Making sense of New Zealand’s ‘spirit of service’: social identity and the civil service

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the creation a more unified civil service in New Zealand with the Public Service Act 2020, which promotes the most profound changes to the public service since New Zealand’s New Public Management heyday in the late 1980s. Among its many reforms is an explicit attempt to foster a unified culture around a ‘spirit of service to the community’—a construct without fixed definition that appears to incorporate ideas of motivations and ethics. This paper shows that this unified culture can be traced through a series of key collaborative discussions that have taken place among New Zealand’s public sector chief executives. The authors present a case study to show how these collaborations contributed to a new social identity, and provided a foundation for a civil service unified by its spirit of service to the community. The paper contributes to this PMM theme by providing empirical evidence from the latest New Zealand experience; and also contributes to theory of social identity and sensemaking in creating civil service values.     

Should the government be running job centres?

Most people find their jobs by means other than job centres. Since they are not a monopoly, what reason is there for government to run them? Can it even tell whether they are being run efficiently?     

Art: Futures of the past

This essay makes a demand: it calls for a divorce between art and culture in order to reaffirm a future for art. It asks whether in a scenario in which political culture has surrendered to cultural politics, can art reaffirm and reconfigure itself as a site of exuberance, wonder, vitality, affect, memory and learning, and create a place of ethical and critical resistance?     

The DHL EuroCup: shots on goal

Deutsche Post World Net, the German postal monopoly, faced significant challenges as it began the process of integrating three businesses: Deutsche Post Euro Express, its own ground-based parcel delivery service, and two companies it had acquired-DHL, the worldwide express delivery service, and Danzas, a worldwide air and ocean freight company. The cultural differences alone were imposing. For example, DHL was a privately held, entrepreneurial company in which most managers had international experience; Deutsche Post was until recently a state-owned monopoly in which few managers had worked outside their home country. Enter EuroCup. For 20 years, DHL employees had held a soccer tournament to strengthen company culture across national boundaries. Canceled the previous year due to budget constraints, the EuroCup tournament was revived in 2003-in part to help with the postmerger integration. But did the event really help? HBR senior editor Paul Hemp attended EuroCup 2003, joining nearly 2,500 DHL employees--about 600 of them players, the rest cheerleaders and other supporters--in the small Belgian town of Lommel. He set out to answer a number of questions relevant to any company staging an ambitious off-site intended to encourage teamwork and boost morale. How does a company determine whether such a large-scale event, even one that generates goodwill, is worth the investment? Does the team building extend to those back home who don't get to attend? Can intense competition between teams begin to overshadow the spirit of cooperation that such an event is meant to engender? In short, can a soccer tournament help a company achieve its corporate goal of creating a strong common culture?     

Incorporating historical investment performance in projecting life insurance cash values

The projection of current investment experience in life insurance sales illustrations during the historically high interest rate environment of the 1980s in the U.S. has led to consumer dissatisfaction and lawsuits against life insurers and agents. As interest rates fell after 1985, insurers were unable to credit returns near the maximums illustrated earlier. New regulations still allow projections at essentially the latest current investment returns, along with showing guaranteed and intermediate values. The question raised in this article is: Can history help the financial planner determine a range of credible investment return assumptions for projecting cash values? Conclusions are based on the results of basing projections on historical investment experience.     

中国企业如何面对全球标准?

<正> 安茂瑞森:我们今天的主题是中国企业如何面对全球标准?这时候讨论这样的话题是非常有意义的。尤其是随着中国加入世贸的进程不断加快。同时也会带来全球的竞争。很多公司已经在中国,还有更多的公司计划到中国。中国的消费者和世界其他的消费者都是一样的,他们非常注重商品的质量,国际认证标准,在建立企业的声誉方面能够起到什么样的作用,中国什么时候能够达到这样的标准?     

Community care in England,Scotland and Wales

How far does the writ of Whitehall and Westminster really run? An analysis of community care shows that a policy common to successive Governments has been interpreted in radically different ways in England, Scotland and Wales. Can this lack of uniformity be turned to advantage?     

Not‐for‐Profit Annual Reports: What do Museum Managers Communicate?

This study addresses: (1) What disclosures are provided in annual reports of not‐for‐profit entities?(2) What characteristics of the reporting entities explain variations in the quantity of financial disclosure?(3) How do not‐for‐profit disclosures compare with those in for‐profit corporate reports? The annual reports of 170 not‐for‐profit museums were examined. The reports were highly variable. Some contained no financial data and only 22 percent included complete financial statements with footnotes. Regression analysis indicated that the amount of museum financial data was positively associated with museum size, a larger number of pages of donor disclosures, and museum type (art and history, but not science, natural history, or general).     

