The impact of public service values on services of general interest reform debates

Abstract

Competing values complicate debates on the reform of public services. Attention for competition and efficiency is balanced by concerns for equity and universality in service delivery. These potential value conflicts are best visible in the reform of services of general interest. Despite debates at the European and the national level, current research on services of general interest has been limited to scholars in law and economics. Citizens' opinion on the guiding principles of service delivery is generally disregarded. In this article, we analyse a number of Eurobarometer surveys dealing with services of general interest, as well as a general survey of citizens' perceptions of the public sector in Belgium. We delineate clusters of citizens' public service delivery value orientations, and show that one-sided or ideology-based reform strategies probably negate many of the continuing dilemmas in public service delivery.     

A historical perspective on nonverbal communication in debates: Implications for elections and leadership

Nonverbal communication has been a focus in both the realms of politics and leadership. Since 1960 commentaries about political debates have led to the conclusion that inept nonverbal communication may have been a telling sign as to who lost the eventual election. This article will give a brief recount of the nonverbal ineptitude associated with several televised debates throughout history, a short research note about how nonverbal communication in a debate may predict the loser of an election, and a set of recommendations that may help leaders. In essence, as nonverbal communication may not necessarily help candidates in a debate and subsequent election, but rather hurt them, the same can be said for leaders in general: nonverbal communication may not necessarily help leaders become their very best, but it can definitely hurt them and their effectiveness as leaders.     

On the Effectiveness of Incentive Pay: Exploring Complementarities and Substitution between Management Control System Elements in a Manufacturing Firm

Abstract

Extant research already emphasises that complementarities and substitution involving incentive pay and other elements of an organisation's management control system play an important role in terms of explaining the effectiveness of incentive systems. Despite this awareness calls continue for more research addressing the need to better understand how interdependencies arise among management control system elements and how they affect organisational effectiveness. Based on an in-depth case study on the implementation of a new incentive system in a manufacturing firm, we seek to provide more research and insight into how incentive pay features in complementary and substitutional relationships in an individual organisational setting. Greater insight can help illustrate how complementary and substitutional relationships unfold in even more complex ways than current research indicates, as well as how the effectiveness of the incentive system in the individual organisational setting is determined by these relationships.     

New product development in foreign customer relationships: a study of international SMEs

Abstract

This study identifies a gap in research concerning how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can benefit from pursuing locally (rather than globally) oriented internationalization strategies. Becoming overly dependent on one single foreign market could potentially reduce the inflow and diversity of new knowledge that can serve as input for new product development. This study discusses how this risk can be minimized. In this endeavour we create a theoretical model that investigates how the local sales concentration and relationship-specific commitment of SMEs relates to new product development. To do this we draw on the behavioural internationalization process framework. The theoretical model is tested on an effective sample of 188 Swedish SMEs. The results show that relationship-specific commitment mediates the effect of local sales concentration on new product development. The implication is that investments which enable collaboration in important business relationships are crucial requisites for keeping firms innovative and in pace with market fluctuations. The findings thus contribute to international business literature by showing that a local market scope of operations combined with a relationship orientation are beneficial for new product development in international SMEs.     

Towards a strategic understanding of global teams and their HR implications: an expert dialogue

Abstract

Drawing on initial insights emerging from a panel at the EIBA 2016 Conference in Vienna, here discussants and expert panelists engage in a follow-on conversation on the HRM implications of global teams for international organizations. First we set out how HRM can enable global teams and their constituent members to overcome the new and considerable challenges of global teams. These challenges span levels of analysis, time and space. Next we debate global teams as a strategic response to the dual pressures of global integration and local adaptation. We consider what HRM is needed for global teams to successfully resolve this dilemma, challenging practitioners to move beyond the ‘best practices’ and ‘alignment’ dichotomy. Lastly we look to the future to consider implications for research. We propose a rich research agenda focused on the complexities of the global team context.     

What does it mean to be a ‘self-initiated’ expatriate in different contexts? A conceptual analysis and suggestions for future research

Abstract

Personal initiative is an important behavior relevant to future workplaces that will require significant self-reliance. In research on self-initiated expatriates (SIE), it is assumed that those who move to another country and a new job show ‘initiative’ and yet it has received insufficient attention in empirical publications. We highlight the degree to which personal initiative shown by SIEs is context-dependent and conclude that it is untenable to attribute to all SIEs a homogeneous work behavior in terms of personal initiative. To improve the fast-growing SIE research, we incorporate a theory of personal initiative and advocate for, and give suggestions on how to measure initiative. We also, offer an initial model of how personal initiative will improve SIE outcomes. By offering specific guidance for future research, we seek to enhance the meaningfulness of future studies and thus increase their utility for organizations and policymakers alike. We conclude by expressing the importance of this conceptualization in practice.     

