公共部门绩效评估:来自发展中国家的经验

在过去的几年中,公共部门绩效评估的理念在很多发展中国家日渐盛行。但是,由于发展中国家的公共部门软弱无力,法律框架不一致,公共服务提供的数量和质量不足,以及问责机制不完善等因素,导致公共部门绩效评估变得愈加复杂,且充满挑战。因此,总结和分析发展中国家公共部门实施绩效测量系统所取得的经验和教训,提出更具指导性的建议就显得尤其重要。基于此,本文以菲律宾、尼泊尔和印度尼西亚三个亚洲国家公共部门的绩效测量系统为分析对象,采用案例研究的分析方法,着重探讨了近几年来这些国家在绩效测量系统的设计、实施和管理等方面的一些经验教训。尽管没有一种放之四海而皆准的解决方案,但是本文在对这些经验教训反思的基础上,总结出的具有可持续性的绩效评估系统成功的五个关键要素,即所有权、激励、简单化、透明度和部门政策目标,可以为发展中国家的公共部门绩效评估提供最好的实践指导①。     

Impact of natural disaster on public sector corruption

This paper uses inter-country panel data from 1990 through 2010 to examine how the occurrence of natural disasters affects corruption within the public sector. For a closer analysis, disaster is classified into various categories, including general floods, other floods, tropical storms, other storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides. Furthermore, this paper explores whether natural disasters have different impacts on corruption levels in developed and developing countries. The study reveals a number of novel findings. (1) Natural disasters that cause substantial damage increase public sector corruption in both developing and developed countries. (2) Natural disasters have a greater impact on public sector corruption in developed countries than in developing countries. (3) In developed countries, natural disaster frequency has a significant impact on the level of corruption. Hence, foreseeable disasters increase corruption in general. In developed countries, an incentive may exist to live within disaster-prone areas because of the potential for disaster compensation payments.     

Enhancing Public Accountability for Developing Countries: Major Constraints and Strategies

Many Asian countries are attempting to promote public accountability as a part of public-sector reform, but their situation remains unsatisfactory compared to advanced countries. Except for a few, many Asian developing countries are still struggling with political and socioeconomic weaknesses. Indeed, the nature of public sector reform in many Asian developing countries differs substantially from that of advanced countries. Furthermore, the concept of accountability is not interpreted equally throughout the world. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to review the major constraints to enhancing public accountability in Asian developing countries and to discuss major strategies to promote such accountability from the perspective of developing countries. This article first reviews the concept of accountability and its development, followed by discussion of constraints in enhancing public accountability and public sector reform, key measures to enhance public accountability, and implications and conclusions.     

Public sector reform in the Latin American and Caribbean region—issues and contrasts

Public sector reform in both Latin American and Caribbean countries has become a high priority for governments in their search for a new role for the state. Common principles have included the objective to privatize, or contract out services or responsibilities where the private sector has a comparative advantage while at the same time improving government efficiency in areas that are considered core government functions at different levels of government. These include integrated government financial management, social security and social safety nets, tax administration, provision of basic services (education and health), legal/regulatory reform, and judicial enforcement. Guiding principles in all countries have been predictability, transparency and accountability. While the degree of reform has varied amongst countries, there are a number of distinguishing features of the Commonwealth Caribbean that set its public sector reform experience apart from that of Latin America. These include the legacy of a professional civil service, long-standing democratic institutions and an active civil society, the relatively small size of the countries, and the emphasis on rule of law that can help explain some of the differences in the reform paths taken. Nevertheless, government ownership and commitment to public sector reform has been shown to be the most important element in determining results within the Latin American and Caribbean region.     

Work redesign in development perspective: An empirical study of multitasking among civil servants in Malawi

Civil servants in many developing countries are increasingly faced with multitask situations at work to improve the efficiency of public sectors. Although multitasking might boost employee productivity, its potentially negative impact on other areas of employees’ lives has been ignored. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, our research aims to investigate whether, how, and when multitasking at work decreases the subjective well-being of employees in the public sector. Using a two-wave survey of 164 civil servants in Malawi, our findings showed that multitasking at work was positively related to employees’ negative affect and negatively related to their satisfaction with life and positive affect through emotional exhaustion. Moreover, the study found that polychronicity, which refers to one's preference to handle more than one task at the same time, moderated the relationship between multitasking and emotional exhaustion, such that the association described above was weaker when an employee's polychronicity was higher. Finally, the indirect impact of multitasking on positive affect through emotional exhaustion was also moderated by polychronicity. These findings provide some theoretical and managerial implications for public sector in developing countries on how to focus on employee well-being while using multitasking work design.     

