework provided by the neoinstitutional theory which allows us to consider data and facts collected on the problem through the perspective of institutional change. By employing analytical tools of the neoinstitutionalism we consider tax evasion as a part of evolving institutional environment. Persistence and prevalence of the schemes used by small businesses to avoid payment of full tax liabilities leads us to qualify the current situation as an institutional dead-lock or in other words inefficient socio­ economic equilibrium: tax-evasion is seen as an illegal activity by the state and development-hampering by businesses, nonetheless the practice persists for decades. We consider that institutions are promoted and supported by different groups united by common socio-economic interest, therefore to describe and analyse this situation we identify...

Higher education institutions in the United States have come under increased scrutiny due to increasing demands for accountability in the use of public funds and increasing visibility (Altbach, Berdahl, and Gumport, 1999; Trow, 1974). Colleges and universities must continually prove their credibility and legitimacy to their stakeholders, including government officials (Lawrence & Sharma, 2002), donors, students, and sponsors. The proving process may involve engagement in legitimacy-seeking behaviors designed to show efficiency, access, and quality in terms defined mostly by external perceptions. The decision to concentrate organizational resources on activities designed to influence the opinions of external agents has the potential to lead organizations away from their core values and historic missions. The case study that follows documents the restructuring of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and the drivers that led university administrators to pursue change. The case was developed based on a series of interviews with key informants associated with or affected by the restructuring process. Explanations for the restructuring and the underlying university goal of becoming a top 30 institution, included cost-savings and efficiency via a "fiscal rationalization"; the framing of programs in terms of their entrepreneurialism, innovativeness, and revenue generating capacity; and an emphasis on the economic development benefits of university programs. Even though Virginia Tech administrators were not expressly responding to external demands for restructuring, there was evidence to suggest that a need to construct a more business-like model for university structure and operations had entered the collective conscience of Virginia Tech's leadership. I document the rhetoric and actions that I believe influenced university administrators in their decision to restructure. I also draw attention to administrators' use of language that I believe exemplified the commodification of the university's human and intellectual capital. Theoretically, I believe that the constructs from resource dependency theory and neoinstitutional theory have relevance to the interpretation of this case. Specifically, the construction of legitimacy-seeking behaviors, the imperative to decrease reliance on external organizations (i.e., the state), and the institutionalization of acceptable management behaviors are aligned closely with the propositions of one or both of these theories. The lack of theoretical distinctiveness between these two organizational perspectives indicated a need for further research and limits the ability to anticipate the potential outcomes for Virginia Tech and the broader field of higher education. / Ph. D.

The objective of the dissertation is to identify the main features of Western personal social services in institutional and organizational structure of post-communist Lithuania. The first part of the dissertation is devoted to get analytical frame of personal social services. Part two presents the research strategy used to analyze the institutional and organizations structure of personal social services in post-communist Lithuania: object of research, data sources and data gathering techniques, data analysis process and techniques. The analysis of institutional and organizational structure of personal social services in post-communist Lithuania is conducted in the third part of dissertation. Findings: the institutional and organizational structure of personal social services in post-communist Lithuania corresponds to Western structures, but the development was influenced by the legacy of communist period. / Disertacijoje tyrinėjama asmeninių socialinių paslaugų institucinė ir organizacinė struktūra Lietuvoje. Pagrindinis darbo tikslas – ištirti Vakarų šalių asmeninių socialinių paslaugų institucinės ir organizacinės struktūros pagrindinių bruožų raišką Lietuvoje. Disertacijos struktūrą lėmė išsikeltas tyrimo tikslas. Pirmoje darbo dalyje siekiama pateikti asmeninių socialinių paslaugų sampratą, išskiriant ją sudarančius elementus, kurių transformacijos analizuojamos kitose darbo dalyse. Antroje darbo dalyje pristatomi tyrimo objektai, duomenų šaltiniai ir duomenų rinkimo metodai, duomenų analizės metodai ir procesas. Trečiojoje darbo dalyje analizuojama Lietuvos asmeninių socialinių paslaugų institucinė ir organizacinė struktūra, siekiant identifikuoti Vakarų šalių asmeninių socialinių paslaugų institucinės ir organizacinės struktūros bruožus, bei atskleisti atitinkamo bruožo raišką sąlygojančius mechanizmus. Disertacijoje konstatuojama, kad Lietuvos asmeninių socialinių paslaugų institucinėje ir organizacinėje struktūroje galima identifikuoti tam tikrus Vakarų šalių bruožus, tačiau jų raiška yra veikiama iki nepriklausomybės atkūrimo buvusios institucinės ir organizacinės struktūros.

