Unpacking Resilience in Public Administration: Insights From a Meta‐Narrative Review

Citation (2023), "Prelims", Caruana, J., Bisogno, M. and Sicilia, M. (Ed.) Measurement in Public Sector Financial Reporting: Theoretical Basis and Empirical Evidence (Emerald Studies in Public Service Accounting and Accountability), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. i-xxiv. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-161-820231012

PurposeIn public management research, the focus in the public value debate has been on public administration organizations’ broader societal outcomes. Public value describes how public administrations form a vital part of the social context in which people develop and grow. However, there has not yet been an analysis of how public administration contributes to happiness in society.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, we empirically analyze the relationship between people’s happiness and the public value of public administration. Our approach is based on a unique Swiss survey dataset comprising 870 individuals.FindingsWe find a positive relationship between public administration’s public value and happiness. We also find preliminary evidence with a moderation analysis that the relationship between a value-creating public administration sector and self-reported happiness is stronger for public administration employees.Research limitations/implicationsWhile correlation studies cannot claim causal explanations and common method bias may additionally limit any research in social science, we took a number of measures to mitigate related problem. We tested our model in two samples and took both several procedural techniques and a survey design minimizing common method bias.Practical implicationsThe paper discusses implications for public sector performance measurement for public management and practitioners.Social implicationsThis study calls for a more positive view on the multiple functions public administration performs for society. After an era of critical voices, our study helps reclaim public administration as a positive force for society at large in times of grand challenges, such as climate crisis, demographics and digitization.Originality/valueThis study has highlighted the importance between public administration’s public value and happiness in Swiss public service organizations. The study also showed that an employment in the public administration contributes to the happiness of individuals and beyond to society.

ATTHE VERY MOMENT WHEN IDEALISTS and realists are disputing the role of morality and interest in international affairs, students of the domestic political process are waging a similar, though less exacerbated, dispute over morality and interest in internal politics. Their debate centers generally on the vadidity and applicability of concepts of the "public interest" to the political process and policy-making. While this concept of the public interest lacks a neat and precise formulation, it has over years of use (and occasional abuse) acquired a pragmatic and functional definition. It has come to signify that public policy alternative which most deserves enactment. It is, in other words, the highest standard of governmental action, the measure of the greatest wisdom or morality in government. To define the public interest in terms of its role or function is, of course, to beg the question of its nature and the validity of its claim to be a policy standard. The validity of this claim of the public interest to superiority over other interests will be the subject of this paper's inquiry. The phrase "public interest," or some variation on its theme, has run through the American political vocabulary since the early years of the Republic. Its defense has traditionally evoked the most lavish flights of Senatorial oratory; statutory delegations of authority have long carried the admonition that administrators should exercise their powers in the public interest; and rare, indeed, is the pressure group that has not at one time or another masqueraded in the disguise of the public interest. In fact, so potent is the phrase, regardless of the elusive nature of its content, that it has become a symbol for righteousness and morality in American politics. Over and beyond the significance of the public interest for the world of practical politics, however, the term has as well a relevance for the scholarly world of political science. Few of the areas of

What should a good government do? Answers to this question vary across institutional and cultural contexts, reflecting individuals’ underlying public values. This study examines how future public administrators – students majoring in public administration – perceive public values associated with a good government in China, Singapore, and Taiwan, three Confucian societies. Drawing on survey data from first-year public administration students and analysing differences using ANOVA and ANCOVA, we find that students prioritise government functions differently, with public sentiment strongly shaping their expectations. Certain societal dimensions – such as efficiency in China, public security in Singapore, and human rights in Taiwan – are highly prioritised, whereas others – such as equity in China, happiness in Singapore, and public security in Taiwan – receive relatively limited attention. This study contributes to comparative public administration by moving beyond East – West comparison and focusing on variations within Confucian societies. It has implications for public administration scholars and educators for a more balanced perspective about public values.

