An investigation of ethical perceptions of public sector MIS professionals

Management information system (MIS) professionals have a central role in technology development, determining how technology is used in organizations, and the effects it has on clients and society. MIS stakeholders have expressed concern regarding MIS professional's role in computer crime, and security of electronically stored information. It is recognized that MIS professionals must make decisions based on their professional ethics. The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Data Processing Management Association (DPMA) have developed codes of ethics to help guide practitioners with ethical professional decision making. In this study, a model was developed from the combined ACM and DPMA codes of ethics and used in the construction of a survey instrument. The survey was conducted using public sector MIS professionals, and findings relative to the influences that codes of ethics, ethical enforcement systems, and membership in professional organizations has on ethical perception were studied. In addition, the influence that ethical obligation to particular constituencies had on respondents' ethical attitudes was also investigated. The study indicated that ethical obligation of public sector MIS professionals is stronger for management and employers than for peers, society, or clients. Ken Udas is a Research Associate with the Texas A&M University Commitment to Education program. He is completing a Ph.D. in Educational Administration. His research interests are in human services integration, participatory system design, and action research. He has recently co-authored a chapter in the ATE Handbook of Research on Teacher Education. William L. Fuerst is an associate professor of MIS at Texas A & M University and director of the Center for the Management of Information Systems. His research interests center around emerging information technologies, systems development strategies, and MIS planning. Dr. Fuerst has published in MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences, and Journal of Management Information Systems, among others.David Paradice has published numerous articles focusing on the use of computer-based systems in support of managerial problem formulation and on the influence of computer-based systems on ethical decision-making processes. He has co-authored a book on Database Management Systems and co-edited a book of readings on ethical issues in the information systems field.     

Organizational Citizenship Behavior and the Public Service Ethos: Whither the Organization?

Public services worldwide have been subject to externally imposed reforms utilizing tools such as financial incentives and performance targets. The adverse impact of such reforms on a public service ethos has been claimed, but rarely demonstrated. Individuals within organizations work beyond their formal contracts of employment, described as Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB), to further organizational interests. Given New Public Management reform and the subsequent contextual changes in the way in which public sector organizations are managed and funded, the present study theorizes that OCB directed towards the organization may be ‘crowded-out’. This article tests the relationships between public service ethos and OCB and it presents empirical evidence from a study in England (n = 433) of the ability of each dimension of this ethos to predict OCB.     

A Framework for Effective Global Marketing for Developing Country Public Sector Enterprises

Public sector organizations show distinct differences in structure, management, philosophy, and performance when compared to private sector organizations. In recent years, however, public sector organizations have emerged as important income contributors and a potent technology source to developing countries through their active internalization efforts. Public sector organizations have begun to enter and operate in international markets, due to the home-country push and host-country pull factors. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to examine the globalization process of developing country public sector enterprises and develop a marketing oriented framework for effective internalization process.     

从法律的角度看新公共管理

二十世纪七十年代末八十年代初首先启端于英美国家的新公共管理已经成为概括西方公共管理最新发展趋势的一个学术概念，并且在理论上和实践上得到了迅速发展。但是，新公共管理理论或者称之为新公共管理改革基本上都发生在英、美、澳、新西兰等盎格鲁-撒克逊体系的国家。本文试图从法学的角度找出其原因。英美法系和大陆法系之划分是法学中公认的法律分类法；而新公共管理中的核心思想是利用私法契约采提供公共服务。本文通过对两大法系和契约制度的分析，认为作为大陆法系的我国基于政治法律传统应该选择法治国家模式进行政府管理改革。     

Globalized New Public Management and its Impact on Scientific Research Activity in New Zealand

Since the early 1980s the concept of New Public Management (NPM) has had a considerable impact on both theoretical debate and practical management in the public sector. Within this debate issues of efficiency and productivity are critical when discussing the performance of publicly funded organizations. The concept of NPM is also relevant to the issues surrounding privatization and deregulation. New Zealand has been in the vanguard of these changes from the early 1980s and this contribution investigates how changes in government funding mechanisms have affected the organizational structure, culture and human resource management strategies and practices of one Crown research institute in New Zealand. The case study shows how difficult it is not only to change a public sector organization to one that is more ‘market-focused’, but also how this is compounded in a research and development institute.     

Ethical Dilemmas for Estate Agents

Research into the work of UK estate agents reveals a love-hate attitude on the part of the public and profound ethical ambivalences. Dr Clarke is a member of the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work Studies, The University of Liverpool, POB 147, Liverpool L69 3BX. This article draws on his study Slippery Customers: Estate Agents, The Public and Regulation , Blackstone Press 1994, co-authored with D. Smith and M. McConville.     

