Master of Business AdministrationMaster of Business Administration

Module: Organization theoryModule: Organization theory

Dania Al-Natour Maiss Tanatra

Standardization, Globalization and Standardization, Globalization and Rationalities of GovernmentRationalities of Government

Authors: Winton Higgins & Kristina Tamm HallstromYear : 2007Volume : 14No : 5Published by : SAGEPages : 686 - 704

Structure: Structure:

- Keywords.- Aims Of study.- Methodology and design.- Rationalities of government.- The Historical development of standardization.- National and international standards bodies.- ISO and the Rise of International

Standardization Features of standard-based regulation

- Neo-liberalism - Findings and results

KeywordsKeywords

• Globalization .

• International Standardization .

• Rationalities of government .

Aims Of StudyAims Of Study

1. To define key variables for understanding the study (rationalities of government, technologies of government, the role of expertise and action at a distance).

2. To review the historical appearance of standards bodies.

3. To illustrate the new role of the international standards bodies as a technology of government.

Methodology and designMethodology and design

This is a descriptive study includes detailed discussions, comparisons and analysis made by famous theorists like (Foucault, Rose & Miller, Higgins, Tamm Hallstrom…)

Rationalities of government Rationalities of government

Foucault (1970 – 1984) understood ‘government’ as a practice, irrespective of institutional setting and that helps us to understand standards’ bodies participation in government.

Various successive modern political rationalities grew from the emphasis that good government began with the ruler’s own intimate practice of self-control.

* Rationalities of government:This concept refers to ‘domain for the formulation and

justification of idealized official plans for representing reality ,analyzing it, and reforming it’.

•Technologies of government :Technologies of government :

Consist of a number of mechanisms including strategies, techniques and procedures through which different forces seek to operate programmes and by which a great number of connections are established between the desires of authorities and the activities of individuals and groups. (Rose and Miller, 1992)•A selective overview of successive modern political rationalities:1.The preliberal political rationalities :-Cameralism or police science :-A science of administration divided into three main topics : public finance, economic and politics.(cameralism employed technologies of statistics)-Disciplinary power:-A form of surveillance which is internalized , with disciplinary power each person disciplines him or herself.-The basic goal of disciplinary power is to produce a person who is docile -(disciplinary power employed technologies of strict control)

Bio-PowerBio-Power :-It refers to the practice of modern states and their subjects through “an explosion of numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of population.2- The classical-liberal rationality:Disciplinary power .(it employed technologies of statistics particularly social-scientific expertise)3-The neo-liberalism:This is the most recent in the series of modern political rationalities, and it relied on the technology of standardization.

-The Historical development of standardization:The Historical development of standardization:1- Some of the ancient Babylonians and Romans’ buildings had based on standard dimensions.2- Mechanized production (especially in the arms industries) greatly encouraged standardization.3- The second industrial revolution relied intensively on standardized components, products and important conventions in accurate engineering.4- Standardization appeared as identifiable, organized activity in the late 19th century.5- So the first generation of standardizers were engineers.•They produced most of the early standards and standards bodies .•They applied scientific knowledge to find out optimal solutions to repeated problems.•They were distance from the public authorities ( Higgins and Tamm Hallstrom).•“Discipline of management” produced by engineering too.•Standardization movement expressed by a rush of ‘engineering standards associations’ appeared in the late 19th century.6- Since the 1920th the discursive practice of standardization found its way into new and wide areas of applications, when standardizers became the bearers of the political rationalities.

7.Both the ‘standardization’ and the ‘discipline of management’ meet in ‘management standards ‘ which is the most important form of standardization as it is the prominent technology of government in the neo-liberlism.