The Use of Forecast Accuracy Indicators to Improve Planning Quality: Insights from a Case Study

Abstract

Accounting studies have analyzed rolling forecasts and similar dynamic approaches to planning as a way to improve the quality of planning. We complement this research by investigating an alternative (complementary) way to improve planning quality, i.e. the use of forecast accuracy indicators as a results control mechanism. Our study particularly explores the practical challenges that might emerge when firms use a performance measure for forecast accuracy. We examine such challenges by means of an in-depth case study of a manufacturing firm that started to monitor sales forecast accuracy. Drawing from interviews, meeting observations and written documentation, we highlight two possible concerns with the use of forecast accuracy: concerns related to the limited degree of controllability of the performance measure and concerns with its goal congruence. We illustrate how organizational actors experienced these challenges and how they adapted their approach to forecast accuracy in response to them. Our empirical observations do not only shed light on the possibilities and challenges pertaining to the use of forecast accuracy as a performance measure; they also improve our understanding of how specific qualities of performance measures apply to ‘truth-inducing’ indicators, and how the particular organizational and market context can shape the quality of performance measures more generally.     

Notes on contributors

Abstract

Today, many public professionals feel estranged from the policy programmes they implement; that is, they experience ‘policy alienation’. This is of concern as, for satisfactory implementation, some identification with the policy is required. We conceptualize policy alienation based on the sociological concept of work alienation, and show how this can be used in policy implementation research. Studying a Dutch case of professionals implementing a new work disability decree, we observe how NPM practices increase policy alienation because of a perceived dysfunctional focus on efficiency and results. A large number of policy changes and stricter implementation rules further increased policy alienation.     

Not every public sector is a field: evidence from the recent overhaul of the English NHS

ABSTRACT

A structural interpretation of institutionalism has become dominant in public management research. Yet, studies tend to assume an institutional-level phenomenon without specifying how an organizational field was identified or whether structural characteristics can indeed be found in the organizational population studied. This lacuna is illustrated by exploring the structural interpretation of the field construct in the case of the recent overhaul of English primary care. Findings demonstrate the need for a more robust application of institutionalism in empirical research. Possible research problems for public management and a future research agenda based on a more relational approach to fields are discussed.     

Accommodating a Foreign Object: Federalism,coordination and performance management in the reform of German employment administration

Abstract

This paper uses the case of the reform of the German employment administration to explore the usage of performance management approaches within multi-level governance settings. It traces the adoption and accommodation of the performance management approach to govern the joint service centres (called ‘Jobcenter’) at the local level within the multi-level administrative coordination regime in Germany’s federal system. A contribution is made to nascent debates about the potential of managerial tools in systems of negotiated decision-making. The paper shows how performance management is adapted to the institutional logic of multi-level administrative coordination and serves as a facilitator of cross-level coordination.     

Bridging the research-practice divide: Harnessing expertise collaboration in making a wider set of contributions

Understanding how we develop research contributions which go beyond conversations in the academic field is an enduring challenge. While much has been written on the importance of academic-practitioner relationships in the research process more is needed on conceptualizing how we develop a wider set of contributions. In this paper, we call for researchers to be reflective as to how different forms of expertise can be drawn on during collaborative relationships to bridge the research – practice divide. We develop a framework which combines different levels of expertise with varying forms of academic-practitioner collaboration to widen the impact of our research. Four strategies are proposed by which academics may leverage their expertise in collaborative relationships with practitioners to develop Research Impact and Contributions To Knowledge (RICK). These include: maintaining critical distance, promoting deeper engagement, developing prescience, and achieving hybrid practices. We discuss implementation approaches for each of these RICK strategies and suggest writing genres to help increase engagement by practitioners in research contributions.     

The dynamic nature of HRM implementation: a structuration perspective

Abstract

Over the past decades, scholars have dedicated substantial attention to the process of HRM implementation. Most progress has been made with debates on HRM system strength, roles of organisational actors in HRM implementation, and intended, actual and perceived HRM. In this paper, we challenge the current view on HRM implementation as being too static and one-directional. By building on structuration theory, we show that the process of HRM implementation is less straightforward than has been previously assumed. After their initial introduction, HRM practices evolve through turbulent developments. Furthermore, instead of neatly distributed roles following meticulously scheduled planning, HRM practices are influenced by various organisational actors. For successful implementation, HRM practices need to become inscribed into the interpretive schemes of organisational actors, resources have to be distributed, the HRM practice has to gain legitimacy. We develop a comprehensive framework that assists in understanding the process of HRM implementation.     

Accelerators as start-up infrastructure for entrepreneurial clusters

ABSTRACT

Infrastructure is commonly conceptualized as a set of facilities that play a critical role in facilitating activities by individuals and organizations. Conventionally, infrastructure is tightly linked to publicly funded projects that facilitate access to key resources and enable diverse activities. Within entrepreneurial clusters research, infrastructure includes universities, research institutions and telecommunication technologies that facilitate entrepreneurial activities. These capital-intensive investments seek to facilitate start-ups emergence by aiding access to markets and development of ideas. Accelerators facilitate the same activities and have only recently been conceptualized as start-up infrastructure. This study builds upon this research stream by elaborating on how accelerators can play this meaningful role at the cluster level. Specifically, and by relying on the analysis of empirical evidence from three distinct studies, we uncover how accelerators provide tangible and intangible dimensions of start-up infrastructure to form a positively reinforcing cycle of entrepreneurial activities. Additionally, our findings allow us to push further the idea that start-up infrastructure development can be an endogenous process involving multiple actors within the cluster. Our empirical findings and the theoretical insights derived from them have meaningful implications for the aforementioned literature, as well as start-up practitioners and policymakers linked to the funding of entrepreneurial clusters.     

