Developing public servants for the future

ABSTRACT

The majority of UK civil servants are ‘developed’ within a particular service or profession and there is frequently very little movement into other service areas. Many current leaders therefore have limited experiences in services and organizations other than their own. This paper presents a new graduate programme for the training and development of future public leaders in Wales. The programme is a leadership and development programme for civil and public servants, exposing them to a range of services. The intention is that, through these experiences, future leaders will approach problems from a multi-service perspective, will be better networked and ready to deal with complexity. Areas of good practice are highlighted, together with some of the challenges of developing leaders in this way.     

Improving the effectiveness of banks' service guarantees: The role of implementation

The negative impact of frequent service delays on customer loyalty and retention is widely recognised. To address this issue, many banks have initiated some form of service improvement programme and attempted to communicate the change to their existing and prospective customers. Often, however, this rightfully sceptical audience continues to doubt the provider's ability to resolve the problem and may not notice service improvement even when it is achieved. Service guarantees are a powerful mechanism for firms to express their commitment to satisfaction as well as their willingness to compensate customers in the event of service failure. This paper presents the results of a multi-stage study of a major bank's effort to provide a wait-time guarantee. The potential value of the guarantee to customers, the impact of the guarantee on customer dissatisfaction following a negative service experience, and customers' willingness to invoke the guarantee are examined. The implications of the findings highlight the role of implementation in a successful guarantee programme. Recommendations for improving banks' service guarantees are provided.     

Management and Accounting Developments in Executive Agencies

The executive agency programme has moved ahead rapidly since its introduction in 1988 and by 1996 over 70% of all civil servants were working under executive agency conditions. This has resulted in a major change in the structure of the civil service and in the management of the activities of central government. The question that then emerges concerns the benefits, if any, that these changes have brought about. This paper reports the results of a survey of a sample of senior managers in executive agencies. The survey attempted to ascertain the extent to which agencification was felt to have led to increases in autonomy and freedom to manage and also to obtain the views of managers on a range of issues including changes in operational effectiveness and quality of service delivery. These, after all, are some of the key measures of the success or otherwise of the agencification programme. The survey also examined changes in specific management accounting practices and a broad overview of the findings is provided in the paper. In general, it seems that the senior managers of executive agencies do feel that agencification has achieved many of the benefits hoped for and that is has brought about changes and improvements in management and management accounting practices.     

European futures in science and technology: FAST II at the mid-term

The FAST programme, launched by the European Communities in 1979, is aimed at developing and testing a tool for identifying long-term directions for R&D. The pursuit of these aims in FAST II (1984–1987) represents a true application of futures research on a European scale. The main orientation is towards the social and individual changes that are being brought about by the application of the new technologies. This mid-term report of the FAST II programme, directed by Riccardo Petrella, gives an assessment of the extent of results obtained in fields as diverse as: uses generated by new information technologies; the deep change in the nature of service activities; and the evolution of agricultural techniques and food processing. The programme brings together researchers, national administrations and industries in a futures-oriented research programme: it should provide the basis for outlining concrete proposals for developing European Community strategies.     

Craving for Coaching: A case study from Kwik-Fit Insurance Services

Staff retention is an industry-wide issue for call centres. It costs hundreds of thousands of pounds to recruit and train staff each year and, for reasons of customer service, productivity and profitability, it has become increasingly important to identify ways of keeping and further developing existing staff. This paper focuses on the success of the introduction of a personal development programme for staff at Kwik-Fit Insurance Services (KFIS). Craving for Coaching, a programme which enables individuals to realise how they can improve on their own performance and help achieve business goals, was introduced almost three years ago.     

Quality assurance: The professional's role

How can professionals, especially those in the caring professions, feel confident that the service which they are providing for clients is of an acceptable standard? Any quality assurance programme needs the commitment of professionals.     

Financial service call centres: Problems encountered by the grey market

Technological advances have resulted in financial service companies being able to make use of alternative channels such as call centres and the Internet to deliver their services to their customers. At the same time, there has been a major growth throughout Europe in the grey market consisting of people who grew up in an age of face-to-face contact with service suppliers. This paper reports on a programme of qualitative research looking at the grey market's perceptions of the call centre delivery channel. It discusses the difficulties encountered by this market and the negative views that are held. It also highlights the need for further research into this area if financial service organisations are going to address the issues raised and effectively satisfy the needs of this growing market segment.     

