Innovation in urban political leadership. Reflections on the introduction of a directly-elected mayor in Bristol,UK

In May 2012, 10 of England's largest cities, outside London, were required to hold referendums giving citizens the option of introducing a directly-elected mayor. Bristol was the only city to vote in favour of the mayoral model. This paper outlines the main themes that feature in current debates about urban leadership. It presents a framework for understanding place-based leadership and, by drawing on a current researchproject on mayoral governance in Bristol, highlights the existence of very different perceptions of how to improve city leadership and democratic accountability.     

VALUE FOR MONEY AUDITING IN NEW ZEALAND: COMPETING FOR CONTROL IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

This paper provides an overview of the changing role of performance or Value for Money (VFM) auditing in the New Zealand public sector. In many countries there has been a strong interest in public sector reform and the place of accounting technologies such as VFM. A theoretical framework, derived from public policy literature, is used to explain the changing role and relevance of VFM auditing in New Zealand. Within the policy process problems, solutions and opportunities are relatively separate streams. Expert groups or epistemic communities compete to define the problem and to advocate their particular solutions. The Office of the Auditor-General is presented as an epistemic community within the New Zealand policy process and the technology of VFM as a solution to the problems of the day. However, the Treasury (NZ) also developed a policy solution involving radical restructure of the public sector, challenging the existing role of VFM. In response, the Audit Office re-defined the role of VFM auditing as a service to the parliamentary select committees. The changing role of VFM illustrates the flexible and the contestable nature of accounting technologies and casts some doubt on the argument that the growth of accounting in the public sector is inevitable.     

From New Public Management to New Public Governance? Hybridization and Implications for Public Sector Consumerism

This paper examines how variations in the notion of public sector consumerism become embedded in diverse governance practices. To this end, we extend the literature on public governance logics with insights from research on public sector consumerism and hybridization in public sector management reforms. Through a comparative, multi‐level analysis we trace the development of two governance logics largely corresponding to the distinction between New Public Management (NPM) and New Public Governance (NPG) in Swedish transport infrastructure policy. In contrast to research predicting or prescribing a relatively radical shift between such governance logics we show how they partly co‐evolved along two reform paths entailing notable variations in the degree of hybridization and the embedding of consumerist notions in emerging governance practices. In doing so, we draw attention to how the hybridization of governance logics is contingent on the alignment of diverse interests and differences in the process through which such logics are brought together. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research into public sector consumerism and hybridization in public sector management reforms.     

Participatory and incremental development in an African local government accounting reform

Despite significant donor funding, government accounting reforms seeking transparent and effective management of public resources often fail or have limited success, especially in Africa, prompting questions about donors’ implementation approach and calls for studies of successful reforms. This paper investigates a local government accounting reform in Benin supported by a German development agency–perceived as successful due to the participatory, pragmatic, and incremental approach reinforced by conditionalities in the face of neo‐patrimonial leadership.     

Review: Chinese public administration and finance—a call for a new theory,research and dialogue

In implementing its national strategy to achieve global leadership, China needs a new public administration theory that integrates political administration, economic management and social regulation. Even so, China has already started to promote its brand of political and economic development abroad. Therefore new comparative research and dialogue is called to explore the universality of Chinese and Western public administration ideas.     

Critical Factors Affecting the Evaluation of Information Control Systems with the COBIT Framework

This paper empirically investigates the factors affecting auditors in evaluating information technology (IT) control structures by employing the COBIT framework, a popular IT internal control with integrated platform, and examines the relationship between monitoring function and other COBIT dimensions. The results of our empirical analysis indicate that key factors of IT governance endorsed by certified public accountants (CPAs) in Taiwan match fairly well with those prescribed in the COBIT framework. CPAs can utilize COBIT as a guideline for developing their approach to internal control structure and further limiting their audit liabilities.     

Sociological approaches to risk: strong in analysis but weak in policy influence in recent UK developments

Sociological approaches to risk and uncertainty are well‐developed. These approaches have played an important role in analysing the significance of risk and uncertainty in modern social life. However, it is approaches based on rational actor perspectives in New Public Management that have become pre‐eminent in handling social risks in recent UK policies. This paper tackles the puzzle of why sociology is strong in critique but much weaker in policy influence by pointing to the institutional and contextual standing of approaches which offer a natural home to individual rational actor approaches within UK government.

