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The World
Institution Building Programme (WIBP), an International Charity
observed its 46th Anniversary on the occasion of the World
Environment Day, 5th June 2020. The Founder President of WIBP,
Prof. Dr. P R Trivedi recalled that the WIBP was established to
complement and supplement the efforts of the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and accordingly the inauguration of
the World Institution Building Programme (WIBP) coincided with
the first World Environment Day on 5th June 1974. 1. The purpose of
institution building is to introduce, foster, and guide more
efficient social changes and new patterns of individual and
group relations in government agencies philanthropic
organisations, academic institutions and in industry.
Institution builders generally face two tasks: to simultaneously
build a viable organization and to manage the linkages with
other organizations on which the institution must depend for
resources and support. 2. The main goal in
achieving developmental targets is the accomplishment of
institutionality, measured by steady growth of organizational
capability, penetration of the relevant environment (producing
and protecting desired changes, philosophies, systems, and
behaviour in governmental and national organizations), by
maintaining their innovative thrust. 3. Institution
builders are responsible for making things happen and not merely
for responding to pressures. To avoid this tendency to respond
to pressure, the institution builders must choose deliberate
strategies of action and tactics and to implement them as they
learn from experience. But institution builders must be prepared
to revise their strategies and even their goals in order to cope
with unexpected problems or to take advantage of fresh
opportunities. 4. Institution
building is the possible consequence or effect of deliberate
action. 5. The word
institution is sometimes used as a synonym for organization.
This is acceptable, if we recognize that an institution includes
more than formal structure and process. Institutions may be
regarded as regulative principles which organize most of the
activities of individuals in a system or society into some
definite organizational patterns from the point of view of some
of the perennial, basic problems of any society or ordered
social life. 6. Before we discuss
the art and science of Institution Building, let us know and
elaborate the following terms: 7. We have to agree
generally with the different dimensions of the problem of
institution-building: to build or change an institution to
establish a stable set of desired behaviours in a particular
place and time. To do this, it is necessary to get people to
accept certain norms or standards and to pattern their
behaviours to fit these norms which must be grounded in some
underlying regulative principles. The hub of the task of
building (or changing) institutions is to establish a
combination of behaviours norms regulative principles which will
serve developmental aims. 8.
Institution-building is indirect because it involves changing or
creating values as well as behaviour. It may involve undermining
and replacing existing norms which may have proved inimical, or
a liability, to development and societal wellbeing. If
institution-building is not simple to understand, it is often
even harder to do. 9. An institution's
activities are justified and ordered by norms linked to basic
principles of the social system. Norms have two values: 10. The strength of
norms stems from two sources, practical workability and merit. 11. Leaders (who are
change agents) in institution-building begin by identifying the
need for improved conditions in a social system. They then try
to find a way to meet this need, by creating new conditions or
outcomes in society, through effective patterns of action. In
such efforts two related value problems are involved. One is to
get the values produced by the intervention accepted within the
system. The other is to design an intervention whose internal
norms are acceptable as well as effective. 12. Leaders often
assume that : 13. Hence the
process of institutionalization is not a simple, linear
function. There are interruptions, retreats, accommodations,
regroupings, divisions, and emergence of secondary goals,
amended objectives and even altered doctrines. 14. Be that as it
may, an institution must embody changes in values, functions,
physical and/or social technology; it should establish, foster
and protect normative relationships and action patterns and it
should attain support and complementarity in the environment. It
should survive the vicissitudes of time and emerge as a vibrant
innovative institution, capable of withstanding the stresses of
turbulent periods, and as an instrument for accelerated
development. 15. If institutional
change is induced, the types of power that may be brought to
bear on an objective can range from stark coercion to education
that changes the awareness and value orientations of its
clients. Some instruments of power include strong leadership,
control of resources, positive and negative sanctions, promotion
of such latent regulative principles as progress and prestige,
and various incentives. When the objective is to change the
institutional patterns of a target group, one important source
of power is the ability to reduce the risk associated with
changes in behaviour patterns. 16. Coercion can be
used to eliminate an institutionalized interest, but not as the
primary mechanism for creating a new one. Education may be used
as an instrument of power, not only to create technical efficacy
but to change the sense of identity and the value orientations
of participants. Trustworthy appeals to self-interest are
powerful ways to induce the acceptance of new norms. 17. When the scope
of an action extends across the line between a bureaucracy and
its environment, institutionalization can be quite difficult.
For example, an agricultural development programme may combine
efforts from a number of parts of the bureaucracy, in the
ministries of agriculture and finance and elsewhere, to provide
information, credit, and materials. This public sector activity
must be mated with the behaviours of farmers, marketing
organizations, and perhaps, local community leaders. 18. The bureaucratic
aspect of the programme may require, along with careful
planning, co-ordination and funds, some important changes in
values. Bureaucrats, who may be accustomed to acting on the
basis of authority and inclined to be ignorant of the problems
and realities of the peasantry, will have to adopt new norms, a
desire to understand the farmers and a willingness to promote
their well-being. None of this will make much difference unless
the programme appeals to, perhaps even changes the norms and
behaviours of, the target population and other important people
such as farmers or merchants. 19. The family
itself may be institutionalized around a farming tradition.
Certain work may be proper for the men or for the women. The
community structure may be arranged in terms of traditional
rights and obligations, and the programme may threaten that
tradition. 20. Public
institutions can be differentiated into those forming the public
bureaucracy and those others functioning under public
sponsorship or support to achieve other economic and social
goals. The public bureaucracy is a necessary institutional
device required for progress and survival. The institutional
role of governments is preponderant but not absolute. The
bureaucratic institution exists not on the sufferance of
governments but in partnership with governments. The situation
varies, however, from one country to another, and constitutes a
national specificity of institutional modes peculiar to each
country. 21. Yet another
dynamic aspect lies in the institutional task system itself. For
example, in the field of rural development, at a particular
stage of development, production and productivity may acquire
primacy over other considerations. The institutions concerned
can, in the process, acquire growth values as their key impetus.
At another stage of development, distributive justice may come
to be of crucial relevance. However, it is often the experience
that the growth values do not transcend into developmental
values. There arises in this context a dilemma: whether new
institutions are to be created or whether situational
imperatives are to be brought to bear upon older institutions to
respond to the needs. It seems that there are no either-or
options. 22. A leader must
possess certain qualities in order to continually motivate an
organization. It is continuity of effective leadership that
affects staff performance and overall organizational
effectiveness. It is the leader's responsibility to develop
incentives for the motivation of staff personnel. The word
incentive here refers to the full set of factors that shape
human behaviour within organizations, including norms,
standards, and motivational and material rewards. 23. A major part of
the problem of Institution Building is that the internalization
of new value systems and the establishment of technological
norms and standards of performance take time. This length of
time affects the willingness of politicians to initiate or
support a reform scheme. Strong and persistent political support
is necessary if institutionalization is to be successful.
Organizational inertia is also an important incentive factor
that relates to time. 24. Any
organization, once established, resists change. A new
institution requires time to become stable. Yet administrative
reforms institutions are expected to be both change-inducing and
viable. This often creates a conflict and may preclude the
prospect of long-standing developmental institutions. 25. Support for an
organization may be divided into two categories, namely: the
kind of support which essentially accords recognition of an
organization and acceptance of its right to exist; and the kind
which might be labelled material and which consists of a flow of
resources which the organization uses to carry on its existence. 26. For purposes of
institution-building, this distinction between acceptance and
material support is particularly useful in thinking about the
long-term existence and effectiveness of an administrative
reform agency or a public administration institute. Legitimation
as a basis for securing support is essentially a rational-legal
approach to the issue, and may consist simply of the statutory
enactment by the legislative authority. 27. There is,
simultaneously, an emotive aspect to the support base. With
special historical heritage, cultural uniqueness, and other
social ties and ramifications in the developing countries, the
support base for institution-building will involve, equally
forcefully, the emotional components. 28. There are two
problems with attempting to obtain initial legitimation or
foundational support. One problem is determining how much to
promise, i.e., how much to represent in the way of the future
results, in order to gain the necessary initial support. 29. The other
problem is the status and behaviour of a leader seeking to
establish or reform an existing institution. This status and
behaviour may differ strikingly from later requirements for the
sort of leadership that can influence the flow of material
support. 30. Management is a
two-phased activity. One phase is directed internally, to shape,
guide, direct and assess the inside workings of an organization.
The other phase of management is concerned with maximizing the
relations between the organization and its environment. This is
sometimes referred to as working at the institutional level of
the organization. 31. The essential
task of institutional management is to influence, as much as
possible, the interaction of the organization and its
environment, to promote both the survival and the effectiveness
of that agency. This task requires, first of all, the ability to
perceive and interpret the environment. The absence of this
competence is like flying blind, without map or instruments. In
the real world of action, however, knowledge alone does not
suffice. 32. Institutional
management includes the ability to act, taking a pro-active
stance with respect to environmental elements. Or, it may be
more a matter of making internal adjustments to inexorable
external realities. 33. Although a
number of developing countries have made substantial progress in
increasing their supply of competent managers by establishing a
variety of management development institutions, some of these
institutions have failed to play decisive roles in the over-all
national development process. In view of the importance of
management in national development, all institutions concerned
with management development should be made to play a strategic
role in the national development scene. 34. In particular,
instead of isolating themselves from the public systems that
they seek to influence, they should actively promote a view of
public management to be shared effectively by the political
leadership, development planners and public managers. 35. Management
development comprises more than the mere organization of
training courses. It involves intensive and extensive
acculturization of managers so that they may better serve the
needs of the common man. There is need to improve access to
public services by all members of the society, particularly the
weak and the deprived. 36. The time has
thus come for management development institutions to reflect on
their accomplishments and environments, with a view to defining
more realistic roles and policies which will enhance their
impact on strategic problem areas of public management, and to
influencing their environment rather than being dominated by it. 37. In order to
reduce intellectual dependence on exogenous management theories
and enhance their own credibility, management development
institutions must develop, through meaningful research, a
management philosophy, models and approaches which reflect their
cultural environments and needs. 38. Correspondingly,
national policies and objectives should be defined by the
national leadership in such a way as to ensure that the
management development institutions contributions reflect the
assessed realities and priorities. 39. Management
development institutions should promote collaboration and
communication at the national, regional and global levels. For
this purpose, networks of institutions should be established at
those levels for exchange of information and experiences. At the
national level, there should be greater debate and discussion of
major management trends and development involving the
participation of all sectors of the society. 40. Developing
countries as well as the regional and international
organizations concerned with management development should pay
greater attention to the task of institution-building and devote
larger resources to management development institutions,
co-ordinate their efforts and periodically evaluate the impacts
of their outputs. 41. It is the duty
of the Institution Builders as well as the regulatory,
promotional, planning and other statutory bodies to ensure an
evaluation process on a continuing basis for analysing the
following : 42. Thus, the
problem definition led to a sharper focus on performance as a
key to institutionalization and processor as important
influences on institutional performance. From preliminary
analysis, four categories of processes emerged as important in
the life of an institution. 43. The following
are most important in the Indian context : 44. Analysis of
these elements has led to postulate five concepts to develop a
general processual model of institution building. These concepts
are 45. We, then, have a
revised model which has rectified the confusion between inputs
and outputs. Thus, the context influences capability development
mediated by process mechanisms of first set of; capability
development, in turn, influences innovative thrust of the
institution through a second set of process mechanisms; and
innovative thrust, in turn, influences penetration through a
third set of process mechanisms. 46. It should be
noted here that the capability development process mechanisms
are primarily externally or contextually oriented; the
innovative thrust process mechanisms are basically internally
oriented; and the penetration mechanisms are externally
oriented. Thus, we have contextual process mechanisms,
internally oriented process mechanisms, and externally oriented
process mechanisms. By isolating and identifying process
mechanisms in the three sets and also postulating directions of
influence the revised model has made possible the development of
the institution building model into a more practical model. 47. The revised
model can answer questions about what the institution builder
can do in order to develop the institution. The revised model
provides both a diagnostic frame and an action frame.
Institutional leaders need to know the current state of
institutional development and probable future states to result
from actions that they initiate. 48. They also need
guidance as to what action options are available to them. The
revised model is a step in this direction and in this sense is
neither complete nor comprehensive. Using the revised model, the
institution builder can generate valid data from context, level
of capability development in the institution, level of
innovative thrust, and extent of penetration. He will also be
able to compare these levels with similar institutions operating
in the same context. Moreover, he will be able to generate valid
data on the relative strengths of various process mechanisms
which mediate capability development, innovative thrust, and
penetration. 49. Thus, knowing
the state of the system and knowing the action options available
to him with respect to strengthening, neutralizing, or reducing
the weakness of appropriate process mechanisms, an institution
builder is placed in a better position to act. This is not to
imply that an institution builder can consciously engineer all
the outcomes. Quite the contrary. The model points out that
institutional leadership is precarious and uncertain. 50. The contextual
process mechanisms highlight the dependence of the institutional
leadership on factors outside conscious control. The model only
serves to sharply focus the attention of institution builders on
identifiable sources of problems. Further, the internally
oriented process mechanisms and the externally oriented process
mechanisms which mediate institutionalization sequentially
underscore the difficulties of conscious manipulation. It is no
wonder that the easiest course of action for institutional
leadership is to let the institution drift. Worse still, given
the uncertainties of performance on innovative thrust and more
so on penetration, the institutional leadership may focus
wrongly on capability development. 51. Capability
development is important, but represents basically performance
on input development. Innovative thrust and penetration concern
themselves with input utilization and conversion.
Institutionalization, in the final analysis, can take place and
social change can occur only if penetration takes place. Given a
context where the clientele are not demanding, it is easier to
stop at capability development and innovative thrust. 52. This is also
evident from the relatively low attention paid to
institutionalization mechanisms in the six institutions. This
has resulted in a situation of penetration by default rather
than by design. The impression one is left with is that
management education institutions cannot be considered to be
change agents in the sense of bringing about radically different
values on their own. They react more than initiate. 53. Let us discuss
the major features of both the "evolutionary" and the
"engineering" models. We will examine an engineering model of
institution building its assumptions, scope, and limitations.