Changing Governance, Changing Equality? New Labour, Modernization and Public Services

This article explores the implications for issues of equality and diversity in the Labour government's programme of public service modernization. Networks and partnerships are viewed as a response to the increasing complexity and ambiguity of the public realm. But in the new knowledge-based and networked economy, 'who you know', and whether you can access the crucial networks, is becoming highly significant. As the site of action shifts, so equality agendas must be renegotiated.     

Evidence on the Management of Public Services Innovation

Innovation is a central part of the UK Government's programme to improve public services. However, there is little evidence on how innovation is managed in public service organizations. Drawing upon theories of the management of innovation and longitudinal case studies, this article demonstrates the iterative and complex ways in which innovations unfold. Issues of particular importance in the management of innovation include the role of teams and teamwork, projects, pilots and experiments, and various forms of project management.     

Evidence on the Management of Public Services Innovation

Innovation is a central part of the UK Government’s programme to improve public services. However, there is little evidence on how innovation is managed in public service organizations. Drawing upon theories of the management of innovation and longitudinal case studies, this article demonstrates the iterative and complex ways in which innovations unfold. Issues of particular importance in the management of innovation include the role of teams and teamwork, projects, pilots and experiments, and various forms of project management.     

企业类全国会计领军(后备)人才培养项目效果研究——基于问卷调查的分析与建议

2005年12月财政部启动全国会计领军(后备)人才培养工程。全国会计领军(后备)人才培养工程从启动至今一直受到社会各界的广泛关注。7年来项目效果如何,是值得研究的重要课题。我们基于对企业类全国会计领军(后备)人才培养项目学员的问卷调查,进行了项目效果的跟踪研究。研究结果表明:企业类全国会计领军(后备)人才培养项目达到了预期效果,培养和造就了一批精通业务、善于管理、熟悉国际惯例、具有国际视野和战略思维的高素质、复合型会计人才,并且发挥了会计领军人才在强化会计职能、宣传会计政策、组织继续教育、研究实务问题等方面的组织推动和辐射作用。同时,本文根据问卷调查针对企业类全国会计领军(后备)人才培养项目需要进一步改进的地方,提出了一些改进建议。     

Insurance and Incentive Effects of Transfers among Regions: Equity and Efficiency

When productivity shocks across regions are less-than-perfectlycorrelated, there are gains from federation, even if the regionsare identical ex ante. For the federation to provide insurancefor these productivity shocks, it must introduce some sort ofequalizing transfer programme among regions. But any suchtransfer programme induces a form of moral hazard as well, ifregions still have some control over their own policies. Oneof the implications of this moral hazard is that the progressivityof the overall (regional together with federal) tax system willbe increased when the federal transfer programme is expanded.     

AUDITOR OBJECTIVITY: THE EFFECT OF PRIOR INVOLVEMENT IN AUDIT PROGRAMME DESIGN

This study tests whether the involvement of independent auditors in the design of an audit programme affects their subsequent audit work relating to that audit area. Two groups of subjects played roles in designing partial audit programmes for a particular account. They also evaluated partial audit programmes for another account designed by someone else. A third group merely evaluated partial audit programmes for both accounts. All subjects were informed that both audit programmes were implemented and of potential problems that could be attributed to either of the two accounts. Subjects were asked to allocate 15 hours to investigate either or both of the accounts in question. Our hypothesis was that auditors who had a role in designing a partial audit programme would allocate less audit effort to that account than auditors who had no role in the programme design. Comparisons of the hours allocated provided some support for this hypothesis.     

