The research values of policy analysts

While there is growing consensus that conventional notions of the scientific method do not exhaust the methodological needs of policy analysis (at least applied analysis), there is less agreement as to what an improved method would entail. As a result, policy analysts must choose among often competing notions of what constitutes valid policy inquiry. Data from a content analysis of six policy journal articles together with responses from a survey of authors are used to determine what choices are made and whether these matter. Two sets of research norms are discovered within the policy studies community’one which mirrors traditional social science values and another which reflects recent attempts to adjust that methodology to meet the information needs of policy actors. Equally important, values tend, albeit slightly, to condition the character (e.g., degree of rigor or focus) of policy research. David M. Hedge is an associate professor of political science and director of the graduate program in public policy at West Virginia University. His research interests include regulatory politics, intergovernmental relations, and state politics/policy. Jin W. Mok is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Northern Iowa. His area of interests are public policy and methodology.     

The Influence of Values, Information, and Decision Orders on a Public Policy Decision

An experiment was conducted to determine the influence of personal values, information, and decision order on choice and commitment to choice when the decision involved a complex matter of public policy. Findings indicated that values determined piorities, but not decisions; information did not influence choice, but had a curvilinear effect on the commitment to the choice; the decision order did not influence the components of the decision process, but did determine the proportion of value-consistent decisions. The significance of these findings to public policy and the need for future research are discussed.     

Teaching ethics in engineering and computer science: A panel discussion

At a conference, two engineering professors and a philosophy professor discussed the teaching of ethics in engineering and computer science. The panelists considered the integration of material on ethics into technical courses, the role of ethical theory in teaching applied ethics, the relationship between cases and codes of ethics, the enlisting of support of engineering faculty, the background needed to teach ethics, and the assessment of student outcomes. Several audience members contributed comments, particularly on teaching ethical theory and on student assessment. This panel discussion took place at a mini-conference, Practicing and Teaching Ethics in Engineering and Computing, held during the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, Washington, D.C., March 8–9, 1997. Biographical information on panelists: Charles Glagola is an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Florida. He is a registered professional engineer in the states of Florida and Alabama. Before coming to academia, he had extensive industry experience culminating with his owning and operating a construction and engineering firm in Pensacola, Florida. He currently teaches engineering ethics as part of a professional issues course in the Department of Civil Engineering, and a one-hour engineering ethics course that is offered to all engineering students through the College of Engineering. Moshe Kam is professor of electrical and computer engineering at Drexel University. He heads Drexel’s Data Fusion Laboratory which specializes in multisensor systems and robot navigation. His professional interests include detection and estimation, distributed decision making, forensic applications of image processing, and engineering ethics. Michael Loui is professor of electrical and computer engineering and associate dean of the Graduate College at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From 1990 to 1991, he served at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. His scholarly interests include computational complexity theory, theory of parallel and distributed computation, fault-tolerant software, and professional ethics. Caroline Whitbeck is a philosopher of science, technology and medicine and is the Elmer G. Beamer-Hubert H. Shneider Professor in Ethics at Case-Western Reserve University. She also directs the WWW Ethics Center for Engineering & Science— http://ethics.cwru.edu— under a grant from the National Science Foundation. The focus of her current work is practical ethics, especially ethics in scholarly and scientific research. Her book, Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research, will appear from Cambridge University Press in winter 1997–98.     

Biomedical science in supermarket tabloids

Supermarket tabloids present, as truthful, stories about biomedical science that are greatly exaggerated and often fictitious. Apparently a sizable portion of their large readership accepts these stories as correct. This is “scientific journalism” at its worst, but its standards are not wholly different from those of the mainline press. Allan Mazur is both a sociologist and a technologist. He received an M.S. in Engineering from UCLA and worked for several years as an aerospace engineer before obtaining a Ph.D. in sociology from Johns Hopkins University. He has been a member of the social science faculties of MIT and Stanford University, and is currently a professor in Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.The Dynamics of Technical Controversy (1981) is his major work on public disputes over technology, and he continues to work in this area as well as in biosociology.     