National and international standards bodiesNational and international standards bodies-National and international standards bodies are typically non government voluntary organizations that develop and publish formal, written standards.-They appeared to provide a technique that ensures the safety in soldiers’ equipments.•National standards bodies:-National standards bodies are the pioneers of standardizers’ participation in government.-The authority of their published standards rested on three linked claims :1- National standards represented optimal solutions to repeated problems.2- Those solutions are agreed by group of experts.3- Complying with them is in principle voluntary.•What could the (NSBs) do for their governments ?1- The (NSBs) could play a trade-facilitating role (boost their government’s trade)2- (NSBs) could become a vital part of national development strategies.3- (NSBs) could develop links with scientific research In aid of industrial innovation (Higgins, 2005)

1- In most instances governments established their national standards bodies (NSBs), and funded them partially.2- Governments have seen well represented on standards boards and committees.3- NSBs’ standards become essential components of public authorities’ normal regulatory functions.4- Governments demanded their (NSBs) to incorporate into the public regulation, so the (NSBs) became involuntary associations.

*The Relationship between national *The Relationship between national governments and their (NSBs) :governments and their (NSBs) :

*International Standards Bodies:*International Standards Bodies:-From the 1970th, the international standards bodies came to overshadow their national ones.-Since the late 1980s, international standards bodies have issued rules on how the organization should manage its risk and knowledge, and how it should ensure the ‘quality’• The importance of international standards:• International standards can facilitate world trade by effectively removing technical barriers to trade, leading to new market opportunities and economic growth.•International standards provide industry and users with the frame work for achieving economies of design, greater product and service quality, and improved production and delivery systems.•International standards also encourage an improved quality of life by contributing human health and the protection of environment.

ISO and the Rise of InternationalISO and the Rise of International StandardizationStandardization

• In the war world II Us ,Britain and areas ruled by it mixed and matched their military hardware for the war effort.

• The NSBs in these countries issued emergency standards to facilitate these technology transfers

• Us ,Britain and areas ruled by it established United Nations Standards Coordinating Committee (UNSCC) to deal more effectively with these issues,

• When the UNSCC met for its third meeting after the war had ended, it was included participant countries( Sweden and Switzerland) and turned into an establishing meeting for ISO (International Organization for Standardization ).

• so ISO’s constituent members were NSBs. But the additional members that attended were officially representing their national government though they were gained from their countries’ NSBs

• ISO was intended to serve through the side of the national standards of potential trading partners on the basis of its published ‘recommendations’

• ISO’s significant event was when it decided to publish not only recommendations but also unheard international standards to overshadow the relevant national standards.

• NSBs would reissue ISO’s products, with minimal or no changes, as national standards.

• This represents higher level of ambition and a change of function for ISO; it is where its ‘quest for authority’ begins and continues to this day.

• the widespread implementation ‘without deviation’ of the ISO 9000(quality assurance standard) series by NSBs as national standards greatly advanced that seeking for authority.

How the understanding of international management How the understanding of international management standards was stimulated?standards was stimulated?

• strong trade in goods (including components).• Corporate mergers and all manner of ‘symbolic trade’ in capital• currency, and intellectual property have also contributed to the

growing market in standards.• At the same time, national governments have tended to minimize

their own regulatory activities governing corporate life and compensated for this limited pulling out by increasing the reporting and other compliance obligations on companies (Clegg 2005).

• This trend has Opened a promising market for international management standards and the sale of related handbooks and guidelines, together with the assistant equipment of consulting, auditing and certification.

• Firms have extended and complicated their corporate strategies and the markets they operate in, in order to be going into being global.

• so they are building strategic alliances and establishing businesses in target foreign markets.

• as these strategies attract a great deal of risk and uncertainty, The implementation of international management and accounting standards (and the consulting, auditing and certification routines depend on them) can reduce risk and uncertainty.

Why ISO become a major producer of standards and attendant Why ISO become a major producer of standards and attendant services that regulate international business services that regulate international business

Features of standard-based regulationFeatures of standard-based regulation

• most of today’s typical political programmes striving against their translation into substantive terms, as the emergence of ‘quality’ as a political goal and management concept illustrates

• It is not clear (Kevin Foley and his colleagues1997).• not supported enough with scientific theories (Michael

Power 1999).• needs another round of ‘translation’ if it is to make any

difference in practice at the point of production (Johan Quis 2003).

• Thus the role of the highly abstract ISO 9000 quality assurance standards, and of ISO’s later management standards, doesn’t encourage better products, but encourage ‘practices of the self ’ for corporations.

