Fiscal Retrenchment in Southern Europe: Changing patterns of public management in Greece,Italy, Portugal and Spain

The vulnerability of the four south European countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) to the global financial turmoil makes the analysis of their responses to the fiscal crisis particularly interesting for the assessment of the implications of fiscal austerity for public management. Drawing on the historical institutionalist approach, our analysis reveals a picture of variation in the impact of crisis on patterns of public management across south European countries. However, it also shows uniformity in the strategies of retrenchment as in all the four countries under examination governments failed to connect cutback management to ambitious administrative modernization programmes.     

Transaction costs, relational contracting and public private partnerships: a case study of UK defence

This paper is concerned with the economics of public private partnerships (PPPs)/private finance initiative (PFIs) and in particular the role of transaction costs and the importance of trust in relational contracting. The discussion is illustrated by reference to the UK defence sector. The paper begins by discussing the nature of PPPs/PFIs before moving on to consider how the economics of contracting literature can shed light on their strengths and weaknesses. The transaction cost literature is reviewed alongside a resource-based perspective of procurement decisions. The concepts of trust and reputation are then considered in the context of minimising procurement transaction costs. The theoretical framework developed is then applied and illustrated through a case study of UK defence contracting, in an attempt to assess whether the use of PPPs will necessarily lead to improved economic efficiency. The case study highlights both the scope of PPPs/PFIs and their potential transaction costs in defence procurement, with the normal perils in terms of contracting given information asymmetry, asset specificity and the resulting scope for opportunistic behaviour.     

Innovative practices in public procurement partnerships: The case of the United States

Public procurement partnerships represent a new approach to conducting government acquisition. These partnerships are predicated on the notion that governments today simply lack the requisite knowledge, skills and financing to provide core public services and acquire sophisticated services, IT and knowledge development by themselves. Instead, governments need to enlist the collective energies of the governmental, business and non-profit (third) sectors. This research looks at the concept of public procurement partnerships in the United States and the major trends promoting their use. Two case examples of public procurement partnerships are presented; one from the perspective of a government partner, the other from the perspective of a private (third) sector partner.     

Determinants of central control and subsidiary autonomy in HRM: the case of foreign‐owned multinational companies in Spain

This article examines the factors affecting HRM subsidiary autonomy within multinational companies (MNCs). Drawing on institutional theory arguments, along with an analysis of the impact of international HRM structures, it attempts to identify the multiplicity of factors influencing subsidiary autonomy with regard to HRM. Using data gathered from a highly representative survey of foreign MNC subsidiaries located in Spain, the results identify a number of factors that hold explanatory power. First, the distance between the home and the host country in terms of variety of capitalism is crucial in explaining variations in subsidiary autonomy. In addition, international HR structures, such as the existence of an international policy‐making body and the use of HR shared service centres or HR data reporting mechanisms, are also important in accounting for the degree of autonomy over HR issues experienced by the MNC subsidiaries in our study.     

Industrial districts and internationalization: the case of the agri-food industry in Modena,Italy

The paper explores the structural changes, in response to internationalization, in an important traditional activity (food chain, meat processing) in a typical ‘district area’. In the paper, attention is focused on the ‘Institutional structure of production’ (Coase, R. 1992 Coase, R. 1992. The institutional structure of production. American Economic Review, 82(4): 713–719. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and the cluster is considered as a whole, as a complex economic player, capable of generating coherent action, regulated by institutional mechanisms, and founded on a set of ‘public assets’ which make up its ‘social capital’.

The paper is based on many empirical studies and surveys aimed at exploring the structure of SMEs and the role of the local institutions: the changes observed over time and in response to internationalization underline the reinforcement of the activity's cluster configuration.

These features emphasize the existence of a specific unit of analysis, indivisible from the individuals which constitute it. The discussion touches on the classical themes of the efficiency of the net-economy based on SMEs, and their prospects in a context of growing globalization.

The paper does not aim to enter into the debate on the origins and mechanism of innovation. However, the case study does illustrate the strength of the hypothesis of a unit of analysis different from the firm for discussion of a number of topics: some empirical examples of innovation, of significance for the economic consolidation of the ID, highlight the importance of district relationships in the production and spread of innovation.     

Comparing the impact of management on public and private sector nurses in the UK,Italy, and Australia

The research examined the impact of management upon employee outcomes (perceptions of discretionary power, well-being, engagement, and affective commitment), comparing public and private sector nurses in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Italy. Overall, 1,945 nurses participated in a self-report survey within these core- and laggard-New Public Management countries. While management influenced employee outcomes for each country, there were significant differences between the public and private sectors, with private sector nurses reporting higher perceptions of outcomes. Importantly, nurses’ engagement was affected by management practice for each country. This study raises important implications for nurse managers, especially public sector managers, described within.     