Proposal: a position for the insurance industry on genetic testing

Proposed legislation to limit the use of genetic test results in insurance underwriting has appeared with increasing frequency at the state and federal level. The proponents seek to protect consumers from unfair discrimination by insurers. Can we not develop a proactive approach, acknowledging that we do not need to do prospective testing while we assert that we must retain the current status of equivalency of information between the underwriter and the applicant?     

The social value of risk-free government debt

Can eliminating the stock of government bonds reduce welfare? When the government must raise revenue to pay interest on its bonds, the social value of government debt hinges on whether the benefits from greater portfolio diversification outweigh the costs of the revenue-raising efforts. A positive stock of debt is optimal only if interest payments are financed by an inflation tax, agents are not too risk averse, there is a government budget deficit, and the economy is on the bad side of the Laffer curve. Welfare is higher on the good side of the Laffer curve without bonds.     

How to rebuild democracy,re-thinking degrowth

Can the degrowth project contribute to rediscovering the meaning of democracy? Can the establishment of a real democracy lead to building a degrowth society? And last, has the project of a “democratic degrowth” a real chance to succeed, from a political point of view? If not, how should degrowth be re-thought to foster democracy? These are the questions entertained in this opinion essay. My thesis is that the currently dominant formulation of degrowth and its relationship to democracy are highly problematic. The degrowth proposal reproduces a central paradox of modernity concerning democracy: degrowth does not aspire to restore collective “legein”; it only works like a “teukein”, offering techniques that will allow the human species merely to “stay alive”. Moreover, there is a political problem: while the need for degrowth is presented as very urgent, the tactic for spreading the idea is one of an elitist strategy of voluntary simplicity, which can only work very slowly. The moralistic ideal of voluntary simplicity runs counter to the dominant de-modernized human subject that is becoming prevalent in our societies; as a result, degrowth cannot connect to real social processes and to the emotions of the large part of the population. To make degrowth feasible and to restore democracy, we need to deflate modern subjectivity. Drawing inspiration from Mediterranean anthropologies, I propose a foundation of degrowth on a human subject of “de-thinking” and I discuss the political pathways for such an alternative degrowth project.     

With Economic Integration Comes Financial Contagion? Evidence from China

China's economy has maintained a rapid growth rate over the past two decades; however, its stock market has exhibited a very different level of performance during financial crises. In this paper, we try to explain this phenomenon and answer two important questions: Is there financial contagion in China? Can economic integration aggravate financial contagion? We construct a composite index of economic integration by reviewing the incremental reform and opening-up process in China's financial markets. We utilize a dynamic conditional correlation model to capture the correlations between stock returns of China and those of other important markets around the world. The empirical results provide positive evidence for the aforementioned two questions.     

中国慈善组织的发展环境及其与政府的关系：回顾与展望

政府与慈善组织的关系涉及权力的分配、资源的分配、责任的分配以及文化的认同。从规范意义上讲，两者应是合作伙伴关系。新中国成立60年来，随着政治、经济、社会、文化环境的演变，我国慈善组织与政府的关系经历了由政府全面接管和包办，到制度惯性影响下的政府主导慈善组织协作的转变。随着公民社会的兴起，政府与慈善组织之间良性互动的合作伙伴关系值得期待。     

Cultural Origin and Minority Shareholder Expropriation: Historical Evidence

Can culture explain regional differences in minority shareholder expropriation? Examining regional variation in China, we document that the influence of historical Confucian values persists, despite decades of political movements clamping down on these values, and that these values reduce minority shareholder expropriation in local public firms. The effect on minority shareholder expropriation, in part, operates through the establishment of oversight mechanisms (i.e., greater financial reporting quality and dividend payouts) that constrain expropriation. The findings have important implications for understanding the origins of enduring regional differences in minority shareholder expropriation and capital market development.     