振兴东北经济的理性思考

振兴东北老工业基地,天时、地利、人和三者缺一不可,目前东北基本具备这些条件。要建立一个高效的服务型政府,要有明确的发展思路,要有自力更生、艰苦奋斗、开拓进取的真抓实干精神,要建立选用人才、留住人才、吸引人才的机制,要有大力发展民营等非国有经济的具体措施,要实现城乡经济统一规划协调发展,实现东北经济可持续发展,早日进入良性循环发展轨道。     

Devolving Skills: The Case of the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers*

One rationale for devolution is that local decision makers may be well placed to adapt national policies to the local context. We test whether such adaptation helps meet programme objectives in the case of the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers. Originally a national programme, aimed at incentivising employers to take on apprentices, reforms a few years into operation gave some Local Authorities negotiated flexibilities in how the scheme operated. We consider the impact of the national scheme and then use a difference-in-differences approach to test whether flexibility led to an increase in the number of apprenticeship starts in devolved areas relative to control groups. We find that flexibility had zero effect. There is suggestive evidence that this is because flexibilities were negotiated on the wrong margins.     

Nontraditional student withdrawal from undergraduate accounting programmes: a holistic perspective

A collaborative project of several Quebec universities, this study investigates nontraditional student withdrawal from undergraduate accounting programmes. A nontraditional student is older than 24, or is a commuter or a part-time student, or combines some of these characteristics. Univariate and multivariate analyses of student dropout factors were performed. A logistic regression for full-time students indicates several significant determinants of student withdrawal: returning to school after working for some time, enrolment in a non-first choice programme, dissatisfaction with programme choice and courses, and low grade point average (GPA). For part-time students, low GPA is the main explanatory factor for student withdrawal. Other factors appear to be instrumental in withdrawal decisions, such as management of external resources (time and family responsibilities) for women. The results suggest that students would benefit from university support services to acquire learning strategies that improve perseverance. Lastly, in-class learning activities that help bolster grades could decrease student withdrawal rates.     

University Accounting Curricula: The Perceptions of an Alumni Group

Abstract

Many of the problems associated with accounting education could be due to at least two reasons: inadequate attention given to the design of accounting programmes, and the narrow view of stakeholder approach adopted in examining education issues. The existing literature mainly focuses on students' perception about issues such as teaching quality, alumni experience in major accounting firms, and so on. This paper deals with the design of accounting programmes, and proposes to ascertain the views of an important stakeholder group (i.e. alumni) on this issue. The findings of this study give credence to some of the generally held views, e.g. that it is no longer appropriate for tertiary education providers to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. However, in some other areas, the findings represent a stark contrast to the views on certain issues promulgated by the professional bodies in New Zealand and overseas including the USA, (for example, the issue of appropriate proportions of accounting, business and liberal studies in an accounting programme). Notably, the respondents in general placed a low importance on auditing as part of an education programme. Further, in terms of the emphases that should be placed in an accounting programme, contrary to the endorsement in the literature, ‘work experience’ was not considered as important as other areas of emphasis, (e.g. global perspective, local perspective, professionalism and social and environmental perspective).     

The marketing cube

Today's business professional should consider three dimensions, or success drivers, when devising marketing programmes: profitability, profit potential and likelihood for retention — the ’marketing cube‘. Simply said, the margins on customers who fall into the ’right customer‘ group, as defined by this framework, are too great to ignore. Profit, widely confused with lifetime value, is a fact based on previous behaviour — and many financial service organisations are now calculating revenue minus costs for each customer to determine profit. Profit potential is an estimate of one individual customer's contribution to a company's bottom line. It emerges from a model. The modelled profit less actual is referred to as ’profit opportunity‘.Retention is the third component of the framework, and here there are ways to predict the loss of revenue from customers and implement preventive measures, before this loss even happens. A matrix of these three dimensions can help any financial service marketer build a next most logical product model and business rules that govern a successful customer relationship management (CRM) programme.     

优化纳税服务渠道的国际经验及借鉴

纳税服务渠道综合了为纳税人服务的各项资源和具体措施,是税务机关提供纳税服务、提升管理效率的重要依托。本文介绍了国外纳税服务渠道建设的先进经验,分析了我国纳税服务渠道建设存在的问题,并提出了建设以纳税人为导向的整体纳税服务渠道策略的若干建议。     

中国运输服务贸易国际竞争力研究——基于进出口数据的指标分析

运输服务贸易是我国服务贸易的重要组成部分。本文运用市场占有率（MOR）、贸易竞争力指数（TC）、显示性比较优势指数（RCA）、显示性竞争优势指数（CA）四个指标对我国运输服务贸易的竞争力进行了测算和分析,并在此基础上提出了提高运输服务贸易竞争力的对策建议。