A simulation-based assessment of the value of enhancing the credibility of policy analysis

Credibility has been proposed recently as a standard for assessing the value of policy analysis. While various strategies for enhancing the credibility of policy analysis are available, little evidence exists concerning to what extent and under what circumstances implementing such strategies does, in fact, increase the value of policy analysis in terms of improving organizational decisionmaking. In this paper computer simulation—a methodological approach that has not been widely used to date in the field of knowledge application—is used to begin, to fill this gap. Specifically, the “garbage-can” model of decisionmaking developed by Cohen, March and Olsen (1972) has been modified to reflect a possible contribution of policy analysis to decisionmaking. Using this model, the extent to which enhancing credibility results in improved organizational decisionmaking under various circumstances is examined. Marvin B. Mandell is an assistant professor of policy sciences at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. His present research is focused on quantitative techniques for policy analysis and evaluation and the use of analytical information in decisionmaking.     

The market logic of information

Futurists have imagined the Internet as a separate “cyberspace” and as a force for an idealized marketplace. Business practice and economic theory, however, lead to a different picture. (1) “Always-on” connections bring new interface problems and social skills. (2) Reduced transaction costs and increased economies of scale bring outsourcing, concentration, and globalized economy of focused monopolies. (3) The economies of scope inherent in modular computing systems bring “shallow diversity”: processes and products generated by a common underlying framework. This new picture omits many countervailing factors. Even so, the very existence of alternative scenarios should sharpen questions for research. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from MIT in 1989, having conducted dissertation research in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory on computational models of improvised activities. Before arriving at UCLA he taught at the University of Sussex and UC San Diego, and has been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago and the University of Paris. He is the author of Computation and Human Experience (Cambridge University Press, 1997), and the coeditor of Technology and Privacy: The New Landscape (with Marc Rotenberg, MIT Press, 1997), Reinventing Technology, Rediscovering Community: Critical Studies in Computing as a Social Practice (with Douglas Schuler and Ablex, 1997), and Computational Theories of Internation and Agency (with Stanley J. Rosenschein, MIT Press, 1996). His current research concerns the role of emerging information technologies in institutional change; including privacy policy and the networked university. He edits an Internet mailing list called the Red Rock Eater News Service that distributes useful information on the social and political aspects of networking and computing to 5, 000 people in 60 countries.     

Biomedical science in supermarket tabloids

Supermarket tabloids present, as truthful, stories about biomedical science that are greatly exaggerated and often fictitious. Apparently a sizable portion of their large readership accepts these stories as correct. This is "scientific journalism" at its worst, but its standards are not wholly different from those of the mainline press. Reprinted from Knowledge and Policy: The International Journal of Knowledge Transfer and Utilization, Fall 1989, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 74–81. Allan Mazur is both a sociologist and a technologist. He received an M.S. in Engineering from UCLA and worked for several years as an aerospace engineer before obtaining a Ph.D. in sociology from Johns Hopkins University. He has been a member of the social science faculties of MIT and Stanford University, and is currently a professor in Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The Dynamics of Technical Controversy (1981) is his major work on public disputes over technology, and he continues to work in this area as well as in biosociology.     

Design and development of next generation of information infrastructure: Case studies of broadband public network and digital city

A comparative case study is conducted on three digital city (public networks) projects. The focus of the study is on the processes involved in the development of such networks and the consequences of such networks. This study looks at (1) two broadband network projects in Central New York and (2) one digital city project in Korea. For the U.S. cases, this study discusses problems in the development of public network projects in Central New York. The two broadband projects were funded under a state program to diffuse broadband technologies in economically depressed areas of the state. The digital city project was sanctioned by the Seoul metropolitan government and is now being developed. This study investigates the initiation of the information infrastructure projects, their policy formulation processes, and the development of such projects. A new praxis of new information infrastructure is recommended. He earned his Ph.D. and Master in Information Science and Telecommunications from Syracuse University. He researches and consults on telecommunications management and policy. He also researches telecommunications and information infrastructure regulation. His interests expand to include evaluating the processes and impact of large technological projects and policy by using qualitative and quantitative case study methods.     

