Mediatization of the Danish Central Government

Civil servants (Pegawai Negeri Sipil or PNS) are required to adhere to the code of ethics and exhibit ethical behavior to maintain public trust in the institution. However, some PNS, including those in the Ministry of Finance, engage in unethical behavior. Performance data for the year 2023 indicates a decline in the Integrity Assessment Index from 87.86 in 2021 to 82.69 in 2022, posing a threat to public confidence in the institution. Despite the presence of high compensation, this situation still demands serious attention. This study aims to assess the influence of compensation and work-life balance on the ethical behavior of employees at the Regional Office of the Directorate General of Taxes for East Java III. Involving 108 respondents from a population of 146 employees, this research employs an explanatory research method with a quantitative approach. The analysis results demonstrate that compensation has a significant positive partial effect on employee behavior, while work-life balance does not have a significant partial impact on their ethical behavior. These findings highlight the importance of providing adequate compensation as an incentive to motivate ethical behavior among civil servants. Although work-life balance is also important, this study indicates that in this context, its influence is not significant on ethical behavior. Therefore, the government and relevant agencies should consider strategies to enhance employee compensation to uphold integrity and ethics in public service. This will help restore public trust in government institutions. Abstrak Pegawai Negeri Sipil (PNS) harus mematuhi kode etik dan bersikap etis untuk menjaga kepercayaan masyarakat terhadap institusi. Namun, beberapa PNS, termasuk di Kementerian Keuangan, terlibat dalam perilaku tidak etis. Data kinerja tahun 2023 menunjukkan penurunan Indeks Penilaian Integritas dari 87,86 (2021) menjadi 82,69 (2022), yang mengancam kepercayaan masyarakat pada institusi tersebut. Meskipun ada kompensasi yang tinggi, situasi ini tetap memerlukan perhatian serius. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menilai pengaruh kompensasi dan work-life balance terhadap perilaku etis pegawai di Kantor Wilayah Direktorat Jenderal Pajak Jawa Timur III. Dengan melibatkan 108 responden dari populasi sebanyak 146 pegawai, penelitian ini menggunakan metode explanatory research dengan pendekatan kuantitatif. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa kompensasi berpengaruh positif signifikan secara parsial terhadap perilaku pegawai, sedangkan work-life balance tidak memiliki pengaruh signifikan secara parsial terhadap perilaku etis mereka. Hasil ini menyoroti pentingnya pemberian kompensasi yang memadai sebagai insentif untuk memotivasi perilaku etis di kalangan PNS. Meskipun work-life balance juga penting, penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa dalam konteks ini, pengaruhnya tidak signifikan terhadap perilaku etis. Oleh karena itu, pemerintah dan instansi terkait harus mempertimbangkan strategi untuk meningkatkan kompensasi pegawai guna menjaga integritas dan etika dalam layanan publik. Hal ini akan membantu memulihkan kepercayaan masyarakat pada lembaga pemerintahan.

Introduction/Main Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic forced the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia to carry out a digital transformation by employing the concept of the Flexible Working Space (FWS) to ensure its civil servants can use the Work From Anywhere (WFA) system, including the Work From Home (WFH) system. These concepts are expected to help civil servants to optimize their performance. Background Problems: FWS has been practiced for two years, but detailed information on how the civil servants’ green work behavior has helped in maintaining their performance has not been investigated. Novelty: The researchers also studied how the digital transformation has changed the working practices among civil servants at the Ministry of Finance, and do they employ more green practices now? Discussion about the civil servants' green work behavior during this digital transformation is still limited. Research Methods: This study applied a qualitative technique to analyze the data obtained from an online qualitative survey, focus group discussions (FGD), observations and docu­mentation. These research data were validated through a triangulation approach before being analyzed using the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Finding/ Results: The positive aspects of the Ministry of Finance’s digital transformation, which occurred during the pandemic, are civil servants can work faster, more efficiently, more flexibly, and they are more focused, but they have less contact with other people. While the identified disadvantage is that the internet network is occasionally unstable, thus disrupting the learning and discussion processes. The civil servants at the Ministry of Finance had used several green practices before the pandemic began, such as saving water, saving electricity, and to some extent they had gone plasticless and paperless. After the pandemic happened and FWS was implemented, these practices became more prominent, producing better results compared to the results before the pandemic. The pandemic also brought other advantages, including carbon emissions reductions and time savings. Conclusion: The FWS concept in the Ministry of Finance changed the work behavior related to the digital transformation, and the green work behavior of the civil servants. This is based on the TPB which includes attitudes, subjective norms, and behavioral control. Digital transformation using the FWS concept has had positive and negative impacts on the civil servants' green work behavior, and in maintaining their performance.

