Characteristics of Portuguese public‐sector project managers: Toward closing the effectiveness gap

Using a sample of 102 Portuguese public‐sector officials with project management experience, this study examines the characteristics of effective project managers in the Portuguese public sector. Factor‐analysis procedures are used to identify the factors related to areas of knowledge relevant to effective project management. The results appear to stress the increasing importance of people, organizational, and leadership skills in the effective management of today's complex and dynamic projects.     

Systemic risk in major public contracts

This paper presents a novel approach to the characterisation of “systemic risk” in the context of public sector procurement and contracting. We argue that contemporary risk management practices in project and programme management exhibit a number of limitations. This is particularly relevant to public sector contracting, which, the authors postulate, would benefit from more sophisticated practices that are capable of dealing with risk ‘systemicity’. Drawing on a sample of public sector procurement exercises commissioned by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), the paper presents a multi-method approach that aims to increase our understanding of complex outsourcing contracts. The results suggest a need for more appropriate methods of risk analysis, and discuss the practical implications.     

Public–Private Partnerships and the Design Process: Consequences for Architects and City Building

Governments are increasingly using public–private partnerships (PPPs) to deliver public infrastructures and facilities. The prime motivation to embark on these partnerships is often to deliver products and services on time and on budget. It is generally assumed that by transferring project risks and responsibilities to private‐sector actors, governments can achieve better value for money. This article provides a novel perspective on the standards applied in PPP endeavors as it examines the tensions between the public management rationale behind value for money on the one hand, and conceptions of design and city building on the other. We focus on planning practice in the Canadian province of Ontario to show that governments apply different understandings of value in PPPs which, in turn, affect the way the design process is run. Architects, who are used to playing the role of master builder in a traditional public infrastructure project, are shifted into a less influential position and struggle with their new role. Furthermore, a different set of priorities applies in the new procurement process. The increasing use of PPPs can thus have significant consequences for city building.     

Evidence‐Based Scope for Reducing “Fire‐Fighting” in Project Management

This paper reviews the problems of project management as reported by 1,879 individuals employed in the construction, manufacturing, process, and service industries in North‐West Europe over 23 years. Data obtained by a written questionnaire confirms that organizational relationships need the most attention. The data exhibits no trends over the 23 years. It indicates that many of the problems of project management are “institutional”; in other words, they are due to organizational cultures rather than inherent in project work. The evidence supports the view that poor discipline at the front‐end of projects results in too much “fire‐fighting” in project execution to overcome problems that could have been prevented. Prevention of these institutional problems requires action at the level of corporate governance, above the level of project management.     

Project management priorities and the link with performance management systems

This paper reports the results of a project management practices study in the U.K. social housing sector. A five‐factor model of project priorities is established, comprising traditional measures of project cost, time, and quality, in combination with a need to focus on stakeholders and to develop a customer and project team orientation. This model supports and integrates previously fragmented notions of project performance measurement. The relationship between these five project management criteria and the effectiveness and use of a performance management system (PMS) is then explored, with some limited evidence found that PMS effectiveness is an antecedent to practices that focus on the customer, the project team members, and other stakeholders     

Ecosystem cross‐sector collaboration: conceptualizing an adaptive approach to sustainability governance

This paper explores the theoretical underpinnings of collaboration and ecosystem management in order to identify the relationships and processes involved in implementing ecosystem management programs through cross‐sector collaboration. Ecosystem management requires a highly adaptive and resilient social–ecological governance approach, which addresses spatiality and temporality issues. In order to explore possible implementation issues with ecosystem management, propositions are developed dealing with adaptive governance, institutional isomorphism and collective action. The paper concludes with a discussion of the theoretic underpinnings involved in implementing ecosystem management through cross‐sector collaborations. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Demystifying the folklore of the accidental project manager in the public sector

Many individuals are called upon to undertake project management responsibilities with little or no preparation. Such project managers have been referred to as accidental project managers. This article examines the experiences of 46 accidental project managers within the Western Australian public sector through a questionnaire survey. Findings reveal that most project managers were selected based on their technical or managerial expertise and thus lacked the required competencies to deliver a project. There was a greater propensity for accidental project managers to act in a part‐time mode, undertake nontechnical projects, and be provided with limited training and education.     

New Public Management

The paper presents an assessment and evaluation of what is termed ‘new public management’ at the end of the 1990s. In order to provide this assessment, new public management is defined in several ways: as a movement, as an academic commentary, and as reformed organizational practice in the public sector. The paper uses the UK health sector to examine some of the assumed relationships between ideology, actions and consequences implied within a broad understanding of new public management. Developments in the UK health sector are used to address assumptions focusing on different aspects of the ideology (private sector practices and markets can increase efficiency in the public sector), actions (introduction of market mechanisms and business-like, practices) and consequences (operational performance, strategic direction, governance and values). Drawing on developments in the UK health sector, an assessment of new public management at the end of the 1990s sees it much diversified and expanded from original conceptions, which are ensuring its contested survival as a movement, as an academic commentary, and as reformed organizational practice in the UK despite a change of government in 1997.     

