Entrepreneurship in the public sector: a framework of analysis in European local governments

In this paper we explore the potential role of entrepreneurship in public sector organizations. At first, we present a review of the entrepreneurship theme in the political science and public management research streams, comparing these ideas with the mainstream business literature on entrepreneurship. Thereafter, we illustrate empirically how Stevenson's classical framework of entrepreneurship can be applied in a European local government context to explain the recent initiatives to compete for and utilize European Union structural funds. The empirical basis of the study is comprised of ten in-depth case studies of local government organizations, five in the UK and five in Italy. Finally, we propose five distinct types of entrepreneurial agents in the public sector: professional politician; spin-off creator; business entrepreneur in politics; career-driven public officer; and politically ambitious public officer.     

Accountability – are We Better off Without It?

Abstract

Public managers increasingly lament about negative effects of accountability. Despite these reports and the importance of accountability in public organizations, it is yet unknown when it has positive or negative effects on managers. Overcoming two major obstacles in accountability research, this study therefore investigates ‘how accountability affects public manager's work behaviour’. Firstly, this study applies a cognitive theory offering a promising way out of the current theoretical dead-end. Secondly, the quasi-experimental research design makes the complex concept of accountability more tangible and findings transferable to practice. Moreover, individual level characteristics such as motivation are used to investigate a potential interaction between contingency and individual level characteristics. Results indicate both positive and negative effects of accountability on work behaviour and hence strongly challenge the positive normative connotation of accountability.     

A Daunting Task in Asia

Abstract

This article deals with the question of how to transform the public sector in Asia towards transparency and accountability. What are the main challenges and constraints in promoting transparency and accountability? What kind of strategies can we suggest to enhance and sustain transparency and accountability? It will start with the introduction, including environmental changes in public affairs, and a brief overview of transparency and accountability. Then it will look at what major challenges and constraints there are in enhancing transparency and accountability. This will be followed by a discussion of key strategies for the transformation and sustainability of transparency and accountability for further development in the Asian public sector.     

State–third Sector Partnerships: A short overview of key issues in the debate

Abstract

The theme of partnership with the third sector has been on the agenda of public management research for a long time now, not least in this journal. As an introduction to a special issue on this topic, the article discusses two issues crucial to further study of this phenomenon. The first on the types or categories that can be distinguished when comparing these partnerships between countries or policy fields; the second how recent public management reforms (especially of the New Public Management variety) have affected the nature of third sector organizations and their role in relation to the state.     

Government and governance: The value of project management in the public sector

Governance is an emerging theme that has been associated in the public sector with a real political need to satisfy stakeholders by demonstrating accountability and transparency while effectively implementing policy. Many initiatives relating to governance are generated by a need for improvement of organizational performance and ability to implement and adapt to change. These generally take the form of projects and programs encouraging a variety of project management implementations in the public sector. This article reports on examination of the expectations and realization of value from investment in project management in four Australian public‐sector organizations with particular reference to the government context, the perspective of public value management (PVM), and the support that project management provides in meeting the demands of public‐sector governance.     

Relevant and Preferred Public Service: A study of user experiences and value creation in public transit

When public service success is dependent upon creating value that attracts users, public managers can benefit from adopting private sector principles. This article draws on the theory of attractive quality and strategic management research to focus on the theoretical and managerial implications of how organizations’ resource allocations affect user experiences. The present study shows how public transit organizations’ achievement of twenty-five different service requirements affected their offerings’ relevance and preference among 930 users. This article increases the understanding of how strategic choices and prioritization between various service requirements affect both the effectiveness and efficiency of (public) service offerings.     

