Private Sector Practices Research Articles

Race to the Future: Innovations in Gifted and Enrichment Education in Asia, and Implications for the United States

How are Asian countries preparing children to have skills—including creativity, innovation, and technical capability—to compete in the 21st Century global economy? Countries including China, Korea, Japan and Singapore have begun to integrate education policy and practice into a key component of national innovation strategies: human capital development. Asian countries are developing an emphasis on innovation and creativity at all levels of education, while the United States continues (via No Child Left Behind testing and budget cut-backs) to move away from that model. Developments in China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), Korea and Singapore are complemented with comparisons to trends in national policy and private sector practice in Japan and the United States. Preliminary findings indicate that while progress has been made towards establishing education practices that enrich student learning, helping children to reach their highest potential in some countries, cultural practices and budgetary constraints have limited reform in others. The paper concludes with a summary of comparative best practices in enrichment education policy and practice and implications for globally competitive national innovation systems.

The joint production of confidence: lessons from nineteenth-century US commercial banks for twenty-first-century Euro area governments

This article argues that the crisis in euro area government bond markets reflects the same kind of stability challenges financial intermediaries face when confronted with a negative macroeconomic shock without having access to a lender of last resort. Nineteenth-century US banks operated under such a framework and used clearing houses in times of crisis as a co-insurance mechanism against contagious runs. Their experience provides valuable lessons for the ongoing reform efforts in the euro area. The analysis reveals that most of the instruments clearing houses used in the joint production of confidence are similar to the ones euro area governments have recently decided upon, such as the establishment of the European Financial Stability Facility. This suggests that the euro area crisis response has followed best private-sector practices of crisis management. However, inherent fragilities of co-insurance mechanisms as well as the long maturity and elusive quality of government debt present a challenge in designing a sustainable solution to the crisis without compromising on the original goal of euro area governance: ensuring sound fiscal policies as a prerequisite for maintaining price stability. To meet this challenge a substantially more comprehensive economic and political union might be needed.

Lean and mean in the civil service: the case of processing in HMRC

The public sector has been importing private sector methods and practices aimed at generating efficiencies and cost savings. However, the consequences of these changes on the working lives of civil servants are under-researched. This article uses detailed fieldwork to investigate the impact of Lean on labour processes in HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). We argue that Lean has a detrimental effect on employees, their working lives, and the service that is provided to the public. The consequences of Lean on public sector work are highly problematic, which is of serious concern given its progressive impact on other civil service departments in the UK.

A Government of the People: How Crowdsourcing Can Transform Government

Crowdsourcing is a concept in which the crowd is used as a source of labor, idea generation, or problem identification. Crowdsourcing originated in the private sector; though with any good private sector practice it is increasingly being utilized in government. This paper provides an overview of the concept of crowdsourcing, gives examples of its use in the private and public sectors, and develops a framework for how governments can begin to strategize and think about crowdsourcing to solve problems when engaging with citizens. Our framework is illustrated with a number of cases from current or past uses of crowdsourcing in government. We conclude with important considerations about how governments should strategize their crowdsourcing efforts.

Exit, voice, and family policy in Japan: limited changes despite broad recognition of the declining fertility problem

Japanese policymakers have been troubled by the ‘declining fertility problem’ for two decades, ever since a sharp drop in births raised public awareness of the issue in 1990. This article explores why it took a full decade before government officials diagnosed the problem and called for a shift toward gender-egalitarian labour market policies in order to reverse the fertility decline. It also asks why the prescribed changes have yet to be adopted, despite continued hand-wringing over fertility rates. Both delays, it argues, stem from the ability of Japanese women — who began entering the workforce in an era when they had already gained full control of their fertility — to ‘exit’ from the work—family reconciliation challenge by postponing or opting out of motherhood. This deprived the reform movement of the ‘voice’ needed to transform male breadwinner structures that are rooted not only in public policies, but also in private sector practices.

Global financial governance and the developing anti-money laundering regime: What lessons for International Political Economy?

The developing anti-money laundering (AML) regime exhibits a specific, non-financial set of policy preoccupations. Yet it is important to examine AML from a global financial governance perspective as the regime essentially imposes controls on the movement of money. This article analyses the political, institutional and regulatory evolution of the regime and argues that it serves to address a need for action on a diverse set of public policy goals (corruption, drug trafficking or terrorism); to relieve financial centres in advanced economies from offshore competitive pressures; and, unintentionally, to shape private sector practices so as to consolidate the position of key market institutions. The article stresses that the achievements with respect to its goals remain modest at best in relation to its ambitions, while important side-effects raise concerns about its role, efficiency and legitimacy. It also examines the possibility that AML has been tacitly accepted as the price for capital mobility.

Work disability following major organisational change: the Whitehall II study

BackgroundPrivatisation and private sector practices have been increasingly applied to the public sector in many industrialised countries. Over the same period, long-term work disability has risen substantially. We examined whether...

