Production Of Public Services Research Articles

Digital Transformation, Governance, and Coordination in Times of Crisis: An Analysis of Australia, Denmark, and the Republic of Korea

Australia, Denmark, and the Republic of Korea are front-runners in the public sector use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) globally, resulting in a high degree of digitisation of public services production and delivery. While a multitude of factors may account for their successes, what is the role played by their strategic approach to governance and inter-governmental cooperation? How have their approaches to governance and multi-stakeholder cooperation influenced the success of their digital transformation, boosted innovation, and enabled them to rapidly respond to the pandemic crisis? The article's initial findings support past academic observations emphasising that the successful digital transformation of the public sector largely depends on strategic focus, a strong governance model, and a high level of intergovernmental cooperation. The analysis finds strong evidence that their existing governance and intergovernmental cooperation frameworks, in combination with their established service production and delivery ecosystems, have allowed the three countries to move towards real user-centric, integrated service production and delivery prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis also finds evidence of a relatively high level of public sector business continuity for service production and delivery in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions on mobility.

Decentralization and resource contributions within local governance networks: Evidence from health sector reform in Honduras

AbstractMany public services are co‐produced through networks of governmental and non‐governmental organizations that choose to or are obliged to contribute resources, a trend that has been reinforced through decentralization reforms. We utilize original data for 826 organizations across 65 local governance networks to assess how decentralization affects resource contributions while accounting for municipality context, network environment, and organizational attributes. Drawing on a quasi‐experimental design in the context of health sector reform in Honduras, we find that decentralization is associated with a slight reduction in the number of resource ties an organization contributes to other organizations in its network. This association is most prominent where municipal governments, rather than non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) or associations, are lead intermediary organizations under decentralization. Additionally, NGOs contribute more resource ties relative to community associations or public organizations, and consistent with a crowding‐out dynamic, we find that this relationship is attenuated under decentralization. Our results suggest that administrative reforms can influence resource contributing behavior by organizations and the structure of inter‐organizational networks, which are important but underemphasized mechanisms potentially linking decentralization to service delivery outcomes. This is particularly relevant for policymakers working to support network governance for the joint production of public services in under‐resourced settings.

Volunteers in Public Service Production: Modeling the Contributions of Volunteers to Organizational Performance

AbstractVolunteer use as an alternative service delivery arrangement entails public organizations directly incorporating volunteers in service production through a quasi-employment relationship. However, research evaluating the contributions of volunteer labor to organizational performance are relatively few. This article fills this gap by drawing from two theoretical insights. First, this study tests a linear model based on the traditional human resource management approach of interchangeability in which volunteers constitute a one-on-one substitute for paid employees. Second, this study draws insight from critical mass theory to explore a nonlinear model based on the assumption that the productivity of one volunteer may not be equal to that of one paid employee due to the systematic limitations of volunteer labor. Analyzing a five wave panel dataset of 484 local law enforcement agencies in the United States that utilize sworn volunteers with general arrest powers, the findings indicate that an increase in the number of sworn volunteers has a linear negative effect on clearing violent crimes in sheriffs offices. However, the results also indicate evidence of curvilinear effects on clearing violent crimes in police departments. This article suggests the need to account for the systematic limitations of volunteer labor when measuring performance and to explore multiple indicators. This study contributes to theory building and testing by enabling a two-way understanding of the relationship between volunteer involvement and organizational performance in the public sector.

Co-Production of Research Methods Knowledge in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Co-production is the involvement of citizens in the production of public services. In education, this involves students working with instructors to jointly produce the knowledge that stems from the education process. This paper describes our approach to co-production of knowledge through a semester’s undergraduate courses on research methods in criminology/criminal justice. Our co-production efforts involved: (a) Instructors provided initial instruction on research methods, as well as a description of their research project, which was used to illustrate several course topics during lectures; (b) Students practiced their developing expertise and experiences to produce their own research proposals; and (c) Students contributed to their instructors’ research project through their feedback on research design. We present reflections on how co-production practice inspired teaching and learning of research methods, classroom environment, and the development of our research project. Findings suggest that co-production can be an effective tool for improved learning in research methods.

Identification of hr Improvement Innovation Best Practices for Improving the Productivity of State Apparatus in the Automatization Era

Purpose: This paper identifies best practices for developing the productivity of the state apparatus in serving the public. Theoretical framework: Studies regarding identifying state apparatus best practices in work innovation must be continuously communicated to relevant parties. Design/methodology/approach: Literature Review Research, we have reviewed several pieces of scientific evidence by electronically searching books and journal articles that actively discuss the issue of developing innovative state apparatus in providing public services in the technological era. We then examined the collected data under a phenomenological approach, which involves coding, evaluating, interpreting, and drawing conclusions that answer the research problem. Findings: We can conclude that efforts to identify best practices for developing the human resources of the state apparatus are part of efforts to improve the quality of the work of the state apparatus, which are supported by several competencies in the form of skills and work knowledge needed. Research, Practical & Social implications: The state apparatus can advance public services and expedite them. For the state apparatus to be successful, they need to be supported by innovative, creative, and transformative skills and work enthusiasm toward the productivity of public services in the 4.0 revolution era. Originality/value: The importance of innovation in developing public service productivity by state apparatus in technology. The state civil apparatus need to provide public services to manage self-development so that they can work to achieve excellent service to the community.

