Shareholder value and Financialization: consultancy promises,management moves

In the pages of the daily financial press, 'shareholder value' is a loose rhetoric. For business consultants who sell financial metrics and implementation, shareholder value is also a product and a promise that purposive management action will be rewarded. This paper begins by considering the consultant's promise and the more guarded academic responses. It then presents empirics on micro performance and the meso limits to shareholder value and argues that most corporate managements cannot easily deliver what consultants promise and the capital markets demand. The paper ends by taking a broader view of value-based management as part of a process of financialization. If the results are contradictory and disappointing, a persistent gap between expectations and outcomes can nevertheless drive management behaviours, which change the world.     

The Relationship Between State Government Performance and State Quality of Life

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between government performance and quality of life in the American states. We contend that the management capacity of state governments should have direct, tangible impacts on the overall social and economic well‐being of state citizenry. In order to test this idea, we examine the influence of state management capacity (using the 1999 Government Performance Project grades), alongside other economic and political variables, on two prominent measures of state quality of life—The Morgan Quitno “Most Livable State” Index and State Policy Reports' (SPP) “Camelot Index.” We find that both state economic conditions and governmental policy priorities have significant impacts on state performance levels. But, our results clearly indicate that the management capacity of state governments also contributes directly to improving the overall quality of life for state citizens.     

Water Privatization in Spain

Abstract

Water management in Spain is submitted to a non‐uniform geographical and seasonal distribution of water resources. The non‐uniform distribution of resources is worsened by the non‐uniform allocation of demand (mainly irrigation and urban). Because that, water supply, aquifers, and wetlands are driven to a high risk. Even though, there are examples of good water management, as is shown for the private industrial productivity of used water. Spain has a very long tradition in public water management (first water law in 1879) at different levels from ministry to municipalities, including users communities. A lot of these organisations are anchored in very old ways of doing, given private sector the opportunity to enter and grow up. A survey about it is presented. In the management of urban water, there are different organisations involved: central administration; autonomic, regional and metropolitan authorities; urban water suppliers and the sanitation authority. The recently approved changes in the former Spanish Water Law, limiting water rights and introducing water market, the new and expected Hydrological National Plan and the European Framework Directive, reinforce the opportunities of the private sector to enter, giving financial resources, technological advances and quick answers to new social concepts in water managerial procedures. We can observe how the Spanish administration uses private water suppliers' front desks to collect taxes and to supply capital to invest in infrastructures and water technology. The question that needs to be addressed is the nature and the impact of the privatisation process in Spain. The unrealistic water urban services price in Spain has been studied and it is presented and evaluated by regions, presenting a deficit to be covered in the future and been a significant gross value of the future business, which invite private sector to participate in. To give a general scope over the evolution of the roll played by the private and public sector, the case of Catalonia, the more evolved autonomous region of Spain in water management, is presented as an example of the future for the rest of the country.     

Trust Management in the Finnish Ministries: Evaluation of Management Systems

Abstract

Our purpose was to find out to what extent civil servants—managers, specialists, and experts—in 13 Finnish ministries have confidence in their management systems. We defined trust as a kind of deep sentiment, more fundamental than mere acceptance, satisfaction or legitimacy. Trust and mistrust are strong motivators for cooperation and collaboration. They are logical outcomes of social interaction in terms of management systems and context. We found out that civil servants are more likely to trust management if it acts professionally with no emphasis on political factors. Ministers, for instance, can efficiently earn their trust with administrative experience and behavior norms. Our analysis showed that there are both well‐trusted and ill‐trusted components in management systems implicating that management must be the object of continuous development. As a whole civil servants have more confidence in work community than in strategy, structure, people policies, and administrative processes of the ministries.     

A Bibliography About a Changed Federal Government Workplace

Abstract

This bibliography contains more than 130 hand picked sources that address change in the Federal government workplace, including articles and books by academics and practitioners and reports by Federal agencies including the General Accounting Office and the Office of Personnel management, as well as Congress. The introduction to the bibliography draws on the expertise of three well known authorities in the field, as well as the authors' of the bibliography.     

