Purpose: The thesis determined how policy implementation and change management can be improved in Nigeria, with the health insurance scheme as the basis for narrative exploration. It sets out the similarities and differences in assumptions between supra-national organisations such as the World Bank and World Health Organisation on policy implementation and change management and those contained in the Nigerian national health policy; and those of people responsible for implementation in Nigerian organisations at a) the federal or national level and b) at sub-federal service delivery levels of the health insurance scheme. The study provides a framework of the dimensions that should be considered in policy implementation and change management in Nigeria, the nature of structural and infrastructural problems and wider societal context, and the ways in which conceptions of organisations and the variables that impact on organisations' capability to engage in policy implementation and change management differ from those in the West. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative approach in the form of a case study was used to track the transformation of a policy into practice through examining the assumptions and expectations about policy implementation of the organisations financing the policy's implementation through an examination of relevant documents concerning policy, strategy and guidelines on change management and policy implementation from these global organisations, and the Nigerian national health policy document. The next stages of field visits explored the assumptions, expectations and experiences of a) policy makers, government officials, senior managers and civil servants responsible for implementing policy in federal-level agencies through an interview programme and observations; and b) those of sub-federal or local-level managers responsible for service-level policy implementation of the health insurance scheme through an interview programme. Findings - There are conflicts between the rational linear approaches to change management and policy implementation advocated by supra-nationals, which argue that these processes can be controlled and managed by the rational autonomous individual, and the narratives of those who have personal experience of the quest for 'health for all'. The national health policy document mirrors the ideology of the global organisations that emphasise reform, efficiencies and private enterprise. However, the assumptions of these global organisations have little relevance to a Nigerian societal and organisational context, as experienced by the senior officials and managers interviewed. The very nature of organisations is called into question in a Nigerian context, and the problems of structure and infrastructure and ethnic and religious divisions in society seep into organisations, influencing how organisation is enacted. Understandings of the purpose and function of leadership and the workforce are also brought into question. Additionally, there are religion-based barriers to policy implementation, change management and organisational life which are rarely experienced in the West. Furthermore, in the absence of future re-orientation, the concept of strategy and vision seems redundant, as is the rationale for a health insurance scheme for the majority of the population. The absence of vision and credible information further hinder attempts to make decisions or to define the basis for determining results. Practical implications: The study calls for a revised approach to engaging with Nigerian organisations and an understanding of what specific terms mean in that context. For instance, the definitions and understanding of organisations and capacity are different from those used in the West and, as such, bring into question the relevance and applicability of Western-derived models or approaches to policy implementation and change management. A framework with four dimensions - societal context, external influences, seven organisational variables and infrastructural/structural problems - was devised to capture the particular ambiguities and complexities of Nigerian organisations involved in policy implementation and change management. Originality/value: This study combines concepts in management studies with those in policy studies, with the use of narrative approaches to the understanding of policy implementation and change management in a Nigerian setting. Elements of culture, religion and ethical values are introduced to further the understanding of policy making and implementation in non-Western contexts.

