Corporate Social Responsibility,Public Service Motivation and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Public Sector

This article examines the mediating role of public service motivation (PSM) on the relationship between employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). A sample of employees working in public sector banks in Egypt completed a structured questionnaire comprising of questions regarding CSR perceptions and PSM. Immediate supervisors rated the OCB of employees who responded to the survey. Results reported in the paper found the following: a) Employee perceptions of both internal and external CSR had a positive influence on the development of employee desire to serve the public; b) PSM partially mediated the relationship between internal CSR perceptions and employee OCB; c) PSM fully mediated the relationship between external CSR perceptions and OCB. This study extends current knowledge of the theoretical foundations surrounding CSR at the individual-level of analysis and offers practical implications by stressing the importance of employee desire to serve the public.     

Linking Organizational Climate to Work Engagement: A Study in the Healthcare Sector

Using a two-level structural equation approach, this article investigates the links between organizational climate and work engagement in a sample of public hospitals in Italy. Drawing from the Job Demands-Resources model, the model posits a positive association between work engagement and a climate promoting worker’s autonomy, empowerment, and well-being, whereas it suggests that a climate based on efficiency and goal attainment is not favorable for engagement. Results support the hypotheses and suggest that performance based models implemented in recent years as part of public sector reforms are not conducive to engaged workers. Implications for research on work engagement in the public sector and for public management are drawn.     

Understanding Diversity Management in the Public Sector: A Case for Contingency Theory

Recent diversification in Western populations has led to the implementation of diversity policies like diversity management (DM), a human resource management concept that promotes the hiring, retention, and active participation of a diverse workforce in order to improve organizational performance. This paper seeks to develop contingency theory as a theoretical framework for examining and explaining different DM practices across governments. In contingency theory, there is no one best way to manage all organizations; rather the internal and external environments of each organization create unique situations that require programs tailored to their distinctiveness in order to achieve optimal functionality.     

Organizational Forms and Incentives in Public Procurement: Natural Experiment at a Large Public Sector Organization in Russia

This article analyses how the intensification of centralized monitoring within public organization may impact incentives for efficiency in those divisions of the organization that have different levels of financial autonomy. The efficiency of divisions’ activities was estimated through their procurement effectiveness. All the divisions were classified as non-commercial units (NCU) funded by the government or as income earning units (IEU) operating in the market and having broader financial autonomy. The results show that under standard monitoring, the IEU had more efficient procurements compared to the NCU. After intensification of centralized monitoring, the differences in performance became insignificant. These findings show that stricter monitoring is efficient for organizations with soft budget constraints, while for organizations with hard budget constraints it is preferable to use more flexible regulations.     

Job Satisfaction of Public Sector Employees in Sub-Saharan Africa: Testing the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire in Ghana

Public sector administration in sub-Saharan Africa experiences a myriad of problems of the logical perception between worker dissatisfaction and demotivation of job standards. This study tested the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) in a typical public sector organization in sub-Saharan Africa. A total of 100 usable surveys were analyzed with SPSS. A very low level of job satisfaction was indicated, and more than 83% of respondents indicated dissatisfaction in their pay and the amount of work they do. Significant differences in job satisfaction scores were also found in the educational level of staff, and between genders. The study outcome highlights the roles of employees and organizational weak spots of human resource management (HRM) practices in a typical sub-Saharan African country, and provides an alternative pathway in employee satisfaction and performance outcome.     

Examining Organizational Commitment among National and Expatriate Employees in the Private and Public Sectors in United Arab Emirates

The indigenous manpower deficit in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has resulted in hiring of millions of expatriate employees. In the past decade, this situation has led to many concerns for decision makers as organizational productivity declined. The present study aims at examining the relationship between employees’ nationality and their organizational commitment (OC), in addition to exploring the various forms of commitment exhibited in the workplace. Bivariate and multivariate analyses indicated that OC was multidimensional as employees have expressed differing types and levels of commitment. In addition, nationality of employees was significantly correlated with the level of their commitment. Thus, this study provides several recommendations for researchers and practitioners.     

Organizational Identity,Image, and Reputation: Examining the Influence on Perceptions of Employer Attractiveness in Public Sector Organizations

The active management of an organization’s image, identity and overall reputation can result in a range of benefits including attracting larger and higher quality job applicant pools, fostering an improved overall impression of the firm in potential employees’ minds and retaining and engendering loyalty amongst current employees. How these concepts apply in the public sector remains nascent. This paper reviews the extant literature on identity, image, and reputation and identifies how and why these concepts are salient for exploring current and potential employees’ perceptions of the public sector as an employer. A conceptual model is developed through reviewing organizational characteristics of public sector entities and proposing how these may influence employees’ image, identity and reputation perceptions of the employer attractiveness of the sector.     

