Budgeting the work force: Influences,elements, disclosure strategies,and roles

Work force budgeting is a comprehensive view of allocating resources recognizing that expenses flow from the use and remuneration of organizational members. The purpose of this essay is to: examine the influences and elements of work force budgeting; enhance the disclosure of such choices; and, isolate the tension in fiscal oversight of personnel decisions. It is incumbent upon managers to acquire, deploy, and control human resources in the production of public goods and services. An humane and ethical bureaucracy has to meet tests of efficiency and effectiveness. This essay supports the proposition that service delivery goals should guide budget decisions instead of simply having decisions premised upon adding up the cost of existing staffing patterns.     

A STRATEGY FOR FORMULATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CODES OF ETHICS IN PUBLIC SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS

Codes of ethics in public service organizations are designed to serve three purposes: provide enduring solutions to existing ethical problems, educate the public about the mission of the organization, and foster an ethical climate in the organization. There is no agreement in the literature as to how useful and effective codes are. This paper argues that codes of ethics can be effective with respect to these three goals, only if careful attention is given to the process of internalization of the code's provisions. Internalization is most likely to occur under two interrelated conditions: when members of an organization clarify, articulate, and establish integrated values systems; and when the ethical code is formulated and adopted as a consequence of a participatory democratic process. When members of the organization are able to relate the code's provisions to their personal integrated values systems, a greater compliance and commitment will prevail.     

PUBLIC PROCUREMENT,PUBLIC VALUE AND THE NORTHERN IRELAND UNEMPLOYMENT PILOT PROJECT

This paper analyses the regulatory, commercial and socio‐economic goals underlying UK public procurement policy, highlighting the conflicts inherent between them and arguing that there is an overemphasis on commercial goals. A critique of the market model leads to consideration of the utility of the ‘public value’ concept as a means of assessing the achievement of public procurement goals in a balanced way through a greater emphasis on public consultation and the impacts and outcomes of procurement. An analytical framework is proposed, based on public value, against which to assess the delivery of public procurement policies. The framework is used to analyse a pilot project conducted in Northern Ireland on increasing employment through public service and construction projects. The paper demonstrates the achievement of a range of procurement goals and values and concludes by calling both for further research into the validity of the concept of public value and more extensive application of the framework.     

How local governments prioritize multiple conflicting goals: Beyond the sole-goal perspective

Understanding how public organizations prioritize goals is crucial in studying goal-setting in the public sector. However, the extant literature has mostly adopted a sole-goal perspective and neglected the influences of the interplay among multiple goals. This article extends the literature by going beyond the sole-goal perspective and adopting a multigoal perspective to further explore the complexities in public organizations' goal prioritization when facing multiple conflicting goals. Drawing on the theoretical perspectives of performance information use and interorganizational interactions, the main arguments of this study are twofold. First, an organization's prioritization of a particular goal will be positively associated with the performance gap in its conflicting goal. Second, organizations tend to adopt a differentiation strategy in the prioritization of multiple conflicting goals. Empirical findings based on the investigation of Chinese city-level governments' prioritization of environmental goals when confronting conflict between environmental protection and economic development goals support our arguments.     

Ethics, values and behaviours: comparison of three case studies examining the paucity of leadership in government

Three societies with similar initiatives for public service re-configuration and reform – the UK, Canada and Australia – are examined to highlight the many-faceted issues of public service ethics and the different approaches these governments have taken to re-building public trust and enhancing public service ethics in times of rapid change. These efforts for re-building an ethical public service are scrutinized according to four criteria for effectively leading change. Changes of public service values are also analysed as well as their implications for public servants.
Effectively, applied leadership is identified as the pillar of ethical practice – emphasizing the need for quality leadership development through on-the-job experience. Although legislation and codification are seen as necessary for building an ethical infrastructure that can help employees out of encountered dilemmas, the way forward is seen as nurturing an environment of trust and vigilance in which ethics are promoted through exemplary behaviour of leaders and employees alike.     

Marketing-oriented planning in public administration: The case of the state development agency

Noting that concepts from marketing are not often found in the public management: literature, the authors present a multi-stage marketing-oriented planning model which can be used in the public sector. the mods1 is applied to the case of industrial development agencies, wit11 emphasis on the use of the model in recruiting foreign direct investment. The model includes the determination of organization mission, goals and objectives, resources, and growth strategies as elements of the management planning process. The marketing planning stage of the model includes opportunity analysis, positioning for target markets, marketing mix selection, and control. The two main stages of the process are mediated by factors in the internal and external environments of the organization.     

Ethics in organizations: a perspective on reciprocation

Some scholars have assigned the responsibility for ethical conduct in the public sector to individual administrators. Supporters of this perspective contend that individuals are able to introduce ethics into the administrative process by assuming personal responsibility for ethical action. The inference is that organizations cannot be expected to assume responsibility for ethical conduct.

Conversely the contention that individual ethics are inadequate in organizations is posed as a counter argument. Supporters of this contention argue that individual integrity does not mean that organizations will act ethically. They argue that organizational ethics are independent of individual ethics. Hence, they are treated as separate entities that do not compliment each other.

