Peter Blunt
Biographic Data
| ID | 222943 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Peter Blunt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Peter |
| FAMILY NAME | Blunt |
| SIGNATURE | BLUNT P |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Adelaide |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8697-4751 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 122 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The long and the short of policy pantomime in Afghanistan
What roles do policies and policymaking play in the governance of the Afghan state? And what determines policy approval by cabinet? Based on the analysis of two subnational governance policies, this article concludes, first, that policy approval depends on the strength of political sponsorship, particularly personal relations with the president, and presidential political control, rather than the intrinsic merits of policy; and second, that polic…
Serendipity and stealth, resistance and retribution
The article analyzes a policy development process designed to advance the sustainable development of mining-affected communities in Mongolia and, indirectly, to invigorate debate concerning resource nationalism and community resistance to corporate predation. The policy process arose from a research report on community development agreements whose findings reached interested parties in Mongolia despite the ban placed on them by the donor research…
Policy paradigms, subnational governance and the state sovereignty gap in Afghanistan
It is argued that the battle to restore the sovereignty of the Afghan state will be won or lost subnationally. Victory will be more likely if, following Ghani and Lockhart (2008), citizen security can be assured; if the rule of law can be upheld without fear or favour; if reasonably effective, merit-based and accountable leadership and administrative means for service delivery can be institutionalized; and if social policies can be implemented wh…
Vexatious voice
This article analyzes events surrounding a strike by Afghanistan’s provincial councils in 2015. It argues, first, that the events reflected competition between patronage networks in the country’s main institutions of representative government and their successful opposition to the president’s attempts to curb corruption – illustrating the difficulties of introducing even modest governance reforms in neopatrimonial states. Second, the evidence sug…
Whose resources are they anyway? ‘Development assistance’ and community development agreements in the Mongolian mining sector
This is a case study of ‘development assistance’ that demonstrates how the interests of the supposed beneficiary of such assistance – Mongolia – were discarded as soon as there appeared to be the slightest risk that, if served, those interests might have jeopardized the economic or political interests of the donor country (Switzerland) and/or those of its (Western) trading partners and their mining corporations. Donor interests were deemed to be …
Patronage, Service Delivery, and Social Justice in Indonesia
This article examines how patronage networks operate in subnational governments in Indonesia paying particular attention to how they have affected human resource management (HRM) practices in education and health services. Corrupt practices were found in varying degrees in all the provincial public services studied. They were associated with patronage systems and involved illegal payments for entrance exam results, recruitment and selection, plac…
Toxic technical assistance in conditions of state fragility
The toxicity of a single project of US ‘technical assistance’ to Iraq is demonstrated: first, by virtue of its unilateral design and implementation and hence its violation of state sovereignty and basic norms of well-intentioned development; second, by its support of a strong form of decentralization, which risked inflaming an already volatile political condition that its sponsors had helped to create and that could have contributed to the destab…
Governance conditions, roles and capacity‐building needs in the rebel‐held areas of Southern Sudan
An assessment is made of the state of sustainable human development (SHD) and the institutions of governance that are in the process of being established in the rebel‐held areas of Southern Sudan. The development roles of the main governance actors—government, civil society and the private sector—are examined and capacity‐building needs are described. The importance of good leadership, institutionalised partnerships between government and nationa…
Twinning’ as a Method of Sustainable Institutional Capacity Building
‘Twinning’ is the distinctive method employed during the last two decades by the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (Sida) to promote institutional capacity building in development co-operation. This article reports on a study undertaken to provide evidence which would help Sida to make judgements about the efficacy of the twinning model as a basis for sustainable capacity building, and to explore ways of enhancing the method. …
Motivational muddles, recycled conventional wisdom and straw men in Malaŵi
Prisoners of the paradigm
It is argued that process consultancy and clinical development practice, which are the dominant methods underlying much of the consulting work undertaken by development practitioners, are adopted for ideological rather than pragmatic reasons. The behaviour of process consultants is said to bear the hallmarks of the puzzle-solving activity of normal scientists operating within a ruling paradigm. The scientific and practical limitations of process …
