The Centrality of Community Capacity in State Low‐income Housing Provision in Cape Town,South Africa

The development of low‐income housing continues to be a political imperative and an urban reconstruction priority for the post‐apartheid South African state. But, even though policies for housing construction and delivery by the state are in place, in practice many homeless families initiate, direct and drive the process through which they secure state‐provided housing. I analyse in this study two such cases where homeless residents in peripherally located, poor areas of the Cape Metropolitan Area successfully accessed state‐provided housing. In both instances, homeless families organized around the different sets of capacities that structured the nature of the linkages that each forged to resources outside of their respective areas, and thus the ways in which they pursued their need for housing. I argue in this study that uneven and place‐specific, community‐based capacity often directs the manner in which communities interpret, interface with and access state‐run urban reconstruction projects such as housing provision. An analysis of community‐based capacity thus proves useful to investigate the potential and the problems that underlie state initiatives for development and the manner in which communities participate and engage with urban reconstruction and development. L'expansion du logement social reste un impératif politique et une priorité de la reconstruction urbaine pour l'État sud‐africain de l'après‐apartheid. Des politiques de construction et de fourniture de logements par l'État ont été mises en place mais, en pratique, de nombreuses familles sans‐domicile induisent, orientent et mènent le processus par lequel elles s'assurent un logement public. Cette étude analyse deux de ces cas dans lesquels des sans‐domicile vivant dans des quartiers pauvres à la périphérie de la zone métropolitaine du Cap ont réussi à se loger. Dans les deux situations, les familles se sont organisées autour des capacités spécifiques qui structuraient la nature des liens établis pour trouver des ressources hors de leurs quartiers respectifs, définissant ainsi leurs modalités d'action pour obtenir un logement. L'étude démontre qu'une capacité inégale, particulière à un lieu et à un groupe, oriente souvent la manière dont les communautés interprètent, interagissent avec et accèdent aux projets de reconstruction urbaine menés par l'État tels que la fourniture de logement. Il apparaît donc utile d'analyser la capacité propre à une communauté, si l'on veut déterminer non seulement le potentiel et les problèmes fondamentaux des initiatives gouvernementales de développement, mais aussi la manière dont les communautés participent et contribuent à la reconstruction et à l'aménagement urbains.     

The making and remaking of HRM: the practice of managing people in the Eastern Cape Province,South Africa

This paper explores the nature of human resource management (HRM) practice in the Border region of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, located within contemporary local and international debates regarding the content and nature thereof. Four distinct patterns of practice were identified. The first represented a simple changing in nomenclature of the relevant personnel sections, with, in several cases, staff being seen not as managers, but rather as a distinct, and somewhat junior, category of employee. In the second category, the traditional personnel function was broadened to encompass clearly delineated areas such as training and development. In the third category, while HRM practitioners did play an important strategic role, this was more in terms of facilitating the adoption of progressive industrial relations policies, than in developing a vision for managing human resources across the organization. In all cases, what human resource practitioners did seemed somewhat removed from the 'conventional wisdom' definition of HRM. In part this was a result of the persistence of effective and militant trade unions, necessitating the adoption of hybrid HR-industrial relations practices. However, it also represented a product of particular managerial traditions, and the fact that HRM represents a complex package of concepts and practices, which, inevitably, are subject to adjustment in the light of prevailing realities. This study sheds further light on the diverse and multi-faceted area of HRM practice, and underscores the need for flexibility and pragmatism in both transitional, and, indeed, mature economic contexts.     

Forefronts of the Sharing Economy: Uber in Cape Town

The sharing economy, often phrased as ‘platform capitalism’, enables firms such as Uber and Airbnb to monetize, through specific technologies of mediation, the networks, the assets and the precarious labour of those who are described as ‘the entrepreneurs of sharing’. This article explores the urban geographies of ride‐sharing in the marketization of Uber in Cape Town, South Africa. I use empirical evidence collected during the first phase of its operations in the city, between 2013 and 2015, to show how Uber relied upon the developmental entrepreneurialism of Cape Town to embed its ride‐sharing market locally, and how the drivers enacted multiple technical, economic and ethical regimes within and without the constraints of the software platform. The research presented in this article thus contributes to understanding how the discourses of millennial development, with its promises of entrepreneurial empowerment, are adopted by global sharing‐economy firms to enact their markets in the global South. It also reveals how a different genealogy of Uber's urban transactions offers an alternative perspective on the normative rationalities of the sharing economy and on the diverse economies that exist in relation to platform capitalism in the global South.     

Electronic mail,privacy, and the public sector: Guidelines for public employees and organizations

What privacy rights are public employees entitled to when using their electronic mail systems? Are they entitled to privacy rights in the messages they send or receive? The setting, public or private, is crucial to determine what privacy rights exist for the employee. Unfortunately, no public sector electronic mail privacy case has been considered by the courts. Nevertheless, E-mail privacy guidance does exist. This article investigates previous privacy considerations provided in other workplace situations—cases that involve technologies other than E-mail—in search for common rules established by the Supreme Court. With this foundation, the article then applies the same rules to an electronic mail environment and provides guidelines intended to assist public managers in the creation or reevaluation of their organization’s electronic mail privacy policy.     