Value creation and challenges of an international transaction The DaimlerChrysler merger

Globalization is a buzzword in international finance and economics. On May 6, 1998, in London, Daimler-Benz of Germany signed a merger agreement with Chrysler Corporation of the United States. Using the DaimlerChrysler merger as a case study, this paper focuses on value creation and analysis of various issues in an international transaction. The market responded very favorably to this merger, and we review the potential sources of value creation in the merger as well as outline the steps undertaken to consummate the merger. We also consider an interesting question: Can a company truly be “global”? Differences in corporate culture, compensation policies, ownership structure, and the legal environment pose significant challenges to all mergers but especially international business combinations. Important post-merger events, such as the Standard & Poor's decision not to include DaimlerChrysler in the S&P500 Index and the clash of corporate cultures and compensation schemes, have presented major roadblocks to it becoming a truly global company.     

External Debt, Inflation, and the Public Sector: Toward Fiscal Policy for Sustainable Growth

Which tradeoffs are involved in formulating an external debtstrategy? Should expenditure be cut to improve the current account,or will this reduce future output growth, thus undermining thebenefits of any debt reduction? Are there alternatives thatallow satisfactory output growth without jeopardizing creditworthiness?How can the necessary surplus of savings over investment bebrought about at levels of investment high enough to sustainoutput growth? Should the government contribute to the internal adjustmentby reducing its deficit? Macroeconomic targets for inflationand growth, and creditworthiness constraints on debt issue,impose restrictions on the extent to which deficits can be financed.Can the government cover the deficit within these targets andconstraints? The absence of such consistency forebodes futurepolicy change and so undermines the credibility of the adjustmentprogram. The author uses empirical work on Turkey to illustratethe interactions between fiscal deficits and the macroeconomicvariables upon which fiscal consistency hinges.     

The Great Inflation and the Greenbook

Can the story of evolving Federal Reserve beliefs in The Conquest of American Inflation simultaneously explain the Great Inflation and the forecasts published in the Greenbook during that time? If Sargent is correct then evolving beliefs should be reflected not only in policy outcomes but also in Greenbook forecasts. In this paper they are. By conditioning on the Greenbook, it is show that both inflation outcomes and Greenbook forecasts can be rationalised by evolving beliefs. The results improve on recent empirical evidence that has been criticised for relying on unrealistic beliefs that produce forecasts inconsistent with the Greenbook.     

全球视野下民族地区文化认同建构路径

民族地区的文化认同不仅指对本民族文化的认同,而且包括对中华民族文化的整体认同和世界优秀民族文化的认同。本文从文化认同的内涵出发分析民族地区文化认同的特点,针对其特点,对全球化背景下民族地区文化认同建构提供路径选择。     

The quality improvement customers didn't want

Is investing in new technology always the right choice for a company and its customers? Allan Moulter, the CEO of Quality Care, isn't sure he wants to invest in the computerized reception system that consultant Jack Zadow has outlined for him. But in this HBR case study, the argument Zadow makes is impossible to ignore. Quality Care's rivals have invested in similar systems or are planning to do so. The new system promises to take care of routine busywork, freeing staff up for other interactions with patients. It seems as if the competition hasn't even cut staff and is counting on increased customer retention to pay for the investment. And yet, Quality Care's surveys of its own customers show that they prefer the human touch when checking in. How would customers feel if the first ?person? they met when they came in the door turned out to be a machine? Moulter prides himself on his responsiveness to customers. And with 86% of Quality Care's customers either satisfied or completely satisfied, aren't things fine as they are? Has Moulter considered all the facets of his predicament? How will Quality Care's staff be affected by a decision one way or another? What about the costs of upgrading the system? Can Quality Care maintain its standing without going high-tech? Would customers rebel when confronted with the proposed reception area or would they appreciate the increased efficiency? Six experts weigh the costs and benefits of technology in a service industry.     

Globalization, Macroeconomic Performance, and Monetary Policy

The paper argues that many of the exaggerated claims that globalization has been an important factor in lowering inflation in recent years just do not hold up. Globalization does, however, have the potential to be stabilizing for individual economies and has been a key factor in promoting economic growth. The paper then examines four questions about the impact of globalization on the monetary transmission mechanism and arrives at the following answers: (i) Has globalization led to a decline in the sensitivity of inflation to domestic output gaps and thus to domestic monetary policy? No. (ii) Are foreign output gaps playing a more prominent role in the domestic inflation process, so that domestic monetary policy has more difficulty stabilizing inflation? No. (iii) Can domestic monetary policy still control domestic interest rates and so stabilize both inflation and output? Yes. (iv) Are there other ways, besides possible influences on inflation and interest rates, in which globalization may have affected the transmission mechanism of monetary policy? Yes.