Modelling the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation,organizational integration,and programme performance in local sustainability

Empirical analyses testing the impacts of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) remain lacking in public sector research despite strong normative expectations for public managers to foster a culture of innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness, and accountability in their organizations. Drawing data from a nationwide survey of the US local governments, this research uses structural equation modelling to examine relationships between EO, organizational integration processes, and performance in the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) programme. The study finds that EO positively influences programme performance, but does so indirectly by enhancing knowledge sharing, interorganizational collaboration, and performance information use. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Singing the same song: translating HRM messages across management hierarchies in Australian hospitals

The management of expatriation has grown in importance as the numbers of multinational companies has grown significantly since the 1970s. However, public and non-government sector organizations have long traditions of managing expatriates. This paper presents the results of research that compared the manner in which Australian private, public and non-government sector organizations selected their expatriates. The results confirm the numerous reports in the international human resource management (IHRM) literature that, in private sector organizations, selection is carried out largely on the basis of technical competence, with minimal attention being paid to the interpersonal skills and domestic situations of potential expatriates. The limited role of HR managers in this process is also identified. The selection practices of public sector organizations reflect the merit selection policies of this sector. The non-government sector organizations' selection practices differ markedly from those of the organizations in the other two sectors, in that psychological testing is widely used and the family is treated as a unit and included in the selection process.     

Creating accountability through HR analytics – An audit society perspective

This paper introduces an accountability-based perspective of the effects of implementing HR analytics. Considering central arguments about HR analytics' potential to transform HRM and using research on the audit society and concepts from critical accounting research, we develop a framework that analyzes the emergence of three forms of accountability in HRM: accountability through exposure, design, and connectivity. The paper contributes to research on HR analytics by identifying three forms of accountability in HRM that result from implementing HR analytics and by determining how they influence how HRM is understood, how HR practices are augmented, and how HRM's status in organizations can be improved.     

Conflict of Interest in Policing and the Public Sector

Abstract

Conflicts of interest are a key factor in the contemporary decline of trust in government and public institutions, eroding public trust in government and democratic systems. Drawing on two unique empirical studies involving policing and the broader public sector, this paper explores the meaning and dimensions of conflict of interest by examining public complaints about conflict of interest and providing distinctive insights into the nature of conflict of interest as a problem for public sector ethics. The paper analyses and explores appropriate regulatory and management approaches for conflict of interest, focusing on three elements: (1) dealing with private interests that are identifiably problematic in the way they clash with the duties of public officials; (2) managing conflicts as they arise in the course of public sector work (manifested in preferential and adverse treatment, and other problematic areas); and (3) developing ethical and accountable organisational cultures. It is concluded that effective and meaningful public sector ethics in the pursuit of the public interest must be based on an ethos of social accountability and a commitment to prioritise the public interest in both fact and appearance.     

Responses to public sector reform policy

Abstract

The article compares the ways in which different public sector organizations respond to similar federal government demands for public sector reform. The empirical basis of the article is a comparison of public sector reform in three agencies managing road systems in three Australian states. There are two constants in the research; namely, the nature of the responsibilities of the agencies with respect to the road network, and the demands of federal government policy for road reform throughout Australia. Yet within the ambit of these two constants, there is a distinctive contrast in the way the agencies have approached and implemented both policy and reforms. The article uses Hood's framework for viable organizational design options for variables relating to grid and group as an explanatory model for the results obtained from the research. Furthermore, it examines the utility of Hood's four styles of public sector organizations in order to explain different change outcomes in the three agencies studied.     

The ‘post-bureaucratic’ public sector organization. New organizational forms and HRM in ten UK public sector organizations

This paper evaluates the extent to which ‘post-bureaucratic’ organizational forms have been introduced to the UK public sector and the implications for human resource management policies and practices in the sector. The study draws from interview data at ten public sector organizations including local authorities, the National Health Service, the Civil Service, police authorities, broadcasting and transport. It concludes that certain structural changes have been made, but that older functional lines of authority still exist and thus post-bureaucratic claims are misleading. However, a harsher working environment has arisen for managers in these public sector organizations, with longer hours and a more complex working environment. Older certainties such as job security, a safe career path and seniority-based pay have all been eroded.     