Voluntary Turnover in the Omani Public Sector: An Islamic Values Perspective

Following four decades of economic growth the public sector, Oman is experiencing an emerging problem of labor turnover to the private sector. We examine this phenomenon through semi-structured interviews with 26 current and former public employees. The rate of turnover is low but this masks the impact of losses on key technical and management roles. The main reasons for turnover are dissatisfaction with management style, reward practices, and promotion opportunities. Findings are interpreted in the context of Islamic work values and implications for public management reform in Oman are provided.     

Self-Care in Public and Community Sector Workplaces

Key aspects of modern public service and community workplaces associated with significant levels of distress are identified. This includes the transformation of public sector and community agencies under the aegis of new public management (NPM). Using a child protection case study, it is argued that NPM ethos generates stressful workplaces and “uncomfortable knowledge” adding pressure to a system already in crisis. It is also argued that while there is value in self-care practices like debriefing, “boundary maintenance,” and “work-life balance,” one critical aspect of self-care associated with the virtue ethics tradition is missing. This gap in the literature and practice needs attention.     

The Political Economy of the Growth of the Liberian Public Sector

Using a political economy approach, this study examines the nature, dynamics, and causes of the expansion of the Liberian public sector. The findings show that the major causes for the expansion of the Liberian public sector did not fit those provided by the literature—citizens’ demands for new services, and other issues that emerge from state-building. Instead, the politico-economic interests of the Liberian ruling class (both the internal and external wings) are the major causes for the increase in the size of the government. These interests include serving the interests of corporate capitalism, and the private accumulation of wealth.     

Opportunities in Role Specialization Through Location in Public Sector Services

The purpose of this paper is to study whether organizations in the public sector have special roles that are similar to those in the private sector. The model used for the analyses is the Ferdows ‘strategic role of the plant’ model. The operations of Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland were analyzed for the study. The data used was gathered in interviews and from general sources. The results indicate that special roles can be found and, furthermore, that there are huge possibilities in this area. The idea of roles is important to improve their productivity.     

Measuring Policy Success: Evaluating Public Sector Reform in Bhutan

There has been resurgence in evaluation of policy, reflected mostly by an increase in ex ante studies. Although there is a shift towards ex post evaluation, this has been gradual, resulting in a paucity of ex post evaluation literature. To address this gap, we apply a revisionist approach to evaluate a major public sector reform in the Bhutanese civil service. We conclude that it provides a more holistic approach for ex post evaluation policy, and also a more nuanced evaluation which moves us beyond the narrow binary view of success or failure in reform.     

State Dilemmas in the Provision of Alternative Care for Children: Relative Efficacy of Public Sector and Independent Sector Foster Placements

The population of children around the world who require alternative care outside of the natural family is staggeringly large. This presents fundamental dilemmas and challenges for every nation. This article notes how the United Kingdom's (UK's) response has evolved from that of a non-interventionist state to one that claims an interest in “Every Child”. Attention is drawn to the way in which the State's “Third Way: What matters is what works” ideology has led to radical reform of public sector services and the widespread sub-contracting of alternative care for children to the independent sector.

The article presents rare data on the relative performance of children in public sector as opposed to costly independent foster care. Contrary to expectations the data reveal minimal differences between the two groups. The data offer no justification, on the grounds of efficacy, for the use of independent sector provision as opposed to public sector provision.     

The Public Sector Reform Movement: Mapping the Global Policy Network

Public sector reform in both developed and developing countries has now become a routine matter of public policy—reform is almost continuous, if not always successful. While the role of international transfer agents such as the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in promoting reforms has often been noted, there has been no comprehensive mapping of the global network on public sector reform. This article makes a first attempt to map the close to 100 organizations that make up a loose global network around public administration and governance. It then provides a brief history of the evolution of the network, and the key events that encouraged a substantial degree of coherence among its members. It examines the practices and tools that are specific to this global public policy network, and concludes with some observations on policy transfer models. The article shows that in trying to understand the dynamics of public administration reform, we need to pay greater attention to this network, its members, and its influence over national policy priorities.     

