Political Authority and Bureaucratic Resilience

Abstract

Consumerism and choice have become prominent ideas in the design and delivery of public services. Often perceived as a way to improve the quality and value of public services, potential downsides and areas of concern that relate to a consumerist approach are frequently ignored. This review essay takes a critical stance on the application of a consumerist discourse to public service provision and management by exploring four key areas of concern: definitional problems, questions about the concept's transferability from a private to a public sector setting, the problematic nature of ‘choice’, and difficulties associated with implementing consumerist ideas within public service contexts..     

Disclosed Values of Option-Based Compensation – Incompetence,Deliberate Underreporting or the Use of Expected Option Life?

Abstract

This paper provides a commentary on Mark Christensen's (2005) analysis of the role of private sector management consultants in the pursuit of accruals-based accounting reforms in the state of New South Wales. The commentary gives particular consideration to the role and responsibilities of public sector officials in choosing to pursue accruals-based accounting reforms. It questions the claimed knowledge basis underpinning such an initiative and reviews the more general pertinence of accruals accounting to practical public sector financial management issues. In seeking to reinforce a number of the messages emanating from Christensen's work, the commentary makes a number of suggestions for developing accounting research in this area. In particular, it emphasises the need to enhance understanding of the operation of accrual accounting systems in practice, the epistemic ‘communities’ serving to promote them and the importance of challenging the privileged status so often attached to such reforms/technologies.     

The Carbon Neutral Public Sector

Abstract

This paper argues for research into the effectiveness of government strategies for a ‘carbon neutral public sector’. We review initiatives in three OECD countries: New Zealand, Australia and the UK. In all jurisdictions, government agencies have consistently stressed ‘leading by example’ as a rationale for adoption. ‘Direct mandate’ by the Prime Minister (NZ); ‘organic development’ from wider central government sustainability initiatives (UK); and a more ‘laissez faire’ approach by Australian Federal and State Governments, were identified as the general pathways leading to implementation. Our assessment indicates: a lack of understanding of the implementation process for carbon neutrality; a need to identify and critically examine the ‘offset threshold’ at which mitigation efforts cease and offsetting is adopted; an absence of any evaluation of the ‘leading by example’ rationale; a lack of inter-country comparisons; a gap in understanding the relationship with economic and social aspects of sustainability; and a need to evaluate the utility of core government departments as the focus of carbon accounting. We urge colleagues to consider research in this area with a view to contributing to the interdisciplinary solutions which we believe are required.     

An institutional theory perspective on the UK's Private Finance Initiative (PFI) accounting standard setting process

This article examines the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) accounting standard setting process from an institutional theory perspective. It identifies three forms of institutional pressures and examines their impact on the PFI standard setting process. ‘Coercive’ pressure, exerted by the Treasury, and ‘normative’ pressure, exerted by the accounting profession, were influential in shaping respondents' comments on the PFI accounting Exposure Draft (ED). It is argued that the views of the accounting profession seem to have prevailed in the PFI standard setting process. This might stem from its institutional legitimacy and close ties with the Accounting Standards Board (ASB). In line with its broader policy objective of adopting private sector business practices in the public sector, the Treasury has eventually ‘acquiesced’ to the final PFI accounting standard issued by the ASB.     

Rebalancing and Regional Economic Performance: Northern Ireland in A Nordic Mirror

Northern Ireland has been characterised as having an excessively large public sector. This characterisation has led some to explain poor regional economic performance in terms of ‘crowding out’. This diagnosis has been used to justify a policy of ‘rebalancing’ and the region copying its southern neighbour's lower rate of corporation tax. The experience of large public sectors in the Nordic economies seems however to suggest that higher public spending is not necessarily damaging. This argument is examined critically. Rodrik's comparative institutional analysis indicates that in the Nordics a large public sector was the result of building a successful tradable private sector rather than its cause. In terms of the possible ‘economic dividend’ from devolution we suggest that a Hayekian insight is better: no ‘silver bullets’ exist.     