Business students' and practitioners' ethical decisions over time

This paper compares the ethical decisions and attitudes of business students and practitioners. Recent unpublished data from a national study of over 1600 students are contrasted with information reported previously. Students are found consistently to make less ethical choices than practitioners, and there is some indication that students are making less ethical choices in the 1980s than in the 1960s. In addition, both students and practitioners agree that buyers should beware, view the role of business more narrowly, and find fewer incentives to behave ethically over time. Codes of ethics appear to be less influential than the individual's strong personal value system and one's superiors behaving ethically; support for codes is declining. The paper concludes with observations about the limitations and possibilities for survey research in this area drawing on other studies that used the same instrument utilized for this paper. Some implications for future research are suggested.James R. Glenn, Jr. is Professor of Management in the School of Business at San Francisco State University. His research focus is on the ethical dimensions of decisions made in business, professional and medical organizations. His writing on decision making, research and teaching business ethics has appeared in several periodicals and books. He is currently revisingEthics in Decision Making (John Wiley, 1986) for a second edition.M. Frances Van Loo is Associate Professor of Economic Analysis and Policy, and Business and Public Policy at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley where she is Director of the Public and Nonprofit Management Program. Her research uses a variety of social science disciplines to study business, public, and nonprofit policy issues.     

Risking the Sustainability of the Public Health System: Ethical Conundrums and Ideologically Embedded Reform

The purpose of this paper is to examine the outcomes arising from ideologically driven health reforms, which confronted an enduring socialized model of public health care in New Zealand. The primary focus is on the narratives arising from the unprecedented strike action of junior doctors, symbolic of industrial unrest in the public health sector. Analysis revealed the way in which moral obligations ingrained in the professional identities of junior doctors can be both enacted and persistently challenged by ongoing and extensive ideologically embedded reform. A socialized public healthcare system privileges cooperation and relies on a public service ethos, espousing commitment and goodwill of health professionals. The inverse tenets of a pursuit of efficiency through New Public Management validate an ideology of market principles which legitimate competitive and self-interested behavior. The value-based disconnect that occurred not only affected the goodwill and trust of junior doctors, but also destabilized their commitment to their work in a way that threatened the ongoing sustainability of the public health service. This paper suggests four areas in which research might help solve the ethical conundrums currently undermining a public health service. The suggested direction moves the emphasis on systems and activities toward the cognitive and emotional needs of healthcare professionals.     

A comparison of business ethics commitment in private and public sector organizations in Sweden

This paper reports the results of a study of the top 500 private sector organizations and the top 100 public sector organizations in Sweden. It is a replication of the study by Svensson et al. (2004) . The aim of the study was to describe and compare the business ethics commitment of organizations across the two sectors. The empirical findings indicate that the processes involved in business ethics commitment have begun to be recognized and acted upon at an organizational level in Sweden. Some support is provided to show that codes of ethics are developing in some of Sweden's largest private and public sector organizations – although this is happening to a lesser extent in the public sector. It is noted that an effect of a code of ethics on the bottom line of the business was acknowledged by respondents in both private and public sector organizations. We believe that the supporting measures of business ethics commitment appear to be underutilized in both private and public sector organizations in Sweden (among those that possess codes of ethics), thus indicating that the commitment to business ethics in Swedish organizations has potential for future development.     

Transforming a traditional research organization through public entrepreneurship

Public entrepreneurship is much like its private sector counterpart; however, public entrepreneurs face additional challenges due to weaker competitive forces in the public as compared to private sector, with objectives that often are poorly defined and performance that is difficult to measure. Despite the impact on public good, how to enact changes successfully in public sector organizations to be more entrepreneurial is poorly understood. This article summarizes current research on public entrepreneurship and presents a detailed case study of a successful entrepreneurial change in a public sector organization. A five-step change process used to enhance entrepreneurial behaviors was implemented in a public sector organization and the qualitative and quantitative results demonstrated substantial performance improvements over 4 years (i.e., quantitative performance in some areas was more than 10 times greater). We explain key steps that produced successful outcomes and how to avoid common challenges in the implementation of ongoing entrepreneurial behaviors in public sector contexts.     