The overall aim of this study is to contribute to knowledge about the implementation of equality policies in public sector organisations. This is achieved through the development of a theoretical framework of feminist implementation studies. It involves the study of influential factors that impact upon the implementation process, with the aim of contributing to an understanding of the outcome of implementation processes within the equality policy field. The methodology used is based on qualitative case study research combined with a meta-analysis that allows for comparisons across cases. Four initiatives in the implementation of gender mainstreaming strategy were studied in different contexts, namely, two local municipalities and one government agency in Sweden. The main questions asked are: How was gender mainstreaming implemented? What were the main factors influencing the implementation process and why? What was the impact of change actors working to implement gender mainstreaming? The case studies were conducted using an interactive research approach where the different dilemmas encountered by the gender mainstreaming practitioners are used as a starting point for developing a joint learning process. The thesis comprises an introduction and five published papers. The main findings of the study include how the implementation process developed over time and the impact of the micropractices of the “gender mainstreamers” involved. The study provides insights into the factors influencing the implementation process, and how these factors change over time. Different types and levels of conflict, together and interlinked with different ambiguities, affect the practical work where dilemmas inherent in the concepts of “gender”, “equality” and “change” become central. Overall, the study shows how the specific preconditions for implementation of gender mainstreaming make the local arenas of implementation crucial for understanding the outcomes. / Syftet med avhandlingen är att bidra till kunskapen om implementeringen av jämlikhetsstrategier i offentliga organisationer. Detta görs genom utvecklingen av ett teoretiskt ramverk för implementeringsstudier med ett feministiskt perspektiv. För att bidra till en ökad förståelse av de resultat som nås inom jämlikhetspolitiken studeras faktorer som påverkar implementeringsprocessen. Studien är baserad på kvalitativa fallstudier och en meta-analys som möjliggör jämförelser mellan fallstudierna. Fyra olika fall av implementering av jämställdhetsintegreringsstrategin har studerats utifrån olika kontexter; i två svenska kommuner och en statlig myndighet. Avhandlingens huvudsakliga frågeställningar är: Hur implementerades jämställdhetsintegreringsstrategin? Vilka var de huvudsakliga faktorer som påverkade implementeringsprocessen och varför? Hur påverkades processen av de förändringsaktörer som arbetade med att implementera strategin? Fallstudierna har genomförts med en interaktiv forskningsansats i vilken olika dilemman i det praktiska arbetet har använts som utgångspunkt för en gemensam lärandeprocess med de som arbetat med implementeringen av strategin. Avhandlingen är en sammanläggningsavhandling och består av en introduktion och fem publicerade paper. Avhandlingens huvudsakliga resultat inkluderar hur implementeringsprocessen utvecklades över tid och den påverkan som "jämställdhetsintegrerarnas" mikropraktik haft på implementeringen. Avhandlingen visar vilka faktorer som påverkar  implementeringsprocessen samt att dessa varierar över tid. Olika slags konflikter påverkar tillsammans och sammanvävt med jämställdhetsstrategiers mångtydighet det praktiska arbetet i vilket dilemman rörande betydelsen av "kön", "jämlikhet/jämställdhet" och "förändring" blir centrala. Sammantaget visar avhandlingen hur de specifika förutsättningarna för implementering av  jämställdhetsintegreringsstrategin gör det lokala implementeringsarbetet avgörande för att förstå resultaten. / <p>The articles in this Ph.D. thesis are published in full text with kind permisson from Studentlitteratur (article I, II and V), TGV (article II) and VINNOVA (article IV).</p>

Magistro baigiamajame darbe analizuojamos nevyriausybinės organizacijos aplinkosaugos srityje ir jų indėlis aplinkos apsaugos politikos kūrime ir įgyvendinime. Darbo tikslas - atskleisti Lietuvos nevyriausybinių aplinkosauginių organizacijų vaidmenį aplinkos apsaugos politikos formavimo ir įgyvendinimo procese. Analizuojant mokslinę literatūrą šia tema pateikta teorinė darbo dalis, kurioje analizuojami pagrindiniai su aplinkosauginių NVO veikla susiję aspektai bei aplinkos apsaugos politikos sistema Lietuvoje. Pirmojoje darbo dalyje pateikiama išsami teisės aktų, reglamentuojančių NVO veiklą, analizė, aprašoma nevyriausybinių aplinkosauginių organizacijų sistema, analizuojamos pagrindinės veiklos formos bei problemos, su kuriomis susiduria organizacijos. Antrajame skyriuje aprašoma aplinkos apsaugos politikos sistemos ypatumai Lietuvoje. Čia analizuojami aplinkosauginių NVO ir valstybinių institucijų bendradarbiavimo klausimai bei pateikiama užsienio valstybių patirtis. Atlikto Lietuvos nevyriausybinių aplinkosauginių organizacijų vaidmens aplinkos apsaugos politikoje tyrimo analizė pateikiama trečiojoje darbo dalyje. Šį tyrimą sudaro trys dalys: Aplinkosauginių NVO teikiamos informacijos internetiniuose tinklapiuose analizė, Aplinkosauginių NVO pozicija aplinkos apsaugos politikos klausimais, ir Valstybinių institucijų požiūris į aplinkosauginių NVO vaidmenį aplinkos apsaugos politikoje. Pirmoji dalis atskleidžia aplinkosauginių NVO vykdomas veiklas, jų pagrindinius... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / This master’s thesis analyses and highlights the non governmental organizations in the range of environmental protection and their input into the environmental policy-making and implementation. The aim of this paper is to reveal Lithuania‘s non-governmental environmental organizations‘ part in the process of forming and implementing politics of environment protection. The theoretical part of this paper consists in a synthesis of scientific literature on this topic, which analyses the key to the environmental activities of non-governmental organization and related aspects of environmental policy in Lithuania. In the first part of work it is given comprehensive analysis of the right, regulating NGOs actions, also described non-governmental environment protection scheme, analysed the main forms and problems of the actions, which organisation faces. In the second part it is given the singularities of the politics of environment protection in Lithuania. Here are analysed the topics of collaboration of environment protection NGOs and governmental institutions and also presented experience of foreign countries. The analysis of The non-governmental environmental organizations‘ part in environmental policy in Lithuania research is given in the third part of this paper. It is made out of three sections: The analysis of environmental NGOs given on the internet webpages, The environmental NGOs attitude towards environmental policy, and The governmental institutions‘ attitude towards... [to full text]

