A Comparative Approach to Performance Management: Contrasting the Experience of Australia,New Zealand,and the United States

Abstract

Despite the use of the same vocabulary and seemingly similar agendas, the experience of these three countries cannot be comprehended without attention to the different contexts in which the countries operate. This paper focuses on the experience in these three English speaking countries dealing with the structure or context of the institutional arrangements, the process of defining outcomes, issues related to timing, availability and investment in data systems, predominant values that are at play, experience with gaming, and accountability arrangements. It provides thumbnail sketches of the framework and experience of these three countries and compares their experience in performance management. While there are significant differences that emerge from contextual variety, there are some shared dynamics in the three systems. I call these “normal tensions” in the system. Yet these tensions have been largely ignored in the performance management movement.     

US Performance-Based Laws: Information Technology and E-Government Reporting Requirements

Abstract

Electronic government (e-government) is the use of information technology (IT) and the Internet to transform federal agency effectiveness—including efficiency and service quality. Several US laws, including the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Computer Security Act, the Clinger-Cohen Act, the Government Information Security Reform Act (GISRA), and the E-Government Act, contain IT and e-government performance-reporting requirements. For each, the author reviews the legislative history and then focuses on the specific requirements for reporting to Congress, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and agency heads. The author concludes that OMB’s new Office of Electronic Government needs to evaluate whether performance requirements could be improved through (1) consolidation, thereby providing a more comprehensive discussion of agency IT and e-government issues, and (2) addressing broader issues, such as an across-government focus on both national and international IT issues.     

Introduction: Human resource development symposium

ABSTRACT

The impacts of information technology (IT) on public administration and the public sector are assessed by analyzing the empirical research reported in more than 1,000 issues of recent research journals (published between 1987 and 2000). These impacts are categorized in terms of four broad taxonomic domains and 22 specific impact categories. Almost half of the 230 specific findings identify changes in the capabilities of public sector units to perform functions and more than one-fourth of the findings involve changes in patterns of interaction among political actors. Relatively few IT-related changes affect the distribution of values or the orientations of political actors. In general, the highest proportions of positive impacts from IT are associated with the efficiency and rationality of behavior by units of public administration. The higher incidences of negative impacts tend to involve the more subjective effects of IT on people, in their roles as private citizens (e.g., privacy) or as public employees (e.g., job satisfaction, discretion). It is striking that there are relatively few grounded, empirical studies of the impacts of IT on public administration in the journals analyzed. About half of the empirical studies focus primarily on local level units of public administration, and most studies employ case-study methodology, with nearly one-half of the studies reporting on non-U.S. sites. The summarized and detailed findings in the article are offered as building blocs for more grounded theory on the impacts of IT on public administration and the public sector.     

How Migration Experience Affects the Acceptance and Active Support of Refugees? Philanthropy and Paid Work of Hungarian Migrants in the German Immigrant Service

Abstract

The paper examines migration experience and migrant solidarity within a differential migration system. The paper unfolds how Hungarians living in Germany have become involved in refugee support (either in form of voluntary or paid work), and how their engagement relates to their own experience of migration. Concerning applied methods the paper is based on a quantitative online survey and qualitative interviews.     

Case Study of Management Internships: Eastern Europeans in America

Abstract

A great Eastern European shortfall is in trained managers for free market operations. While many management training programs have been offered for former communist countries, some of the most effective have been internships that immerse managers in the business environments of free market countries. This article examines the effects of an internship program on fifty-three managers from Romania who were interns in the United States and compares their experience with undergraduate student interns from Bulgaria who had a somewhat similar internship.     

Team Characteristics and Team Member Knowledge,Skills, and Ability Relationships to the Effectiveness of Cross‐Functional Teams in the Public Sector

Abstract

This study examines members of cross‐functional teams in the public sector for the necessary knowledge, skills, and ability (KSA) to be effective team members. It was determined that members of cross‐functional teams in the public sector possess the necessary KSA to perform effectively. The following characteristics are statistically significant factors: (1) years of professional work experience; (2) frequency of team participation; (3) the type of team training, i.e., collaboration and performance management; and (4) situational entry to team assignments (volunteered, assigned, requested), specifically volunteer and requested. The findings are significant in that managers within the government have some guidelines on team formation. They now know who should be team members, team members should be volunteers, and management should ensure that the team members have specific training in the areas of team collaboration and performance management. The findings are significant for employees as well. To acquire experience, employees should be interested in participating in a team environment (i.e., volunteering for the assignment). They should participate on numerous teams, so that they can become more effective as team members. Employees should acquire training in specific team skills (i.e., collaboration and performance management) to help them better understand how to work within the team and the team members and get results.     

