ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP IN THE ENGLISH PUBLIC SECTOR: PARADOX OR POSSIBILITY?

Our study explores the possibility for the enactment of entrepreneurial leadership in the English public sector under the Labour government’s modernization agenda. To substantiate our analysis, we draw upon data gathered from leaders in three public sector arenas – the National Health Service, secondary schools, and further education (FE) colleges. Our study proposes a definition of public sector entrepreneurship that extends beyond existing literature. In essence, we contend that public sector entrepreneurship is characterized by the combination of three distinct agencies: ‘stakeholder’, ‘entrepreneurial’ and ‘political’. The public sector entrepreneur identifies market opportunities within the political landscape, optimizes the performance‐enhancing potential of innovation for the public sector organization, and carries stakeholders in a way that both permits risk and recognizes the stewardship of public sector resources.     

A GENDER ANALYSIS OF WOMEN IN PUBLIC–PRIVATE–VOLUNTARY SECTOR ‘PARTNERSHIPS’

The nature of work and traditional notions of the public sector have been changing with increasing collaborative governance and delivery of public services among public, private and voluntary sector organizations. In the UK, governments at national and devolved levels of government have adopted collaborative governance for service delivery through various networks and partnerships. This article explores collaborative governance from a gender perspective, specifically the perceptions of women in public–private–voluntary sector partnerships. While previous research in this area has explored aspects of collaborative governance such as power, trust, accountability, decision‐making, performance, exchange of information and participation, there is very little research on women within these networks. The article therefore provides a gendered analysis, disaggregating survey data to better understand the dynamics, for women, of collaborative governance and partnerships among public, private and voluntary sector organizations.     

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.     

Public or nonprofit? Career preferences and dimensions of public service motivation

While the foundational claim that PSM attracts individuals to the public sector is well established in the research literature, much uncertainty still exists about its influence on the choice between the public versus the nonprofit sector, which also frequently exhibits a strong public service mission. Little is known also about how discrete dimensions of PSM differ in their effects on such job preferences. This article addresses these shortcomings by drawing on a study that combines the measurement of separate dimensions of PSM with a policy‐capturing design that allows disentangling the effects of sector from those of other job attributes that usually correlate with it: the service orientation of the job and job security. Results show that dimensions of PSM display relevant differences in their effects on preferences across job attributes. These findings have important implications for the choice of PSM measurements in scholarly research and job selection.     

Coevolution of policy sectors: A comparative analysis of healthcare and public health

This article analyses the institutional coevolution of policy sectors – in other words, the mutual influence and adaptation of the institutional connection between related policy areas. The article proposes a two‐dimensional analytical space ranging from separation to unity on one axis and from superiority/subaltern to equality on the other. The article argues that the overall governance framework behind the coevolving sectors affects the institutional relationship between the sectors. In its empirical part, the article focuses on the healthcare and public health sectors. Based on a comparative historical examination of three countries with different healthcare systems – Australia, Germany, and the United States – the article shows that healthcare and public health coevolve differently depending on the type of national healthcare system. Further research can transfer the concepts introduced in this article to the analysis of other policy challenges, such as immigration or environmental protection.     

STATE REGULATORY CAPACITY: EXPERIENCES FROM PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS IN NORWAY

State regulatory capacity is being threatened by internationalization, commercialization and persistent demand for public services. The article addresses the overarching question of how the state is changing due to recent public sector reforms. By studying changes in the regulation of the health care sector and the food sector in Norway, the article challenges the assumption that recent public sector reforms have necessarily led to a decline of the central state's regulatory strength. The conclusions are that the central state level has in fact been strengthened by regulatory reforms, by transferring authority to the state level and by enhancing the central administration's co‐ordinating and regulating capacity.     

Municipalities’ willingness to adopt process innovations: evidence for higher cost-efficiency

In the public sector, innovation is understood as a major driver of public service performance improvement and excellence. On the one hand, previous research has proven a positive effect of innovation adoption on performance in the public sector. On the other hand, a broad literature proves positive effects of innovation antecedents on innovation adoption. This study bridges this gap and analyses the effect of an innovation antecedent – willingness to adopt a process innovation (accrual accounting) – on municipalities’ service provision cost-efficiency. Therefore, the author makes use of a panel data set of German municipalities, located in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Evidence shows that a higher municipal willingness to innovate relates to higher cost-efficiency. A higher innovation willingness might have a maximal effect of 17 percentage points on municipality cost-efficiency.     

NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT VALUES AND PERSON‐ORGANIZATION FIT: A SOCIO‐PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH AND EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION AMONG PUBLIC SECTOR PERSONNEL

This paper takes a socio‐psychological approach to NPM and its value‐based theory in public administration. We develop a model for the study of NPM values based on the idea of Person‐Organization Fit (POF) and examine it empirically. Findings, based on a survey of 205 Israeli local governance personnel, revealed that the POF of several core NPM values (that is, responsiveness, transparency, innovativeness, and achievement orientations) was positively related with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and service climate, as reported by these public personnel. The findings suggest that, beyond modern strategies and effective policies for the public sector, lies an essential quest for NPM value‐fit with public personnel. Consequently, the study advocates a better theoretical and practical understanding of the socio‐psychological interfaces, such as POF, in public administration. Implications and directions for future studies are discussed, both in the context of public administration research and in the generic field of organizational behaviour theory and practice. The detailed results of the factor analyses are available directly from the authors.     

HYBRIDS AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITIES: COMPARING UK REFORMS IN HEALTHCARE,BROADCASTING AND POSTAL SERVICES

Many countries use state‐owned, for‐profit, and third sector organizations to provide public services, generating ‘hybrid’ organizational forms. This article examines how the hybridization of organizations in the public sector is influenced by interaction between regulatory change and professional communities. It presents qualitative data on three areas of the UK public sector that have undergone marketization: healthcare, broadcasting, and postal services. Implementation of market‐based reform in public sector organizations is shaped by sector‐specific differences in professional communities, as these groups interact with reform processes. Sectoral differences in communities include their power to influence reform, their persistence despite reform, and their alignment with the direction of change or innovation. Equally, the dynamics of professional communities can be affected by reform. Policymakers need to take account of the ways that implementation of hybrid forms interacts with professional communities, including risk of disrupting existing relationships based on communities that contribute to learning.     

Public sector reform and the public interest in Australia

Contemporary public sector reforms in Australia have been dominated by efficiency, productivity and contestability considerations captured in the National Competition Policy (NCP). Both in the reform process in general and in the NCP processes in particular, the lack of priority attributed to non‐economic concerns such as co‐ordination, equity, representation, political accountability, consultation and distributive outcomes has been a serious omission. The idea of public interest, once central to democratic public administration, has re‐emerged to challenge the perceived excesses of economic rationalism as the unifying idea of reform. In this article it is argued that substantive situational manifestations of public interest can be used to complement rather than undermine the efficiency, productivity and contestability objectives of public sector reform.     

THE CONTENT AND CONTEXT OF ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS

The aim of this paper is to provide an empirical contextual picture of what is truly valued most in different public and private sector organizations. Through a series of qualitative in‐depth interviews (n = 38), that were a follow‐up to an earlier survey study among public and private sector managers (n = 382), a number of crucial organizational values were presented to and discussed with a selection of top managers from a variety of Dutch public and private sector organizations. The decision‐making context from the interviews provides insight into why, when, how and to what extent specific values are important. A number of unexpected differences and similarities between organizations with a different sectoral status emerge from the data, which shed new light on existing predispositions on value preferences in government and business conduct.     

PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION FOR EUROPE: A MULTINATIONAL EIGHT‐COUNTRY EXPLORATION OF CITIZENS’ PERSPECTIVES

This study presents a three‐year effort to study public sector innovation in Europe from the viewpoint of the citizen. It examines a model of public sector innovation across a multinational sample of eight countries and 626 participants. The paper develops a theory of antecedents to and consequences of innovation in public administration as perceived by knowledgeable citizens and end‐users. Participants were senior and mid‐level managers of third sector organizations that work closely with citizens both as individuals and groups, and with public sector agencies in various domains. Structural Equation Modeling technique was used to examine two theoretical and five alternative models. Major findings that transcend national borders were found to be: (1) responsiveness, together with leadership and vision are important antecedents of innovation in the public sector; (2) public sector innovation affects trust in and satisfaction with public administration; and (3) the effect of public sector innovation on trust and satisfaction is both direct and mediated by the image of public organizations. The paper ends with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications for public administration theory, especially for public sector innovation in Europe, and with directions for future studies.     

THE ‘NEW PUBLIC GOVERNANCE’ AND EMPLOYABILITY SERVICES IN AN ERA OF CRISIS: CHALLENGES FOR THIRD SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS IN SCOTLAND

Third sector organizations (TSOs) have emerged as key players in the delivery of public services to assist jobless people to improve their employability and move from welfare to work. Drawing on in‐depth research with employability providers in Scotland, this article explores how TSOs have responded to the challenges of a rapidly changing public services environment. Specifically, we use the concept of the ‘New Public Governance’ to explore TSOs' relationships with UK, devolved and local government stakeholders. TSOs demonstrated a pragmatic approach to shaping their services to reflect the priorities of public funders, and identified some opportunities arising from the new emphasis on ‘localism’. However, the evidence suggests that opportunities for collaboration at times remained constrained by certain forms of ‘contractualism’ and top‐down performance management. Based on the evidence, lessons for future policy and practice are considered.     