A tradição histórica da doutrina e prática constitucionais elegeu o Poder Legislativo como o centro por excelência de manifestação das aspirações de autogoverno. A revisão judicial, nesse cenário, costuma suscitar críticas e defesas das mais variadas, que contrapõem seu exercício à consolidação de direitos engendrada, por sua vez, no âmbito das legislaturas. Para uma compreensão geral do debate travado, é necessário compreender as raízes históricas norte-americanas do instituto da revisão judicial, assim como as teorias construídas para analisar o comportamento daqueles responsáveis por praticá-la os juízes. À luz de um renovado modelo comportamental fundado em aspectos institucionais, está-se diante de mudança de perspectiva quanto à análise da realização de direitos por diferentes atores políticos. Nesse sentido, não há que se falar na autoridade sobre última palavra decisória, mas na melhor solução por meio da interação entre instituições, no contexto das teorias do diálogo. / Traditional doctrine and constitutional practice have elected Parliament as the ultimate center for aspirations of self-government. Judicial Review, on that perspective, usually brings about all sorts of critics and defenses, in comparing its practice with the realization of rights entailed by legislative action and with regard to its legitimacy. For a general comprehension of the matter, one must first understand the historical roots of Judicial Reviews American origins, as well as the theories constructed in order to analyze the behavior of those responsible for practicing it the judges. In light of a renewed model for behavioral analysis that enhances the focus on institutional features, there is a change in perspective when it comes to the implementation of rights. No theories of last word on decisional authority can account for the new objectives in mind, since the best solution should be found through the interaction between institutions, an ideal prescribed by dialogue theories.

Crisis management includes efforts designed to prevent and to detect potential crises, and to learn from crisis experiences. The SCCT posits that certain crisis responses (matched) produce better outcomes for organizations than others (unmatched), depending on the situation. In addition, the results from this study attempt to support the situational crisis communication theory in aiding crisis managers in protecting their organizations against crises.

Disertacijoje tyrinėjama asmeninių socialinių paslaugų institucinė ir organizacinė struktūra Lietuvoje. Pagrindinis darbo tikslas – ištirti Vakarų šalių asmeninių socialinių paslaugų institucinės ir organizacinės struktūros pagrindinių bruožų raišką Lietuvoje. Disertacijos struktūrą lėmė išsikeltas tyrimo tikslas. Pirmoje darbo dalyje siekiama pateikti asmeninių socialinių paslaugų sampratą, išskiriant ją sudarančius elementus, kurių transformacijos analizuojamos kitose darbo dalyse. Antroje darbo dalyje pristatomi tyrimo objektai, duomenų šaltiniai ir duomenų rinkimo metodai, duomenų analizės metodai ir procesas. Trečiojoje darbo dalyje analizuojama Lietuvos asmeninių socialinių paslaugų institucinė ir organizacinė struktūra, siekiant identifikuoti Vakarų šalių asmeninių socialinių paslaugų institucinės ir organizacinės struktūros bruožus, bei atskleisti atitinkamo bruožo raišką sąlygojančius mechanizmus. Disertacijoje konstatuojama, kad Lietuvos asmeninių socialinių paslaugų institucinėje ir organizacinėje struktūroje galima identifikuoti tam tikrus Vakarų šalių bruožus, tačiau jų raiška yra veikiama iki nepriklausomybės atkūrimo buvusios institucinės ir organizacinės struktūros. / He objective of the dissertation is to identify the main features of Western personal social services in institutional and organizational structure of post-communist Lithuania. The first part of the dissertation is devoted to get analytical frame of personal social services. Part two presents the research strategy used to analyze the institutional and organizations structure of personal social services in post-communist Lithuania: object of research, data sources and data gathering techniques, data analysis process and techniques. The analysis of institutional and organizational structure of personal social services in post-communist Lithuania is conducted in the third part of dissertation. Findings: the institutional and organizational structure of personal social services in post-communist Lithuania corresponds to Western structures, but the development was influenced by the legacy of communist period.