The ‘third hand’: Private sector consultants in public sector accounting change

Abstract

This paper explores the role of large private sector consulting firms in the promotion and implementation of public sector accrual accounting. By focusing on an early adopter of accrual accounting for its entire public sector, this research presents an analysis of the activities of large consulting firms in the process of a significant public sector accounting change. The role of consultants in the change is presented by analysing primary data extracted from archival sources and oral histories provided by a number of prominent actors classified as users of information (politicians), producers of information (bureaucrats) or accounting consultants. The role and impact of the consulting firms' actions can be better understood by applying concepts of non-coercive isomorphism and the interplay between self-interest and perceived public interest. The consulting firms are shown to have used phantom images to promote the case for accounting change. This was done with a zealous belief that bringing public sector accounting into line with private sector accounting was an inherently righteous objective.     

Reporting public sector financial results

Part of the process of recent public sector reform has involved replacing traditional cashbased accounts with accrual-based financial statements, similar to those found in the private sector. This article examines the use of accrual-based accounting in the public sector and provides examples from the UK National Health Service of situations where the accruals system may be deemed inappropriate. It shows that one possible response is to withdraw from the accruals mode and revert to cash measures, deeming the accruals adjustments to be ‘merely technical’. An alternative response is to change the mode of operating so that the cash impact of a transaction matches its accruals reporting impact. The conclusion is that there are modifications to public sector accounting practices away from those of the private sector that undermine the metaphor of running the public sector ‘like a business’.     

Accounting,economics and management in France: the slow emergence of an 'accounting science'

The relationship (or what might be better described as the absence of a relationship) between accounting, economics and management is an important feature of a French tradition built on a society in which accountants have been regarded as the ‘poor relations’ of the business community. This pattern is presented in the second part of the title of this article as ‘the slow emergence of an accounting science’. French business traditions have influenced accounting mainly through the property rights established by the French Revolution. The French bourgeoisie's concern with inheritance gave rise to a form of accounting which emphasized the balance sheet and inventory valuation, rather than cash flow analysis. Throughout the 19th century accounting in France was taught as a technical subject, secondary to the ‘noble’ disciplines such as engineering, law and later, economics. In the mid-20th century, the state, via the ‘Conseil National de la Comptabilité’ (the National Accounting Council) laid down accounting principles under the ‘Plan Comptable’. The separation between financial accounting and cost accounting reflected that between entrepreneurs or owners on the one hand and engineers or administrators on the other. Unlike the Anglo-Saxon countries, France did not recognize accountancy as a profession in its own right until recently. Recent years have seen a radical transformation of French accounting policies and conventions under the combined influence of the emerging requirements of financial markets, the globalization of business and the growing independence of the accountancy profession.     

Strategic Positioning And Organizational Adaptation In Social Enterprise Subsidiaries Of Voluntary Organizations

Abstract

This article examines a new organizational form, the community interest company (CIC), as a means for voluntary and charitable organizations to embark on formalized social enterprise activities in the UK. A combination of social, economic, legal and strategic positioning factors has influenced charities to set up CICs as social enterprise subsidiaries to complement their public service work. CICs with charitable origins have relatively weak strategic positions, which are distinct from those of their parent charities. This difference creates tensions in the relationship between the CICs and their parent charities, which have implications for the management of third sector social enterprises.     

Is Ulrich's model useful in understanding HR practitioners' roles in non-western developing countries? An exploratory investigation across private and public sector organizations in the Sultanate Kingdom of Oman

This study set out to explore whether Ulrich's model is useful in understanding HR roles in non-western developing countries such as Oman. The study surveyed a random sample of 780 HR practitioners, line managers and employees from public and private sector organizations. In addition 12 HR practitioners and managers were interviewed to supplement the data collected from the survey. The findings indicate that HR practitioners in Oman perform all the roles. However, ‘strategic partner’ is the least performed role. The findings also indicate that HR practitioners in the private sector are more likely to perform all the five roles to a greater extent than their counterparts in the public sector. We also found partial support for our proposition that HR practitioners in the public sector would play more ‘operational’ roles (e.g. employee advocate or functional expert) than ‘strategic’ roles (i.e. strategic partner or HR leader). The study revealed that Ulrich's model is robust enough to help in the understanding of HR roles in a non-western, developing country context. The findings are discussed within the context of institutional and cultural frameworks. The paper argues for more research to improve the understanding of how socio-economic and cultural factors influence HR roles and how they are performed.     