行为公共管理学视角下公共决策的社会许可机制：“一提两抑”

公共管理的本质是公共决策。“公共决策的社会许可”指当地民众对于公共决策的持续接受和支持程度, 是公共决策合法性的基石。本研究借助“行为公共管理学”的理论视角, 通过两个调查实验(N = 354 + 354), 一个现场调查(N = 520), 全面考察公共决策透明(过程透明和内容透明)与社会许可之间的因果关系, 进而明确这一关系的作用边界。结果发现：1) 决策过程透明与内容透明正向影响社会许可; 2) 政府信任调节决策内容透明与社会许可的关系; 3) 结果依赖调节两类透明与社会许可的关系。基于这些结果, 作者总结出正性的“决策透明效应”以及“谨慎的不介意”和“有选择的忽视”之双缓冲作用, 即“一提两抑”, 以更好地理解公共决策的社会许可机制。     

Trusting in others’ biases: Fostering guarded trust in collaborative filtering and recommender systems

Collaborative filtering is being used within organizations and in community contexts for knowledge management and decision support as well as the facilitation of interactions among individuals. This article analyzes rhetorical and technical efforts to establish trust in the constructions of individual opinions, reputations, and tastes provided by these systems. These initiatives have some important parallels with early efforts to support quantitative opinion polling and construct the notion of “public opinion.” The article explores specific ways to increase trust in these systems, albeit a “guarded trust” in which individuals actively seek information about system foibles and analyze the reputations of participants. She received her MBA, MA, MS, and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She taught computer information systems and public policy at Baruch College of the City University of New York and also taught in the School of Business and the Computer Sciences Department at UW-Madison. In the 1990s, she served as the chair of the Privacy Council of the State of Wisconsin, the nation’s first state-level council dealing with information technology and privacy issues. She has written several books (including Virtual Individuals, Virtual Groups: Human Dimensions of Groupware and Computer Networking, Cambridge University Press and Home as Information Space: Electronic Commerce and the Domestication of Computer Networking, forthcoming). She has worked for public television and developed software along with her academic ventures.     

Transferring the technology,policy, and management concept from the Netherlands to China

The literature on policy transfer between countries and organization has seen rapid growth. Whether framed in terms of policy transfer, institutional transplantation, imitation and emulation or copying policy models and ideas, a sizeable number of determinants for success have been identified to understand why such conceptual or institutional transfers grow out to become successes or failures in their countries or organizations of adoption. What is much less common is to describe such a process through the lens of participants inside this transfer. This paper is an attempt to do just that. It will tell the story of the higher-educational concept of Technology, Policy and Management from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands to Harbin Institute of Technology in China, studied by means of participatory observation. The keys and clues for successful transplantation from the literature will subsequently be compared with the experiences from this case, and additional lessons, some of which are specific to Western-Chinese mutual learning, are formulated. Martin de Jong is associate professor of policy, organization and management at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management of Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. He publishes and lectures mainly on subjects of cross-national policy transfer, cross-cultural management and transport infrastructure policy. He is also responsible for the international master program Engineering and Policy Analysis, for which he has helped to set up a Chinese counterpart with the same name. Xi Bao is professor of public management and real estate management at the School of Management and the National Centre of Technology, Policy and Management of Harbin Institute of Technology, People’s Republic of China. He is also a co-director of the National Centre of TPM in China and lectures and publishes mainly on real estate management and infrastructure policy.     

Continuities in the development of the physical and social sciences: Principles of a new social physics

The original concept of “social physics” was built on positivist philosophy and scientific method. Evidence from quantum physics suggests that a postpositivist “social physics” may yet be viable, not because social science should emulate physics, but because physics is more like social science. The five principles of complementarty, uncertainty, the measurement problem, nonlocal causation, and participatory collusion are presented in this article to demonstrate the contemporary convergence of the physical and social sciences into a new social physics. E. Sam Overman is associate professor of public affairs at the Graduate School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado at Denver, Denver CO 80204. He recently editedMethodology and Epistemology for Social Science, selected papers by Donald T. Campbell (University of Chicago Press, 1988). He has published other articles on policy physics and social science philosophy, and has conducted research and published extensively in the area of information resource policy and management.     