Decentralization,the New Public Management,and The Changing Role of The Public Sector In Africa

The role of the public sector in most countries around the world is changing both with respect to public service delivery and the stimulation of economic progress. That change, which was occasioned by the need for policy reform, has resulted in what is now termed ‘the new public management’, reflecting a movement away from the old values and norms of public sector administration. This article examines and analyses the concept of decentralization and its relevance to the changing role of the public sector, within the context of ‘the new public management’. and with special reference to Africa. The perspective of the article assumes that the new public management provides an appropriate framework for responding to the efficient delivery of public services in Africa.     

Methods for delivering complex social services: exploring adaptive management and regulation in the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme

In the wake of new public management, and with the emergence of new public governance, a number of challenges remain unsolved in the field of public service governance and management. In this paper, we use the example of the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme to show how we might deal with the design and implementation of a public service reform within the context of new public governance. We argue that governments need to develop greater openness to risk and policy experimentation during implementation. We therefore propose an adaptive system architecture that could support such risk taking.     

Are public sector personnel managers the profession's poor relations?

This article is concerned with differences between personnel practitioners in the private and public sectors. Drawing on survey and interview data from practitioners in both sectors, the authors report that public sector practitioners are less well‐qualified and are paid less than their private sector counterparts. Very few practitioners move between the sectors, suggesting the existence of separate and self‐contained career structures. It is argued that this is not a separation of equals, and is maintained partly by the existence of a system of myths and stereotypes which have the effect of discouraging able professionals from entering the public sector. The article considers the reasons for the continuing differences and the separation, particularly in the light of public sector reforms which might have been expected to have diminished them. The implications for personnel management in the public sector and for the personnel profession in general are then discussed.     

Demolishing the Present to Sell off the Future? The Emergence of ‘Financialized Municipal Entrepreneurialism’ in London

This article introduces a new mode of urban entrepreneurialism in London through a study of the state‐executed, speculative development and financialization of public land. In response to an intensifying housing crisis and austerity‐imposed fiscal constraints, municipalities in London are devising entrepreneurial solutions to deliver more housing. Among these ‘solutions’ can be found the early signs of the state‐executed financialization of public housing in the UK with the use of speculative council‐owned special purpose vehicles (SPVs) that replace existing public housing stock with mixed‐tenure developments, creating ambiguous public/private tenancies that function as homes and the basis for liquid financial assets. Drawing together parallel literatures on the financialization of urban governance and housing, and combining these with original empirical research, we situate these developments in contrast to earlier modes of governance, identifying a distinct mode of entrepreneurial governance in London: financialized municipal entrepreneurialism. The local state is no longer merely the enabler—limited to providing strategic oversight of the private sector—but financializes its practice in a reimagined commercialized interventionism, as property speculator. This article concludes that while the architects of this new mode of entrepreneurialism extol the increased capacity and control it provides, any such gains must be set against longer‐term financial, democratic and political risks.     

公共部门人力资源管理中的问题及对策

以政府为核心的公共部门,不仅可以为大众提供优质公共产品和公共服务,还对社会稳定和经济进步起到至关重要的作用。为了更好地推动国内经济社会的积极发展,必须使公共部门人员的自身价值得到最大程度的发挥。这就需要做好公共部门的人员资源管理,提高他们工作效率和服务质量。为了更好地促进国内社会公共部门人力资源管理发展,论文分析了公共部门人力资源管理中存在的问题,对如何改善提高公共部门人力资源管理提出相应解决方案。     

How do the ownership structure and board of directors' features impact earnings management? The Spanish case

This paper examines how the ownership structure and board of directors' features determine the managerial opportunistic behavior exemplified in the management of accounting earnings. This study contributes to the literature by investigating the relationship of firm‐level and country‐level corporate governance systems on the earnings management in the Spanish corporate sector. Results reveal that the varying efficiency of the corporate governance systems is reflected in the way in which accounting discretion is performed. We found evidence that earnings management is reduced as the voting rights of the controlling shareholder increased and that there is an inverse U‐shaped relationship between insiders' ownership and the earnings manipulation. Regarding the board characteristics, we observe that larger, independent boards, those with a larger proportion of female members, and those with an audit committee compounded by a greater proportion of outside independent directors oversee managers more efficiently, constraining their capacity to manage earnings. To the contrary, board duality increases the likelihood of opportunistic manipulation of financial reporting. We found that when the institutional environment improves in the Spanish context, the discretionary power of the corporate sector to overstate the financial statements is reduced. The findings prove the necessity of reinforcing the rules and regulations toward a more transparent disclosure of the financial statements.     