Indigenous Organizations and Development
MICHAEL WARREN PART 1 AFRICA 1. The drum speaks-Are we listening? Experiences in development with a traditional Gabra institution-The Yaa Galbo 1 B.J. LINQUIST WITH DAVID ADOLPH 2. Traditional settlement, cultural identity and rural development in the Transkei 7 PATRICK A. MCALLISTER 3. Hometown associations: Balancing local and extralocal interests in Nigerian communities 21 MICHAEL L. McNULTY AND MARK F. LAWRENCE 4. Indigenous organizations and…
Cultural relativism, ‘good’ governance and sustainable human development
The vacuum left by the collapse of colonial empires has been filled by new forms of cultural and ideological imperialism conceived largely in the West. The new imperialism is evident in such notions as sustainable human development (SHD) and ‘good’ governance, which in many ways are prescribed for poor countries by rich countries. It is suggested that there is no one best way to ‘good’ governance or SHD and that, while elements of a universal bes…
Managing Organisations in Africa
Organizational development and change in Africa (1)
Little is known about organizational functioning and managerial behavior in Africa. The need for organizational development and change is urgent. Current attempts to reform African public sector organizations tend to focus on mechanistic measures, neglecting the complexity of organizational life. Western approaches to organizational development tend to reflect their cultural milieu and may contain elements which are irrelevant or inimical to Afri…
Becoming International
Institution Building as a Means for Internationalising Public Orcanisations in Australia
Managing Organisations in Africa
Die zentrale Bedeutung, die dem Aufbau leistungsfahiger im afrikanischen Entwicklungskontext zukommt, ist unbestritten. Internationale Entwicklungsagenturen sehen in der Starkung einheimischer Organisationskapazitaten einen Schlusselfaktor in der Bewaltigung der Entwicklungsprobleme des Kontinents. Vor diesem Hintergrund kann eine Veroffentlichung wie die von Blunt und Jones mit grosem Interesse rechnen. Dabei nehmen sich die Autoren vor, das vor…
Managerial Motivation in Kenya and Malawi
Managers are increasingly seen as having a critically important rôle to play in development and nation-building,1and doubts concerning the appropriateness of transferring western ideas and practices to third-world countries are assuming urgent significance. Questions are posed about the impact of social and cultural factors on the management of organisations, and about relationships, between managerial thinking and behaviour and the national stag…
Organisational Theory and Behaviour
Motivation through job design and orientations to work
The research findings and theoretical frameworks of leading proponents of social action and job design approaches to organizational behaviour are critically examined. It is suggested that despite apparent methodological, ontological, and epistemological differences, a theoretical synthesis of these approaches is possible and results in a more comprehensive and robust model of behaviour at work: one which generates more precise predictions and thu…
Decentralization in Ghana
(1983). Decentralization in Ghana: The impact on organizational effectiveness of management training among district and regional‐level officials. Journal of Contemporary African Studies: Vol. 3, No. 1-2, pp. 35-58
Work alienation and adaptation in sub‐Saharan Africa
(1982). Work alienation and adaptation in sub‐Saharan Africa: Some evidence from Kenya. Journal of Contemporary African Studies: Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 59-79
Aspects of psychology and epistemology
Meehl's (1967) arguments concerning the logical deficiencies of directional hypothesis testing are resurrected in order to confront their implications for theory testing in psychology. A number of suggestions for improvement are made, and it is concluded that there needs to be more attention paid to such questions both in professional journals and in the training of psychologists
A factor analysis of a ten-item questionnaire designed to measure maslow's need categories
A factor analytic study was conducted to test the validity of a ten-item questionnaire developed by Mitchell and Moudgill (1976) as a measure of Maslow's need categories. The sample was composed of 50 male process workers of different national origins. Very limited support was obtained for the Mitchell and Moudgill questionnaire: this was explained in terms of the validity of the instrument, the severity of the test, the sample size, and the theo…
Managing Organisations in Africa
Die zentrale Bedeutung, die dem Aufbau leistungsfahiger im afrikanischen Entwicklungskontext zukommt, ist unbestritten. Internationale Entwicklungsagenturen sehen in der Starkung einheimischer Organisationskapazitaten einen Schlusselfaktor in der Bewaltigung der Entwicklungsprobleme des Kontinents. Vor diesem Hintergrund kann eine Veroffentlichung wie die von Blunt und Jones mit grosem Interesse rechnen. Dabei nehmen sich die Autoren vor, das vor…
Cultural relativism, ‘good’ governance and sustainable human development
