Audit Recommendation Follow-Up Systems: A Survey of the States

This article presents the results of a survey of audit recommendation follow-up systems currently utilized by state governments. The lack of empirical research on audit recommendation follow-up systems represents a void in the public sector financial management literature. To fill this void, the authors developed a survey instrument, which was mailed to each state auditor's office having primary responsibility for following up on audit recommendations made during the annual Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). The purpose of the study is three-fold: (1) to describe the major elements of state government audit recommendation follow-up systems currently in use, (2) to encourage managers, analysts, and others working at all levels of government to access policies and procedures for audit recommendation follow-up within their own organizations, and (3) to encourage other researchers to explore these systems in greater depth and detail, particularly their uses in financial management, reporting, and other decision-making activities. U.S. Government Auditing Standards (commonly called The Yellow Book) requires auditors to communicate their findings and provide recommendations that lead to improvements in government operations and programs. Government managers and officials must follow up (monitor) on audit recommendations to ensure their effective implementation. This research represents an initial effort to develop a profile of the characteristics of state government audit recommendation follow-up systems currently in use.     

Why Governments Should Produce Balance Sheets

This contribution to a controversy argues that accrual reporting at the whole of government level is appropriate and necessary as it provides a full picture of a government's financial position, discloses the impact of policy over the longer term (and therefore the sharing of the burdens between current and future taxpayers), focuses the attention of governments and public sector managers on the management of total resources and obligations and introduces discipline in financial reporting and therefore ensuring the integrity of the reported information.
Yet, accrual reporting, whether at the whole of government level or individual agency level, will not bring about changes of behaviour necessary to realise the full benefits of financial and other management reforms unless it is complemented by an accrual planning and budgeting regime to ensure that financial performance is planned and assessed on the same basis.     

Local government decentralization and the health sector in Tanzania

An evaluation of primary-level healthcare undertaken in Tanzania 1989-91 found that district health managers felt powerless to address health care performance weaknesses, although the district is the unit to which government management functions have been decentralized. In order to understand the managers views, this article analyses the pattern of decentralization within the health system from their perspective. It reviews the hislorical development of government structures and the theory and practice of decentralization within Tanzania. The matrix of accountability for health care has become very confusing, with multiple and cross-cutting flows of authority within and between levels of the system. District health managers have limited authority to take management action, such as managing resources, in ways that would begin to address problems of inefficiency and poor quality of care within primary care. District health management also suffers from weak resource allocation and financial management piocedures. The main obstacles preventing more effective management are: resource constraints; conflicts between the demands for central control and local discretion; limited institutional capacity; and political and cultural influences over the implementation of decentralization. Evaluation of past experience suggests that future policy influencing the organizational structure of government health services must be developed cautiously, recognizing the critical importance of complementary action to develop both institutional capacity and political and economic support for the health system.     

Seeing a crisis through colored glasses: How partisan media leads to attribution of crisis responsibility and government trust

This study uses a real national crisis, South Korea's 2014 Sewol ferry disaster, to examine how publics exposed to partisan media perceive the attribution of crisis responsibility and government trust differently. The study also investigates the mediating role of the attribution of crisis responsibility on the relationship between partisan media and government trust. The results demonstrate that citizens' partisan selective exposure influence their polarized perceptions of crisis responsibility and their trust in government. The attribution of crisis responsibility partially mediated the effects of partisan media on government trust. This study suggests the importance for government public relations to understand partisan media users so that public relations managers can engage and communicate effectively with all citizens during a national crisis.     

Being a Public Manager in Times of Crisis: The Art of Managing Stakeholders,Political Masters,and Collaborative Networks

The COVID-19 pandemic is seen as the biggest crisis since World War II. What started out as a public health issue has quickly morphed into a political, economic, and societal crisis of epic proportions. Administrative capacity is a major factor in determining whether societies will emerge from this unprecedented situation with resilience and optimism or despair and disconnectedness, and whether trust in government will increase or decrease. Autonomous and competent public managers are key producers of such administrative capacity. This essay addresses those public managers, the unsung administrative heroes leading us through times of crisis from behind the scenes. Translating the state of the art in public administration literature, with a particular emphasis on publications in this journal, into accessible practitioner recommendations, it identifies three key competencies paramount to public managers in times of crisis: managing stakeholders, political masters, and collaborative networks.     

