Public Management and Network Specificity: Effects of colleges’ ties with professional organizations on graduates’ labour market success and satisfaction

Abstract

Research on managerial networking in the public sector reports positive effects of network activity on performance. However, little is known about which network relations influence different aspects of performance. We argue that for specific organizational goals, organizations should direct their networking activities towards specific types of organizations. We explore how different types of network relations of Dutch colleges for nursing studies affect the performance of these colleges. We analyse the effect of ties with professional organizations on: (1) graduates’ program satisfaction, (2) graduates’ wages and (3) graduates’ employment (n = 1,484 graduates). Multilevel analyses show that colleges’ ties with professional organizations positively affect graduates’ wages and employment.     

Institutional analysis for new public governance scholars

ABSTRACT

Over the past several decades, prominent public management and policy scholars have repeatedly identified institutional analysis as a promising tool for empirical research, particularly for the study of ‘new governance’ phenomena where policy is enacted and implemented by actors that span organizations, sectors, jurisdictions, and governance levels. Yet, relatively few empirical studies directly measure and model institutions in management and policy settings. In a systematic review of the literature, we identify challenges and barriers that may prevent management and policy scholars from engaging with institutional analysis, along with examples of studies that illustrate how to overcome these challenges in practice.     

Environmental management: from ‘fit’ to ‘stretch’

Environmental management is a budding discipline that studies the development and shaping of environmental policy in business. This article discusses what progress has been made in theory building in the field of environmental management, and what priorities should be set for future research. The level of ambition of a company with respect to its environmental performance is seen as the result of the following three variables: the coincidence of increased eco-efficiency and market opportunities; the internal structure and culture of the company (including the influence of a number of important actors in it) and the pressure from the immediate and wider social environment to take environmental measures. Research in the field of environmental management can improve our understanding of the conditions under which companies will strive for higher eco-efficiencies. It is argued that such research must concentrate on the interaction of the three variables mentioned above and on how they affect the actions of companies. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Practice Variation in Public Sector Internal Auditing: An Institutional Analysis

This article aims to analyze the rise of practice variations in public sector internal auditing (IA), giving special attention to the role of agents’ embeddedness in multiple institutional arrangements. IA's trends of development and the characteristics of the public sector context, in fact, make IA inherently subject to multiple institutional forces that interact with the system of values and beliefs of individual internal auditors. The empirical analysis, which relies on case study methodology, highlights the inherent tensions associated with the changing role of IA and shows how different types of IA developed in three case settings, shaped by the agents’ embeddedness in different institutional fields. This article provides a more comprehensive approach to the study of IA adoption and development in public sector organizations than previous literature, and it highlights the relevance of the interplay between actors’ contemporary embeddedness in professional systems and the focal social system as a relevant source of practice variation. In this respect, the case of IA can contribute to previous studies of practice variation in the field of management accounting, shedding some light on the types of tensions that emerge when persons with mixed professional identities are involved in a field.     

Being ‘Green and Competitive’: The Impact of Environmental Actions and Collaborations on Firm Performance

In this paper, we seek to enhance the understanding of the link between environmental management and firm performance, so contributing to the debate of being “green and competitive”. Relying on the resource‐based view, we study the effect of different environmental management capabilities on a firm's market and image performance. In particular, we analyze the capabilities to implement product and process‐related environmental actions with different types of environmental focus (materials, energy, pollution) and the capabilities to develop environmental collaborations with different types of actors (both business actors and non‐business actors). To this aim we conducted a survey on 122 Italian companies. Results show that market performance and image performance have partially different antecedents. Specifically, a firm's market performance is positively affected by the capabilities to implement environmental actions with a focus on energy and pollution and to develop environmental collaborations both with business and with non‐business actors. On the other hand, a firm's image performance is positively affected by the capabilities to implement environmental actions with a focus on materials and to develop environmental collaborations with non‐business actors. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Sustainable procurement: Building legitimacy in the supply network

The challenges introduced by sustainable development deeply affect purchasing and supply management practices and therefore foster a change in the firm's supply network. After a literature review on supply network management, sustainable sourcing and legitimacy, this paper presents the results of an in-depth case study of a gardening distributor which adopted a sustainable strategy. The analysis illustrates how the firm conquers its legitimacy in sustainable development through the evolution of its supply network. The paper highlights three types of legitimacy – product legitimacy, corporate legitimacy and cause legitimacy – and reveals the different roles of business and non-business actors in the firm's extended sustainable supply network.     

Comparing Public and Private Sector Employees’ Innovative Behaviour: Understanding the role of job and organizational characteristics,job types,and subsectors

Abstract

Innovation is argued to be of key importance in the public sector. Little is known about possible sector differences in innovative behaviour. The stereotype in literature is that public employees are less innovative. We analyse whether sector is associated with innovative behaviour and the influence of job/organizational characteristics. We test this by using a three-country representative survey in Scandinavia with 8,310 respondents. We control for subsectors/industries and job functions. We do not find that public employees are less innovative. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the importance of understanding the major differences in innovative behaviour between different subsectors/industries and job types.     

