Stability not change: Improving frontline employee motivation through organizational reform is harder than it looks

As evidence mounts about the positive effects of autonomous motivation such as public service motivation, there is a growing case for public organizations to design reforms to better support public employees’ inherent desire to help others. But how feasible is this in reality? Most experimental evidence on autonomous motivation stems from interventions at the individual level, possibly exaggerating what government reforms can achieve in reality. We present a longitudinal study that analyses a three-year trial in Danish hospitals in which incentives and autonomy were changed to encourage autonomous motivation. This set-up offers a rare opportunity to observe the potential malleability of intrinsic, public service, user and external motivation. The results show little observable change in motivation due to the reform. We explore the practical difficulties of translating evidence about motivation into reforms given implementation challenges, contextual factors and a recognition that motivation might be less malleable than implied by research.     

“Dieselgate:” How Different Approaches to Decentralization,the Role of NGOs,Tort Law and the Regulatory Process Affected Comparative U.S. and European Union Outcomes in the Biggest Scandal in Automotive History

ABSTRACT

The VW diesel emissions scandal (“dieselgate”) recounts how Volkswagen became ensnared in a self-inflicted and staggeringly costly cheating scandal that started in the U.S. and then spread to the European Union. This case study shows how fundamental differences in comparative public administration (CPA) between the U.S. and the European Union (EU) led to different consequences for one of the world’s largest and most highly-regarded European auto manufacturers with respect to four institutional variables: (a) approaches to decentralization, (b) the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), (c) civil (tort) law, and (d) regulatory environment.     

The Job of Government: Interweaving Public Functions and Private Hands

Lively and sometimes raucous debate about the job of government has increasingly engulfed American politics. Much of that debate has swirled around government's size, with conservatives arguing the case for shrinking government and liberals fighting to grow it. In reality, however, neither of these debates engages the critical underlying trend: the increasing interweaving of governmental functions deeply into every fiber of the nongovernmental sectors. Many reforms have sought to rein in government's power, but none has engaged the fundamental interweaving of policy implementation, and, not surprisingly, most have failed. Indeed, many have eroded the public's trust in the governmental institutions on which they depend. This process raises fundamental challenges for defining government's core role, for building the capacity to govern effectively, and for enhancing the accountability of governmental programs. Many of government's administrative tools are a poor match for the governance problems they seek to solve.     

The Changing Structure of American Cities: A Study of the Diffusion of Innovation

Using historical and numerical analysis and the five-part schema, this study finds that over the past 50 years structural modifications and adaptations by American cities have generally followed the standard S curve of the diffusion of innovation. In tests of Kaufman's and Hirshman's theories of epochs of change from representativeness to administrative efficiency, this study determines that mayor-council cities have, in a standard innovation diffusion S curve, adopted many of the key features of council-manager cities, increasing their administrative efficiency. At the same time, council-manager cities, again in an S curve, have adopted many of the key features of mayor-council cities, increasing their political responsiveness. Fewer cities are now either distinctly mayor-council or council-manager in form, and most cities are structurally less distinct, constituting a newly merged or hybrid model of local government—the type III city.     

The ombudsman in France

Abstract: Though France and the United Kingdom are the most populous countries with a legislative ombudsman at the national level, little has been written in English ahout the French plan. Created in 1973, it resembles the British scheme for the central administration, in that coinplaints must he forwarded to the ombudsman (Médiateur) by members of Parliament. The French plan has been more successful than the British one, and hence ought to lw studied by other populous countries considering such a plan. It differs from the British scheme in several important respects, three of its unique features being its political nature. its decentralization and its reform orientation. However, a comparison of the total number of coinplaints received by the plan in France with that in countries where complaints are made directly- indicates that, as in the United Kingdom, the requirement for complaints to be made through legislators has been a serious restriction, and has prevented the plan from meeting a large part of the need. Sommaire: Bien que la France et le Royaume-Uni soient les pays les plus peuplés àêtre dotés d'um médiateur législatif (ombudsman) au niveau national, le système françis n'a pas suscité heaucoup de commentaires de la part des auteurs anglophones. Créé en 1973. ce systéme ressemble à celui instauné au Royaume-Uni pour l'administration centrale en ce que les plaintes doivent être transmises au médiateur par l'intermédiaire des députés. Le système français a connu plus de succès que le Lritannique et mérite par conéquent d'être étudié par d'autres pays à haute derisité démographique qui envisageraient un tel systéme. Il differe du inodèle britannique par certains aspects importants, ses trois caractéristiques particulières étant sa nature politique. sa décentralisation et son orientation réformatrice. Toutefois, une comparaison entre le nombre total de plaintes enregistrées dans Ic cadre du système fiançais et le nombre de plaintes déposées dans les pays où l'on a adopté la façon directe de procéder démontre que comme au Royaume-Unit, l'intermédiaire qu'est le député constitue un obstacle important qui empêche le système fraiçais de répidre à une grande partie des hesoins.     

经合组织与中国

成立于1961年的经合组织在当今全球化进程和中国经济发展中扮演了十分重要的角色。财富增长、社会稳定和良好的行政管理构成了经合组织塑造全球化进程的“三角发展模式,”这种模式有利于促进全球经济平衡发展,也值得中国借鉴。依据经合组织统计报告,中国目前的经济发展在投资、贸易和财政领域占据优势,但其所有制资产比重、劳动力市场和货币政策仍与经合组织国家有差距。     

Public Sector Politics, Modernization, and Federalism: The Canadian and American Experiences

The focus of this analysis is an attempt to compare Canadianand American federalism in terms of Samuel Beer's modernizationtheory. In Canada, it is argued that modernization had led tothe enhancement of provincial power rather than the centralizationof the federal system. The Westminster model of parliamentarygovernment contributed to these developments, although the wayin which power is organized in government has been even moreimportant in determining the directions taken by Canadian federalism.