With the Danish civil service coming out on top in numerous international ratings, it seems worthwhile considering what characterizes the way it works and the central institutions on which it is built. In this chapter, we argue that the Danish central government is built on a relatively weak, formally institutionalized foundation. Rather, we argue that when looking at questions such as formal organization and interactions between politicians and civil servants, we find pragmatic solutions to some of the central challenges. In terms of the size and organization of central government, we find a number of different solutions. In addition, we find an ongoing adjustment of the way civil servants and politicians interact. We discuss this finding and argue that such a pragmatic approach may come with many advantages in terms of day-to-day effectiveness and responsiveness to changing political needs. However, it also demands a lot from the political and administrative actors in the system to ensure that pragmatism does not turn into ‘anything goes’.

Between 1946 and 1995, Danish central government had been subject to numerous reorganization initiatives. Based on the assumption of self‐interest motivated and risk‐averse bureaucrats, these initiatives are analyzed in a long‐term historical perspective. It is argued that civil servants both feel a strong incentive to and have good chances of defending the existing organization. This creates a historical bias in favor of whatever organizations were created in the past. Still, the mutual dependence between political executives and their civil servants opens up for bargaining dynamics allowing for mostly incremental change. While ideology has been unimportant in the development of central government organization, broadly shared ideas about reform may account for some instances of radical reform, consistently opposed by Danish civil servants.

The notion of ‘media logics’ is useful for understanding the processes of mediatization and the ways in which media come to influence communication and social interaction in various domains of society. Media logics are the combined technological, aesthetic, and institutional modus operandi of the media and logics may in a general sociological vocabulary be understood as the rules and resources that govern a particular institutional domain. Media logics do‚ however‚ rarely exert their influence in isolation. We need to consider the media’s influence on an aggregate level and not only at the level of the individual media and its particular logics. Mediatization involves cultural and social processes in which logics of both media and other institutions are interacting and adapting to each other and through these processes a particular configuration of logics are established within an institutional domain. Such configurations condition, but do not determine communication and social interaction. Within a particular institution such as politics or education‚ the available media repertoire inserts various dynamics to communication and social interaction‚ and these dynamics represent the mediatized conditions of communication and social interaction.


 
 
 The role of the civil servant in modern democracies is increasingly complex due to multi- ple and co-existing forms of democratic governance. Civil servants need to balance be- tween traditional bureaucratic norms ensuring a rule-governed public administration where they represent neutral competencies within the political system, while they at the same time must ensure efficiency in the public sector, interact with various stakeholders and citizens, and ensure the loyal implementation of the will of elected politicians. In the wake of several Danish political scandals involving both ministers and civil servants, the so called Bo Smith Commission was established in order to examine and discuss the current norms and practices of the civil service. In this article we draw on a survey con- ducted by the Bo Smith Commission in 2015 including nearly 4.000 lower-ranking civil servants. Through an in-depth study of the 554 responses in the open category, we uncov- er how functional politicization is manifested in Danish state administration among low- er-ranking civil servants. The study, thus, uncovers in detail the characteristics of func- tional politicization and investigates the coping strategies of lower-ranking civil servants, when the demand for political responsiveness compromises classical norms integrated in the Rechtsstat.
 
 

The interaction between political executives and civil servants rests on a delicate balance between political responsiveness and the duty of civil servants and ministers to respect legal and other normative constraints on executive authority. In Danish central government, this balance is stressed by norms that define the correct behavior when the civil service provides ministers with political advice and assistance. Organizational factors strongly influence civil servants' behavior when they have to balance responsiveness against constraints on their role as political advisers. Moreover, civil servants working closely with ministers pay more attention to legal constraints than their peers among agency officials and specialists. Agency officials and specialists are much more prone to prioritize professional standards. We argue that this pattern can be generalized West European systems.

This paper summarizes the history of the development of Chinese mental health system; the current situation in the mental health field that China has to face in its effort to reform the system, including mental health burden, workforce and resources, as well as structural issues; the process of national mental health service reform, including how it was included into the national public health program, how it began as a training program and then became a treatment and intervention program, its unique training and capacity building model, and its outcomes and impacts; the barriers and challenges of the reform process; future suggestions for policy; and Chinese experiences as response to the international advocacy for the development of mental health.

The performance-based evaluation and payroll systems for government employees formed in the late 1980s in many developed countries. Survey results on strategic human resource management in the 29 OECD countries show that these systems are applied based on individual performance evaluation and one third of OECD countries have developed a performance management system for senior civil servants. This article introduces legal regulations and the application of the performance-based evaluation model for civil servants in Vietnam.The author uses analytical method to justify the significant implications that the research poses in the improvement of the civil servant management regime in Vietnam. The author focuses on researching and clarifying status of the evaluation work after the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants came into force in 2010, points out the shortcomings and causes to formulate renovation and improvement proposals. At the same time, expert method is used by the author to seek advice from managers and experts on human resources management and related issues, identifying the prerequisites for applying the performance-based evaluation system in Vietnam.The author also uses sociological survey method, questionnaire form for civil servants working in four-level authorities. At central level, there are Ministries, including the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Office of the Government, the State Bank, the State Audit; Localities include provinces: Hai Duong, Ninh Binh, Bac Giang, Hung Yen, Cao Bang, Quang Ninh, Quang Nam, Hue, Daklak, Daknong, and cities under central control: Ha Noi, Hai Phong. The surveyed localities are selected on the basis of ensuring representative for localities with urban and rural characteristics; delta and mountainous areas. Results of this survey support the analysis and evaluation of the situation part.