This will lead us to a consideration of four major perspectives
of institution building which are important to its elaboration
and refinement. 54. These
perspectives are: 55. The "engineering
model" differs from "evolutionary model" in a fundamental way. 56. It is the
rejection of the "natural selection" process and the acceptance
of an "elitist" engineered adaptation or innovation that
differentiates the "engineering" model of institution building
from the "evolutionary" model. 57. Explicit
attention will have to be given to alternative designs as well
as to an examination of the conditions under which various
designs would bring about the desired results. That there are
serious limitations to planned change should not deter
development along this dimension. Such developments should also
examine the three possibilities available to an institution
builder and the consequence of adoption of one strategy in
preference to another. These possible design options are: 58. Unless the
Institution Building model develops along this line it will not
be in a position to provide guidance to the institution builder
in the choice of an appropriate design not only initially but
also continuously over time as the institution develops. 59. What must be
remembered is that in institution building the concern is with
the spread of values and norms and their acceptance by the
society. Further, the innovation in the institution building
model is the institution itself and the concern is with the
adoption of the institution by the society. 60. Imminent change
which occurs when people internal to the society primarily on
their own create and develop the innovation. 61. Induced imminent
change in that the innovation could be catalysed by someone who
is a temporary member of the society, though the primary burden
of the creation rests with the members of the society. 62. Selective
contact change when members of one system adopt an innovation
primarily as a result of their exposure to the innovation
outside their own system or society. 63. Directed contact
change caused by actors external to the system who seek to
induce change for achievement of goals defined by them. 64. The Institution
Building model, as is apparent, is concerned only with directed
contact change. Viewed from an innovation perspective, the model
has to develop capabilities of handling the other three types of
changes and, therefore, for choosing appropriate models of
diffusion. 65. In the
institutional context the collectivities would serve three ends,
namely: 66. Successful
institutionalization of new or replacement social patterns
requires coordinated and complementary efforts to build support
for the new action pattern in four aspects of social systems:
67. In implementing
programmes of institution building the serial order of
developmental tasks proceeds from 68. Successful
Institution Building projects require a variety of staff
resources including specialists of at least the following three
kinds: 69. Success in
Institution Building requires that the innovation-carrying
organization differentiates for itself a position in the
organizational network which facilitates active exchange by
defining its unique and limited functions and identifying the
net gains to the system which accrue from its activities and
from its interactions with other actors. 70. Action
orientations which comprehend both 71. Successful
Institution Building projects will provide for complementary
adjustments at each level of Federalistic hierarchies related to
the area of activity in which the changed action patterns are
designed to occur. 72. Organizational
learning requires the same capabilities as good planning, the
capacity of a corporate group to act intelligently vis-a-vis
group goals and activities. We can identify the properties that
make learning possible by identifying what an individual needs
in order to respond to changing circumstances: 73. In response to
the need to develop some measure of institutionalization, the
author has developed seven general requirements for an adequate
measuring tool: 74. The organization
occupies some "space" in its environment and is defined more by
the dynamic interrelationship between its members and its
societal context than by its internal assets. 75. Thus, the
defining properties of an organization are characterized in
terms of their internal asset value and their external asset
value. The way in which an organization is perceived by its
clients, sponsors, competitors, etc., and the place it occupies
in their value systems, is perhaps the most important asset of
an organization. 76. Identifying the
fundamental characteristics of an organization the properties of
organizationness as contrasted to the conditions necessary to
achieve viability in a way that directly addresses the fact that
these are mutual properties of the organization and its
environment; 77. Defining
viability as a homeostatic relationship between an organization
and its environment so that these essential properties of the
organization are replenished. 78. Clearly,
institutions do not exist in a vacuum. Much of the above
literature views the environment within which a given
institution operates from the vantage point of the institution
itself. However, the macro-oriented literature summarized in the
remainder of this chapter considers the broader perspective.
That is, the vantage points are reversed so that, for example,
the institutional infrastructure of a society can be viewed by
those for which it is designed to serve. More important, with
regard to why development occurs in the direction that it does,
the forces that shape and redirect institutions are of interest
to development scholars and practitioners alike. Both will find
the following summaries worthy of their time and attention. 79. The Institution
Building Universe and the Institution Linkages include : 80. Leadership
applies not only to people formally charged with the direction
of an institution, but also to all others who participate in the
planning, structuring, and the guidance of it. Within
leadership, viewed as a unit, important factors include
political viability, professional status, technical competence,
organizational competence, role distribution, and continuity. 81. Doctrine, as the
stable reference point of an institution to which all other
variables relate, contains such characteristics as specificity,
meaning the extent to which elements of doctrine supply the
necessary foundation for action in a given situation; the extent
to which the institutional doctrine conforms to the expected and
sanctioned behaviour of the society; and the degree to which the
institution's doctrine conforms to the preferences, priorities,
intermediate goals, and targets of the society. 82. Those actions
related to the performance of functions and services
constituting the output of the institution represent its
programme. Hence, important aspects of the programme variable
include its consistency with the institution's doctrine,
stability of output, feasibility regarding resources, as well as
complementary production of other organizations in the
absorptive capacity of the society, and the contribution of the
institution toward satisfying the specified needs of the
society. 83. The inputs of an
institution, here defined as resources, are important not only
in quantitative terms, but also because of their sources. These
sources and the ability to obtain resources through them affect
decisions with regard to programme, doctrine, and leadership.
Hence, the two categories within this variable are availability
and sources. 84. As both
structure and process, the category of internal structure
includes such things as the distribution of functions and
authority, the processes of communication and decision making,
and other relationship-action patterns. Consequently, it
determines the efficiency and effectiveness of programme
performance. Components of this category include identification
of participants within the institution, consistency of the
structure with the institution's doctrine and programme, and the
structure's adaptability to shifts in programme emphasis and
other changes. 85. Every
institution is dependent upon other organizations for its
authority and resources; hence, its linkages with other entities
are vitally important. These linkages also include an
institution's dependency on complementary production of other
institutions and on the ability of the environment to use its
resources. Finally, linkages are also concerned with and subject
to the norms of the society. Through these linkages the
institution maintains exchange relationships with its
environment, an interdependent complex of functionally related
organizations. The four subcategories of linkages are discussed
briefly below. 86. Institution
Building is a time-consuming process. During its initial phase
certain values or goals are conceived by the change agents, and
a strategy is determined for their attainment. Also during this
period, support is sought for achieving goals and values, an
effort is made to overcome resistances, and an attempt is made
to acquire the necessary authority and resources for the
establishment of the institution. Subsequently in the life cycle
of the institution, different strategies and actions are
required for executing the programme, maintaining the
institution, and facilitating the transfer of norms and values
to other elements of the society. 87. In reflecting on
different case studies, it has been attempted to : 88. Assuming that an
institution is falling short of its objectives, the purpose of
analyzing it would be to identify the sources of discrepancy
between intended and actual system outputs. Subsequently, the
analysis should be designed to provide alternatives in the
institution or in its relations with other elements of the
system that would enhance the probability of its success in
accomplishing its objectives. Finally, the institution should be
monitored to determine whether the alterations did in fact
improve its effectiveness. 89. Effective
institution development analysis requires careful
rationalization of the entire process of institution building,
identifying significant institutional characteristics and
putting these into an analytical framework that can be
understood and operationally applied. The institution building
matrix is the end product of this process. 90. The matrix
proved to be a very useful analytical as well as programming
tool and contributed significantly both to the technicians and
host government institutional leaders understanding of the
institution building process. It also confirmed my belief that
an analytical and evaluative process could be developed upon
which realistic institutional goals and strategies could be
determined and initiated. 91. An analytical
and an evaluative process compose this matrix. The former
requires analysis of the most significant environmental factors
of an institution, which are identified in checklist fashion.
One of these is the donor of aid, which should be analyzed in
terms of will, means, state of technology, constraints, project
inputs, institution progress reporting, and influence.
Environmental factors should also be analyzed for the host
institution and its capacity for change should be evaluated. 92. The core of the
matrix is the institution building profile, which consists of
observations on : 93. Combined
administrative-managerial profiles are constructed. The former
include such major staff services as planning, finance,
budgeting, personnel, and procurement. Subdivisions of the
management component include : 94. The objective of
the entire analytical-evaluative process is to provide a
rational framework upon which an institutional development
strategy can be designed. The analytical-evaluative technique is
intended to clearly identify major institutional strengths and
weaknesses and permit improvement strategies and courses of
action to be devised which will be instrumental in moving weak
institutional factors from right to left on the profiles. 95. The process
gives the institutional leader good insight into the nature of
his institution, permits the presentation of more critical and
precise institutional goals or objectives, enables the
institution to divert manpower and resources to more clearly
defined objectives and problem areas, and charts a more orderly,
well-balanced course for institutional improvement and
viability. 96. The institution
building matrix, although still in the
developmental-experimental stage, has been used for five
institutions. Experience has demonstrated that leadership
properties are the most sensitive category to evaluate.
Establishing institutional doctrine has proven to be the most
difficult factor to understand. In addition, the capacity for
institutional change is proving troublesome to comprehend. 97. The Institution
Building Studies and Research Programme (IBSRP) must include the
following : 98. The following
aspects should be analysed for strengthening the cause of
Institution Building while dealing with educational institutions
: 99. Before
establishing the Institutions, the following should be kept in
mind with a view to building a strong and purposeful institution
: 100. The analysis of
costs and benefits of management education is divided into two
parts. Initially, a conceptual framework is developed for the
measurement and analysis of the private and social costs and
benefits of management education in the Indian context. 101. Both generic
factors, inherent in probably all institution building efforts
requiring foreign collaboration, and specific project factors
had an effect on the struggle for influence. Generic factors
include : 102. Strategic
planning in institution building, however comprehensive, should
not be regarded as a one-time activity and should provide for
periodic reviews and planned critiques. Our Institute's clearly
articulated doctrine gave it a strong sense of direction and
provided a solid base for faculty collaboration. Although only a
part of strategic planning and subsequent evaluation, the
cost-benefit analysis methodology developed can help to ensure
that decisions are not unduly influenced by the enthusiasm and
articulateness of well-meaning proponents or by the special
interest of minorities with access to seats of power. Likewise,
when used in auditing the consequences of decisions to initiate
institution building projects, cost-benefit analysis can help to
prevent the expansion or replication of activities that are
attractive but not demonstrably cost-effective. 103. Institutions
have been found with the following benefits as well as
deficiencies : 104. In some
countries, the economic growth is stopped by internal quarrels
and mistrust? Why, in others, do competitors not only control
their conflicts but use them to promote growth? In addressing
this question, the present volume develops a broad-based theory
of institutions. Growth depends, among other things, on a
national capacity to build institutions to manage conflicts.
This capacity, furthermore, requires national consensus on an
economic and a political ideology. These ideologies are defined
as the ways in which individuals envisage the economic and
political systems how they operate, and how just they are.
Ideological consensus in turn is fostered by a popular
nationalism, which therefore plays a positive role in growth
rather than the negative one usually attributed to it by
economists. 105. The
effectiveness of institutions in managing conflict to : 106. A potential for
conflict occurs whenever two individuals interact and each seeks
to satisfy his own needs. The individuals often perceive this
conflict even before they sense their mutual goals, especially
in the encounters that are part of economic development. Once
two or more persons perceive that they have a mutual goal or
that separate goals can be achieved only if they work jointly, a
formal organization or a normal pattern of behaviour emerges.
107. Such
institutions are crucial in conflict resolution because the
potential for conflict exists whenever a decision must be
reached. Every decision is a conflict resolved . The value or
effectiveness of institutions, then, can be measured in terms of
their conflict-resolving capacity. This capacity is of utmost
importance because conflicts, properly contained and managed,
actually propel growth, e.g., labour seeks higher wages which
management can pay only if productivity goes up. 108. Defined as any
set of relationships between individuals that is designed to
resolve their conflicts, institutions reveal each individual to
the other as a reasoning person capable of compromise to achieve
mutual goals and with predictable responses. As institutions
facilitate conflict resolution, confidence is placed in them,
and, subsequently, in the individual parties to the conflict.
Given this mutual confidence, the original institution which
facilitated its formation may be changed if a more efficient one
emerges in the growth process. 109. Growth requires
a division of labour and specialization which, in turn, require
different institutions to facilitate exchange. The particular
type of institution selected will be determined by benefits and
costs of alternative institutions as subjectively judged by
members of the power groups capable of forming it. If these
groups are growth-sensitive, many of the benefits will be judged
by the institution's capacity to achieve growth; its costs will
be measured in terms of the pain felt by the power group forming
it that is, in terms of sacrifices of resources, prestige,
values, the effort required to overcome resistance of others, or
even life itself in the case of a revolution. 110. In selecting
among alternative institutions, the following dimensions are
relevant: 111. Institutional
ideology is one of several values that institutions must
reflect. In fact, these values change as the society moves from
the pre-take-off, through the take-off, and into the
post-take-off stages. In the process, the transitional nature of
the values creates strains for the institutions based upon them.
The first institutions of take-off must conform to existing
values or they will not be formed at all. For these institutions
to be most effective in light of the existing framework of
values, they must embody costly measures to protect contestants
against other contestants who are not trusted at the time of
takeoff. This means that the institutions are bound to strain
values in order to encompass the conflicts which are new at this
stage. The amount of strain a society can accept is limited, of
course. But after these institutions have existed for some time
and have been accepted in the society, values will have changed
and new institutions similar to them can be created. 112. Subsequently,
the new institutions can strain values further, to the point
where even the pace of the strain may be accelerated. When the
society accepts the strain even at the point where the society
itself becomes change oriented, the strain involved in change
may itself become a value. This evolution of values suggests the
profound effect that institutions established early in takeoff
have for successive ones: Values and institutions interact: an
institution changes values, then a new institution is formed
dependent on the changed values; it changes them further, and so
on. 113. Perhaps more
important, however, is the need for ideological consensus within
the society as it passes through stages. Optimal consensus
probably involves some internal dissension, however, because it
serves as a source for institutional vigour and flexibility.
Nevertheless, a degree of consensus is a prerequisite for the
evolution of any institution. Hence, growth-sensitive power
groups seek consensus on ideology. Consensus can be gained
directly through numerous media or indirectly by first creating
the type of institution desired and then using it as a model for
fashioning other institutions. After a society has passed
through the takeoff period, all values essential to growth are
likely to be called into question. The cultural structure
erected to sustain growth is likely to be questioned long before
production reaches its physical limits, because once the
limitation of supply on growth becomes foreseeable and the
pollution predictable, a change in values is likely to occur.
Those for whom economic growth is no longer a dominant goal will
become desensitized to growth. 114. Takeoff is the
period in which growth-sensitive groups form and move into
positions of power. Landing is the period in which power is
sought by groups becoming desensitized to growth. The two
periods are symmetrical. In each there is great confusion, as
institutions of the previous period are unable to cope with new
conflicts arising out of growth (in takeoff) or out of un-growth
(in landing). Like takeoff countries, landing countries will
find themselves in a severe ideological split. Institutions will
weaken through lack of consensus on goals, and effective
institutions will not be formed until a new consensus on
ideology and goals emerges. 115. Nationalism,
defined as the acceptance of the State as the impersonal and
ultimate arbiter of human affairs, not only is used as an
ideology but also has operational connotations. The combination
of ideology and nationalism is used by revolutionary elites to
justify any action as legitimate. In spite of its limitations,
ideology may help a society overcome some of its most difficult
crises in the early period. In the long run, ideologies which
maintain close contact with evolving aspirations may be more
effective than ideology issued as unmitigated dogma. 116. In countries
where nationalist ideology has been substituted for social
cohesion, a power struggle frequently results between the
revolutionary elites and the successor subelites. In these
cases, the revolutionary elite may be inclined toward a
nationalistic ideology in which unanimity and retention of
control take priority over developmental goals. Frequently the
elites in power convert the technology for development into
technology for control. Regimentation and discipline become
prime organizational techniques as demands for stability and
national order replace those for rapid social change. Economic
leaders are often replaced by military ones. 117. An attitude as
a predisposition to experience a class of objects in certain
ways, with characteristic affect; to be modified by this class
of objects in characteristic ways; and to act with respect to
these objects in a characteristic fashion. Hence, attitudes have
been used by psychologists in explaining characteristics in
perception, motivation, and social behaviour. Two major views
concerning attitudinal change have been identified. One is the
dissonance or disequilibrium theory of attitudinal change and
the other is an organizational or functionalist theory of the
origin of attitudes. The functionalist theory, which focuses on
the role of attitudes and values in reconciling the individual
to his environment, is used because the nature of attitudinal
change in developing countries is perhaps more appropriately
viewed in this way. 118. The very
societies that are in need of massive institutional change are
those that lack an effective complement of mechanisms for
carrying out such change in an orderly, systematic manner. While
they have the advantage of being able to imitate the mechanisms
found in modern societies, the process of imitation is far from
simple. Wherever one looks there are difficulties. 119. Potential
problems are so numerous their very multiplicity inhibits their
recognition. Legislation for reform is so cumbersome that it
precludes the possibility of change. Agencies responsible for
dealing with the problems of change are starved for power,
resources, and freedom to maneuver. In short, the institutional
framework, and particularly the power structure, seriously
inhibit problem solving activities in pre-modern societies. 120. The kinds of
qualitative changes that must be made in basic institutions are
reflected in two value judgments and empirical understanding of
the workings of social systems. According to the first value
judgment, indigenous ability to maintain a continually rising
income in per capita terms is both good and a defining
characteristic of economic development. The second value
judgment states that increasing equality of wealth and income
must occur over time. These judgments suggest the fundamental
change of an increase in equality of opportunity and an implied
degree of individual and group mobility. Freedom to organize and
expand is essential for both entrepreneurs and the other dynamic
roles needed in modernizing, such as revolutionaries, reformers,
labour and peasant leaders, as well as innovative imperialists
in education, science, and technology. 121. Losses in
efficiency are the price that must be paid for the
reorganization of activity patterns and redistribution of wealth
and income. One such loss occurs as a consequence of devoting
more resources to investment than would be justified by the
willingness of people, given the freedom of choice, to forego
present consumption of goods and services. An objective gain,
however, would partially compensate for this in the form of a
super-optimal rate of growth of the social product. The second
type of efficiency loss results from distortions in prices and
misallocations of resources necessary for the structural
redistribution of wealth and incomes from more developed to less
developed people, sectors, and regions. A consequence of
accepting these losses is a higher rate of development. 122. A radical
development strategy will consist of three phases. The
developmental growth phase stresses basic institutional change
plus a massive increase in the brute capacity to produce. The
second phase involves moving the restructured economy onto a new
and efficient path. Finally, institutionalization of the
progressive growth process is essential. 123. The
reinstitutionalization of a society along modern lines requires
a broad and persistent effort if it is to succeed. Piecemeal
reorganizations accomplished in typical bureaucratic fashion by
many cooperatives, development banks, extension programmes, and
modern educational systems have resulted in little or no
contribution to development. However, once mobilized on a broad
front and given time for initial progress, the forces of
evolution will eventually begin to take over the modernizing
revolution. At some point, the society will have brought into
being a new set of basic institutions and the evolutionary
process. 124. Once underway,
the process is inevitably altered by continuing forces of
evolution and revolution. The new cohort of professionalized
occupants of responsible intermediate roles in a modernizing
society spells future difficulty for the old modernizing elites,
partially because of the difference in values and goals
perceived by the two groups and partially because of differences
in ideas about the kind of a power structure deemed appropriate. 125. Regardless of
source, an ideological strain is likely to emerge. This is
compounded by deepening tension resulting from differences
between the flexible norms of individual, organized,
consummatory behaviour and the proliferation and tightening of
productive norms. Finally, as the standard of living improves,
the perennial conflict between humanistic and materialistic
values will become more conspicuous. 126. The strategy
which provides for the building of organizations around men who,
in this instance, possessed a sense of trust and a sense of the
significance of their role in building society. 127. They note the
unusual combination of policy-making, executive, and scientific
roles that accorded the institution's top administrator
important power, freedom, and authority. 128. In the crucial
early years of the institution, considerable benefit was derived
from the transfer of a large group of scientists with a
homogeneous culture from the predecessor institution. 129. As in many
other professional groups, motivation and control were contained
in professional commitments and exercised through both
discussions and the judgment of peers. 130. The body to
which the top administrator referred for policy and strategic
decisions was compact in size and consisted of members chosen
for their expertise and roles. 131. By wearing
several hats at different times, key individuals in the
institution participated in the interplay among basic science,
technology, and industrial practice so that economic progress
could result. 132. The following
points must be considered while creating institutions : 133. The building of
an innovative developmental institution is never finished, i.e.,
it must always be in a process of rebuilding itself, of
rejuvenating its innovative powers, if it is to be a meaningful
agent of development. 134. The concepts of
the Institution Building model are a useful general framework
within which to conceptualize the rejuvenation process, but
additional concepts are required. The greatest utility of the
model for already- established institutions is the same as that
for new institutions, namely, providing guidance in devising
Institution Building strategies. 135. A large part of
institutional resistance to change and subsequent atrophy as an
innovative force for development lies in : 136. The key to
attaining and maintaining a high level of institutional
productivity lies in maximizing the consequentiality of the
institution's products to the societal units in which these
products serve. 137. Effective
linkages require management with the following characteristics: 138. Most
institutions, in their growth, reach a defined plateau of
competence and performance, after time, at which level they can
do very well without massive assistance. Rather than to continue
to rely upon external assistance, when the plateau has been
reached, it is preferable that the institution proceed on its
own, even though there might be some slippage in the programme.
At some later time perhaps, when the institution is ready to
move toward a higher plateau of excellence or of programme
coverage, a new assistance project might be considered. During
the interim period, or when the project comes to a close, a
thread of relationship should be maintained between the
institution and the university. A modest exchange of professors
and students and of publications gives returns much larger than
the costs in terms of research and teaching at both ends of the
connection. 139. Development, or
more modestly, social change, and the concomitant new values,
functions, technologies and action patterns, cannot be
effectively introduced and sustained in transitional societies
unless they are embedded in a supportive network of social
structures, processes, and norms. In short, these innovative
values, functions, and technologies must be institutionalized. 140. This process
takes place in and through institutional organizations which
must either be newly created or adapted and restructured for
this purpose. 141. Institutional
development need not be a natural or evolutionary process which
occurs independently of human design. In this era, new
technologies and new institutional forms are almost everywhere
deliberately induced and directed. This sense of deliberate
human purpose and human direction warrants the use of the phrase
institution building and suggests a key role for modernizing
elites. 142. Institution
building is thus an approach to the development process which
relies heavily on the concept of social engineering and which
stresses the leadership functions of modernizing elite groups
within that process and the alternative action strategies
available to them. 143. As development
occurs, social functions or technologies become increasingly
specialized. With specialization, interdependencies develop. The
institutions incorporating innovations are thus involved in a
network of complementary and competing relationships in their
environment on which institution building research must focus. 144. Institution
building is conceived of as a generic social process. There are
elements and actions that can be identified as generally
relevant to institution building, even though their expression
will differ depending on the type of institution and the social
environment. 145. It is possible,
through systematic and comparative analysis of institution
building experiences, to derive elements of a technology of
institution building that will be useful to persons engaged in
introducing innovation into developing societies, whether they
be indigenous change agents or foreign advisors. 146. The institution
building approach is : 147. The institution
building approach is addressed to situations in developing
countries where nation building and socioeconomic progress are
overriding goals. Hence, these goals constitute normative guides
and regulators of official doctrine and, as such, influence
public policy and programmed action. 148. Our task or
action oriented model now begins to emerge, incorporating the
following components: a governing, goal-oriented elite which
bears the major responsibility for initiating and directing the
process of modernizing change; a doctrine, or set of action
commitments, which establishes, communicates, and legitimizes
norms, priorities and styles for operating programmes; and a set
of action instruments through which communication with the
community is maintained and operating programmes are
implemented. 149 Institution
Building provides the means by which a change oriented
leadership can articulate with an organized community and the
community can participate in the struggle to achieve the twin
goals. 150. Development
with the institutionalization of political organizations and
procedures. Rapid increases in mobilization and participation,
the principal political aspects of modernization, undermine
political institutions. Rapid modernization produces not
political development but political decay. In order to liberate
the concept of development from the concept of modernization,
political development is defined as the institutionalization of
political organizations and purposes. This institutionalization
can be measured by an organization's adaptability, complexity,
autonomy, and coherence. 151. Two general
considerations affecting the probabilities of success in
institution building are recognized: 152. There are two
methods of furthering institutional development. One is to slow
social mobilization, which presumably creates conditions more
favourable to the preservation and strengthening of
institutions. Three methods of doing this are 153. In the absence
of traditional political institutions, the political party is
the only modem organization that can become a source of power
and that can be effectively institutionalized. Regardless of the
type of institution involved, the danger of over-extension of
its resources in the institution building process is considered
analogous to the danger involved in over-extending troops in a
military campaign. 154. The central
object of any educational institutional development is to embody
a doctrine in an organization. This doctrine includes norms as
well as skill and/or knowledge content. 155. The ability to
interpret doctrine and to make innovative applications of it in
operating and developing a programme of activities is probably
the key indicator that the doctrine has been institutionalized.
156. The development
of an innovative institution depends upon the creation of a
structure of institutional leadership. 157. Protecting and
maintaining an institutional leadership structure, plus a
supporting cadre, in a hostile environment may be more difficult
than establishing it in the first place. . . . 158. It is entirely
possible to mobilize environmental support for an innovative
institution even if there are sharp inconsistencies between the
institution's doctrine and the value orientation characteristic
of that environment. . . . 159. A full
determination of the institutionalization of an educational
entity such as the IPA must consider the impact upon the
organization's clientele and, ultimately, of the clientele upon
the environment. 160. The Institution
Building enterprise is a peculiarly appropriate means of
bringing sociology and political science to bear upon the
problems of education. However, he argues that the environment
of an educational institution is not only the political,
economic, and social setting of its particular locality, region,
or nation, but also embraces the larger supranational
environment represented by the world of knowledge, the
international canons of scholarship, and the practice and
performance of professional behaviour that transcends national
boundaries. In addition, he maintains that the implicit
assumption that the direction of change in institution building
should progress from the relatively less to the relatively more
modern should be made explicit and dealt with accordingly. 161. Institutions
may stimulate or impede behaviour leading to economic growth by
their following effects: 162. The following
forces, which we categorize as prime movers, have brought about
changes : 163. The list of
main catalytic forces that accelerate change include: 164. The following
inhibiting forces that retard change are : 165. The term
institution is used in many ways. There has been an organized
capability to perform the important economic, social, or
political functions in a society. In performing these functions,
institutions are particularly important in providing not only
the opportunities for developmental action, but also the
necessary incentives to encourage individuals to react to
changing conditions in the desired manner. This reflects the
interdependency of institutional arrangements and policy
determination and implementation. For example, government price
policy may provide incentives to produce more of a particular
type of commodity, but the individual entrepreneur cannot
respond in a meaningful way to this incentive without access to
adequate credit, marketing, and other institutional services. 166. Moreover, the
quality of institutions is an important aspect that must be
considered. It is not enough that an institution simply exists
in a static sense. Rather, it is imperative that the institution
be a viable, dynamic unit generating the proper conditions for
orderly change in the society through time. The influence of
institutions on the societies they serve can either catalyze or
retard economic and social progress. 167. Institutions
along with government policies are the major variables
determining what people do in developing countries. They are
prime determinants of the course of political, social, and
economic progress and offer the greatest potential for
influencing the direction of development. 168. Economic growth
is a state of increase in the national product, without
reference to income distribution. Per capita economic growth
occurs when the percentage increase in national product is
greater than the percentage increase in population. Economic
development, on the other hand, is economic growth combined with
the nurture of those culture objects (norms, institutions, and
values) necessary to make growth continuous. 169. Modernization
is the process of acquiring both economically progressive
institutions and other types of progressive institutions as
well. To acquire progressive institutions, and thus to become
modem, is very different from having and operating such
institutions, and thus to be modern. 170. Development, or
more modestly, social change, and the concomitant new values,
functions, technologies and action patterns, cannot be
effectively introduced and sustained in transitional societies
unless they are embedded in a supportive network of social
structures, processes, and norms. In short, these innovative
values, functions, and technologies must be institutionalized. 171. This process
takes place in and through institutional organizations which
must either be newly created or adapted and restructured for
this purpose. 172. Institutional
development need not be a natural or evolutionary process which
occurs independently of human design. In this era, new
technologies and new institutional forms are almost everywhere
deliberately induced and directed. This sense of deliberate
human purpose and human direction warrants the use of the phrase
institution building and suggests a key role for modernizing
elites. 173. The concept
institution building will be further defined and discussed
later; but, first, the term institution requires attention. 174. The term
institutions refers to organizations staffed with personnel
capable of carrying out defined, but evolving, programmes
contributing to social and economic development and having
enough continuing resources to assure a sustained effort for
establishment, acceptance, and application of new methods and
values. 175. Institution is
sometimes used to refer to certain types of organizations’.
Sometimes institution refers to a quite different phenomenon
namely, to a normative principle that culturally defines
behaviour such as marriage or property. Because of these two
conflicting usages, this term has probably caused more confusion
than formal organization and bureaucracy together. All three
might well be avoided in favour of the simple term,
organization. 176. To
institutionalize is to infuse with value beyond the technical
requirements of the task at hand. The prizing of social
machinery beyond its technical role is largely a reflection of
the unique way in which it fulfils personal or group needs.
Whenever individuals become attached to an organization or a way
of doing things as persons rather than as technicians, the
result is a prizing of the device for its own sake. From the
standpoint of the committed person, the organization is changed
from an expendable tool into a valued source of personal
satisfaction. 177. Organizations
are technical instruments, designed as means to definite goals.
They are judged on engineering premises; they are expendable.
Institutions, whether conceived as groups or practices, may be
partly engineered, but they have also a natural dimension. They
are products of interaction and adaptation; they become the
receptacles of group idealism; they are less readily expendable.
178 An organization
which incorporates, fosters, and protects normative
relationships and action patterns and performs functions and
services which are valued in the environment. Thus, while all
institutions are organizations of some type, not all
organizations are institutions. 179. An institution
is more than an organization and more than a cultural pattern.
It attracts support and legitimacy from its environment so that
it can better perform its functions and services. This is the
essential dynamic of Institution Building. 180. To the extent
that an organization succeeds over time in demonstrating the
value of its functions and having them accepted by others as
important and significant, the organization acquires the status
of an institution. 181. It should be
recognized at the outset that institutions, as used in the
context of this research, are defined in a particularistic
manner. They are specific formal organizations which over time
have developed a capacity to act as agents for the larger
society by providing valued functions and services. More than
this, they serve as models for defining legitimate normative and
value patterns, conserving and protecting them for the larger
society. 182. In dealing with
the problem of how to introduce innovative techniques in
developing societies, we assume that an effective way to do this
is by creating and supporting formal organizations which utilize
these innovations and corresponding technology in such a manner
that, over time, given changes in the existing institutional
complex of the society, these organizations take on the mantle
of institutions. 183. Institutions
are special types of organizations which embody certain values
and norms, represent them in society, and promote them. In this
special meaning, organizations do not qualify as institutions if
they perform technical functions which are purely instrumental
and which do not embody values that become normative in society.
Institutions are thus a sub-class of large-scale organizations
which have explicit, overt, purposeful programmes of
discriminating and promoting certain sorts of values. 184. Institutions
are, for purposes of the present discussion, defined as
well-established and understood organized constellations of
roles which fulfil functions for society or groups within a
society. The point that must be stressed is that institutions
are organized networks of roles with distinct social
consequences. No single role represents an institution; it is
the patterned organization of roles in an inseparable complex
which makes the social institution meaningful. 185. The term
institution refers to organizations and policies, both
governmental and private. This limited definition is used in
order to select those elements in the existing or potential
social context which can be incorporated in institutional
programmes, accompanying and supplementing investment and
technological programming. Such programmes are conceived as
groups of integrated and consciously planned institutional
innovations designed to stimulate those kinds of behaviour by
management, farmers, labour, consumers, savers, investors, and
innovators which can be expected to initiate and sustain growth. 186. Institutions
are bounded, integrated, and internalized sets of social
components; ideas, concepts, symbols, rules, statuses,
relationships, and so on. By bounded we mean that the relevance
of the set of components is restricted in certain commonly
understood ways: for example, to people in a certain
geographical area or kinship group, to those belonging to
certain formal or informal organizations, to those engaged in
certain kinds of behaviour or present at certain times or
places, and so on. By integrated we mean that there is a
logical, an empirically necessary, or an historically sanctioned
interdependence, consistency, and appropriateness among
institutions and among the components of a given institution.
187. By internalized
we mean that the individuals whose behaviour is guided by an
institution understand its components and their interdependence
and that, through emotional attachment or intellectual
appreciation, there is a measure of commitment to the
institution. Institutions thus establish and coordinate
behaviour patterns, making social action meaningful. 188. What
distinguishes an institution from an organization, is whether or
not it can influence other entities in the economy, or whether
it is limited to the programmes it can execute directly. The
fact is that institutions are not built in a vacuum. They are
built only through an active, even aggressive participation in
an economy. 189. Sociologists
are often neither clear nor in agreement on the meaning of the
term institution. There are those who restrict the term to refer
to the established forms or conditions of procedure
characteristic of group activity. This implies that every group
in a society has its own characteristic values, meaning, and
forms of procedure or, every association has, in respect of its
particular interest, its characteristic institutions. 190. An institution
has generalized patterns of norms which define categories of
prescribed, permitted and prohibited behaviour in social
relationships for people in interaction with each other as
members of their society and its various subsystems and groups.
191. Following this
definition, we may speak of complexes of institutional patterns
as regulating all the major functional contexts and group
structures of a social system, economic, political, integrative,
educational, cultural, etc. 192. In another use
of the term we find that the term institution has been used both
to denote specific units or collectivities in the society, and
with regard to generalized meanings, values and broadly shared
norms of social structure and conduct. Let us distinguish
between diffused-symbolic institutions and nucleated
institutions. The first type refers to the meaning and value
content of diffused concepts like art, law, ethics, science,
etc., whereas the second possesses tangible aspects. 193. The nucleated
institutions include among others local government, local
business enterprise, newspapers, the school, the family, etc.
and refer to the nucleated institutions as cultural concretions
and explains their origin under five points: 194. Variations on
this classification, which distinguishes between institutions as
norms of value and conduct and specific collectivities of people
in organized interaction, can be found in the work of other
social scientists. 195. Regardless of
the definitions and uses of the concept institution, it appears
that there is basic agreement on certain elements of the
phenomenon. 196. Adhering to
these basic elements, but deviating in some respects from the
traditional sociological definitions, we shall define
institutions in this context as organizations which embody,
foster, and protect normative relationship and action patterns
and perform functions and services which are valued in the
environment. Organization as used here refers to a consciously
designed and controlled set of actions and relationship patterns
among persons in interaction toward the achievement of certain
objectives. 197. Clearly, enough
variation in the connotation of the term institution exists to
require careful reading to determine the meaning each author
attaches to it. The definition of the term has much to recommend
it: 198. Values in the
context of institution building are assertions about facts, and
determining facts depends on values. Values cannot be rationally
established or defended but can be rationally discussed,
analyzed, and understood. 199. The definition
of values and the process of value formation eliminates facts as
an opposite of values; as a result, the value-fact controversy
loses much of its substance. Why then bring it up in the first
place? There are three reasons. 200. Thus, an
organization is primarily a technical instrument, a means to
reach certain objectives, but never an end in itself. The
institutional approach emphasizes not only the instrumental
characteristics; nor is the focus of analysis and action
primarily on the structural, functional and behavioural elements
which are internal to the organizational system though these are
essential also. 201. In
institutional analysis, we are concerned with purposes and
values which extend beyond the immediate task at hand, with the
spreading of norms which affect participants and clientele
beyond the functional and productive specialization of the
institution. Thus, institutional values and specific
relationship and action patterns governing the performance of
functions within the institution become normative beyond the
confines of the institution itself and stable points of
reference both within the organization and for the environment.
It goes without saying that influences flow simultaneously in
the opposite direction, from the environment to the institution,
affecting the latter both in its structure as well as its
performance. 202. The
institutions can influence economic development by means of
motivations and values. By values we mean individual and
collective judgments (or assumptions) concerning what is
desirable. In rational human behaviour, values provide the
motivations which impel men to choose or avoid particular types
of voluntary action. 203. In attempting
to identify the psychological effect of ideological differences,
it is stated that a compilation of very general values or
attitudinal objects represents ideology. Typically, ideology is
the favourite tool in the hands of the revolutionary elite. 204. Ideology is the
individual's view of society that best enables him to fit into
it. This sociopolitical concept of ideology implies a
psychological reason for the individual's selection. He must
create his niche in society. Either he must shape himself to fit
society, or he must form his concept of society to fit his
concept of himself. Most of us do a bit of each. 205. Ideology and
passion may no longer be necessary to sustain the class struggle
within stable and affluent democracies, but they are clearly
needed in the international effort to develop free and political
institutions in the rest of the world. It is only the
ideological class struggle in the West which is ending. 206. Ideological
conflicts linked to levels and problems of economic development
and of appropriate political institutions among different
nations will last far beyond our lifetime, and men committed to
democracy can abstain from them only at their peril. 207. Emphasizing
that institution building requires more than establishment of a
new organization. It must fit into local ways of doing things,
be staffed, supported, and wanted by host country nationals, and
perform a useful function for the society. 208. The idea of
institution building is to fabricate organizations in
environments needing and perhaps desiring change. Through
accumulating necessary resources, persisting over time, and most
importantly impacting its environment, these organizations are
to be agents for change. Institution is understood in Parsonian
terms as referring to normative patterns which define proper,
legitimate or expected modes of action or social relationships,
and also as a change inducing and change-protecting formal
organization. 209. Institution
Building involves the introduction and establishment of
organizations which in turn induce changes in patterns of action
and belief within a society. Most commonly, these changes are
associated with new technologies, both physical and social. The
crux of the Institution Building process is moving from
introduction to establishment. 210. It is
frequently difficult to distinguish between institutional change
and institution building. Changes in external and internal
conditions, in leadership and resources make all organizations
change and adapt over time. 211. An organization
which does not have this adaptive capacity is not likely to
survive. Assuming that the functions it fulfils are still
required by society it will be replaced by another organization
or organizations which are more responsive to the changing
needs. Such adaptive change of organizations, however, is
conceptually different from institution building. Institution
building refers to the deliberate infusion of fundamentally
different values, functions and technologies requiring changes
in the institution's doctrine, in its structural and behavioural
patterns. 212. In general, it
can be said that organizational institutionalization is more
meaningful than the expression institution building because of
its neutral connotation. For one thing it avoids the modernizing
bias contained in the rationale of institutional building
studies, thus increasing the universalistic value of the model
developed so far, and it allows the latter to be applied to a
wider array of organizations that may not , have any connection
with modernization in the cross-cultural, comparative
administrative sense. 213. Regardless of
the specific terms used, the institution building process
contains the basic elements of institution variables, linkages,
and transactions. The first of these will be discussed in the
next section and the remaining two in the following section. 214. Initially in
this section the major institution variables will be defined in
both extensive and shortened form. Subsequently, additional
definitions of each of the major institutional variables will be
provided. Throughout, the focus will be on parameters internal
to an institution. 215. Viewing them as
the elements necessary and sufficient to explain the systemic
behaviour of an institution, let us describe the five
institution variables as follows: 216. Doctrine,
defined as the specification of values, objectives, and
operational methods underlying social action. Doctrine is
regarded as a series of themes which project, both within the
organization itself and in its external environment, a set of
images and expectations of institutional goals and styles of
action. Among the subvariables which seem to be significant for
the effectiveness of doctrine are specificity, relationship to
(or deviation from) existing norms, and relationship to
(emerging) societal preferences and priorities. 217. Programme,
defined as those actions which are related to the performance of
functions and services constituting the output of the
institution. The programme thus is the translation of doctrine
to concrete patterns of action and the allocation of energies
and other resources within the institution itself and in
relationship to the external environment. The sub-variables
which were identified as relevant to the programme or output
function of the institution are consistency, stability, and
contribution to societal needs. 218. Resources,
defined as the financial, physical, human, technological, (and
informational) inputs of the institution. Quite obviously the
problems involved in mobilizing and in ensuring the steady and
reliable availability of these resources affect every aspect of
the institution's activities and represent an important
preoccupation of all institutional leadership. Two very broad
sub-variables are identified in the original conceptualization
availability and sources. 219. Internal
Structure, defined as the structure and processes established
for the operation of the institution and for its maintenance.
The distribution of roles within the organization, its internal
authority patterns and communications systems, the commitment of
personnel to the doctrine and programme of the organization,
affect its capacity to carry out programmatic commitments. Among
the sub-variables identified in this cluster are identification
(of participants with the institution and its doctrine),
consistency, and adaptability. 220. Let us provide
the following shortened definitions of the major institution
variables: 221. Leadership :
Since numerous volumes have been written on the subject of
leadership, the term cannot be treated extensively here. The art
of the creative leader is the art of institution-building, the
reworking of human and technological materials to fashion an
organism that embodies new and enduring values. 222. In short, the
role or position of the leadership in the social structure bears
on its channels of communication, its power and influence in the
functional area and the environment. 223. Motivation:
Beyond the actual motivation of the leadership, we are also
concerned with the motivations ascribed by the environment. 224. Functional
competence: This refers to the technical competence in the
functional area of the institution as it is represented in the
leadership group. 225. Organization
competence: By organization competence is meant talent for
combining personnel and resources into dynamic, self-sustaining
enterprises. 226. Role
Distribution: Which indicates whether the potentially available
complementarity among the members of the leadership unit is in
fact fully used. 227. Continuity:
Without continuity in the leadership group there are likely to
be changes in values and approaches which are detrimental to the
consistent and systematic building of an institution. Besides,
it hampers the development of the necessary competences and
their application to a given situation. 228. Institution
Builder is not simply the counterpart of homo economicus. He
does not merely buy cheap and sell dear. Rather he is an
entrepreneur, combining factors of organizational production in
such a way as to produce valued outputs. These in turn yield him
resources which may be used to further the process of
organizational growth. He is one who has a canny sense both of
his market opportunities and his own objectives. He finds new
sources of resources and support, new combinations which are
more productive, or new uses for them which yield greater value
of output. 229. The
characteristic of leadership, then, which distinguishes it with
success is an acute faculty for strategy, that is, the use of
resources over time. A person occupying a position of authority
who lacks a sense of the productivity of time may well squander
or dissipate the resources which accrue to his position. Many
persons in positions of authority have resources at their
disposal. Yet often by neither seizing nor making opportunities
for organizational growth they forfeit the possibility of
strengthening the organization by increasing its outputs or
increasing its inputs. 230. Doctrine: Since
doctrine has proven to be a difficult concept because of its
abstract nature, the following statement justifies its nature : 231. Doctrine is
used as synonymous with ideology, more specifically applied
ideology. Put in this way, doctrine is closely associated with
autonomy in the sense that doctrine may also mean rules and
values which are built in the organization in such a way as to
justify its functions and existence. 232. Doctrine is
also the self-propelling, self-renewing value system that gives
an organization a life line independent of the corporate sum
reached by adding up the qualities of its individual members. 233. It is the
function of doctrine to establish normative linkages between the
old and the new, between establishment and innovators, such as
would legitimize innovations which came with the new
organization. Doctrine itself could not perform this function;
yet it could provide connections which made organizational
innovations appear less new, less threatening, and
correspondingly more legitimate. It could tip the balance. 234. At the same
time that it might perform this function with those publics who
would ultimately either institutionalize or reject innovations,
it could also provide institutional leaders with norms or
standards which could guide them in projecting programmes,
establishing priorities, and assessing accomplishments. It could
provide a sense of solidarity and progress so important to
morale. 235. Programme:
Programme represents the translation of doctrine into practical
activities of organization. Given the scarcity of resources, a
programme represents a statement of priorities or a sequence of
resource allocations judged to be most productive for attaining
organizational goals. 236. Those planned
and organized actions that are related to the performance of
functions and services, i.e., the production of the outputs of
the institution (teaching, research, extension). Programmes are
designed to fulfil the goals of the organization as set forth in
legal mandates, official doctrine, and needed and demanded by
the environment to be served. 237. Resources : The
inputs of the organization that are converted into products or
services and into increases in institutional capability. It
includes not only financial resources that can be used for
construction of physical plant, equipment and facilities and
employment of personnel services, but also such intangibles as
legal and political authority and information about technologies
and the external environment. 238. Resource
availability: The physical and human inputs which are available
or can be obtained for the functioning of the institution and
the performance of its programme. 239. Sources: The
sources in the environment from which resources have been
obtained and alternative sources to which the institution has
access. 240. We think of
resources as the physical, human, and technological inputs of
the institution. Their availability to the innovative
organization is at the crux of our studies, as is the
identification of the actual and alternative sources of these
resource flows, and changes in them. 241. Internal
Structure: Our concern is here with the mechanisms and modes of
control, communication, and decision making within the
institution. The structure of the institution, i.e., role
specification, and the distribution of authority and decision
making, affects programme performance and maintenance of the
system. 242. Similarly, the
structure of the institution and the processes of communication
and decision making affect the identification with the
institution on the part of the participants, as well as the
control and influence exercised by the leadership. Where
organizational structure and process deviates from the
established norms within the environment, the institution's
internal structure will affect the relations of the institution
with the external world. It can be stated, then, that internal
structure is a significant element for institution building
analysis in at least four areas: 243. That
organization of resources into formal and informal patterns of
authority, division of responsibility among the different units
of the organization, channels of communication, and means of
resolving differences and formulating consensus on priorities,
policies, and procedures. 244. Linkages and
Transactions: Because the basic purpose of the institution is to
induce change in its environment linkages and transactions take
on a particular importance, and indeed the conscious attention
given to this thrust towards the environment has given the
Institution Building perspective a distinctive appeal. 245. The
interdependencies which exist between an institution and other
relevant parts of the society. The institutionalized
organization does not exist in isolation; it must establish and
maintain a network of complementarities in its environment in
order to survive and to function. The environment, in turn, is
not regarded as a generalized mass, but rather as a set of
discrete structures with which the subject institution must
interact. 246. The institution
must maintain a network of exchange relationships with a limited
number of organizations and engage in transactions for the
purposes of gaining support, overcoming resistance, exchanging
resources, structuring the environment, and transferring norms
and values. Particularly significant are the strategies and
tactics by which institutional leadership attempts to manipulate
or accommodate to these linkage relationships. 247. To facilitate
analysis, four types of linkages are identified: 248. Linkages:
Patterned relationships between the institution and other
organizations and groups in the environment. These relationships
comprise the exchange of resources, services, and support and
may involve various degrees of cooperation or competition. 249. Enabling:
Relationships with organizations that control the allocation of
authority to operate or of resources. 250. Functional:
Relationships with organizations that supply needed inputs or
which take outputs. 251. Normative:
Relationships with organizations that share an interest in
social purposes. 252. Diffuse:
Relationships with individuals and groups not associated in
formal organizations. 253. For the
creation of a new institution which introduces new values,
relationship and action patterns, and social and physical
technologies, the institutional linkages are highly significant.
