Performance evaluation,public management improvement and democratic accountability

The results-oriented management reforms fostered by the New Public Management movement are often argued to emphasize the search for efficiency, quality and other typical market values at the expense of democratic accountability. On the other hand, challenging this view, some authors claim that results-based management reforms have the potential to enhance political accountability and representative democracy. There is however, limited empirical evidence of this relationship. This article uses some of the findings from a comparative study of public management evaluation systems in four Latin American countries to illuminate this relationship in practice. We discuss the fact that, in two of the four countries surveyed, the design features of the new systems were based on the explicit search for increased political accountability and the deepening of democracy. We also discuss the possible causes for the finding that the outcome and performance information generated is not being applied for decision-making purposes yet, as expected.     

The offspring of new public management in English Universities

New Public Management emphasizes the importance of Accountability and Performance evaluations. The purpose of this article is to explore the use of performance models and goal-setting in universities as a means for gaining insight into the use of similar performance approaches in the broader context of the new public management. The article deals with the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) which is a research evaluation mechanism used by the English Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) to determine the distribution of research funding among the universities.     

Fiscal Retrenchment in Southern Europe: Changing patterns of public management in Greece,Italy, Portugal and Spain

The vulnerability of the four south European countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) to the global financial turmoil makes the analysis of their responses to the fiscal crisis particularly interesting for the assessment of the implications of fiscal austerity for public management. Drawing on the historical institutionalist approach, our analysis reveals a picture of variation in the impact of crisis on patterns of public management across south European countries. However, it also shows uniformity in the strategies of retrenchment as in all the four countries under examination governments failed to connect cutback management to ambitious administrative modernization programmes.     

Human resource management in the public sector

This article charts the currents in public sector reform and examines how contemporary HRM articulates to the change agenda pursued in the public sector. It notes the differences between the traditional bureaucratic model and the new management approach of public sector operation and activity. It explores how the institutional, policy and organizational changes delivered a new paradigm of managing members of public service organizations.     

Modes of Interaction and Performance of Human Service Networks

Governments everywhere are engaged in self-conscious projects of administrative and managerial improvement. Scholars of public management thus confront a fascinating array of talk, conjectures, and facts on administrative and managerial change that can be assembled from myriad sources. There are as well stylized facts, stories, conjectures, and ideological glosses – these might be termed ‘theory substitutes’ – that may or may not be consistent with actual developments worldwide and which are provocative in their implications. Our goal as scholars of governance and management must be to penetrate appearances to ascertain whatever lessons and meanings might lie beneath. A variety of theoretical frameworks ranging from conceptual classifications to synoptic speculations to causal accounts of state building are available for this intellectual work.     

Configurations of New Public Management reforms and the efficiency,effectiveness and equity of public healthcare systems: a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

ABSTRACT

Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis identifies configurations of New Public Management (NPM) reforms (privatization, consumerism, performance management, and corporatization) associated with perceptions of improvements in healthcare efficiency, effectiveness and equity in 14 European countries. Although these outcomes are pursued concurrently, no combination of the considered reforms appears to support success or failure across the board and the inter-relations between reforms shape their effects. Three NPM reform profiles are evident in Europe; (1) strong reformers, adopting a comprehensive package of reforms that are perceived to perform better than (2) partial reformers, with (3) limited reformers also doing better than partial reformers.     

CLARIFYING CONVERGENCE. Striking similarities and durable differences in public management reform

Both academics and practitioners have disagreed among themselves about whether and to what extent the developed world is witnessing a convergence in the forms of public management. Some of this disagreement may be attributed to the formidable empirical problems facing those who wish to make global or near-global generalizations. To a considerable extent, however, the divergences of view may be attributed to a more subtle cause – an inadequate conceptualization of the notion of ‘convergence’ itself. This article sets out to remedy that deficiency by discussing ‘convergence’ and proposing a multi-layered definition of the concept. This approach carries with it the implication that different aspects of convergence require substantially different research strategies. It also holds out the probability that convergence and enduring difference can co-exist in one jurisdiction at one time – depending on the level at which the analysis is being conducted. The article concludes with a preliminary examination of the substantive question of actual convergence, comparing the adequacy of different theoretical approaches.     

Theorizing the organization and management of non-governmental development organizations

This article uses a case study of public recruitment in Nepal as the vehicle for a discussion of the value of three current public management models: an anticorruption model, a psychometric selection model and the new public management (NPM) model. The political context of Nepal and the role and functions of the Public Service Commission (PSC) are described. The article argues that, in contrast to current NPM doctrine, preserving the current remit of the PSC as a central agency responsible for recruitment is necessary to preserve the integrity of recruitment, which is an important element in an anticorruption strategy. The article also reviews the case for selective introduction of psychometric methods of selection. The article implies an increased importance for public recruitment in development thinking, and argues for the vital role of Service Commissions in limiting corruption. While recognizing the reality of the problems which the NPM model was developed to tackle, the article provides evidence for rejecting its claim to universality.     

New public management and the rule of economic incentives: Australian welfare-to-work from job market signalling perspective

Australia’s welfare-to-work system has undergone radical changes since the 1990s, with service delivery fully privatized in 2003 and incentives of various kinds introduced to underpin jobseeker and employment consultant activation. Informed by New Public Management (NPM), the reforms are intended to improve effectiveness and efficiency by addressing the problems of information asymmetry at different levels of the system. However, operationalizing NPM principles generated technical and regulatory challenges, and in this case, the incentive framework undermines some of the reform’s basic assumptions. This can trigger jobseekers’ and consultants’ rational decision-making behaviours which run contrary to programme expectations, hence generating suboptimal performance.     

