Preparing public service agencies for strategic planning

This paper examines the reasons why public sector organizations may not be ready for traditional private sector strategic planning techniques and suggests a typology for diagnosing the CBO's position in relation to planning efforts. It identifies the need for interventions appropriate to the organization climate and begins to explore mechanisms which can be used to facilitate the strategic planning process in public service agencies.     

Information technology and organizational structure of the greek public administration

It is widely accepted in the management literature that Information Technology can greatly contribute to the administrative modernization and especially to the improvement of organizational productivity. This is of great interest for the Greek Public Administration, which faces long term problems of low productivity. The main objective of this work is to analyse the impact of Information Technology on the organizational structure of Greek Public Administration, that is one of the main determinants of its productivity. Initially the theoretical background is presented on which the present work is based. Using data compiled from the whole Central Government, firstly the study is focused on the hardware and software technologies which are employed. At a second stage the impact of the use of Information Technology on a set of dimensions of the organizational structure,which are of critical importance for the productivity of the Greek Public Administration, is examined. The conclusions of the study provide the basis for the development of strategic guidelines for maximizing the benefits from using Information Technology in Greek Public Administration.     

Organization design and effectiveness: a study of anti-crime organizations in Hong Kong

There are various methods of designing organizations to adjust to the needs of the circumstances, clients and administrators. The literature on organizations highlighted various aspects as it developed and the emphasis shifted over time. Different approaches were tried in two cases in Hong Kong where organizations were designed to deal with specific problems of corruption and organized crime. While the social approach appeared to be more sensitive to the needs of the target group, the institutional approach emerged as a more effective option. In designing organizations, it is necessary to consider the social and psychological aspects, but the nature of structure, stability of environment and regularity of procedures have a profound impact on the effectiveness.     

Size and growth in federal executive agencies

Concepts of size and growth have presented a number of problems to organization theorists in a variety of disciplines. Of primary concern is the method by which such concepts are operationalized. Utilizing personnel and budgetary data from a sample of seventy-three federal executive agencies, the effect of size on administrative hierarchy is examined. It is hypothesized that -- as agencies increase in size -- a larger proportion of this increase will be middle-grade and upper-grade Personnel. Coversely, the amount of personnel in lower-level positions will exhibit a decreasing rate of growth.

As a means of specifying the phenomenon of growth, the pattern of agency growth over a twenty-nine year span of time (1948-1976) is examined. The effect of appropriations growth on personnel growth is posited to operate in a positive manner.

Methods of analysis utilized include scatterplot analysis to provide a profile of federal executive agencies. Correlation and simple regression analysis serve as tests of the primary hypotheses.     

The Anti-Politics of Development: donor agencies and the political economy of governance

This article discusses the attempt undertaken by several development aid agencies since the turn of the century to integrate political economy assessments into their decision making on development assistance. The article discusses three such attempts: the Drivers of Change adopted by the UK's Department for International Development, the Strategic Governance and Corruption Analysis (sgaca) developed by the Dutch Directorate General for International Cooperation and the new thinking on political economy analysis, policy reform and political risk advanced by the World Bank. On the basis of a political-economic interpretation of development agencies, two main factors are found to hinder the successful application of political economy assessment. In the first place, the agencies' professional outlook leads them to see development in primarily technical terms. In the second place, the nature of incentives for development professionals leads them to resist the implementation of political economy analyses.     

The new public personnel and the new public service

The New Public Administration sought a public service whose legitimacy would be based, in part, on its promotion of “social equity.” Since 1968, several personnel changes congruent with the New Public Administration have occurred: traditional managerial authority over public employees has been reduced through collective bargaining and changes in constitutional doctrines; the public service has become more socially representative; establishing a representative bureaucracy has become an important policy goal; more emphasis is now placed on employee participation in the work place; and legal changes regarding public administrators’ liability have promoted an “inner check” on their behavior. At the same time, however, broad systemic changes involving decentralization and the relationship between political officials and career civil servants have tended to undercut the impact of those changes in personnel. The theories of Minnowbrook I, therefore, have proven insufficient as a foundation for a new public service. Grounding the public service's legitimacy in the U.S. Constitution is a more promising alternative and is strongly recommended.

The New Public Administration, like other historical calls for drastic administrative change in the United States, sought to develop a new basis for public administrative legitimacy. Earlier successful movements grounded the legitimacy of the public service in high social standing and leadership, representativeness and close relationship to political parties, or in putative political neutrality and scientific managerial and technical expertise. To these bases, the New Public Administration sought to add “social equity.” As George Frederickson explained, “Administrators are not neutral. They should be committed to both good management and social equity as values, things to be achieved, or rationales. “⁽¹⁾ Social equity was defined as “includ[ing] activities designed to enhance the political power and economic well being of … [disadvantaged] minorities.” It was necessary because “the procedures of representative democracy presently operate in a way that either fails or only very gradually attempts to reverse systematic discrimination against” these groups.⁽²⁾

Like the Federalists, the Jacksonians, and the civil service reformers and progressives before it, the New Public Administration focused upon administrative reform as a means of redistributing political power.⁽³⁾ Also, like these earlier movements, the New Public Administration included a model of a new type of public servant. This article sets forth that new model and considers the extent to which the major changes that have actually taken place in public personnel administration since 1968 are congruent with it. We find that while contemporary public personnel reflects many of the values and concerns advanced by the New Public Administration, substantial changes in the political environment of public administration have frustrated the development of a new public service that would encompass the larger goals and ideals expressed at Minnowbrook I. Building on the trends of the past two decades, this article also speculates about the future. Our conclusion is that ultimately the public service's legitimacy must be grounded in the Constitution. Although its focus is on macro-level political and administrative developments, the broad changes it discusses provide the framework from which many contemporary personnel work-life issues, such as pay equity and flexitime, have emerged.     

