PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM IN DUTCH HIGHER EDUCATION: THE ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE UNIVERSITY

During the past few decades traditional state‐centred governing arrangements have been critiqued and replaced by alternative modes of governance. Higher education is one of the public sectors where such shifts in governance have been seen. As a consequence of the reshuffling of authority and responsibilities across the different levels in Dutch higher education, universities as organizations have become important foci of attention in the system’s coordination. The main question addressed in this article is to what extent we can speak of an organizational transformation of Dutch universities. Based on conceptual ideas from researchers such as Greenwood and Hinings (1996), Ferlie et al. (1996) , and Brunsson and Sahlin‐Andersson (2000) , we use a framework that focuses attention on the concepts of the construction of identity, hierarchy and rationality to systematically analyse the various aspects of transformations of professional organizations.     

THE DYNAMICS OF DEVOLUTION PROCESSES IN LEGALISTIC COUNTRIES: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE IN THE ITALIAN PUBLIC SECTOR

The devolution of authority from central to regional and local governments is a widespread trend in many countries. Differences in the outcomes of devolution reforms are often significant, between countries as well as within a country. The work reported in this paper assumes that the dynamics of the implementation process and the way it is affected by the national tradition of governance and by the features of the politico‐administrative system is important in explaining such differentiation. The paper investigates devolution in Italy and proposes explanations for the substantial differentiation of outcomes that can be observed. The case of devolution in agriculture in Lombardy, investigated in depth in the article, is striking for the magnitude and rapidity of change as well as for the way the reallocation of the workforce to the lower levels of government has occurred. This case study provides the basis for some theorizations about the dynamics of devolution processes in countries that have a legalistic administrative tradition, especially those nations which have a ‘Napoleonic’ administrative tradition.     

SERVANT LEADERSHIP,TRUST, AND THE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT OF PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES IN CHINA

So‐called servant leaders strive selflessly and altruistically to assist others before themselves, work to develop their followers' greatest potential, and seek to benefit the wider community. This article examines the trust‐based mechanisms by which servant leadership influences organizational commitment in the Chinese public sector, using data from a survey of civil servants. Quantitative analysis shows that servant leadership strongly influences affective and normative commitment, while having no impact on continuance commitment. Furthermore, we find that affective trust rather than cognitive trust is the mechanism by which servant leadership induces higher levels of commitment. Our findings suggest that in a time of decreasing confidence levels in public leaders, servant leadership behaviour may be used to re‐establish trust and create legitimacy for the Chinese civil service.     

FOSTERING AFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT IN PUBLIC SECTOR AGENCIES: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MULTIFACETED LEADERSHIP ROLES

This study examines whether the various leadership roles undertaken by public sector managers have an important association with subordinates' levels of affective commitment to the organization. Our empirical findings suggest that not all leadership practices matter. It appears that only relations‐oriented and change‐oriented leadership, and to a far lesser extent integrity‐oriented leadership, have a substantive association with affective organizational commitment. Task‐oriented leadership and, to a large degree, integrity‐oriented leadership, are found not to matter much for employees with lower levels of affective commitment, but they look to strengthen fondness of the organization among those with already high levels of affective commitment. Results also suggest that the diversity‐oriented leadership role has no association with affective commitment to the organization.     

WHAT’S VALUED MOST? SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES OF THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR

In recent administrative and organizational literature much attention has been paid to values that guide organizational and managerial behaviour in the public and private domain. Comparative empirical research efforts, however, are sparse. This article reports the results of a comparative empirical survey of 382 managers from a variety of public and private sector organizations in The Netherlands. Contrary to much recent literature that presupposes the intermixing or convergence of value systems guiding governance in different kinds of organizations, the results of this study show two distinct and relatively classical value systems for government and business as well as a ‘common core’ of important organizational qualities. These are accountability, expertise, reliability, efficiency and effectiveness, all of which are considered crucial in both public and private sector organizations. Additional analysis shows that value preferences are primarily attached to sector rather than to age, gender, working experience, or previous employment in the other sector.     

