Are standardized EMSs useful in local authorities? A study of how a tool from the private sector is used in the public sector

Following the trend in the private sector, standardized environmental management systems (EMSs) have been introduced in several local authorities around the world. When the tool is transferred from the private sector to the public, one can ask how useful the tool is in the new environment, since the private and the public sectors are two different types of social sphere, with different institutional logics. Taking a closer look at the situation in Sweden, this paper aims to investigate the applicability of standardized EMSs in local authorities and the public sector in general. Based on qualitative interviews with public officers in two municipalities in Sweden, it is argued that EMSs are useful in municipalities. However, the study also reveals that an EMS seems to be more suitable for technical service administrations and municipally owned companies than social service administrations. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Public sector purchasing of health services: A comparison with private sector purchasing

Recent research has highlighted the existence of important differences between public and private sector procurement practices. Drawing on established transactional and relational conceptual frameworks, this paper examines whether the differing environments confronting public and private sector organisations affects procurement practices. By focusing solely on occupational health services as an example of a complex business service, the research allows the influence of environmental factors, notably policy drivers, to be considered across both public and private sector settings while service specific factors remain largely constant. Utilising a combination of questionnaires and in-depth interviews the research suggests that policy drivers had a major bearing on procurement practices adopted in the public sector, resulting in a very different pattern of engagement with service providers from that prevailing in the private sector. Specifically whereas private sector organisations utilised a range of approaches, which can broadly be classified as relational in nature, public sector organisations almost exclusively relied on transactional-based approaches. The nature of these services suggests that relational based procurement constitutes the optimal approach to the acquisition of such services. However, for public sector organisations the perceived restrictions imposed by public policy on procurement practices resulted in the adoption of an approach which can be viewed as resulting in sub-optimal outcomes.     

The Extent and Evolution of Productivity Deficiency in Eastern Germany

Since the German re-unification in 1990, Eastern Germany has been a transition economy. After a phase of catching up in productivity with Western Germany from 1991 to 1996, growth rates in the producing sector have dropped below those in Western Germany since 1997. This study investigates whether this macroeconomic picture holds at the microeconomic level. For the special case of Eastern Germany, I suggest identifying productivity gaps by using comparable Western German firms as a “productivity benchmark”. Applying an econometric matching procedure allows to study the productivity gap at the firm level in detail. Besides labor and capital, other factors like innovation and firm ownership are taken into account. The macroeconomic facts are broadly confirmed: a significant gap has remained in recent years. Moreover, Eastern German innovators perform worse than their Western German pendants, and firms owned by Western German or foreign companies perform better than those owned by Eastern German entities.     

所有权性质、融资约束与企业投资——基于投资现金流敏感性的经验证据

本文通过研究中国制造业上市公司投资支出与其内部现金流的敏感性,分析经济转轨过程中不同所有权企业融资约束的变动情况。研究发现:(1)制造业上市公司存在明显的融资约束,且民营企业的融资约束明显高于国有企业;(2)在研究期间,全部样本企业的投资现金流敏感性随时间逐渐降低;(3)预算软约束的存在,使得国有企业投资现金流敏感性随时间下降的幅度比民营企业低。     

Affective commitment within the public sector: antecedents and performance outcomes between ownership types

How to generate affective commitment and realize its performance potential is deemed critical to public management. But in the context of service outsourcing, does ownership type influence its antecedents and performance outcomes? Drawing on postal survey data for English leisure providers, we find training is an antecedent across public and private ownership types; performance appraisal is an antecedent for private ownership only; while performance-related pay carries an insignificant effect. Affective commitment holds business and customer performance outcomes for public ownership, but insignificant effects are observed for external ownership types. Implications of this contextual variation for public management theory are discussed.     

