16.2 Institutional Basis for Reform
345
16.2 Institutional Basis for Reform
Each organization is a hierarchical structure consisting of interlinked task units, such
as agencies and departments in water resources management. To realize the organizational objective, the activities of these task units must be coordinated and consistent.
One of the key management tasks is to allocate scarce organizational resources to
develop a general framework for organizational coordination given complicated technological and information relationships. The objective of urban and rural water affairs
management reform is to develop an effective organizational system for sustainably
developing and managing urban and rural water resources.
According to organizational theory, organizational designs may be selected to
achieve a special purpose, address problems, or realize a specific target. At the same
time, these problems or objectives impact institutional design. Effective and reasonable institutional design can solve a problem or achieve a target at a low cost and in
an efficient way. By contrast, improper organizational arrangements either may not
address a problem or may address it at a higher cost and/or in an inefficient manner.
This is important for organizational arrangements in water resources management.
Integrated urban and rural water affairs management is an organizational redesign to
reform the organization of water resources management and to reassign unit tasks to
address changes in socioeconomic, environmental, and water issues, to realize the
management target.
According to comparative institutional theory, based on the way an organization processes information, the basic relationships within the organization can be
described as either hierarchical decomposition (with vertical relationships in which
a decision made by one unit is based on the observations of another unit), information assimilation (with two units jointly observing a systemic environment such that
their observations are interrelated and form a common perception of the environment), or information encapsulation (with two task units independently observing a
system and specific parts of the environment). In organizational design, these three
models can be used to develop complex structures combining vertical and horizontal
relationships to form the organizations with different structures.
In a changing external environment, to maintain competitiveness and adaptability,
an organization must continuously regulate the activities of the task units. At the same
time, information cannot simply decompose to the unit. Some information is better
to share among units for better organizational coordination. Among these modes, the
principle is that, assuming both task units have the same information processing
ability, if two task units compete with each other, information encapsulation is
more efficient than information assimilation; if two task units are complementary,
information assimilation is more efficient. In water resources management, if two
departments require coordination to complete tasks or solve problems, information
assimilation is a better choice; if two departments are competitive, to reduce unnecessary competitive consumption, non-interference management under information
encapsulation is more effective.
345
16.2 Institutional Basis for Reform
Each organization is a hierarchical structure consisting of interlinked task units, such
as agencies and departments in water resources management. To realize the organizational objective, the activities of these task units must be coordinated and consistent.
One of the key management tasks is to allocate scarce organizational resources to
develop a general framework for organizational coordination given complicated technological and information relationships. The objective of urban and rural water affairs
management reform is to develop an effective organizational system for sustainably
developing and managing urban and rural water resources.
According to organizational theory, organizational designs may be selected to
achieve a special purpose, address problems, or realize a specific target. At the same
time, these problems or objectives impact institutional design. Effective and reasonable institutional design can solve a problem or achieve a target at a low cost and in
an efficient way. By contrast, improper organizational arrangements either may not
address a problem or may address it at a higher cost and/or in an inefficient manner.
This is important for organizational arrangements in water resources management.
Integrated urban and rural water affairs management is an organizational redesign to
reform the organization of water resources management and to reassign unit tasks to
address changes in socioeconomic, environmental, and water issues, to realize the
management target.
According to comparative institutional theory, based on the way an organization processes information, the basic relationships within the organization can be
described as either hierarchical decomposition (with vertical relationships in which
a decision made by one unit is based on the observations of another unit), information assimilation (with two units jointly observing a systemic environment such that
their observations are interrelated and form a common perception of the environment), or information encapsulation (with two task units independently observing a
system and specific parts of the environment). In organizational design, these three
models can be used to develop complex structures combining vertical and horizontal
relationships to form the organizations with different structures.
In a changing external environment, to maintain competitiveness and adaptability,
an organization must continuously regulate the activities of the task units. At the same
time, information cannot simply decompose to the unit. Some information is better
to share among units for better organizational coordination. Among these modes, the
principle is that, assuming both task units have the same information processing
ability, if two task units compete with each other, information encapsulation is
more efficient than information assimilation; if two task units are complementary,
information assimilation is more efficient. In water resources management, if two
departments require coordination to complete tasks or solve problems, information
assimilation is a better choice; if two departments are competitive, to reduce unnecessary competitive consumption, non-interference management under information
encapsulation is more effective.