The measurement and management of intellectual capital in the public sector

This article compares and contrasts the stage of development reached by the public and private sectors with regard to intellectual capital. Whereas the private sector in many parts of the developed world has still not fully embraced the importance of measuring intangible assets, the public sector, with its different objectives, has always had to focus on non-financial results. This has become more critical in recent years due to successive government initiatives that have required the use of a number of prescribed performance indicators. Having briefly outlined the history of both intellectual capital and the culture of performance measurement this article analyses the results of a survey of public sector organizations in Northern Ireland to assess how they are dealing with both the measurement and management of intellectual capital assets.     

Studying governance within the British public sector and without

Abstract

In the critical arena of public management and policy debates several schools currently try to make sense of governance structures and processes, although one has so far had the strongest impact in terms of academic and policy influence in particular in the United Kingdom: network governance.

Network governance has been associated with Stakeholder Capitalism – as represented for instance by the European (usually German) social-democratic settlement – and as the direct opposite of the New Public Management (as the epitome instead of Shareholder Capitalism). In this essay it will be argued that the alleged novelty of the reforms being currently implemented under the aegis of the ‘modernization’ or (network) governance rhetoric (by the Blair government, for instance) must be questioned, since they are the direct inheritors of the NPM tradition. Through the development of a multiparadigmatic model of ethical and organization theories it will be shown that alternatives to network governance are not only thinkable but also (institutionally) practicable.     

Strategic management tools and public sector management

Abstract

This article highlights the applicability and effectiveness of two well established strategic management tools, value chain and stakeholder analyses, in the context of seven public sector strategic consultancy projects. The article provides a strong justification for the use of both models, when used independently, but particularly in conjunction, as powerful strategic analytical frameworks that can significantly encourage and illuminate strategic discourses in public sector organizations.

The article establishes that strategic tools such as value chain analysis, when applied in the public sector context, require significant adaptation to maximize their contribution to understanding a given situation. This study proposes that the strategic analysis of relationships that build or contribute to concepts of organizational value are of limited importance if the complex web of interdependent relationships themselves are not clearly demonstrated. This work therefore makes a clear case for applying two strategic models, value chain analysis and stakeholder analysis, in an analogous way to demonstrate how strategic understanding in the public sector is enhanced as a result of such symbiosis.     

Clash of public administration paradigms in delegation of education and elderly care services in a post-socialist state (Poland)*

The aim of this article is to analyse the clash of concurrent perspectives (Public Administration (PA), New Public Management (NPM) and New Public Governance (NPG)) in the area of delegating public services by local governments to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in education and the elderly care sector in Poland. The article is based on 22 case studies of service delegation throughout Poland, carried out at the University of Warsaw in 2013 as part of an Innovative Project within the framework of the EC Human Capital Programme.     

How new venture initial public offerings benefit from international operations: a study of human resource value

When internationalization goes beyond simply having international sales to having international operations, organizations can benefit from diversity of ideas and knowledge. Our study focuses on a special class of companies called new venture firms. As younger organizations, they may be well equipped to embrace the unique benefits of international diversity. However, new ventures may not be equal in this regard; therefore, our study also explores the moderating effect of human resource value for these firms.     

新公共管理理论对完善我国高校管理队伍建设的启示

本文运用新公共管理理论的主要思想,分析了当前我国高校管理队伍的现状以及存在的问题,从公共管理研究的角度,对影响高校管理队伍建设的成因进行剖析,提出了新公共管理理论的主要思想对加强和完善高校管理队伍建设的借鉴和启示。     

Objectives,Techniques and valuation of state-owned companies in privatization processes

This article aims to analyse the objectives and the techniques of privatization and the valuation methods applied in the state-owned company privatization processes in order to determine the coherence between the formal privatization objectives stated by governments and the techniques and the valuation methods chosen to carry out the sale of state-owned companies. From the results of an international survey carried out by the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), we study the privatization practices in three groups of countries: the most developed OECD countries, Eastern European countries and developing countries. While the reasons that have motivated state-owned company privatizations all over the world are quite similar, the techniques of privatization used by these three groups are different with regard to the purpose of the privatization, the ways of carrying it out and the methods of fixing the sale price.     

NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT: The effects of contractualism and devolution on political control

This article analyzes effects and implications of New Public Management (NPM) when implemented in the civil service systems in New Zealand and Norway, focusing especially on the effects of devolution and contractualism on political control. Using a transformative perspective, we interpret these effects as a result of a melding of environmental factors, polity features and national historical-institutional constraints. Norway scores low on both environmental and internal factors enhancing administrative reform, furthering a soft version of NPM and small changes in political control. In contrast a combination of external pressure, weak countervailing cultural forces and ‘elective dictatorship’ in New Zealand produces a radical version of NPM, resulting in a weakening of central political control.     

Is the Emperor In His Underwear?

This paper assesses our state of knowledge concerning the ‘New Public Management’ (NPM) reforms which seem to have been launched in so many countries. In the first section it appraises the types of materials available as a basis for such an assessment. It then considers, and rejects, the thesis that, because of the improved performance they bring, these reforms are global in reach and inevitable in nature. Subsequently, the main part of the paper assesses the available evidence with respect to a number of key dimensions of reform impacts. It concludes that, while there is evidence of specific improvements in particular instances, the general case for NPM as a solution to diverse problems of governance in many different countries is far less firmly established than is commonly supposed.     

公安院校警务化管理与学生个性发展

公安高校是一个特殊的学生群体,公安院校学生将来从警的特殊性要求使警务化管理成为必然。严格的警务化管理能规范学生的言行、思想、身心,促使他们成才。