Environmental Policies for Sustainable Development: An Analysis of the Drivers of Proactive Environmental Strategies in the Service Sector

This article examines the drivers of environmental proactivity in the service sector. Hypotheses were tested using multiple hierarchical regression analysis with data from a sample of 41 managers in Spanish environmental consulting companies. Results show statistically significant relationships between (1) managers’ attitude towards sustainable development, (2) positive short‐term firm performance and (3) the strategic attitude of environmental consulting firms and the adoption of proactive environmental strategies by the studied companies. This article is pioneering in the analysis of drivers of corporate proactive environmental strategies in the consultancy sector. The findings have practical implications for policy‐makers, investors and other agents interested in a better management of the environment. Economic incentives such as subsidies to environmental training programmes for managers can induce changes in cognitive components of managers’ attitudes. Education policies could also affect managers’ attitudes towards the environment. Companies may also encourage attitude change by providing their managers with financial assistance to receive environmental training. External assistance to develop a strategic attitude could be an interesting policy to encourage voluntary environmental initiatives. Finally, fiscal deductions, tax breaks or subsidies to those companies interested in managing the environment can be effective incentives for those firms facing a weak short‐term financial situation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

新中国成立初期城市私有住宅公有化过程及其启示

当前,我国城市住宅短缺问题突出,政府城市住宅政策尚不完善。有鉴于此,回顾和总结新中国成立初期的城市住房政策就颇有意义。在新中国成立初期,我国同样面临城市住宅短缺的问题。当时,私有住宅占城市住宅总量的绝大多数。中国政府采取两步走的公有化策略,公私并存和社会主义改造。通过对城市住宅的公有化,政府手中掌握了大量的城市住宅资源,有利于管理和分配。但在公有化过程中私人房主的利益一而再地被忽视和损害。回看新中国成立初期的那段历史,可以为我们今天城市住宅制度的制定提供一些启示,一是,住宅制度的制定需遵循经济规律;二是,满足百姓的住宅需求是住宅制度的根本目标。     

Diaries from the front line—Formal supervision and job quality among social care workers during austerity

Focusing on social care workers in public, private and voluntary sectors, this article contributes to research on the impact of austerity on public service human resource management (HRM). The article uses an innovative diary method to highlight the importance of intrinsic elements of job quality such as supervision practice in mitigating degradation in extrinsic elements as austerity dismantles public service HRM. The article also reports that supervision has itself come under pressure due to resource shortages. The results regarding sub‐sector differences have implications for policy‐makers and practitioners in terms of rebuilding the standard employment relationship in social care so that they are more sensitive to differences across private, public and voluntary sectors.     

Public Service Broadcasting: A Paradox of our Time

The broadcasting industry remains the last refuge of belief in the virtues of public ownership and public control. The tradition of the free press, privately owned and independent of government, is foreign to broadcasting. The conditions that make free competition possible in broadcasting are now becoming a reality in the UK, but government policy is to strengthen public service broadcasting.     

城市公共部门知识管理实证研究

相对于成熟的企业知识管理来说,城市公共部门知识管理实践具有重要意义,运用结构方程模型和数理统计方法重点对上海市公共部门知识管理进行调查的实证研究表明：城市公共部门中开放型的组织文化对知识交流、知识共享和组织学习有正向影响;城市公共部门的知识管理实施将对公共部门组织管理领域、业务流程领域、创新实践领域、公众服务领域、人力资源管理领域等5个领域有明显的改进作用,结论为推动我国城市公共部门知识管理提供现实性的理论借鉴。     

An Essay on Distributive Justice and the Equal Ownership of Natural Resources

The article argues that, in seeking to establish criteria for distributive justice, consideration should be given to the manner in which Earth's natural resources are owned. The views of seven notable authorities on this issue are presented, ranging from an unrestricted right of private ownership to some form of public or collective ownership. The possibility of a system of ownership that is private but equal is discussed.     

Comparative performance appraisal practices and management values among foreign and domestic firms in India

Countering culture-based analyses indicating homogeneity in Indian management practices, this empirical study compares performance appraisal practices and management values in India by firm ownership. Differences in Indian private investor corporations, public sector enterprises, foreign/joint ventures and private family businesses are examined to assist managers to adapt selectively to firms in the changing Indian economy. Theoretical and managerial implications, as well as future directions for research are discussed.     