Analysing managerial perceptions of when and how to structure public involvement in public-private partnerships

Previous research highlights what managers perceive to be the purposes of public involvement in public-private partnerships (PPPs) and the need for addressing stakeholder concerns unique to PPPs. Yet, we have little evidence of how particular modes of participation benefit particular goals of participation in this context. Through canonical correlation analysis (CCA) of survey data collected in the U.S., this study examines the modes and sequencing of 14 public involvement activities in respect to 10 goals of public involvement in this context. The results indicate that selections among modes of participation are contingent upon when they are introduced. Respondents prefer widening stakeholder involvement early in the project development phase and during the contract implementation phase, but not during the later phases of contract design. Respondents also assign more value to engaging local citizens than their respective political leaders, particularly at mature stages of the PPP’s implementation phase.     

Lessons learned from the reinvention of training in two federal agencies

This paper describes the efforts of two federal agency training divisions to reinvent themselves, and provides experiences and insights which will help other training divisions facing the sometimes frightening prospect of reinvention. The paper also suggests that a strategic, customer, performance improvement, and accountability orientation is key to reinventing training in government.     

Roward a public philosophy of public administration: a civic perspective of the public

The thesis of this article is that a publicphilosophy of public administration needs to be formulated. It must not be based upon romantic and technocratic approaches as past efforts have been. It must rest instead upon a revitalized concept of the public that stresses the importance of public interdependency, public learning, public language, and a critical evaluation of the relationship between the role of the state and public administration. This emphasis has important implications for the respective responsibilities of both academicians and practicing administrators.     

National administrative agencies in transition: A comparison of sweden and the united states

The abilities of national administrative agencies in Sweden and the United States to function effectively are influenced by their responses to three major phenomena: 1) growth in the responsibilities of government; 2) decentralization; and, 3) privatization. This paper delineates how these phenomena have affected the development of national administrative organizations in these two countries. Implications for administering national agencies in increasingly complex interorganizational environments are discussed.     

The emergence of regulatory regionalism: transnational networks and the diffusion of regulatory agencies within regions

The regulatory regionalism approach has increasingly claimed that a new mode of regional governance is emerging globally. Regional policy regimes, developed in broad social and economic territorial areas, affect the internal transformation of the state. The authors plan to provide comprehensive empirical evidence about the emergence of worldwide regulatory regionalism by identifying how regulatory agencies have diffused very successfully within the regional level in recent decades. The paper aims to identify, using an original methodological design, the ways in which such diffusion of agencies occurred, as this may have theoretical relevance for the study of regulatory regionalism. The authors' hypothesis suggests that transnational political interactions in each regional cluster triggered agency diffusion, contributing to the development of the regulatory state within the countries of each region. To test this hypothesis, the authors employed a data set of regulatory agencies including the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), and most Asian and Latin American countries (+59) from 1950 to 2007, for 15 sectors related to finance, risks, utility and competition. Bayesian data analysis was used to estimate the parameters of interest.     

The expansion of the public sector in federalism: a comparative analysis of a macro level governing structure and government size

ABSTRACT

Utilising Oates’ fiscal federalism theorem, the Tiebout model and Berry’s common pool model, this paper examines the effects of four characteristics of a macro level governing structure on public sector employment using a mixed method approach. Regression analysis explores the individual effect of fiscal decentralisation, spatial fragmentation, interjurisdictional competition and jurisdictional overlap on the levels of local public employment; and the qualitative comparative analysis explores the complexities between the four macro characteristics and their combined relations to the levels of state public employment. The results of the statistical analysis suggest that more labour inputs are required to produce public goods and services to meet the needs of local residents. Moreover, the qualitative comparative analysis reveals causality asymmetry between these characteristics and highlights how different interactions of characteristics of a macro level governing structure affect different levels of public sector employment.     

The impact of outside agencies on institutional mental health care

The impact of outside agencies on institutional mental health care     

Citizen participation and the redistribution of public goods

This study investigates whether citizen participation in public budgeting resulted in increased redistributive outcomes when compared with bureaucratic decision‐making. We focused on a specific budget item (i.e., the installation of surveillance cameras for crime prevention) and examined whether participatory budgeting yielded larger budget allocations to low‐income neighbourhoods. Results indicate that such participatory budgeting results in larger budget allocations for low‐income neighbourhoods when compared with allocations produced by bureaucratic budgeting practices. The results also indicate that budgets allocated through citizen participation may be no more or even less effective for advancing public goals. These findings suggest a potential trade‐off between equity and public service effectiveness. Citizen participation improves budget equity, but may be less effective for achieving public goals than bureaucratic decision‐making. To explain this, we offer the ‘social pressure hypothesis’, which posits that social pressure during public‐forum discussions can influence participating citizens to make redistributive decisions.