Public Service Motivation,Organizational Social Capital,and Knowledge Sharing in the Korean Public Sector

This article investigates whether public service motivation (PSM) and organizational social capital predict knowledge sharing in the public sector. The hypothesized relationships in the proposed model are verified with the online survey data of 506 public employees in Korea. The test results show that the two dimensions of PSM (attraction to public service and commitment to public values) and the trust component of organizational social capital are both positively related to knowledge sharing in the Korean public sector, and that the associability component of organizational social capital is indirectly associated with knowledge sharing through its influence on PSM. The article discusses the ways that PSM and organizational social capital may contribute to overcome the social dilemma of knowledge sharing in public organizations. It also suggests that there is need for further research on the individual dimensions of the PSM construct.     

The Evolution of Public Service Provision by the Third Sector in France

Public services have been externalised, in part, to the non‐profit sector in France and in the United Kingdom. This article begins by reviewing relations between the public and non‐profit sector in France before 2008, and its evolution since. This has been characterised by the slow reduction of public funding, the adaptation of non‐profit associations and organisations, and their clearer positioning within a wider ‘social and solidarity economy’, which was consolidated by a framework Law in 2014. The article then examines the current sharing of responsibilities between the public and non‐profit sectors in education, health and social services, pointing to the diverse historical and political conditions which have led to this shared organisation.     

转型时期我国第三部门缺失与构建

第三部门既具有积极作用,又存在失灵现象。我国第三部门缺失的原因既包括潜在的营利动机和责任监督的困境的内在因素,也包括社会因发展程度的一致性不足、组织生成机制的偏颇、资源投入的不足、社会道德约束的失范的外在因素。构建公民社会、培育第三部门,强化监督、创设外部责任约束环境,优化内部治理、加强自律规范,是构建和设计我国第三部门的主要方略。     

The Democratization of Welfare Between Rhetoric and Reality: Local Planning,Participation, and Third Sector in Italy

The third sector, traditionally considered in the Italian welfare state as a residual actor of social policies, has increasingly engaged itself in various types of partnerships and collaborative planning processes with the local authority in recent years. In the rhetoric of welfare reform, third sector organizations play an important role, for they contribute to regenerating local democracy, stimulating communities, and fighting social exclusion. The article examines 12 local area plans, which have been realized in eight regions of Italy since 2000, by relying on empirical data and interviews. The article concludes that the so-called co-governance of local welfare can produce very different levels of democratization and improvement of social programs. In some areas, it may be that valorizing the third sector can effectively renew social policies, while in others the exact reverse may happen. The article offers an analysis of the main factors that influenced this result.     

Social Capital and Public Policy – The Current Challenge Facing the Victorian Government

Social capital, since Putnam's 1993 work, has captured the imagination of policy‐makers the world over, and Australia is no exception. In 2005 the Department of Victorian Communities launched its Actions for Community Strengthening policy statement, which draws heavily on social capital theory. This article explores the theoretical underpinnings of the government's policy and critiques its failure to deal adequately with the causal relationship between social capital and its supposed community benefits. The article then seeks to isolate the missing factors through a look at recent research on volunteerism and argues that the institution of collaborative/interactive governance needs to be underpinned by sound socio‐economic reform.     

Shared Services: Lessons from the Public and Private Sectors for the Nonprofit Sector

Shared services arrangements in the Australian third sector are becoming more common. Notably, however, there is a lack of information to guide nonprofit organisations through the development and engagement of shared structures. This article reviews the lessons that have been recorded from the public and private sectors with respect to the engagement of shared services arrangements. Additionally this article explores the different types of shared services structures that can be adopted. Overall, this article highlights the need for further research and analysis of issues relating to shared services arrangements in order to assist the increasing number of Australian nonprofit organisations engaging these collective arrangements and structures.     

The Blair Governments, Public Sector Reform and State Strategic Capacity

Two books at the end of the Blair era—by Michael Barber and Julian Le Grand—offer to redeem the ‘third way’. Both authors explore the political case for public sector reform and the means by which it can be accomplished. They explore a similar range of reform models: command and control; quasi‐markets; and devolution and transparency. But the circle between efficiency, client service and continuous improvement must be squared. Neither author considers the ‘learning by doing’ alternative. No less fundamentally, neither author addresses the political and technical challenges in developing strategy. How are issues to be aired in advance so as to expose evidence and perspectives? How are interests to be engaged and supporting coalitions formed? How are these processes to occur without executive commitment? How are unconventional ideas to be aired without being over‐ruled by populist or media sensationalism? These are the practical dilemmas that confounded Blair's efforts. These books invite a strategic conversation that is badly needed. But where in the political system can it be pursued?     