MODELLING BUREAUCRACY: THE CASE OF THE AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL BUDGET SECTOR 1982-1992

A substantial literature exists on the economic analysis of bureaucracy, which includes formal models of bureaucratic behaviour by Niskanen (1971) and Dunleavy (1991). This article develops hypotheses from those models about changes in size of bureaux over time and tests them against data on the Australian federal budget sector in 1982–83 and 1991–92. The models predict that bureaucrats usually will be able to influence the size or structure of their bureaux in line with their personal preferences. However, the Australian data suggest that the extent of such influence may be less than is assumed in either model and that the preferences of politicians are more influential than the models allow. One conclusion is that, if bureaucracy is to be modelled, a principal-agent approach will have more to offer than the neo-classical maximizing framework adopted by Niskanen in particular. A further conclusion, at odds with those of Niskanen and weakening his case for wholesale privatization, is that bureaucratic dysfunctions may be amenable to reform of the political and bureaucratic rules and systems.     

REMOVING THE CULTURAL AND MANAGERIAL BARRIERS IN PROJECT‐TO‐PROJECT LEARNING: A CASE FROM THE UK PUBLIC SECTOR

Project‐based initiatives form a major part of government investment and, so, learning from past projects should be a major concern for public sector organizations. Previous research has explored systems and processes for project‐based learning but little research has examined the social and cultural factors that enable this learning to be applied with useful effect. This paper reports on two successive major UK government projects. The introduction of independent learning accounts (ILAs) and the subsequent introduction of educational maintenance allowances (EMAs) following the scrapping of the former. Although similar in many respects, the first was a major failure while the second, having learned the lessons of the first, was acclaimed as a success. Using a cultural analysis, this case study shows how project‐to‐project learning enabled the EMA project team to learn from the failed project. This resulted in two significant changes in government and civil service organizational culture.     

THE INFLUENCE OF MANAGERIAL AND JOB VARIABLES ON ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT IN THE POLICE

Like all public sector agencies police forces are under constant pressure to improve their performance through better management of existing resources. However, little research has been done that explains how officers' organizational commitment, an essential requirement for above average employee productivity, can be improved. Using a whole population survey of a county police force in the UK, managerial, job, and demographic variables are analysed that influence officers' organizational commitment. Experiences of the way officers are managed were found to have the strongest influence on their organizational commitment while job related variables were found to have a lesser influence. The decline in organizational commitment found in the early years of officers' careers should be a cause for concern for senior managers in the police. The paper concludes that much need to be done to make police policies more effective in achieving promotion of officers who have the managerial competences needed to engender higher levels of organizational commitment.     

GROUNDING GOVERNANCE IN DIALOGUE? DISCOURSE,PRACTICE AND THE POTENTIAL FOR A NEW PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONAL FORM IN BRITAIN

Drawing on debates about the nature and significance of quasi‐autonomous government organizations, this article asks what happens when trends towards agency creation by government and trends towards stakeholder participation in policy processes come together. Issues are considered through an examination of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, one of a series of new regulatory bodies set up in Britain after 1997 and given the task of providing national guidance on treatments and care for people using the health service. The analysis points to the emergence of a new form – the dialogic intermediary organization. Such an organization, while maintaining close and informal links with government, attempts to build legitimacy for its activities through multiple and potentially competing engagements with diversely constituted publics. The potential theoretical and political importance of dialogic intermediary organizations, and some implications for their fuller empirical study are briefly explored.     

TOWARDS STANDARDS FOR THE PUBLICATION OF PERFORMANCE INDICATORS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: THE CASE OF SCHOOLS

Since the 1990s, the media and public authorities in many developed countries have published data on the quality of public services such as schools, hospitals and police. In the education sector the publication of performance indicators and league tables generated considerable debate. In this article, the policy context of this development in the education sector is analysed in conjunction with the problems associated with the public reporting of school performance indicators. This is followed by a discussion of the need for an accepted set of publication standards. The aim of this article is to initiate a debate about whether international consensus can be reached on the content of such a set of standards, and whether a particular set of standards, developed in the Dutch context, is applicable in and relevant to other countries. These Dutch standards have been applied to a variety of English, American and Dutch publications. The results of the analysis suggest that if the Dutch standards were applied, school performance publications could be significantly improved.     