Personnel practices in careers of women at the top in government and business in Nicaragua and Costa Rica

This article, which is the first empirical study of upper-level female managers in Central America, extends the exploration of similarities and differences between public and private sectors in human resource management to the context of developing countries. A comparison of work hours, recruitment and selection practices, mentoring, political pressure, gender discrimination and sexual harassment, reported by female managers in public and private organizations in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, yielded no sector-based differences and few country-based differences. We conclude, therefore, that the public sector is not a more supportive or more fair employer for women in management than the private sector in these two countries, contrary to the assumption in the women-in-management literature that the public sector is a more hospitable environment. Improvements in human resources practices are appropriate in both sectors.     

Managing and Leading in the Next Century

A 'quick scan' of the literature on management and leadership reveals a wealth of writings ¹ This article offers a broad overview and some thoughts, based on personal observation and experience, on future management and leadership needs in the Australian public sector. The present article first outlines, by way of illustration, some key pressures for continuing change within Australia's public sector and their possible implications for future management needs. Second, it addresses the distinction between 'management' and 'leadership'; and suggests that while the requirements placed on public sector management will continue to change, the skills required of public sector leaders are essentially timeless (and differ, in some respects, from private sector stereotypes of 'leadership').
Finally the article suggests why and how we should be seeking to develop 'leadership in depth' within public sector organisations, drawing on some illustrations from the Australian Department of Administrative Services.     

Flexibility and Adjustment in Public Budgeting: The Netherlands Experience

This article deals with the flexibility of public expenditure, or perhaps the lack of it. Inflexibility finds its roots in the establishment of public services, their expansion and development. Therefore, in this article the structure and development of the public sector is discussed. In many western countries the largest part of the public sector consists of transfer expenditures. These statutory programs are directly affected by economic development, cyclical and structural. That is why attention is directed here to the relationship between the economic situation and perspective on the one hand and the public sector on the other. These are also a reflection of the sociological and political development of the society in question. This is a relationship that is difficult to examine in terms of managing expenditures. In addition, inflexibility is a product of the public services provided, and certain methods, such as multiyear budgeting, can further enhance inflexibility. In the last part of this article, methods to create more flexibility in public expenditure are discussed. Experience with new budget techniques to enlarge flexibility is considered.     

Administrative leaders as institutional entrepreneurs in developing countries: A study of the development and institutionalization of performance management in Ghana's public service

Performance management (PM) has become one of the most important reforms in the public sector in both developed and developing countries. Unfortunately, institutionalizing PM in the sector continues to be a major problem. Although a number of scholars continue to study the PM in the public sector from different theoretical perspectives, there has been paucity of research concerning the process of institutionalization. The few studies that have attempted to look at the process have done so from a “coercive isomorphism” perspective, especially through legislation. The lack of studies to examine the process of institutionalization has therefore created a gap, which needs to be filled. We therefore attempt to contribute to this discussion by exploring the role of institutional entrepreneurs and their impact on the development and institutionalization of PM in developing countries, with a particular focus on Ghana, a country obsessed with PM but was only able to institutionalize one in 2013 under the leadership of its Public Services Commission. How was the leadership of the PSC able to succeed where previous leaders could not? What characteristics did they display, and what strategies did they use to get things done? The research is a qualitative one.     

Public Debt,Economic Growth,and Public Sector Management in Developing Countries: Is There a Link?

The article investigates whether differences in public sector management quality affect the link between public debt and economic growth in developing countries. For this purpose, we primarily use the World Bank's institutional indices of public sector management (PSM). Using PSM thresholds, we split our panel into country clusters and make comparisons. Our linear baseline regressions reveal a significant negative relationship between public debt and growth. The various robustness exercises that we perform also confirm these results. When we dissect our data set into “weak” and “strong” county clusters using public sector management scores, however, we find different results. While public debt still displayed a negative relationship with growth in countries with “weak” public sector management quality, it generally displayed a positive relationship in the latter group. The tests for non‐linearity shows evidence of an “inverse‐U”‐shape relationship between public debt and economic growth. However, we fail to see a similar significant relationship on country clusters that account for PSM quality. Yet, countries with well‐managed public sectors demonstrate a higher public debt sustainability threshold. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Public Enterprises and the Budget in Developing Countries

Public enterprises have a substantial fiscal impact in developing countries. This has led to the enterprises impinging on the budgetary process of the government while public enterprises are burdened by budget policies and macroeconomic policies. Such difficulties may necessitate the restructuring of public enterprises, either through privatization or reform to make them more competitive with the private sector.     

Introduction: The State of State Employment

Public sector industrial relations is a somewhat neglected field of investigation. The relative neglect by industrial relations scholars is surprising given that public sector employees in Australia are much more likely to be unionised and work within larger organisations with formalised industrial. Moreover, it has been within public sector environments where the efficacy of public policy directions in industrial relations have been tested. Public sector environments are more likely to be characterised by structured bargaining and policy testing than much of the private sector. One of the purposes of this symposium, then, is to remedy this relative neglect of public sector industrial relations.     

Downsizing the civil service in developing countries: golden handshakes or smiling farewells?