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Now

As practitioners we come together with different preoccupations, viewing our professional world from a number of different vantage points: from child and adolescent, family and adult work; from private and public sector practice; and then from the many different strands within and between our professional organizations. Instead of trying to encompass this diversity, I want to speak from my own personal experience, as a psychoanalyst, psychiatrist and healthcare manager, and to choose as my vantage point today the positioning of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy within the NHS and broader public sector. In order to survive and develop we need to recognize the differences that exist within our community; not to pretend we are of one mind, but instead to find a way of working together, recognizing that what binds us is much stronger then what separates us. Perhaps there is a problem for us in that psychoanalysis is so linked to the work of Freud and his corpus, that as practitioners we can become unwilling to challenge, develop, or even discard elements of practice that we find not to work. Finally, we also need to recognize that the 'now' in the title of this conference, 'psychoanalytic psychotherapy now', does actually mean 'right now'.

How Should Public Pension Plans Invest?

How public pension plan assets should be invested is an important but unsettled question. Alicia H. Munnell and Mauricio Soto (2007) find that the share of state and local (S&L) plan assets held in equities has grown over time, largely in parallel with private sector practices, from an average of about 40 percent in the late 1980s to about 70 percent in 2007. This exposure led to a loss of an estimated $1 trillion dollars following the decline of the stock market from October 2007 to October 2008 (Munnell, Kelly Haverstick, and Jean-Pierre Aubry 2008). Nevertheless, some observers endorse the standard practice of investing heavily in higher yielding but riskier equities, reasoning that the higher average returns will reduce future required tax receipts and also help to reduce underfunding over time. Others advocate a more conservative approach that reduces the volatility of funding levels and the likelihood of severe shortfalls during economic downturns when government resources are already constrained (e.g., Lawrence N. Bader and Jeremy Gold 2007). The accounting rules for public pensions create a perverse incentive to invest in stocks: since projected liabilities are discounted at the expected return on assets rather than at a rate that reflects the generally lower risk of liabilities, investing the assets in the stock market leads to

Academic administration as the puppet masters (Sicelankobe). The consequences)

This article investigates the notions of race, gender and learning technology as a consequence of the commodification of educational administrative systems (part of new managerialism – neo-liberalism), in order to foster debate. It also asks if new managerialism is an appropriate model within an African arena. New managerialism can be defined as the re-masculinisation of management using business and private sector practices (devolution, staff appraisal, employee performance measurement, self- and peer-regulation, quality and bureaucratic control and creation of internal markets) at public-funded institutions to provide services to students (clients). It is argued that neo-liberal attitudes perpetuate ‘whiteness' that is neither overt nor accidental and that past race inequalities are still very much part of the educational system. Also, neo-liberalisation of an educational system is about neo-conservative, positivist, hegemonic, white masculinities and gendered power relations that perpetuate into the future a romanticised pastoral fundamentalist past. In addition the design, development, integration and use of technology in the classroom is driven by individual and institutional ideologies that support current hegemonic constructions maintained through observation and control systems to prepare a future labour force. The exploitation of race, gender and technology is a direct consequence of the commodification of educational administrative systems and there is a need to explore other avenues, such as communities of practice, to renew democracy in education. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 22 (3) 2008: pp. 498-514

A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Private-Sector Inpatient-Initiated Psychoeducation Program for Schizophrenia

A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Private-Sector Inpatient-Initiated Psychoeducation Program for Schizophrenia

Non-profit and for profit convergence: are non-profits increasingly adopting private sector practices?

The role of the non-profit has traditionally been thought to create social value, while for-profit organisations have been held responsible for economic value creation. However, we now see this dichotomy blurring and organisations marrying social interest and market mechanisms to create both social and economic value (Alter, 2006). In this paper, we examine whether some of the strategic decisions and actions made by non-profits are converging with those being made by for-profits, particularly with regard to four important strategy issues: money, management, mission maximisation and metrics, which we frame as the four Ms. We hypothesise that if the convergence is occurring, non-profits would, over time, be making decisions and implementing subsequent actions increasingly similar to those being made in the for-profit sector. Through the use of a literature review and empirical evidence we show that non-profit decisions and actions are, in fact, becoming increasingly similar to those of for-profit organisations.

The Future of Public Service: A Search for a New Balance

The Future of Public Service: A Search for a New Balance

Income Security for Workers

The current mix of public and private programs to support workers after they experience disability onset provides benefits to millions of workers and former workers. Yet, despite the large and growing costs of these programs, the inflation-adjusted household incomes of workers with disabilities have been falling for more than two decades, both absolutely and, especially, relative to the incomes of those without disabilities. The aging of the baby boom generation is likely to make matters worse, and the government's fiscal circumstance will make it increasingly difficult to sustain existing public programs. Current public policy initiatives might eventually improve the disability support system, but they are not likely to ward off the adverse consequences of the pending crisis. Policy changes that leverage existing private sector practices and capabilities might achieve greater success but have received little attention and are far from proven.