• These practices provide a plan for certification, and thus an occasion for repeated audit.

• Audit is a phenomenon brought by Michael Power in 1994.

• The spread of quality management in private and public organizational life is a main factor in driving this phenomenon. (Power1999).

• Quality has to be made auditable, which focuses attention on the formalities of managerial processes rather than on the substance of what they produce.

• Like ‘quality’ the concept of audit is also not clear. which enhances the auditor’s power, including the freedom to freely interpret public policy.

• The organizational effects of government by audit follow the logic of the barium meal—the eating of something hardly good or delicious, but visible to the sharp analytical look.

• Since the favorable outcome of an audit constitutes the mark of legitimacy and, for organizations, a competitive advantage it can displace substantive goals and be achieved by inserting internal control systems into the organization.

• To be auditable, then, is be visible rather than to be efficiently following the substantive goals of the organization.

Neo-liberalismNeo-liberalism

• It contributed the idea that the business Initiative models the best way for individuals and collectivities to conduct themselves

• Like classical liberalism it depends on founding the activities of government on the free (but disciplined) choices of formally self-governing agents.

• but it has introduced important changes into how the governed are to be conceptualized and organized, in order to be part of their government.

• Unlike classical, it no longer seeks to maintain governmental functions’ within society; rather it governs without governing society (Rose,1996).

• For the purposes of neo-liberal rule, society is divided into many ‘communities’, some of them technocratic ones.

• They are‘ self-governed groups’, such as ‘the business community’, ‘the accounting community’, ‘consumers’.

• The government desires are ‘translated’ into codes of conduct( reporting obligations and recurring audit), rituals and practices far from public institutions.

• the ‘communities’ are networked Into government by entering into ‘partnerships’ with public authorities to fulfill self-regulatory functions on a ‘voluntary’ basis.

• The varieties of management standards (and audit and certification based on them) provide vital relations in this process.

• Like classical, neo-liberal political rationality relies not on the obligation of rule on objects of government, but on formulating networked Subjectivities to be responsive to the understood demands of government.

• And in this sense to govern themselves and others in their area of influence.

• The recurrent liberal expression of small government by no means promise with governing less or leaving the will to govern (Rose,1996).

• The essence of neo-liberal rule is governing at a distance.• telegraphy played a vital role in Western government, by

relaying orders to its efficient far stations, and sending detailed information about the governed back to the centre by using Morse code.

• In neo-liberal, however, there is another process of translation, Consists in ‘the translation of political program expressed in general terms—national efficiency, democracy, equality, initiative—into ways of seeking to exercise authority over persons, places, and activities in specific locales and practices’.

• in the neo-liberal rule, expertise has greatly expanded its role in the technologies of government.

• But experts are more likely to be ‘independent’, as they relay and translate the priorities of government in a wide variety of locales.

• Their pretensions to independence, disinterested rationality and scientifically-established truth-claims endear them to the private and public interests at the same time.

• In particular, the expanded role of expertise in the neo-liberal practice of government has supported experts that publish standards.

Findings and resultsFindings and results

• *Standards bodies stopped being voluntary organization , and instead became mandatory .

• *Standerds bodies now are one of the global mechanisms which form a power in socio – economic affairs .

• *International standards will continue to grow in importance for all sectors of industrial activity for the foreseeable future .

• *Standards adapt well to the neo-liberal way.• *ISO’s initiative was supported on the basis that it provides

with the applicable know-how that standardizers arrange.• *for this reason, for example, the 2002 UN World meeting

on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg identified ISO as an appropriate standard setter (Tamm Hallström, 2006).

• *We should not be too surprised to discover some familiar disadvantages in the new arrangements, such as the problem of technocracy and the related weak legitimacy of today’s strategies of rule.

• *While Foucault is right to emphasize discursive practices over institutions in the exercise of power, but we should not jump to the conclusion that institutional forms and their legitimacy do not matter. They do matter, and for that reason international standards bodies’ quest for authority is likely to remain an unfinished project.