Baigiamajame magistro darbe analizuojama integruotos keleivinio transporto politikos įgyvendinimas Lietuvoje, aptariama politikos formavimo ir įgyvendinimo procesas bei integruotos keleivinio transporto politikos kūrimas, vertinamos politikos įgyvendinimo priemonės, jų pasirinkimas ir įgyvendinimo sėkmingumas, pristatomi svarbiausi Europos Sąjungos teisės aktų reikalavimai ir jų nuostatų pritaikymas bei įgyvendinimas Lietuvos politikos procese. / The thesis analyzes integrated passenger transport policy implementation in Lithuania, discusses the design and implementation process of an integrated passenger transport policy development, describes policy assessment measures, their selection and the success of their implementation, and introduces the most important EU legislative requirements and the application of these provisions in Lithuania’s transport policy.

In this study, I examine the factors that influence school districts’ commitment to implement ESL (English as a Second Language) education in compliance with the federal Bilingual Education Act of 1968. To explain variation in implementation effort, I focus on several features of the local implementation environment, including the role of Latino descriptive representation. Utilizing data on all public school districts in Texas, I employ a Heckman two-stage estimation procedure that accounts for factors that influence school districts’ decisions to implement bilingual education programs as well as factors that affect the amount of resources school districts are willing to allocate towards bilingual education. The results indicate that Latino school board and teacher representation play a positive and statistically significant role in determining: 1) whether school districts implement bilingual education programs; and 2) the level of expenditures and teacher positions allocated towards bilingual education. Thus, policy implementation outcomes translate into substantive representation.

Canada’s official languages policy makes English and French the country’s official languages in federal institutions. The policy has succeeded in fostering equitable representation of both official languages groups in the federal public service and has improved capacities for the public service to serve the citizenry in its official language of choice. It is a puzzle however, that despite these advances, the Canadian federal public service continues to operate predominantly in English when both official languages on paper are equal languages of work. To explore this puzzle this dissertation asks: why, despite the promise of the Official Languages Act (OLA) 1969 for choice in language of work and the OLA 1988 that made the choice a claimable right, is there inequitable access to French as a language of work in the federal public service? Framed through a historical institutionalist approach and layering, this project analyzes the implementation of the official languages program in the federal public service from 1967-2013. This thesis argues that the implementation of the official languages program could not challenge the federal public service’s path dependency to operate predominantly in English. By analyzing the roles of actors and institutions that influenced the process, this dissertation finds that lack of structural change, inadequate managerial engagement and a false sense that official languages are engrained in the public service, can explain the persistence of English as the dominant language of work.

This study is an historical study of parent participation in school level decision making, particularly in curriculum issues, in relation to the Victorian Government policies of Devolution through the 1980s. It was conducted as a case study of one rural secondary school, examining how the role of parents in the school�s curriculum development and associated decision making structures may have changed during the decade from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. Three conceptual models were established, which served as analytical frameworks for the field data: a Theory model of how school level participation could operate, a Policies model deriving from the expectations of the major Government policies of the time, and an Historical model based on research and analyses of practice in Australia and overseas. The findings indicate that little effective parent participation developed or took place in the school over the period under study. Major contributing factors identified are the lack of policy direction and official mechanisms, especially in implementation of change, the definition of appropriate participant roles, the culture of traditional authorities in education (teacher in the classroom, principal in school processes and bureaucracy in administration), and the local factors of community attitudes and demographic profile. While the local factors are significant, it is concluded that the policies did not provide sufficient direction or mechanism to overcome the entrenched culture of traditional authorities in schooling. Changes in practice were directed more by the influence of specific personalities in single situations than any development of general attitude or institutional structure.

abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore features of Supplemental Educational Services (SES) implementation at the district level. In the study beliefs, goals, and actions of district office administrators were analyzed against the backdrop of changing federal guidelines and challenges faced by SES implementers across Arizona. The case study focuses on implementation in the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2009-2010 school years. The study uses the 2005 and 2009 Department of Education guidelines, survey responses from Arizona district and school implementers, as well as documents and interviews from an urban Arizona case district. The study separates the implementation activities into task areas, which are analyzed separately. Using a loose coupling perspective, the separate task areas are furthered used as coupling domains and represented in social network graphs. Results show that the case district personnel were highly focused on their primary role, maintaining district compliance with federal guidelines. The district personnel employed several changes over the case study period to centralize their control of SES operations within district. The employment and training of site level coordinators was the most impactful of the strategies. As boundary spanners, the coordinators allowed greater access to information, oversight, and influence at the site level. Despite the growing capacity and earnest efforts of the district personnel, the case district was still very far from being able to measure or assess the impact of SES on student achievement. Centralization in the scholastic task areas was relatively low, and had marginal changes over the case study period. Years into the program, there was still no avenue to accurately gauge the effectiveness. As the district personnel were chiefly concerned with compliance, they had suspended judgment on the program and focused primarily on improving their processes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2011