The politics of fiscal consolidation and reform under external constraints in the European periphery: comparative study of Hungary and Latvia

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the diverse experiences of fiscal consolidation under external constraints in Hungary and Latvia. The financial crisis that hit in the early years of the twenty-first century had a profound effect on the economies of many EU member states. The responses, however, were diverse. Some countries, such as Latvia, implemented deep consolidation within a relatively short amount of time, while retaining political stability. Other countries, such as Hungary, went through an extensive period of fiscal consolidation, and experienced a significant shift in domestic politics. This paper looks at the factors explaining the variety of responses to the crisis.     

公共管理社会化与公共服务市场化--美国"政府再造"对珠海市城市管理制度创新的启示

文章认为公共管理社会化与公共服务市场化是美国“政府再造”的重要政策工具。在分析美国地方政府推行公共管理社会化和公共服务市场化经验教训以及珠海城市管理面临问题基础上 ,提出珠海城市管理体制创新的具体策略 ,包括 (1)推动非政府、非营利组织发展 ;(2 )大力推进社区建设 ;(3)完善“两级政府、三级管理”的城市管理体系 ;(4)全面开展公共服务市场化改革 ;(5 )吸引非国有资本参与基础设施建设 (6 )建立科学的政府绩效评估制度。     

Exploring the structure and meaning of public service motivation in the Turkish public sector: a test of the mediating effects of job characteristics

Using a data set consisting of 315 middle-managers at the district level in the Turkish public sector, we develop a structural equation model (SEM) for assessing the impact of empowerment and stewardship on public service motivation (PSM) through job characteristics. The results demonstrate that stewardship and empowerment are distinct ‘levers’ that managers can use in novel ways to influence PSM; and cultural context may factor into the manipulation of these levers. We find that job-based mediators may not compliment leadership styles and self-generating rewards, but, rather work separately in their appeal to PSM.     

Time to invest in corporate social responsibility and the value of CSR operations: The case of environmental externalities

The radical restructuring of the German utility giants RWE and E.ON in the wake of Germany's shift to renewable energy motivates the need of a formal model of corporate social responsible (CSR) investment appraisal with environmental externalities. We offer in this paper a model that uses the tools of decision analysis to value the option to postpone the project. We show that adding a CSR dimension to projects generating negative environmental externalities can induce the firm to invest immediately, whereas it always postpones projects without CSR activities. According to the project's attributes, the paper also determines the optimal level of effort in CSR.     

Reform in public organizations: the roles of ambidextrous leadership and moderating mechanisms

Reform in public organizations is vital to the improvement of public services and public trust. The primary aim in this research is to investigate the role of ambidextrous leadership in catalysing organizational reform. The research further seeks an insight into moderating mechanisms for this effect. The research employed a two-wave research design to collect data from 531 employees and 186 department managers working in governmental agencies in Vietnam context. The results from the data analysis shed light on the effect of ambidextrous leadership on organizational reform as well as the mechanisms in which employees’ role breadth self-efficacy and public service motivation moderate such an effect.     

Contaminant,Commodity and Fuel: A Multi-sited Study of Waste's roles in Urban Transformations from Italy to Austria

This article traces the flow of municipal solid waste from southern Italy through a waste-to-energy facility and district heating system in Austria, examining the roles that waste's transformation from contaminant to commodity to fuel plays in interconnected, distributed, and contested urbanization processes. It contends that, while metabolic circulation hides socioecological costs in one place to facilitate valorization in another, specific spatial configurations emerge through territorialization—of waste economies, in this case—providing the spatial base to realize metabolic flows and to anchor political narratives. A decisive effect is that certain patterns of urbanization become locked-in, impeding alternative metabolic transitions and spatial configurations. Attending to the coproduction of three sites—Naples, Italy; Zwentendorf, Austria; and St Pölten, Austria—through the circulation and transformation of waste and energy the article provides an empirical multi-sited case study of a political ecology of urbanization.     

Landlords, tenants and the public sector in a spatial equilibrium model of rent control

A spatial model is used to explore the effects of urban rent control. When landlords and tenants can alter economic and location decisions, policy effects in controlled and uncontrolled zones may differ from standard predictions. Tenants in both zones may benefit from the control, even after unfavorable landlord adjustments, but these gains are likely to come at the expense of landlords and the public sector. Efforts to restore profits and fiscal balance, without negating utility gains to renters, may fail unless control distortions can be adequately shifted to absentee landowners through lower site rents. Lump-sum renter subsidies may offer equivalent utility gains with less severe impacts on landlords and the public sector, but the supply elasticity of land again matters.     

