Endogenous Development Dynamics of Multisectoral Network Management

ABSTRACT

Little is known about the effects of regime change on government workers’ job satisfaction. Conventional theories of work satisfaction have identified various individual or organizational antecedents of public employees’ well-being in many different contexts. In this study, we add an additional level of analysis to the study of job satisfaction. The German reunification in 1990 constitutes a natural experiment where public employees’ institutional work environment changed dramatically. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we show that, after the reunification, East German public employees who stayed in their jobs experienced a “satisfaction shock” by substantially decreasing their levels of job satisfaction. This finding is in line with what has been labelled as “survivor syndrome” in the general management literature. We also find that, after three years’ time, differences in satisfaction levels between East and West Germans reverted to pre-reunion levels. These findings are robust to various model specifications and alternative estimators. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.     

The Impact of Organizational Context and Information Technology on Employee Knowledge-Sharing Capabilities

Sharing knowledge and information is an important factor in the discourses on electronic government, national security, and human capital management in public administration. This article analyzes the impact of organizational context and IT on employees' perceptions of knowledge-sharing capabilities in five public sector and five private sector organizations in South Korea. Social networks, centralization, performance-based reward systems, employee usage of IT applications, and user-friendly IT systems were found to significantly affect employee knowledge-sharing capabilities in the organizations studied. For public sector employees, social networks, performance-based reward systems, and employee usage of IT applications are all positively associated with high levels of employee knowledge-sharing capabilities. Lessons and implications for knowledge-sharing capabilities and management leadership in the public sector are presented.     

Understanding Strategic Planning and the Formulation and Implementation of Strategic Plans as a Way of Knowing: The Contributions of Actor-Network Theory

ABSTRACT

This article has two purposes: first, to take seriously the notion of strategic planning as a way of knowing, and second, to argue that actor-network theory provides a particularly apposite method for understanding whether and how strategic planning works in particular circumstances. Pursuit of these purposes also helps illuminate possible contributions of strategic planning to inclusive, participative, and democratic public management. The paper is illustrated with examples from the 1995 and 2007 strategic planning and subsequent implementation efforts of MetroGIS, an organization created to foster widespread sharing of geospatial information primarily among public organizatons serving the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minnesota, USA, and further, to enhance their individual and collective effectiveness. The Metropolitan Council, the regional government, is the primary sponsor of MetroGIS, which is comprised of over 300 organizational partners across the region. Conclusions are offered about the importance of viewing and studying strategic planning as a way of knowing and as a potential vehicle for inclusive public management in a democratic society.

[A table featuring a complete timeline of the major MetroGIS accomplishments between 1995 and 2008; the controversies, participants, processes, technologies, and artifacts involved; and the outcomes or major consequences resulting from the accomplishment is included as an online supplement on the publisher's website.]     

The Importance of Role Clarification in Workgroups: Effects on Perceived Role Clarity,Work Satisfaction,and Turnover Rates

This article examines how greater role clarification may be associated with increased work satisfaction and decreased turnover rates in workgroups. These linkages are examined with the use of multivariate analysis of variance and hierarchical regression analysis for data collected during two time periods from multiple sources: personnel records and an organizational survey of 1,699 employees working in 45 geographically distributed offices in a state government agency. Results indicate that offices with a high level of role clarification had significantly higher levels of work satisfaction and lower rates of turnover. Additionally, the effects of role clarification on work satisfaction and turnover behavior were mediated by overall role clarity perceived in these offices. The implications of these findings for effective management of workgroups in government agencies are discussed.     

The Strategic Use of Information Technology by Nonprofit Organizations: Increasing Capacity and Untapped Potential

How are nonprofits using information technology to enhance mission‐related outcomes and boost organizational performance? The authors examine a large‐scale survey of nonprofits’ technology planning, acquisition, and implementation to assess the strategic use of IT in these organizations. They evaluate nonprofits’ strategic technology‐use potential by examining IT‐related competencies and practices that are critical for the successful strategic employment of technology resources. Several promising developments are found, alongside significant deficits in the strategic utilization of IT, especially in the areas of financial sustainability, strategic communications and relationship building, and collaborations and partnerships. To boost IT’s mission‐related impact, nonprofits must enhance their organizational capacities in long‐term IT planning, budgeting, staffing, and training; performance measurement; Internet and Web site capabilities; and the vision, support, and involvement of senior management.     

Why Do Autonomous Public Agencies Use Performance Management Techniques? Revisiting the Role of Basic Organizational Characteristics

This study investigates to what extent the use of different performance management techniques within (semi-) autonomous public sector organizations, also called public agencies, can be explained by the defining organizational features of such organizations. Using multi-country survey data of over 400 public agencies, the effect of these features—internal performance target setting and monitoring, multi-year planning, as well as the internal performance-based allocation of resources—upon three performance management techniques has been studied. This set-up recognizes differences among management techniques, as well as recurring factors, allowing us to make more general statements. Analyses illustrate that external result control by the minister and parent ministry positively affects the use of all performance management techniques examined in public agencies. However, each performance management technique is affected differently by specific organizational variables.     

