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The growth of the Internet and information technology often leads to more customer requests and can mean that a small staff must cope with a large number of business processes. Effective management under these circumstances requires a computer system able to support these business processes. Such a system cannot be developed without modeling business processes, which requires a great deal of "in‐house" information from the people who participate in business processes – information on routines, rules, etc. In general, it is not enough to get the process participants to describe their actions – they should first achieve a deeper understanding of the processes themselves (in terms of goals, activities, etc). A technique called state flow (SF) has been developed to help process participants understand processes. The paper gives an overview of the application of the SF technique in building models of two business processes: a decision‐making process; and a process of recruiting new members (for a non‐profit association).

The greater complexity of decision making produced by local governance presents researchers with the challenge of explaining how policy is made in local networks of key actors. This process is even more complex when examined cross-nationally between Britain and France. Policy network theory is a useful tool for describing these relationships, but is less able to explain them. A more fruitful approach is to use the tools of network analysis to indicate the structure of networks and apply models of how power is exercised in them. The advantage of this method is that it can analyse the nature of networks comparatively, taking into account the different traditions and institutions of British and French sub-national politics. Six models can explain how new networked relationships in localities operate: pluralism, neo-pluralism, policy advocacy coalition theory, new institutionalism, the bureaucratic politics model and the local effect. To reflect the variety of practices between policy sectors and countries, a multitheoretic framework is offered. Though the article sees networks as largely epiphenomenal, networks can affect policy outcomes through the emergence of trust through personal contacts and the intersection of political and social networks.

Across the Canadian North, resource co-management has become a central institution for the management of natural resources. Although many multidisciplinary studies have examined the various social and political dimensions that influence the effectiveness of resource co-management, little has been done to understand how gender might affect collaboration and decision making. This gap is particularly evident in the northern Canadian context, where women make up 16% of all current co-management board members. This study examines the relationship between gender and decision making, drawing on the experiences of those involved in co-management boards in Yukon. Our findings indicate that the representation of women within these institutions is important for establishing a holistic decision-making process and a positive institutional culture that facilitates effective decision making. While there were many different experiences with gender, co-management, and decision making, it was generally agreed that male and female board members had equal opportunities to participate in board decision making. Nonetheless, barriers remain that prevent board members from feeling comfortable acting upon these opportunities. These barriers to participation were experienced by men and women in distinct ways. Institutional level barriers—cases where women's skills and knowledge were considered irrelevant to co-management, where their opinions lacked standing within decision making—will be the most challenging for co-management boards to address in regard to effective decision making. ; À l'échelle du Nord canadien, la cogestion des ressources est dorénavant une institution centrale pour assurer la gestion des ressources naturelles. De nombreuses études disciplinaires se sont penchées sur les dimensions sociopolitiques qui influent sur la cogestion des ressources. Cependant, peu d'études ont été réalisées pour comprendre en quoi le sexe de la personne exerce une influence sur la collaboration et la prise de décisions. Cet écart est particulièrement évident dans le contexte du Nord canadien, où les femmes représentent 16 % de tous les membres de conseils d'administration actuels en cogestion. Cette étude examine le lien qui existe entre le sexe de la personne et la prise de décisions. Elle s'appuie sur l'expérience de personnes qui font partie de conseils de cogestion au Yukon. Nos constatations laissent croire que la représentation des femmes au sein de ces institutions revêt de l'importance dans la création d'un processus de prise de décisions holistiques et d'une culture institutionnelle positive favorisant la prise de décisions efficaces. Bien que l'expérience différait selon le sexe des personnes, la cogestion et la prise de décisions, on a généralement constaté que les membres de conseils de sexe masculin ou de sexe féminin avaient la possibilité de participer de manière égale à la prise de décisions des conseils. Néanmoins, il reste des obstacles qui empêchent les membres de conseils de se sentir à l'aise lorsque vient le temps de saisir ces possibilités. Ces obstacles à la participation étaient vus de manières distinctes par les hommes et par les femmes. Les obstacles de niveau institutionnel — lorsque les compétences et les connaissances des femmes étaient considérées comme non pertinentes en matière de cogestion et lorsque leurs opinions manquaient de poids dans le cadre de la prise de décisions — seront les obstacles les plus difficiles à surmonter pour les conseils de cogestion en vue de la prise de décisions efficaces.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1978, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) established a regulatory process for recognizing tribes. The process requires tribes that are petitioning for recognition to submit evidence that they have continuously existed as an Indian tribe since historic times. Recognition establishes a formal government-to-government relationship between the United States and a tribe. The quasi-sovereign status created by this relationship exempts some tribal lands from most state and local laws and regulations, including those that regulate gambling. GAO found that the basis for BIA's tribal recognition decisions is not always clear. Although petitioning tribes must meet set criteria to be granted recognition, no guidance exists to clearly explain how to interpret key aspects of the criteria. This lack of guidance creates controversy and uncertainty for all parties about the basis for decisions. The recognition process is also hampered by limited resources; a lack of time; and ineffective procedures for providing information to interested third parties, such as local municipalities and other Indian tribes. As a result, the number of completed petitions waiting to be considered is growing. BIA estimates that it may take up to 15 years before all currently completed petitions are resolved; the process for evaluating a petition was supposed to take about two years. This testimony summarizes a November report (GAO-02-49)."

The article is devoted to the consideration of the potential possibilities of introducing artificial intelligence systems based on machine learning into political processes to solve a wide range of political problems. Among the promising areas of implementation of algorithms in politics, the following can be distinguished: analysis of huge amounts of data on political processes, support for making internal and external political decisions, development of effective action programs, forecasting of political processes. In addition, the challenges and threats that the introduction of politicallyoriented algorithms in political processes produces are analyzed. At the same time, some of the specific forms of application of AI systems may have a pronounced malicious character. It is concluded that the large-scale introduction of AI systems into political processes produces many significant challenges to the inclusive democratic process, and the use of politically-oriented AI technologies for political purposes puts the issue of trust in political institutions and democracy in general on the agenda of society.

This article reports on a single-case study of a decision-making process in child welfare. Based on analysis of field notes, research interviews with caseworkers and case documents, the study explored caseworkers' handling of ambiguity and uncertainty in a case of possible neglect on the tipping point between home-based and out-of-home care. The prospective study followed events and activities in the case of a family consisting of a mother, a father and newborn twins, reflecting real process in real time. Data were gathered in a local frontline child welfare office in a Norwegian town, and decision-making was studied as a process of sequential colligation rather than as a linear and cumulative effort. The findings suggest that the caseworkers' individual commitment to and felt responsibility for the outcome led to a quest for documentation, making the process of decision-making more challenging. The search for decisive evidence may contribute to prolonged casework and postponed closure in cases on the tipping point.

Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through energy reduction in buildings is a high priority for policy-makers in the European Union and elsewhere. However, although long-term sustainability targets exist on the societal level, it is not obvious how these targets may trickle down to individual sectors and further down to specific organizations or buildings. The aim of this paper is to illustrate an approach for evaluating renovation measures in order to identify appropriate target levels in early project stages and what is needed to achieve a number of proposed sustainability targets. The evaluation approach is supported by a tool that can be seen as an aid to making rough estimations of the environmental impacts. Sustainability target levels in a Swedish context are presented for three issues: operational energy use, GHG emissions due to total energy use for building operation, and embodied GHG emissions due to production of materials. The approach to support well-grounded retrofit decisions is shown with a case study. The tool developed, in combination with a suggested step-by-step evaluation approach, provides an effective way to evaluate various potential improvements, and their consequences, in early project stages. However, other tools with similar functionality may be used. Results from the case illustration imply that it is possible to achieve the proposed sustainability targets for operational energy use by implementing nine measures. However, the targets for GHG emissions for operational energy use and embodied GHG emissions were not achieved because of an energy supply with too high a share of nonrenewable fuels. ; QC 20161020

ABSTRACTScholars from different disciplines acknowledge the importance of studying new service development (NSD), which is considered a central process for sustaining a superior competitive advantage of service firms. Although extant literature provides several important insights into how NSD processes are structured and organized, there is much less evidence on what makes NSD processes successful, that is, capable of contributing to a firm's sales and profits. In other words, which are the decisions that maximize the likelihood of developing successful new services? Drawing on the emerging "service‐dominant logic" paradigm, we address this question by developing an NSD framework with three main decisional nodes: market orientation, internal process organization, and external network. Using a qualitative comparative analysis technique, we discovered combinations of alternatives that maximize likelihood of establishing a successful service innovation. Specifically, we tested our NSD framework in the context of hospitality services and found that successful NSD can be achieved through two sets of decisions. The first one includes the presence of a proactive market orientation (PMO) and a formal top‐down innovative process, but the absence of a responsive market orientation. The second one includes the presence of both responsive and PMO and an open innovation model. No single element was a sufficient condition for NSD success, though PMO was a necessary condition. Several implications for theory and decision‐making practice are discussed on the basis of our findings.

Three years after the judgment of the General Court in the De Capitani case, we assess whether the findings of the Court have settled for good the debate between transparency and effectiveness in EU law-making or rather opened new reflections on legislative transparency in the EU.

Innovation and Social Process: A National Experiment in Implementing Social Technology discusses concerns, design, and methodologies of an experiment that deals with society's perception of innovation. Comprised of 11 chapters, the book first provides an overview of innovation, change, and problems of implementation; social process; and social innovation. The third chapter covers the methods of designing an experiment in organizational innovation, while the fourth chapter tackles participative decision making and innovation, and the fifth chapter tackles organization development and the implem

peer-reviewed ; Research on the intra-institutional consequences of differences in the EU's inter-institutional rule configurations is rare. This study investigates the effect of the empowerment of the European Parliament (EP) on the active involvement of ministers in Council decision-making. The empowerment of the EP is likely to increase the incentives for bureaucrats in the Council's preparatory bodies to refer decisions on legislative dossiers to ministers. The empirical analysis examines this claim with data on about 6,000 legislative decision-making processes that were concluded between 1980 and the end of 2007. The analysis demonstrates a strong and robust association between the type of legislative procedure and different decision-making levels in the Council: a more powerful EP makes Council decision-making more politicised. ; ACCEPTED ; peer-reviewed

The stated purpose of the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA" or "Agency") is "to promote and protect the public health." In furtherance of this end, the FDA has created a regulatory framework to ensure that drugs marketed to the general public are both safe and effective. However, critics insist that the FDA's paternalistic drug approval process does little to achieve its goal. At the onset of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, criticism of the FDA intensified, as the FDA's lengthy and expensive drug approval process hindered terminally ill AIDS patients' access to potentially lifesaving treatment. Advocates for these patients clamored for increased and expedited access to experimental drugs. In response, the FDA liberalized its experimental drug policies. This response was not enough, however, to save Abigail Burroughs. Abigail, a twenty-one year-old honors student at the University of Virginia, died in 2001 after exhausting all FDA-approved treatments for her cancer. Prior to her death, Abigail unsuccessfully attempted to gain access through clinical trials to the experimental cancer drugs Iressa and Erbitux (since approved by the FDA). In Abigail Alliance v. Von Eschenbach, a lawsuit filed by the foundation named in Abigail's honor, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in May 2006 that terminally ill patients have a due process right of access to such experimental drugs. However, the D.C. Circuit reheard the case en banc and reversed the decision 8-2 in August 2007. The Supreme Court denied the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs's ("Abigail Alliance's" or "Alliance's") petition for a writ of certiorari in January. Even if the Court had taken the case, however, it likely would have followed precedent and deferred to Congress and the FDA on the question of drug regulation.10 Despite the Court's denial of Abigail Alliance's petition-and despite the likely disposition had the Court granted cert-it is time to reform the FDA framework so that it ...

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to set out a methodological framework to investigate how the integration of an activity-based costing (ABC) logic into the pre-existent accounting system supports healthcare organizations in identifying the inefficiencies related to their diagnostic therapeutic pathways (DTP) and related reengineering interventions.Design/methodology/approach– The BPM-ABC methodological framework has been applied to the case of a specific surgery pathway, at the Orthopaedic Division of a University Hospital in Italy.Findings– The case-study described in the paper points out: first, how the Business Process Management (BPM)-ABC methodology is able to produce significant information about consumed resources and the costs of the activities, useful to highlight opportunities for DTPs improvement; second, the barriers related to a pre-existing accounting system based on cost centres that can hinder the implementation of the BPM-ABC model.Practical implications– The case study points out the role of the ABC as a management tool for supporting decision-making processes. The ABC allows inferring information for two purposes. First, ABC supports a cost containment process as it allows highlighting the most cost-consuming activities and resources. Second, the ABC allows identifying reengineering paths, distinguishing between incremental and radical ones.Originality/value– This study represents a remarkable reference raising the awareness of the pivotal role accounting systems play in the management of the organizational processes.

The philosophy of decision making in economics is to assess and select the most preferable solution, implement it and to gain the biggest profit. Important issues such as competitive market, changing technical, political and social environment have a key role in personnel selection. It is the crucial task which determines the company's present and future. Many decisions made cannot be accurately forecast or assessed. Understanding of the multiple criteria method and knowledge to calculate the algorithm of the method allows a decision maker to trust solutions offered by solution support systems to a greater extent. Many individual attributes considered for personnel selection such as organizing ability, creativity, personality, and leadership exhibit vagueness and imprecision. The fuzzy set theory appears as an essential tool to provide a decision framework that incorporates imprecise judgments inherent in the personnel selection process. In this paper, a fuzzy multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) algorithm using the principles of fusion of fuzzy information, additive ratio assessment (ARAS) method with fuzzy numbers (ARAS-F) and step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) technique are integrated. The proposed method is apt to manage information assessed using both linguistic and numerical scales in a decision making problem with a group of information sources. The aggregation process is based on the unification of information by means of fuzzy sets on a basic linguistic term set. The computational procedure of the proposed framework is illustrated through an architect's selection problem. Article in English. Integruotas neraiškusis daugiatikslis sprendimų priėmimo modelis architektui atrinkti Santrauka.Sprendimų priėmimas ekonomikoje pagrįstas galimų sprendinių įvertinimu, tinkamiausio sprendinio atrinkimu, įgyvendinimu ir didžiausio pelno gavimu. Tokie svarbūs klausimai, kaip užsitikrinti vietą konkurencingoje rinkoje, besikeičianti techninė, politinė ir socialinė aplinka, yra vieni svarbiausių parenkant personalą. Tai labai svarbus uždavinys, tiesiogiai veikiantis bendrovės gyvavimą dabar ir ateityje. Daug sprendinių negali būti tiksliai prognozuojami arba įvertinti. Supratimas apie daugiatikslius metodus ir skaičiavimo metodo algoritmo išmanymas yra prielaidos sprendimų priėmėjui pasitikėti sprendiniais, kuriuos pateikia sprendimų priėmimo sistemos. Yra pateikiama daug atskirų rodiklių personalui atrinkti: organizaciniai gebėjimai, kūrybiškumas, asmeninės ir lyderio savybės. Visi šie rodikliai turi vieną bendrą savybę – jie negali būti tiksliai apirėžti. Tokiems uždaviniams spręsti neraiškiųjų aibių teorija gali pateikti sprendimo būdus, kurie įvertina netikslumus, būdingus personalo atrankos procesui. Šiame straipsnyje neraiškusis daugiatikslis sprendimų priėmimo (MCDM) algoritmas, taikant neraiškiosios informacijos sintezės principus, suminį santykinių dydžių vertinimo (ARAS) metodą, kurio reikšmės aprašomos neraiškiaisiais skaičiais (ARAS-F), ir laipsnišką rodiklių svorio santykinių dydžių analizės (SWARA) metodą, yra integruotas. Siūlomas metodas tinkamas informacijai, vertinamai tiek žodžiais, tiek skaitmenimis, išreiškiamoms skalėms, uždaviniui, kurio informacija surenkama iš grupės informacijos šaltinių, apdoroti. Sujungimo procesas grindžiamas informacija, taikant neraiškiųjų aibių teoriją pagrindinėms žodžiais aprašomoms reikšmėms pakeisti. Siūlomo algoritmo taikymas pavaizduotas sprendžiant architekto parinkimo uždavinį. Reikšminiai žodžiai: personalo atranka,architektas,žodinis rodiklių aprašymas,ARAS,ARAS-F,SWARA,MCDM,sprendimų priėmimas. First published online18 Jan 2012