Public value is intrinsic to all discussions related to the public sphere and public life – consisting of the social, political and economic dimensions of them. Discussions on public value have been central to public administration and public management scholarship and practices (Alford & O’Flynn, 2008; Bryson, Crosby & Bloomberg, 2014). Although it is not a new concept, the last three decades have witnessed a surge in public value literature. The key interest has been in understanding the process of creating, realizing, and managing public value. The key credit for re-emergence of the concept in public administration and management scholarship goes primarily to Mark Moore (1995) and his seminal book Creating Public Value. The comeback of the concept was widely celebrated in academic training and research, and received considerable endorsement from scholars, public servants, and policy advisers. Evidence of such endorsements can be found in the academic curriculum and special journal issues and symposiums. Public value enthusiasts viewed this re-emergence as “a new public administration movement” that moves beyond traditional and new public management (Bryson et. al., 2014). It has been even coined as a “new paradigm” (Benington, 2015; O’flynn, 2007; Stoker, 2006). The last two decades have witnessed a plethora of symposiums and special journal issues on public value. Among them are the special issue on public value in the Australian Journal of Public Administration (AJPA) in 2004, the symposium on “Creating Public Value in a Multi-Sector, Shared-Power’ in 2012, the special issue in Public Administration Review (PAR) in 2014, the special issues on public value in the American Review of Public Administration (ARPA) in 2014, and in the International Journal of Public Administration (IJPA) in 2016 and 2021 (Bryson et al., 2014; Fukumoto & Bozeman, 2019; Jørgensen & Rutgers, 2015; Van Der Wal, 2016). In many reputed educational programs, “from Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University to the Warwick Business School in the UK and the Melbourne Business School in Australia” (Rhodes & Wanna, 2007, pp. 406-407), public value has been central to training public managers. However, ambiguity remains among proponents of public value as to what it entails.

The purpose of this article is to analyze both the possibilities of using digital technologies in public administration and the risks arising in the context of digital transformation. In this regard, the authors focus on the contradictory nature of the impact of the global digital revolution on both the state and its decisions, as well as on the practice of social interaction in society in various fields. The digital environment is not only changing the ways and nature of government interaction with citizens, but also transforming the internal management decision-making system, making it more transparent and flexible. Digital services and technologies are actively transforming public and municipal governance, bringing both undeniable advantages, such as increasing efficiency, transparency and accessibility of services for citizens, as well as risks: increasing digital inequality, disappearing privacy, digital control, ethical issues, risks of personal data leakage, and more. The main methodological basis of the research is theoretical scientific methods and a systematic approach. The interdisciplinary nature of the research within the framework of the identified issues requires the involvement of both international and domestic statistical data, as well as sociological research. The authors have attempted a comprehensive analysis of the opportunities and risks of using digital tools in the public administration system. The authors elaborate on the analysis of key services and technologies used in public administration. The fact that the digital paradigm has become dominant in public administration in recent years, having gone through several stages in its development, is confirmed by data from cross-country studies of the e-government development index. In practice, different versions of digital transformation are being implemented in different countries, and standards (models) for the maturity of digital public administration have been prepared and are being implemented, but the movement is moving in one direction. In this regard, the authors conclude that it is advisable to supplement the concept of "digital maturity" with an assessment of the effects and risks of digitalization of public administration by citizens and businesses as its most important beneficiaries, including with regard to digitalization of interaction between citizens, business and the state.

THE principal rationale for public policy intervention lies in the inadequacies of market outcomes. Yet this rationale is really only a necessary, not a sufficient, condition for policy formulation.1 Policy formulation properly requires that the realized inadequacies of market outcomes be compared with the potential inadequacies of nonmarket efforts to ameliorate them. The "anatomy" of market failure provides only limited help in prescribing therapies for government success.2 That markets may fail to produce either economically optimal or socially desirable outcomes has been elaborated in a well-known and voluminous

