Electronic monitoring in public organizations: evidence from US local governments

Technology use in the workplace expands the ability to monitor employees through activities such as website tracking, email scanning, and social media monitoring. Monitoring is a fundamental aspect of the relationship between organizations, employees, and stakeholders and can affect perceptions of privacy, autonomy, and trust in the workplace. However, electronic monitoring is little investigated in public management research and we have minimal knowledge about the factors that prompt public managers to adopt electronic monitoring. Focusing on small- and medium-sized US municipalities, we investigate types of electronic monitoring and how organizational, sociopolitical, and technological factors shape electronic monitoring intensity. We test our hypotheses with data from a 2014 national survey of 2,500 local managers, website coding data, and US Census data. We find that electronic monitoring, especially monitoring online activities, is a response to organizational centralization, participation of internal stakeholders, social media use, and technology concerns.     

Entrepreneurship in the public sector: a framework of analysis in European local governments

In this paper we explore the potential role of entrepreneurship in public sector organizations. At first, we present a review of the entrepreneurship theme in the political science and public management research streams, comparing these ideas with the mainstream business literature on entrepreneurship. Thereafter, we illustrate empirically how Stevenson's classical framework of entrepreneurship can be applied in a European local government context to explain the recent initiatives to compete for and utilize European Union structural funds. The empirical basis of the study is comprised of ten in-depth case studies of local government organizations, five in the UK and five in Italy. Finally, we propose five distinct types of entrepreneurial agents in the public sector: professional politician; spin-off creator; business entrepreneur in politics; career-driven public officer; and politically ambitious public officer.     

Models for quality analysis of services in the local public administration

The quality of services in the local public administration in Romania is a subject of high actuality in the context of the ever changing modern society, of making activities more efficient, aligning them to the international standards of democracy foundation in Romania (Androniceanu , in Nout??i în managementul public, 1992; Baltador, in Managementul capacit??ii admininistrative în administra?ia public? local?, 2005; Comsa, in M?surarea performan?ei municipiilor re?edin?? de jude? din România în furnizarea serviciilor publice locale în perioada 2003–2005, 2006; Raboca, in M?surarea satisfac?iei clien?ilor serviciilor publice, 2008). The mathematical modelling can be used successfully in this field too, at least through the quantifications that can be done with the help of the aggregated indicators. The scope of the article is to identify, describe and evaluate the services quality indicators in the local public administration and mathematical models in a society based on optimal communication of institutions with the citizens and to propose solutions in order to prevent and limit deficiencies in this communication. The research models were: the management theory, mathematical modelling and simulation. The results are made out of two global indicators for the quantification of the services quality in the local public administration, from justifying their composition by using the multi-criteria optimization and the simulation example in the SPSS16 software, for the statistical analysis of the defined indicators. The two types of global indicators that are proposed for quantifying the quality of the services in the local public administration can be used for both precise analysis, as well as estimations regarding the evolution of the quality level within the mentioned services or for establishing conclusions and measure plans regarding improving the quality of services in the local public administration. The scientific foundation of quality and quality management in the field of services in the local public administration together with an application of a study represent another part of this scientific paper. Using the group of quality indicators and the SWOT analysis previously proposed, by dividing this group into sub-groups corresponding to the four components of the Deming cycle, it was created and proposed a mathematical programming solution, which offers an optimal solution for the evaluation and improvement of services in the local public administration.     

Supplier evaluation in local public services: Application of a model of value for customer

A methodology for evaluating the supplier's performance in a standardised public service is presented with a theoretical application to the water service. It aims at supporting the managers in their efforts to improve the service provided. The basic concept is that the quality of service depends on the quality of the supplier's performances. It is then possible to determine such performances in terms of technical and functional quality as linked with customer satisfaction. It can be expressed in terms of the prevalent value model for the users and the quality of interaction between customer and supplier is a function of the quality of service provided (Q_s). An agent-based model can be defined for simulating the interaction among the actors.     