公共权力与私人资本的博弈:政商关系之历史与现实

社会现实告诉我们,公共权力与私有资本都必须受到制约。在人类历史上,政商关系先后经历了前资本主义社会权力神化、资本主义社会权力道德化和社会主义社会权力客观化三个阶段。其中,资本主义社会私有资本第一次真正实现了有效地制约公共权力,将其关进了私有资本的笼子里。我国现在处于社会主义初级阶段,应当依靠发展社会主义民主政治,在社会主义市场经济基础上,建立相配套的社会主义市场政治上层建筑来制约公共权力;在此基础上,必须用公共权力将私有资本关进科学制度的笼子里,不能放任私有资本从经济走向政治染指国家政权,要坚持国家公共权力对私有资本的驾驭。因此,推进政治体制改革以重塑强大的科学的公共权力优越和正确处理政商关系,是全面完善社会主义市场经济的相辅相成不可分割的两个重要方面,特别是保持一种强大的科学的公共权力优越是社会主义市场经济至关重要的支撑。     

社会转型期中共优良传统的支撑作用

在发展社会主义市场经济的历史条件下,继承和发扬党的优良传统,是新时期党风建设面临的重要课题。本从维护社会政治稳定、促进社会主义市场经济的发展及增强民族凝聚力三个方面论证了在新形势下继承发扬党的优良传统的重要意义,阐述了党的优良传统在中国社会转型过程中的地位和作用。     

第三部门的发展与公民社会的前景——以温州商会为例

我国经济领域的市场化导致越来越多的权力要素流入社会,如温州商会这样的第三部门有效地匡正了市场失灵等现象,也成为地方政府的必要助手。由于研究者们还经常赋予第三部门以公民社会结构要素的意义,就导致了我国第三部门研究中两种“国家—社会观”的矛盾。对温州商会的考察表明,我国第三部门的实际状况更接近合作主义框架,而合作主义也是第三部门未来最为可能的发展路径,在合作中,公民社会发展才成为可能。     

Social Capital,Islam, and the Arab Spring in the Middle East

To what extent do participatory civil society dynamics, rooted in self-assertive social capital, help explain the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011? How do pro-democratic Arab attitudes matter in promoting elite-challenging collective actions? Does Islam support or hinder elite-challenging, self-assertive social capital? To answer these questions, this study systematically examines the variation in self-assertive (emancipative) social capital in Egypt and Jordan from a comparative perspective. By using emancipative social capital theory, this article embarks on an individual-level quantitative analysis derived from the World Values Survey database to explore the empirical nexus between pro-democratic attitudes, elite-challenging actions, and Islamic values in order to partly explain comparatively high-intensive and persistent uprisings in Egypt and relatively low-intensive and less persistent demonstrations in Jordan. The findings offer critical insights in understanding the social capital dimension of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 and contribute new clues about empirical interactions between Islamic resurgence and civil society dynamics in the Muslim world.     

A Comparison of the Values and Commitment of Private Sector, Public Sector, and Parapublic Sector Employees

This study investigated differences in general values, work values and organizational commitment among 549 private sector, public sector, and parapublic sector knowledge workers. No differences in general values were observed across sectors, although five significant work value differences were revealed: parapublic employees value work that contributes to society more than public servants, who value it more than private sector employees; parapublic employees value opportunities for advancement less than both public and private sector employees; public servants value intellectually stimulating and challenging work more than parapublic employees; and private sector employees value prestigious work more than public servants. Private sector employees displayed greater organizational commitment than the employees in the other two sectors. Overall, the findings suggest only limited value differences among employees of the various sectors. The finding of some work value differences between employees in the public and parapublic sectors suggests that these two groups merit separate consideration in comparative studies such as this one.     

Social Heterogeneity and Optimal Mix Between Public and Private Provision of Public Goods

With a framework of incomplete contract, this paper shows that for provision of public goods such as medicare and education, pure privatization may not promote competition. On the contrary, the co-existence of public and private provision may enhance de facto competition. Two competitive effects are identified. When consumers are heterogeneous, the co-existence of public and private ownership gives consumers freedom to choose from different ownership, improving allocation efficiency (Tiebout effect). While consumers are homogeneous, the co-existence can promote yardstick competition, squeezing out information rents from both ownerships, improving production efficiency (benchmarking effect). In either case, the co-existence dominates unique ownership. The paper ends up with some implications for China.s medicare and education reforms. Yongqin Wang is an assistant professor at China Center for Economic Studies, Fudan University and Haibo Xu is a M.A. student in economics at the same center. We thank Te Bao, Zhao Chen, Sujian Guo, Ming Lu, Yew-Kwang Ng and Teague Savitch, and anonymous reviewers for valuable comments.     