An argument that organizations and individuals engage in complimentary actions which lead to ethical conduct is largely absent in the literature. I argue that there is a reciprocal relationship between individuals and organizations. Thus, individual and organizational ethics are not separate but interactive entities     

Accounting and accountability: bottom lines and basic mistakes

Political leaders in the United States and Great Britain over the past several decades have been denigrating the performance of public managers and focusing the reform agenda on emulating the efficiency and cost-savings techniques of business. Recently, however, the English have been taking up another set of problems--those flowing from lack of clarity as to the proper relationship between politics and administration. This article will argue that it is now time for Americans to follow suit and to put the politics-administration relationship at the forefront of the public administration agenda in order to promote a more ethical, more effective, and more attractive public service profession.     

侨务公共外交:理论建构的尝试

"侨务公共外交"作为一个新概念,尚未得到系统性的理论阐释。本文以主体、客体、实施途径和实施目标这四个基本要素为切入点,把侨务工作与公共外交从逻辑上和实务上连接起来,并以此为基础对侨务公共外交的内涵进行初步界定。侨务工作如何借鉴公共外交在实施途径与策略上的多样性、灵活性和务实性,公共外交的运作如何利用好侨务资源,将是侨务公共外交理论建构的重要内容。中国作为一个侨务资源大国,在拓展侨务公共外交方面拥有得天独厚的优势,也面临着若干重大障碍。无论是发挥优势还是克服障碍,其过程本身都将为侨务理论工作者提供肥沃的创作土壤。     

Upholding justice in an unjust world: a practitioner's view of public administration ethics

This article presents the author's approach to profes sional ethics as a practitioner of public adrninistra tion. Public administrators are held to be personally responsible for their actions. Therefore, professional ethical standards are both possible and necessary, not only to prevent: wrongdoing but also to guide and promote right behavior. An ideally just regime is first hypothesized, based on the principles of justice developed in John Rawls's A Theory of Justice. A normative ethical standard of neutral competence is then postulated for agents of such a hypothetical regime- The author then addresses the implications of real-world injustice, and discusses the exceptions to neutral competence which are justifiable when confronted by injustice. The suggested approach establishes a high ethical st-andard, providing justification for not only avoiding wrongdoing, but also for doing right. This approach also provides practical and realistic guidance for et.hica1 decision-making. Both justifiability and applicability are held to be necessary if such an ethical. system is to be followed by public administrators.     

Control versus consent in long-term care case management programs: implications for public policy

Case management programs for long-term care include the dual public policy goals of providing access to services and ensuring the efficient and effective application of public funds. We will use a paradigm for social policy development that proposes a conflict between control and consent motives of social policy makers. Illustrations of the limitations and positive elements of control versus consent as applied to case management will be presented.

We will discuss how the tension between these approaches can be used to develop policy that balances the goals of access and cost-effectiveness.     

Difficult choices in the new post-conflict agenda: the international community in Rwanda after the genocide

Since the genocide, development agencies have spent tens of millions of dollars in Rwanda on justice, governance, security and reconciliation - issues they used to consider far beyond their mandate until very recently. As a result, Rwanda has emerged as one of the countries where the new postconflict agenda is being most strongly implemented, under extremely difficult conditions. An analysis of donor behaviour in two high politics areas - the nature of the government and justice - shows that deep and unresolved ethical problems exist with this post-conflict agenda. Lack of information and understanding, conflicts between goals and principles, the difficulty of associating the people concerned in an equitable manner - all these and other issues render unclear the ethical basis upon which donors can base decisions which often have life and death implications for thousands of people.     

Strategic budgeting: Reviewing the literature of an emerging theory

Among all the public management functions, the budget process comes closest to the scenarios pictured in the literature of strategic management and game theory. Unfortunately there has been very little written on the strategic aspects of public budgeting. Generally, writers on strategic management view budgeting as a secondary-level operation functioning as a means of implementing the strategic goals of the organization. Much of the public budgeting literature, however, suggests that budgeting serves a broader function, often helping to determine agency objectives as well as serving to implement objectives defined at top (usually political) levels. In this article the writer argues that strategic management in public agencies must be defined differently from the definition used for that process in private firms. The literature of strategic management and budgeting is reviewed in an effort to clarify the relationship between these two public management functions.     

ETHICAL CLIMATE AND RULE BENDING: HOW ORGANIZATIONAL NORMS CONTRIBUTE TO UNINTENDED RULE CONSEQUENCES

Rules help ensure consistent employee behaviour, yet rule bending occurs in public organizations every day. Previous research indicates that rule bending is influenced by organizational structure and personal characteristics (DeHart‐Davis 2007). This present study considers the influence of organizational norms on rule bending by exploring the impact of ethical climate, which signals to employees the best course of action when faced with situations that are ethical in nature (Victor and Cullen 1987, 1988). To investigate this relationship, survey data from employees of a large American local government are analysed. Results from a structural equation model show that three ethical climates – ‘organization interest’, ‘team interest’, and ‘rules/SOP’ – significantly influence rule bending. Findings suggest that organizational norms play a critical role for employee behaviour and public managers can consider rule bending and ethical climate as impetuses for organizational change.     