Neoliberalism and casualization of public sector services: the case of waste collection services in Cape Town,South Africa

This article focuses on the waste collection strategies of the municipal government in Cape Town, South Africa, using the case as a point of entry to a wider critique of global neoliberalism and the privatization of municipal services. The analysis of the case sheds light on the links between the cost recovery agenda of the neoliberal state and the casualization of labor. To minimize costs, local governments, like private sector firms, rely on and have enhanced the casualization of labor. This strategy further blurs the conceptual distinction between the public and private sectors, in that the local governments treat citizens as, instead, customers with stratified entitlements to basic services. Stressing the continuities of apartheid under the neoliberal policies, the article identifies specific ways in which the neoliberal government in its post‐apartheid moment uses gender ideologies and the rhetoric of voluntarism and empowerment to justify its use of residents' underpaid and precarious labor for municipal services in poor black townships. Cet article aborde les stratégies de ramassage des ordures établies par la municipalité de Cape Town (Afrique du Sud) et utilise ce cas comme point de départ d'une critique plus large sur le néolibéralisme ambiant et la privatisation des services municipaux. L'analyse révèle les liens entre le programme de recouvrement des coûts de l'État néolibéral et la précarisation de la main‐d'?uvre. En effet, pour minimiser les coûts, les gouvernements locaux, à l'instar des entreprises privées, s'appuient sur une précarisation (qu'ils accroissent) de l'emploi. Cette stratégie atténue encore la distinction conceptuelle entre secteurs public et privé, les gouvernements locaux traitant les habitants plutôt comme des clients ayant droit, selon leur strate d'appartenance, à tel ou tel service de base. Soulignant les prolongements de l'apartheid sous une politique néolibérale, l'article identifie les modalités spécifiques grâce auxquelles le gouvernement néolibéral de post‐apartheid recourt aux idéologies sexistes et au discours sur le bénévolat et l'habilitation pour justifier son utilisation d'une main‐d'?uvre précaire et mal rémunérée parmi les habitants, pour les services municipaux dans les quartiers noirs pauvres.     

Changes in public employment and the provision of public services: the implications for labour law

Workers in the public sector have commonly been subject to a more restrictive labour law regime than their private sector counterparts. This article argues that this has become anachronistic and proposes a more sophisticated model for according differential treatment to particular groups of workers.     

PPP模式下地方政府隐性债务规避机制研究

PPP模式的工具性特征使其具备政府债务治理功能,但在其运作过程中可能产生新的地方政府隐性债务。结合文献研究、政策法规梳理和专家访谈,对PPP模式下地方政府隐性债务的边界、认定标准进行明确界定,从项目合规性、融资机制、回报机制、运营机制、地方政府行为动机以及融资平台转型等多维视角分析PPP模式下地方政府隐性债务的独特形成机理,建议针对PPP模式加强规范化管理、巩固债务治理功能、促进提质增效、强化绩效管理、优化风险共担机制、完善会计核算与信息披露制度等隐性债务规避机制。     

Efficient inequality: differential allocation in the local public sector

This paper examines the consequences for social efficiency if the locally provided public input can be differentially allocated among residents. We derive the distributional efficiency condition, which is the distribution of public inputs that maximizes within-city gains from trade. Differential allocation also causes modifications to the standard (Samuelsonian) allocative efficiency condition. Additionally, we explore the consequences of differential allocation for the median voter model. Standard empirical voter models are seriously flawed because they fail to distinguish final public output production from either individual demand or the distribution of publicly provided inputs. Finally, we derive the club sharing efficiency condition.     

Charging for local telephone calls: How household characteristics affect the distribution of calls in the GTE Illinois experiment

When the billing of local telephone service is changed from flat rate to measured service, the distribution of monthly calling rates is altered. This paper models the distribution of flat-rate telephone use in terms of demographic variables and stochastic components; the shift to measured service affects both the systematic and stochastic parameters. The model is fitted by maximum likelihood to data for interviewed households participating in General Telephone's local-measured-service experiment in Illinois. Households tend to make more calls if they are larger (more people), older, or include teenagers. They tend to reduce calling proportionately more in response to usage charges if they average many calls under flat rate for any of the above reasons or for other, unexplained reasons. There is substantial variation in telephone use by households with similar demographic characteristics. Consequently, the benefits and costs of local measured service will tend to be diffused across demographic groups.     