NEGOTIATION AND MEDIATION IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR - THE GERMAN EXPERIENCE

The article argues that one should look not only at attempts to reduce governmental regulation via privatization and deregulation, but also to pay attention to new modes of dispute-resolution in highly complex and controversial issues. Following an alleged 'crisis of regulatory policy', the authors discuss ways and means of negotiation and mediation in the public sector. Based on American approaches, the German experience is at the forefront of their interest. The systematic and at the same time empirically oriented analysis looks at 'alternative' ways to regulate through cooperative behaviour, evaluates attempts at unassisted and assisted negotiations as a means of conflict resolution, and sheds light on the necessary framework for the use of mediation policies and techniques. A careful optimism on the use of negotiation and mediation in public sector disputes prevails.     

OBSERVATION,THE POLICE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: INTRODUCTION

This conversation about the merits of ethnography in police studies began at the ‘Ethnography in Policing’ panel at the Political Studies Association Conference held in Leeds in 2005. Subsequent correspondence and occasional one‐to‐one meetings led to this symposium.     

CONTINUITY AND CHANGE: THE ROLE OF THE HR FUNCTION IN THE MODERN PUBLIC SECTOR

As the public sector has modernized and sought to become more efficient and cost‐effective, the effective and strategic management of people has received increasing prominence and there have been calls for the Human Resource (HR) function to play a more strategic role. However, not much is known about whether the role of the HR function has changed substantively. In this paper, we present empirical evidence from six matched‐pair public sector organizations in the UK to assess whether HR functional roles have changed, as envisaged, into a model more akin to the private sector. The findings highlight the complex and often contradictory nature of HR functional roles, and suggest that new and more strategic roles have not replaced traditional approaches but, rather, have been grafted on, giving rise to a variety of hybrid HR forms.     

REFORMING PUBLIC SERVICES IN THE UK: BRINGING IN THE THIRD SECTOR

In the UK, the government continues its project to reform public services. Earlier projects have focused on the modernization of public sector organizations; in the latest round of reform, New Labour has focused on widening choice and the personalization of services. To this end, the government has been working with Third Sector (TS) organizations to expand their role in shaping, commissioning and delivering public services. The government’s vision is predicated on a normative assertion, that, unlike traditional public sector organizations, TS bodies create public value by being more innovative, are inspired by altruistic aims and values, and have greater commitment to their clients. This paper reviews recent policy and questions whether the government’s policy is flawed, contradictory and risks damaging the attributes of the TS admired by New Labour.     

ORGANIZATIONAL STATUS AND PERFORMANCE: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR TESTING PUBLIC CHOICE THEORIES

Popular belief is that ownership change (from public to private) brings about improved performance. But (i) ownership displays a spectrum, not an either/or; (ii) degree of competition is conceptually and often actually independent of ownership; and (iii) so is change-of-ownership's assumed instruments for improving performance, change in managerial incentive structures and reporting structures. The article surveys the relevant theories, popular and scholarly, and develops models for testing the relationships between status change (ownership) and performance (indices of productivity, profitability etc.), and between status change and internal organizational change (indices of reorganization and of linkage), in a small number of British organizations which underwent change in recent decades. Preliminary results of one or two analyses illustrate the methods and the possibilities.     

WORKPLACE BULLYING IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: UNDERSTANDING THE RACIAL DIMENSION

This paper reports the research findings of the experiences of public sector workers of bullying at work across 13 organizations in South Wales. The study explored the experiences of White and Ethnic minority respondents and found that there are significant differences in the type and frequency of bullying behaviours being experienced by the two groups. Ethnic minority respondents are more likely to label themselves as suffering from bullying behaviours than their White counterparts. The evidence presented in this paper demonstrates how line managers use different tactics when bullying Ethnic respondents compared to White respondents. Furthermore, when colleagues bully fellow colleagues, there are subtly different patterns of bullying behaviour towards White and Ethnic victims. Given the specific requirement to comply with the public duty for promotion of racial equality expected under the Race Relations Amendment Act (2000) , it is important that these findings are recognized by UK public sector organizations.