Professional development leadership in turbulent times: Public administration symposium: Robust politics and governance in turbulent times

Intense turbulence means that parameters change, interdependencies unexpectedly become critical, and public organizations experience unpredictable tempo shifts. Existing studies have explored how public managers can exercise leadership specifically aimed at obtaining dynamic resilience, but more knowledge about leadership and turbulence intensity is needed. Combining existing theoretical knowledge about robust governance in turbulent times and in-depth analysis of 31 interviews, we examine how public managers exercise professional development leadership in situations where events, demands, and support interact in variable, inconsistent, unexpected, and unpredictable ways. We find it highly relevant for public managers to both develop and (de)activate professional norms and knowledge in such situations, implying that professional development leadership is important in turbulent times.     

Drug testing in the public sector: The role of unions

Not surprisingly, unions have traditionally played an active role in employee drug testing. And, although the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of drug testing in two 1989 decisions, unions have continued to wage challenges to urinalysis under the U.S. Constitution and in the labor arena. As this research shows, federal as well as state and local government unions have had some success in challenging the categories of employees targeted for testing, good faith bargaining over drug testing, and due process and equity violations around testing.     

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.     

Public sector creativity as the origin of public sector innovation: A taxonomy and future research agenda

This systematic literature review analyses how public servants apply workplace creativity to come up with ideas for public sector innovations, defining public sector creativity and analyzing its practices, features, trends, and hiatuses in knowledge for which we provide a future research agenda. Creativity is the origin of innovation. Public sector creativity, however, is theoretically undefined and underexamined, resulting in unclarity on what constitutes public sector creativity. We define public sector creativity as “public servants coming up with novel and useful ideas through various practices.” Our findings indicate that public servants apply at least six taxonomically distinctive creative practices, and although they are involved to different extent in generating the initial idea and thus do not always generate ideas autonomously, they are creative in finding alternative ways to come up with ideas. However, our review indicates hiatuses in knowledge on public sector creativity, for which we provide a future research agenda.     

The development and diffusion of financial reporting practices in the public sector

A prevailing economic crisis in the State of New York contributed to an erosion of previous institutional patterns, instigating a problem and political process of finding a mechanism wherein economic order could be produced. One strategic response to this economic crisis which is the focal point of this paper is the development and diffusion of financial reporting practices which guide the manner with which this state reports to its important constituencies including the citizenry, the media, and the capital markets. The main findings of this paper reflect the manner in which the relative power of organized interests and actors are mobilized through the use of rules such as financial reporting practices that establish meaning in public administration.     

The public valuation of religion in global health governance: spiritual health and the faith factor

ABSTRACT

This article explores how the role of religion is evaluated in global health institutions, focusing on policy debates in the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank. Drawing on Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot’s pragmatist approach to justification, I suggest that religious values are creative and worldly performances. The public value of religion is established through a two-pronged justification process, combining generalizing arguments with particularizing empirical tests. To substantiate the claim that abstraction alone does not suffice to create religious values in global public health, I compare the futile attempts of the 1980s to add ‘spiritual health’ to the WHO’s mandate with the more recent creation of a ‘faith factor’ in public health. While the vague reference to some ‘Factor X’ inhibited the acceptance of spiritual health in the first case, in the second case, ‘compassion’ became a measurable and recognized religious value.     

Intensity of innovation in public sector organizations: The role of push and pull factors

The public sector is under pressure to provide new public services with increasingly scarce resources. In response, practitioners and academics have called for more innovation in the public sector. Our understanding of sources of innovation within public sector organizations, however, is inadequate. Motivated by this gap, we develop a conceptual model of how push and pull sources enable innovation within public sector organizations. Key to our theory is that push and pull sources of innovation are enabled by innovation capabilities. Five hypotheses are tested using cross-country survey data from European public sector organizations. Empirical analysis offers strong support for the central role played by innovation capability in enabling push and pull sources of innovation within public sector organizations. This article advances knowledge of the sources of innovation in the public sector and extends theorizing on push and pull mechanisms by examining their relevance to innovation in a public sector context.     

Robust crisis communication in turbulent times: Conceptualization and empirical evidence from the United States

Drawing on recent research on robust governance, we conceptualize robust crisis communication as a dynamic process centered on evolving public communication demands. We propose a three-dimensional measurement for empirically examining the robustness of government crisis communication in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected 43,642 Twitter messages posted by 50 state governors in the United States from January 1 to June 30, 2020. We applied machine learning algorithms to code the voluminous Twitter data based on messaging topics, sentiments, and interactions. This study found an overall low level of robustness in the governors' crisis communication. Governors most frequently posted reputation management tweets, followed by tweets about the government's handling of the pandemic. This research presents empirical evidence for the heavy influence of politics on governors' crisis communication strategies and highlights the need to understand and build robust crisis communication. 摘要 本文借鉴稳健性治理的最新相关研究,提出稳健性危机沟通的概念,将其界定为聚焦于满足危机中持续变化的公众沟通需求的动态沟通过程与模式。基于此概念,本文以新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情中的危机沟通为例,构建三维测量方法,用以检验政府危机沟通在内容主题、情感表达和对话互动三方面的稳健程度。本文收集美国50个州长在2020年1月1日至2020年6月30日期间发布的43,642条推特信息,并应用机器学习对所有信息的主题、情感和互动特征进行编码分析。本文发现美国州长危机沟通的稳健性程度总体偏低。美国州长最经常发布与声誉管理相关的推文,其次是政府的疫情防控措施。文章进一步阐释与例证政治因素对州长危机沟通策略的深刻影响,并强调政府部门理解与践行稳健性风险沟通的必要性与重要性。     