The ethics of corporate governance in public sector organizations

The current climate of increased accountability in public sector organizations has brought to public attention the ethical dimension of corporate governance. This article presents a conceptually informed method for undertaking of an ethically focused audit corporate governance. The conceptual-theoretical terrain is set out in three dimensions: ethics as applied moral philosophy; equity as social justice; and corporate governance as the moral health of an organization. At an operational level, the conceptual model proposed provides a framework to evaluate the overall integrity of an organization and embraces the inter-related themes of individual responsibility, social equity and political responsibility. A method for ethical audits is also set out. It emphasizes the significance of key personnel in (re)producing and challenging the organizational ethos, while recognizing the necessary limitations placed on researchers' commitment to anonymity and confidentiality in the collection, interpretation and analysis of data, and in the eventual sharing of such data.     

PRODUCTIVITY IN PUBLIC SERVICES

Abstract.  This paper discusses issues arising in the measurement of productivity in public services. Compared to measuring productivity in the private sector difficulties arise because the output of public services is often unpriced and because some public services are consumed collectively. A key problem is measuring the full range of outputs and quality improvements delivered by public sector organizations that are valued by society. Without comprehensive measures of output, productivity statistics may be misleading. I outline methods used in the measurement of both private and public sector productivity and discuss the measurement of public sector productivity in practice. Finally I discuss studies that examine factors underlying productivity differences and productivity growth in public and private sector organizations. Public sector reforms and the use of pilot schemes in public sector organizations present opportunities for research to identify causal effects on productivity.     

Examining Audit Committees in the Corporate Governance of Public Bodies

Public bodies have adopted corporate governance regimes from the private sector assuming that accountability and performance will be improved. This paper analyses audit committees in a local public body context, NHS foundation trusts (FTs). Audit committees play a key role in enhancing governance. FTs follow the recommendations made by Monitor, their independent regulator. FTs, however, appear to adapt the role of the audit committee to meet the accountability needs of the wider stakeholders of public hospitals. Audit committees assure (vertical) financial accountability, and also provide assurance along horizontal lines of accountability to local communities, professional bodies and other stakeholders.     

Institutional isomorphism and whistle-blowing intentions in public sector institutions

Over the years the new institutionalism in public sector analysis has contributed significantly to our understanding of the dynamics of public sector institutions. While it has moved research away from behavioural explanations to recognizing political and cultural contexts, the focus on public sector institutions has been minimal. This research examines, by self-report questionnaire from employees in two government organizations, how institutional mechanisms shape whistle-blowing intentions within the context of a developing country. Despite the country context, findings from this study are encouraging in that participants’ intentions to blow the whistle were found, generally, to be strong.     

Innovation labs in the public sector: what they are and what they do?

This article is a first comprehensive attempt to globally map and analyse innovation labs (i-labs) in the public sector. The article analyzes theoretical reasons why i-labs are created in the public sector and tests these assumptions in practice. During the empirical study, thirty-five such organizations all over the world were identified. The research is based on a two-step approach: first, a comprehensive survey was carried out followed by an extensive in-depth interview with the managing figures of i-labs; eleven i-labs responded. The article finds support for the assumptions of external complexity, technological challenges, emulation, and legitimization as reasons behind the creation of i-labs.     

In Search of Collaborative Public Management

Abstract

This paper describes how managers from disparate organizations collaborated to implement a crime programme through the mechanism of a multi-layered crime partnership. The case is analysed using three theoretical models: collaborative public management (CPM), new public management (NPM) and public administration (PA). A case study research strategy was adopted with eighteen managers from the partnership being interviewed and ten partnership meetings being observed, to enhance understanding of management practice under partnership. This paper provides evidence for CPM, a model of management suited to deliver on the shared outcomes required by government from the varied organizations involved in crime programmes.     

How Not to Kill the Golden Goose: Reconceptualizing accountability environments of third-sector organizations

For third-sector organizations (TSOs) that deliver publicly funded health and community services, accountability practices are predominantly shaped by the imperatives of government funders. However, the ensuing public management accountability regimes can undermine TSO responsiveness to communities, align poorly with imperatives of professional staff, create high transaction costs and threaten TSO sustainability. Public management literature lacks an adequate framework for conceptualizing TSO accountability. We outline a conceptual framework – the ‘triskele’ – for analysing accountability tensions experienced by TSOs that could assist funders and other stakeholders with the difficult task of designing more workable and meaningful accountability regimes for all stakeholders.