| Privatization and Efficiency: Differentiating Ownership Effects From Political, Organizational, and Transitional Effects |
| | Villalonga, Belen | U. of California, Los Angeles | belen.villalonga@anderson.ucla.edu | (310)-470-2623 |
| | This paper differentiates the private-public ownership factor from the political, organizational, and transitional factors that influence the effect of privatization on firm efficiency. The presence of these factors is empirically confirmed in a longitudinal study using a sample of 24 Spanish firms which were privatised between 1985 and 1993. Our results show that privatization has led to significant increases in performance in about as many cases as it has led to significant decreases. Thus, the standard privatization-efficiency hypothesis is rejected in this sample. However, this does not imply that private ownership per se does not lead to a higher efficiency than state ownership. We find that the observed effects of privatization on efficiency have been influenced by several political and organizational factors (some of which are transitional in nature), independent of the ownership factor: the business cycle at which the company was privatized, the foreignness of the buyer, firm size, and capital intensity--all of them positively related to the observed efficiency increase. We also examine the timing of the observed effects, and find the strongest positive and significant effect for years 7 and 8 after privatization, as well as a strong negative effect for years 5 and 6. This suggests that negative transitional factors might have actually been operating during the six first years after privatization, but their impact has finally been offset by the positive effects of private ownership and of-possibly-other positive implications of privatization. This timing is particularly consistent with the transitional effects studied. |
| | Keywords: Privatization ; Efficiency ; Organizational change |
| Exploring Organizational Flexibility as a Major Component in the Organizational Change Process: A Case Study of Former Australian and New Zealand Telecommunications Monopolies |
| | Caught, Kellie | Queensland U. of Technology, Gardens Point | k.caught@qut.edu.au | +61 7 3864 1238 |
| | Shadur, Mark A. | Queensland U. of Technology | m.shadur@qut.edu.au | (617) 3864 2053 |
| | Kienzle, Rene | Queensland U. of Technology, Gardens Point | +61 7 3864 1766 | +61 7 3864 1754 |
| | A framework has been developed to assist in identifying the key factors contributing to successful organizational change. This
framework has been developed from the work of Nadler and Tushman (1995) who highlighted the importance of continuity and
timing. With respect to continuity, they identified incremental and discontinuous change and, in terms of timing, they
distinguished between anticipatory and reactive organizational change programs. In this paper, however, it has been recognized
that an important missing element that impacts on the success of change programs is the degree of organizational flexibility.
Three major components of organizational flexibility have been identified here, namely, managerial, employment, and cultural
flexibility. The notion of organizational flexibility is particularly important in understanding organizational change in public
organizations. Case studies of organizational change in Australian and New Zealand former telecommunications monopolies are
presented to examine the explanatory power of the proposed framework. |
| | Keywords: Organizational Flexibility; Organizational Change; Telecommunications |
| "Suffer the Little Children": A Comparative Study of Economic and Bureaucratic Rationalization Processes in Catholic Children's Institutions |
| | Rura-Polley, Thekla . | U. of Technology, Sydney | | |
| | Research suggests that religious organizations have become bureaucratized
and economized in many Western countries. However, these processes seem to
take on very different forms in different countries. Based on the
analysis of major journals, biographies, memoirs, state records, and
historical descriptions of Catholic children's institutions in Germany
and the U.S., this paper proposes that differences in state involvement,
financing, professionalization process and overall leadership lead to the
differences in policy options, forms and legitimation. This study
contributes to our understanding of the adaptation of nonprofit
organizations to social forces. The results of the study also have
implications for public policy making. Links between state agencies and
institutions as well as public financing seem to affect organizational
practices beyond intended effects and should be considered when passing
new guidelines and laws, and/or when developing new forms of governance.
|
| | Keywords: Institutional Theory; Rationalization; Comparative Nonprofit Mgmt. |