In 1975, Nicholas Henry puts forward five paradigms for public administration. These paradigms demonstrate the historical development of public administration since Woodrow Wilson's famous article. The existence of competing paradigms in public administration enhances theoretical development within the discourse. Public value management has brought a new dimension to the discourse. The purpose of this study is to investigate the paradigmatic shift in public management and to determine if the ‘Public Value Management’ represents an emerging paradigm in public administration. The paper attempts to answer two main questions: (a) Does public value management represent a new paradigm in the field of public administration? (b) Is public value management the future of public administration? To answer these questions, the study followed a historical approach to provide an accurate description and analysis of the current state as well as predicting its future course. Data for this study has been collected through a primary scoping of the literature on public administration. This paper shows that public value is not only an emerging paradigm in public administration but also the future. The study also found out that public value is the next big thing for governments aiming to deliver better public service. The public value paradigm is centered around the needs of the public as citizens, as well as consumers, the creation of value rather than achieving individual outcomes. It is more than the aggregation of individual needs with deliberation as to what constitutes public value at its core. In answering the aforementioned questions, the paper endeavor to establish the focus of public value management paradigm within the public administration field. The study adds value to the literature and theoretical development of public value

In order for public affairs and administration education programs to successfully prepare future public administrators, the link between public service values (PSVs), professionalism in the public sector, and information literacy (IL) needs to be acknowledged and elevated. Through the development of a Communications for Public Administrators course focused on IL with a public service perspective, the Master of Public Administration (MPA) program at West Chester University (WCU) is attempting to do just that. This article considers separately the role of PSVs, professionalism, and IL in the study and practice of public administration and discusses the rationale for linking the three concepts in public affairs and administration education programs. Recommendations for the institutionalization of the PSVs-professionalism-IL nexus are also considered. The article then describes a specific WCU MPA course used to explore the efficacy of integrating PSVs, professionalism, and IL into a graduate public affairs curriculum. The benefits of this approach and its applicability to other public administration, public policy, and public affairs graduate programs are discussed.

Today, digital technologies are used in the implementation of public functions, changing their format, the order of administrative interaction, the rights and obligations of participants in public administration. In such circumstances, human rights, the observance and protection of which is the constitutional duty of the State, are exposed to additional risks. Since citizens and their associations are the main data providers for digital public administration, these risks need to be studied and eliminated. The goal of digitalization of public administration is to improve its quality and eliminate long-standing management problems. These are corruption, the slowness of the bureaucracy, the closeness of the public administration process, its cost and high cost, and the distrust of citizens towards the state apparatus. The study showed that digital technologies are able to solve many of these problems. Digital public administration is characterized by “automation” of responsibilities, predictivity, and personalization. Digital technologies can be successfully applied in the performance of any government function, but it is important that this is regulated by law. The task of respecting human rights in digital public administration acquires a special meaning in the light of the constitutional responsibilities of public authorities. The necessary minimum of rights that must be respected when processing data in public administration based on digital technologies include the right to confidentiality (protection of privacy), the right to personal data protection, the right to equal treatment and non-discrimination. The use of digital technologies by the State entails more serious consequences for citizens than the use of them by private actors. The reason for this lies in the monopolistic nature of public administration and the threat to human rights. In such circumstances, the researchers propose to formulate a new human right — the right against government automated decision-making. The success of the digital transformation of public administration in general depends on the attitude towards respect for human rights.

Over the past decades, digital technologies have become ubiquitous, impacting and changing the ways society operates. Immense public and economic value is being created by improving access to information and resources. Hence, many public administration units around the globe continue to focus on digital transformation. Although mostly associated with digitizing services and workflow via software platforms, India’s efforts have taken a “Lego building block approach” toward technology which can be repurposed and recombined to deliver solutions at the social level. These digital public infrastructure (DPI) blocks have had significant impact on socio-economic development. In this special issue, we explore the role of DPI in digitally transforming public service delivery and in creating public value. The issue aims to make an important contribution to public administration and digital government literature, by examining India’s DPI and its positive externalities, in particular its role in financial and health inclusion. These papers include vital knowledge that can support policy processes on digital transformation and public value creation for India and other developing countries of the global South.