Easier said than done: a review of antecedents influencing effective HR implementation

Abstract

Despite the importance of effective implementation of HR policies and practices for the achievement of HR outcomes, this remains an area of research to which HR scholars have paid limited attention, without a clear conceptualization of constructs and a lack of consolidation of research findings. Moreover, the field does not avail of an organized corpus of knowledge to guide how to accomplish the successful implementation of HR practices. As a response to this situation, the present study provides a review of empirically grounded evidences about antecedents that can influence effective HR implementation. With the results of the review, we generate a model that organizes the elements identified according to content, context and process, and that proposes relationships among them. The study also delineates much-needed avenues for further research on this topic, and constitutes a first step to claim attention for the phenomenon of HR implementation among HR scholars.     

From Occupation to Recuperation: Property,Politics and Provincialization in Contemporary Madrid

Recent debates have once again engaged with the substance and meaning of urban politics within our increasingly complex and startling contemporary landscapes. Yet these debates, while giving nods in the direction of feminist and postcolonial scholarship, largely work through traditional lenses of class, labor and the dynamic workings of neoliberal capitalism. In this article, I focus on spaces of difference and their engagement with the urban to demonstrate how politics ‘happens' in locations often left off the map of both scholarship and popular imaginaries, and, crucially, how those locations can, in fact, illuminate shifting political arrangements elided by other methodologies. By juxtaposing European okupa debates with postcolonial discussions of urban informality, I trace what I argue is a new iteration of squatting within a city both ravaged by edicts of neoliberal austerity and buoyed by the efflorescence of social movements and alternative political projects. I then explicate the role of property in constituting the urban within Spain, using the concept of ‘provincialization'. In doing so, I think relationally between systems of property and emergent forms of insurgency to argue that we are witnessing an anticipatory politics that fundamentally challenges hegemonic relationships between everyday citizens and regimes of property ownership.     

The role of the psychological contract in shaping graduate experiences: a study of public sector talent management programmes in the UK and Australia

Abstract

Although talent management is acknowledged for its role in building competitive advantage, very little research has examined the factors that influence the success of talent management programmes at an individual level. In this paper we explore participant experiences (n = 68) from two public sector ‘fast track’ graduate development programmes, one in the UK and one in Australia. Drawing on psychological contract theory we examine how talent management programmes shape individual expectations and how these expectations influence participant experiences and evaluations of the programme. Our findings highlight the role of both talent management strategy and talent management implementation as well as factors external to the organisation, (such as employer brand and the influence of family and friends), in shaping expectations. Our analysis highlights the impact of multiple agents, particularly line managers, in the ongoing development and fulfilment of the ‘graduate psychological contract’. At a practical level, we argue that organisations need to manage expectations by more explicitly communicating what will, or will not, be offered in a graduate fast-track programme. We also suggest that organisations need to consider the importance of line managers in the implementation of talent management.     

Patient and Public Involvement in Healthcare Quality Improvement: How organizations can help patients and professionals to collaborate

Abstract

Citizens across the world are increasingly called upon to participate in healthcare improvement. It is often unclear how this can be made to work in practice. This 4-year ethnography of a UK healthcare improvement initiative showed that patients used elements of organizational culture as resources to help them collaborate with healthcare professionals. The four elements were: (1) organizational emphasis on non-hierarchical, multidisciplinary collaboration; (2) organizational staff ability to model desired behaviours of recognition and respect; (3) commitment to rapid action, including quick translation of research into practice; and (4) the constant data collection and reflection process facilitated by improvement methods.     

Shortfall risk minimization in a discrete regime switching model

Abstract There have been profound ideas on how to measure risk which have influenced the financial market. Shortfall risk minimization is one of the methods which has attracted considerable attention. This problem has been studied for the binomial model in Runggaldier and Zaccaria (2000) and Runggaldier, Trivellato and Vargiolu (2002) and for the trinomial model in Scagnelatto and Vargiolu (2002). In this paper, we investigate shortfall risk minimization in a discrete regime switching model. In the model, we have two possible regimes, which are both binomial. To fix ideas, we can think of the second regime as being the consequence of the presence of inside information, but this can also be due to other factors. Explicit solutions for one-period models are given.     

Development of a multi-dimensional measure for assessing entrepreneurial ecosystems

ABSTRACT

Researchers and theorist have put great effort into defining and examining entrepreneurial ecosystems and how business clusters develop in certain regions. Favourable entrepreneurship ecosystems are thought to drive business and innovation. However, a commonly accepted measure of entrepreneurial ecosystem favourableness has yet to be developed. The purpose of the present research is to contribute to ecosystems research by taking a two-study approach to developing and validating a perceptual measure of entrepreneurial ecosystems. The perceptual measure is based upon prior conceptual frameworks that outline ecosystems. In developing this measure, we are able to further unpack and illuminate the factor structure of ecosystems, the results of which have direct scholarly and practitioner uses.