Negotiated compliance at the street level: Personalizing immunization in England,Israel and Sweden

Often portrayed as behaviour that is inconsistent with policy goals, public noncompliance poses a significant challenge for government. To explore what compliance efforts entail on the ground, this study focuses on childhood immunization as a paradigmatic case where a failure to ensure compliance poses a public health risk. The analysis draws on 48 semi‐structured interviews with frontline nurses and regional/national public health officials in England (N = 15), Sweden (N = 17) and Israel (N = 16), all of which have experienced periodic noncompliance spikes, but differ in direct delivery of vaccination provision. Compliance efforts emerged as a joint decision‐making process in which improvisatory practices of personalized appeals are deployed to accommodate parents’ concerns, termed here ‘street‐level negotiation’. Whereas compliance is suggestive of compelling citizens’ adherence to standardized rules, compliance negotiation draws attention to the limited resources street‐level workers have when encountering noncompliance and to policy‐clients’ influence on delivery arrangements when holding discretionary power over whether or not to comply.     

Managing for Results in an Impossible Job: Solution or Symbol? Abstract

Abstract

Recent years have been characterized by widespread adoption of reforms that called for governments to manage for results. This article tackles the question: what is the impact of results-based reforms in functions that the public management literature has defined as “impossible jobs?” The implementation of strategic planning and performance measurement in the Alabama Department of Corrections provides a case study of such a scenario. The explicit goals of results-based reforms suggest a solution to “impossible jobs” by achieving improved allocation, effectiveness, and efficiency. However, the case evidence suggests that their main use is as a symbol of rational governance, to be used by beleaguered agencies and governments in a bid to increase resources. Beyond this, the public manager in an impossible job finds little benefit from results-based reform, and seeks to devote as few resources as is necessary to comply with reform requirements.     

Distributed leadership and performance-related employee outcomes in public sector organizations

Distributed leadership is the sharing of leadership tasks between managers and employees. This article demonstrates how a distributed leadership perspective adds to the public administration literature by including an important sensitivity to planned and nonplanned leadership. We propose a theoretical model that explains the impact of distributed leadership on employee outcomes which have a direct or indirect impact on organizational performance in public organizations contingent on alignment with individual leadership capacity and organizational goals. Our empirical analysis in the Danish hospital sector shows initial support for the expected relationships between distributed leadership and performance-related employee outcomes such as job satisfaction and innovative behavior. This indicates that the distributed leadership perspective holds the potential to strengthen service delivery in complex public service organizations while there is weaker support for the notion that the positive impact of distributed leadership depends on individual leadership capacity and their support for organizational goals.     

DOES A PUBLIC SERVICE ETHIC ENCOURAGE ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR? PUBLIC SERVICE MOTIVATION,ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND THE WILLINGNESS TO REPORT ETHICAL PROBLEMS

This article aims to advance our understanding of and confidence in the relationship between employee public service motivation (PSM) and ethical behaviour by testing the degree to which PSM predicts the ethical behaviour or behavioural intention of government employees. Building on previous research, we argue that government employees with higher PSM are not only more likely to internalize values that support public interests, they also are likely to be concerned less about the potential consequences that they may experience by reporting unethical conduct within their agencies. Using data collected through a survey from 477 employees working in a large state agency, we find that supervisors with higher PSM are more likely to be perceived by their subordinates as exhibiting ethical leadership, supervisors exhibiting higher ethical leadership are more likely to have subordinates with higher levels of PSM and that subordinates with higher PSM express a higher willingness to report unethical behaviour within their agency. We discuss implications of these findings for research on PSM.     

‘Them’ and ‘us’: demonising politicians by moral double standards

The distance between politicians and those they are supposed to represent is substantial. Almost invariably, it is politicians themselves who are made to shoulder the responsibility for this ‘gap’, their actions being demonised. This paper assesses some ‘ordinary’ ethical lapses that politicians are often accused of: lying, breaking promises and being self-serving. It is argued that the public tend to apply double standards when it comes to the moral expectations that they have of their representatives, inasmuch as they far more readily accept ethically dubious actions when they apply to other social and public roles. The moral singularity of the political sphere is called into question, with the effect of helping to narrow the gap between the two categories, and encourage more empathy on the part of the public.     

An Evaluation Framework for Budget Reforms: A Guide for Assessing Public Budget Systems and Selecting Budget Process Reforms

While new tax proposals are evaluated with reference to formal evaluation criteria, no such standards exist for evaluating budget proposals. We propose an analytic framework to assess budgets across a series of dimensions, including whether it instills aggregate fiscal discipline, facilitates strategic prioritization of expenditures, and encourages effective and efficient use of budgeted resources, offering fiscal stability. The process also may be transparent, timely, and support public awareness and participation. We use this framework to evaluate the US budget, considering both areas of systematic inefficiency, while reviewing the history of budget reforms. We examine recent, frequently offered proposals that target specific budget process goals, considering how each affects all the budgeting goals, including interactions. We consider how a potential reform, aimed at addressing the failure to accomplish one normative goal, may impacts other goals, sometimes to the point of undermining overall progress.