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Organizational network learning

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I A theory of organizational learning vis–à–vis HIV/AIDSIntroductionOrganizational Learning and Policy ConvergenceTypes of informationSources of informationSteps in the learning processSocial network effects upon organizational learningSummary of implicationsLearning adaptationsInstitutional effects upon learning processesTheory ConclusionII MexicoCase 1: IntroductionSourcesThe Mexican HIV/AIDS epidemic and governmental responsesAd Hoc ResponsesThe blood epidemicFirst response phase: CONASIDA ISecond phase: CONASIDA IIThird phase: CENSIDADifferent epidemics require different responsesEpidemic among MSMGovernmental responses to the epidemic.Function served by government bodiesMethods of responseInformation CoordinationExplaining the Mexican responseHow Information was UsedConclusion: A learning organizationIII BotswanaIntroductionSourcesPrimary actors involvedBotswanan governmentNACA: National AIDS Coordinating AgencyACHAPExplaining the Organizational Element of Botswana's ResponseInformation ProspectingOrganizational ArrangementBotswana ConclusionOrganizational network learning: A theoryand an applicationNathan A. PaxtonHarvard University, Dept. of Government∗August 26, 2010AbstractThis paper outlines a framework for understanding policy-makingdecisions based upon a combination of organizational learning andsocial network theories and then applies it to analyzing comparativepublic policy development responses to HIV/AIDS in the developingworld.First, the paper outlines a set of empirical expectations devel-oped through a combination of network analysis and organizationallearning theories. It describes how structural configurations of organi-zations influence the process by which these entities obtain, process,and transmit information; in particular, organizations (or groups oforganizations) that resemble networks (as opposed to hierarchies ormarkets) will institutionally outperform and better adapt to environ-mental conditions. The paper argues that three aspects of networks —centralization, control, and communication — affect the mobility andcost of information, as well as the ability of actors to process that in-formation. The paper then develops the theoretical underpinning forrelating these network factors to a well-developed research programon organizational learning.Second, using case studies of how Mexico and Botswana came todefine, develop, and revise their HIV/AIDS policy regimes over thelast two decades, the paper demonstrates that organizational networklearning factors can be traced to the policy outcomes observed. Inparticular, the degree of network centralization appears particularly∗©2010 Nathan A. Paxton. All rights reserved. E-mail:napaxton at fas dot harvard dotedu. Prepared for the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association,Washington, DC, 2-5 Sept 2010.1powerful as one explanandum of the relative degrees of success eachcountry has had in addressing its HIV/AIDS epidemic.Part IA theory of organizationallearning vis–à–vis HIV/AIDS1 IntroductionThe formation of HIV policy presents a state’s government with aniterated process of decision-making. As the epidemic develops overtime, government must address a constantly changing informationenvironment. In general, policymakers will run into similar set ofchoices multiple times, but the information environment will be newin some sense each time (although the rate of that change will notnecessarily be constant). That is to say, there will always be novelinformation on the indicators of HIV in the society, what the possible(or probable) results of policies are, or what the effectiveness of current“best practices” are. In the case of HIV, the set of actions that a statecan take tend to remain more fixed.A learning theory of state decision-making well suits this sort ofdecision process, where the information environment stays in fluxand requires state adaptation to changing circumstances.2 Organizational Learning and Policy Conver-genceAt their base, organizational learning theories are about the movementand management of information. Although there is disagreementon the nature of the process of learning, whether it is indicated bychange in policy action, or the behavioral implications of an organi-zational learning process, most analysts do agree that instances oforganizational learning start when the actors in question acquire newinformation about some phenomenon that has occurred and applythat information to a matter at hand.Of course, this process may not be easily isolated from other causalmechanics at work. As Levy (1994, 312) cautions, “Our understandingof the role of learning in foreign policy and of policy change moregenerally will be best served if we abandon the attempt to construct ananalytically distinct ‘learning model’ and focus instead on integrating2learning processes into more comprehensive theories of foreign pol-icy. Such integration of learning processes into larger causal modelsindicates that although we can focus analysis upon those processesof policy change, we need to be sensitive to those places in spaceand time when structure, politics, and interests touch upon or minglewith the lessons being learned. Thus, although in the following myprimary attention will be upon outlining the contours of a learningprocess with respect to HIV/AIDS, I do not mean to say that thisprocess occurs in isolation from other influences upon policy analysisand change.Learning theory offers a helpful framework for understandingstate responses to communicable disease epidemics because organiza-tional learning theory focuses on the information analytics of policyresponse. Epidemic response entails managing what is known aboutboth the biological and the social processes associated with a disease.What is known about the various biological (virology, immunology,biochemistry) aspects of HIV influences the sort of social, economic,and political policies that states, IOs, and NGOs attempt to put intoplace.One may expect that state HIV policy responses that come as aresult of learning will display the following minimum pattern: thestate must acquire information about relevant policy choices, it thenevaluates the perceived success or failure of those choices and drawsconclusions about the current policy, and it then carries out policy inlight of those conclusions.2.1 Types of informationThe international politics of HIV operate depend upon three differenttypes of information,


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