Theoretical considerations for a meaningful code of professional ethics

The professions have focused considerable attention on developing codes of conduct. Despite their efforts there is considerable controversy regarding the propriety of professional codes of ethics. Many provisions of professional codes seem to exacerbate disputes between the profession and the public rather than providing a framework that satisfies the public's desire for moral behavior.After examining three professional codes, we divide the provisions of professional codes into those provisions which urge professionals to avoid moral hazard, maintain professional courtesy and serve the public interest. We note that whereas provisions urging the avoidance of moral hazard are uncontroversial, the public is suspicious of provisions protecting professional courtesy. Public interest provisions are controversial when the public and the profession disagree as to what is in the public interest. Based on these observations, we conclude with recommendations regarding the content of professional codes.Karim Jamal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Accounting at the University of Alberta. His research interests are in modelling judgment processes of individuals in professional firms and financial markets. He is currently involved in research on the auditor-client negotiation process, the role of framing effects in masking fraud as well as the means by which frauds are detected, and tensions in professional codes of conduct especially between confidentiality and public disclosure.Norman E. Bowie is the Elmer L. Andersen Chair in Corporate Responsibility at the University of Minnesota. He is the co-editor ofEthical Theory and Business and has published numerous books and articles in business ethics and political philosophy. His most recent book isUniversity Business Partnerships: An Assessment.     

The pertinence of new public management in a developing country: The healthcare system in Morocco

Morocco has reformed its health systems according to the New Public Management (NPM) model. Despite several positive results of the refo, our account and analysis of events related to the reform, as a chronological narrative from 2002 to 2012, along with findings of a qualitative study and semi‐structured interviews reveal organizational dysfunction alongside an increase in managerial problems. The Moroccan case is symptomatic of situations in many developing countries. It raises questions about the relevance of NMP in these countries and about the institutional prerequisites for successful public reforms in particular. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Government Liquidation: How Online Auctions Will Replace Bob's Army-Navy Store

ABSTRACT

In the private sector, there is a great deal of interest in the use of forward auctions as a means of increasing recovery rates on surplus or returned items, as part of an overall reverse logistics strategy. Only recently has the public sector realized that it too has the potential to solve its reverse logistics problem and derive revenue at the end of the governmental supply chain. The biggest current experiment in this area involves the Department of Defense. Until recently, American military surplus was sold through physical auctions at 200 facilities worldwide. In mid-2001, the Defense Reutilization and Management Service entered into a unique partnership with Liquidity Services, awarding the firm an exclusive contract to surplus for the armed forces that is not claimed for reuse by other federal, state, and local agencies. Liquidity Services set up a special subsidiary, Government Liquidation, which oversees the storage, display, lotting, and auctioning of military surplus items on its specially-created auction site, www.govliquidation.com. The company's proprietary auction platform provides complete fulfillment solutions, including the handling of payments, shipments, and customer service, and dispute resolutions. This paper is an analysis of this unique partnership and the results produced to date.     

Downsizing and Stakeholder Orientation Among the Fortune 500: Does Family Ownership Matter?

While downsizing has been widely studied, its connection to firm ownership status and the reasons behind it are missing from extant research. We explore the relationship between downsizing and family ownership status among Fortune 500 firms. We␣propose that family firms downsize less than non-family firms, irrespective of performance, because their relationship with employees is based on normative commitments rather than financial performance alone. We suggest that their actions are related to employee- and community-friendly policies. We find that family businesses do downsize less irrespective of financial performance considerations. However, their actions are not related to their employee- or community-friendly practices. The results raise issues related to the motivations of large multinationals to␣downsize and the drivers of their stakeholder management practices. Eleni T. Stavrou is an Assistant Professor of Management and Organization at the Department of Public and Business Administration of the University of Cyprus. She received her Ph.D. in Management and Organization from George Washington University, USA. Her work has been published in various academic journals including Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Small Business Management, International Small Business Journal and Journal of European Industrial Training. Her research interests are: flexibility at work, strategic human resource management, succession planning, group and family dynamics, intergenerational transitions, and organizational culture. George I. Kassinis is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Department of Public and Business Administration of the University of Cyprus. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University, USA. His work has been published in various academic journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Production and Operations Management and Strategic Management Journal. His research focuses on stakeholders, organizations and the natural environment, environmental management issues in services, social networks, and industrial ecology. He serves on the editorial board of Organisation Studies. Alexis Filotheou holds an MSc in Finance from the University of Cyprus and is currently employed in the private sector in Cyprus.     

Public relations: The empirical research on practitioner ethics

An examination of the empirical literature on public relations ethics indicates serious doubts and concerns about the ethics of the public relations practice. Practitioners tend to perceive the ethics of their top management as higher than their own ethics, suggesting that top management (of which practitioners are a part) should be in the forefront of improving organizational and practitioner ethics.This article also discusses public relations practitioners' suggestions on how ethics in public relations can be improved. Sample members of the Public Relations Society of America most frequently suggest having ethics education, taking disciplinary action against violators of codes of ethics, and emphasizing professionalism of practitioners as strategies for improving practitioner ethics. This article also concludes that, because ethics education leads the list of suggestions, professional-development seminars and college-level courses might explore in further detail those ethics issues most common in the practice and might examine in group settings how the ethics of such issues are perceived by practitioners.Cornelius B. Pratt is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he teaches international communication and public relations. His current research interests are mass media ethics in Third World development and ethics in public relations. He is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America.     