In global there has been an increase in the number of women who work in the public sector including Indonesia. However, it did not have much effect on the number of women civil servant representation in high managerial or structural positions as part of career development in PNS Management. This condition is also faced by the Ministry of Finance, which have a high commitment to the implementation of pro-gender staff development policies. This study aims to find out how the career development of women civil servants in the Ministry of Finance through the post-positivism approach uses qualitative methods with literature studies and in-depth interviews with officials related to career development. Theories from Viki and Fiona regarding women's career development through individual and organizational aspects are used in conducting analyzes. The results showed that the career development of women civil servants in the Ministry of Finance had not been running optimally. The high number of male civil servants affects the low number of women civil servants who will occupy higher-level structural positions. Furthermore, it can be seen in the individual variables that there is still a lack of interest in female civil servants participating in education and training, and also not all female civil servants get female mentors who can become a role models because mentors are direct supervisors of employees. while the organizational variables indicate that there are still gender issues faced by female civil servants in the Ministry of Finance.

This study examined the dimensions of employees commitment; it assessed the relationship between leadership styles and organisational commitment among Civil Servant in Osun State; and examined the relationship between perceived organisational politics and organisational commitment among Civil Servant in Osun State. It also ascertained the relationship among leadership styles, perceived organisational politics and organisational commitment among Civil Servant in Osun State. These were with the view to establishing factors that predicts organisational commitment among Civil Servant in Osun State. Primary data were used for the study. The data were collected among Civil Servants in Osun state. Four ministries, that is ministry of Finance, Commerce, Agriculture and Education were purposively selected for the study. These ministries were found to have high number of employees which guarantee sufficient samples from which generalization could be made to other ministries. A pre-survey visit to the Civil Service Commission showed that the ministry of Commerce had 122 staff; ministry of Education had 150 staff; ministry of Agriculture had 133, and ministry of Finance had 91 staff totaling 496 which represents the sampling frame for the study. A total of 248 participants representing 50% of the total population was selected using stratified random sampling technique. Three standardized Psychological Scales were used in the study. These were the Supervisors Behaviour Descriptive Questionnaire (SBDQ), Perception of Organisational Politics Scale (POPS) and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). The SBDQ was used to measure leadership style; the POPS was used to assess perceived organisational politics; and the OCQ was used to measure Organisational Commitment. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics such as mean, Standard Deviation and percentages and inferential statistics such as Pearson Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression. Result showed that Civil Servants in Osun State placed higher value on affective dimension of organisational commitment. Results also showed a significant positive relationship between leadership style and organisational commitment among Civil Servants in Osun State (r (246)=0.31, p 0.05}. It further showed a joint significant relationship between leadership style, perceived organisational politics and organisational commitment { F (2,245) = 16.21, p < 0.05}.The stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that 9.4% variation in organisational commitment is explained by the democratic leadership style, autocratic leadership style and perceived organisational politics {r= 0.324, r2 (adj) = 0.0094, F (3,244) = 9.514, P < 0.05}.

In this study, the researcher delves into the perspectives of civil servants on public sector reforms in Liberia, aiming to provide valuable insights into the effectiveness and sustainability of reform initiatives. The main objective is to understand the nuanced views of civil servants within the Ministry of Finance regarding ongoing reform efforts and their implications for policy design and implementation. Public sector reforms in Liberia have been a critical area of focus in recent years, with various initiatives aimed at enhancing efficiency, transparency, and service delivery. Understanding how civil servants perceive these reforms is essential for ensuring their success and relevance in the Liberian context. This study adopts a qualitative research approach, utilizing a mixed-methods design that includes in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, combined with a survey questionnaire to gather comprehensive firsthand perspectives from civil servants working within the Ministry of Finance. Primary data collection methods are employed to capture the nuanced experiences and insights of frontline government employees involved in the reform process. The findings reveal a range of perspectives among civil servants, highlighting both challenges and opportunities in the implementation of public sector reforms. Themes such as resistance to change, capacity building needs, and the importance of stakeholder engagement emerge as key considerations in shaping the success of reform initiatives. By incorporating these frontline perspectives into policy discussions, policymakers can enhance the relevance and effectiveness of reform strategies in Liberia.

