Browsing by Author "Heikkila, Tanya"

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Building a Theory of Learning in Collaborative Institutions: Evidence from the Everglades Restoration Program
(2010) Heikkila, Tanya; Gerlak, Andrea K.
"Many of society’s most vexing problems must be solved through collaborative institutional arrangements. Growing scholarly interest in these types of institutions recognizes that the capacity for collective learning may play a critical role in the success of collaborative institutions. However, limited theoretical or empirical research exists to explain how learning occurs and the institutional conditions that support learning in this context. In this paper, we draw upon a wealth of literature, ranging from organization theory, policy process and change, and network analysis, to establish a framework of collective learning to guide inquiry in learning in collaborative institutional governance settings. In doing so, we link the process of learning to learning products, and examine what factors shape the process, allowing us to better understand the learning path to policy change. We apply our learning framework to a study of learning in a collaborative ecosystem restoration program in the Florida Everglades. We use a multi-method analysis of survey and case study data to examine the how the framework helps explain instances of learning, or learning products, identified in this setting. In doing so, the analysis illuminates more precise theoretical propositions, not explained by the broader literature on collective learning, around the structural, social, and technological features of the collaborative institution, as well as the exogenous events, which may foster learning."
Chapter 8: Assessing Performance in Polycentric Governance System Interactions
(Cambridge University Press, 2019) Koontz, Tomas M.; Garrick, Dustin; Heikkila, Tanya; Villamayor-Tomas, Sergio; Thiel, Andreas; Blomquist, William A.; Garrick, Dustin E.
"This chapter compares insights from our empirical cases of three kinds of interactions: cooperation, conflict and conflict resolution, and competition. The elements of authority, information, and resources affected incentives and interactions differently. Focusing on interactions as a unit of analysis points to a variety of performance criteria that may be appropriate. These criteria for assessing outcomes and processes cannot all be optimized at once, as trade-offs are evident, and different types of interaction are likely to entail different performance combinations. In our case studies, no performance criterion scored high across all cases, and no case performed well across all performance criteria."
Citizen Involvement and Performance Management in Special-Purpose Governments
(2007) Heikkila, Tanya; Isett, Kimberley R.
"Performance management and citizen participation are being used by local governments to improve government accountability and responsiveness. In some cases, local governments are integrating these two trends. One area of local government in which this trend has not been assessed is special districts. This paper uses data from a study of nine special districts in the state of Texas to fill this void. To assess citizen participation in performance management among the districts, we interviewed district managers, analyzed minutes from governing board meetings, and conducted citizen focus groups in three regions of the state. Our findings suggest that although districts may not yet be in tune with the latest performance management trends, they are making efforts to engage citizens in other ways. We recommend ways that districts can build on these experiences and more effectively incorporate citizens in the development, analysis, and reporting of performance measures."
Collaborative Governance of Interstate River Basins in the Western U.S.
(2007) Schlager, Edella; Heikkila, Tanya
"This paper examines the institutional processes and mechanisms used by U.S. western states to engage in shared governance of interstate rivers, and the performance of these mechanisms for watershed governance. The most common mechanism used by states to govern shared rivers is a compact, which is a treaty among semi-autonomous governments. Compacts are generally viewed as inflexible, rigid governance structures incapable of responding to changing environmental and institutional settings. Using data from an NSF funded study of 14 western interstate river compacts we examine this claim. In particular, we explore the response of compacts to water conflicts. Water conflicts often emerge in response to changing circumstances - such as the development and use of new sources of water or the emergence of new values - conditions that can challenge the compatibility of compacts as cross-scale governance mechanisms. Yet, we find that members of compacts, closely related water agencies, and compact governments are capable of responding to these conflicts and changing circumstances, contrary to some of the critics of this form of governance. To better understand how these compacts perform, we identify the conditions under which compacts are likely to address conflicts, as well as consider the types of responses to these conflicts that compact parties make."
Does Integrated Water Resources Management Support Institutional Change? The Case of Water Policy Reform in Israel
(2010) Fischhendler, Itay; Heikkila, Tanya
"Many international efforts have been made to encourage integrated water resources management through recommendations from both the academic and the aid and development sectors. Recently, it has been argued that integrated water resources management can help foster better adaptation of management and policy responses to emerging water crises. Nevertheless, few empirical studies have assessed how this type of management works in practice and what an integrated water management system implies for institutional adaptation and change. Our assessment of the Israeli water sector provides one view of how they can be shaped by an integrated structure in the water sector. Our analysis of recent efforts to adapt Israel’s water management system to new conditions and uncertainties reveals that the interconnectedness of the system and the consensus decision-making process, led by a dominant actor who coordinates and sets the policy agenda, tends to increase the complexity of negotiations. In addition, the physical integration of water management leads to sunk costs of large-scale physical infrastructure. Both these factors create a path dependency that empowers players who receive benefits from maintaining the existing system. This impedes institutional reform of the water management system and suggests that integrated water resources management creates policy and management continuity that may only be amenable to incremental changes. In contrast, real adaptation that requires reversibility and the ability to change management strategies in response to new information or monitoring of specific management outcomes."