Determinants of Financial Transparency in Government

ABSTRACT

The search for enhanced transparency and accountability in government organizations has inspired studies to identify the key factors that facilitate greater disclosure of public financial information. With the advantages provided by the meta-analysis technique, applied to a sample of studies, we identify the most significant factors and incentives underlying the decisions adopted by public managers on policy strategies regarding information transparency and public responsibility. Our study shows the variables analyzed to be positively associated with the disclosure of public financial information, but also that this depends on the context in which the research is carried out. The most influential variables were the moderator variables of the administrative culture and of the measurement unit for the variables.     

What could be achieved with greater public hospital autonomy? Comparison of public and PNFP hospitals in Uganda

The policy of hospital autonomy has been discussed for some time in Uganda. There is little evidence from Uganda or elsewhere that increased autonomy will improve hospital performance. This article compares the performance of three private not‐for‐profit (PNFP) and public hospital pairs to address this question. PNFP and public hospitals have similar management structures but PNFP hospitals had better trained managers and a church affiliated chair in the hospital management committee. Both types have problems with personnel management but these appear more pronounced in public hospitals. Drug supply management appears better in PNFP hospitals. Overall, workloads are similar, but analysis of patterns of utilisation and prices across services suggest that patient choice of facilities is influenced by relative price levels, and that willingness to pay is higher for PNFP services. PNFP hospitals are more successful at generating revenue. There are no clear differences in efficiency between PNFP and public hospitals but there is some evidence of higher quality levels in PNFP hospitals. PNFP hospitals' performance is plausibly related to three areas of managerial autonomy. First, better management of drug supply is facilitated by their freedom to purchase drugs from the open market. Second, greater success with personnel management is plausibly related to their greater autonomy over staffing. Third, higher levels of cost recovery are enabled by their freedom to set fees. However, differences in accountability and competence of hospital management, and population willingness to pay for services may also help to explain differences. Further, the use of PNFP financing strategy by public hospitals has implications for universal access to hospital services. Although there appear to be potential advantages from greater public hospital autonomy, the Ugandan government should ensure it has developed strategies to enhance public hospital management and to protect access to public hospitals before advancing further with hospital autonomy policy. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Accounting for Time: Comparing Temporal and Atemporal Analyses of the Business Case for Diversity Management

Public management strategies have an inherent temporal component: managers take action at one time, and employees or organizations respond at a later time. However, it is common to study such strategies using atemporal research. Concerns about the inadequacy of this approach have led scholars to advocate for public management research that incorporates time. Because following this advice is difficult, it is important to evaluate how the omission of time affects the understanding of public management strategies. This article compares temporal and atemporal analyses of the business case for diversity management—the expectation that organizations that manage diversity well will also improve their performance. Using survey and personnel data drawn from U.S. federal government subagencies, the article shows that both analyses support this general expectation. However, the cross‐sectional analysis, by failing to account for organizational inertia, portrays diversity management as more potent than the analyses taking time into account.     

Exploring Aggregate vs. Relative Public Trust in Administrative Agencies that Manage Spent Nuclear Fuel in the United States

Trust is a key component of democratic decision‐making and becomes even more salient in highly technical policy areas, where the public relies heavily on experts for decision making and on the information provided by federal agencies. Research to date has not examined whether the members of the public place different levels of trust in the various agencies that operate within the same policy subsystem, especially in a highly technical subsystem such as that of nuclear energy and waste management. This paper explores public trust in multiple agencies operating within the same subsystem, trust in each agency relative to aggregate trust across agencies that operate within the nuclear waste subsystem, and trust in alternative agencies that have been suggested as possible players in the decision‐making process. We find that trust accorded to different federal agencies within the nuclear waste subsystem varies. The variation in trust is systematically associated with multiple factors, including basic trust in government, perceptions about the risks and benefits of nuclear energy/waste management, party identification, and education. These findings have significant implications for research on public trust in specific government agencies, alternative policy entities, and for policy makers who want to design robust and successful policies and programs in highly technical policy domains.     

Homogeneous National Management Policies or Autonomous Choices by Administrative Units? Inter- and Intra-Country Management Tools Use Variations in European Central Government Administrations

ABSTRACT

This article presents an original research on the use of management tools in central government departments and agencies in 16 European countries. It is based on a survey conducted among senior managers (n?=?5,998). The analysis shows that the use of management tools results from a combination of top-down implementation of a list of management tools at the national level, combined with a bottom-up independent selection of tools by administrative units. The variation in management tool use depends on the type of tool. While the uses of a HRM tool, such as performance-related pay, or a financial tool, such as risk management, are heavily influenced by national public management policies, service quality-type tools, such as user surveys or quality management systems, tend to be chosen in a more autonomous manner by different administrative units, especially agencies.     