Problem setting. Digitalization, as a defining trend today, inevitably leads to significant transformations in the system of public administration. Digital transformation in the public sector are critical important value to meet the customer needs in the digital age. The COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine restrictions have led to the rapid development of various digital technologies and tools, and to strengthen the negative socio-economic trends (poverty, unemployment, inequality, social exclusion, return of migrant workers) and led to the unusual conditions of life and work. Therefore, there is a growing need to strengthen the role of public authorities in regulating the socio-economic development of the country through broad inclusion of different segments of the population, communities and territories, in particular, taking into account current trends and opportunities for digital technology in public administration.Recent research and publications analysis. Theoretical and applied aspects of inclusive development and growth are reflected in researches by: J.Gupta, S.Klasen, R.Ranieri, R.A.Ramos, L.Winters, A.Atkinson and E.Marlier. Peculiarities and interrelation of digital development, inequality and inclusion are considered in the works of S.Rader, M.Fouwani and A.Joshua.The works of: K.Schwab, O.Karpenko, V.Namesnik, N.Savchenko, L.Fedulova, and T.Zaporozhets are devoted to the issues of digital transformation of public administration and digital development of society. Conceptual principles are defined in detail in the Concept of Development of the Digital Economy and Society of Ukraine for 2018-2020, as well as in international reports and declarations.However, little attention is devoted to the issue of the use of digital technologies in public administration of inclusive local development to address pressing problems in Ukraine, particularly at local level.The paper objective – to substantiate the need and opportunities for the use of digital technologies in public administration of inclusive local development.The paper main body. The article substantiates the necessity and possibilities of using digital technologies in public administration of inclusive local development. In particular, are presented: the conceptual foundations of the formation of an inclusive society in the digital age, the features of the using digital technologies and ensuring digital inclusion at the national and local levels.Information, communication and digital technologies are becoming an increasingly important part of the social and economic life of the population around the world. To ensure the quality functioning of households, enterprises, communities and countries in general, it is necessary to have a developed digital infrastructure. Digital access allows people to earn a living, have social contacts, expand access to information and a variety of public services, and promote better public decision-making policies.Analyzed and defined terms such as “inclusion”, “inclusive society”, “digital inequality (exclusion, gap)”, “digital inclusion”, “rural gap”, “gender gap”. The possibilities of digital technologies and digital development are revealed, which should be aimed at increasing the efficiency of activity, economic growth, employment and improving the life quality of all citizens, including vulnerable and marginalized population categories. Is proved that the public administration system must constantly change and adapt to the digital society realities in order to ensure the diverse needs of the population.Conclusions and perspectives for further research. The research showed that digital development and digital access allow to bring services and services closer to the person (consumer), to make them more convenient and accessible, which contributes to improving the quality of life of different segments of the population. This is facilitated by the availability of broadband Internet and infrastructure, the availability of appropriate devices (computers, smartphones, routers, etc.), advanced digital skills and a desire to receive services online. Opportunities for digital participation in decision-making for the benefit of community and country development are also increasing.Public policy on digital inclusion must take into account the unique information and communication needs of all groups, especially vulnerable and marginalized groups in specific social situations, so that they can function effectively in the digital society.Prospects for further research may be to explore the possibilities of public administration in the field of digital development to strengthen the socio-economic potential of Ukraine and to reduce various types of inequalities in response to new challenges.

This paper seeks to draw the attention to a peculiar, complex and interesting issue: the search for value in the public organizations' management.Thus, after a brief reference to the classical theme of creation and measurement of the general economic-financial value for (Business / Private) firms, it focuses on the more insidious and much less quantitative argument of the generation and management of Public value.Public value is the equivalent (though modified) of shareholder value (SHV) in public management with special features.A first model internationally diffused in public sector studies is representable by means of the Strategic Triangle; whose angles are: 1) Vision (value); 2) Legitimacy & support; 3) Operational capability of the public organization.A second model concerns more directly the first, highest, angle (that is now zoomed and founded upon resources and competencies): the value created for citizens through public services above all as mission.The building blocks and the outcomes & metrics developments are the elements that constitute a PSV (Public Service Value) scheme.A comparative analysis per stages is essential for our purpose: starting firstly from Public Administration (1: traditional model), secondly to New Public Management (2: NPM, denoting policies aimed to modernize and render more effective the public sector), we may arrive finally to the New Public Service stage (3: NPS, which is coherent with a networked public governance vision).Such an evolution implies a transition from a technical government to a wider and flexible governance philosophy in the ambit of a renewed value&performance-oriented public sector, which is willing to adopt qualitative principles and where individual employees are free and stimulated to pursue and propose new ideas about how to improve the working of the organization, in terms of efficiency or services.In sum, the quest for public value is the next and urgent challenge for public sector at its various levels: consequently, it will deserve more attention by both policy-makers (central and local public administrators) and researchers.For this purpose, it would be appropriate to come to a kind of public value scorecard aimed at the rational estimate of the expected, or realized, public value created time after time.At a more analytical-quantitative level, interesting would appear the inter-institutional search for a correlation between the public management value (ie, the value of public administrations) and the value of private institutions that ultimately benefit, with the individuals, from public goods and services.