Employee Satisfaction With Work‐life Balance Policies And Organizational Commitment: A Philippine Study

This study investigates the relationship between public employees' satisfaction with work‐life balance policies (WLBPs) and organizational commitment in the relatively unexplored Philippine context. Our findings show that (i) employees' overall satisfaction with WLBPs is positively related to organizational commitment, (ii) when specific WLBPs are examined, only satisfaction with health and wellness programs are positively associated with organizational commitment, and (iii) when accounting for employees' preferences for WLBPs, compensatory time‐off, childcare policy, health insurance benefits, and paid sick leave are positively related to organizational commitment. The findings indicate that understanding which WLBPs employees prefer is important before implementing WLBPs. The article discusses the theoretical and practical implications of this study in the developing country context. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Employee Satisfaction in Agencies with Merit-Based Pay: Differential Effects for Three Measures

While many studies have sought to understand the association between merit-based pay and organizational performance, few have assessed the psychological well-being of employees in agencies with such incentive schemes. We show that employees in agencies with merit-based pay are less satisfied with their organization than are those working in agencies that do not implement the incentive systems. We also show that this negative effect is larger in the case of organizational satisfaction than for pay satisfaction or employee satisfaction with the job itself.     

Coordination in Youth Affairs: The Politics of Non-Decision-Making

One of the components associated with the widely heralded shift to 'new managerialism' in the public sector has been an increased emphasis on coordination between government departments as a means to enhance effective service provision. This article examines the capacity for coordination to fulfil this objective. Drawing upon a case study of coordination in youth affairs in Western Australia, the article examines the process by which the coordination mechanisms become enveloped in the 'politics of non-decision-making'. By this is meant that a set of power relationships create tensions at a number of levels — between commonwealth and state government agencies; between state government agencies and within individual agencies — which act to prevent effective decisions from being taken. The implications of this case study for the capacity of 'new managerialism' to produce effective policy outcomes in complex social policy areas is highlighted. Evidence from this study suggests that, in an era of restricted resources and heightened competition within the public sector, agencies are pushed to more clearly define their boundaries.     

论政府机关人力资源管理的优化

政府机关人力资源管理在我国推行“人才强国”的战略中处于枢纽地位，它可以被看作一个主要由选人、育人、用人和留人四个环节进行循环运动以期达到整个人力资源管理动态平衡的生态环流系统。目前，由于四个环节在衔接上存在问题，导致政府机关人力资源管理系统的局部失衡，影响到整个系统的正常运行和政府效能的发挥。而要优化政府机关人力资源管理，最大限度地提高政府效能，就必须实现各环节的动态平衡和人力资源管理的优化。     

Changing Planning by Changing Practice: How Water Managers Innovate Through Action

ABSTRACT

In this study, we show how water managers who were not in strategic decision-making positions strategized in order to innovate water management practice. They undertook actions in order to infuse water management with a pragmatic logic that in their view would be better able to handle complexity. They addressed the requirements of an organizational context dominated by rational comprehensive planning as the model for acceptable action and associated forms of organizing that honor formally regulated responsibilities. Existing organizational practices and the logics grounding these were the counterpoint of their strategy, as well as the source on which they drew. Conventional forms of planning and organization were changed from within, through insider action woven into existing organizational process and form. Although acting from a logic that competed with established practices, these managers avoided confrontation and battle on the level of logic. They rather strategized by harnessing existing practices.     

Strategic Planning and Management in Local Government in Norway: Status after Three Decades

Strategic planning and management was introduced in the public sector more than three decades ago and has become a core component in many new public management reforms. Although strategy has been widely adopted in the public sector, the knowledge base regarding its practices and its impacts remains scarce, particularly outside Anglo‐American countries. This article replicates an American and British survey by analysing the adoption and impacts of strategic planning and management in Norwegian municipalities. The results show that, in 2012, a majority of the Norwegian municipalities used strategic planning and management, and that the respondents viewed the impact positively overall. Municipalities that had chosen the strategic stance of prospector and had financial resources from positive net operating results margin adopted strategic planning and management more than other municipalities. Municipalities with a high degree of strategic management and high stakeholder involvement had better perceived impacts of strategic planning than other municipalities.     

Stakeholder Red Tape: Comparing Perceptions of Public Managers and Their Private Consultants

Despite the abundance of red tape literature and the growing popularity of outsourcing in the public sector, no study has yet investigated red tape in consulting relationships. Using survey data from public managers and the contractors with whom they work, the authors investigate public managers' and private consultants' perceptions of organizational and contracting red tape. They identify the determinants of red tape perceptions, variation in those perceptions, and the characteristics of respondents with stronger divergent views of contracting red tape. The results indicate that government managers perceive higher levels of organizational red tape and contracting red tape than their consultants. Public managers' perceptions of red tape are associated with job satisfaction and time spent managing and communicating with consultants. Consultants' perceptions of red tape are associated with perceptions of the appropriateness of the government agency's rules, the number of years the firm has worked with the agency, and the percentage of the firm's cost-plus contracts.     