Tenant satisfaction assessment in social housing in England: How reliable? How meaningful?

Since the 1980s there has been a growing emphasis on consumerizing welfare services as a form of provider accountability and as part of the commercialization of public agencies, which has formed part of the New Public Management reforms. Associated with this, the structured measurement of tenant satisfaction is well established in England's social housing sector and has become increasingly important in informing official assessments of social landlord effectiveness. This paper investigates whether published tenant satisfaction scores are sufficiently reliable and robust to serve as a pre‐eminent and unambiguous service quality measure, examines the validity of comparing recorded satisfaction rates for social landlords operating in different social and demographic contexts, and looks into how raw survey results could be adjusted to take account of ‘context’ factors outside a landlord's direct control.     

De Tocqueville's ‘Dangerous Moment’: The Importance of Getting Reforms Right

Economic reform, on an ongoing basis, is vital if economies are to achieve, and maintain, rapid and sustained economic growth. Yet governments face challenges when introducing economic reforms. Policymakers must judge what reforms are needed; when to introduce them; and how rapidly to pursue their reform programme. Failed reforms can discredit the reform process as a whole, and so make it more difficult, and more costly, to retry in the future. The reform process in emerging market economies provides many lessons that are widely applicable. Perseverance is critical: reforms must be followed through if they are to be successful. Reforms also need to be wide‐ranging, encompassing not just monetary, fiscal and trade policy but reform of the financial sector and of public institutions. Reforms in many countries need to include the protection of property and individual rights; improved tax administration and greater efficiency of public spending; and commercial codes. Reforms can be most easily implemented at times of global expansion. Fiscal consolidation, for example, is more easily accomplished in a more favourable environment partly because it helps deliver future growth and partly because it gives governments scope for counter‐cyclical policy during future downturns.     

External sources for innovation in public organisations

This article's objective is twofold: First, to provide a framework for understanding the role of external information sources in service innovation, with particular attention to innovation in public organisations. The second part of the article's objective is to test the proposed framework. Method of analysis is based on data at European level from the 2010 Innobarometer Survey on Public Innovation. Data is used for estimating a bivariate probit with sample selection, where the selection variable indicates whether or not organisations have recently implemented service innovations and the estimated variable indicates whether organisations have introduced services that are new to the whole public sector. Results indicate a significant relation between the use of both internal and external sources of information and the implementation of innovations by public organisations. External sources are shown to be more relevant for the implementation of services that are new to the public sector.     

The Economic Inefficiency of Secrecy: Pension Fund Investors’ Corporate Transparency Concerns

In the wake of recent corporate scandals, this paper traces the growing power of pension funds to provide managerial oversight of the firms they hold in their investment portfolios. Increasingly pension funds are exercising their legitimate rights as owners to raise the corporate governance standards of the firms they invest in. Within corporate governance generally, pension funds are shifting their attention away from managerial accountability and toward measures that increase transparency in firm-level decision-making. Pension funds use transparency to ensure that shareholders are the primary interest being served by the firm. Transparency not only aligns managers and owners, it also raises issues of firm behaviour that allow other stakeholders to engage the corporation more broadly. I contend that secrecy is economically inefficient. When organizations are opaque and interests are secret, decision-making can and does distort efficiency. I examine recent pension fund corporate governance campaigns with particular reference to the California Public Employees Retirement System. Dr. Hebb is a senior research associate at the Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard University and the Oxford University Centre for the Environment. She is researching the role of US public sector pension funds and urban revitalization as lead investigator on a two-year Rockefeller and Ford Foundation grant. Her doctoral work at Oxford University examined the impact of pension fund corporate engagement on the corporate governance, social and environmental standards of firm behaviour. She was a Clarendon Scholar at Oxford University and was awarded the prestigious William E. Taylor Fellowship (2003) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Government of Canada. Dr. Hebb is also a recipient of the York University Schulich School of Business National Research in Financial Services and Public Policy Scholarship (Canada). Dr. Hebb is also the Director of the Capital Strategies Program at the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation (3ci), Carleton University, Canada. Here her work focuses on the financial and non-financial impact of pension fund economically targeted investment in Canada as part of a three-year SSHRC Initiatives in the New Economy grant.