以公共价值为基础的政府绩效治理——源起、架构与研究问题

政府绩效管理兴起二十多年来,已由西方国家应对财政和信任危机、提高行政效率的工具拓展为各国政府改革和创新的重要内容,新公共管理的实践价值和理论优势在其中都得到了充分体现。但其理论缺陷和实践中的困惑,特别是在公共价值方面的冲突使学术界的探索从未停止过。本文通过对中国、美国、日本等国的实践案例考察,从制度变迁和公共行政学术史两个层面的质性研究,提出了以公共价值为基础的政府绩效治理理论体系框架。文章首先从"公共性"、"合作生产"和"可持续"三个方面对新公共管理背景下的政府绩效管理进行了反思,认为公共价值对政府绩效合法性具有本质的规定性。其次,初步论证了以公共价值为基础的政府绩效治理的两个基本命题——政府绩效是一种社会建构、产出即绩效;认为只有来源于社会的政府绩效才能获得合法性基础,也只有根植于社会的政府绩效才能产生其可持续提升的需要,这是政府绩效管理的根本动力;而在政府绩效价值建构基础上的科学管理,才能保证政府产出与社会需求的高度一致,充分体现科学管理的价值。再次,从这两个基本命题出发,以价值管理和管理科学理论为基础,构建起了以公共价值为基础的政府绩效治理模型,并对模型中政府绩效的价值建构、组织管理和协同领导系统等主要内容进行了阐述。最后,从模型如何"落地"、政府绩效管理的价值分析和研究拓展等方面提出了未来的研究方向。     

The New Public Administration: management innovations in government

Over the last two decades there have been some fundamental changes in the working of government which have resulted in major and visible management innovations in the organizational structures and systems of government aimed at delivering greater efficiency, and more responsive and flexible public services. The innovations have led to the ‘New Public Administration’. This article identifies the innovations in thinking about the role and functioning of government; about service users; about administrative structures and about staff. The article also discusses the strategies and actions employed in the new synergy between the public and private sectors, as well as the reforms in financial planning and control systems. In conclusion, the broad objectives of these reforms have been to shift emphasis from developing plans to developing key strategic areas; to shift emphasis from inward-looking systems to developing partnerships; to shift emphasis from inputs and processes to outputs and outcomes; and to shift emphasis towards managing diversity within a unified public service. Finally, managerial pragmatism and political conviction are highlighted as essential to motivating management innovation in government. (© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)     

The Impact of Management Capacity on Government Innovation in Korea: An Empirical Study

ABSTRACT

A common assertion within public management is that management capacity drives policy outcomes. This study tests that argument, focusing on an important policy outcome—innovation. Data were drawn from the Korean government to examine the impact of government's management capacity for the adoption and implementation of innovation. The results confirm that both managerial behaviors and structures are drivers of government innovation. The adoption and implementation of innovative projects require full-scale management capacity, encompassing innovative leadership, a quality workforce, appropriate structures/systems, and the ability to manage external influences. These results suggest that public management capacity drives innovation in government by changing managerial behaviors and structures. Implications of these results for managing government innovation are discussed.     

Managerial Quality,Administrative Performance and Trust in Governance: Can We Point to Causality?

The relationship between managerial quality, administrative performance and citizens' trust in government and in public administration systems is a field of study that so far has not received adequate scholarly attention. This article explores some interrelationships between these variables and empirically tests between causality, if it exists, between performance and trust. Applying a technique of structural equation modelling (SEM) with LISREL 8.3 the study examined a sample of 345 Israeli citizens and compared three alternative models. The second model that showed a quality → performance → trust relationship fitted the data best. However, the third model also had some advantages worthy of elaboration. Thus, we concluded that administrative performance may be treated as a precondition to trust in governance rather than trust serving as the precondition to performance. The article ends with further discussion of the findings and their meaning in light of the democratic, bureaucratic and new public management theory.     

How Well Does Accrual Accounting Fit the Public Sector?

In this 'controversy' we challenge the unqualified application of full accrual accounting within the Australian public sector. In particular, attention is directed to the recognition and valuation for financial reporting purposes of public sector resources that are of a non-financial nature, such as library and museum collections. Our main contention is that attempting to recognise such resources at monetary values within the financial reports of public sector organisations is a contrived, imprecise and inappropriate practice that threatens to occlude rather than enable the accountability of public sector institutions and their managers. Building from this accountability theme, we present perspectives on promoting accountability for the technical accounting practices which have been imposed within the public sector.     