abstract: The purpose of this study was to understand what promotes or hinders the implementation of a high school education reform policy in Arizona schools from the perspective of a nonprofit organization that served an active and intentional role as an intermediary organization working directly with schools and policymakers. The study was intended to facilitate implementation of the education reform policy in the school sites, to gain knowledge that will be used to inform future cycles of planning and implementation, and to influence state policy. This study was an explanatory nonexperimental multiple case study involving five high schools across Arizona. The study focused on the early phase of implementation of the education reform policy. A mixed methods case study design grounded in the tradition of participatory action research was employed. Data were collected through surveys, interviews, observations, focus groups, and a document review. The results suggest that the education reform policy was implementable in diverse schools across the state. However, how the education reform policy was implemented in each school site appeared to vary. A number of factors seemed to influence the actual implementation process including the design and understanding of the reform, selection process, district context and school characteristics, and school capacity to undertake the reform. The findings suggest that the nonprofit organization that served as an intermediary organization within the study influenced the implementation process. It appears that this primarily took place by providing direct assistance to the schools, creating opportunities for collaboration and communication across the multiple school sites implementing the same education reform policy, and serving as a connector to other organizations, policymakers, and the larger public. The study resulted in the nonprofit organization's deeper understanding of the complexity of implementing the education reform policy, the challenges schools face in implementing the reform, and the factors that appear to promote or impede the implementation process. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2012

p. 1-224 / Submitted by Santiago Fabio (fabio.ssantiago@hotmail.com) on 2013-03-13T19:22:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 99999a.pdf: 1747605 bytes, checksum: 40da942ce532ba52bc1409b3a578da5a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rodrigo Meirelles(rodrigomei@ufba.br) on 2013-03-23T14:14:46Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 99999a.pdf: 1747605 bytes, checksum: 40da942ce532ba52bc1409b3a578da5a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-03-23T14:14:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 99999a.pdf: 1747605 bytes, checksum: 40da942ce532ba52bc1409b3a578da5a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Esse trabalho utilizou o modelo proposto por Michael Lipsky (1980) para analisar a implementação da política de Avaliação da Aprendizagem em 163 escolas públicas urbanas situadas em 11 municípios do Estado da Bahia, no período 2002-2003. Para esse autor, a burocracia de linha de frente – funcionários públicos em contato direto com o cidadão – , no desenvolvimento do seu trabalho, cria estratégias de enfrentamento para lidar com as dificuldades e pressões inerentes ao serviço público. Ao fazê-lo, altera as políticas públicas sob sua responsabilidade, caracterizando, em última análise, o seu formato final. Aplicando esse modelo ao estudo da política de Avaliação da Aprendizagem, em um primeiro momento, foi feito o levantamento das orientações oficiais que a representaram sob a ótica de seus formuladores (Secretaria da Educação do Estado e Universidade Federal da Bahia, através do Projeto de Avaliação Externa). Em seguida esse desenho foi contrastado com os padrões de prática relatados pelas escolas responsáveis pela implementação da Avaliação de Aprendizagem, na busca de desvios de implementação, analisando-os à luz de suas condições de trabalho. As informações provenientes das 163 escolas foram coletadas a partir da leitura, categorização e tabulação de 654 Relatórios do Diretor encaminhados à equipe central da Avaliação em seis unidades letivas de 2002 e 2003. Verificou-se que, de 48 possibilidades de associação das condições de trabalho aos padrões de prática relatados, apenas 08 tiveram um resultado mediano a forte, o que abre uma discussão sobre possíveis outras causas para o estabelecimento dessas práticas. Além disso, das três etapas da política na escola (planejamento, aplicação e uso), concluiu-se que os padrões de prática associados à etapa de aplicação dos instrumentos não provocaram um redesenho da Avaliação de Aprendizagem, mas aqueles relacionados à fase de planejamento e de utilização dos dados implicaram em dificuldades e usos não previstos inicialmente pelos formuladores da política, sendo, portanto, as etapas que merecem maior atenção quando da proposta de novos desenhos de avaliação em larga escala. / Salvador