A diagnosis of leadership effectiveness in the Irish public sector

Abstract

As Ireland has followed other countries in modernizing its public sector according to the principles of ‘new public management’ (without introducing market mechanisms on the same scale as its Anglo-Saxon counterparts), the capacity of its public managers to supply the leadership required to drive this programme forward has been identified as a crucial factor affecting its sustainability. A broadly representative sample of Irish public managers has been surveyed using the Leadership Effectiveness Analysis diagnostic instrument to identify those behaviours that need to be developed since they are infrequently used or can moderate the liabilities associated with frequently used behaviours. The findings of this study are interpreted within the context of a broader literature that debates the distinctiveness, significance and malleability of organizational leadership, in general, and the possibility of achieving a balance between different and, at times, conflicting public leadership behaviours, in particular.     

Strategic Inter-Organizational Cooperation in Complex Environments

Abstract

Strategic management research is increasingly concerned with understanding processes of network governance in which mechanisms for building partnerships among a number of public agencies and non-governmental organizations are more important than ever. Drawing examples from Canada, the paper analyses the nature of inter-jurisdictional and inter-organizational collaboration in complex and dynamic environments, and their implications for the strategic pursuit of organizational goals. The premise of the discussion is that public managers often pursue organizational goals in the context of external environmental systems characterized by complexity and constant change. From this perspective, public agencies must often seek to maintain relatively stable alliances while anticipating and adapting to environmental change in the pursuit of their organization's goals. The two cases in the paper illustrate three critical elements of collaborative network governance: first, the vertical and horizontal inter-jurisdictional dimensions of joint policy action; second the multiplicity of lenses of interpretation among agents, including the perceptions and values of non-governmental stakeholders and the strategic outreach of public agencies to these groups; and third, it traces the various stages of evolving networks, highlighting the changes and adaptations characterizing the processes involved in joint policy actions.     

Why People Co-Produce: Analysing citizens’ perceptions on co-planning engagement in health care services

Abstract

The aim of this article is to comprehend the motivation of citizens to co-produce. More specifically, it considers citizens’ motivations to engage in co-planning activities of health care services. The article brings together theoretical insights and empirical data. First, we integrate insights from different strands of literature. We combine literature on citizen participation, political efficacy, co-production, volunteerism, public service motivation, and customer engagement to offer a first understanding of citizens’ motivations to actively engage as co-producers of public services. Next, empirical data are derived from one specific case: citizens participating in client councils in health care organizations. Q-methodology, a method designed to systematically study persons’ viewpoints, is used to distinguish different perspectives citizen have on their engagement in co-production. Our analysis of citizens’ motivations to engage in client councils enables us to identify four types of citizen co-producers, which we label: the semi-professional, the socializer, the network professional, and the aware co-producer. Implications for future research studying citizens’ motivations in a broader range of co-production cases are discussed.     

Public enterprise governance

Abstract

Public enterprise management displays unique inherent tensions between its ‘publicness’ and ‘enterprise’ elements. The complex dynamics between these two sometimes overlapping and sometimes conflicting notions in managing a public enterprise can be interpreted with the aid of the concepts of governance. Public enterprise governance can be understood in terms of the dynamics among actors from the state, market and civil society in governing and managing collective affairs, each of very different values, norms and logics. This article introduces an analytical framework using the concepts of governance and public enterprises, and applies it to the wholly government-owned railway corporation, Kowloon – Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) in Hong Kong. The KCRC can be regarded as commercially successful but this profitable public corporation has been plagued with many public governance controversies in its twenty-year history. Lessons from three major cases (the golden handshake affair, Long Valley saga and Siemens fiasco) are discussed.     

Method towards discovering potential opportunity information during cross-organisational business processes using role identification analysis within complex social network

ABSTRACT

The key to discover potential opportunity information in cross-organisation business processes (COBPs) is to identify the primary roles and actors, i.e. how to obtain their associations according to the interactive behaviours within the complex social networks. The information of roles in COBPs is commonly considered important and explicitly related with activities contained in COBPs. In this paper, we define a role as a configurable resource model integrating the capabilities and knowledge required to the qualified actors. Furthermore, we introduce two networks named as role-based interactive behaviour network and handover of work social network to investigate the information on roles. How to build the complex social network mapped on roles from COBPs is also discussed, and an approach to obtain the potential opportunity information is proposed by combining with the significance of roles and actors. The simulation result shows that the primary roles may not completely correspond to the central position in networks, but they are closely associated with more reliable actors.     

Knowledge processing and ecosystem co-creation for process innovation: Managing joint knowledge processing in process innovation projects

Process innovation drives industrial competitiveness and sustainability but remains elusive since it requires co-creation and the sharing of idiosyncratic design knowledge in ecosystems of providers and customers of process equipment. This paper investigates how firms can manage knowledge processing through co-creation in joint process innovation projects. Analysis of cross-comparative case studies –including nine industrial ecosystem actors – identifies three types of technological challenge (complexity, novelty and customization) that creates knowledge-processing requirements (uncertainty, equivocality) during the value co-creation process. To manage these knowledge-processing requirements, this paper explains how three joint knowledge-processing strategies (joint problem solving, open communication and end-user involvement) help ecosystem partners make sense of the requirements and demands in process innovation. In this context, the procurement approach (such as contracting and relationship development) helps to facilitate higher levels of joint knowledge processing, drawing on the diverse knowledge of ecosystem actors to secure successful process-innovation outcomes. The present study contributes to the emerging literature on co-creation in process innovation by developing a framework that highlights the knowledge-processing dynamics in ecosystem relationships for process innovation. The implications for management extends to a practical tool that guides project managers in ensuring appropriate levels of joint knowledge processing among ecosystem actors.

     

Cross-Sectoral Coordination of Disaster Relief

Abstract

Coordinating organizational activity across different sectors is crucial in disaster management. We analysed the response of 291 aid workers to the Haiti earthquake in 2010 and found that common incentives and a high degree of equality among aid organizations positively affected perceived network coordination. Large and public organizations were more likely to take leadership roles and high numbers of public organizations involved in the disaster response network led to improved network coordination. These results indicate the need for mechanisms that enable smaller and non-profit organizations to participate in network coordination and leadership.     

The Impact of Management Control on Employee Motivation and Performance in the Public Sector

Abstract

This study examines the relations among various types of management control, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and performance in the public sector. We draw on motivation crowding theory and self-determination theory to argue that four different types of management control (i.e. personnel, cultural, action, and results control) are likely to have an influence on intrinsic motivation and/or extrinsic motivation. We test a structural equation model using survey data from 105 similar departments in the public sector. Our findings indicate that the use of personnel and cultural controls is positively associated with employees’ intrinsic motivation, and that the use of results controls is positively associated with employees’ extrinsic motivation. Moreover, both intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation are positively associated with performance. Taken together, these findings support the idea advocated by New Public Management proponents that results control can enhance employee motivation and performance in the public sector. However, the findings also highlight an essential nuance; in addition to results control, personnel and cultural controls are also important, as they enhance intrinsic motivation and performance. This implies that a sole focus on results control is too narrow and can lead to suboptimal levels of employee motivation and performance in the public sector.     

The Influence of Network Management and Complexity on Network Performance in Taiwan,Spain and the Netherlands

Abstract

Using survey data of respondents involved in spatial planning projects in Taiwan, Spain and the Netherlands (n = 678), this article examines the influence of network management strategies and complexities (examined with regard to differences in perception of problems and solutions, and unexpected events) on perceived network performance. This theory-driven, empirical research shows that the effect of network management strategies on perceived performance is stronger than the impact of unexpected events or actors’ differences in perceptions of problems and solutions. We find this result in all the three countries. Our model explains 19.1 per cent of the variance in the perceived network performance.     

Managing Cultural Diversity in Collaborations: A focus on management tensions

Abstract

This article explores the management of cultural diversity in public and not-for-profit collaborations spanning organizational, professional and national boundaries. Through the framing of a culture paradox, it identifies three interrelated tensions pertaining to the management of cultural diversity towards collaborative advantage. These tensions address: interactions between organizations within a collaboration; interactions between individual actors and their orientation towards the collaboration and their host organization; and the quantity and extent of cultural diversity within a collaboration. The culture paradox and its inherent management tensions provide theoretical and practical conceptualizations that are relevant to management and governance of collaboration.     

The politics of HRM: waiting for Godot in the Moroccan civil service

This study illustrates the fundamental importance of a political understanding in order to improve HRM in both public and private organizations. It complements studies that have found a statistical relationship between public staff management and economic growth by presenting a case study of Morocco, using the strategic human resource management (SHRM) model as a framework.

There are several reasons why HRM in the Moroccan civil service has stagnated, notably unfamiliarity with HRM models and the French administrative heritage. But the fundamental reason is Morocco's political system, where real power resides in the Palace, and where political actors are reluctant to take bold initiatives. Thus a focus on the management level is currently misplaced, and fundamental political action harnessing the authority of the Palace without disempowering other political actors is needed.

The study implies that a political analysis is sometimes a prerequisite for improving HRM in both public and private organizations.     

Climate Change and Reorganizing Land Use: Flood Control Areas as a Network Effect

Although climate change appears to be a relatively new public issue, it has not emerged onto a tabula rasa; it affects ‘traditional’ policy sectors. How, then, does this ‘new issue’ interact with established organizational processes, and how is climate change ‘operationalized’ in local practice? Since major events linked to climate change include such things as desertification, climatic migrations, floods and landslides, one might assume that one of its main implications would be a substantial change in land use, or at least a transformation in land organization and management. This article explores the implementation of a ‘flood control area’ as an adaptation practice in the face of climate change. What theoretical and empirical tools should analysis adopt to account for the multiple actors, types of knowledge, artefacts, socio‐technical systems and governance configurations engaged in developing such practices? In other words, to what extent does climate change become a reorganizing category? This article adopts a theoretical approach inspired by actor‐network theory and considers adaptation practice not as a standardized top‐down solution, but as the result of specific local connections among actors, materials and discourses. The analysis suggests that climate change is indeed a reorganizing category, but one that depends on the specific local materializations of the adaptation measure.