Examining the Interaction Among CPR Governance Principles: Boundary Problems, Collective Choice and Conflict Resolution in Interstate Watersheds
(2004) Schlager, Edella; Heikkila, Tanya
"The goal of the project is to advance the institutional literature on the governance of common pool resources. It will explore the interactions among boundary definition, collective choice processes, and conflict resolution mechanisms and how those interactions affect the durability of common pool resource governing arrangements. In doing so, this study can bridge theoretical insights from a theory of common-pool resource management with Scharpfs (1997) institutional analysis framework to better understand the structure of institutional decision situations and how those structures address the resolution of collective resource management problems..."
The Formation of Large-Scale Collaborative Resource Management Institutions: Clarifying the Roles of Stakeholders, Science and Institutions
(2005) Heikkila, Tanya; Gerlak, Andrea K.
"This article explores the emergence of collaborative institutional arrangements for managing natural resources in large-scale and complex resource settings, among numerous political jurisdictions and stakeholders. It examines four regional institutions in the United States: the Northwest Power and Conservation Council's Fish and Wildlife Program, the Chesapeake Bay Program, the CALFED Bay- Delta Program, and the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. While a wealth of literature has looked at the emergence of smaller-scale resource management institutions, and some literature has begun to look at the characteristics and successes of these regional institutions, theory is lacking to explain the formation of these regional institutions. We first introduce three relevant streams of literature-- on common pool resources management, on policy entrepreneurs and social capital, and on science and information in -policy change--to frame our analysis. The comparisons of the cases point to the importance of integrating key insights from the literature for understanding the formation of collaborative resource governance. We emphasize how science, leadership, and prior organizational experience interact in facilitating institutional change, particularly in the process of raising awareness about resource management problems. In tracing the formation of these institutions, we also identify how external institutional triggers can help spur collaborative governance."
Institutional Boundaries and Common-Pool Resource Management: A Comparative Analysis of Water Managemant Programs in California
(2004) Heikkila, Tanya
"Policymakers and academics often identify institutional boundaries as one of the factors that shape the capacity of jurisdictions to manage natural resources such as water, forests, and scenic lands. This article examines two key bodies of literature-- common-pool resource management theory and local public economy theory-- to explain how the boundaries of political jurisdictions affect natural resource management. Two empirical methods were used to test hypotheses from the literature, using a study of water management programs in California. The results demonstrate that institutional boundaries that coincide with natural resources are likely to be associated with the implementation of more effective resource management programs. At the same time, where jurisdictions can control through coordination, they can also facilitate more effective resource management where jurisdictions do not match resource boundaries."
Institutional Boundaries and Common-Pool Resource Management: A Comparative Analysis of Water Management Agencies in California
(2001) Heikkila, Tanya
"This article examines one way that institutions governing water resources can affect the management of scarce water supplies. Specifically, it analyzes the relationship between the scale of water management institutions and the use of a promising water management method, known as conjunctive water management. The scale of institutional boundaries, or jurisdictions, has been considered particularly important in shaping water resource management. For instance, recent calls for 'watershed level management' have argued that small or fragmented institutions governing water resources lack both the ability for comprehensive resource planning and the ability to address problems that cross state and local boundaries (Gottlieb and FitzSimmons 1991; Dzurik 1990; Kenney 1997). While such studies acknowledge the importance of institutional boundaries for managing water resources, the relative effectiveness of different types of institutional boundaries in facilitating improved watershed use remains open to empirical analysis. This article begins by describing conjunctive water management, as an example of a water management method that offers improved resource efficiency and sustainability. The first section also discusses why the state of California provides an appropriate study setting for analyzing the relationship between institutions and water management decisions. This article then examines two streams of literature that offer propositions about the effects of institutional boundaries on water management decisions; they are common-pool resource management theory and the literature on public service industries. It considers the implications from these two bodies of literature for understanding how institutional boundaries affect water management decisions. The final section of this article empirically tests the assumptions derived from the literature review using data from water management agencies in California. The data are evaluated using both a logit regression model and a Boolean analysis, also known as Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)."
Linking Policy Changes and Resource Management Decisions: A Game Theoretic Analysis of Coordinated Water Management in Colorado
(2000) Heikkila, Tanya
"This paper uses game theory to explain the evolution of rules governing ground and surface water in the South Platte River Basin in Colorado. Issues addressed in the analysis include 1) the role of existing institutions in creating credible commitments among actors to follow certain policy change strategies, 2) an examination of other 'off-the path' choices available to actors, 3) the effects of two level games such that efforts at the local level shaped statewide decisions, and 4) the effects of the rule changes on availability of information about ground and surface water in the watershed. From this analysis, the author will consider how water management institutions in Colorado's South Platte support or contradict watershed management theories."
