Frontiers of public service motivation research in Canada: A scoping review

The Canadian public sector employs around one-fifth of Canadian workers; they are responsible for policy making, stewarding public funds, and serving the public. Canadian governments struggle with job satisfaction, engagement, retention, and turnover, all of which may be associated with public service motivation (PSM). We conducted a scoping review of Canadian PSM research to synthesize what is known about these associations in the Canadian context. We identified 24 published studies and four works in progress. These demonstrate that PSM exists among Canadian public servants from the early stages of their career until later stages, and that PSM bolsters attraction to public sector work among students. No studies measured PSM among Canadian public servants using a validated instrument. Further research about the contributions of PSM to the quality of Canadian public services and how employers can nurture PSM is recommended, particularly given recent changes in work environments.     

Bending conventions: agency and self-portrayals in Japanese translator commentary

Abstract: The recent surge of interest in the figure of the translator has brought translator-authored writing into the spotlight in Translation Studies. Investigations into translator commentaries (in-book paratexts such as prefaces and afterwords) have generally mined them for data about translation history and procedures. Yet translator commentary also offers a potential space where translators can stake positions as cultural agents through first-person writing. This article investigates how translators present themselves in such texts, using Japanese literary translators as an example. It takes a random sample of Japanese translator commentaries from books in various literary genres, establishes their textual conventions, and then performs close readings of five commentaries to explore how translators write themselves into their text. The translators show themselves to be concerned with how their writing is received. Some use devices such as pastiches and anecdotes to entertain and inform readers, asserting their voice as writers. Others frame their identity as members of literary communities or socially conscious individuals. In so doing, they project identities as cultural agents. Consequently, this study argues that translator commentary should be re-examined in translation studies as a potential site of subjective expression and positioning in the literary field.     

Otherness in the Pratyabhijñā philosophy

Idealism is the core of the Pratyabhijñã philosophy: the main goal of Utpaladeva (fl. c. 925–950 AD) and of his commentator Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975–1025 AD) is to establish that nothing exists outside of consciousness. In the course of their demonstration, these ?aiva philosophers endeavour to distinguish their idealism from that of a rival system, the Buddhist Vijñānavāda. This article aims at examining the concept of otherness (paratva) as it is presented in the Pratyabhijñā philosophy in contrast with that of the Vijñānavādins’. Although, according to the Pratyabhijñā, the other subjects are not ultimately real since all subjects are nothing but limited manifestations of a single absolute subject, the fact that we are aware of their existence in the practical world has to be accounted for. The Vijñānavādins explain it by arguing the we infer the others’ existence. The Pratyabhijñā philosophers, while refuting their opponents’ reasoning as it is expounded in Dharmakīrti’s Santānāntarasiddhi, develop a particulary original analysis of our awareness of the others, stating that this awareness is neither a perception (pratyak?a) nor an inference (anumāna), but rather a guess (ūha) in which we sense the others’ freedom (svātantrya).     

The delisting decision: The case of buyout offer with squeeze-out (BOSO)

In this paper, we exploit the specificity of going-private transactions that are initiated by the historic controlling shareholders (i.e. voluntary delistings). In Continental Europe, the majority of firms that become private do so following a buyout offer with squeeze-out (BOSO); using this mechanism, the controlling shareholder can cash out minorities and take the firm private. We argue that the decision to go private results from a cost–benefit analysis. Moreover, we pay particular attention to the consequences and the related costs of compliance resulting from the passage of the French Financial Security Law (FSL) in 2003. A quantitative study was performed using a unique dataset spanning 1997–2006. This data set consists of 140 French firms, of which 70 were voluntarily delisted via BOSO and 70 were industry-matched control firms. Univariate analysis and logistic regressions support the cost–benefit analysis: when listing benefits decrease because of weak liquidity and/or weak analyst coverage, it seems better for the firm to go private. Furthermore, the inherent characteristics of delisted firms (i.e. performance, leverage, and risk as measured by the beta factor) appear to be important driving factors of delisting. The passage of the FSL has strengthened the impact of these characteristics on the decision to go private. Mature firms that have weak performance and low specific risk and that are not financially constrained by debt will decide to go private because they cannot afford the listing status anymore. Finally, we show that the driving factors of delisting differ according to the identity of the controlling shareholder; specifically, the level of risk appears to be the strongest determinant for family firms, while non-family firms also consider their own financial structure.     

L'élaboration et la mise en œuvre des recommandations issues d'évaluations de programmes au gouvernement du Canada

In Canada's government, program evaluation reports include recommendations aimed at improving their procedures and implementation. The development of recommendations can be a tedious step in the evaluation process and involve several stakeholders. Nevertheless, little research has been done in order to define how these recommendations are developed and if they are implemented afterwards by program managers. This article introduces the findings from a survey taken by federal evaluation directors, in order to better grasp the issues related to the development and implementation of recommendations. The findings demonstrate a high level of support from stakeholders towards the evaluation process and development of recommendations, which supports an increased use of evaluations. This study's findings corroborate those of previous studies and show that recommendations are mainly focused on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of programs, rather than on the more strategic decision making.     