A Multi-Faceted Approach to Improving Public Services in Low-Income Housing in Windhoek, Namibia

The characteristics of low-income housing in Namibia include severe inequality in housing standards, heavy reliance on non-office jobs, overcrowding, and poor infrastructure. This study uses a survey and semi-structured interviews to investigate the improved service delivery of this low-income housing. It explores this through the perspectives of community-based facilities management, sustainability, and enterprise development. In particular, the study examines opportunities for enterprise development, the willingness to participate in the production and management of public services, and the current state of public services in selected settlements in Windhoek. The results show that a lack of access to fire safety, disaster prevention, recreation, green spaces and tourist facilities are gaps in service delivery. Residents are willing to participate in both the co-production and management of public services. The study also found that residents have the appropriate skills to enable their engagement in management and production, and suitable governance structures are put in place to foster trust. The study recommends a policy that requires community visioning focused on public service improvement. It also calls for renewed trends in low-income people’s participation in public service development processes. The study’s contribution to existing knowledge on this subject is that it produced a multi-faceted framework for improving public services in low-income housing that is based on principles (and actions) of sustainability and policy (and planning) of land/housing access and has the potential to lead to public service-based community wellbeing.

SERVICOM and Public Service Delivery in Nigeria: A study of Akwa Ibom State University

The quality, efficiency and impact of public service delivery remains an issue of grave concern in Nigeria as the Nation is known for its endemic poor public service delivery and productivity. To tackle this vice, its former President, Olusegun Obasanjo in March 2004, using its administrative powers ordered the establishment of SERVICOM Units in all Federal government ministries, departments and parastatals. This would later extend to the National Universities Commission and all Federal and State Universities in Nigeria. A synthesis of the SERVICOM charter shows that its central focus is on enhancing quality and measurable service delivery. The literature review and the theoretical framework grounded on Douglas McGregor’s famous Theory X and Y revealed that a third party inspector such as SERVICOM is a necessity in the public service delivery chain to ensure public services are delivered in a quantitative, qualitative, customer centric, affordable, accessible and predictable manner. Using a survey research and ANOVA, the researchers found that 93.80% of the respondents have not received the necessary awareness on the services of SERVICOM while 88.08% confirm that SERVICOM has not been monitoring their services. The study concludes that the inability to provide the needed awareness and monitoring had a significant negative effect on staff service delivery. It then made useful recommendations such as immediate commencement of a structured awareness programmes, monitoring and alignment with its sister unit in the institution towards the realization of the SERVICOM mandate.

ОЦЕНКА ТРАНСПОРТНОЙ ДОСТУПНОСТИ ГОРОДСКИХ ТЕРРИТОРИЙ НА ОСНОВЕ ЗАТРАТ ВРЕМЕНИ В ПУТИ

The article provides an assessment of the transport accessibility of a high level of consumption, which makes it possible to determine the productivity of public transport services in comparison with features based on the ratio of travel time. Approbation of the method was proved at the height of the city of Angarsk, Irkutsk region, considering the regional development of the route network of public transport

Joint Production of Public Services in Shrinking Rural Areas in Germany: Results of Exploratory Research

The demographic development in most German rural areas raises major questions for the future of public service provision, especially with regard to the performance of different organisational arrangements and their joint action and governance for achieving publicly-desired outcomes. The international literature on collaborative approaches to public service provision is flourishing. However, little attention has been paid to the contribution of public economy and non-state stakeholders to solve these problems. Facing this gap, the exploratory study aims to analyse and discuss the role that civil society, municipally-owned housing companies and public savings banks play in delivering public services and implementing public policies in shrinking rural areas in Germany. By focusing on the scope, drivers, benefits but also limitations of these arrangements, the study helps us in understanding cautious patterns in this field of research and addresses some lessons and perspectives.

Decolonising public service television in Aotearoa New Zealand: telling better stories about Indigenous rurality

In settler-colonial countries like Aotearoa New Zealand, television programmes about rurality are fundamentally entwined with the nation’s colonial history, but how this context impacts on locally made, public service television content and production is seldom examined. Utilising data collected from interviews with programme makers and a novel bi-cultural friendship pair methodology, we examine how a high-rating mainstream programme, Country Calendar, conceptualises and delivers stories about Indigenous Māori and consider the extent to which these stories represent a decolonising of television narratives about rurality. The findings highlight the importance of incorporating Indigenous voices and values, the impact of structural limitations and staffing constraints on public service television’s decolonising aspirations, and challenges reconciling settler-colonialism with the show’s well-established ‘rosy glow’. While rural media are often overlooked by communication scholars, our study demonstrates the contributions they might make to the larger task of decolonising storytelling about national identity.