Managing the Public Sector in Hong Kong: Trends and Adjustments

Public sector management in Hong Kong was initially designed to rule the territory as a British colony. A number of changes took place in the last quarter century before Hong Kong's reintegration with China and the nature of public sector management has transformed over this period. An overview of administrative principles and practices and an analysis of changes reveal trends that were influenced by both local and international factors. The framework of traditional public administration in the territory adapted effectively to embrace the principles of new public management without much difficulty. The global economic crisis compelled the government to revise its strategies to expand public spending and adopt a further reduced role in the provision of public services. New social, economic and political challenges are driving Hong Kong to adjust to the changing circumstances and trends, and four noticeable shifts can be identified. They include shifts from an administrative to a political executive, from job cuts to job creation, from financial restraint to increased spending, and from public to private sector provision of public services. The trends are driven by local and international forces as well as the progress of democratization and political awareness in Hong Kong.     

Managerialism Meets Regime: A Distinctively Singaporean Marriage?

Managerial reforms were once assumed to be apolitical, and hence universally applied to various political settings. This assumption has been widely contested; some argue that managerial reforms are not applicable to countries outside what are termed Western liberal democracies, due to differing political contexts. The case of Singapore offers a counter-argument to these claims—managerial reforms were well-received in the state and its bureaucracy; both of which were vastly different from those of liberal democracies. The article further argues that this was not a coincidence; there seem to be salient reasons why managerial reforms were able to ‘marry’ Singapore's regime. This case study offers insights vis-à-vis a broader question: whether and how managerial reforms can be justified within and received in differing political contexts. It seems imperative to address this question, given the implications for future scholarship and how managerialism is a significant matter of concern to many governments worldwide.     

一种网络安全事件管理平台的设计与实现

网络在方便人们的同时,也带来了安全方面的问题。网络安全事件管理平台是为保障网络安全而开发的网络安全事件管理与响应平台,针对网络安全事件展开需求分析,从性能、功能以及灵活性等方面进行一系列的系统设计,实现一种实用的、可以灵活地部署在各个组织的网络安全事件管理平台系统。     

A Study of the Predictors of Persistence in Stalking Situations

Stalkers engaging in persistent campaigns of harassment have the potential to cause immense harm to their victims and themselves. Being able to estimate which stalkers are likely to persist longest is important to clinicians dealing with both perpetrators and victims. This study of 200 stalkers investigated characteristics of the stalkers and their behaviour that were associated with increased persistence. Logistic regression models were developed to predict low, moderate, and highly persistent stalking. The results supported previous research indicating that the type of prior relationship between stalker and victim is strongly associated with persistence, with prior acquaintances the most persistent, and strangers least. Being aged over 30, sending the victim unsolicited materials, and having an intimacy seeking or resentful motivation was also associated with greater persistence, as was the presence of psychosis.

Relativierung des Rechts durch Digitalisierung

Das Recht ist in modernen Gesellschaften ein wichtiges Steuerungsmittel. Schon bisher ist es allerdings nicht das einzige Instrument gewesen, um gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen und individuelles Verhalten zu beeinflussen. Es gab und gibt Bereiche, die sich selbst organisieren und in denen staatliches Recht aus unterschiedlichen Gründen nicht das entscheidende Steuerungsmittel ist. Dieser Beitrag untersucht, wie sich die zunehmende Digitalisierung der modernen Gesellschaften auf die Steuerungsfähigkeit des Rechts auswirkt. Er kommt dabei zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Bedeutung des Rechts in der digitalisierten und hoch fragmentierten Welt abnimmt. Das Recht muss sich deshalb Verbündete in anderen Bereichen der Gesellschaft suchen, um weiterhin Steuerungsfunktionen für die Gesellschaft wahrnehmen zu können. Der Beitrag skizziert, wer als Verbündeter des Rechts in Frage kommt und wie die notwendigen transrechtlichen Kooperationen aussehen könnten.