The third sector, user involvement and public service reform: a case study in the co-governance of health service provision

The ‘modernization’ of British public services seeks to broaden public sector governance networks, bringing the views of third sector organizations, the public and service users (among others) to the design, management and delivery of welfare. Building on previous analyses of the contradictions generated by these roles, this paper draws on longitudinal qualitative research to enunciate the challenges faced by one third-sector organization in facilitating service user influence in a UK National Health Service (NHS) pilot programme, alongside other roles in tension with this advocacy function. The analysis highlights limits in the extent to which lateral governance networks pluralize stakeholder involvement. The ‘framing’ of governance may mean that traditional concerns outweigh the views of new stakeholders such as the third sector and service users. Rather than prioritizing wider stakeholders' views in the design and delivery of public services, placing third sector organizations at the centre of governance networks may do more to co-opt these organizations in reproducing predominant priorities.     

Measuring public service productivity: case study from thailand

This case study, measuring the productivity of garbage collection and disposal in Thailand, is an example of public service productivity assessment. It suggests that variations in the productivity of garbage services in the localities studied are explained by such factors as local politics and administration, popular participation, service production volume, central control measures, local fiscal stress, local physical conditions and program management. Amongst these factors local politics and administration are the most significant.     

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.     

Teaching public administration,public management and policy analysis: some international comparisons

This article compares the design and content of domestic and foreign programs for teaching public administration and management. At the Master's level, curriculum designers, irrespective of location, emphasize organization theory, personnel, policy analysis, and microeconomics. However, domestic programs place much more emphasis on research methods and budget management. International programs place more emphasis on public law and management information systems. At this time, neither domestic nor international programs report much required training in leadership, bargaining, or institutional design.     

Rent differentials,housing benefit and management of the public housing stock in the United Kingdom

Despite the prevailing emphasis on markets and choice in the public services there has been very little consideration of the way in which local authority rent setting policies can be used to influence the demand for various types of properties. The present government has promised that long delayed proposals for the reform of housing benefit will be brought forward soon. At the same time, social landlords have been increasingly concerned about high rates of turnover in their stock and in some areas low demand leading to abandonment and demolition. In this paper it is argued that greater rent differentials related to quality and location will be necessary to cope with such changes.     

Towards a public service blend of human resource management and TQM

The objective of this paper is to contemplate changes in personnel system infrastructure required to implement Total Quality Management (TQM) in public organizations (perhaps formal organization in general). By infrastructure we mean systems such as those for the design of work and positions, rewards, performance appraisal, selection, etc. We introduced the subject by summarizing many of the concepts from the quality literature which express philosophy, structural aspects and practices. Even the industrial context in which TQM has flowered has not adapted significantly to implications of TQM philosophy and structure. Instead, traditional personnel management systems prevail with some concern for needed specia1 training, and anguish about negative effects of performance appraisal, some reward systems, and work standards.

Because the government context is bound to present difficulties and pitfalls we summarized another body of literature, that of the reasons why the idea probably won't work in government.

Ultimately, we get to the point of the essay: a discussion of contemplated types of personnel system changes that ought to support organizations operating in a quality mode. Changes are considered under the subjects of: work design, recruitment and selection, performance appraisal, training, compensation and labor-management relations. We conclude with a. brief case study on the Pacer Share Project.     

The politics of partnerships: a study of police and housing collaboration to tackle anti-social behaviour on Australian public housing estates

This paper draws on the findings from a research project on partnership arrangements between the police and housing departments on three Australian public housing estates to tackle problems associated with illicit drug activity and anti-social behaviour (ASB). The analysis focused on the setting up of the partnerships and the interactions that followed from these institutional arrangements. The assumption that informs the paper is that when studying partnerships there is a need for a more critically framed analysis. The temptation to posit "a successful model" of what partnership entails and then to judge practices in relation to this model is considerable, but it inevitably falls into the trap of constructing a narrative of partnership success or failure in terms of individual agency (that is, the degree of commitment from individuals). The analysis undertaken in this paper has therefore sought to fathom a more complex set of organizational processes. Rather than confine the discussion to issues of success and failure, the study foregrounds the subjective accounts of individuals who work within partnership and the constraints they encounter. The paper therefore makes explicit the cultural tensions within and across agencies, contestation as to the extent of the policy "problem," and the divergent perspectives on the appropriate modes of intervention.     

Decentralisation and government provision of public goods: The public health sector in Uganda

While many developing countries have devolved health care responsibilities to local governments in recent years, no study has examined whether decentralisation actually leads to greater health sector allocative efficiency. This paper approaches this question by modeling local government budgeting decisions under decentralisation. The model leads to conclusions not all favourable to decentralisation and produces several testable hypotheses concerning local government spending choices. For a brief empirical test of the model we look at data from Uganda. The data are of a type seldom available to researchers–actual local government budgets for the health sector in a developing country. The health budgets are disaggregated into specific types of activities based on a subjective characterisation of each activity's ‘publicness’. The empirical results provide preliminary evidence that local government health planners are allocating declining proportions of their budgets to public goods activities.     

Minorities and the public service: a future perspective

This paper analyzes the future prospects of blacks and other minorities in the public service. It examines studies on race/role expectations of minority administrators, tokenism and marginality to discern trends in interethnic relations. It also discusses future demographic projections and their implications for majority/minority relations. Finally, the essay explains why public service careers are particularly significant for blacks and other minorities.     

