Israeli Public Sector Research Articles

Internal auditor's interpersonal trust building: the Israeli public sector

PurposeThis paper investigate the antecedents of the public sector's senior management in interpersonal trust relationships involving sceptical internal audits in public services administrations. This is fundamental for a positive audit, as it affects the auditing relationship and assures a sound public administration.Design/methodology/approachThe author surveyed 261 senior management from 24 Israel's local authorities (about 30%), representing large, medium and small administrations in Israel's North District.FindingsThe results indicate that senior management's antecedents to trust sceptically minded internal audits are positive for audit knowledge sharing. Findings also reveal that the internal auditor's ability, integrity and benevolence significantly impact senior management's trust. Whereas open communication does not significantly affect the senior management's propensity to trust, its satisfaction with its internal auditor fosters positive trust and support.Practical implicationsUnderstanding the antecedents of the senior public manager on internal audit benefits the audit outcomes. Albeit audit professional scepticism's interpersonal trust relationship with senior public manager influences the audit. Audits efficiently related to organisational culture and outcomes.Originality/valueA new practical model of senior management trust antecedents is presented for a more effective auditing system and public administration. The model is original, as no other empirical studies have yet dealt with senior management's trust in internal audits in the public sector.

Invisible work at work and the reproduction of gendered social service organizations

AbstractStudies demonstrate that the convergence of neoliberalism and New Public Management imperatives creates conditions wherein social service providers undertake various types of unpaid work, reemphasizing the role of gender in service provision. Drawing on these arguments, this study explores the process through which unpaid practices restructure gender in social service organizations, using the concept of “invisible work.” Applying the institutional ethnography method of inquiry, we examine experiences of social service workers in the Israeli public sector and operationalize unpaid work as informal personal resources that workers provide to clients. Analysis of 185 in‐depth interviews revealed three main discursive frames workers use to justify provision of personal resources. Through these frames, informal practices become invisible as work in multiple layers—to the self, the organization, and the society. Similar to invisible work in the household, its invisibility in the workplace constitutes a main force in the reproduction of gendered social service organizations.

Performance or Politics: Promotions in the Israeli Public Sector

The paper presents findings of a research examining the perceptions regarding promotions of employees in the public sector. A questionnaire containing a series of factors related to promotion was conducted on 166 employees from the public sector in Israel. The findings reveal that the public sector employees ranked organizational politics as the most important factor, followed by tenure, pressure on the supervisor, success in projects/ missions, experience and education. Comparison between workers' and managers' perceptions exposes substantial differences in most of the factors influencing promotion. The meaning of the findings and their implications are discussed in the paper.

Agenda control in an unstable multiparty parliamentary democracy: evidence from the Israeli public sector

As elected politicians’ knowledge, information and expertise about the policy process decrease, so will their ability to control it and to independently shape its agenda. When elected politicians spend less time in their positions due to cabinet instability, they will have less knowledge about policy issues in comparison to career bureaucrats. Multiparty parliamentary systems are characterized by cabinet instability, hence increasing the likelihood of this phenomenon. Indeed it has been shown that in these systems the bureaucracy is the main player in the policy process. This paper illustrates this phenomenon in the Israeli context, a clear example of a multiparty democracy with an unstable cabinet and a dominant bureaucracy.

The Enforcement Crisis in Labour Law and the Fallacy of Voluntarist Solutions

Labour laws are facing an enforcement crisis: a large and increasing number of employers fail to obey them. This paper begins by putting forward a number of reasons for this development, which carries with it harsh consequences for many workers around the world. It then warns against the trend towards ‘soft law’ solutions that include a voluntarist component. Although these ‘soft’ regulations that aim to create positive incentives could certainly be useful in the labour law context, when invoked as a solution to compliance problems they translate into an unjustified lowering of standards. The paper then moves to examine solutions used or proposed in the context of cleaning and security workers in the Israeli public sector, as a case study. A proposed solution in the context of identifying the real employer, that includes a voluntary component, is criticized as an example of unjustified deregulation. Two additional solutions – one to reject repeat offenders and the other to prohibit money-losing contracts – are used to show that incentive schemes can be used successfully to improve compliance without voluntary components that result in lowering standards.

The bureaucracy�democracy tango: a dual-source empirical revalidation by structural equation modelling in the Israeli public sector

The relationship between bureaucracy and democracy in modern nations has gained the attention of scholars and experts worldwide. This article uses the allegory of a tango dance to illuminate core pandemics of the bureaucracy–democracy interface. First, we propose a theoretical model that relates these arenas in the public realm. The model is then tested empirically based on four in-depth field studies of Israeli public sector organisations (in the fields of public energy, healthcare, policing and local governance). The studies were conducted simultaneously and were based on both qualitative and quantitative data collected in the intra-organisational and extra-organisational arenas. Respondents were 159 public sector personnel and 158 citizens who received services from the same organisations. Data were analysed with a structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. The findings reconfirmed a solid positive relationship between elements of an effective bureaucracy and segments of an active democracy. Moreover, strongest support was found for a mediating model where perceived performance mediated the bureaucratic–democratic relationship. Implications of the findings are discussed in both the intra- and extra-organisational context.

Narrating the Power of Non‐Standard Employment: The Case of the Israeli Public Sector*

abstract Applying a critical discourse analysis approach, this study shows how the argument equating non‐standard employment (NSE) with organizational efficiency gains dominance over the contesting argument that views NSE as reducing organizational efficiency. We interviewed 24 senior‐level HR managers in the Israeli public sector, where NSE is used extensively, in order to shed light on the discursive order and the power struggle between these contesting arguments. Findings point to two story‐lines that helped discredit the argument in which NSE reduces organizational efficiency: (1) a statement of loyalty to organizational efficiency, accompanied by a gesture of concern for employees in non‐standard arrangements; and (2) subordinating an implied preference for eliminating NSE to organizational constraints.

Centralization or Diffusion?

Can the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as the Internet change the power relationships within a bureaucracy? The dominant centralization approach argues that the existing power elite manipulates computers to perpetuate and augment its power. Although not a coherent school of thought, other scholars suggest that technology can decentralize bureaucratic structures and diffuse bureaucratic power. The little-known history of the ICT revolution in the Israeli public sector suggests that the same empirical evidence can be woven into two starkly different historical narratives supporting each of these approaches depending on the kinds of questions scholars ask at the onset of their research.