New forms of employment relations in the public services: the limits of strategic choice

Drawing on a strategic choice model, this article examines the extent to which public service organisations have used their newly established employment relations discretion. Constrained by external pressures and upstream decisions on purpose and structure, the exercise of genuine choice is seen to vary between organisations and according to the nature of the issue.     

M regression approach for satisfaction of municipality services: the case of Eskisehir

Studies on increasing the effectiveness of municipality services will be carried out only by measuring and increasing the public’s satisfaction with the services. Such studies are considered as feedback for increasing the quality of municipality services and maintaining the productivity of these services. In recent years, thanks to the services provided in line with the understanding of social municipality services, Eskisehir, which has become one of the most popular cities in Turkey, set an example for the municipalities of other cities. The purpose of the present study was to determine the factors influencing the degree of public satisfaction with the services provided by the Metropolitan Municipality of Eskisehir and to establish a mathematical model determining the public’s level of overall satisfaction with the services. In the study, first, the attitudes of the public in Eskisehir towards the services of the Metropolitan Municipality of Eskisehir were examined via factor analysis. As a result of the analysis, the factor scores regarding the factors obtained from the public’s satisfaction with the municipality services were considered as independent variables, and a mathematical model determining the public’s level of overall satisfaction with the services was created. Because, while creating this model, outliers were found in y direction within the data set, M regression analysis, resistant to such outliers, was applied. With the help of the mathematical model established as a result of the study, it was possible to determine all the factors influencing the public’s overall satisfaction with the municipality services and to find out how influential these factors were on the degree of their satisfaction with such municipality services as the transportation and traffic regulations, cultural and art activities, environmental cleaning and planning and arrangement of parks/gardens and sports areas.     

Radial and nonradial measures of technical efficiency: An empirical illustration for Belgian local governments using an FDH reference technology

This paper serves two purposes. First, we argue that radial efficiency measures are inappropriate for the Free Disposal Hull (FDH) technology, and we provide a comparative analysis of alternative nonradial measures. In particular, using information on Belgian local government expenditures and output indicators we implement various radial and nonradial measures on the FDH reference technology, and we investigate to which extent these efficiency measures imply different distributions and rankings. Second, we analyze the patterns of measured technical efficiency implied by the various indices. Specifically, we investigate whether different measures make any substantial difference for the explanation of the calculated inefficiencies. The empirical results suggest that more important differences in rankings exist between radial and nonradial measures than between different nonradial alternatives; moreover, the radial and the nonradial efficiency measures do yield a somewhat different pattern of explanation.This is a revision of a paper presented at the 38th Conference of the Applied Econometrics Association in Athens (April 12–13, 1993). Comments of R. Goudriaan, Henry Tulkens, and two anonymous referees are gratefully acknowledged.     

Public spending and economies of scale in partial fiscal decentralized governments: The case of Chile

This article evaluates economies of scale in local public spending in Chile, emphasizing the country's geographical features and high fiscal heterogeneity. We leverage balanced panel data for ten years and 307 municipalities in order to estimate the population level at which a reduction in the average cost of local public goods provision occurs and to differentiate between levels of market potential. We follow a theoretical model of cost efficiency that considers spatial interactions and spillover effects among neighboring jurisdictions. Our findings suggest that Chilean municipalities reach an optimum population level at around 700,000 inhabitants, which is high considering that only two cities qualify. When differentiating for levels of economies of scale according to levels of market potential, municipalities with a low potential reach their optimum at around 28,000 inhabitants, those with a medium potential reach it at approximately 124,000, and those with a high potential reach it at approximately 680,000.     