Psychosocial Considerations in Working with the Chinese Immigrant

Abstract

Asian Americans have been the fastest growing segment of the United States population. Additionally, there is a continual influx of both legal and undocumented Chinese immigrants as well. Providers of social and health services, particularly in the public sector, have been coming into increasing contact with these individuals who bring with them a complex and multi-faceted history and background. The purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the psychosocial considerations when working with this population and some of the challenges encountered.

The Chinese immigrant's migration history and acculturation experience need to be appreciated within his or her cultural framework. Challenges facing the treatment of the Chinese immigrant include language barrier, shortage of bilingual staff and the associated difficulties in interpretation. Public education and outreach efforts have been targeting stigma reduction and developing primary prevention activities. The predicament service providers face when working with the undocumented aliens is underscored. A case illustration is included.     

Beads and Trinkets? Stakeholder Perspectives on Benefit-sharing and Corporate Responsibility in a Russian Oil Province

Abstract

Residents of the Komi Republic have enjoyed some benefits from the oil industry, through taxation, jobs and business opportunities. They have also suffered repeated oil spills, including one of the world's largest in 1994. Since most petroleum taxes go to Moscow for redistribution, the economic benefits are limited, and are focused in urban centres. Rural populations, who suffer most from oil spills, experience benefits primarily through companies’ social projects. We analyse local perceptions of the corporate social responsibility performance of Lukoil-Komi and consider how a weak—or ‘phantom’—social licence to operate can lead to open protest.     

Merging county administrations – cross-national evidence of fiscal and political effects

ABSTRACT

While many central governments amalgamate municipalities, mergers of larger county administrations are rare and hardly explored. In this article, we assess both fiscal and political effects of county mergers in two different institutional settings: counties act autonomously as upper-level local governments (Germany), or counties being decentralised branches of the state government (Austria). We apply difference-in-differences estimations to county merger reforms in each country. In both cases, some counties were amalgamated while others remain untouched. Austrian counties (Bezirke) and German counties (Landkreise) widely differ in terms of autonomy and institutions, but our results are strikingly similar. In both cases, we neither find evidence for cost savings nor for staff reductions. Instead, voter turnout consistently decreases in merged counties, and right-wing populists seem to gain additional support. We conclude that political costs clearly outweigh fiscal null benefits of county merger reforms – independent of the underlying institutional setting.     

Corruption and Popular Support for Democracy and Government in Transitional Contexts: The Case of Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

Many studies have argued that corruption undermines perceived democratic legitimacy, trust in state institutions, and government support. However, few prior studies have included transitional or hybrid regimes in their analyses, or simultaneously examined multiple aspects of this relationship. Using focus groups and a nationally representative survey conducted throughout a tumultuous transitional period in Kyrgyzstan, we find evidence for our hypotheses that citizens with greater corruption concerns will be more pro-democratic when evaluating democracy or its institutional components in the abstract; yet, they distrust existing government institutions. Even in a hybrid regime lacking democratic experience, citizens exhibit attributes of distrusting democrats.     

Egypt’s Many Public Administration Transitions: Reform Vision and Implementation Challenges

ABSTRACT

This article discusses Egypt’s many transitions toward public administration reform. It argues that some of these transitions have collided with an existing large and complex bureaucracy and a legacy of state-led development, such as the protracted and contentious process related to the civil service regulation reforms. Similarly, despite decades of decentralization efforts, state budgeting praxis remains centralized and concentrated. While attracting private investment for job creation and economic growth is a key priority to Egypt, state centrism overshadows the experience. Other transitions, however, have thrived at a much faster pace, such as the adoption of e-government.     

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY POLICY-MAKING IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

ABSTRACT

This research examines the evolution of information technology policy formation and policy-making in the People's Republic of China. The paper analyzes, from an institutional and a macro perspective, the basis and formation of the IT policy in China, the policy makers, and the effect of corresponding policy initiatives which contributed to the development and prosperities of China's telecommunication service sector. Embedded in the backdrop of P.R. China's political history and the world trend of liberalization, deregulation, privatization and the entry of the WTO deal in telecommunications community, this paper reveals the unique features of socialist China in transforming its IT industry from a monopolized government sector into managed domestic competition and ultimately opening up to the international investors.     

The appeal and behavior of the ku kiux klan in object relations perspective

Abstract

The conspicuous and peculiarly ruinous behavior of the Ku Klux Klan may provide an example of psychosocial pathology that can be usefully analyzed via an extension of object relations theory. This largely theoretical paper employs the concept, pioneered by Klein, of the split maternal presence and advances the theoretical hypothesis that this split is projected into social life. Some deprived and psychologically damaged adults experience the “maternal presence” of society as split and have special requirements for group support. Under certain circumstances, groups like the KKK may meet those requirements. In addition, the eruption of group violence of the KKK type may be explainable by analyzing the psychodynamics of group regression to an infantile level and the accompanying arousal of the “unmanageable mother.”     

