Research On Instruments Of Local Government Innovation From The Perspective Of Organization Theories

Practitioners of Local Government are innovating in their organizational lives,but they are not entirely clear about “what innovation is” and “how to innovate”.Although “innovators” with experience in government innovation often attribute the success of innovation to contingency factors such as superior call,social problems,and public needs,in fact,innovation is also a conscious choice for local governments as general public organizations to adapt to complex and changing situations and achieve organizational survival and development.Therefore,innovation is an inevitable trend of local governments to carry out their organizational activities under the influence of contingency factors.Based on this assertion,starting from the intrinsic attributes of local government organizations we should place local governments in the main position of the actor in the field of innovation and observe the panorama of the process of innovation to grasp the inherent laws of innovation,and then explore innovative instruments that can provide functional support for innovative practices immediately in the context of local government innovation.The above-mentioned efforts have important practical significance and academic value because they not only have eliminated the realistic dilemma of the Chinese Government which includes innovative dynamics shortage,weak innovation sustainability,and promotion difficulties,but also complements the overall systemic perspective that research of government innovation theory needs.The so-called "local government innovation instruments" are the elements or conditions which local governments can use as instruments to realize functional support for innovation practice in the process of generating decision-making and behavior with innovative characteristics,based on the requirements of innovation goals and the characteristics of innovation situations.Then,how to explore the internal mechanism of generating and perfecting innovative practices based on the organizational nature of local governments? How to get innovative instruments which are truly suitable for local governments? Organizational theories have revealed the phenomenon that organization use elements or conditions which are accessible to the organization as instruments to achieve organizational goals.Therefore,it can be inferred that extracting innovative instruments applicable to the behavioral patterns of local government organizations,based on the knowledge of organizational theories,is an important question worthy of in-depth academic exploration.According to the differences of inner natures academia of organization theories study provides three main perspectives for inspecting organization phenomenon.A interpretation from perspective of closed system emphasizes when encountering uncertainties and wicked problems in changing context organizations tend to follow the action logic of instrumental rationality and seek for solutions as fast as they can to achieve established goals from the familiar and well-known solutions pool in their own institutional contexts,which forms “myth” instruments for organizations in dealing with chaotic contexts.Another explanation from natural system perspective illuminates that organizations keep structural sensitiveness to design appropriate organizational forms so as to provide structural functional supports in matching practical needs.By this way organizations obtain structure instruments for cleaning off their developing obstacles.The last understanding from open system perspective views that organizations should make reactions to the environment which is edited by themselves in circles.Accordingly,such circles force organizations to have specific identity by the formulation of inertial thinking,values and behavioral styles.This certain identity releases signals that such organizations are of strong adaptability and high progressiveness by the way of behavioral pattern maintenance.Hence organizations accept environmental requirements to complete self-contingency by utilizing culture instruments.The instruments above are the internal mechanism for the organization to utilize the elements and conditions that the organizations can use according to their intrinsic properties to provide functional support for organizational development.It is the intrinsic nature of the superposition and mutual support that makes the organization an organic collaboration system that can respond flexibly to various situations.Will the organizational instruments be applicable in the context of local government innovation,which are acquired according to the basic rules of organizational behavior? The basic characteristics of the local government innovation context play a crucial and decisive role.Local governments should develop innovative instruments that are applicable to their own behavioral principles under the objective requirements such as adapting to or surpassing the “crisis” of economic and social transformation,breaking or guarding against innovation barriers.In fact,local governments have already formed a trend of instrumentalizing organizational elements in the process of innovation practice with the advantages of organizational elements,which including accessibility,flexibility and universality.However,relevant experience has not been systematically summarized.Therefore,local governments have strong urgency to acquire innovative instruments.To be true,the Western-originated organization theories predict innovation instruments' limitations of embedding in local contexts,intricate linkages and ambiguous transformations in the innovation contexts,which have become the handicap of innovative instruments to adapt to local innovation contexts,however,the subjective status and autonomy space are given to Chinese local governments by the top-level design and strongly support from superior authorities for local exploration,and so on,provide feasibility for the utilization of innovative instruments.In order to explore whether local governments also provide dynamic functional support for innovative practices through the instrumentalization of organizational elements,based on their intrinsic attributes we find a window for theoretical inference and realistic mirroring – the award of “Innovations and Excellence in Chinese Local Governance(IECLG)” Cases.The database of winners' cases records the best practices of local government's innovations under historical background of China's comprehensive reform for the last two decade.The characteristics of government innovation are highly coupled with the criteria of degrees of innovation,participation,efficiency,importance,conservation and promotion.Local governments submitted to the selection committee literal materials,which keep detailed records of the complete innovation process from preparation to implementation finally till diffusion and promotion.The winners of innovation awards provide opportunity for us to observe whether local governments have also used the above instruments in the context of innovation.Through text analysis of 178 innovation cases and process tracing of three individual innovation cases,this study found that local governments also have used these elements as instruments in the context of innovation.The term “myth” derived from Western organization theories expresses from the perspective of leaders,who tend to find the inertia of problem-solving strategies quickly from their familiar organizational solutions based on their organizational life experiences.