Does social capital increase public support for economic globalisation?

The dominant explanation of public attitudes vis‐à‐vis economic globalisation focuses on re‐distributional implications, with an emphasis on factor endowments and government‐sponsored safety nets (the compensation hypothesis). The empirical implication of these theoretical arguments is that in advanced economies, on which this article focuses, individuals endowed with less human and financial capital will be more likely to experience income losses. Hence they will oppose economic openness unless they are compensated by the government. It is argued here that including social capital in the analysis can fill two gaps in explanations relying on factor endowments and the compensation hypothesis. First, generalised trust – one key aspect of social capital – constitutes a personal endowment alongside human and financial capital. Second, structural social capital – another key aspect of social capital – can be regarded as a nongovernmental social safety net that can compensate for endowment‐related disadvantages of individuals. Both aspects of social capital are expected to contribute, for distinct reasons, to more positive views on economic openness. The empirical testing relies on survey data for two countries: Switzerland and the United States. For both countries, the results indicate that generalised trust has a strong, positive effect on public opinion of economic globalisation, whereas structural social capital has no effect.     

Implications of Successful Career Paths of Top Local Government Finance Managers

Little is known about successful local government financial management careers and their implications for organizations. This study identifies three levels of career success—top managers, aspirants, and the plateaued status—and how these groups differ on important personal and professional characteristics. Findings reveal that top managers differ in important ways from aspirants and the plateaued. Furthermore, top managers hired from outside the organization pay more attention to the financial viability of the organization and are more willing to innovate financially than those promoted from within. Results have implications for professionals, their employing organizations, educators, and the ethics of government finance.     

Administrative reform in a changing political environment: The case of Hong Kong

Since 1989, the Hong Kong government has implemented a programme of public sector reform that is based on the principles of ‘new public management’. The reforms initially focused mainly on financial management reform, including delegating responsibilities for resource allocation; re-defining the roles of the central resource branches; setting up trading funds in departments that provide services directly to the public; and instilling a new corporate culture of service throughout the government. Some progress has been made in implementing the reforms. In 1993, the government realized that further civil service reform was necessary to support the reforms. The government proposed to delegate more authority to department heads on personnel matters; give managers more freedom to manage personnel; and simplify personnel regulations and procedures. These ‘new public management’-type reforms are usually associated with stable, relatively unchanging environments. In Hong Kong, however, the reforms have been proposed and carried out in an environment of considerable political turbulence which has both facilitated and hindered their implementation. Because of the declining legitimacy of the colonial government, British authorities may not have the political capacity to implement the reforms. Opposition from both department heads and civil service unions to aspects of the reforms has already emerged.     

Design Thinking in Policymaking Processes: Opportunities and Challenges

Design thinking has the potential to improve problem definition and mechanism design in policymaking processes. By promoting greater understanding of how citizens experience government services, design thinking can support public managers who desire to enhance public value. In Australia, as elsewhere, design thinking currently remains separated from mainstream policymaking efforts. This article clarifies the essence of design thinking and its applicability to policy development. Five design thinking strategies are discussed, all of which have lengthy histories as social science methodologies. They are (1) environmental scanning, (2) participant observation, (3) open‐to‐learning conversations, (4) mapping, and (5) sensemaking. Recent examples from Australia and New Zealand are used to illustrate how these strategies have been incorporated into policymaking efforts. The article concludes by considering how design thinking might be more broadly applied in policymaking, and the training and resourcing requirements that would entail.     

Public Trust in Government in Japan and South Korea: Does the Rise of Critical Citizens Matter?

Based on the Asia Barometer Survey of 2003, 2004, and 2006, government performance, citizen empowerment, and citizen satisfaction with self‐expression values are associated with public trust in government in Japan and South Korea. This study finds, first, that government performance on the economy, controlling political corruption, the quality of public services, crime, and attention to citizen input are significantly associated with broad public trust in government in both Japan and South Korea. Likewise, citizens’ satisfaction with their right to gather and demonstrate and to criticize the government is closely connected to trust in central and local governments in Japan. In South Korea, citizens’ satisfaction with their right to gather and demonstrate is intimately linked to trust in local government. Implications for government leadership to enhance performance, transparency, citizen participation, and public trust in government are analyzed and elaborated upon in this insightful study.