Co-production and Crisis Management: Overcoming COVID-19 and the Hunger Pandemics

The COVID-19 pandemic spread a multidimensional crisis of never-beforeexperienced proportions. Because of it, the situation in Brazil, which already had ascenario of great vulnerabilities and social disparities prior to the pandemic, was aggravated. The crisis and the fragility of the State's responses to the emerging demands were evidenced by the effort of the organized civil society to meet such demands. This study analyses the crisis management and co-production process during the COVID-19 pandemic in the city of Santa Maria-RS, in 2020, via the Mesa Brasil food bank program. The chosen research strategy was the case study. Data collection was carried out through documentary research, interviews and surveys with managers of participating institutions in the Mesa Brasil program. For the results, a content analysis technique was undertaken. The study allowed to conclude that crisis management, through co-participation, allows the understanding of the use of innovative and collective strategies as a means to overcome the emerging difficulties arising from crises in which social vulnerability increases. The research also explains how, in the specific context of the pandemic crisis, co-production of public services stood out for the adhesion of organizations, sharing responsibility and power in the production and delivery of public services to maintain food security and reduce food waste.

The Leadership of Co-Production in Health and Social Care Integration in Scotland: A Qualitative Study

AbstractThe involvement of citizens in the production and creation of public services has become a central tenet for administrations internationally. In Scotland, co-production has underpinned the integration of health and social care via the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014. We report on a qualitative study that examined the experiences and perspectives of local and national leaders in Scotland on undertaking and sustaining co-production in public services. By adopting a meso and macro perspective, we interviewed senior planning officers from eight health and social care partnership areas in Scotland and key actors in national agencies. The findings suggest that an overly complex Scottish governance landscape undermines the sustainability of co-production efforts. As part of a COVID-19 recovery, both the implementation of meaningful co-production and coordinated leadership for health and social care in Scotland need to be addressed, as should the development of evaluation capacities of those working across health and social care boundaries so that co-production can be evaluated and report to inform the future of the integration agenda.

FUNCTIONING OF THE ECOLOGICAL SAFETY SYSTEM: FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS

Summing up the results of many years of research on the effectiveness of the environmental safety system, the authors have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that the financial and economic aspect of this process is the most vulnerable to external and internal influences. Any form of activity, from modernization of enterprises or waste sorting, involves the introduction of environmentally friendly technologies, energy efficiency measures and educational activities. Each of the identified areas will require additional funding – attracting investment. In the EU, various forms of state aid are used for this purpose – soft loans, co-financing programs and grants. Environmental taxes in the EU are set at such a level that it would be economically feasible for companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants, reduce waste, and modernize. Emphasis is placed on the need to change the system of financing environmental measures and the mechanism for allocating investments in order to introduce mechanisms for stimulating green modernization and energy efficiency in Ukraine. It is proved that this requires a change in the Ukrainian system of environmental taxation and the creation of a special fund. It can be an independent institution that will manage environmental tax funds. This will allow you to effectively use these funds for environmental measures, attract additional international resources and apply environmental solutions in production. Studies have shown that rent payments can help increase environmental and man-made security. The latter are considered as direct rent indicators and ancillary characteristics that allow to determine the relationship between rent and current development indicators. A balanced rent policy (distribution of fiscal and investment payments) will create a system of reserves that can be used to overcome the problems associated with ensuring a sufficient level of environmental security. The possibilities of finding and attracting private capital in this area are also considered. The introduction of various forms of public-private partnership (PPP) is expedient here, which allows to widely use the opportunities of private capital in solving many problems not only in the production of public goods and public services, production of natural monopolies, but also guaranteeing natural resources. man-made and environmental safety.

Blockchain: The motivation to promote global economy post Covid-19

Due to its association with the famous digital currency Bitcoin and its potential applications in industrial fields, Blockchain had been one of the most discussed technologies. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown even more clearly the necessity of applying new technologies in disease prevention, public service provision and production of goods by the government and businesses. However, all applications have not yet met expectations due to shortcomings such as excessive energy consumption, scattered and unreliable data control as well as the lack of legal basis. The problem now is how to optimize applications so that Blockchain becomes an effective tool that can help build a fairer, more transparent and sustainable world. This can bring forward new benefits in terms of electronic data management, common data sharing and exploiting rights, reliable large-scale information provision, production and business cost reduction that can give a propelling boost on the circular economy. This research article clarifies new understandings about Blockchain, along with its benefits and limitations. On this basis, the author first assesses the impact of the pandemic, analyzes opportunities and threats, discusses the latest studies on the dynamics of Blockchain development post-pandemic, thereby proposing potential policies to help businesses hold their grounds, and work their way forward in the process of restructuring the business technology system.