Reverse logistics optimisation for waste collection and disposal in health institutions: the case of Turkey

Waste management in health institutions has become important in recent years because of the increase in population and industrialisation. Waste generated from health institutions has risks for human health and the environment. Therefore, this paper presents a reverse logistics optimisation for waste collection and disposal in Turkish health institutions. A multiperiod, multitype product waste reverse logistics network was designed to build an effective collection and disposal system for waste generated from health institutions in Turkey. A mixed integer linear programming model was developed to determine the optimal number and locations of the facilities for efficient waste management in health care by minimising the total cost. In this context, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to examine the impact of the incremental changes of waste amounts on the optimal reverse logistics network. According to increasing waste amounts, the numbers of changes in facilities are analysed and strategies are specified.     

Charging for public services: the case of utilities in Norwegian local governments

This paper empirically analyzes the determinants of utility charges using a panel data set for a sample of Norwegian local governments. There is strong evidence of revenue substitution in the sense that local governments increase their utility charges when other sources of revenue (lump-sum grants and regulated tax revenue) become more restricted. Moreover, local political institutions are shown to be important: a high share of socialist representatives in the local council leads to high utility charges, whereas a strong political leadership is able to keep utility charges low.     

Job insecurity and job satisfaction in the United States: the case of public sector union workers

We measure the association between perceived job insecurity and job satisfaction in the United States and focus on public sector union workers. Job satisfaction decreases with perceived job insecurity among union workers in the public sector and primarily when tenure with an employer is high.     

Collaborative innovation in the public sector: the argument

There has been a growing interest in the question of how to spur innovation in the public sector, and recent research points to multi-actor collaboration as a superior innovation driver. This article explains why and how multi-actor collaboration may spur public innovation. It also discusses why we should expect different public and private actors to engage in demanding processes of collaborative interaction in order to produce risk-filled public innovations. Finally, it reflects on how it is possible to overcome the barriers to collaborative innovation through a combination of institutional design and the exercise of leadership and management.     

Economic growth, size of the agricultural sector, and urbanization in Africa

This paper uses variations in international commodity prices and rainfall to construct instrumental variables estimates of the within-country effect that changes in the size of the agricultural sector and GDP per capita growth have on the urbanization rate. For a panel of 41 African countries during the period 1960-2007, the paper’s three main findings are that: (i) decreases in the share of agricultural value added lead to a significant increase in the urbanization rate; (ii) conditional on changes in the share of agricultural value added GDP per capita growth does not significantly affect the urbanization rate; (iii) increases in the urbanization rate had a significant negative average effect on GDP per capita growth.     

Capitalization,population movement,and the local public sector: a probabilistic analysis

Using data collected from household interviews in a 1965 San Francisco Bay Area Transportation Study, a probabilistic model is developed to explain the relationship between population movement and the capitalization of changes in the public sector in the price of housing. This model is constructed to compare 2 competing explanations for the flight of higher income households to the suburbs: 1) the accessibility model and 2) the flight from blight model. The accessibility model explains the decay of cities as a natural outgrowth of decreasing transportation costs, whereas the flight from blight model suggests that the wealthy leave the central city for the suburbs because of urban decay. An analysis of the San Francisco data demonstrates that high income households are more sensitive than the rest of the population to changes in the median income of the neighborhood and in expenditures and general government and education, but less sensitive to changes in property tax rate and expenditures on public safety, parks, and recreation. It is unlikely that undesirable changes in the public sector will result in a mass exodus of higher income households; capitalization in the price of housing appears sufficient to prevent this. The 2 models combined help explain the flight from the central cities, while the combined variables increase the logit estimation's prediction of bids for housing.     

Examining public service motivation in the voluntary sector: implications for public management

Building on research about the nature of public service motivation (PSM) and its application outside the public sector, the authors provide a qualitative-based examination of PSM’s relevance to voluntary sector employees. In doing so, they explore how far their motivations extend beyond those encompassed within current conceptualizations of PSM and whether PSM research can be enriched through the adoption of qualitative methodologies. The findings suggest that PSM accounts for some, but not all, of the motives of voluntary sector employees and indicate that public sector managers involved in outsourcing public services need to be sensitive to their distinctive features.     

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.     

Unequal and low pay in the public sector

This article assesses unequal and low pay in the public sector, and UNISON’s action on these issues. It is argued that gendered employment and pay are crucial to an understanding of sources of conflict and pressures for institutional change. The case is made for ‘mainstreaming’ women in accounts of public sector industrial relations.     

New public management and organisational commitment in the public sector: testing a mediation model

This paper focuses on the attitudes of learning professionals towards New Public Management (NPM). In a survey of the UK further education sector (n = 433), NPM beliefs were found to be positively associated with both affective and normative organisational commitment. However, as expected, NPM beliefs were not found to be related to continuance organisational commitment. The results also show that although perceived organisational support mediates the relationship between NPM beliefs and affective organisational comment, it is only a partial mediator of the relationship between NPM beliefs and normative organisational commitment. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings, and potential directions for future research, are discussed.     

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.     

Measuring productivity in the public sector: some conceptual problems

In many sectors of the economy, governments either provide various services at no cost or at highly subsidized prices. Examples are the health, education and general government sectors. The paper analyzes three possible general methods to measure the price and quantity of nonmarket government outputs. If quantity information on nonmarket outputs is available, then the first two methods of price valuation rely on either purchaser based valuations or on cost based valuations. If little or no information on the quantity of nonmarket outputs produced is available, then the method recommended in the System of National Accounts 1993 must be used, where aggregate output growth is set equal to aggregate input growth. The paper also discusses various methods of adjusting for quality change.