IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v6y1988i2p159-172.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Organisational Approach to Analysis of Policy Innovation by Local Authorities in Britain: The Importance of the Concepts of Scrutiny, Conflict, and Centralisation

Author

Listed:
  • F J Burdett

    (Department of Geography, Bath College of Higher Education, Bath BA2 9BN, England)

  • M G Bradford

    (Department of Geography, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, England)

Abstract

In this paper an organisational approach is used to study the timing, duration, and outcome of the policymaking on public provision of local authorities. The organisation is considered as an intervening analytical level that bridges the gap between the effect of individual actors and that of the structure of society on the geography of public provision. Drawing on the literature of organisation theory, we analyse the effects of processes within organisations to help explain variation in public provision between authorities. The separate and combined effects of three major organisational concepts are examined: Scrutiny, conflict, and centralisation. These concepts are applied to policy innovation in four English local authorities, and specifically to their policies for the adoption of new technology in schools. Although the separate effects of the concepts help our understanding, it is their interaction which makes a significant contribution to the explanation of the timing and duration of policy innovation, as well as explaining the policy outcome, which was the aim of most previous work. Further understanding is gained when these concepts are set within the context of the overall structure and behaviour of the organisation.

Suggested Citation

  • F J Burdett & M G Bradford, 1988. "An Organisational Approach to Analysis of Policy Innovation by Local Authorities in Britain: The Importance of the Concepts of Scrutiny, Conflict, and Centralisation," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 6(2), pages 159-172, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:6:y:1988:i:2:p:159-172
    DOI: 10.1068/c060159
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c060159
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/c060159?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William H. Starbuck, 1982. "Congealing Oil: Inventing Ideologies To Justify Acting Ideologies Out," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 3-27, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hallensleben, Tobias & Jain, Anil K., 2012. ""Wir müssen hier sehr schnell konstruieren": Diskurs und Institutionelle Reflexivität," Papers and Preprints of the Department of Innovation Research and Sustainable Resource Management 3/2012, Chemnitz University of Technology, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    2. Dierkes, Meinolf, 1988. "Unternehmenskultur und Unternehmensführung: konzeptionelle Ansätze und gesicherte Erkenntnisse," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 58(5/6), pages 554-575.
    3. Kosheleva, S.V. & Zavyalova, E.K. & Tsybova, V.S. & Kucherov, D.G. & Alsufyev, A.I., 2014. "Managing innovation in Russian competitive companies:The role of HRM," Working Papers 6388, Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University.
    4. Martina K. Linnenluecke & Andrew Griffiths & Monika Winn, 2012. "Extreme Weather Events and the Critical Importance of Anticipatory Adaptation and Organizational Resilience in Responding to Impacts," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 17-32, January.
    5. Alan D. Meyer & Vibha Gaba & Kenneth A. Colwell, 2005. "Organizing Far from Equilibrium: Nonlinear Change in Organizational Fields," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(5), pages 456-473, October.
    6. Mazur Karolina, 2019. "Symbolic action and organizational resources acquisition and exploitation," Management, Sciendo, vol. 23(2), pages 32-48, December.
    7. Xixi Li & J. J. Po-An Hsieh & Arun Rai, 2013. "Motivational Differences Across Post-Acceptance Information System Usage Behaviors: An Investigation in the Business Intelligence Systems Context," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 659-682, September.
    8. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4638 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Juha-Antti Lamberg & Jukka Luoma, 2021. "Ideology in Vicarious Learning–Related Communication," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(3), pages 708-730, May.
    10. Philippe Baumard, 1998. "Starbuck, William Haynes (1934 –)," Post-Print hal-03230911, HAL.
    11. Rogers, Patricia J. & Hough, Gary, 1995. "Improving the effectiveness of evaluations: Making the link to organizational theory," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 321-332.
    12. Goran Vlašić & Josef Langer, 2012. "Concept of reputation: different perspectives and robust empirical understandings," Tržište/Market, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 24(2), pages 219-244.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:6:y:1988:i:2:p:159-172. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.