Governance and the Policy Process In Contemporary Europe

Diverse recent literatures on ‘the hollow state’. ‘deliberative democracy’ and ‘governing without government’ are largely concerned with the workings of politics and public management under socio-political conditions of indeterminancy and fragmentation that are variously described as characteristics of high or late modernity (Giddens 1991) or, as some prefer to put it, of post-modernity (Fox and Miller 1995). This article, which reflects the author's interest in interdisciplinary forms of post-postmodern analysis that draw upon political science and sociology and social theory as well as administrative studies, examines a number of conceptual and empirical topics that, it is argued, are relevant to exploration of the thesis that postnational social milieux are steered via new forms of societal-cum-political governance that have largely replaced governmental institutions and processes of the kind associated with classical notions of the state, public administration and liberal democracy.     

IN THE SHADOW OF ‘THE CITY’ YET TO COME: Auroville,Developmentalism and the Social Effects of Cityness

This article focuses on the planned community of Auroville in Tamil Nadu, India, founded in 1968. Building on critical readings of the settlement that have drawn attention to the power imbalance in its relationships with surrounding villages, the article delineates the ways that a geographical imagination of cityness has been a key component of the settlement's development and the forms of neo-coloniality in which it has been implicated. Drawing on archival and published sources as well as ethnographic research, the article discusses three ways in which the settlement performs a sense of its own ‘cityness-to-come’: first, the architectural discourse and planning rationality central to Auroville's identity; second, its agonistic public sphere vis-à-vis architecture and planning, and third, its ethos of learning and evolution, and the settlement's developmental teleology. In so doing, the article shows how ‘the city’ conceived as a textual and spatial promise, as well as a utopian aspiration, works ideologically to constitute the settlement itself, but also to precipitate social effects and uneven power relationships with village communities in this region. To sum up, this article develops an argument about the neo-colonial social work done by ‘the city’ conceived as text.     

Can’t You Count? Public Service Delivery and Standardized Measurement Challenges – The Case of Community Composting

Abstract

Performance measurement is increasingly important for UK third sector organizations (TSOs) driven in part by policymakers’ interest in harnessing them as deliverers of public services. This article examines a developing and little researched constituency of TSOs – community composters – which has become attractive to policymakers facing obligations to reduce, recycle, and reuse waste. The research, which included the first extensive survey of this constituency combined with a purposive case study investigation, found a highly diverse set of organizations. The analysis proposes five types of community composters and explores the challenges to developing a standardized measurement regime.     

PERFORMANCE-RELATED PAY FOR TEACHERS: An examination of the underlying objectives and its application in practice

Performance-related pay (PRP) is being introduced for schoolteachers in England and Wales at a time when policy makers are concerned with the ‘mission to modernise’ and the requirement for ‘change’ to take place in the public sector (Cabinet Office 1999: 4). In a number of recent government publications, public sector pay has been heralded as an important mechanism that will ensure public services are ‘efficient’ and of ‘high quality’. Kessler and Purcell (1992) examine the managerial objectives underlying the current application of PRP in organizations and provide a useful framework to explore and evaluate PRP systems. Their framework has been adopted to consider the implications of implementing PRP for teachers.     

Mind the gap: national and local partnership in the Irish public sector

This article uses case study data from a major Irish city council to investigate and explain public sector worker attitudes towards social partnership at local and national level. It is argued that the more sceptical attitudes to workplace partnership reflect structural differences between local and national arrangements, which have enabled public sector employers to use ‘social partnership’ as a constraint in the implementation process of a pre‐determined public sector reform agenda.     