Approaches that understand and analyse risk in statistical terms have been particularly influential in many aspects of modern life. A second stream, that has tended to attract less attention, stresses linkages between these approaches and the growth of particular institutions. The challenges faced by modern states in a post‐industrial and globalised world are widely discussed. An important response, particularly prominent in the UK and especially in social policy‐making, has been New Public Management, associated with an individual rational actor paradigm. Sociological approaches to risk have contributed a number of critiques of this development, however these critiques have failed to gain much purchase on policy‐making. One reason is the extent to which approaches which rest on an individual rational actor paradigm are entrenched within the institutional framework of policy‐making. This paradigm rests on a different approach to agency than that which is most influential in sociology.     

In whose interest? An examination of public sector governance in Brunei Darussalam

This paper uses institutional and elite theories to interpret research interviews concerned with public sector governance in the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam over the period 1998–2005. Despite the suggestion from international agencies (such as the WTO and the IMF) to improve governance in the public sector, the recent governance reform in the post-royal dynasty crisis period in Brunei is overtly displayed and covertly ignored by the main actors. The results show that public governance is not well developed. Using elite and institutional theories it is understood that the royal family played a dominant role in legitimizing their absolute power (using elites) over governance in public sector organizations.     

‘It’s every breath we take here’: Political astuteness and ethics in civil service leadership development

ABSTRACT

This paper uses survey and interview research with senior civil servants to argue that leadership with political astuteness is a specific contextual requirement for public servants who work closely with politicians. Also important are technical skills, judgement and a sharp sense of ethics and integrity. The fine balance of political astuteness and other capabilities is shown in a framework about leading in an ethical way. Implications for the development of civil servants are considered.     

Evidence of a leadership role in the Chilean stock exchanges

In our study of the two leading stock exchanges in Chile—the Santiago Stock Exchange (SSE) and the Electronic Stock Exchange (ESE)—we find that the SSE exhibits a leadership role over the ESE in terms of transmission of returns and volatility. These results indicate that prior empirical studies showing that the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) leads other exchanges is a result of market structure factors rather than a ‘U.S. effect’. The factors that lead to a leadership role are deeper liquidity, more effective monitoring, and a greater concentration of speculators. Markets possessing these factors will be the first to attract investors and will lead other exchanges. Although, the leadership role of the SSE creates a predictable flow of information between markets, the ability to create arbitrage opportunities is mitigated by transaction costs and the current order-processing mechanism in Chile. However, our results suggest that a market's leadership could result in arbitrage opportunities in countries with lower transaction costs or different order-processing mechanisms.     

Financial reporting standards for the public sector: New Zealand's 21st-century experience

New Zealand was seen as world-leading when public sector financial reports were prepared using sector-neutral accounting standards from 1995 onwards. The decision in 2002 to adopt IFRS was disruptive, effecting new understandings of ‘sector-neutral’, and the standard-setter's approach was unsuccessful in meeting public sector users’ needs. The development of a new strategy finalized in 2012 has created a multi-standards framework, including adapted IPSASB standards applicable from 1 July 2014. While neutrality is still prized, it is within a framework of meeting users’ needs. This paper traces the influences expediting these changes.     

Strategic Governance and Management Accounting: Evidence From a Case Study

This paper seeks to establish if top management (the board) of a firm should extend its overview of the governance process to the execution of strategy (i.e., strategic governance) and, if so, does the management accounting information system (MAIS) have a role in facilitating this strategy execution process. This study investigated the role of the board and MAIS in strategic governance by examining a company with a public record of both successful governance and integrated strategic management accounting processes in a high‐risk industry. The analysis demonstrates that boards should go beyond the minimum conformance (compliance) requirements of the governance‐regulatory legislation and assume ultimate responsibility for strategy execution and enterprise performance. However, while management accounting techniques, processes and reports were found to be used extensively in strategic governance to integrate the policy‐management interface in numerous conformance–performance domains, the traditional role of the management accountant was found to be limited in terms of their role in such governance. The study demonstrates that a more strategic governance role offers the management accountant a way back into senior management by using the routines of management accounting to socialize the board and curb any opportunism that may arise.     

Comparing the content of regulatory impact assessments in the UK and the EU

The need for effective leadership in the UK public sector has been a prominent discourse in recent years. One aspect of this is a growing interest in talent management. This article examines the evolution of processes used for managing talent and developing leaders in the UK's National Health Service (NHS) by applying human resource management theory to an empirical case study. Our aim was to provide a constructive, but critical, analysis of the current role of managerial talent management and to comment on the suitability of the adopted approach in the NHS. Over the past three decades the NHS has come to adopt an increasingly ‘hard’ approach to talent management, i.e. rationalistic, managerial and narrowly focused on leadership competencies and senior management roles. This parallels a more general shift in the NHS from its traditional public sector ethos and humanistic values to more business-oriented values and ways of working.     

公众预期与货币政策有效性

现代货币政策理论特别强调预期在货币政策有效性发挥中的核心作用。在对有关经典预期理论进行探讨之后,借助标准的新凯恩斯模型分析了预期对货币政策操作结果的影响,认为公众预期会对货币政策有效性产生影响,使得政策结果偏离目。标水平,而且在把“Brainard不确定性”纳入分析框架之后,预期对货币政策有效性的影响程度将更大,即政策结果完全由预期决定,同时对预期形成的影响因素进行了有益的探讨。并在对全文总结的基础上,提出了一些建设性的启示。     

The Role of Leadership in the Turnaround of a Local Authority

This article examines leadership behaviour during a successful turnaround in a public services organization. Using findings from recent research on leaders in the public services, this article sets out a number of propositions about leadership behaviour. Then a case study of Newham Council from 1996 to 1999 is analysed to show that effective public services leaders do not simply work through visions, communications and empowerment. Successful leadership appears to be much more complex in turnaround situations than is suggested by much of the literature on visionary and transformational leaders.     

Evidence of governance arbitrage by private equity sponsors

The motivation for private equity bids is not well understood, partly due to the private nature of their activity. This research contributes to understanding the merits of current-day private equity by examining whether ineffective governance of target public corporations contributes to the role that private equity fulfils. I examine the characteristics of large public target firms that receive a private equity bid to investigate the evidence that private equity is motivated to address ineffective governance. I find evidence the private equity is motivated by what is referred to as governance arbitrage and that this role is heightened when there are constraints such as the imposition of uniform governance practices within public corporations.     

国外公仆型领导力研究述评

公仆型领导力对组织竞争力的提升,企业的长久生存和社会的健康发展具有重大作用,因此成为了近年来西方领导力学派的研究热点。本文在研究西方学者相关文献的基础上,对公仆型领导力予以分类,总结了公仆型领导力的关键特点与测量维度,对相关理论模型进行了评价,阐述了对企业的影响结果。同时对公仆型领导力的概念予以界定,明确了公仆型领导力模型的反作用环节,构建了公仆型领导力的动态发展模型。     

Derivatives Use, Corporate Governance, and Legislative Change: An Empirical Analysis of New Zealand Listed Companies

Abstract:   This paper examines if board composition has any systematic bearing on derivatives usage by New Zealand listed companies. We also test if derivative usage changed following the introduction of the new 1993 Companies Act. The Act raised expectations of directors' fiduciary responsibilities and the perceived risk of liability on outside directors for poor investment decisions. Using a dataset of listed New Zealand companies in 1994 and 1997, we find companies with higher growth opportunities and a greater proportion of outside directors were less likely to use financial derivatives following the introduction of the new Act. Our results supplement the US‐based literature on derivatives usage by illustrating that internal governance mechanisms can play a role in corporate derivatives policy, and that the legislative and regulatory environment may affect this role.     

New development: The evolution of Welsh devolution

The reliance on consumer choice to drive improvements in public services is at the centre of policy debates in the UK and elsewhere. However, the discourse of consumerism occurs in the midst of a quagmire as to whether users of public services can legitimately be considered as customers, citizens or co-producers, while the existing evidence on how far they assume the role of public service consumers is largely ignored. This article discusses research on users' attitudes to choice in health, education and social services in the UK, the European Union and the USA. Provision of public services is rarely about acquiring products for pure consumption, but more about providers and users jointly addressing essential social and human needs. The author argues for an alternative conception of public service provision going beyond the limitations of consumerism, although some users are more likely to choose certain public services over others (for example schools rather than health services). However, the evidence presented disproves the view that users of public services will act as discerning consumers in the market-place.     

New development: The role of benchmarking in supporting improvement in local government— Scottish and Welsh practitioners' perspectives

A primary leadership challenge facing central budget agencies is sustaining the respect of finance ministers. Lessons are drawn in this article from the corrosive effect that missed opportunities to take the lead on economic strategy and public service modernization had on the long-term respect commanded by the Irish Department of Finance, and from the strategic re-orientation the New Zealand Treasury undertook to correct its tendency to ‘over-reach’ itself in these areas following a process of capacity-building and cultural transformation in the 1980s.