Some researchers have suggested innovative ways to successfully implement civil service reform in developing countries. Although most approaches to implementing public sector management reform are still very much process-driven, and focus almost exclusively on civil service reform, long-term success in making the public sector more efficient may be better assured if civil service reform is but one outcome of a broader public sector management reform agenda. Particularly, re-focussing from traditional input-driven reform thinking towards output-oriented measures, such as the introduction of accrual budgeting in the public sector, may well result in greater popular acceptance and, thus, longer-term success for sensitive reform programs. Although output-driven accrual budgeting is by no means a panacea for all public sector illnesses, it can at least set the scene for profound and durable cultural change in the public sector. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enhancing organizational effectiveness in developing countries: The training and visit system revisited

Improving the effectiveness of public sector organizations in developing countries has become a major focus for national governments and foreign aid agencies. This study reviews the experience of a major organizational reform strategy, the training and visit system of extension, that has operated for more than 20 years. Several lessons drawn from this experience are that aid donors must: (i) eschew their preference for organizational blueprints and recognize the contingent nature of reforms; (ii) recognize that many public sector organizations have only a small ‘controlled’ decision-making space and thus pay more attention to ‘influenceable’ decision-making opportunities; (iii) acknowledge that machine model approaches are likely to reinforce the negative aspects of hierarchical control in bureaucracies, and; (iv) pay much more attention to organizational sustainability in terms of finance and strategic management capacity.     

Employee engagement and task performance in state‐owned enterprises in developing countries: The case study of the power sector in Ghana

A growing number of studies prove a relationship between employee engagement (EE) and performance. Unfortunately, almost all originate in the developed world; the few that look at developing countries, including their public sectors, have focused more on the civil service and agencies, and neglect state‐owned enterprises (SOEs), despite their importance for delivery of public services. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of EE on task performance in SOEs in developing countries, with particular reference to Ghana. We purposively selected SOEs in the power sector and quantitatively surveyed their employees. We employed regression analysis to examine the link between EE and employee task performance. Our study, like those before it, shows that EE has a positive and significant effect on employee task performance. Our findings further suggest that for SOEs to achieve their targets with employees' performance, appropriate strategies should be adopted to ensure that employees are highly engaged.     

The Informal Sector in Developed and Less Developed Countries: A Literature Survey

The main goal of this study is two-fold: (1) to provide ageneral overview of the contributions to the literature on theinformal sector, with a special focus on the public choiceapproach; and (2) to compare these contributions across twoinstitutionally different types of countries: developed andless developed (developing and transition) countries. Thepaper focuses on the criteria used to define the informalsector, the relationship between the formal and informaleconomy, tax evasion, and public choice analysis. It isstressed throughout this paper that the distinction betweenthe two types of countries is of key importance.     

The “baby steps” in mainstreaming sustainable public procurement in Ghana: A “double‐agency” perspective

The emerging literature on public procurement policy suggests that public procurement may be leveraged to advance several public policy agenda. Hence, many countries have reformed their public procurement process towards social and environmental outcomes termed sustainable public procurement. These reforms have often been launched in response to international initiatives such as the global 10‐year framework for action on sustainable consumption and production by the Johannesburg implementation plan in 2002 and the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet, empirical evidence on the drivers and benefits of SPP in developing countries is still scarce. This gap is addressed with a qualitative case study of six public sector institutions in Ghana. On the basis of elite interviews, this paper highlights barriers to mainstreaming SPP in Ghana's public sector. We further advance the scanty principal–agency literature by establishing a double‐agency relationship in the context of SPP, which depicts limited agency cases where principals lack the capacity to defend their own interests.     

The impact of employee perception on the successful institutionalisation and implementation of performance management systems in developing countries: The perspective from Ghana's public service

Performance management (PM) has become a key instrument in the quest to ensure optimal operations by organisations in the public sector. Some scholars, though, believe that PM has failed because of employees' negative perception and management's exclusion of employees from its development. Studies on the relationship between employee perception of PM and its effectiveness in the public sector are limited. We argue that management must value employee perception more highly than they do at present because it is unlikely employees would be willing to take an active part in implementing a change with which they disagree or that they see as having no value. This study examines the effect of employees' perception on the institutionalisation and implementation of PM in developing countries, with specific reference to Ghana.     

Organizational structures and the development project planning sequence

Variants of the project planning sequence or cycle are widely employed to provide the conceptual framework for investment in developing countries. However, the current models attempt to generalize activity sequences across a range of projects with differing objectives. They also tend to abstract project planning from its institutional context, and to make little allowance for the possibility that alternative approaches to organizational and managerial problems may be available. The article outlines a technique that facilitates the analysis of active-organization patterns. Commencing with the classical tripartite system, a number of standard forms are identified and described. A series of observations are then offered on the organizational choices and control procedures that are available for public sector projects. The paper concludes with some remarks on the relationship between project planning and strategies for the development of indigenous institutional capacity in developing countries.