Distinctive research patterns on public sector performance measurement of public administration and accounting disciplines

Abstract

This article explores distinctive research patterns of public administration and accounting disciplines concerning public sector performance measurement (PSPM). Our review shows that accounting researchers from Europe investigate reasons for limited PM use and factors explaining a rational or symbolic PM use, inspired by organization theory and institutional theory and conducting case/field studies. Public administration researchers from Europe and the USA prefer to study PM design and PM impact respectively, mainly using surveys in combination with various theories, like political theory. Public administration research from the USA examines the types of performance indicators in PM systems and contingent factors for PM design. Public administration research from Europe shows an interest in evaluating public sector reforms like Best Value and explaining learning processes for improvement. We argue that PSPM research could benefit from interdisciplinary efforts and intensified mutual communication between public administration and accounting.     

Further education and training in the french public sector

Since 1989, the French public sector has imitated the private sector's further education and training mechanisms. But today, it seems that just as in the private sector, the training policies in the public sector have severe limitations. Based on a case study of a large public research institute and on a national survey making it possible to compare the private and public sectors, the paper studies the further education and training policies and their links with the organizational needs. In the public sector, the difficult balance between individual's choices and strategic management comes on the one hand from the specificities of the administrative rules of human resource management, and on the other hand from the unions' power and strategies. Faced with new challenges (demographic evolutions, decentralisation, new demands from the users of public services), the French public sector must develop new training policies.     

Australian public sector reform

This article presents an investigation into the Australian public education sector and focuses on the management of research and doctoral education in an increasingly corporatized climate. It is argued that diversity in knowledge creation and production is central to the successful Knowledge Economy. Diversity in doctoral education encompasses: diversity of student; diversity of research approach and type; and diversity of discipline and institution. Government has a key role in maintaining diversity against the background of an increasing tendency in public sector policy towards corporatization and outcomes-based funding. Four key areas of concern are identified: funding allocation for research and doctoral places; resource allocation and competition; selectivity and concentration; and relevance. It is argued that, taken together, these four policy directions could significantly impact the nature of Australian doctoral research and, in many instances, diminish diversity.     

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.     

Reporting public sector financial results

Part of the process of recent public sector reform has involved replacing traditional cashbased accounts with accrual-based financial statements, similar to those found in the private sector. This article examines the use of accrual-based accounting in the public sector and provides examples from the UK National Health Service of situations where the accruals system may be deemed inappropriate. It shows that one possible response is to withdraw from the accruals mode and revert to cash measures, deeming the accruals adjustments to be ‘merely technical’. An alternative response is to change the mode of operating so that the cash impact of a transaction matches its accruals reporting impact. The conclusion is that there are modifications to public sector accounting practices away from those of the private sector that undermine the metaphor of running the public sector ‘like a business’.     

Performance Management in Universities: Effects of the Transition to More Quantitative Measurement Systems

The measurement of research and teaching performance is increasingly common within universities, driven probably by the rise of New Public Management (NPM). Although changing over time and varying from country to country, NPM involves the use of private sector methods in the public sector. Traditionally, performance measurement in universities has had a developmental role – helping individuals to improve their (future) performance. However, the new systems seem more judgemental – i.e. seeking to quantitatively evaluate (past) performance. We study performance measurement in two Accounting and Finance groups – one in the Netherlands and one in the UK. In both we see an increasing use of judgemental forms of performance evaluation and, in particular, the use of more quantitative performance measures. The use of these more judgemental quantitative systems is seen to have various effects. Although these systems emphasise objective quantitative measures, they relocate subjectivities (usually at a greater distance from the subject), rather than remove them. This creates uncertainty and anxiety about how the systems are used. There is a danger that the new systems could inhibit creativity in teaching and limit contributions to the world outside the university. Furthermore, they could damage creativity and innovation in accounting research – as researchers play safe in getting the publications they need. As we are both researchers and practitioners in this area, we should be challenging these trends and pointing to the dangers for research (and teaching) in our field.     

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.     

Output and productivity growth in the education sector: comparisons for the US and UK

This paper considers the measurement of performance in public service provision in an international context by examining outcome-based measures for the education sector. It first sets out the measurement issues in general terms. The paper then applies these methods to comparing the UK experience with that in the US over the period 1979–2002. The results show higher labour productivity growth in the UK education sector than in the US over this time period, so that the UK eliminated the productivity gap with the US by the end of the Century.

The decentralisation of employment relations in the British public sector

The aim of this article is to investigate differences between the British public and private sectors in terms of the decentralisation of employment relations. Drawing on data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey, the article arrives at three main conclusions. First, the analysis reveals that while local‐level managers in both sectors have similar levels of responsibility for employment relations issues, those in the public sector are, on the whole, significantly less likely to be able to exercise authority. Second, the results indicate some marked variations in practice within the public sector, with managers in education having the greatest level of authority. Finally, the article explores the extent to which differences in local‐level authority between the public and private sectors can be explained by higher‐level collective bargaining, and the presence of higher‐level personnel specialists. These factors have only a partial influence, and do not fully explain why local‐level employee relations managers in some areas (notably health) are less able to exercise authority than their counterparts in the private sector.     

Entrepreneurship and knowledge spillovers from the public sector

A compelling body of research has found that investments in knowledge from other firms and universities spill over to enhance the performance of entrepreneurial firms. This literature has shown that firm performance is positively related to investments in new knowledge by other firms and research universities. This paper addresses a gap in the literature by positing that public sector knowledge is also conducive to enhancing performance by knowledge intensive entrepreneurial (KIE) firms. Our findings suggest that the public sector provides a fertile source of knowledge for enhancing KIE firm performance.