Self-Initiated Expatriates in the Private vs. the Public Sector: Creativity and Work Outcomes

Although research on private-sector expatriates is abundant, not much is known about their public-sector counterparts, especially self-initiated expatriates, who themselves initiate the move to live and work abroad. Comparing work outcomes and creativity of self-initiated expatriates in the private vs. the public sector, the results of a survey including 329 respondents indicated that performance and effectiveness were higher in the private sector. However, only in the public sector was there a positive association between creativity and the two work outcomes. These findings are discussed in detail.     

A Knowledge Management and Organizational Intelligence Model for Public Administration

This study explores the development of a KM-OI model and empirically tests, using structure equation modeling (SEM), nine hypotheses related to the following research questions: RQ1: To what extent does organizational culture impact strategy structure learning with environment and information technology?; RQ2: To what extent does information technology impact learning with environment?; RQ3: To what extent does strategy structure, learning with environment impact policies and practices of KM?; RQ4: To what extent do policies and practices of KM impact organizational intelligence? Based on the results of a web survey applied in two of the six largest economies, Germany and Brazil, the article shows the importance of KM and OI for public administration and concludes that the KM-OI model is useful to identify influential factors that must be taken into consideration to improve the processes of creation (KM) and application of knowledge (OI).     

Managerial Innovations in the Egyptian Public Health Sector: An Empirical Investigation

The purpose of this article is to analyze the process of restructuring the Egyptian public health sector according to the new mode of governance principles and the concomitant dilemmas in the process. Based on an interpretative methodology, the findings of this research indicate that (a) despite some positive changes, serious doubts remain over the commercialization of basic public services; (b) confusions have emerged regarding the identity of public hospitals; (c) despite the introduction of the business management principles, the centralized hierarchical power of the state over the local governmental hospitals remains intact; (d) the new system has degraded the professional standards of medical practitioners and made them subservient to the whims of the financial management professionals; and (e) there have been some negative effects on equity.     

Public Sector Restructuring and Democracy: The State,Labour and Trade Unions in India

This article looks at the ways in which marketisation reforms affect the empowerment, ideological universes and functioning limits of popular institutions. Under what circumstances do left-leaning trade unions accept job cuts and wage freezes? What are the boundaries of consent and dissent? Case studies of three public sector companies in Bangalore city in the southern state of Karnataka, India, indicate that labour rationalisation has occurred with trade union acquiescence and support. However, as yet there is no broad institutional framework to handle social security, rehabilitation and redeployment of displaced workers. Public sector workforce reduction is taking place in a general economic context where there has been little growth of employment in the organised manufacturing sector. Beneath unions' apparent acquiescence to rationalisation processes, there are critical areas of dissent. Dissent, however, has not manifested itself in a critical alternative to the state's rationalisation policies. Changing party-union relations, and shifts in the internal dynamics of unions affecting choice of leaders, union aspirations and ideologies - underwritten by the broader economic changes wrought by the marketisation process - partially explain the inability of the labour movement to shape a definitive challenge to the marketisation process.     

The Public Sector as the Employer of Choice among Youth in Egypt: The Relevance of Public Service Motivation Theory

Young people in Egypt want to work in the public sector, even if they get less pay there than at the private sector. This article seeks to explain the attractiveness of public-sector jobs to this group, embedding this experience within the literature and theorization on public service motivation (PSM) and discussing its relevance. Issues of trust, respect, and social status are reflected in the discourse of interviewed youth about this job preference. A generation-held and culturally-ingrained appreciation among the educated to work in the public sector also contributes to this sector preference. Qualitative and quantitative data also show that extrinsic benefits of job security and stability are also pivotal to this preference. The analysis in the article suggests a holistic reading of motivational factors to join the public sector in contexts of job scarcity and labor surplus.     

Processes and Impacts of Strategic Management: Evidence From the Public Sector in the United Arab Emirates

This study presents the first substantial exploration of the processes and impacts of strategic management in the public sector of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is designed to survey the way in which public organizations formulate, implement, and evaluate their strategic plans, and to identify which particular strategic management elements are most closely related to their perceived impacts. Based on an analysis of 172 usable questionnaires from 67 organizations, the results show that the practice of strategic management has become regular and standard and can be considered the centerpiece of the public management reform in UAE public organizations over the last few years. Moreover, there is relatively high awareness of strategic planning tools and the balanced scorecard is used as the framework for strategic planning by both federal and local organizations. The study also shows that there is very little variation in the practice of strategic management between federal and local organizations and the impacts of this practice are largely beneficial. The implications of these results for practitioners and public management research are discussed.