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Administrative Procedures (administrative + procedure)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	50%

Selected Abstracts

Government administrative burdens on SMEs in East Africa: reviewing issues and actions

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2001
Fiona Macculloch
The important macroeconomic reforms achieved in East African economies (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) during the late 1980s and early 1990s have failed to deliver the magnitude of private sector growth and increased employment expected. Governments in the region have begun to recognize that lower-level policies and administrative procedures impose significant constraints on private sector development, stemming primarily from the command and control bureaucracies that characterised colonial governance. There are three priority areas for administrative reform: business licensing and registration, tax and customs procedures and specialised approvals. Also discussed are the problems of the special position of the informal sector, the impact of corruption and access to commercial justice. [source]

Risk and food: environmental concerns and consumer practices

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, Issue 8 2001
Bente Halkier
Environmental risks related to food consumption produce needs among consumers to handle such risks through their consumption practices. Consumers' ways of coping with risks are dependent on the social relations of everyday life, of which consumption practices are a part. Risk-handling in food consumption is socio-culturally broader than the cognitive rationality assumed in expert knowledge and administrative procedures on risk and risk-handling. Likewise, risk-handling in food consumption is also characterized by ambivalences. The objective of the article is to show that an important social and cultural source of ambivalence in consumers' handling of risk in food consumption comes from food consumption practices being caught in the tension between desire and control. The article proposes a heuristic theoretical device, called ,the contested space of the body', which is used to discuss the bodily dimension of consumer risk-handling. This is based on a Danish empirical study of parents with small children. A typology of consumers' risk-handling is presented which differs from traditional typologies of consumer segments by allowing for overlaps and shifts between the individual positions in the typology. The three types of risk-handling are the worried, the irritated and the pragmatic. The results suggest that in worried risk-handling control marginalizes desire, in irritated risk-handling desire is openly in conflict with control, and in pragmatic risk-handling relief from the contested space of the body is attempted. [source]

Can Politicians Control Bureaucrats?

LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY, Issue 4 2003
Applying Theories of Political Control to Argentina's Democracy
ABSTRACT In the United States, an important literature shows that legislators use interest groups, courts, and budgets to assert political control over bureaucrats. Similar theories can be applied to study the scores of new democracies that have emerged in recent decades. In Argentina, politicians in the first administration of Carlos Menem (1989-95) rewrote administrative procedures and relied on both "police patrol" and "fire alarm" oversight to realign the behavior of tax bureaucrats in conformance with their own policy preferences. Whereas U.S. legislators generally prefer complex administrative procedures, different electoral incentives led their Argentine counterparts to support reforms that significantly streamlined those procedures. This finding challenges theories that attribute legislators' bureaucratic preferences to the separation or fusion of powers between the executive and legislative branches. [source]

Streamlining administrative procedures at the Defense Language Institute: The strategic impact model in action

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2010
Yaniv Oded MSc
Performance at the Defense Language Institute was examined through the prism of human performance technology and the strategic impact model. This examination revealed performance deficiencies in the administrative realm that required mainly a noninstructional intervention. A systematic analysis showed that digitizing administrative procedures could substantially decrease operational costs, enhance procedural transparency, and increase employees' satisfaction. [source]

Measuring conscientiousness and professionalism in undergraduate medical students

THE CLINICAL TEACHER, Issue 1 2010
John McLachlan
Summary Background:, There is gathering evidence that concern about professionalism expressed by staff with regard to undergraduate medical students represents a statistically significant risk factor for referral for disciplinary action in later clinical practice. But, ,professionalism' as a concept is variously defined, and is generally seen as difficult to measure. This is because such measures are usually highly subjective, and take place on limited numbers of occasions. We are interested in hints from the literature that a significant part of professionalism is what might be thought of as diligence or conscientiousness. Methods:, We award students points on every occasion when they might be conscientious in performing simple tasks (such as attending compulsory sessions, providing essential documentation and participating in required administrative procedures). This is aggregated over the year to give a continuous, objective and multi-occasion score that is inexpensive to construct. We then determine the relationship of this score with independent staff and student estimates of professionalism. Results:, We observe a positive correlation between conscientiousness and professionalism at both high and low ends of the spectrum. Discussion:, This correlation raises a number of further questions. What is the sensitivity and specificity of this measure? How might it best be used with students: as a formative tool to change behaviours or as a summative tool to affect progression? And how will students react to its use? Finally, can it be extended to spheres other than undergraduate education, for instance with postgraduate trainees? [source]