Forming community councils East Kilbride

The principle of directly elected mayors forms a key part of the Labour government's strategy to modernise local democracy and strengthen accountability. First applied to London, the government has sought to extend the institution, allowing local referendums to determine whether the public favours the principle or not. This article examines the state of public opinion regarding elected mayors before reporting on the outcome of referendums held since the 2001 general election. We then consider the results of mayoral elections, specifically addressing issues of electoral participation, legitimation and partisan support. In conclusion, we consider whether its experience with both referendums and mayoral elections may have affected the government's enthusiasm for further expansion of this institution across the local government system.     

Coping with shocks in rural Ethiopia

Abstract

Using survey data and event history interviews undertaken in Ethiopia, we investigate which shocks trigger which coping responses and why. Relatively covariate natural and economic shocks trigger reductions in savings and in food consumption, while relatively idiosyncratic health shocks prompt reductions in savings and a reliance on borrowing. Surprisingly, across all shocks, households do not rely on gifts from family and friends, highlighting the need for formal protection systems. We argue that the insensitivity of food consumption to health shocks does not imply insurability but indicates that it is not a viable response to such a shock.     

Disaster documentation: improving medical information-sharing in sudden-onset disaster scenarios

Abstract

This study investigates clinical practitioners’ use of medical documentation during sudden-onset disasters in order to better understand how we can improve practice. Thirteen participants, representing nine nationalities and six clinical disciplines (with the collective working experience of at least 15 different organisations providing disaster response), underwent semi-structured interviews using an inductive approach based in grounded theory. The initial codes and themes were analysed over four coding rounds and developed into selective codes. The findings suggest that documentation is overwhelmingly de-prioritised in disasters due to competing demands; there is little incentive to complete documentation at an organisational or government level; practitioners acknowledge the importance of and need for adequate documentation; paper documentation still has its place whilst electronic approaches have both benefits and drawbacks; and disasters require bespoke documentation solutions. Development of the emergency medical team (EMT) ‘data management’ role within EMTs may be one way to focus teams on key areas of improvement.     

Nationalisation in Hungary in the Post-Crisis Years: A Specific Twist on a European Trend?

Abstract

The expansion of public ownership after 2008 occurred in many European countries as a crisis-management tool. Is the new wave of Hungarian nationalisation a part of this general trend or a component of a unique, ‘unorthodox’ economic policy? The article sums up the main features of recent European nationalisation and reveals similarities and differences in this context. It argues that although current ownership changes in Hungary are outwardly consistent with those that have occurred in other European countries (and in the United States), they in fact reflect the particular agenda of the post-2010 Orbán government. The key peculiarity of the recent Hungarian nationalisations is their embeddedness in a complex system of political and economic changes rather than being aimed at short-term crisis management.     

THE CONTRIBUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS IN THE SUCCESS OF ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT COMMERCE

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to identify factors which affect the success of electronic commerce applications in federal agencies and to explore the role of transformational leadership and strategic planning for Web sites in the success of electronic commerce applications designed to serve citizens. Based on the literature review relative to electronic government commerce, the research model in this study postulates that transformational leadership, strategic planning for Web sites and other factors such as the size and complexity of the Web site influence the success of electronic commerce applications in federal agencies. The success of electronic commerce applications is the dependent variable and is measured by a combination of user-based criteria and system-based criteria. This research employed a combination of an online questionnaire survey and a Web structural survey. Questionnaires were electronically mailed to IT managers and/or users who have e-mail addresses at federal agencies. The results of the research confirmed the close association between organizational factors (transformational leadership and strategic planning for Web sites) and the success of electronic commerce applications in federal agencies.     

A Framework for Immigration

Abstract

This paper presents a framework for immigration, regardless of country of origin or of destination. It identifies factors that precipitate emigration and those that affect immigration, providing a background for understanding the immigration experience.     

Local government projectification in practice – a multiple institutional logic perspective

ABSTRACT

During the last couple of decades, we have witnessed a proliferation of the project as an organizational solution in sectors as diverse as IT, housing, social services, education and culture. Despite a growing interest in the phenomenon, we know surprisingly little of how processes of public sector projectification unfold in practice, especially at local government level. This article uses an institutional logic perspective to illustrate and argue that public sector projectification can be understood and conceptualized as the enactment of multiple, co-existing institutional logics, but where one particular logic is of growing importance – the project logic. It is argued that even though the project form is often perceived as more flexible than that of the bureaucracy, the practical outcome seldom represents a radical break with traditional, bureaucratic management models. Rather, it appears to aid a rediscovery and reuse of central bureaucratic practices and procedures such as reporting, documentation and standardization.