Cynicism about Change,Work Engagement,and Job Satisfaction of Public Sector Nurses

This paper uses the job demands‐resources theory to examine the consequences of changes on nursing work. Data were collected from 220 public sector nurses in Australia to test the model. We conducted a two‐wave data collection process where independent variables (organisational change, workload, job control, nursing administrative stressors, cynicism about organisational change, and demographic variables) were collected in Time 1. The dependent variables (nursing work engagement and job satisfaction) were collected 6 months later. Changes to nursing work were found to cause high workload and an increase of administrative stressors that leads to an increase in nurses’ change cynicism. Job control was needed to cope with the increase in workload and reduction in cynicism about change. Cynicism about organisational change was found to have a direct negative effect on nurses’ engagement which in turn was found to negatively impact job satisfaction. Our contribution to theory and practice arises from the discovery that the connections between organisational change, work environment variables, and job outcomes of nurses are more complicated than previous research suggests. Theoretical and practical implications will be discussed.     

公共管理视域中的第三部门：功能、优势及困境

第三部门与公共管理无论从理念还是实践层面都具有紧密的内在联系。第三部门是公民社会的组织,在公共管理的多元主体体系中,代表来自市场和政府之外的力量。在公共管理中,第三部门发挥独特的功能,它已经成为推动经济发展、提供社会公共服务、推进民主政治进程、维护社会稳定、促进社会资本积累的重要力量。第三部门功能的发挥源于第三部门在贴近民众、行动灵活、创新性、专业性、广泛性方面具有独特的优势。同时,第三部门由于内外两方面的原因,存在活力缺失的困境。第三部门要走出困境,客观上需要第三部门自身、政府和社会的共同努力。     

Exploring Social Capital: as Concept and Practice in Australian Public Health Policies and Programs

Over the past twenty years interest has grown in the concept of social capital in international and Australian public policy. We explore how social capital is understood as a concept and used in practice for guiding policy development and program delivery in South Australian public health programs. The empirical research compared policy makers’ and practitioners’ understandings of social capital and how theories about social capital and health inequality were translated into practice in three case study projects. It found that there are shifting discourses between social capital and related concepts, including community capacity building, and social inclusion/exclusion. Policy makers reported less use of the concept of social capital in favour of social inclusion/exclusion reflecting changing political and policy environments where terms come into favour and then go out of fashion. In this transition period the two terms are often used interchangeably although there are some conceptual points of difference.     

Mobile Capital, Democratic Institutions, and the Public Economy in Advanced Industrial Societies

This article addresses the following questions. Is international capital mobility systematically related to reductions in the size of the public economy, as globalization theory suggests? Alternatively, do democratic institutions and processes shape the ways in which internationalization affects national policies? Specifically, I argue that the effects of capital mobility on the scope of the public economy should be conditioned by the institutional forms of societal interest representation and the formal organization of decision-making authority within the polity. Utilizing econometric analysis of 1964–1993 data from 16 nations, I find that international capital mobility has few direct effects on the scope of the public economy. However, configurations of democratic institutions fundamentally shape the domestic policy impacts of capital mobility. Where social corporatism and inclusive electoral institutions are strong and where decision-making authority within the polity is concentrated, international capital mobility is either unrelated to the scope of the public economy or positively associated with total public spending, social transfers, and public consumption. In institutional contexts of pluralist interest and exclusive electoral representation, and in polities where decision-making is dispersed, rises in capital mobility are systematically associated with rollbacks of the public sector.     

Public Sector Change,Organisational Culture and Financial Information: A Study of Local Government

Local government has undergone substantial change in Victoria, but the reforms have not necessarily resulted in improved financial management practices. This article examines the organisational culture of a sample of local governments, the critical events which have impacted on them, and their use of accounting, budgetary and financial (ABF) information. We find that despite the change process, organisational culture is not focused on competitive practices, although compulsory competitive tendering remains the most influential event. Consistent with the aims of reform, the quality and use of ABF information has improved over the last decade. This article will be of interest to those in government wishing to implement change programs aimed at increasing financial resource use efficiency.     

Reconsidering the Effects of Bonding Social Capital: A Closer Look at Black Civil Society Institutions in America

Few studies consider how Putnam’s bridging and bonding social capital arguments apply to voluntary associations within American minority group communities. Consequently, I examine African-American civic groups to explore Putnam’s claims about the potential negative political effects of bonding social capital. In contrast to the bonding social capital thesis, I argue that black communal associations encourage African-Americans to be involved in a variety of mainstream civic and political activities that reach beyond their own group interests. Using the 1993–1994 National Black Politics Study I demonstrate that although black organizations are predominantly composed of African-Americans and work to advance their interests, these goals are not pursued at the expense of connecting blacks to others in the general polity.

从社会转型看政府在公私领域价值取向的重心偏移

在我国社会转型过程中,政府在公私领域价值取向重心对社会将产生重大影响。转型初期的政府采取效率优先、兼顾公平的理念,价值取向重心向私域偏移。在经济高速发展的同时,社会矛盾逐渐凸显。在和谐社会构建过程中,政府价值取向重心应逐步向公域偏移,做到效率与公平并重。