The provision of public goods by a local entrepreneurial state: The case of perservation of the Nanyue relics in China

In 1995, relics of the royal palace of the ancient Nanyue kingdom were, for the first time, excavated in Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong in south China. As the site is situated at the very business centre of the city, preservation of the relics at the original location would be highly costly. Conflict thus emerged between archaeological consideration and economic calculation. In the end, the Guangzhou municipal government decided to preserve the relics, though at huge compensation and displacement cost. The case has led to the question of how an intergenerational, non-factor-attracting public good (relic preservation) could be provided by an economic-oriented local government (Guangzhou)? This article will tackle the question using the public choice approach. It will explain the political logic of the case in terms of the emergence of a new civil service system in China. Some theoretical implications of such an approach will be considered.     

Teaching public management: the case for (and against) cases

This article calls for an increased and more rigorous use of the case method in public administration education. Cases yield generalizations, cases help students take ownership of knowledge, and cases can further repetition of behavioral characteristics important to students such as empathy and self-confidence.

The gradual expansion of public policy training into the area of public management has brought with it a marked increase in the use of cases and case teaching. Executive training programs, an ever more common feature of publicpolicy schools, rely even more heavily on case. Despite their prevalence and popularity, cases and case teaching have come in for considerable criticism. Social scientists in particular fault them for being atheoretical and, hence, lacking in intellectual rigor. Contemporary cases are also faulted for implicitly endorsing an “activist” or “heroic” view of public management. Whereas cases from the 1940s and 1950s portrayed a functional view of public managers, recent cases portray managers as people who actively shape their legal mandates and use administrative systems to promote political objectives--a questionable image to convey to students training for public service.⁽¹⁾

The first half of the paper describes in some detail a seminar, “Ethics and Public Management,” conducted at the Kennedy School by Mark Moore, Mark Lilla, and the author.     

The role of ISO 9000 in improving the quality of service delivery of Hong Kong's public housing programs

This paper reports on research undertaken in Hong Kong on the impact of IS0 9000 (International Standards Organization 9000 series standards for Quality Management Systems) quality management standards in the improvement and assurance of quality service and products. The Hong Kong Housing Authority provides an appropriate context and database for this research as it has undertaken to implement the IS0 9000 quality management standards across its range of public housing construction and maintenance services and is able to provide the researchers with “before” and “after” scenarios which facilitate measurement of the impact of the standards on service quality.     

Policy entrepreneurship in the development of public sector strategy: the case of London health reform

The development of health policy is recognized as complex; however, there has been little development of the role of agency in this process. Kingdon developed the concept of policy entrepreneur (PE) within his ‘windows’ model. He argued inter-related ‘policy streams' must coincide for important issues to become addressed. The conjoining of these streams may be aided by a policy entrepreneur. We contribute by clarifying the role of the policy entrepreneur and highlighting the translational processes of key actors in creating and aligning policy windows. We analyse the work in London of Professor Sir Ara Darzi as a policy entrepreneur. An important aspect of Darzi's approach was to align a number of important institutional networks to conjoin related problems. Our findings highlight how a policy entrepreneur not only opens policy windows but also yokes together a network to make policy agendas happen. Our contribution reveals the role of clinical leadership in health reform.     

Communication induced distortion in scholarly research -- the case of action theory in american public administration

The history of action theory in American Public Administration provides the basis for development of a conceptual scheme for understanding how the operating codes that define communication processes used by theorists can distort scholarship. Transaction is a mode that induces distortion; relationship is a mode that helps avoid it. Some suggestions for reissuing the current operating code -- in the direction of making it better fit the relationship model -- are presented.     

Purpose and practice in public administration education: The place of substantive public policy areas

Public administration's early identification with the concept of a strong executive has resulted in an emphasis on staff functions in its graduate education programs. In the practicing world, staff functions are viewed as tools employed in the actual practice of public administrators, namely the delivery of substantive public services. Although public administration is characterized as an applied field, it does not focus its theory building and educative efforts on that which practicing public administrators actually do. The field necessarily imports other disciplines, but it does not provide the unique focus that would justify this borrowing; its current research agenda and training curricula are available in other disciplines. Public administration graduate students should concentrate in individual substantive policy areas, and the field should focus on optimizing organizational arrangments for delivering societal knowledge as public services. Interorganizational theory can provide the common theoretical framework necessary to mitigate the centrifugal effects of a variety of “administrations” within the field. The approach developed by J. Kenneth Benson is outlined; it provides a unique theoretical niche for public administration, yields a framework for comparative analysis, and defines the field's relationship to political science.     

Private administration of a public function: The news election service

The United States government has no elections office and does not attempt to administer congressional and presidential elections. The responsibility for the administration of elections and certification of winners in the United States national elections rests with the states. The states divide election administration responsibilities between state and local election officials, whose objective is an efficiently administered honest election, with the ballots correctly tabulated. The formal structure of election administration in the United States is not capable of providing tirely results of the presidential and congressional election. Similar structural difficulties in other policy areas often result in ad hoc operating agreements or informal cooperation among agencies at different levels of the federal system. In the case of election administration, however, the public officials have abdicated responsibility for election night aqgregation of the national Vote totals to a private organization, News Election Service, which is owned by five major news organizations. This private organization performs without a contract, without public compensation, and without supervision by public officials. It makes decisions concerning its duties according to its own criteria. The questions of responsibility and accountability have not arisen in part because of the private organization's performance record and in part because the responsibility was assumed gradually over a lengthy period without ever being evaluated as an item on the public agenda.