The article reflects research on the dynamics of the process of integrating digital and artificial intelligence technologies in public administration. The authors compared the evolutionary stages of analytical methods and technologies used in corporate sector management systems and in public administration. The analysis revealed similarities that are determined by the key characteristics of modern social processes, which led to the conclusion that the integration of artificial intelligence technologies in public administration is a key condition for increasing the efficiency and ensuring the sustainability of government systems and also the development trend of the public sector in the coming years. An important result of the work is the conclusion that the specifics of public administration, its basic differences from governance in the private sector, lead to deviations from the path of digital evolution that is observed in the private sector. These deviations are objective and they can’t be interpreted solely as lag. Public administration as a process of exercising power is based on certain principles, unique resources and proceeds from specific goals. The development of digital technologies, each new generation of which makes the world more transparent, violates the autonomy of the state administration in relation to society, and exacerbates this opposition. The specific data operated by government agencies can’t enter the data economy, at least at the present stage: the protection of personal data, tax secrets and other information collected by the state for the implementation of its functions remains the agreed interest of society and the state. The authors propose a model that allows you to get all the benefits from the introduction of digital technologies in public administration, but at the same time maintain state-administrative autonomy. The article presents the key principles for constructing such an adaptive model of «rational bureaucracy 2.0» , which integrates digital and artificial intelligence technologies into the public administration system while maintaining the immanent autonomy of the public administration system. As the main parameters for developing a strategy for transition and adaptation of the public administration system, the authors justify the classification of functions and tasks for their potential automation based on the principles of rational Weber bureaucracy, which are proposed to be forwarded to artificial intelligence systems, and the staff of government structures will focus on solving complex problems on the principles of network organization, cooperation and proactivity.KeywordsArtificial intelligenceBureaucracyPublic administrationDigital technologiesJELI23

At issue is the method used to define in the discipline. For example, when we discuss ethics, we base our inquiry on regime values and ignore the broader established literature concerning the common spiritual of mankind. Like much of western culture, secularization as a value strongly influences public administration. This article examines the history of in public administration research and questions secularization with its removal of linkage between spiritual wisdom and public values. Research in public administration evolved from a valueneutral basis immortalized in Woodrow Wilson's political/administrative dichotomy, to a logical positivism basis advanced by Herbert Simon, to a call for the return to value-based traditions. Recent research in the field, including research on ethics for public administrators, has acknowledged that do play an integral role and that the value-free neutrality approach was invalid. This article makes the case that public administration should not narrow its choice of to only secularization but should use the full range of human inquiry available to us, including the various Holy Scriptures from not only the Jewish and Christian traditions but other traditions as well, such as the Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic. The excitement and meaning of our very existence-indeed. the future of life itself on this planet-is linked to the administrative process. Theory, and practice are inexorably interwoven and enmeshed. It is this complex net which is the center of attention in the study of public administration. (Simmons and Dvorin 1977, 3-4) In their book Public Administration Values, Policy, and Change (1977), Robert Simmons and Eugene Dvorin make a strong argument (as noted above) for the importance that play in public administration. They note the existence of a 473/Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory Much of this article flows from two sets of activitiesfirst, from the editing of a collection of chapters addressing philosophy and public administration. Some of the ideas in the article reflect those draft articles-an example is the draft chapter by Lance deHaven-Smith. Second, from a speech given at a joint conference of the Institute of Canadian Public Administration and the American Society for Public Administration, held in 1995 in Toronto, and from a paper presented at the Ninth National Symposium on Public Administration Theory, which was held in 1996 in Savannah, Georgia. J-PART 7(1997): 3:473-487 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.71 on Sat, 22 Oct 2016 06:07:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms