In the modern world there is no shortage of people who know what is best for others. Self-appointed experts, consultants, and organizations try to convince states, corporations, and individuals that they would be better off if they only followed some specific rules about what to do. There are 'experts' in almost every field of human activity, from the management of companies to the management of our own health. Even organizations as powerful as states and large corporations follow rules provided by others on how to organize, which policies to pursue, what kinds of services to provide, or how their products should be designed. These rules are presented as being voluntary and advisory. They are standards, not mandatory directives, and in modern life standards abound. They may concern what characteristics a telephone should have, how a company should report its financial transactions, how contracts should be worded, what structure an organization should have, how children should be brought up and educated, how to play tennis, and so forth. This book discusses standards and standardization as a form of regulation. The authors argue that standards enable a higher degree of global order in the modern world than would exist without them. They facilitate coordination and cooperation on a global scale, creating similarities and homogeneity even among peoples and organizations that are quite different. The author believe that standardization is a much neglected area of social science - an area that has by no means received the attention it deserves in view of its importance to society. This book seeks to redress the balance by providing an in-depth examination of a number of aspects of standardization, how it is formed, and what effects it has on the world in which we live.

A World of Standards

Business & Money

Brunsson, Nils

Jacobsson, Bengt

International

Oxford University Press

In the modern world there is no shortage of people who know what is best for others. Self-appointed experts, consultants, and organizations try to convince states, corporations, and individuals that they would be better off if they only followed some specific rules about what to do. These rules are presented as being voluntary and advisory. They are standards, not mandatory directives, and in modern life standards abound. Standards may concern what characteristics a telephone should have, how a company should report its financial transactions, how organizations should be managed, how states should treat their citizens, how children should be raised, and so forth. Even organizations as powerful as states and large corporations follow standards on how to organize, which policies to pursue, what kinds of services to provide, or how their products should be designed. Standards enable a higher degree of global order in the modern world than would exist without them. They facilitate coordination and cooperation even among people and organizations that are far apart. The authors believe that standardization is a much neglected area of social science -- an area that has by no means received the attention it deserves in view of its importance to society. This book seeks to redress the balance by providing an in-depth examination of a number of aspects of standardization, how it is formed, and what effects it has on the world in which we live.

Management & Leadership

Governing the Embedded State integrates governance theory with organization theory and examines how states address social complexity and international embeddedness. Drawing upon extensive empirical research on the Swedish government system, this volume describes a strategy of governance based in a metagovernance model of steering by designing institutional structures. This strategy is supplemented by micro-steering of administrative structures within the path dependencies put in place through metagovernance. Both of these strategies of steering rely on subtle methods of providing political guidance to the public service where norms of loyalty to the government characterize the relationship between politicians and civil servants. By drawing upon this research, the volume will explain how recent developments such as globalization, Europeanization, the expansion of managerial ideas, and the fragmentation of states, have influenced the state's capacity to govern. The result is an account of contemporary governance which shows the societal constraints on government but also the significance of close interaction and cooperation between the political leadership and the senior civil servants in addressing those constraints.

Governing the Embedded State: The Organizational Dimension of Governance

Pierre, Jon

Sundström, Göran

Criminal Law

Europeanisation & the Transformation of States

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jacobsson, Bengt. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Jacobsson, Bengt