Applying rapid results approach to local service delivery: issues,lessons and challenges from Nairobi City Council

Over the years, the Kenyan Government has pursued wide‐ranging public sector reforms to improve local service delivery, but little has been achieved due to lack of a wide‐ranging decentralisation policy and institutional framework. To precipitate the reform process, the rapid results approach (RRA), commonly applied in private sector organisations, was recently introduced thorough out the public sector, including local authorities (LAs). This article assesses the efficacy of the rapid results approach (RRA) methodology in local service delivery using Nairobi City Council as a prototype; highlighting the success stories, pitfalls and challenges. The analyses are based on the findings obtained using current literature on the subject matter and the author's interactions with the council staff, councillors and other stakeholders. On the basis of the analysis, the article draws the main conclusions and policy advice on what could be considered critical for further debate, highlighting issues, lessons and challenges that could be raised to improve the practice of RRI. The key messages presented here will help policy makers, scholars and practitioners of reform to re‐think the envisaged countrywide replication of RRI to the rest of LAs. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluating the effects of changes in AFDC: Methodological issues and challenges

Analysts are commonly called upon to perform the difficult task of evaluating the effects of specific changes in public policy upon the behavior of individuals, such as a change in the provisions of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program relating to the benefits of those in the program who find work. When charged with such a task, analysts commonly try to answer the question by tracing the behavior of a fixed panel of individuals, comparing the experience of the group before and after the change in policy. That approach, however, risks major errors; in the case of the AFDC program, for instance, changes in the work benefit provisions affected the decisions of some who might have come into the program, a consequence that would not be picked up by a fixed panel of initial recipients. Cross-sectional data drawn independently from a general population at points in time before and after a policy change can often provide a more valid measure of the effects of the policy change than can panel data; moreover, cross-sectional data are usually less expensive and more readily available.     

Politics and public service reform in small states: Malta

Administrative reform is inseparable from political reform, just as administration and politics share overlapping boundaries. This article reviews the goals for reform established in 1989 for the Maltese public service, against the political culture and administrative history of Malta. It argues that a small state's size encourages certain dysfunctional characteristics of the political culture, and aggravates the difficulties inherent in administrative reform. (© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)     

The public service ethos and the role of the British civil service

The last Conservative administration invested much time and effort in reforming the structure and organisation of the Civil Service. Yet it left untouched the core principles which underpinned Whitehall, often referred to as the public service ethos. In this article, we argue that this ethos has been defended by both conservative and liberal opinion as something fundamentally good. Yet, in reality, the public service ethos is a power/knowledge system which legitimises the rule of a particular elite by presenting public service as a worthy occupation and, thereby, authorising a system of power which is relatively closed and secretive. This accounts for why it has been in the interests of both the last Conservative administration and the present Labour government to ensure the ethos remains intact.     

Demand for masters of public policy in public service

This piece was written to assist those who lead schools of public policy and administration in evaluating their pedagogies and examining their curricula. The perspectives contained in this piece reflect those of the author, who has spent the last 35 years practicing and leading public policy research and analysis in the Congressional Research Service (CRS)—the public policy agency created by the U.S. Congress for its exclusive use. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of CRS or the Congress.     

新公共管理视域下的基本公共服务均等化

基本公共服务均等化是当前的热点问题,也是全面建设小康社会、促进社会协调发展的重要制约因素。本文从新公共管理的视角分析基本公共服务均等化的内在意蕴,剖析当前基本公共服务均等化实现过程中的困点,并在此基础上,对我国基本公共服务均等化实现路径做一些探讨性的研究。     

Managing the impersonal in a personalized public service

What happens when an apparently personalized small public service enters the information highway? How does it integrate the new frame of mind implied in the impersonal, open approach to information? The practical implications of implementing information technology as a means to use information strategically in the Maltese public service, with its apparently paradoxical administrative style, prompted the pilot study in early 2000 upon which this article is based. Using a simplified empirical approach, the study tested the hypothesis that small scale could affect the way leaders deal with the impersonal, such as information resource management. Although limited in scope, the results of the study support a qualified conclusion that small scale, through its link with personalization and associated informal mechanisms, does affect the way top managers in the public service deal with the impersonal, at least in the short and medium term. To what extent it does so, or the space for change, are subjects for further research. The article concludes with suggestions for further investigation into this topic, both in its narrow and wider applications. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mandelafying the public service in South Africa: Towards a new theory

A surfeit of service delivery disapprovals in South Africa is a clear reflection of the failure of the Public Service of South from the local, provincial, and national government to effectively and efficiently deliver service to its citizenry. The rise in a dissatisfied citizenry stems from a precise social realization, which envisions the failure of the state to deliver services to the public in an impartial, responsible, translucent, and befitting manner. This has resulted in widespread service delivery protests, which has become the most famous form of response to poor service delivery by frustrated citizens. This article argues for the mandelafication of the South African public service against the background of a cocktail of factors ranging from corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, incompetence, and lack of commitment to work ethics personified by Mandela. The article further argues for the upholding of the dominant constructs in which this mandelafication is grounded in such as proper ethics, humanitarianism, transparency, accountability, empathy, and selflessness, which characterized Nelson Mandela.     