The process of institution building depends to a large extent on
the number and kinds of linkages which the organization has with
its environment and how these linkages are affected. 254. A significant
aspect of institution building is the structuring of an
environment which supports and is complementary to the values,
functions and services of the new institution. The creation of a
new institution or the reconstitution of an existing institution
will affect the role boundaries of the interdependent complex of
functionally complementary organizations. Innovations which are
introduced within and by the new institution will affect the
external relations and internal processes of one or more
organizations in the functional complex. Thus, concomitant
changes may be required in the environment if the new
institution is to adhere to its values, carry out its programme,
and attain its objectives. 255. Let us discuss
the elements of an organization's environment which may resist,
i.e., prevent or make more costly, the desired changes. The term
linkages may itself also be too abstract. What is implied in
that description is exchange relationships exchanging resources,
gaining support, establishing legitimacy, etc. This
conceptualization points up the consideration most critical for
institutionalization the establishment and maintenance of
interdependencies which exist between an institution and other
relevant parts of the society. It also makes clearer, on the one
hand, the importance of reciprocity, and, on the other hand, of
asymmetry in relationships which characterize institutions. The
notion of enabling linkages cloaks both these distinctions. 256. An institution
provides something in return for its inputs, whether it is
tangible and immediate or not. But it is more an institution and
less an organization to the extent that others are more
dependent on it than it on them. 257. Linkage refers
to the source of resources from the environment. This ambiguity
is to be avoided by identifying resource exchanges or flows as
linkages and by speaking separately of groups, organizations or
sectors in the environment with which linkages can be
established. 258. The chief
distinction between the institutions we are considering and
business enterprises is that the market is not usually expected
to provide full financial support. The institution is dependent
upon government subsidies, foundation grants, and private
donations to supplement whatever fees it collects. Winning
support from the market requires a wide range of marketing
activities which must be planned. Winning support from
government agencies requires an analysis of points of access to
the governmental structure and the planning of negotiations with
the appropriate agencies. Similarly, plans must be made for
approaches to foundations or private donors. 259. Some of the
systemic linkages bind the organization to other organizations
and social groups in an enabling manner. Some organizations,
groups, and personalities control the decision-making processes
which bear on the allocation of authority and resources which
are essential for the innovative organization to function at
all. Through these enabling linkages, the change agents seek to
further their cause. The innovative organization is dependent
entirely in its continued functioning on the maintenance of
minimally satisfactory relations with other societal units with
which it is linked in an enabling sense. 260. There are also
functional linkages. These bind the organization with others who
may be performing functions and services complementary to the
innovative organization. They supply the inputs, and the
organizational outputs are directed to such functionally-linked
units. Both inputs and outputs are generally some mixes of
symbols, people, and materials. Patterns of support become
manifest in inputting the right kind, of the right quantities,
and at the needed times. Patterns of support will also become
manifest in the acceptance and utilization of the outputs of the
organization. 261. There are also
normative linkages. They specify the organization's relations
with institutions which incorporate norms and values relevant to
the doctrine and programme of the organization. Many norms and
values are thus protected by existing religious and political
organizations even though they are not tied to the innovation in
either an enabling or functional sense. Depending on the
characteristics of the linkages, they may enhance or hamper the
institution-building process. 262. Finally, there
are diffused linkages. Certain patterns of dependency exist
vis-a-vis the various population aggregates. The innovative
organization is either directly or indirectly affected by
diffused support or resistance. The problem of diffused linkages
thus concerns such issues as those of public opinion, and the
relations with the larger public as mediated by the various mass
media of communication and other channels for the
crystallization of individual and aggregate opinion not
reflected in formal institutions of a society. 263. It is possible
to conceive of the entire process of organization environment
relations in terms of transactions exchanges of goods and
services, and of power and influence. From an organization
viewpoint, transactions are the relational activities through
which resources and mandates are procured and purposes are
pursued. Transactions are the substance of an entity's linkages
with its environment; they may lead to organizational growth or
attenuation; and they shape as well as manifest institutional
qualities. 264.
Institutionalization: The question of when the institution
building process has been completed frequently arises. Criteria
for identifying that point have been suggested by a large number
of scholars in the field. In fact, a substantial portion of the
institutional-organizational literature deals with this concept
of institutionalization. 265. The thrust of
the institution building theory concerns the locking in of the
organization into its environment. As the outputs come to have
perceived instrumental value by clientele groups in the
environment and/or as the organization acquires intrinsic value
vis a vis those clientele groups, it is becoming
institutionalized in the environment. 266.
Institutionalization is the process by which organizations and
procedures acquire value and stability. Institutionalization is
the process through which human behaviour is made predictable
and patterned. 267.
Institutionalization consists of the following three basic
processes: 268. In recent times
it has become common to refer to the assistance provided by
technologically advanced countries in organizing administrative
structures in developing countries as institution building. This
monstrosity of administrative nomenclature reflects ignorance of
the sociological meaning of institutions. Buildings can be built
as can hierarchies of formal roles within formal institutions;
institutions are complexes of roles that develop in spontaneous
processes. 269. Formal
administrative units are usually the product of conscious and
rational behaviour; institutions are only rarely so. Formal
organizations become institutionalized, however, when they take
on symbolic and normative meaning. 270. The integration
of expectations of the actors is a matter of the degree, not a
matter of pressure, and that integration comes through a high
degree of interaction. When an organization became an
institution, then the organization had been transformed into
something with greater values and relevance to its own society. 271. The concept of
institutionality denotes that at least certain relationships and
action patterns incorporated in the organization are normative
both within the organization and for other social units, and
that some support and complementarity in the environment have
been attained. 272. Within this
rather generalized definition a number of tests of
institutionality are identified, among them ability to survive a
necessary but not sufficient condition of institutionality;
being viewed in its environment as having intrinsic value which
in turn can be tested by the autonomy the institution has
gained; the influence which it exercises; and the spread effect
of its activities whether specific relationships and action
patterns embodied in the organization have become normative for
other social units with which it interacts. 273. The end-state
of institution-building efforts characterized by the following
conditions: 274. The process
through which values and goals come to be shared and social
relationships and actions become normatively regulated is
defined as institutionalization. In other words, when values,
goals, social relationships and processes evoke patterned
responses among the participants in an interaction process, they
have been institutionalized. 275.
Institutionalization is the process through which organizations
are given structure and social action and interaction are made
predictable. Through institutionalization human behaviour is
made predictable and patterned, social systems are given the
elements of structure and process of function. As each invention
or practice is accepted or rejected as part of the group's life,
institutionalization of relationships concerning it takes place.
276.
Institutionalization is the patterning of social structure and
processes. It appears that he does not view the value aspect of
a new invention or practice as being institutionalized. In our
view the acceptance of an invention or practice is in itself an
institutionalization process. The acceptance of a new technology
is not only a cognitive, rational process. It involves attaching
significance, utility, or value by the members of the group, so
that their behaviour toward it can be determined and relevant
social structures and processes can develop.
Institutionalization is to infuse with value beyond the
technical requirements of the task at hand. 277. One of the most
unfortunate residues from colonialism in developing nations is
the fact that colonial institutions often came to be valued for
their own sakes, to be seen as having some intrinsic value which
raised them above the challenge of assessment in terms of their
usefulness in fulfilling social purposes. 278. Once an
institution is so viewed, attempts to alter it become singularly
difficult. The near-mystical sense of intrinsic value which has
been generated precludes a call upon rational bases for change,
and outmoded institutions remain as barriers to development. The
important ingredient in the institutionality sought for
development purposes is that the organization, while retaining
its own identity, not lose its capacity to adapt to changing
circumstances. 279. One of the most
difficult tasks which the many institutions have faced as an
agency for social change was that of de-institutionalizing
educational patterns which many strategically placed persons
continued to justify as having merit in themselves rather than
as having relevance in a particular social context or being
answerable to the instrumental test of how well they served
social purposes. 280. When we speak
of institutionality it is of a human phenomenon that we are
speaking; of the success of a human organization in meeting the
hopes and aspirations of the people it serves, in capturing or
being captured by their dreams, in becoming valued. 281.
Institutionality is, of course, not only a matter of what
professional educators who have devoted a lifetime to the
shaping of society think and feel; it is a matter of what the
new generation of teachers think, what the politicians and
kingmakers accept, expect, and reward. It is a matter of what
its own immediate offspring (or products in the terminology of
the modern economic world) feel and think about their parent.
282. The essence of
institutionality is meaningfulness. An entity is an institution
to the extent that it is meaningful to its participants to those
directly involved in it, and those who perceive themselves as
being affected by it. 283. Meaningfulness
is not itself a highly meaningful term. In a broad manner of
speaking, a meaningful entity confers something upon its
participants and it is valued as a source of value. An
institution may grant status. More basically, it may interpret
existence and grant identities which have status components. 284. It may
articulate and enforce acceptable rules by which to regularize
conduct and premises by which to perceive and interpret
phenomena. An institution may confer competence upon
participants who may value it for its personal effects upon
themselves their personalities and their abilities to attain
fulfilment. It may be a prime means for the assertion of values
cherished by participants particularly those with important
roles within the institution. 285. To the extent,
however, that an organization is merely perceived as one of a
series of alternative instruments by which values may be
asserted and conferred, and to the extent that the particular
instrument is seen as having few distinguishing attributes that
make it more desirable or preferable to equally available means
for the enhancement of value to the extent that this
circumstance attains, prospects for distinctive
institutionalization are limited. 286. Thus, it is
helpful to define as institutionalized capacity the work that an
organization can perform under specific future conditions which
is not fundamentally dependent upon the incumbency of any
particular individual within the organization. This capacity
inherent in the organization stands in sharp contrast to what
might be called personalized capacity which depends essentially
upon the incumbency of particular individuals. 287. The
institutionalizing process adheres to certain postulates. 288. One test of
institutionality consists in an organization's ability to
survive. This may, of course, not suffice. Survival at the cost
of compromising and forfeiting most of the innovative elements
would hardly establish the viability of innovative
organizations. 289. Furthermore,
the survival of an organization qua organization need not be at
issue at all. Other institutional arrangements may become the
receptacles and protectors of the new values, functions,
actions, and technologies. The original organizational format
may come to an end of its useful societal function, and its
redesign or even the dissolution of the organization may become
both necessary and desirable. 290. The second test
of institutionalization, as a process, concerns the extent to
which an innovative organization comes to be viewed by its
environment as having intrinsic value. Some of the parameters of
this test include autonomy and influence. The former has to do
with the capacity of the organization to control its own
destiny, and thus to establish rules and procedures which may be
independent from the larger system of which it is a part; the
latter deals with an organization's capacity to acquire and use
resources without being subject to detailed scrutiny of specific
operational items; and it has to do with the organization's
ability to defend itself against attacks and encroachments on
its values and its patterns of behaviour by falling back on the
acknowledged intrinsic value of the organization. 291. The problem of
influence, in turn, has to do with the degree of impact which an
innovative organization can wield within the society in its
particular functional area of responsibilities, and with the
extent to which it can enlarge or confine its sphere of action
both within the organization and outside. 292. The third major
test of institutionality concerns the extent to which the
innovative patterns embodied in the organization become
normative for other social units. This is a way of looking at
the diffusion- or spread-effect of the innovations thus
introduced into the larger social system. 293. Viewing the
concept of institutionality in terms of the extent to which an
institution's relevant publics prize it, the following criteria
of institutionality has been developed: 294. Technical
Assistance in Institution Building: A rather extensive amount of
literature exists concerning technical assistance. Only that
portion of it that is explicitly focused on institution building
is included here. 295. Technical
assistance is first of all purposive; it can be easily separated
from traditional diffusion and acculturation which has been
occurring among cultures for thousands of years. 296. Technical
assistance is cooperative. It requires agreement on purpose and
means, between a donor agency and a recipient government. Either
party participating in technical assistance is free to withdraw
or to allow activities to languish until they are terminated. 297. Technical
assistance involves an international transfer of knowledge and
skill through individuals or agencies of a donor, and with a
defined relationship to individuals, groups or organizations of
a recipient in the accomplishment of mutually agreed objectives. 298. Technical
assistance carries the distinct implication that: 299. Revolutionary
elites have frequently sponsored the transference of many kinds
of non-indigenous organizational forms, notably factories,
armies, bureaucracies, and schools. In these, officials have
endeavoured to create by mass education the requisite
occupational skills with little thought given to the subtle
connections between discrete occupational roles or to the social
relationships of workers and staff. Technical assistance
programmes should deal with these social connections, but most
often training focuses on inculcating the required technical
skills and not on the interactions among individuals possessing
those skills. 300. Systems,
Strategies and Tactics: In a small but significant portion of
the literature institution building is viewed from a systems
perspective. As a consequence, some of the concepts of systems
analysis are worth defining. 301. System theory
is basically concerned with problems of relationships, of
structure, and of interdependence rather than with the constant
attributes of objects. 302. Older
formulations of system constructs dealt with the closed systems
of the physical sciences, in which relatively self-contained
structures could be treated successfully as if they were
independent of external forces. But living systems, whether
biological organisms or social organizations, are acutely
dependent upon their external environment and so must be
conceived of as open systems. 303. Our theoretical
model for the understanding of organizations is that of an
energic input-output system in which the energic return from the
output reactivates the system. Social organizations are
flagrantly open systems in that the input of energies and the
conversion of output into further energic input consist of
transactions between the organization and its environment. 304. The use of
system here, as an assemblage of elements that have ordered and
recurrent patterns of interrelationships built around definable
objectives or purposes, is not dissimilar to its usage by
economists and sociologists. The systems view may be used at
different levels of aggregation and for various purposes.
Organizations, and often, groups of organizations, interact as
systems. 305. In this context
let us define a system as a bounded, goal-directed social unit
consisting of a set of interdependent elements and maintaining
an exchange relationship with the environment. Interdependence
specifies the determinate relationship among the variables as
contrasted with random variability. Elements refers to all
physical and social phenomena, be they concrete physical
objects, structural relationships, or processes necessary for
the operation of the system. For analytical purposes we are only
concerned with conceptually identifiable variables, either given
to measurement or definable in some other meaningful manner. 306. A feature of
the system approach is that it clarifies the relationship of
functionally related phenomena, regardless of the categorization
of the variables in the system by classes of objects, processes
or functions in the aggregate sense in a larger universe.
Another aspect of the system approach is that it allows for the
analysis of interaction and interdependence of otherwise
conceptually disparate elements and the effect of changes of one
variable on others. Although the elements or variables of a
system are interacting and interdependent, they are not viewed
as being in a state of constant equilibrium. If, however, the
state of one variable in the system undergoes a change, then to
continue functioning-one or more other elements must also
change, either in nature or in their intra-system relationship.
This, in fact, helps to define the system. 307. Two more
specifications must be made about systems in terms of their
relevance to development theory. In the first place development
is action-oriented. Thus, we are more concerned with the dynamic
aspect of production or output of the system, acting upon
certain inputs. The system in which we are interested, in other
words, is an instrumentality with goal-orientation. Secondly,
our systems are open, they are in interaction with their
environment; the variables are subject to influences from
outside, while the systems as entities interact with other
systems. 308. The best
approach to a system is to identify the trouble spots, and
especially the places where there is waste, e.g., unnecessarily
high costs, and then proceed to remove the inefficiency. 309. There is an
objective way to look at a system and to build a model of the
system that describes how it works. The science that is used is
sometimes mathematics, sometimes economics, sometimes
behavioural (e.g., psychology and sociology). 310. The systems are
people, and the fundamental approach to systems consists of
first looking at the human values: freedom, dignity, privacy.
Above all, they say, the systems approach should avoid imposing
plans, i.e., intervention of any kind. 311. Any attempt to
lay out specific and rational plans is either foolish or
dangerous or downright evil. The correct approach to systems is
to live in them, to react in terms of one's experience, and not
to try to change them by means of some grandiose scheme or
mathematical model. There are all kinds of anti-planners, but
the most numerous are those who believe that experience and
cleverness are the hallmarks of good management. 312. One element of
systems analysis that tends to be common in each of these
schools of thought (at least in the first three) and that is
applicable for institution building is feedback. 313. As the system
affects the environment, Systems gather information about how
they are doing. The information is then fed back into the system
as inputs to guide and steer its operation. This feedback is
essential for the maintenance of goodwill between the system and
its environment. Thus institutions aspire to attain both
internal and external equilibrium, and goodwill for their own
survival. 314. The basic
element of this feedback process involves: 315. The agent of
change places himself into a position to receive and evaluate
information about the significance of the client system’s
behaviour. He then transmits this information to the client
system in order to stimulate an awareness of the need for
change. 316. Although not
always used in a systems context, a number of definitions of
strategy and, to a lesser extent, tactics are found in the
literature. Several of these are worthy of note. 317. For the
effective use and maximum impact of technical assistance
resources, something more than gross guesswork is needed in
institution-building efforts. Borrowing from military
terminology, perhaps what is really required is a strategy a
technical assistance institution building strategy. As commonly
used, a strategy is a planned dynamic sequence of actions
directed toward the achievement of determinate objectives. The
strategy is future-oriented, sequential, goal directed, time
bound, and reflects the full sweep of cognitive and valuational
considerations. For technical assistance projects, strategy thus
denotes a plan for sequencing technical assistance activities to
achieve specific institution-building objectives. 318. The concept of
a technical assistance strategy is applicable at several
different levels within any given institution-building project.
One type of strategy might govern the day-to-day actions of
technical personnel. Such a strategy would serve as a cookbook
for individual technicians. It would consider aspects such as
personal adjustment to foreign cultures, establishing social and
technical rapport with host institution personnel, developing
effective counterpart relationships, guidelines for effective
advisory techniques and the like. 319. Another type of
strategy might serve as a guide to administrative personnel in
institution-building projects. Its concern would be optimal
institutional organization, personnel administration, programme
structure and similar issues. 320. Strategy is
also the pattern of objectives, purposes, or goals and major
policies and plans for achieving those goals, stated in such a
way as to define what business the company is in or is to be in
and the kind of company it is to be. This definition will serve
our purpose if we substitute the word "institution" for the word
company. Strategy is concerned with the major decisions, usually
long-term in their implications, which set the general direction
of the institution. 321. Another purpose
of strategic planning is from the point of view of
implementation, the most important function of strategy is to
serve as the focus of organizational effort, as the object of
commitment, and as the source of constructive motivation and
self-control in the organization itself. 322. Strategic
planning of institutions involves a series of major decisions
which do not occur in a definite sequence but, rather, overlap.
The planning is not necessarily formal and systematic; in
general practice, even in progressive business firms, it
consists of both predetermined lines of action and a series of
ad hoc decisions. In fact, one of the major issues in planning
is the appropriate degree of predetermination as opposed to
maintenance of flexibility to meet changing and unforeseeable
situations. 323. In general
terms strategy refers to the planning and directing of
operations; while tactics relates to the maneuvering of forces
into positions of advantage. Both aspects involve manipulation
and should be treated somewhat together. Manipulation is the
substitution of judgement in such a way that those influenced
are not aware that it is happening. Although this process may be
known later, it is not known while the manipulation process is
taking place. Manipulation is accomplished by a controlled
distortion of the appearance of reality as it is seen by those
affected. The actions of those influenced are based on their own
judgement of what they perceive, but they are permitted to see
only those things that are calculated to call out the kind of
judgement desired by the control agent. 324. Strategies:
These deal with the main forces of planned organizational
change; they determine the general direction along which the
change movement should be directed with a view to achieving the
best results with the developing correlation of forces. 325. Tactics: These
are part of strategy (or strategies), subordinate to it and
serving it. They are methods used to achieve the directive of
strategy. As such, they demand a constant appraisal of existing
social potentialities and must be adjusted according to the rise
and decline of social forces. The implementer of change must
devise tactics best able to promote the overall objectives of
the fundamental strategy. It is never really possible to say
where tactics leave off and strategy begins, but the distinction
does exist between day-to-day operations and broad policy
directives. 326. In addition to
the concepts discussed above, there are numerous other terms
that must be specifically defined in order to thoroughly
understand individual contributions to the institution building
literature. A number of the important terms are presented below,
although this is not an exhaustive list, rather this is only an
illustrative list : 327. The cost of an
institution consists of the pain felt by the power group in
forming it. This may include sacrifice of resources, prestige,
values, or even life (in a revolution). Cost also includes the
effort to overcome the resistance of others, by either coercion
or persuasion. Such cost may include the attempt to increase the
cost to others of maintaining archaic institutions that conflict
with the ones the power groups wish to establish. 328. Institutions
are also the suppliers of services. Changes in these services
and, hence, indirectly through them in institutions that produce
them, may constitute the prime targets of growth-sensitive power
groups. 329. The institution
is treated as a supplier of a service which has an economic
value. It is assumed that the process of growth alters the
demand for the service and that this alteration in the demand
brings about a disequilibrium between the demand, and supply
measured in terms of long-run costs and returns. 330. Each value
sacrifice thus involves both cost and benefit. Values that are
more cherished are more costly. They will be sacrificed only if
the benefit is great. Less cherished values are easy to give up,
but they may or may not yield much increment in product. 331. Ideology lies
among the values difficult (hence costly) to change. Since
institutions conforming to divergent ideologies may be equally
effective, it is sometimes not necessary to sacrifice an
ideology; rather, the institution conforming more closely to it
is selected. 332. Where two
institutions are not perfectly substitutable for each other, the
one with the greater marginal output in proportion to its costs
will be selected. 333. The takeoff
period is one of tension, as growth-sensitive groups vie with
growth-resistant groups for support. The danger of violence lies
in the fact that social institutions have not been formed to
cope with this type of conflict. Sometimes growth-sensitive
groups select coercive instruments in order to eliminate an
opponent who would otherwise not join in the consensus. If he is
eliminated completely (e.g., executed or permanently exiled),
this ploy may be successful. The principal problem of violent
revolution, however, is that it is impossible to eliminate all
opponents completely. Revolution often divides people more than
it unites them, making their absorption into the consensus even
more difficult later. 334. The takeoff
period is further complicated by conflicts among
growth-sensitive groups, principally over how political power
and increments of national product will be shared. Inability to
resolve or manage these conflicts lengthens the takeoff period,
preventing or delaying the formation of post-takeoff values and
institutions. 335. Thus it may be
concluded that the institutionalization of a system creates the
possibility that anti-systems, or groups with negative
orientations toward its premises, will develop within it. While
the nature and strength of such anti-systems may vary, as
between different institutional (i.e., religious, political)
systems and between different types within each, and while they
may often remain latent for very long periods of time, they also
constitute important foci of change, under propitious
conditions. 336. The existence
of such contradictions or conflicts among the different
institutional spheres and among different groups does not, of
course, preclude the possibility that the system will maintain
its boundaries more or less continuously, through a hierarchy of
norms and accommodation or partial insulation of different
subsystems, and that a definite order and stable relations among
the system's parts will persist. But the possibility of conflict
and potential change is always present, rooted in the very
process of institutionalization, and the direction and
occurrence of change depend heavily on the nature of this
process. 337. Just as the
predilection for change is necessarily built into any
institutional system, so the direction and scope of change are
not random but depend, as we have shown in discussing the
processes of change in the Empires and in the great religions,
on the nature of the system generating the change, on its
values, norms and organizations, on the various internal forces
operating within it and on the external forces to which it is
especially sensitive because of its systemic properties. These
various forces naturally differ between religious and political
institutions and among different societies, but sensitivity to
these forces and the tendency to change are inherent in all of
them. 338. Administrative
policies take on increasingly secular tones, government agencies
lose the legitimacy they once enjoyed. Deprived of traditional
support, yet more developed than the other modernizing
institutions, agencies do not easily achieve synoptic relations
with the masses of people. In contrast to modern states, the
decline of the class basis of the bureaucracy reduces its
prestige and therefore its effectiveness to gain the respect of
those adversely affected by modernization and most in need of
help to adjust to a changed social order. 339. Two priorities
of the revolutionary elites typically affect their strategies.
These have been implied in the foregoing discussion, but now
must be made explicit. First, revolutionary elites seek to
induce radical and rapid social development with a principal, if
not an exclusive, emphasis on technological change; and, second,
they desire to maintain or strengthen their current positions of
power irrespective of the changes wrought in their societies.
340. Each elite
places the cloak of nationalism around its pronouncements and
its image of the requirements for social welfare and national
unification. Technology constitutes an important means for the
revolutionary elite to maintain its power and realize its
dominant political goals. The revolutionary elite also joins the
successor sub-elite, which it oversees and fosters, in assuming
that the essence of modernization is technological development.
But, for the successor sub-elites, technological advancement
signifies the broadening of social wealth and the increased
opportunities for acquiring power. 341. The competition
between the revolutionary elites and the successor sub-elites
thus centers in that part of the political system that controls
the economy. Both of these elite groups seek to diminish the
residual power held by the premodem elites. In virtually every
case, socioeconomic development constitutes a complex struggle
for power. 342. When
agriculture acquires a growth momentum, the dynamics of that
growth will induce farmers in these parts of Asia to demand
institutional adjustment. They will demand a larger supply of
credit, with stress on its timeliness and terms, and they will
organize cooperatives should these be necessary for this
purpose. They will demand more flexibility in tenancy contracts.
They will join with neighbours to acquire tube wells and to
undertake minor investments to improve the supply of water. Both
tenants and landowners will also use whatever political
influence they have to induce the government to provide more and
better large-scale irrigation and drainage facilities. 343. Also using an
agricultural illustration, a system or network of institutions
exists within a sector of an economy. This network, with its
component forward and backward linkages, makes possible the
developmental leverage afforded institutions as strategic
catalysts of the development process. 344. At the start,
in most less developed nations, little attention was given to
the development of a system of services. Rather, almost total
energy was devoted to the development of a series of services,
and only minimum attention was given to the need for the
development of a functioning system with adequate linkages
between the various newly created institutions. 345. Those
responsible for developing an institution to provide a new
service often have little understanding of other services which
are being introduced, and each group tends to confine itself to
its assigned task. Only recently has research on institution
building and agricultural development revealed the importance of
building a system of services to support agricultural
development. 346. Technical
assistance and indigenous personnel alike are often frustrated
when the development of one institution designed to remedy a
constraint within an economy does little more than provide an
opportunity for another poorly developed institution to
substitute as the effective constraint. Consequently, the
layering of institutional constraints often misleads individuals
who feel the elimination of one institutional barrier represents
a panacea for transforming traditional agriculture. 347. An empirical
methodology for identifying networks of linked institutions and
the power positions of such institutions within a system is
provided by the experts where they describe their approach to
forming an institutional sociogram as follows: 348. A new
institution in a developing country with an explicit programme
for selection, training and placement of staff, will, in many
instances, be a unique resource for providing new cadres of
leadership throughout the society. 349. An institution
in takeoff need not conform exactly to existing values. Since
the conflict to which it is addressed is new, the institution is
bound to strain values in order to encompass it at all. There
are, however, psychological limitations on the amount of strain
a society can accept. Even after a violent revolution the forms
of new institutions are influenced by the previous value
framework. However, after the institution has lived for awhile
and come to be accepted in the community, then values have
changed, and a new institution similar to it (according to the
institutional dimensions) can be created. Indeed, the new
institution can strain values further, and ultimately even the
pace of strain may be accelerated. When a society becomes
accustomed to having its values strained that is, becomes
change-oriented then the strain involved in change may itself
become a value. 350. While late
modernizers experience advantages because of the existence of
external models, transfer of these models creates strain.
Transfer can never take place without some distortion or change.
Out of the complex of behaviours in a transferred model, only a
limited number can be selected by the donors for emphasis.
Similarly, out of the large number of elements suggested by a
model, not all will be understood or accepted without change by
the receiver. The organizational reality, as it takes form in
the modernizing country, represents a version that is different
from the original model. 351. Another source
of variation during transfer results from the fact that
institutions develop within a cultural framework and reflect the
preoccupations of that culture. While a bureaucracy may be a
bureaucracy, the manner in which it works will be conditioned by
the culture of the bureaucrats. In transferring institutions, a
process of modification can be expected to take place as
institutional elements filter through the culture of the
receivers. Because the interrelationships between roles in
transferred institutions are required to develop rapidly, yet
cannot do so, considerable problems are experienced; roles are
found to articulate badly. New interrelations between the roles
are worked out in time but vary from the original model, and
strain is experienced until the new relationships are
institutionalized. 352. The educational
institutions have not moved easily and painlessly from their
foundation in response to criticism and challenge is true. But
they moved, not uniformly, not at the same time, and not with
equal willingness. There was progress in achieving balance
between cultural and functional objectives. The university as a
place for academic specialization, for an undirected pursuit of
knowledge and its unchallenged expression, sought increasing
room for a role and design directly and functionally related to
jobs, the process of production and the generation of wealth. 353. The educational
institutions have clearly begun to accept an explicit and
intentional, as opposed to an implicit or incidental role in the
immediate task of national development. There is a more sincere
effort to do honour to the concept of relevance to an
environment still greatly lacking in literacy, science, a
distribution of modern skills, and habits that underlie
productivity and accept innovation. Such charges bring pressure
on the universities to modify the three forms of status to which
they so readily succeeded their position as an enclave within
the limited modern sector, the recruitment of a student body
increasingly favoured by socioeconomic forces, and the emphasis
only upon standard fields of learning leading to the standard
professions. Such effort measures also the progress of the
universities toward assuming shapes and functions that are
adequate and responsive to their own time and their own place,
without concern for invidious comparisons or labels of
secondariness. 354. Development
affects the distribution of power in the society and opens up
new channels of access to positions of power. The close
relationship between development and the struggle for power
frequently causes the revolutionary elites to impose ideological
constraints on developmental activities as part of their efforts
to sustain their position and contain divisive forces. These
constraints tend to narrow the outlooks of the revolutionary
elites, causing them to emphasize unanimity and conformity. This
emphasis conflicts with the motivations fostered among the youth
with respect to achievement and means- orientation. 355. Ideological
formulations may thus exaggerate the conflict and produce a
generational split. Under some conditions, the desire to
maintain ideological purity may so far outweigh that for rapid
development that developmental goals are replaced by regulatory
goals. This has been a typical way in which politically induced
change has been limited or diverted. In some cases, it has been
the way in which such change has been completely subverted or
negated. 356. Successful
completion of takeoff depends on two requisites. In the first
place, growth-sensitive groups must gradually pervade society,
either eliminating others or winning them over. Thus, consensus
on growth as a dominant goal is achieved. In the second place,
the groups must learn that the sum of their immediate goals
exceeds the nation's capacity to accommodate them, but that no
groups goals will be achieved until all groups goals are
partially met. It is preferable to sacrifice one's immediate
goals rather than permit continued conflict to violate the
dominant goal of growth. Thus groups must agree on priorities.
At this point, society turns to the formation of a dominant set
of conflictresolving values on which to form consensus. 357.
Institutionalized institutional change is brought about by the
innovative use of institutionalized power to resolve social
problems. Social problems occur as a consequence of strain
meaning a perceived inconsistency, or incongruence, in
institutional arrangements. Strain thus reflects either the
inadequacy of equilibrative mechanisms or emergent
dissatisfaction with equilibrium itself. In the context of
growth, strain is most likely to reflect the occurrence of
diminishing returns in one of its many possible forms. 358. Strain means
that a state of affairs perceived by some elements as
unsatisfactory poverty, ignorance, racism, corruption, for
example has been institutionalized because of the inability of
equilibrative mechanisms to eliminate the causes of the
dissatisfaction. Hence institutional change, innovation, is
required to eliminate strain. But innovation, unlike
equilibration, is not and cannot be subject completely to an
institutionalized frame of reference. By definition, standards
to guide it and limits to check it are both missing in greater
or lesser degree. The moral order, to be sure, provides certain
standards for, and sets certain limits on, the possibilities of
pragmatic innovation, and vice versa, but the applicability of
the standards and limits is seldom clear and precise. That is
one reason why innovation is never perfectly institutionalized,
never wholly predetermined. A more important reason is that the
processes of institutionalized change operate on the initiative
and at the direction of the power structure or with its tacit
approval. 359. Economic growth
generates new conflicts, which continuously call for new
institutions. In a static model, the choice of optimal
institution-types depends entirely on existing values. But
institutions so chosen are likely to be ineffective (apparent
solution lines far below physical), since the values to which
they conform were not evolved with the new conflicts in mind.
Contestants will be vaguely aware that a physical solution line
lies somewhere out there, and they will seek more effective
institutions. 360. In seeking more
effective institutions (an outward shift of optimality as values
change), power groups ordinarily choose among many directions,
for there is no unique path to effectiveness. Normally they
select those institutions that yield the greatest marginal
economic growth per marginal unit of sacrifice (to the power
groups themselves as they push out on the dimensional continuum. 361. Successive
institution formation leads to selection of an ideology because
each choice makes easier a subsequent choice of the same kind of
institution. To justify all choices, a nation is led into an
ideology. By direct pursuit, on the other hand, power groups
select an ideology and form economic and political theories to
support it. Since it is difficult for a nation to form consensus
on ideology until it has had experience with other types of
consensus, and since popular nationalism is a relatively
low-cost object on which to form consensus and one that fits in
closely with ideology, takeoff countries usually expend great
sums on the promotion of nationalism. Some of these sums
represent resource sacrifices that physically retard economic
growth (as, for example, the rejection of foreign investment).
These sacrifices, which puzzle foreign intellectuals of other
ideologies, may nevertheless constitute the least costly path to
maximum net economic growth. 362. Post-takeoff
norms and institutions have a different character from those of
the pre-takeoff stage in that they depend for their survival on
continued growth. Once the social system learns how to manage
the conflicts of growth, it discovers that it can manage them
only if there is continued growth. More and more, conflicts
become positive-sum games. The question is not one of who will
win and who will lose, but of how much each will win. More
effective institutions lead to efficiency in conflict
management, and more and more solutions become Paretian-optimal
(the point at which all positive-sum moves are exhausted). Exile
for the loser gives way to loyal opposition. 363. What are the
implications for individual institutions as a consequence of the
changes that occur during a nation's takeoff? In so far as each
institution represents a component of a larger institutional
system or network, it is obvious that there will be some
implications. Clearly, for those institutions which employ as
inputs some of the outputs of other changed institutions in the
network, this development is one of the inevitable
disequilibrating forces. Similarly, changes demanded in the
outputs of traditional institutions as a consequence of changes
that have occurred in other using entities in the process of
modernization have implications for the output mix of the
traditional institution. 364. Two
considerations are noteworthy in dealing with this question. The
first is that there is a decision to be made with regard to the
combination of outputs, i.e., the production of one output may
be competitive with the production of another. The other point
is that analytical techniques are available for aiding in the
determination of the desired output mix. 365. Frequently,
observers view institutions in traditional societies critically
due to the lack of progress in building the institution as a
force for development. All too often these critics fail to
recognize that except for very narrow ranges of complementarity
there is direct competition for resources between the production
of current services and institutional reinvestment outputs.
Tradeoffs must be made. In traditional societies, where future
output is discounted very heavily, emphasis on the production of
a large amount of current services is entirely realistic.
Frequently, some exogenous force must be brought to bear on the
system in order to alter this output mix. These disturbances can
range from the availability of technical assistance teams to
natural disasters, e.g., drought. 366. In the private
sector market-oriented firms conceptually have relatively little
difficulty in determining their combination of outputs. However,
in the public sector institutions do not exchange their outputs
in price oriented markets. Nevertheless, an exchange is made and
the institution markets its products. The relevant consideration
at this point is not a set of prices (which merely reflect the
preferences of consumers for one good relative to other
alternative goods) but rather the preferences of key decision
makers in the society reflected by their indifference curves
formulated with regard to alternative system outputs and the
possible consequence of shifting indifference curves on
combinations of output. This can result from exerting influence
on key decision makers in the larger society with regard to
their preferences concerning combinations of system outputs.
Frequently, this takes the form of providing new information to
key decision makers with regard to what is being done in similar
institutions elsewhere. Identification of key decision makers
and providing them with additional information may represent a
crucial initial element in an institution building strategy. 367. Not only are
changes in traditional institutions triggered by changing output
demands, but also by modernizing elites within individual
institutions who see the institution as a potential means of
influencing the larger environment. 368. The genesis of
institution building is in the minds of a man or group of men.
The beginning of the social change process is always the same.
It is either the response to a distortion in the social system
created by the uncoordinated changes of its elements, or it
begins with a vision of a state of affairs preferred to the
existing reality. In the developing countries today engaged as
they are in a process of rapid transformation to catch up with
the modern industrialized parts of the world both situations can
be found in abundance. Modernizing elites, motivated by a sense
of urgency to improve the standard and quality of life in their
countries and by drawing on values, experience, and technologies
of the advanced countries, develop a vision of the preferred
state of their society or an aspect thereof. Once these new
values are accepted in the society or in segments of the
society, once new programmes of action and new social and
physical technologies have been implemented, new conditions have
been created which may result in further changes. 369. The new or
reconstituted organizations in which and through which the
innovative leadership embodies, fosters and protects the new
values, norms, and technologies, are the vehicles of change. The
institutions forged by the agents of change are the instruments
of innovation. Whereas the origin of innovation is a
reconfiguration of values, objectives, and means taking place in
the minds of the change agents, the institutions which they
create are the operational expressions of this reconfiguration.
In the structure, process, and functions of the institution they
translate their ideas into reality. The immediate target of the
change agents, then, is the organization into which they
introduce their innovations. 370. By the
activities and output of the organization the innovators attempt
to have an impact on the environment. The organization becomes
in this manner an instrument and an extension of the individual
or group of individuals who constitute the innovative
leadership. They create in the organization a stable reference
point, intended to represent the values, action and behaviour
patterns which become normative in the environment. 371. The ultimate
target system of the innovators is the task environment. This
task environment consists of those organizations which enable an
institution to carry out its operations, those which are
complementary to its operations, and those which embody and
protect values and norms relevant to the operation of the
institution. Only when a task environment has been created which
supports the values of the institution, which is complementary
to it, and when the norms of the institution are shared by the
task environment, can an institution effectively carry out its
functions and services. 372. The three
elements of our analysis, then, are : 373. These cases
thus confirmed the salient character of the leadership function,
the prospects for success associated with competent and
committed leadership, and the costs likely to be exacted by
inept, uncommitted, and weak leadership. Little guidance was
being given on the tactics available to innovators to compensate
for inadequate institutional leadership. Yet at the early stages
of institution building there appears to be no substitute, no
effective way of circumventing inadequate leadership, and the
likelihood is that the venture will stall, be reduced to
ineffectiveness, or even fail unless adequate leadership is
forthcoming. 374. Although the
importance of leadership seems to be agreed upon in many of the
empirical studies, the importance of the other institutional
variables in the framework formulated by Esman et al. seems to
vary from institution to institution. 375. It has been the
function of doctrine to establish normative linkages between the
old and the new, between establishment and innovators, such as
would legitimize innovations which came with the new
organization. Doctrine itself could not perform this function;
yet it could provide connections which made organizational
innovations appear less new, less threatening, and
correspondingly more legitimate. It could tip the balance. At
the same time that it might perform this function with those
publics who would ultimately either institutionalize or reject
innovations, it could also provide University leaders with norms
or standards which could guide them in projecting programmes,
establishing priorities, and assessing accomplishments. It could
provide a sense of solidarity and progress so important to
morale. These latter functions would be served only to the
extent that there was genuine commitment to the doctrine by
these leaders. 376. In this
consideration of total institution building doctrine three
factors stand out. First, the major doctrinal elements of the
total institution were matters of firm faith with the top
leaders. There has been considerable agreement between leaders
of the institution and its most numerous school-related publics
as to what the major innovations of the institution were. The
students and graduates have not only identified these doctrinal
elements but in large part identified with them. They had, in
fact, internalized the doctrine and were enthusiastic in viewing
themselves as examplars of the type of education which had been
worked out to realize this doctrine. 377. So much can be
explained about the institutions teaching management with terms
of the confused, ill-defined doctrinal goals that were assigned
to it. The leadership and the staff to this day have not
succeeded in making them operational to any significant extent.
That is a point for speculation. In this case, however: 378. This is to say
then that the importance of leadership is a function of the
scarcity of resources to achieve collective objectives. To some
extent, the two resources and leadership are substitutable.
Leadership involves the skilful use of resources. The more
plentiful they are, the less important is leadership to
achieving a given goal. A corollary is that with a given amount
of resources, the more quickly a goal is to be achieved, the
more important is the contribution of leadership in formulating
productive strategies. 379. The scarcer are
available resources and/or the shorter the time in which ends
are to be achieved, the more important is the role of doctrine
in Institution Building. Doctrine can make the process more
efficient and effective by clearly specifying ends and
presenting appropriate and productive means. But when resources
are scarce or time short, then the more ambiguous are doctrine's
ends or the less reliable its means, the less it can contribute
to Institution Building. 380. Two
organizational elements seem to stand out as critical factors: 381. Categories
which have a certain analytic cleanness do not necessarily
reveal the same cleanness when applied as schemes for organizing
action. When the scholar becomes educational leader, he is
seldom concerned with doctrine per se; he is concerned with the
interpretation and implementation of doctrine, and in his hands
and in this context the distinction between doctrine and
programme loses significance. 382. When this
occurs, the search for a distinction is often like trying to
locate a shadow line: at times it seems neat and clean, at other
times blurred. Such a line has the further unsettling
characteristic of being constantly on the move; what today is
expressed purely as doctrine has tomorrow been given
programmatic interpretation, and allegiance has spread from the
slogan to the programme which has been attached to it.
Conversely, what has been introduced on the action level finds
need for rationalization, and from this rationalization a new
increment is added to doctrine. 383. When operations
have begun, a further difficulty develops. On the one hand,
doctrine without programmatic interpretation has a hollow ring;
one questions if it has real content or meaning. On the other
hand, once programmatic interpretation has been worked out, this
interpretation begins to usurp the place of original doctrine. 384. The most
important functional linkages are with the institution's
customers. In an institution heavily dependent upon markets, the
enabling linkages tend to merge with the functional linkages,
but we shall here treat them as conceptually separate. The mere
fact that a market demand has been identified is insufficient to
guarantee that the institution's services will in fact be
sought. The normal techniques of advertising and sales promotion
are only a partial answer to the marketing problem. The
expression functional linkage is an apt one, since it suggests
that the problem is one of identifying a mutuality between the
institution and its potential clientele, that they may serve one
another and become increasingly dependent on each other. 385. There has been
an overwhelming sensitivity of the institution's leadership,
within the authoritarian social structure, to insure support
from higher status political and bureaucratic sources. Any felt
need to cultivate functional linkages or to identify demands
from elsewhere in the environment, or to build linkages with
prospective clientele groups, were quite subordinate to the
cultivation and strengthening of enabling linkages. Indeed the
leadership, as long as it could sustain favourable enabling
linkages, had little inducement to build functional linkages or
supports in other groups in the society. Thus the problem of
managing its environment was not perceived as requiring any real
effort from the institutional leadership. 386. It was
necessary to keep the institution out of trouble, to avoid
threatening any interest which might create problems in its
relationship with its enabling linkages, and this it could do by
offering a low key programme which provided useful unthreatening
services but made little direct effort at establishing and
manipulating relationship within the environment that would make
innovational transfer a real possibility. 387. If successful
institution building takes place, functional linkages with other
recipient institutions provide a positive alternative to
enabling linkages by creating a pattern of legitimate
interdependencies and giving the organization a needed measure
of autonomy. 388. As regards
normative and diffuse linkages, the recipient society seems to
make more consistent efforts than technical assistance. This was
the case for mass media support where the percentages were 30
and 40 respectively. Also, consistent mass media support by the
recipient resulted in a somewhat higher percentage of successful
projects than did technical assistance encouragement although
both were high. 389. Again, one can
tentatively conclude that when considering those linkage
relationships that come to prominence at the end of the life
cycle of the institution building process, the recipient society
effort is more effective and vital when compared to technical
assistance. Probably technical assistance effort is needed in
certain situations, but the specifications of these situational
contexts is not possible given the quality of the data and
analytical tools now available. 390. There are some
other tentative conclusions that are worth mentioning. For
instance, where consistent effort is expended by either
technical assistance or the recipient society in building a
favourable image for the organization, the project always proved
successful. One could hazard a guess that this type of activity
is not undertaken unless many favourable indications of success
for a project are already evident and it is recognized that the
creation of a favourable image of the project in the recipient
society will further insure success. This linkage relationship
occurs at the end of the life cycle process. Hence, it is
possible that image building is a function of having personnel
and resources free because of the successful conclusion of other
activities related to the total enterprise. 391. It is only when
relevant publics, instrumental accounting, and transactional
accommodation cease to be pivotal concerns of organization-
institution leadership and the pressure for survival ceases to
be the preponderant factor in decision-making that the essence
of Esman's approach to institution building becomes relevant as
an operational model. For it is then that one meaningfully
speaks of intrinsic valuation of the institution. If the society
is characterized by a low level of social mobilization,
intrinsic valuation is very much secondary to transactional
accommodations, instrumental accounting, and utility
maximization of relevant publics and clients in general as an
index of institutionality. 392. The first
limitation, significant because of its overall importance,
relates to the rationale of the field of institution building
itself. It stems from the bias that institutionalization is a
positive process which is closely related to societal
innovation. No matter how intentional this orientation may have
been, it seems improper to equate institution building entirely
with innovation and positive change. This restriction could,
among other things draw attention away from the dysfunctional
aspects of the process of institutionalization which have been
the object of attention in the literature of the social sciences
in general and in the modern organization theory, in particular.
393. The second
limitation is the tendency of the model to view the process of
institution building largely from the perspective of the
institution under study, and from the omission of the role of
individuals as linkages in the process of organizational
institutionalization. The former view could lead to the
impression that institutionalization is a one sided process that
depends entirely upon the organization being institutionalized.
While organizations tend to devise ways of controlling their
environment, total environmental control is never within their
power. The process of institutionalization of an organization
may be enhanced by the decision of another organization with
needs for complementary services. 394. Individuals
play other important roles as linkages in the process of
institutionalization at least in two additional ways: namely, as
prestigious personalities and as carriers of institutional
values. Organizations have been following the policy of hiring
retired persons for example, for their Board of Directors.
Universities do likewise for their Board of Trustees, and often
a president or a chancellor may be chosen because of his
prominence in the community and his ability to raise funds when
needed. The presence of these outstanding individuals in a given
institution constitutes a very important element of attraction
of support from other social units. 395. The goal of
institution builders is not simply social change. Some change in
social, economic and political relationships is likely to occur
over time with or without their efforts. The aim of institution
builders might better be described as social control. By
building institutions, persons should be better able to control
the course of change and to accomplish certain desired changes
within a shorter period of time than would otherwise be
possible. Once established, institutions commonly permit persons
to control in some degree the demands for change which arise
over time. Thus, institutions may be seen as giving their
members some control over time itself. What social scientists
seeking to assist in institution building need to formulate and
verify are models of social change and social control. 396. The
institution-building model provides a helpful way of looking at
complex phenomena but thus far has demonstrated limited
relevance to policy makers because of its limited predictive
power (save in special circumstances such as decisions regarding
external aid). It is limited in predictive power not so much
because the model is faulty but because we have not yet
developed sufficiently sharp analytical tools to find answers to
what policy makers need to know and to provide comparability in
data between different organizational entities. In short, the
institution-building model, at its present stage of refinement,
is more analytically elegant than relevant to the real world of
public policy in India. 397. Leadership
delivers resources: Leadership promotes the doctrine internally
and externally. Leadership keeps the internal structure
functioning. Leadership mobilizes the organization to accomplish
the programme. Leadership establishes and cements linkages with
external groups. Leadership is alert to opportunities to
incorporate new groups for support, output and acceptance. 398. Doctrine
dramatizes the new idea, as well as innovation and change.
Doctrine helps to sell a programme and the organization with it.
Doctrine defines the goals. Doctrine can generate support.
Doctrine helps to define and limit internal and external
conflict. Doctrine absorbs ideas and needs and combines them
with the new ones to make the organization acceptable in the
society. 399. Programme
provides impact in the environment: Programme provides
visibility. Programme provides vital contact with the
environment. Programme is the ultimate testing ground for
output. Programme promotes support by the environment of the
organization. Programme provides a specific focus for
change-oriented activities. Programme provides an identity for
clientele and staff and ultimately for the society. 400. Resource
mobilization involves using old and new sources: Resource
mobilization involves a wide variety of elements, money, people,
technology, etc. Resources hold the organization together until
it can become accepted. Resources provide internal strength and
cohesion in the organization. Resources contribute to autonomy.
401. Internal
structure is a key to converting resources to programme:
Internal structure is a base for organization mobilization.
Internal structure is a device for demonstrating innovative
capacity. Internal structure provides a means for resolving
internal conflict. Internal structure is a means for reflecting
goals and doctrine. 402. Enabling
linkages provide power to act: Enabling linkages provide
protection. Enabling linkages provide initial resources.
Enabling linkages support a new public image. 403. Normative
linkages show what values must be observed: Normative linkages
can provide support in making new ideas fit present values.
Normative linkages define relationships with other
organizations. Normative linkages can help legitimize
activities. Normative linkages provide the framework for
defining objectives in the national institutional structure. 404. Functional
linkages provide inputs the organization needs to function:
Functional linkages promote the use of what the organization
does. Functional linkages help define programme boundaries.
Functional linkages provide opportunities for mutually
beneficial support in the environment. Functional linkages
reinforce the effect on organizational clientele. 405. Diffuse
linkages broaden the base of support: Diffuse linkages
strengthen the public image of the organization. Diffuse
linkages provide alliances with other change-oriented groups.
Diffuse linkages promote an understanding in the society of the
goals of the organization. Diffuse linkages help reinforce
acceptance by the society. 406. A Guide for
Project Designers: The Institution Building model has a limited
value if it can only be used for ex post analyses. Analysts and
practitioners alike need an analytical capability for preparing
strategies for institutional development and predicting the
consequences of these approaches. 407. An
organization's Balance Sheet can be viewed as consisting of
elements of internal asset value and external asset value.
Important within the former is doctrine and its closely related
concept of staff morale. The latter is the perception of an
institution's clients, sponsors, competitors, and others,
relatively speaking, within their value systems. Quantitative
estimaters can be developed with regard to image strength,
connotation strength, and endurance of purchasables by using
prescribed techniques for identification of these dimensions of
an institution. 408. Efforts are
being made to quantitatively and precisely assess dimensions of
institutions which will permit both their more precise planning
and more objective evaluation. While the literature thus far has
been impressive, it is far from being exhaustive with regard to
the potential that exists. Historians may well record that these
efforts made in the revision and refinement stage of the
institutional building literature were only first attempts. 409. The Macro
Perspectives: The role of institutions in societies, in general,
and in their development processes, in particular, has not
received the amount of attention in the literature in the
current revision and refinement phase as have the more
micro-oriented concerns. Nevertheless, some significant insights
have appeared with regard to how institutional change within a
market-oriented society occurs. Prior to discussing these
contributions, however, the stage needs to be set with regard to
the effect of the orientation of donors and the early insights
provided by previous writers. 410. Working for the
Poorest of the Poor: The NGOs in different countries have been
the most explicit in focusing on those in the low end of the
income distribution in developing countries. This so-called New
Direction has significantly influenced the programming of the
NGOs' resources in the last decade. 411. This
orientation of important members of the donor community is
relevant in that questions have been raised concerning the role
of institutions in donor efforts to reach the poor.
Unfortunately, because a level of education and sophistication
is required in order to develop and direct institutions, some
have contended that institutions are elitist in nature and,
hence, are irrelevant when programmes are focused toward the
poorest of the poor. 412. This contention
begs the question of how any continuity and indigenous
self-sustaining capacity can be developed within the host
countries with regard to dealing with the problems of the poor.
Although it has been highly unfortunate, this cleavage in the
literature must be recognized. What remains to be said
emphatically is that the development of both institutions and
programmes to serve those on the low end of the income
distribution scale in developing countries is not mutually
exclusive. In fact, institutions are indispensable as a means of
permanently moving the poorest of the poor to a higher income
level if something other than the conversion of the donor
community into a welfare community is to occur. The focus of
donor programmes on those at the low end of the income spectrum
has obvious implications for linkages, programmes, and doctrine
of the institutions that are needed in order to generate the
capability for dealing with these problems of the times. 413. Induced
Institutional Innovation: The changes in the views in
institutions is a consequence of shifts in the demand for their
services. More specifically he advances a theory of
institutional change in which shifts in demand for institutional
change are induced by changes both in the relative price of
factors and products and in the technology associated with
economic growth, and in which the shifts in the supply of
institutional change are induced by advances in knowledge in the
social sciences. 414. In applying the
induced innovation approach to several case studies, insight is
obtained into significant changes that occurred during the
growth process. The increases in rice yields and population
pressures brought about changes in the tenure institution. In
particular, the increase in rice yields was due to the expansion
of the national irrigation system and the introduction of
high-yielding rice varieties. Even though they were illegal
under the land reform code, the number of subtenancy
arrangements increased dramatically as a consequence of the
pressures due to increased rice yields and population growth.
415. The second
induced institutional change that occurred has been the
emergence of a new pattern of labour-employer relationships
between farm operators and landless labourers. In this instance
because of the increased rice yields, for the customary fraction
of the crop which labourers customarily received for harvesting
rice, farmers demanded that only those labourers who helped with
the weeding operation during the rice growing season had a right
to participate in the harvesting operation. Although not of an
organizational form, this institution did result in changes as a
consequence of the economic development that occurred in the
society. 416. The theory of
institutional innovation in perspective: The public choice
literature has been concerned primarily with proving
institutional performance through the design of more efficient
institutions. It identifies changing resource endowments,
interpreted through changing relative factor prices, as an
important source directing both technical and institutional
change. 417. The final
contribution in the macro area has been made contending that the
development of an institutional infrastructure is equally, if
not more, important than the development of physical
infrastructure in order for economic development to occur in a
given economic sector of a developing country. Using agriculture
as an illustration, he contends that the institutional
infrastructure is only as strong as its weakest link. Hence, the
productivity of any given institution within that institutional
infrastructure is partially influenced by the relative
productivities of the other institutions in the infrastructure. 418. Two approaches
appear to have dominated thinking about rural institutions, and
both are unfortunately fallacious. The paternalistic approach
assumes that rural people are passive and fatalistic,
uninterested in improving their lives and incapable of
initiative in making improvements. Consequently, everything must
be done for them (or to them) in a top-down, bureaucratic
manner. An opposing view is the populistic approach which
assumes that rural people are vitally interested in change and
completely capable of transforming their communities if only the
politicians and bureaucrats would leave them alone. Both
approaches derive from unreal stereotypes of rural people, who
are neither as inert and ignorant as the first assumes, nor as
virtuous and wise as assumed in the second. 419. Participation:
In understanding the performance of local organizations, one key
consideration is the opportunity they offer members for
participation in decisions and programmes that affect their
interests. We do not mean participation in the ex post facto
sense that some economists use the term, to describe the
distribution of benefits from growth. Rather we refer to ex
ante, before-the-fact involvement in the choices and efforts
producing growth, which in fact has great influence on who will
benefit from the fruits of growth. Local participation can bring
useful, locally-based information and local interests into
decision processes, and it can reveal and tap previously
unrecognized managerial and leadership talents. The opportunity
to participate, even when it is taken up by relatively few local
people, enhances the legitimacy of local institutions and also
of national government, provides a ready outlet for the
expression of grievances, and can generate local cooperative and
self-help activities for development. 420. Like all good
things, participation can be overdone and become unproductive
for the welfare of most members of the community. Local
organizations can become overpoliticized, immobilized by
factionalism, with rural development objectives displaced by
struggles for local power and control. Unfortunately, this
extreme is often accepted stereotypically as the likely
consequence of participation, especially by administrators who
stand to benefit or at least have their lives made simpler by
deprecating and eliminating any significant popular
participation. 421. Because of the
possible outcome of wayward participation, there is utility in
maintaining some central power of inspection and enforcement of
standards, already mentioned above. There is an equally real
danger, that inspection and controls will be used to throttle
participation, as seen from the case study on panchayat raj in
the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The challenge for central
government is to encourage and tolerate, even promote, a
significant range of participation at various levels of
organization, without having it deflect effort from the urgent
needs of rural development. 422. The case
studies reveal a considerable range of modes of local
participation. At one extreme, participation may be manipulated
by the central authorities and controlled within narrow
regime-determined parameters, while at the other extreme, there
can be freedom of farmers to determine how much they as
individuals want to participate in the governance of local
institutions and on what issues they should attempt to make
their voices heard. There can indeed be much or little
participation at either extreme, depending on people's response
to the pressure, on one hand, or the opportunities, on the
other. 423. Observers must
guard against culture-bound interpretations of participation
which judge farmers meeting for long hours in China or Korea
simply as ritualistic or coerced because it is
government-sponsored and even ordered, while regarding the same
extent of participation in Sri Lanka or Israel as real because
it corresponds more to Western ideas of democratic
participation. 424. We think it is
important whether or not rural people can, by their own
decisions, affect the course of government activity, local
and/or central, and we consider such participation to be of
great value to farmers and their families. But we also recognize
the function of less empowered participation, where there can be
considerable communication, venting of grievances, solicitation
of suggestions, and winning of agreement on what is to be done.
425. Rural China
today seems alive and even sometimes adrift with participation,
as often thousands of cadres from many communities meet for days
on end; put up in schools and shops, using sleeping bags and
open fires to sustain themselves, while issues, directives and
evaluations are thrashed out. 427. Our analysis of
participation has shown an association, though not a perfect
one, between participation in rural development. On the other
hand, some success in rural development, can be achieved without
much popular participation providing two conditions are met: 428. The more
successful cases had engaged much more extensively in
decentralization of operating decisions as well as local-level
planning. Decentralization is usually more effective if it is
controlled rather than complete. It is not an all-or-nothing
proposition, but rather a matter of kinds and degrees.
Decentralization is best seen and implemented in terms of
specific functions, depending on the technologies involved and
on the capacity of subordinate levels of administration and
organization to perform the functions. 429. Two patterns of
decentralization should be distinguished : 430. There has been
stress and emphasis on institution building and the new
hypothesis towards a social engineering, implied top down
approach to institutional development. The change in approach
does not mean, however, that the need for institutionalization
will disappear. 431. On the
contrary, such a change has profound implications for modifying
the use of the institution building principles by those who
build and implement strategies for the development of
institutions and for the agencies that finance the development
process. 432. Institution
building practitioners have found that a more participative
approach impacts especially on : 433. On the whole, rural people are more capable and responsive than the paternalistic model of social change suggests, but less able to change their lives autonomously than the populistic model presumes. There is a deep-rooted contradiction in the paternalistic approach to rural development, which expects that passive recipients will become active cultivators and responsible citizens.
Dr. Priya Ranjan
Trivedi is all out to transfer these appropriate technologies of
institution building to other institutions, groups, individuals,
governments, universities, colleges, institutions, schools
besides national as well as international organisations
contemplating to strengthen the cause of institution building in
any country of the world..
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