The financial management initiative in the u.k. public sector: the symbolic role of performance reporting

The emerging principles of performance reporting are explored in the context of urban policy and inner city regeneration programmes in the UK, upon which a great deal of evaluative research has been carried out in the last decade. The paper questions the extent that performance management principles as embodied by the FMI are necessary for public accountability. It illustrates that implementation of performance reporting in the urban regeneration programme has had a symbolic role in generating myths and images about practice which imply that the “rational model” of decision making is in operation. The imposition of performance reporting cannot per se guarantee improvements, in the sense of learning, in the organising approaches adopted by public sector organisations.     

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.     

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.     

Raising wages in the controlled sector: A comment on Elliott

This case study from Eastern Zambia challenges the thesis that after independence an elite of privileged farmers entrenched itself through domination of the local political arena and a coalition with the civil service. It argues that such a view may be a reification due to misplaced assumptions about historical continuity and the uniformity of social behaviour; a lack of attention to the actual operation of government departments at the lowest levels; and neglect of how people construct ways of life on the basis of different interpretations of the world.     

New Labour's modernization in the public sector: a neo-Durkheimian approach and the case of mental health services

Five accounts of New Labour's style of public management reform can be identified in the recent academic literature. Although each has merits, none is wholly convincing. After a discussion of their scope and limits, this article offers a distinctive account, grounded in wider social theory, which also synthesizes the most valuable elements in the five mainstream accounts. The article then uses the case of New Labour's reforms of the mental health system to support this account, showing how it exemplifies each of the 15 major strands of reform activity that have together been the hallmark of what in practice New Labour has meant by 'modernization'. This provides the basis for a critique of the limits and dangers of the New Labour style.     

Implementing pay reform in the public sector: Different approaches to flexible pay in sweden and the united states

A set of implementation criteria drawn from the United States experience provide a framework for examining pay reform in the Swedish public sector. The study finds that the Swedish approach is quite distinct and this may be attributable to unique features in the Swedish labor market. The reform toward flexible or individualized pay in government agencies appears to be based on an assumption of greater cost efficiency in human resource management and a broad unwillingness to employ objective measures of individual or organizational productivity. Consequently the study calls into question the utility of an analytical framework based on the Anglo-American experience for examining the Swedish case.     

The role of local government in the review of public administration in Northern Ireland: The challenges of enhancement,devolution and modernisation

A very limited system of local government has been one of the main characteristics of public administration in Northern Ireland for the past 35 years. Yet in the recently completed Review of Public Administration changes in local government occupied a very dominant position. This article gives an account of the reasons for this, analyses the processes which led to what may be viewed as an enhancement of local government but argues that the principles adopted by the UK Government to guide the reforms, of subsidiarity, strong local government, coterminosity and good relations have not been met. The lack of an analysis in the Review of the implications of devolution for local government reform and the distribution of functions is highlighted including the relevance of the distinction between administrative and political devolution. How the proposed reforms relate to the UK-wide local government modernisation agenda is also discussed.     

Long- and short-term risk factors in the prediction of inpatient suicide: review of the literature

The prediction of suicide remains a major challenge for health care professionals in inpatient settings. A clearer identification of factors specific to inpatient suicide is required to improve both practice and research within this area. This paper provides an overview of the inpatient suicide literature to date focusing on two particularly salient themes: Long term and short term prediction of suicide. Since the concept of short-term suicide risk dominates clinical practice, issues in relation to dynamic risk factors are emphasized.     

Health care benefits in the public sector: An examination of availability,size, and managerial effects among north carolina municipalities

This study focuses on the extent to which health care benefits are used in North Carolina municipal governments. As such, it not only maps out the existence of these practices, but also the conditions and circumstances in which they occur. Health care practices (Basic dental and medical coverage, employee assistance programs, and child care provisions) are examined.

Since group health coverage is nearly universal (albeit the type and extent of coverage varies), it was not examined in this survey. With the exception of pre-paid dental insurance (41 percent) and unpaid maternity leave (31 percent), limited use is made of the various health care programs surveyed.

Population and workforce size effects are marginal.The presence of a city manager or town administrator, on the other hand, results in two or three fold the use as occurs in mayor-council cities.     

The Effects of Democracy on Economic Growth and Inequality: A review

What effects does political democracy have on such development outcomes as economic growth and socioeconomic equality? Competing theoretical models have been proposed that represent each of the possibilities: democracy as facilitating development, democracy as a hindrance to development, and democracy as bearing no independent relationship to development outcomes. Each of these theoretical models is explicated and, then, the evidence from quantitative, cross-national tests of the effects is reviewed. Overall, the evidence provided by the approximately dozen studies for each outcome yields few robust conclusions with respect to the theoretical models. To guide in the evaluation of the evidence, the studies are in turn distinguished by such design characteristics as sample, period observed, measures used, and form of relationship specified. This procedure, while it does not produce definitive support for any of the models, does assist in interpreting the results of past research as well as generating fertile guidelines for future research.