我国废旧家电电子产品回收处理机制探讨

我国因人口众多,电子电器产品的实际拥有量非常大,当这些产品被淘汰或换代时,产品废弃的数量同样巨大。如何有效地进行废旧电器电子的资源化回收处理,已经成为当前关系到我国经济、社会和环境可持续发展及我国再生资源回收利用面临的一个新课题。分析了我国废旧家电电子产品回收处理现状及存在问题,提出建立相关的法律、法规、市场机制及出台积极的经济政策,同时利用经济政策和利益驱动刺激回收市场发展,并加大绿色技术投入,使得废旧家电回收利用规模化发展。     

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.     

“Ministering to the Social Needs of the People”: Samuel Jones,Strong Mayor Government,and Municipal Ownership, 1897–1904

Debates in the Progressive era between supporters of the franchise system and supporters of municipal ownership provide an example of conflicting views of appropriate models of state development. The former wanted to continue the public‐private partnerships that characterized much of 19^th‐century state building, while the latter maintained that this system inevitably led to corruption and exacerbated inequality, calling for a new system of publicly run programs. Mayor Samuel Jones of Toledo worked to expand municipally owned utilities and transportation. Jones argued that granting franchises for the provision of public services enabled private companies to accrue profits that belonged to the people. He actively promoted an alternative model based on his faith in the potential of government, through a program of public ownership, to exemplify a sense of community, brotherhood, and love. Yet obstruction by the city council and lack of mayoral power blocked his efforts. As a result, he attempted to secure a “strong mayor” charter that would enable him to enact his program. The voters, however, rejected the plan, fearing centralization of power and loss of popular accountability. This outcome highlights the importance of the relationship between electoral structures and functional expansion in American political development.     

Does ownership matter for service delivery value? an examination of citizens’ service satisfaction

Governments across the world outsource service delivery to external agents, but does ownership matter for service delivery value? Though theory points to clear ownership differences on effectiveness, there remains limited empirical evidence of the impact of ownership on citizens’ satisfaction. Focusing on local authorities in England, we draw on secondary data (2007 and 2009) to examine if ownership type matters. The findings indicate that ownership – public, non-profit, private – confers no direct benefits for citizens’ satisfaction suggesting that the outsourcing decision should not rely on unfounded assumptions about performance differentials between ownership types. The implications for public management are explored.     

公共部门人力资源管理中的问题及对策

以政府为核心的公共部门,不仅可以为大众提供优质公共产品和公共服务,还对社会稳定和经济进步起到至关重要的作用。为了更好地推动国内经济社会的积极发展,必须使公共部门人员的自身价值得到最大程度的发挥。这就需要做好公共部门的人员资源管理,提高他们工作效率和服务质量。为了更好地促进国内社会公共部门人力资源管理发展,论文分析了公共部门人力资源管理中存在的问题,对如何改善提高公共部门人力资源管理提出相应解决方案。     

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 influence of private equity and venture capital on the post-IPO performance of newly-public acquirers

This paper examines the influence of private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) ownership on the post-initial public offering (IPO) performance of newly-public acquirers. Our results show that acquirers with PE- or VC-backing at the time of the IPO perform better long-term than acquirers without such backing. More importantly, while acquirers without financial backing experience negative long-run returns from first-year acquisitions, acquirers with continued PE- and VC-backing perform significantly better when making acquisitions within the first year after going public. However, acquiring firms and investors should be aware that for mergers in the second and third year post-IPO, continued VC ownership has a detrimental long-term impact. In contrast, higher levels of continued PE ownership tend to have a positive relationship with long-run performance.     

Social and environmental reporting in local authorities

There has recently been a resurgence of interest in social and environmental reporting (SER) in both the private and the public sector; however, its meaning and application in the public sector are relatively new, and it has been little investigated. Our article is aimed at gaining a better understanding of the reasons underlying the adoption of SER by Italian local authorities by applying the concept of management fashion (Abrahamson ). Empirical analysis shows that both socio-psychological and techno-economic forces combine to shape the SER phenomenon, and a managerial fashion is currently in place among Italian local authorities. Thus, even when SER is adopted in response to ‘technical’ gaps, its label largely depends on its being driven by the need to signal that LAs are adopting a tool which is gaining momentum in academic and professional discourse. However, both forces are influenced not so much by a concern for sustainability as by the context of public-sector reform processes.