This study examined the strategic goals of civil service reforms in The Gambia and its implementation in the Gambian civil service. This was aimed to identify challenges facing the implementations and policy options towards assisting the process. This study adopted primary data collection through the administration of questionnaires and interview guide. The population of the study comprises the senior and middle level staff of Public Service Commission (PSC), Personnel Management Office (PMO), Ministry of Health (MoH) and Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) which were purposively selected. In all, there are 189 senior and middle management staff in the four Ministries/Departments/ Agencies (MDAs) which breakdown goes thus: PMO (37), PSC (6), MoBSE (87) and MoH (59). Questionnaire was administered on the staff of the four MDAs while interview was conducted with the Permanent Secretaries, Deputy Permanent Secretaries and a former Secretary General and Head of Civil Service. Out of the 189 copies of questionnaire administered, 140 were retrieved. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods such as frequency distribution and percentages.The results of the study revealed that majority of the respondents identified reinforcement of meritocracy, due process and professionalism, enhancement of administrative culture, improvement of efficiency and quality service delivery, institutionalization of a system that engenders separation between politics and administration as goals and objectives of civil service reforms in The Gambia. The research has also shown that the Civil service sometimes adhere to meritocratic principles, gives attention to diversity in terms of ethnic groups, , provide detailed policies and standard procedures, conduct induction programmes,, made available the General Orders and code of ethics to employees, conducts performance assessment, recruitment and selection are encouraging, recruitment and promotion processes are reviewed at regular intervals and training programmes are based on outcome of need assessment. Despite its performance, the four MDAs also continues to face challenges in terms of human and material resources as alluded to by the responses of numerous respondents during the study. The performance of the institution was said to have been hindered by low commitment from government, lack of capacity at PMO, proliferation of public institutions, poor ethics management, lack of clarity of institutional roles, lack of appraisal system, unclear policies, lack of job fit and organization fit, among others.The main thesis of this study is that reforms of The Gambia civil service did enhance personnel administration systems and practices of the civil service institutions of The Gambia but only to a large extent. Keywords: Civil Service, Reforms, Personnel, Recruitment, The Gambia. DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/11-7-02 Publication date: August 31 st 2021

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; While project management (PM) has become an almost constituting element of modern public organisations, empirical research on PM in the civil service, let alone government offices, has been overlooked. In this article, we will on the basis of public organisation recruitment efforts illustrated through a textual analysis of job adverts for the Danish Civil Service, analyse how the individual roles related to project management in civil service organisation from 1982 until 2011 has emerged in terms of the following dimensions: a) the project managerial role, b) required competences for PM, c) whether the role of PM refer to internal or external projects, d) which stages of the policy cycle which are subject to PM, e) and whether we are talking about permanent project management organisations or just temporary projects. These questions are then applied on a minor empirical textual analysis of job adverts in a Danish professional journal in the period of 1982-2011 with the aim of generating a couple of hypotheses. The results of the study shows that project management has permeated throughout the central service, but also that the pro- ject management has become a term used inequitably for describing all forms of work-life in modern bureaucracies. Also, we identify a number of hypotheses for future works. First, project management in the Danish civil service is not a managerial role. Second, by requesting project management competence, the investigated ministries were looking for certain interpersonal skills, and not transferable PM competences. Finally, being a project manager in the Danish civil service means being ready for internal projects, not to work more cross-sectoral with other actors.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

ABSTRACTBackground: The global focus on promoting Universal Health Coverage has drawn attention to the need to increase public domestic funding for health care in low- and middle-income countries.Objectives: This article examines whether increased tax revenue in the three territories of Kenya, Lagos State (Nigeria) and South Africa was accompanied by improved resource allocation to their public health sectors, and explores the reasons underlying the observed trends.Methods: Three case studies were conducted by different research teams using a common mixed methods approach. Quantitative data were extracted from official government financial reports and used to describe trends in general tax revenue, total government expenditure and government spending on the health sector and other sectors in the first decade of this century. Twenty-seven key informant interviews with officials in Ministries of Health and Finance were used to explore the contextual factors, actors and processes accounting for the observed trends. A thematic content analysis allowed this qualitative information to be compared and contrasted between territories.Findings: Increased tax revenue led to absolute increases in public health spending in all three territories, but not necessarily in real per capita terms. However, in each of the territories, the percentage of the government budget allocated to health declined for much of the period under review. Factors contributing to this trend include: inter-sectoral competition in priority setting; the extent of fiscal federalism; the Ministry of Finance’s perception of the health sector’s absorptive capacity; weak investment cases made by the Ministry of Health; and weak parliamentary and civil society involvement.Conclusion: Despite dramatic improvements in tax revenue collection, fiscal space for health in the three territories did not improve. Ministries of Health must strengthen their ability to motivate for larger allocations from government revenue through demonstrating improved performance and the relative benefits of health investments.