Choosing an Accounting Method to Explain Public Policy: Social Return on Investment and UK Non-profit Sector Policy

We examine why certain accounting methods are chosen by government policy-makers to explain and rationalize their policy actions. We focus on the case of social return on investment (SROI), an accounting methodology that aims to capture and quantify the value created by social purpose organizations, and employs techniques of monetization and the expression of value as a ratio of benefits for investments [see REDF. (2000). SROI methodology: Analyzing the value of social purpose enterprise within a social return on investment framework. San Francisco: REDF; New Economics Foundation (NEF). (2007). Measuring real value: A DIY guide to social return on investment]. In particular, we examine how and why SROI was chosen for explaining and rationalizing the UK Government's policy of greater involvement of non-profit sector organizations in public service delivery. Our central contribution is to propose two important factors, which we identify as the capturability and communicability of accounting methods, that help to explain why a particular accounting method would be chosen by policy actors to explain and rationalize their public policy choices. The research helps further our understanding of the intersection between accounting and public policy by focusing explicitly on accounting's important role in explaining and rationalizing public policy.     

Promising Futures: CMS,Post‐Disciplinarity,and the New Public Social Science

This paper considers the future prospects for Critical Management Studies and by extension management studies more generally. To explore these, two frameworks from the wider social sciences are deployed. The anchorpoint for the discussion is Michael Burawoy's work distinguishing types of scholarship on the bases of (a) conceptions of knowledge produced by social scientists, and (b) different audiences for that knowledge. Critical Management Studies is founded on critique but its future will be determined by how it makes its way across Burawoy's other domains of professional, policy and public scholarship. To examine this, I draw on John Brewer's recent articulation of the ‘new public social science’. Brewer's problem‐driven, post‐disciplinary approach conceives the public value of social science as its conservation of moral sentiments and sympathetic imagination towards each other as social beings, and its ethical concern about the humanitarian future of humankind. The new public social science is normative and partisan, transgressive, scientific, and impactful. I argue that this provides a potentially fruitful template to guide future management studies. This is a future in which Critical Management Studies – as management studies' critical and emancipatory conscience – has a central role to play.     

Audit policy making in the UK

In accounting discourses, the going concern concept is considered to be ‘fundamental’ yet in auditing it is considered to be ‘material but not fundamental’. Like all other social concepts and practices, ‘going concern’ is multi-accented and its meanings cannot be stabilized. Against such a background, the UK accountancy bodies formulated and issued the auditing guideline The Auditor's Considerations in Respect of Going Concern in 1985. The purpose of this paper is to explore audit policy making in the UK by examining the formulation of the auditing guideline. The evidence suggests that the auditing guideline was an attempt by the professional bodies to manage a crisis of auditor responsibility. It suggests that a major aim of the guideline was to minimize audit effort in order to give maximum protection from litigation to major auditing firms.     

The ‘Human’ Touch

Abstract

This article critically discusses the almost mythical conception of voluntary and ‘grass-roots’ organizations as problem solvers in current welfare policy – a myth, which over the last twenty years has become increasingly dominant in social policy programmes in advanced liberal welfare states. In particular, the article examines the assumption that voluntary and local organizations are permeated by a different rationality that enables human beings to act as ‘real humans’ rather than as professionals and clients – a rationality which is, however, permanently at risk of being contaminated by bureaucratic influence. It is demonstrated that among the conditions of possibility for this discourse are explanatory models and concepts in modern organizational theory and in voluntary sector studies. The article argues that the conceptualizations of power, rationality and social change dominant in these studies are unsatisfactory. Instead, it applies a Foucauldian approach to the domain of drug addiction treatment, analysing a social work ‘regime’ that transgresses the traditional boundaries between state and voluntary sector.     

PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR PUBLIC MANAGEMENT: AN OBJECT RELATIONS APPROACH

The use of object relations theory is introduced to examine the assumption of personal responsibility by public managers. This orientation to examining administrative behaviour enhances our appreciation of the psychological dimensions of personal experience, and the influence of that experience on the public administrator's ability to take responsibility for the consequences of his actions. This approach provides a set of clear guideposts that will help organizational observers to differentiate responsible administrative tendencies from irresponsible ones. the paper presents two divergent administrative sets of roles to illustrate the psychological and social characteristics of personal responsibility, the ‘as if performer’ and the ‘participant observer’. the ‘as if performer’ is found to be more congruent with bureaucratic organizational demands, while the ‘participant observer’ is more congruent with democratic essentials.