Managing Common-pool Resources in a Public Service Industry: The Case of Conjunctive Water Management
(2001) Heikkila, Tanya
"Water providers, public administrators, and policy-makers in the Western United States face consequential decisions regarding the use and management of limited water supplies for growing populations. A tool that water providers have employed to address this issue is conjunctive water management, or the coordinated use of ground and surface water supplies. Using the natural capacity of groundwater basins for storage of surface supplies, this method aims to enhance overall supplies and guard against drought. Implementing conjunctive water management, however, is not simple. Water providers operate under a complex array of institutional settings that affect conjunctive water management. This dissertation explains the development and implementation of conjunctive water management in the western United States in relation to the institutional arrangements that govern water resources. This dissertation looks to two literatures from a common research framework to evaluate conjunctive water management: the literature on public service industries and common-pool resource management theory. This dissertation identifies where the two literatures are weak and shows how the two theories can complement each other, helping resolve their respective weaknesses. Common-pool resource theory sets up criteria for sustainable resource management that requires matching institutional boundaries to natural resource boundaries. This dissertation explains how the criteria limit the theory's generalizability to large, complex systems. To resolve this weakness, the theory development section of this dissertation uses insights from public service industry theory on inter jurisdictional coordination. Second, this dissertation considers the weakness of public service industry theory in explaining coordination across jurisdictions. It borrows from common-pool resource literature to resolve this deficiency. The theory development section then derives hypotheses from the two literatures to explain how institutional arrangements affect conjunctive water management. The empirical section of this dissertation tests these hypotheses. In addition to testing the inferences from the theory development, the empirical analyses illustrate the different ways in which water providers coordinate the management of groundwater and surface water supplies in the West. Understanding these management outcomes in relation to their institutional settings has important policy implications for natural resource management in general."
Modeling Operational Decision Making in Public Organizations: An Integration of Two Institutional Theories
(2004) Heikkila, Tanya; Isset, Kimberley R.
"Institutional theories, which explain how rules, norms, and shared strategies shape human behavior, have been used to examine why public and private organizations look different structurally, why actors decide to coordinate the provision of goods and services, or how characteristics of a political system shape public management strategies. Many institutional scholars have recognized the importance of developing accurate institutional theories and models to explain policy and management decision making, yet the authors find that few scholars have attempted to bridge institutional theories coming from the political science and organization theory disciplines. In this article, they present a model of operational decision making in public organizations that integrates concepts from these two institutional schools of thought. The authors then apply this model to two distinct cases--one in the field of water resource management and the other in the field of mental health provision--to demonstrate the usefulness of this integrated approach to institutional analysis."
Part II: Interactions and Performance in Polycentric Governance - Overview and Introduction
(Cambridge University Press, 2019) Koontz, Tomas M.; Garrick, Dustin; Heikkila, Tanya; Villamayor-Tomas, Sergio; Thiel, Andreas; Blomquist, William A.; Garrick, Dustin E.
"This Introduction to Section 2 describes three kinds of interactions in polycentric governance systems: cooperation, conflict and conflict resolution, and competition. It identifies three elements that shape how these interactions play out: authority, information, and resources. The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework provides a consistent framework to organize inquiry in the chapters that follow."
Resolving Water Conflicts: A Comparative Analysis of Interstate River Compacts
(2009) Schlager, Edella; Heikkila, Tanya
"This paper examines compacts used by U.S. western states to engage in shared governance of interstate rivers. Compacts are viewed as inflexible, rigid governance structures incapable of responding to changing environmental and institutional settings because of the use of unanimity rules and the inability to directly regulate water users. Using data from a study of 14 western interstate river compacts we examine this claim. In particular, we explore the response of compacts to water conflicts. We find that members of compacts, closely related water agencies, and compact governments are capable of responding to conflicts. To better understand this finding, we identify the conditions under which compacts are likely to address conflicts, as well as the types of conflict solutions compact governments adopted."
Transboundary River Governance in the Western US: The Role of Cross-Scale Linkages in Interstate Compact Compliance
(2009) Schlager, Edella; Heikkila, Tanya
From Introduction: "Interstate river compacts highlight and exemplify the importance of cross-scale linkages within a watershed. The design, structure, and organization of compacts define linkages and relations among and across states, or what Young (2002a) refers to as horizontal linkages. In addition, the relations and linkages between state governments and water users, or vertical linkages, affect the operation of compact governing bodies and compliance with water allocation rules. In this paper we focus on the relations between state governments and water users and the effects of those relations and ties on the operation and performance of compacts, in particular the ability of states to comply with their compact commitments. To help identify what types of cross-scale linkages would affect the operations and compliance with compacts, we conduct a brief review of the burgeoning literature on cross-scale linkages and compliance. This review provides guidance for developing measures of linkages as well as suggesting research questions. Next, we provide a short overview of interstate river compacts, what they are, and how and why they were created. The types of compliance issues that may arise in the context of interstate compacts and their cross-scale linkages are also explored. We then engage in a preliminary analysis of these linkages to begin to explore the research questions and conclude with a discussion of the implications of these linkages, as well as how these data can be assessed in more depth in future analyses. "