Legal aspects of decision-enhancing technologies

As advances in computer-based systems (CBS) have continued, development problems can occur which can adversely affect systems developers and users of these technologies, especially those designed to improve or affect decision making. One major difficulty concerns the legal liability that can occur as a result of defective or flawed systems development efforts. This article discusses several types of decision-enhancing technologies and how problems associated with the adequacy of testing of system design and appropriateness of warnings and directions/instructions dealing with CBS could adversely affect CBS developers from a legal perspective. Several propositions and suggested research perspectives are also presented. He received his Ph.D. in computer information systems from Arizona State University. His research interests include the impact on organizations and individuals of information systems and the potential legal liability to systems developers brought about by defective computer-based systems. His research has appeared inMIS Quarterly, Information & Management, AI Expert, AI & Society, Educational andPsychological Measurement andInformation Resources Management Journal. Kathleen Mykytyn is a consultant and research specializing in the impact of information systems and technologies on individuals and organizations. Her research has been published inMIS Quarterly, AI & Society, AI Expert, andInformation & Management.     

What do decision models tell us about information use?

This paper develops hypotheses about the implications of different types of decision for the utilization of different types of systematically produced information: data, research, and analysis. The engineering and enlightenment models found in the knowledge utilization literature prove inadequate for this purpose. We turn to three decision models—routine, incremental, and fundamental–and determine their implied demands for information. We also examine how information might be used in scanning procedures in anticipation of decision regime shifts. The results suggest that patterns of information should differ markedly in each decision context and indicate that there may be an inherent bias against the use of research in decision. Evert A. Lindquist, a doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Calfornia at Berkeley, is completing a dissertation onPolicy Institutes in Canada: The Organization and Relevance of Public Inquiry and will join the faculty of the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto this fall. Organizations, public policy, and the role of information in decision making are among his primary research interests.     

Linking actors and models for water policy development in Egypt: Analyzing actors and their options

Policy development in the field of water resources management is traditionally supported by various analysis tools and planning models. Recent years have shown increasing attention for the social dimension of policy development, as this involves different actors interacting in an attempt to satisfy their interests. This requires information on the technical and financial aspects of policy options and information on the roles and interests of different actors. The use of the analysis of options technique is explored in this article, with the aim of incorporating such information in the development of a new water policy for Egypt. His main research interest is in the use of actor analysis to support decision making in the field of water resources management, and he has worked on actor analyses for water projects in Yemen, Egypt, and The Netherlands. He received his M.Sc. in Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management from Delft University of Technology in 1999. Nader El-Masry works as a water resources engineer for the National Water Resources Pan Project at the Ministry of Water resources and Irrigation in Egypt. In this position, he is involved in the development of a national water resources plan that should match Egypt’s water demands and supplies until the year 2017. He holds an M.Sc. in Water Resources and Environmental Management, from IHE, Delft, The Netherlands. Tarek Sadek has 12 years of experience in the field of hydrogeology, hydraulics, geomorphology, water resources management and environmental science. Currently, he is director of the National Water Resources Plan Project at the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation in Egypt. He holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of Cairo University (1988), an M.Sc. in Hydrology from the Department of Engineering Hydrology, University College Galway (UCG, 1992), Republic of Ireland, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Australia (1997).     

The Influence of Compensation Method and Disclosure Level on Information Search Strategy and Escalation of Commitment

In this study we examined the extent to which compensation method and public disclosure influenced information search strategy and escalation of commitment. A laboratory experiment involving 182 student subjects employed a 3 (compensation: no-pay, salary, and contingent) by 2 (disclosure level: public and private) fully randomized, crossed design. Results show that in light of negative feedback concerning performance results of an investment portfolio, subjects whose initial allocation decisions were announced publicly reduced their search for prospective information, increased the search for retrospective information, and exhibited greater escalation of commitment than subjects who did not announce their initial investment strategy. The search for retrospective information and escalation of commitment was monotonically higher across the no-pay, salary, and contingent pay conditions respectively, while the search for prospective information decreased correspondingly. This study provides evidence that escalation of commitment is positively related to the search for retrospective information and negatively related to the search for prospective information. The results obtained from this experiment complement and extend prior work in the areas of accountability, cognitive dissonance and escalation of commitment. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Strategic types in institution building: A fit perspective

It is generally accepted that the institutionalization of new knowledge is the final stage in the process of knowledge diffusion and utilization, suggesting the need for conceptual models of institution building strategy. We describe four strategic types of institution building, which involve a transfer of knowledge and programs from a home setting to a host setting: consulting, management, adaptation, and entrepreneurial. The strategic types are conceptually derived in terms of the fit between the institutional components—content, context, and environment—in both home and host settings. Daniel S. Fogel received his B.S. and M.A. from the Pennsylvania State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. He is currently Associate Dean and Director, Center for International Enterprise Development, and professor of business administration at the University of Pittsburgh. His two recent books areManaging in Emerging Market Economies: Volumes I and II. His current research focuses on strategic flexibility and innovation in interorganizational networks.     

