Academic Activities
Swiss Executives as Business Diplomats in the New Europe: Evidence from Swiss Pharmaceutical and Agro-Industrial Global Companies. 2005. Organisational Dynamics, Vol 34(3): 298-312.
This paper discusses the situation facing Switzerland for being in the middle of the European continent surrounded by EU member countries but at the same time being isolated due to its status as a non-EU member state. Switzerland’s relations with the EU have oscillated between confrontation and mutual accommodation thus requiring many rounds of bilateral negotiations and the creation of an alternative alliance.
Research project titled “Trends and influence of private finance on global health initiatives and development goals in resource-constrained countries”, funded by the Swiss Network of International Studies (SNIS), CSEND (Lichia Yiu; Raymond Saner) as Consortium member with Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basle; Global Health Programme, Graduate Institute, University of Geneva, FUNDS, London, Franklin University, Lugano (Fall 2012-2014). Working Paper, 31st September 2012 to 30th April 2015.
Research project titled “Inter-ministerial Coordination of Trade Policy at Central Government Level in Macedonia and Kyrgyzstan”, funded by the Scientific Co-operation between Eastern Europe and Switzerland (SCOPES 2005-2008) programme, Swiss National Science Foundation, CSEND (Raymond Saner) as Research Project Leader.
Book publication: R. Saner, “Trade Policy Governance through Inter-ministerial Coordination: A Source Book for Trade Officials and Development Experts”, Republic of Letters, Dordrecht NL, 2010.
Research project titled “Governing the Use of Landscape and Habitats in the Alpine Areas: Negotiations as a Means to co-ordinate Stakeholder Interests”, CSEND (Raymond Saner) as consortium member, funded by Swiss National Science Foundation, 2002- 2004. Final document in book form “Staehelin, Elke, Saner, Raymond, Wagner Beatrice, “Verhandlungen bei Umweltkonflikten: ökonomische, soziologische und rechtliche Aspekte des Verhandlungsansatzes im alpinen Raum”, (Negotiations of environmental conflicts: economic, sociological and legal factors of Negotiations in the Alpine Region) , VDF Hochschulverlag AG, ETH Zürich, 2005.
Research project titled "In-Service Training as an Instrument for Organisational Change in the Public Administration: An International Comparative Study", CSEND (Raymond Saner, Lichia Yiu) Initiator and Rapporteur of this Research Working Group, secretariat at International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) Brussels, participating countries Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Slovakia, Mexico, Hong Kong., 1994- 1997), final book publications: Saner, R.; Strehl, F; Yiu, L; " In-Service Training as an Instrument for Organisational Change in Public Administration: A Comparative Study", (in English and French) International Institute of Administrative Sciences, Brussels, 1997, and Saner, R.; Yiu, L.; Mindt, B. “Interface management of in-service training within the federal administration of Switzerland (German), Paul Haupt Verlag, Berne, ( 170 pp), 1997.
Trade in Educational Services (ES) is affecting the interests of many countries in trade, economics, education and culture resulting in heated debates between government representatives, private sector investors, teacher unions and student associations on how to approach liberalisation of this sector, if at all. What ever the approach, an agreement on GATS/ES should be sufficiently flexible to safeguard the multi-functional nature of education, as well as the different needs of developing countries’ education without falling into the trap of “managed trade” nor succumbing to short-term myopic protectionism.
Organization Development (OD) Practitioners working within the UN system encounter difficulties because of ill-defined organisational structures, multiple political interferences (external and internal), cross-cultural value differences of UN staff and different management practices of UN Agency leadership best described as “Porous Boundaries”. This article introduces and defines “Porous Boundaries”, shows its relation to power politics frequently used in UN Agencies and discusses the role of the OD consultant who needs to adjust his consulting approach to match these environmental challenges.
Key words: Organization Development, United Nations, Porous Boundaries, Power factor, Role of Consultant.