“Myth” refers specifically to popular organizational recipes that organizations can reach in the institutional environment in which they operate.Local governments in the innovation field are often in an anarchical governance context.Because of the strong effectiveness of these solutions to the problem,"myth" has the instrumental characteristics.In the last 20 years that local government innovation business has grown by leaps and bounds there are both the phenomenon of local governments drawing advanced programs from the international public sector,and the adoption of domestic excellent innovation programs.The increasingly popular "Administrative Approval Bureau" reform model is one of the examples.More and more local governments have adopted the popular organization recipes that they have access to and have adopted the “myth” thinking to use as instruments effectively to promote local innovation.On the basis of reasonable sublation,the “National First Provincial Capital Administrative Examination and Approval Service Bureau” was established by Yinchuan Municipal Government of Ningxia because of absorbing the experience of the “Administrative Service Bureau” model of Tianjin Binhai New Area.Process tracing result illustrated that the key to the utility of the “myth” instrument is to embedd the “myth” into the local context.The local government can ensure the precise fitting of “myth” absorption through the accumulation of knowledge of the program,the confirmation of the mosaic of local innovation,the mechanism and skills behind the key inspection program,and the independent development and improvement of the program.Meanwhile the local government examines the “myth” absorption process and the local rationalization process in real time can avoid the invalid of the “distraction” instruments attribute which may lead to the failure of the innovation result.Local governments generate four organizational forms for innovation and reality through the division of specialization and collaboration in the vertical and horizontal directions,which are task agencies establishment,new functional departments building,multiple entities collaboration and across departments(organizations)collaboration.Through tracing the process of “People's Heart Network” innovation practice initiated by the Correction Office of the Supervision Department of Liaoning Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection we found that the “organizational form” formed by the adaptation of content and degree in different dimensions through the division of specialization or collaboration in utilizing structural instruments.Also,organizational forms can dynamically match innovation goals,task content and situational changes to provide local governments with dynamic matching structural forms to help innovation practice.The basic principle for the correct application of structural instruments is to maintain structural agility dynamically in matching innovation context changes.Prior to the introduction of structural instruments,local governments accurately predicted the impact of changes in organizational forms on the innovation process and outcomes.Through the comprehensive mechanism design and timely system follow-up,the sudden changes of organizational structure and the impact on the normal operation of local government functions are alleviated.After the structural instruments are activated,the soundness and perfection of the “software” guarantee under the new organizational form can enable the innovators to clarify how to ensure the dynamic adaptation of the innovation practice to the situation change,and at the same time ensure the steady completion of the innovation task.Cultural factors influence local governments' perception,recognition and input of innovation.Innovative leaders have instigated social contracts for innovation practice with participants and implementers,promulgated innovative decision-making and institutional arrangements that are embedded in cultural construction,and designed symbolic signs and slogans for promoting good values or cultural concepts which inspire the innovative identity of local practitioners and gain public recognition of innovation.By tracing “Chunhui Action” launched by the Communist Youth League of Guizhou Province,we will restore how innovative leaders integrate the use of cultural instruments to stimulate broad recognition and achieve a complete process of social mobilization and organizational mobilization goals for poverty alleviation.This reasearch found that the innovative ideas established by the local government to accept the innovation culture have played a role in emancipating the mind and inspiring the driving dynamics for innovation.In addition,combining innovative culture with Chinese traditional culture,regional culture and other cultural connotations,on the basis of enriching the content of cultural instruments themselves can enhance the use of cultural instruments.At the same time,the selection and application of cultural instruments is a skillful and artistic leadership activity.Improper application of cultural instruments or conflicts in cultural connotations may affect the decision-making identity of innovation participants and undermine innovation motivation and morale.If the local government's cultural interpretation and cultural propaganda about innovation programs challenge the social consensus,it will make the innovation practice difficult because it cannot be universally recognized by the people.Both of these points can lead to the consequences of “suspension” of innovation.Local governments do conform to the general rules of ordinary organizations and there are organizational phenomena that utilize the instruments of the organizational elements to innitiate functional support to innovative practices in real time.Local governments have ensured the feasibility,stability and sustainability of innovation through the integration of innovative instruments and the different means of implementation of innovative instruments.Therefore,the local government practitioners take the thinking,knowledge and operation of innovative instruments as the foothold to connect the standpoint of the local government's innovation subject status,the starting point of the local governments' internal organizational properties to innovative practice functionality according to the organizational properties and the key points of support complement the holistic systemic perspective of government innovation theory research that is still in the early stages of development and improvement.At the same time,the practice of optimizing the utilization of innovative instruments has also broadened the path of enhancing the effectiveness of innovation practices.