“十二五”时期北京市区县政府社会保障公共服务标准探讨

政府社会保障公共服务标准的制定和实施,有利于实现政府社会保障服务的规范化、透明化,开展政府社会保障服务的评估和比较,并促进社会保障服务的均等化。根据科学性、可比性、系统性、简洁性和可操作性等原则,本文选取了社会救助、社会保险、社会福利等方面的指标,构建了地方政府社会保障公共服务指标体系,并根据国际比较、国内比较和可及性等原则,对"十二五"时期北京市区县社会保障公共服务标准进行了初步探讨。     

Searching for informed traders in stock markets: The case of Banco Popular

In this paper, we use several indicators of trade informativeness to search for informed traders on the final trading days of Banco Popular, the first and only bank resolution case to date in the euro area. In particular, we use the model proposed by Preve and Tse (2013) to estimate the adjusted daily probability of informed trading and the probability of symmetric order-flow shock using high-frequency transaction data. Our empirical results indicate that upon the anticipation of a possible liquidation of the bank, informed investors reacted to the bad news by placing more weight on it and that Banco Popular experienced large increases in both buy- and sell-orders during the last days of trading when the bank registered a significant depletion of its deposit base. Moreover, we find evidence supporting the presence of inside trading and illiquidity, especially after speculation in the media that the bank could face a liquidation. Our study has important implications for market participants and regulatory authorities.     

Exploring the impact of deregulation on HRM: the case of the Norwegian energy sector

The traditional HRM system has been job-based and has reflected a bureaucratic model of organizing work. Such job-based personnel management systems have shown a tendency to break down under deregulation and exposure to competitive market situations. The study reported here suggests that, after the deregulation of the Norwegian energy sector, the industry was forced to change its primary focus from engineering and technical problems to a critical concern for customers, service, operational costs and productivity. In addition, due to increased work interdependence, numerous centralized operational units have developed in the companies. The relevance of operational knowledge was found to increase, together with the establishment of work groups. This also created a shift from a job-related performance management system to a more person-related system. Organization-specific competence was emphasized as well as increased attention to customer interface issues. Market orientation was reflected in the need to introduce pay-for-performance systems. These changes in HRM systems developed on an ad hoc basis. Due to lack of relevant knowledge on the changes occurring and clear management direction HRM adaptation was, however, slow. Implications are highlighted.     

Relative prices and electronic substitution: Changes in household-level demand for postal delivery services from 1986 to 2004

This paper quantifies the extent to which the shift in the aggregate household-level demand for postal delivery services can be attributed to the appearance of alternative modes of communication versus the concomitant rise in postal prices. We find that both recent postal price increases and the penetration of personal computer technology among US households led to similar reductions in postal expenditure. We further find that a 5% postal price increase, such as the one introduced in January 2006 reduces revenue collected from US households by $215 million and imposes an aggregate welfare loss on US households of $333 million.     

Divergence in alternative Hicksian welfare measures: the case of revealed preference for public amenities

This paper investigates the divergence between the two Hicksian welfare measures of non‐traded amenity improvement associated with housing. First, the Hicksian surplus measures for amenity changes are analytically developed based on explicit specification of utility structures. A hedonic two‐stage approach is then applied to empirically show that, for quantity changes, in contrast to hypothetical markets, divergence in real market is small. The paper also analytically develops expressions for the income and substitution effects and empirically shows that for a given income effect, the greater the substitution effect the smaller the divergence between the two measures. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Foreign remedies for local difficulties: the case of three Scottish manufacturing firms

Literature on Japanese transplant manufacturing firms in the automotive sector often emphasise the importance placed on attitude as opposed to skills in the hiring decisions for line workers. In this paper, a case study of one second-tier components supplier for a major Japanese automotive assembler in the Midwestern United States provides the opinions of senior managers and human resource associates regarding recruitment and selection practices. In-depth interviews, carried out over a two-week period in August 2000, are used to develop an understanding of the recruitment and selection process for line workers as well as to investigate the desired skills and value of previous Japanese experience. Results of the case study analysis are compared with two models from the literature: (1) a model of recruitment and selection at Japanese automotive-related firms in Japan and (2) a model of recruitment and selection at Japanese transplant automotive-related firms abroad. Deviations from the two models point not to a new paradigm of ‘second-generation’ Japanese transplants – those that have moved into regions quite familiar with Japanese firms and related management and production methods – but rather to overall weaknesses in the stereotypical models. Managerial opinions within the case study firm place limited value on familiarity with a Japanese environment, considering such experience secondary to attitudes and work ethics that are in line with the philosophy of the case study firm.