Tales from tails: On the empirical distributions of forecasting errors and their implication to risk

When evaluating the performances of time series extrapolation methods, both researchers and practitioners typically focus on the average or median performance according to some specific error metric, such as the absolute error or the absolute percentage error. However, from a risk-assessment point of view, it is far more important to evaluate the distributions of such errors, and especially their tails. For instance, a lack of normality and symmetry in error distributions can have significant implications for decision making, such as in stock control. Moreover, frequently these distributions can only be constructed empirically, as they may be the result of a computationally-intensive non-parametric approach, such as an artificial neural network. This study proposes an approach for evaluating the empirical distributions of forecasting methods and uses it to assess eleven popular time series extrapolation approaches across two different datasets (M3 and ForeDeCk). The results highlight some very interesting tales from the tails.     

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.     

The social impact of advice during disability welfare reform: from social return on investment to evidencing public value through realism and complexity

ABSTRACT

This article illustrates how advice services create diverse public values within welfare reform. It develops a social impact framework using public value, realism, and complexity literature. Starting from a social return on investment study of advice, qualitative interviews are analysed with twenty-two clients, who sought advice for welfare benefits, and had disabilities, or physical or mental health conditions. Integrating these clients’ experiences with wider evidence illustrates how advice services advocated for people’s needs within a complicated (and controversial) welfare system. However, advice services face funding cuts, benefit assessment costs have risen, and welfare reforms have yet to meet their aims.     

Organizing professionals and their impact on performance: the case of public health doctors in the Italian SSN

ABSTRACT

Hybrid professional managers have been associated with improvements in the performance of public sector organizations. However, less attention has been given to differences within this category. Drawing on board human capital theory, we focus on an emerging group of ‘organizing professionals’ with earlier and deeper exposure to management training and education: generalist clinical hybrids drawn from public health in the Italian healthcare system. Specifically, we investigate the impact that these hybrid hospital CEOs have on organizational performance in comparison with other backgrounds. The results indicate that this form of generalist hybrid professionalism has distinct, if not dramatic, consequences for performance.     

Enhancing the role of human resource management in corporate sustainability and social responsibility: A multi-stakeholder,multidimensional approach to HRM

This paper focuses on the increased pressure for corporations to engage in corporate sustainability (CS) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in order to address the current crisis of confidence in business, align their activities with the needs and expectations of a broader set of stakeholders, and help tackle the world's grand challenges. We argue that human resource management (HRM) has a potentially vital role to play in contributing to a firm's CS/CSR efforts, but so far has failed to deliver. We explore the reasons for this failure and discuss ways for HRM to play a more prominent role in the design and implementation of a firm's CS/CSR strategy. Building on earlier attempts to integrate corporate responsibility and sustainability into the HRM performance construct, we propose a multidimensional, multi-stakeholder approach to sustainable HRM that encompasses activities aimed both at avoiding harmful consequences for stakeholders and contributing to positive outcomes along the triple bottom line (i.e., people, planet, and prosperity). We discuss implications for research and develop a set of propositions and guidelines for future research.     

Institutional endowment,localized capabilities and the emergence of SMEs: from mining to recycling,the case of Freiberg (Saxony)

This paper analyses the development of the emerging SME-based recycling and environmental technology sector in the region of Freiberg in the former centrally planned economy of the German Democratic Republic. The author analyses a relatively successful process of economic renewal resulting from a combination of endogenous assets and exogenous impulses, set within a socio-economic context often seen as unconducive to the creation of new and innovative firms. The analysis has three distinct but interlocking strands of explanation: long-term historical assets and localized capabilities; the restructuring of existing local research institutes; and public policies in support of environmental protection and applied research. The paper analyses how processes of learning and unlearning, and the existence of tacit and formal knowledge, supported by a strong social capital reinforced during years of communism, contributed to the development of the new sector. Overall, the analysis privileges an historical perspective in highlighting a process of long-term continuity in the accumulation of skills and entrepreneurial abilities, combined with a process of industrial transformation and renewal.     

赋权:“村改居”社区服务的路径选择

借助社会工作赋权理论的框架,分析了赋权理论在"村改居"社区服务介入的可能性与可行性,以解决"村改居"社区服务的困境。