An honour to be coveted: pride,recognition and public service

Abstract: Efforts to enhance public‐service pride and recognition are based in large part on three related propositions: that an increase in public servants' pride will lead to improved performance; improved performance will lead to greater public recognition of the public service; and greater public recognition will increase public servants' pride. These propositions can be examined by relating the concepts of pride and recognition to those of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, motivation and morale. Intrinsic incentives and less tangible extrinsic incentives are more important to public servants than to private sector employees. Given the relative scarcity of tangible extrinsic rewards in the public sector, governments are well advised to ensure adequate provision of less tangible rewards like appreciation and approval. Among the major future‐oriented government initiatives affecting pride and recognition are measures to foster a learning organization, to promote citizen‐centred service through effective use of information and communications technology, and to move the public service from a rules‐based towards a values‐based institution.     

Reviews

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From the Mountains to the Plains. The Integration of the Lafofa Nuba into Sudanese Society by L.O. Manger. Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala. 1994. 175 pp.

The New Local Level Politics in East Africa. Studies on Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya edited by Peter Gibbon. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala. 1994. Research Report No. 95. 118 pp. including figures, notes and references. Paperback. US$9.95.

Tanzania: The Limits to Development from Above by Kjell J. Havnevik. The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden. 1993. 343 pp. including tables, bibliography and appendices.

A Blighted Harvest: The World Bank and African Agriculture in the 1980s by Peter Gibbon, Kjell J. Havnevik and Kenneth Hermele. James Currey, London and Africa World Press, Trenton, New Jersey. 1993.     

Two factors in development of work release: size and location of prisons

Among the important recent trends in corrections is the remarkable spread of work release among the state prison systems. Forty-one states have authorized such a program. This development is assessed in terms of two of the factors affecting the potentiality of work release—the number of prison units and their geographical location relative to the state's job market. The highest work-release participation rate was recorded in 1971 by those prison systems with many units well distributed about their respective state. The lowest rate was that of the systems with a large share of total inmates concentrated in giant or large prisons. The various housing strategies are defined; the use of several community centers is found to be associated with the highest work-release participation for each type of prison system. Prospects for further expansion of work release are discussed.