A tradição histórica da doutrina e prática constitucionais elegeu o Poder Legislativo como o centro por excelência de manifestação das aspirações de autogoverno. A revisão judicial, nesse cenário, costuma suscitar críticas e defesas das mais variadas, que contrapõem seu exercício à consolidação de direitos engendrada, por sua vez, no âmbito das legislaturas. Para uma compreensão geral do debate travado, é necessário compreender as raízes históricas norte-americanas do instituto da revisão judicial, assim como as teorias construídas para analisar o comportamento daqueles responsáveis por praticá-la os juízes. À luz de um renovado modelo comportamental fundado em aspectos institucionais, está-se diante de mudança de perspectiva quanto à análise da realização de direitos por diferentes atores políticos. Nesse sentido, não há que se falar na autoridade sobre última palavra decisória, mas na melhor solução por meio da interação entre instituições, no contexto das teorias do diálogo. / Traditional doctrine and constitutional practice have elected Parliament as the ultimate center for aspirations of self-government. Judicial Review, on that perspective, usually brings about all sorts of critics and defenses, in comparing its practice with the realization of rights entailed by legislative action and with regard to its legitimacy. For a general comprehension of the matter, one must first understand the historical roots of Judicial Reviews American origins, as well as the theories constructed in order to analyze the behavior of those responsible for practicing it the judges. In light of a renewed model for behavioral analysis that enhances the focus on institutional features, there is a change in perspective when it comes to the implementation of rights. No theories of last word on decisional authority can account for the new objectives in mind, since the best solution should be found through the interaction between institutions, an ideal prescribed by dialogue theories.

O objetivo principal desta Tese é analisar e compreender as particularidades dos processos de criação de Consórcios Intermunicipais em três Estados brasileiros. Os Consórcios analisados são o Consórcio Intermunicipal de Produção e Abastecimento de São Luís (MA); o Consórcio Intermunicipal das Bacias do Alto Tamanduateí e Billings (Grande ABC-SP); os Consórcios Intermunicipais de Saúde de Minas Gerais. A questão central que orientou esta pesquisa foi a seguinte: como surgem os Consórcios Intermunicipais no Brasil, ao longo dos anos 90? Para responder esta questão, o trabalho foi estruturado a partir de três recortes: teórico, temático e empírico. Por meio do recorte teórico foi possível apresentar um arcabouço respaldado principalmente no que se convencionou chamar de formação de agendas de governo. Por meio do recorte temático foi possível localizar este estudo na órbita das questões relativas aos municípios brasileiros, bem como situar o debate sobre a cooperação intermunicipal ao longo do tempo. Por meio do recorte empírico realizou-se a pesquisa de campo orientada pela teoria previamente analisada. A hipótese central desta Tese é a de que a criação dos Consórcios Intermunicipais depende de dinâmicas locais nas quais dois fatores são fundamentais: a presença de um empreendedor de políticas públicas e a identificação de uma janela de oportunidades. Em outras palavras: os Consórcios Intermunicipais resultam de formas peculiares de como se articulam os interesses locais em torno de determinado \"setor\" de políticas públicas. / The main goal of this thesis is to analyse and comprehend the circumstances of the Intermunicipalities Consortia creation processes in three different Brazilian States. The Consortia chosen for analysis are: São Luis Intermunicipal Consortium of Production and Supply (MA), Tamanduateí and Billings Basins Intermunicipal Consortium (Great ABC - SP) and Minas Gerais Intermunicipal Consortia for Health. The main question that guided this research was the following: how do intermunicipal consortia appeared in Brazil along the 1990s? To answer the question, the thesis was structured in theoretical, thematic and empirical schemes. The groundwork mainly based on what was conveniently called the Creation of Government Agenda was possible through the theoretical scheme. Through the thematic scheme, it was possible to place this study in the scope of the questions related to the Brazilian municipalities, as well as establishing the debate about intermunicipal cooperation through time. Through the empirical scheme, a field research was realised based on the theory previously analysed. The main assumption of this thesis is that the creation of intermunicipal consortia depends on the local dynamics in which two factors are essential: the presence of an entrepreneur of public policies and the identification of a window of opportunities. In other words, intermunicipal consortia are a result of peculiar forms of how local interests become linked around a specific \"sector\" of public policies.