Accountability in Crisis: The Sponsorship Scandal and the Office of the Comptroller General in Canada

For much of the last 50 years, a key platform animating public sector reform in Canada and elsewhere has been that efficiency and effectiveness can be achieved by adapting private sector financial management methods and practices. We argue that the recent re-establishment of the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG) of Canada represents a key element of a program of strengthening financial accountability that has emerged within the Canadian Federal Government. Although this program is longstanding and is associated Canada’s implementation of new public management initiatives, it has recently drawn particular sustenance from the sponsorship scandal in Canada. We demonstrate that the reincarnated OCG, re-established amid a rhetoric of “modernization” and of “strengthening” accountability, has a wide-ranging mandate to enhance financial and audit controls, create financial standards, nurture professional development, and oversee government spending. We explore some of the consequences of this development and of the broader financial accountability mechanisms introduced in response to the Sponsorship scandal within the Canadian public sector.

Preparing Rehabilitation Counselors for Private Sector Practice within a CORE Accredited Generalist Educational Model

Preparing Rehabilitation Counselors for Private Sector Practice within a CORE Accredited Generalist Educational Model

Ethical Leadership and Administrative Discretion: The Fire Chief's Hiring Dilemma

Recent efforts to reform government are challenging many of the basic theoretical and managerial assumptions of governance at the federal, state, and local levels. Under the political rubric of reinventing government, reform initiatives have devolved administrative decision making to more local levels. In practice this can result in ethical dilemmas for local government administrators as they attempt to reconcile constitutional governance, legal accountability and political environments with the search for flexibility, innovation, and productivity while mimicking private sector processes and practices. This article describes such an ethical dilemma faced by a local government human resource manager and fire chief who were confronted with the decision to succumb to political pressure from prominent citizens, volunteer fire chiefs and city council members to hire unqualified firefighter candidates, or to discount their input and reject the candidates. The authors describe the ethical dilemma and discuss the importance of practicing ethical leadership to build public trust and accountability in the responsible use of administrative discretion while pursuing the public interest.

New Workplace Practices and the Gender Wage Gap: Can the New Economy Be the Great Equalizer?

We estimate the effect of introducing new workplace practices on the gender gap in wages in the manufacturing sector. We use a unique 1999 survey on work and compensation practices of Danish private sector firms merged to a large matched employer-employee database. Self-managed teams, project organisation and job rotation schemes are the most widely implemented work practices. Our estimates from a difference-in-differences model of wages and work practices show that the wage gains from adopting new workplace practices accrue mainly to males so that the gender gap in pay increases at the level of the firm, in particular among hourly-paid workers. Considering practices individually, however, a few exceptions are seen: the gender wage gap among salaried workers is significantly reduced in firms which offer project organisation, while the gap in pay among workers paid by the hour is significantly reduced with the use of quality control circles. All in all, however, the new economy is not the great equalizer.

Analytic Hierarchy Process as a Tool for Infrastructure Management

The role of infrastructure management has been continuously changing since the late 1980s. Public agencies have started to incorporate private-sector practices. These new practices include the use of customer inputs to develop new goals and policies, development of new evaluation procedures for priority programming optimization, and addition of feedback loops into infrastructure management systems. One of the new evaluation procedures adopted into infrastructure management is the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). AHP is a decision-making tool that incorporates both qualitative and quantitative factors. AHP has increased in use and popularity because of its ability to reflect the way people think and make decisions by simplifying a complex decision into a series of one-on-one comparisons. The results are then synthesized and presented as a percentage of all the options evaluated. This presentation will illustrate AHP with two examples. In the first example, AHP was used to compare fast-track concrete repair products on the basis of the priorities set by a public agency. Three fast-track concrete repair products were compared with the use of 16 criteria comprised of construction procedures and physical properties. Without field testing, AHP showed that two of the tested products were superior to the other. In the second example, AHP was used to compare seven maintenance, rehabilitation, and reconstruction strategies for asphalt pavements. This comparison was based on nine priorities compiled from a survey of road users.

Analytic Hierarchy Process as a Tool for Infrastructure Management

The role of infrastructure management has been continuously changing since the late 1980s. Public agencies have started to incorporate private-sector practices. These new practices include the use of customer inputs to develop new goals and policies, development of new evaluation procedures for priority programming optimization, and addition of feedback loops into infrastructure management systems. One of the new evaluation procedures adopted into infrastructure management is the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). AHP is a decision-making tool that incorporates both qualitative and quantitative factors. AHP has increased in use and popularity because of its ability to reflect the way people think and make decisions by simplifying a complex decision into a series of one-on-one comparisons. The results are then synthesized and presented as a percentage of all the options evaluated. This presentation will illustrate AHP with two examples. In the first example, AHP was used to compare fast-track concrete repai...