Factors and motivations contributing to community volunteers' participation in a nursery feeding project in Malawi

This article reports on a study to explore the factors and motivations that contribute to community volunteers' participation in a nursery feeding project in Malawi. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with community volunteers in 14 of the 32 sites in the programme. The findings pointed to a mix of intrinsic motivations, namely a deep concern for orphans and vulnerable children, a moral obligation to help, and a declared love of the work undertaken, and also to external factors such as spirituality, links of reciprocity, and the building of social capital. Understanding what motivates volunteers to take part in resource-poor settings is crucial to recognising, facilitating, and sustaining the work that they do. Further research into volunteering in the South is crucially needed.     

Scrutinizing France: collecting and using newspaper intelligence during world war II

After the fall of France in June 1940, it became crucial for Britain to obtain grass-roots information on her former ally. Newspapers of all types were recognized to be a key source. This article investigates how intelligence material was gathered, analyzed and diffused and how it was used by a large number of government departments. The Royal Institute of International Affairs had set up the Foreign Research Press Service, which played an effective centralizing role. This article also demonstrates that the level of cooperation between the French and British departments was better than usually acknowledged and resulted in well-informed and perceptive reports.     

Le suivi de la performance,de I'incantatoire au passage à I'acte:Une étude du suivi de performance de six programmes d'aide aux entreprises1

Sommaire: Cet article étudie le suivi de la performance dans les programmes publics et exprime le potentiel que représente cet outil de gestion pour les organisations publiques. Les auteurs traitent d'une question de recherche portant sur la conformité du suivi de la performance dans les programmes sous étude pour la période 1993–1998, et des causes des écarts observés par rapport au modèle‐type de suivi de la performance. Le suivi de performance fut réaliséà cette époque de manière ad hoc et opportuniste. Leurs recherches ont permis de conclure que le suivi de performance s'est heurté d'abord à la difficulté de définir de manière univoque le concept de la « bonne » performance d'un programme. S'ensuivirent des difficultés intellectuelles et pratiques pour mesurer et évaluer ladite performance. Cependant, la difficulté de mettre en place un réel processus de suivi n'est pas imputée à cette seule cause. On observerait plutôt la convergence de plusieurs causes qui se manifestent en efforts conceptuels insuffisants, au moment de la conception et de la mise en Deuvre des programmes, pour développer et implanter un authentique suivi de la performance. Abstract: This article focuses on performance monitoring in public programs and demonstrates the potential this management tool has for public organizations. The authors examine studies dealing with the consistency of performance monitoring during the period 1993 to 1998 for the programs under review, and the reasons for the differences observed when compared with the standard model for performance monitoring. During this period, performance monitoring was done on an ad hoc and opportunistic basis. Based on their research, the authors conclude that the first obstacle to performance monitoring is the difficulty of defining, unequivocally, the concept of “good” performance with reference to a program, as well as the intellectual and practical difficulties of measuring and evaluating the said performance. However, this is not the only reason why implementing a real monitoring process is so difficult. Rather, it could be that the convergence of several causes at the time the programs are designed and implemented, which results in insufficient conceptual efforts to develop and establish an authentic performance monitoring process.     

Godparenthood: driving local solidarity in Northern France in the Early Modern Era. The example of Aubervilliers families in the sixteenth–eighteenth centuries

This article studies the choice of godparents in Aubervilliers, a French catholic rural parish near Paris, during the Early Modern Era. At the turn of the sixteenth century, godparenthood essentially served to extend social ties. Vertical godparenthood was quite visible, at least with regards to ‘elite’ local residents. The shift toward kin godparenthood happened over the long term, with a clear acceleration in the second half of the eighteenth century. A second evolution was the result of the Council of Trent. In the north of France, shifts from the ternary model of godparenthood to the godmother/godfather system at the beginning of the seventeenth century increased the proportion of elites amongst the godparents selected. This would indicate a strengthening of the clientele model of godparenthood in the seventeenth century, as suggested by Alfani's works on Italy. Finally, godparenthood was gender-sensitive. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, godmothers from the maternal side were greater in number than those from the paternal side, while godfathers from the paternal side were greater in number that those from the maternal side. Above all, the sex of the christened child took on a decisive dimension at the time when choices became more family-focused in the eighteenth century. This new consideration of the child's gender would seem to indicate a shift in the concept of the tie created at the time of the baptism. The intergenerational link between godchildren and godparents would take on new significance, in contrast to the relationship between parents and godparents that proved so crucial at the beginning of the Early Modern Era.