Can designing and selling low-quality products be ethical?

Whereas previous studies have criticized low-quality products for inadequate safety, this paper considers only safe products, and it examines the ethics of designing and selling low-quality products. Product quality is defined as suitability to a general purpose. The duty that companies owe to consumers is summarized in the Consumer-Oriented Process principle: “to place an increase in the consumer’s quality of life as the primary goal for producing products.” This principle is applied in analyzing the primary ethical justifications for low-quality products: availability and applicability. Finally, a low-quality product should be designed afresh, not by altering an existing high-quality product. Supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant CCR-9315696. The views, opinions, and conclusions of this paper are not necessarily those of the University of Illinois or the National Science Foundation. A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, St. Louis, Mo., February 29 to March 2, 1996. Willem Bakker is an undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is majoring in computer engineering and philosophy. Michael Loui is professor of electrical and computer engineering and associate dean of the Graduate College at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From 1990 to 1991, he served at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. His scholarly interests include computational complexity theory, theory of parallel and distributed computation, faulttolerant software, and professional ethics.     

Organizational learning and climate as predictors of self-efficacy

This study broadens organizational contextual considerations by examining organizational learning, participation in organizational learning activities and organizational climate as possible predictors of self-efficacy. As schools have been studied as organizations (Handy, 1986, Understanding schools as organizations, Harmondsworth: Penguin; Ostroff, 1993, Organization Behavior and Human Decision Process, 56, 56–90; Ostroff & Schmitt, 1993, Acadamy of Management Journal, 36(6), 1345–1361), this study provides regression results from n = 679 teachers and indicated that organizational climate and organizational learning were significant predictors of teacher self efficacy, controlling for several individual level variables (i.e., participation in organizational learning, personal self-efficacy, and teaching efficacy). Differences between results from the sample of teachers and n = 734 non-teachers (e.g., principals, assistant principals, administrators, counselors, paraprofessional, custodial, food service, and transportation staff) were examined with regard to predictor variables for teaching efficacy. For teachers, both organizational learning and personal self-efficacy were significant predictors of teaching efficacy, whereas for the group of non-teachers, they were not. In both groups, however, participation in organizational learning was a significant predictor, while organizational climate was not (contrary to Taylor & Tashakkori, 1995, Journal of Experimental Education, 63(3), 217–230). Overall, findings provide evidence for extending the research beyond schools and including organizational learning as a potentially important variable in further studying individual outcomes and organizational effectiveness. Dr. Timothy J. Tobin is Director of Training and Development at Beers & Cutler PLLC. He is responsible for designing, implementing, and evaluating the firm’s organizational climate and learning organization initiatives. He is also an adjunct professor at Trinity University and The George Washington University where he teaches organizational behavior, human resource management, and training courses among others. He is the recipient of Human Capital Magazine’s Future Human Capital Leader Award. His current research interests include the interplay between organizational culture, identity, and learning. Dr. Ralph O. Mueller is professor of educational research and of public policy and public administration at The George Washington University, Washington, DC, and former Chair of its Department of Educational Leadership. His scholarly interests include proper applications of and reliability assessment in structural equation modeling (SEM). He is the author/co-editor of two SEM textbooks, among other writings. Ralph is past chair of the American Educational Research Association’s special interest group on SEM, serves on the editorial boards of several methodological and applied research journals, and conducts regular SEM training sessions for national and international audiences. Dr. Lauren M. Turner is senior lecturer at Northeastern University in the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Professional and Continuing Studies. Current teaching focuses on leadership studies. Lauren also facilitates in the Vogt Leadership Program with The Boston Consortium for Higher Education. Work-based learning, including action learning and facilitation, is at the core of her efforts to combine classroom and workplace learning. Research interests include self-directed learning and meaningful work, specifically the intersection of these two disciplines as they relate to a construct for meaningful work.