The vacuum left by the collapse of colonial empires has been filled by new forms of cultural and ideological imperialism conceived largely in the West. The new imperialism is evident in such notions as sustainable human development (SHD) and ‘good’ governance, which in many ways are prescribed for poor countries by rich countries. It is suggested that there is no one best way to ‘good’ governance or SHD and that, while elements of a universal bes…
Whose resources are they anyway? ‘Development assistance’ and community development agreements in the Mongolian mining sector
This is a case study of ‘development assistance’ that demonstrates how the interests of the supposed beneficiary of such assistance – Mongolia – were discarded as soon as there appeared to be the slightest risk that, if served, those interests might have jeopardized the economic or political interests of the donor country (Switzerland) and/or those of its (Western) trading partners and their mining corporations. Donor interests were deemed to be …
Toxic technical assistance in conditions of state fragility
The toxicity of a single project of US ‘technical assistance’ to Iraq is demonstrated: first, by virtue of its unilateral design and implementation and hence its violation of state sovereignty and basic norms of well-intentioned development; second, by its support of a strong form of decentralization, which risked inflaming an already volatile political condition that its sponsors had helped to create and that could have contributed to the destab…
Social and Organisational Structures in East Africa
For some time, the general enthusiasm for viewing organisations as 'open systems' subject to a wide number of influences has had something of a hollow ring. This is shown by the way in which many scholars continue to concentrate their attention on certain selected parts of an organisation and its environment, and to ignore others.1In 1970 this tendency was described as follows
Governance conditions, roles and capacity‐building needs in the rebel‐held areas of Southern Sudan
An assessment is made of the state of sustainable human development (SHD) and the institutions of governance that are in the process of being established in the rebel‐held areas of Southern Sudan. The development roles of the main governance actors—government, civil society and the private sector—are examined and capacity‐building needs are described. The importance of good leadership, institutionalised partnerships between government and nationa…
Serendipity and stealth, resistance and retribution
The article analyzes a policy development process designed to advance the sustainable development of mining-affected communities in Mongolia and, indirectly, to invigorate debate concerning resource nationalism and community resistance to corporate predation. The policy process arose from a research report on community development agreements whose findings reached interested parties in Mongolia despite the ban placed on them by the donor research…
Organizational development and change in Africa (1)
Little is known about organizational functioning and managerial behavior in Africa. The need for organizational development and change is urgent. Current attempts to reform African public sector organizations tend to focus on mechanistic measures, neglecting the complexity of organizational life. Western approaches to organizational development tend to reflect their cultural milieu and may contain elements which are irrelevant or inimical to Afri…
Organisational Theory and Behaviour
Vexatious voice
This article analyzes events surrounding a strike by Afghanistan’s provincial councils in 2015. It argues, first, that the events reflected competition between patronage networks in the country’s main institutions of representative government and their successful opposition to the president’s attempts to curb corruption – illustrating the difficulties of introducing even modest governance reforms in neopatrimonial states. Second, the evidence sug…
Managerial Motivation in Kenya and Malawi
Managers are increasingly seen as having a critically important rôle to play in development and nation-building,1and doubts concerning the appropriateness of transferring western ideas and practices to third-world countries are assuming urgent significance. Questions are posed about the impact of social and cultural factors on the management of organisations, and about relationships, between managerial thinking and behaviour and the national stag…
Aspects of psychology and epistemology
Meehl's (1967) arguments concerning the logical deficiencies of directional hypothesis testing are resurrected in order to confront their implications for theory testing in psychology. A number of suggestions for improvement are made, and it is concluded that there needs to be more attention paid to such questions both in professional journals and in the training of psychologists
The long and the short of policy pantomime in Afghanistan
What roles do policies and policymaking play in the governance of the Afghan state? And what determines policy approval by cabinet? Based on the analysis of two subnational governance policies, this article concludes, first, that policy approval depends on the strength of political sponsorship, particularly personal relations with the president, and presidential political control, rather than the intrinsic merits of policy; and second, that polic…
Policy paradigms, subnational governance and the state sovereignty gap in Afghanistan
It is argued that the battle to restore the sovereignty of the Afghan state will be won or lost subnationally. Victory will be more likely if, following Ghani and Lockhart (2008), citizen security can be assured; if the rule of law can be upheld without fear or favour; if reasonably effective, merit-based and accountable leadership and administrative means for service delivery can be institutionalized; and if social policies can be implemented wh…
Becoming International
Work alienation and adaptation in sub‐Saharan Africa
(1982). Work alienation and adaptation in sub‐Saharan Africa: Some evidence from Kenya. Journal of Contemporary African Studies: Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 59-79
A factor analysis of a ten-item questionnaire designed to measure maslow's need categories
A factor analytic study was conducted to test the validity of a ten-item questionnaire developed by Mitchell and Moudgill (1976) as a measure of Maslow's need categories. The sample was composed of 50 male process workers of different national origins. Very limited support was obtained for the Mitchell and Moudgill questionnaire: this was explained in terms of the validity of the instrument, the severity of the test, the sample size, and the theo…
Normal’ science and some of its dangers for research into organizational theory and behaviour
Normal’ science and some of its dangers for research into organizational theory and behaviour
Social and Organisational Structures in East Africa
For some time, the general enthusiasm for viewing organisations as 'open systems' subject to a wide number of influences has had something of a hollow ring. This is shown by the way in which many scholars continue to concentrate their attention on certain selected parts of an organisation and its environment, and to ignore others.1In 1970 this tendency was described as follows
A factor analysis of a ten-item questionnaire designed to measure maslow's need categories
A factor analytic study was conducted to test the validity of a ten-item questionnaire developed by Mitchell and Moudgill (1976) as a measure of Maslow's need categories. The sample was composed of 50 male process workers of different national origins. Very limited support was obtained for the Mitchell and Moudgill questionnaire: this was explained in terms of the validity of the instrument, the severity of the test, the sample size, and the theo…
Aspects of psychology and epistemology
Meehl's (1967) arguments concerning the logical deficiencies of directional hypothesis testing are resurrected in order to confront their implications for theory testing in psychology. A number of suggestions for improvement are made, and it is concluded that there needs to be more attention paid to such questions both in professional journals and in the training of psychologists
Work alienation and adaptation in sub‐Saharan Africa
(1982). Work alienation and adaptation in sub‐Saharan Africa: Some evidence from Kenya. Journal of Contemporary African Studies: Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 59-79
Motivation through job design and orientations to work
The research findings and theoretical frameworks of leading proponents of social action and job design approaches to organizational behaviour are critically examined. It is suggested that despite apparent methodological, ontological, and epistemological differences, a theoretical synthesis of these approaches is possible and results in a more comprehensive and robust model of behaviour at work: one which generates more precise predictions and thu…
Decentralization in Ghana
(1983). Decentralization in Ghana: The impact on organizational effectiveness of management training among district and regional‐level officials. Journal of Contemporary African Studies: Vol. 3, No. 1-2, pp. 35-58
Organisational Theory and Behaviour
Managerial Motivation in Kenya and Malawi
Managers are increasingly seen as having a critically important rôle to play in development and nation-building,1and doubts concerning the appropriateness of transferring western ideas and practices to third-world countries are assuming urgent significance. Questions are posed about the impact of social and cultural factors on the management of organisations, and about relationships, between managerial thinking and behaviour and the national stag…
Becoming International
Institution Building as a Means for Internationalising Public Orcanisations in Australia
Managing Organisations in Africa
Die zentrale Bedeutung, die dem Aufbau leistungsfahiger im afrikanischen Entwicklungskontext zukommt, ist unbestritten. Internationale Entwicklungsagenturen sehen in der Starkung einheimischer Organisationskapazitaten einen Schlusselfaktor in der Bewaltigung der Entwicklungsprobleme des Kontinents. Vor diesem Hintergrund kann eine Veroffentlichung wie die von Blunt und Jones mit grosem Interesse rechnen. Dabei nehmen sich die Autoren vor, das vor…
Organizational development and change in Africa (1)
Little is known about organizational functioning and managerial behavior in Africa. The need for organizational development and change is urgent. Current attempts to reform African public sector organizations tend to focus on mechanistic measures, neglecting the complexity of organizational life. Western approaches to organizational development tend to reflect their cultural milieu and may contain elements which are irrelevant or inimical to Afri…
Cultural relativism, ‘good’ governance and sustainable human development
The vacuum left by the collapse of colonial empires has been filled by new forms of cultural and ideological imperialism conceived largely in the West. The new imperialism is evident in such notions as sustainable human development (SHD) and ‘good’ governance, which in many ways are prescribed for poor countries by rich countries. It is suggested that there is no one best way to ‘good’ governance or SHD and that, while elements of a universal bes…
Managing Organisations in Africa
Indigenous Organizations and Development
MICHAEL WARREN PART 1 AFRICA 1. The drum speaks-Are we listening? Experiences in development with a traditional Gabra institution-The Yaa Galbo 1 B.J. LINQUIST WITH DAVID ADOLPH 2. Traditional settlement, cultural identity and rural development in the Transkei 7 PATRICK A. MCALLISTER 3. Hometown associations: Balancing local and extralocal interests in Nigerian communities 21 MICHAEL L. McNULTY AND MARK F. LAWRENCE 4. Indigenous organizations and…
Motivational muddles, recycled conventional wisdom and straw men in Malaŵi
Prisoners of the paradigm
It is argued that process consultancy and clinical development practice, which are the dominant methods underlying much of the consulting work undertaken by development practitioners, are adopted for ideological rather than pragmatic reasons. The behaviour of process consultants is said to bear the hallmarks of the puzzle-solving activity of normal scientists operating within a ruling paradigm. The scientific and practical limitations of process …
Twinning’ as a Method of Sustainable Institutional Capacity Building
‘Twinning’ is the distinctive method employed during the last two decades by the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (Sida) to promote institutional capacity building in development co-operation. This article reports on a study undertaken to provide evidence which would help Sida to make judgements about the efficacy of the twinning model as a basis for sustainable capacity building, and to explore ways of enhancing the method. …
Governance conditions, roles and capacity‐building needs in the rebel‐held areas of Southern Sudan
An assessment is made of the state of sustainable human development (SHD) and the institutions of governance that are in the process of being established in the rebel‐held areas of Southern Sudan. The development roles of the main governance actors—government, civil society and the private sector—are examined and capacity‐building needs are described. The importance of good leadership, institutionalised partnerships between government and nationa…
Patronage, Service Delivery, and Social Justice in Indonesia
This article examines how patronage networks operate in subnational governments in Indonesia paying particular attention to how they have affected human resource management (HRM) practices in education and health services. Corrupt practices were found in varying degrees in all the provincial public services studied. They were associated with patronage systems and involved illegal payments for entrance exam results, recruitment and selection, plac…
Toxic technical assistance in conditions of state fragility
The toxicity of a single project of US ‘technical assistance’ to Iraq is demonstrated: first, by virtue of its unilateral design and implementation and hence its violation of state sovereignty and basic norms of well-intentioned development; second, by its support of a strong form of decentralization, which risked inflaming an already volatile political condition that its sponsors had helped to create and that could have contributed to the destab…
Whose resources are they anyway? ‘Development assistance’ and community development agreements in the Mongolian mining sector
This is a case study of ‘development assistance’ that demonstrates how the interests of the supposed beneficiary of such assistance – Mongolia – were discarded as soon as there appeared to be the slightest risk that, if served, those interests might have jeopardized the economic or political interests of the donor country (Switzerland) and/or those of its (Western) trading partners and their mining corporations. Donor interests were deemed to be …
Serendipity and stealth, resistance and retribution
The article analyzes a policy development process designed to advance the sustainable development of mining-affected communities in Mongolia and, indirectly, to invigorate debate concerning resource nationalism and community resistance to corporate predation. The policy process arose from a research report on community development agreements whose findings reached interested parties in Mongolia despite the ban placed on them by the donor research…
Policy paradigms, subnational governance and the state sovereignty gap in Afghanistan
It is argued that the battle to restore the sovereignty of the Afghan state will be won or lost subnationally. Victory will be more likely if, following Ghani and Lockhart (2008), citizen security can be assured; if the rule of law can be upheld without fear or favour; if reasonably effective, merit-based and accountable leadership and administrative means for service delivery can be institutionalized; and if social policies can be implemented wh…
Political science (20 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Economics (16 works) · Law (12 works) · Global and Cross-Cultural Management (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Politics (10 works) · Business (9 works) · Economic growth (8 works) · Psychology (8 works)