     

政府会计国际比较:发现与启示

文章首先从会计确认和计量、财务报告、预算报告等方面,比较了盎格鲁-撒克逊国家和欧洲大陆国家的地方政府会计体系,发现国际背景下公共会计系统的主要特征仍然是会计多样性;接着从法律体系、公共部门组织、公共财务报告的特定目标、会计职业界的兴趣和构成等方面分析了会计多样性的原因和本质;最后,基于我国公共管理领域改革的现状,就如何建立并完善我国的公共部门会计体系提出建议。     

中国管理会计研究如何走向世界

从研究主题、理论基础与研究方法三个主要方面探讨了管理会计研究面临的关键性问题。进而采用文献回顾对《会计研究》和JMAR在1996-2006共11年发表的管理会计论文进行了统计分析,进一步验证了前述分析。最后,为中国管理会计研究如何走向世界提供了建设性意见。     

Fiscal decentralization and public sector efficiency: evidence from OECD countries

This paper studies the impact of fiscal decentralization on public sector efficiency (PSE). We first use a theoretical framework that illustrates the two opposing forces that shape a non-monotonic effect of fiscal decentralization on PSE. Subsequently, we carry out an empirical analysis for 21 OECD countries, between 1970 and 2000. A country-level dataset is used to measure PSE in delivering education and health services and the new indices are regressed on well-established decentralization measures. Irrespective of whether PSE concerns education or health services, an inverted U-shaped relationship has been identified between government efficiency in providing these services and fiscal decentralization. This relationship is robust across several different specifications and estimation methods.     

The influence of environmental and organizational factors on innovation adoptions: Consequences for performance in public sector organizations

Although technical and administrative innovations have received much academic interest in recent years, our understanding of why some organizations adopt these innovations and others do not is still underdeveloped. This paper examines organizational and environmental factors that may explain the adoption of innovations in public sector organizations. Furthermore, how technical and administrative innovations affect firm performance is also examined. Regarding organizational factors, we analyze strategy and firm size. Regarding environmental factors, we analyze the effect of uncertainty and market concentration. Hypotheses are developed and tested using a combination of archival and survey data from the public healthcare sector. Our results suggest that environmental and organizational factors have inconsistent effects on the adoption of administrative and technical innovations in public sector organizations. Our findings also show that high adopters of both types of innovations are more sensitive to environmental factors than organizational factors. Furthermore, our paper shows that organizations that combine technical and administrative innovations increase their performance.     

Calibrating Public Sector Accountability: Translating experimental findings to public sector accountability

Accountability mechanisms are among the most important means with which governments guard and improve the performance of public sector organizations. However, research documents a plethora of accountability-failures. A key issue is: how can public sector accountability become more effective? This paper seeks to answer this question by connecting two largely separated strands of research: public administration research on real-world organizations and experimental research on the effects of different forms of accountability on decision-making. The paper develops the Calibrated Public Accountability-model (CPA-model) from experimental research findings which can be used to investigate how accountability can be calibrated to task requirements of organizations.     

A supply-demand model of public sector size

We develop a supply-demand model for the public sector with a political equilibrium. The model considers the inefficiencies caused by taxes and includes costs associated with the provision of public goods to consumers. We show that the size of the public sector may depend on the median voter's income, population size, costs associated with paying tax, and quality of institutions, all of which reflect the costs of provisioning public goods. The estimates for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries are compatible with theoretical predictions; however, they do not confirm Wagner's law, which holds that the public sector share does not grow with an increase in income. A greater dependency ratio and the Gini coefficient increase demand for redistribution policies. Greater government effectiveness is a supply-side factor that increases the public sector's share in an economy.     

The disclosure of key performance indicators in the public sector

This article investigates the disclosure of key performance indicators in the annual reports of Irish public sector organizations. It begins by discussing the two main driving forces behind public sector bodies disclosing performance information in their annual reports for the first time as well as looking at other contributing factors. The present situation with regard to the disclosure of key performance indicators in the whole of Ireland is then analysed. A number of annual reports from central government departments or agencies, local government bodies, other public sector entities and, in the case of the Republic of Ireland, semi-state organizations are examined to see whether such information is being disclosed and, more importantly, whether performance indicators are being linked to predetermined objectives and targets.     

Tax enforcement,technology, and the informal sector

Theoretical models of the informal sector mostly assume—or end up with—a positive correlation between a measure of taxes and the size of the informal sector. However, some recent empirical studies associate higher taxes with a smaller informal sector size. In this paper, we build a theoretical framework—an extension to a two-sector growth model—which allows us to unravel the negative correlation between informal sector size and taxes. We find that (a) a higher degree of tax enforcement, (b) a higher productivity of formal sector households, and (c) a lower physical capital depreciation rate make for a negative relation between these variables. Our results suggest that enforcement and technological factors are likely candidates to account for this relationship.     

Respect,bullying, and public sector work outcomes in Vietnam

ABSTRACT

This article examines empirical links between a subordinate’s felt recognition respect from his/her supervisor, the subordinate’s appraisal respect for that supervisor, and bullying, work engagement, and organizational citizenship behaviour in Vietnam’s public sector. Data from 274 employees in six branches of a public sector agency were used to test the hypothesized model. Within Vietnam’s public sector, the followers who receive recognition respect from the leaders have greater appraisal respect for their leaders, experience less bullying, and reveal higher work engagement and organizational citizenship behaviour. This article theoretically and empirically contributes to the respect literature developed in the Western context.