Public Sector Commissioning: Experiences of Voluntary Organizations Delivering Health and Social Services

The perceived benefits to users and beneficiaries of voluntary organizations delivering public sector services have been well documented and include the engagement with parts of society that the state cannot reach, personalized service delivery, and improved services. There is a lack of clarity, however, as to whether these perceived benefits are being realized. This article presents the experiences of voluntary sector organizations involved in public sector commissioning. The research suggests that the public sector is limiting the voluntary sector's engagement in service design and performance monitoring. These findings raise questions about the role of the voluntary sector in public service provision.     

MANAGERIAL CHALLENGES IN PUBLIC SERVICE CONTRACTING: LESSONS IN GREEN‐SPACE MANAGEMENT

In this article, we address a series of interrelated issues in the managerial challenge of public service contracting. This is done by prompting ten issues within four objectives and highlighting their relevance and potential interrelatedness in effective contract management. In contrast to prevalent piecemeal and theoretically one‐dimensional approaches, the objectives and issues constitute a holistic framework that advances a comprehensive and pragmatic understanding of contracting processes. We hope that the framework merits further in‐depth exploration that may generate new insights, themes and questions for research in public service contracting. We identify and exemplify the framework by combining insights from different theoretical perspectives with empirical evidence through an iterative process. The evidence is educed as a set of observed and self‐reported stories in a cross‐national sample of 15 cases of contracting‐out in urban green‐space management.     

How empowering leadership reduces employee silence in public organizations

The intentional withholding of critical work‐related information can have serious negative consequences in public organizations. Yet, few studies have examined why public employees intentionally remain silent about problems and how to prevent such behaviour. This article provides insights into how managers may lower employee silence in government organizations. We develop a model that suggests that empowering leadership by frontline supervisors reduces public employee silence, by improving employee trust in their supervisors, granting employees control over their jobs, and strengthening identification with the organization. We test the model in two cross‐sectional studies with data collected from all employees working in two local governments in the United States. We find empirical support for the model in both studies. We discuss the implications of the research results for public management scholarship and practice.     

Cyberterrorism and Cyber Attacks in the Public Sector: How Public Administration Copes with Digital Threats

Cybersecurity concerns among citizens and public administration officials are considered to be one of the major barriers to e-government implementation. While cyberterrorism is on the rise, the operational state of cybersecurity in the public sector appears as a black box and previous literature has scarcely examined how public authorities perceive and cope with cyber attacks. This study investigates public employees’ attitudes toward cybersecurity in the public sector, as well as the arrangements and measures in place to protect sensitive governmental data and securely manage it for privacy and regulatory compliance. Thus, it contributes to the e-government literature by presenting a comprehensive framework of cybersecurity in the public sector and by providing empirical evidence thereof. Furthermore, it gives an insight into the prevalent attitudes and cybersecurity infrastructure within the realm of public administration. Finally, the article derives research and managerial implications and provides suggestions for future research.     

INNOVATION,PUBLIC POLICY AND PUBLIC SERVICES DELIVERY IN THE UK. THE WORD THAT WOULD BE KING?

This paper explores the dialogue about innovation in public services currently found within public policy and creates an interaction between research and practice about its strengths and limitations. It argues that this dialogue is a flawed one, often both at odds with the existing evidence and lacking a holistic understanding of the nature of innovation and its distinctive policy and managerial challenges. It therefore synthesizes existing research to challenge current public policy thinking about the role and determinants of innovation in public services. It concludes by offering five lessons towards effective policy‐making and implementation that would provide a more sophisticated and evidence‐based approach to the encouragement and sustenance of public service innovation – and four key areas for further research.     

Accounting for human resource development in the public sector

This article evaluates the merits of utilizing human resource accounting (HRA) concepts to account for human resource development (HRD) in the public sector. It describes the development of the economic theory of human capital and the increasing recognition of human resources as human assets of public organizations to be managed and accounted for in a manner similar to capital assets. The development of HRA concepts concerning human resource value and cost is discussed. These HRA concepts are applied to HRD and to current and potential uses in external financial reporting and internal managerial accounting in public organizations. This article concludes that the application of HRA concepts to HRD would have significant benefit for the operational and strategic management of human resources in public organizations. Using HRA information in internal managerial decision making would demonstrate the value gained in excess of costs incurred for such activities. The application of HRA concepts in pubic organizations, whether to internal managerial accounting and decision making or to public sector financial reporting, would heighten the priority of HRD activities by recognizing them as asset building rather than as an expense.     

Value orientation and value profile of nigerian public managers: implications for management practice

Using England's personal value questionnaire the value orientations and value profile of public managers at the state level in Nigeria were analyzed. The analyses revealed that most of these managers have a pragmatic value orientation. Implications for management practice and management development in the Nigerian public sector were discussed. Future research directions were also suggested.