Diversity Management, Job Satisfaction, and Performance: Evidence from U.S. Federal Agencies

A number of organizations across sectors have begun efforts toward managing workforce diversity. At the federal level in the United States, almost 90 percent of agencies report that they are actively managing diversity. However, very little empirical research has tied diversity management to work group performance or other work-related outcomes. This paper uses a survey of U.S. federal employees to test the relationships between diversity management, job satisfaction, and work group performance. The findings indicate that diversity management is strongly linked to both work group performance and job satisfaction, and that people of color see benefits from diversity management above and beyond those experienced by white employees.     

Reflective and decisive supervision: The role of participative leadership and team climate in joint decision-making

Supervisory bodies can intervene in organizational practices that may harm society, but their effectiveness to do so depends on their ability to make decisions reflectively and decisively. Are these tendencies incompatible with each other or can they go together? Can empowering leadership (i.e. participative, coaching, informing behaviors) stimulate reflectiveness and decisiveness? A 10-item Joint Decision-Making Questionnaire was developed and tested among supervisory officers (N = 87) and supervisory board members (N = 158). Reflectiveness and decisiveness were positively correlated, indicating that these tendencies can be reconciled in joint decision-making (Study 1). An examination of 44 supervisory teams further revealed that participative leadership relates to more reflectiveness and decisiveness, via cooperative trust and goal commitment (Study 2). Moreover, teams that experienced this team climate prior to COVID-19 reported that they acted more reflectively and decisively during this crisis (Study 3). Hence, participative leaders can foster reflectiveness and decisiveness, by promoting cooperative trust and goal commitment.     

Comparing Affective Commitment in the Public and Private Sectors: A Comprehensive Test of Multiple Mediation Effects

Employees’ organizational commitment is associated with a number of positive outcomes, such as employee motivation, job satisfaction, productivity, and retention. But previous research has suggested that there may be important sector differences in both commitment and its explanations, yet results are very mixed. We study sector differences in affective organizational commitment among 1,043 public and private office workers who perform very similar tasks across sectors, testing the influence of factors thought to explain commitment and expected to vary between the sectors. We propose that the mixed results are due to different variables mediating the relationship between sector and organizational commitment. Conducting a multiple mediation analysis, we find that more hierarchy negatively mediates the relationship between public sector employment and organizational commitment. On the other hand, the relationship between public sector employment and organizational commitment is positively mediated by public service motivation and participatory management. This highlights the importance of not only studying simple sector differences, but also including relevant individual and organizational-level variables that can explain the mechanisms behind such differences.     

Government Reform,Political Ideology,and Administrative Burden: The Case of Performance Management in the Bush Administration

This article examines how ideological differences between political officials and agencies may have affected the implementation of an ostensibly nonpartisan, government‐wide administrative initiative: the George W. Bush administration's Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) review of federal programs. The analysis reveals that managers in agencies associated with liberal programs and employees (“liberal agencies”) agreed to a greater extent than those in agencies associated with conservative programs and employees (“conservative agencies”) that PART required significant agency time and effort and that it imposed a burden on management resources. Further analysis reveals that differences in reported agency effort can be explained partly by objective differences in the demands that PART placed on agencies—liberal agencies were required to evaluate more programs and implement more improvement plans relative to their organizational capacity—and partly by the ideological beliefs of employees—on average, liberal managers reported more agency effort, even after accounting for objective measures of administrative burden.     

Government Employees’ Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Impacts of Public Service Motivation,Organizational Identification,and Subjective OCB Norms

This study attempts to provide an increased understanding of the antecedents of public employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Using a field survey involving public employees working for Korean local government organizations, the data analyses reveal that public service motivation (PSM), organizational identification, subjective OCB norms, task interdependence, and procedural justice are important antecedents of government employees’ OCB, even after partialling out the common method variance, whereas job satisfaction and distributive justice are not.     

Human Resource Practices in State Government: Findings from a National Survey

What are states doing with respect to human resource practices to improve government operations? Using data collected by the Government Performance Project, this article identifies emerging trends and innovations in state personnel systems. Specifically, it provides a national comparison in the areas of personnel authority, workforce planning, selection, classification, and performance management. Results show that many states are delegating authority for personnel functions to agencies and managers, shifting their human resource missions to being more proactive and collaborative with agencies, and adopting performance management systems that integrate organizational and individual goals. In short, many states are investing considerable resources to modernize their human resource management systems.     

Looking Forward to Cuts: A Simulation Decision Tool for Cutback Management

This study addresses managerial strategies to adapt public spending in anticipation of fiscal stress. It simulates a cutback to a federal agency, providing a decision tool that applies normative recommendations from the cutback management literature. Using agency data, we develop a menu of options that illustrate how different distributions of budget reductions affect organizational goals. We show five alternatives that consider the political, legal, and fiscal implications of the agency's responses to anticipated budgetary pressure. This simulation demonstrates that public agencies can apply existing data to generate rational and viable strategic plans for weathering fiscal stress.