Project management and high‐value superyacht projects: An improvisational and temporal perspective

This article considers specific elements of the project management of high‐value deliverables in an under‐researched sector. Specifically, it looks at ways in which change is accommodated in complex projects where scope, delivery, and cost are relatively inflexible. An emerging literature considers improvisational working within project‐based work, which dilutes the “plan, then execute” paradigm that has shaped project work for some time. This research contributes to the temporal and rhythmic aspects of work in this area, linking with extant theory on, among other areas, punctuated equilibrium and organizational “rhythm,” and identifies parallels between improvised project work and established academic theory.     

Supply Chain Management as Private Sector Regulation: What does it Mean for Business Strategy and Public Policy?

The growing practice of environmental supply chain management by firms constitutes private sector regulation that is analogous in many ways to public sector regulation. Similarly to their public counterparts, private sector regulators set standards, apply standards, monitor for compliance, apply sanctions and require corrective action. Private sector regulation differs, however, in the source of authority, external oversight, analytical requirements, public participation and available sanctions. This article argues that supply chain management by firms goes beyond business objectives by creating positive environmental externalities for society, and that more systematic study of the similarities and contrasts between the two forms of regulation may provide valuable lessons for both. Further, it may be possible to increase the effectiveness of private sector regulation to achieve both public societal and private business goals. From a business perspective, supply chain management enables firms to strategically redefine their relationships with government, reduce uncertainty and promote goal‐oriented collaboration. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Enacting the entrepreneurial self: Public-private innovation as an actualization of a neoliberal market dispositive

Drawing on Foucault’s writings on power, neoliberalism, and the dispositive, this article analyses the identity politics that is immanent in a new collaborative practice between the public and private sector called public-private innovation (PPI). We argue that PPI is an element in actualizing a neoliberal market dispositive through inclining subjects to work on themselves in order to actualize their entrepreneurial self, thereby disconnecting them from their public service identity. The construction of two narratives supports the constitution of the political space of PPI: the fiery soul narrative and the need narrative. An important part of this identity politics is the construction of the narrative of the individual entrepreneur. Rather than expressing new public governance in the public sector, PPI actualizes a dispositive that marketizes public services as part of a neoliberal agenda. The narrative of PPI distracts from the marketization of public sector and leaves no other space for public-sector employees than to constitute themselves within contradictory feelings of enthusiasm and anxiety, determination and self-blame, responsibility and inadequacy, and bustle and confusion.     

Payments for ecosystem services and corporate social responsibility: Perspectives on sustainable production,stakeholder relations,and philanthropy in Thailand

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are environmental management tools that enable corporations to simultaneously enhance their environmental performance and fund sustainable development in rural areas. PES is primarily promoted as part of a sustainable production strategy for conserving natural resources, offsetting carbon emissions, and green supply chain management. Nevertheless, PES uptake by the private sector remains low, and few studies have analysed whether corporate‐financed PES schemes conform to this rationale. This study evaluates three of the first PES schemes in Thailand, financed by large corporations in the water utilities, aquaculture, and beverage sectors. Interviews with 39 business managers and project stakeholders suggest that PES may be viewed as a tool for philanthropy, public relations, and gaining license to operate—akin to many corporate social responsibility initiatives. Explanations and ramifications are discussed in the context of ecological uncertainty, risk management, financial performance, organisational learning, and the corporate‐engagement strategies of non‐governmental organisations.     

Do Codes of Conduct and Ethical Leadership Influence Public Employees’ Attitudes and Behaviours? An experimental analysis

Corruption, political scandals, and the spreading adoption of management practices in the public sector contribute to a decline in public trust. Worldwide initiatives promoting good governance can be observed. At an organizational level, management of ethics has gained in importance as codes of conduct and ethical leadership are promoted. However, public management research has hardly analysed the impacts of these measures. To address this research gap, we conduct a between-subjects experiment among public administration employees. Our results reveal that only ethical leadership has a positive effect on employees’ organization-related attitudes. Our findings suggest avenues for further research.     

Austerity stabilised through European funds: the impact on Slovenian welfare administration and provision

The article explores how austerity stabilised through European funds affects institutional change, work organisation and employment relations within Slovenian welfare administration and provision. It shows that increasing dependence upon European funds turns the state into an intermediary characterised by project modes of work organisation that weaken human resource and financial capacities for domestic policy development and provision. It uncovers that project modes of organising, traditionally present within non‐governmental sector, are also entering the public sector. This shift increases the vulnerability of third and public sector workforce and frustrates young and excluded workers' transition into permanent jobs.