There is an increasing amount of attention on EU and its Member States contributions to implementation of two landmark agreements: the Paris Climate Agreement and the UN Agenda 2030 with... Show moreThere is an increasing amount of attention on EU and its Member States contributions to implementation of two landmark agreements: the Paris Climate Agreement and the UN Agenda 2030 with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Absent from the current literature is an analysis of the political effect of legal competences on coordination between EU and Member State actors. Legal competences will become increasingly important for transformative sustainability policies. By using different case studies focusing on alternative fuel policies, ‘Team EU’ in climate negotiations and SDG implementation, this dissertation attempts to explore the potential of including legal competences as independent variables explaining coordination of EU and Member State actors. The findings nuance some of the theories in which the role of EU Treaties is often neglected. The dissertation also shows, however, that the legal competences are sometimes not used habitually unless clear examples of behaviours ‘contrary to the Treaty-logic’ or ‘contrary to sustainable development objectives’. The dissertation not only serves academic integrative purposes. There is increased societal attention for legal avenues to influence political decision-making. As an example, the Dutch ‘Urgenda’ case demonstrate that Courts can be responsive to the argument that Member States’ policies are ‘unlawful’ to avoid dangerous climate change. Show less
This dissertation shows how diversity management and leadership relate to inclusiveness in public organizations and individual employee and team outcomes. Inclusiveness is about team members... Show moreThis dissertation shows how diversity management and leadership relate to inclusiveness in public organizations and individual employee and team outcomes. Inclusiveness is about team members feeling they belong to the group, while they can have their own unique identities. Inclusive leadership stimulates this by encouraging diverse team members to value, exchange, discuss and learn from their different backgrounds, perspectives and ideas. Inclusiveness in turn contributes to employees’ organizational commitment and involvement. This is particularly required in a changing society demanding of public organizations to be adaptive and responsive. Show less
Crises can disrupt entire societies and severely affect the lives of the people within them. If a crisis occurs, citizens and other societal actors expect governments to learn from it in order to... Show moreCrises can disrupt entire societies and severely affect the lives of the people within them. If a crisis occurs, citizens and other societal actors expect governments to learn from it in order to prevent the terrible events from happening again in the future, or, at least to be able to respond more effectively to them the next time. However, government organizations generally seem to have major difficulties in learning from crises. Nevertheless, every now and then, they do manage to learn extensively, and change their protocols, implement new policies, open up the organization’s culture, establish new organizational units, introduce training and simulation exercises, or improve communication. Why is it that public organizations sometimes learn from a crisis, but other times do not? The work reported reveals the major factors and mechanisms that explain crisis-induced learning by public organizations. The research draws on data from crisis management documents and interviews with employees of the Dutch food safety services (NVWA) related to four veterinary crises; EU legislation, evaluation reports, newspaper articles, and reports of national and EU parliamentary debates following four major oil spillages; 114 post-crisis evaluation reports in response to 60 crises in the Netherlands; and a survey of Dutch mayors. Show less
This PhD-thesis analyses the relationship between the parties’ choices in the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis’ assessments of the election manifestos and coalition agreements... Show moreThis PhD-thesis analyses the relationship between the parties’ choices in the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis’ assessments of the election manifestos and coalition agreements over the period 1986-2017, and tries to explain this relationship. First, the theoretical framework is set out, in which agenda-setting, political economy and civil service influence have prominent positions, followed by a description of the political rationality and the civil service rationality. Then, multiple reflections are made on the history of the assessments and their (dis)advantages for both the Dutch politicians and the civil service. Second, the empirical analysis of the parties’ choices with regard to government expenditures, tax burdens, purchasing power and macroeconomic outcomes in election manifestos and coalition agreements is carried out. It appears that for the majority of parties’ choices, negotiators in the formation decide in line with their manifestos. But there are also clear deviations. In general; government expenditures turn out higher, except the expenditures on education. Tax burdens end up higher, but foremost for households while companies receive tax reliefs. The purchasing power of high incomes and middle incomes falls behind, in contrast to the purchasing power of social security beneficiaries and low incomes which end up better. Show less
Today, sponsorship relations are evolving to a partnership model where sponsor and sponsee are interacting during the preparation and execution in the shared interest of both parties, and where... Show moreToday, sponsorship relations are evolving to a partnership model where sponsor and sponsee are interacting during the preparation and execution in the shared interest of both parties, and where sponsors are also cooperating with each other. These partnership models often result in additional value for the partners, and include benefits for visitors of the sponsored event or for a wider set of stakeholders. Frameworks include models to assess the outcome of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, as well as Porter and Kramer's (2011, 2014, 2019) work on creating shared value (CSV). Applying the concepts not only extends our understanding of sponsorship outcomes but also offers new insights into the applicability of the CSV approach and contributes to current academic debates on both CSV and CSR (most prominently in a California Management Review discussion between Crane, Palazzo, Spence and Matten [2012, 2014] on the one hand, and Porter and Kramer [2014] on the other). CSV includes a shareholder perspective that resonates with sponsorship stakeholders, pays attention to outcomes on both sides of the partnership and also offers a way to assess and value outcomes that are external to the partnership, including aspects traditionally viewed through the lens of philanthropy and CSR. Show less