Corporate governance challenges in Indian banks: A public affairs perspective

Weak governance framework in Indian public sector banks has paralyzed their performance with declining profitability and deteriorating asset quality. In order to tackle the governance issues in Public Sector Banks (PSBs), Indian government established Banks Board Bureau (BBB) in April 2016 to revamp the existing governance structure in PSBs. However, the issue management framework of establishing BBB is not immune to several challenges and has not been able to achieve its desired objectives. This paper looks at the weak governance issue in PSBs from an issue management perspective by using the famous Jones and Chase issue management framework. In light of this framework, the paper makes several recommendations to effectively address the governance challenges in PSBs in India. The findings of this paper may be useful for other emerging economies facing similar governance issues in their banking sector.     

The information superhighway: Some public policy issues for the Commonwealth

This article examines the significance for Commonwealth governments of the emerging Information Superhighway. It reviews the nature and the scope of developments in the field of information technology, then considers policy questions raised by the existence of the Internet and eventually, of the Information Superhighway. Governments of developing countries run the risk of being excluded from the benefits of information technology unless they frame National Information Infrastructures. (© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)     

People: hearts and minds Towards rebirth of the public service ethic

No country will escape the enormous forces that are now buffeting the public sector worldwide. The massive changes underway are affecting people—public servants and citizens alike—and not just bottom lines. Standard approaches to dealing with change may unwittingly overlook the fact that Public Services are first and foremost “people systems”. The article provides a timely reminder that players in public organizations—senior officials, middle managers and front-line workers—experience change differently given their distinct perspectives and levels of authority. While responses to change may vary considerably within organizations, a common humanity is what ultimately unites people. As a result, governments that choose to ignore rather than acknowledge the human side of change may experience needless difficulty in bringing about the successful renewal of the public sector. (© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)     

Googling the requester: Identity‐questing and discrimination in public service provision

Innovating upon previous field experiments and theories of identity‐based discrimination, we test whether public officials are using searches (“identity‐questing”) to profile citizens and acting on latent biases. Pairs of “institutional” and “noninstitutional” requesters send lower and moderate burden freedom of information (FOI) requests—providing no identity cues apart from undistinctive names, e‐mails, and ID numbers—to nearly 700 of Brazil's largest municipalities. Results show institutional requesters receive one‐fifth more responses than noninstitutional comparators. For moderate versus lower burden requests, noninstitutional requesters are 11% less likely to receive a compliant response than their institutional comparators. The only plausible explanation for these results is identity‐questing, a phenomenon that has far‐reaching policy implications. Most of the world's FOI laws, for example, contain vague ID obligations, which translate incoherently from laws to regulation and practice. Results enjoin public service providers to protect the identities of citizens by default or upon request.     

Performance appraisal: if only people were not involved

While performance appraisal systems which emphasize work objectives and behavioral rating scales hold considerable promise for improving the evaluation process, an incomplete understanding of the human dynamics underlying the appraisal process blunts their attraction. For a technically sound appraisal system to work, four behavioral elements are necessary: trust, acceptance of the appraisal function by those who must do the evaluation, sensitivity to the inner world of performance evaluation, and training designs which recognize the human dynamics of appraisal.     

Aspects of change in the Canadian federal public service

This article is divided into two parts. The first part looks at some significant changes that have taken place in Canada's federal public service over the last two or three years. These changes include the introduction of new management techniques, new organizational structures and new approaches to governance. The second part deals with my own organization, Consulting and Audit Canada, including the rationale for our existence, the kind of work we do and the issues we face. Both parts raise issues that are pertinent to the subject of public sector versus private sector, in the context of service delivery. (© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)     

Ethics and education for the public service in a liberal state

Graduate programs in public policy offer a variety of ethics courses focusing on framework theories, topical applications, and duties of office. Brown gives four reasons for making these types of courses an integral part of education for public service: they provide a common civic vocabulary; they give an essential perspective on analytical techniques; they challenge students' own presuppositions about public policy; and they help distinguish between empirical and conceptual issues. He argues that the growing emphasis in the policy programs on public management further enhances the importance of education in ethics, and that the current dearth of such courses in some programs seriously impedes their graduates.