DEFINING THE ONTOLOGICAL STATUS OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY IN HEALTH CARE

he present research touches upon the problem of comprehension of the concept «labor productivity» as applied to the field of healthcare in comparison with other categories and the corresponding indicators, used in the assessment of the medical organization personnel activity. As methodological basis the ideas in the field of labor economics, conceptual apparatus and theoretical bases of which have proved their efficiency in the solution of the tasks of development of the organizations of different branch affiliation act. The statement that labor productivity in public health services is connected with the transfer of knowledge and technologies from industrial sphere to medicine, requiring the interpretation of concepts and conceptual apparatus in relation to the considered branch is taken as the basis. In modern conditions of high intensity of work of medical organizations at simultaneous necessity of observance of obligatory requirements to quality and safety of medical aid, rational use of resources, the demand for formation of scientifically grounded approaches to labor productivity estimation in healthcare is realized by authors by means of development of an integrated index of labor productivity estimation. The present research can be considered in the development of the theory of labor productivity as applied to the branch of health care taking into account its orientation on rendering qualitative and safe medical aid. The offered by the author approach to the estimation of the given indicator allows to reflect not only quantitative (output, labor input) or cost estimation of labor productivity, but also takes into account complexity, intensity of work of the employees, and also an estimation of a degree of achievement of productivity (quality) of their activity. Its novelty is seen in the mutual conditionality of medical, social and economic evaluation of the effectiveness of the use of labor resources of the employees of medical organizations.

Концепция совместного производства публичных услуг: вопросы интерпретации и эволюции

The paper reveals the content of the concept of co-production of public services. The article shows that the content of the concept of co-production of public services changed synchronously with the evolution of public administration, acquiring its own special meaning within the framework of the corresponding paradigm. The author concludes that the concept of co-production had acquired a new meaning within the paradigm of new public governance, within which one could talk about the real participation of citizens in the production of public services. At the same time, there remains a serious problem of deformalization of such participation.

Long‐run Effects of Local Government Mergers on Educational Attainment and Income*

AbstractLocal government mergers are an important policy issue in many countries, yet empirical evidence of the effects of merging and of local government size on the production and quality of local public services is scarce. We use the spatial and temporal variation in forced mergers between cities and their surrounding local governments in Norway to provide quasi‐experimental evidence of the effect on long‐run student outcomes. We find that the mergers increase students’ educational attainment by about 0.1 years and income by about 4%, suggesting that mergers improve long‐run student outcomes through increased school productivity.

Implementation of Public-Private Partnership Models in the Field of Ecological Modernization of the Environmental Safety System

The article considers various forms of public-private partnership, which allow extensive use of private capital in solving many problems not only in the production of public goods and public services, production of natural monopolies, but also in providing natural and man-made and environmental security. It is determined that for the Ukrainian practice it is important to apply the best foreign experience in the implementation of innovative projects on the basis of public-private partnership (PPP). Positive foreign experience highlights the use of PPP in Ukraine as an alternative mechanism for financing innovative projects to implement and accelerate modernization transformations in the national economy. It is established that the implementation of PPP in Ukraine requires the formation of certain institutional conditions: definition of requirements to be met by operators wishing to enter the relevant industries, in particular: evidence of its financial security, evidence of its ability to operate; introduction of the project form of realization of the planned plans; substantiation of local self-government bodies for choosing the form of involvement of the private sector; introduction of an effective system of control by local governments over the performance of current functions and investment obligations by private operators; development of requirements for the reporting system of a private operator; involvement in decision-making on the transfer of infrastructure to the private sector, as well as determining the frequency and types of public control; development and implementation of a mechanism for determining the liability of private sector representatives for causing damage to the property of territorial communities by their actions or inaction and, conversely, determining a mutually acceptable mechanism for return of invested funds, etc. The PPP mechanism forms the basis for the joint responsibility of the state, community and business for the development of sectors that have priority for the regional economy, environmental protection, development of territorial communities.

Особливості функціонування приватних та державних портів

The article proves that government intervention in ports is necessary to regulate the production and provision of public goods and services to improve access to them. The conditions of port operations encourage private participation in the provision of port services in order to encourage the improvement of port efficiency. Ports are considered critical transportation hubs in economic development, which facilitates the movement of both imported and exported goods. Their ability to interact directly with the rest of the world can not only encourage or inhibit growth through trade, but can also bring with it international standards and expertise. Thus, countries depend heavily on their seaports to bring them closer to the globalization processes that surround them. Seaports are designed to facilitate the most efficient means of security, efficient loading / unloading and replenishment of ships. For these requirements, the ports are structured by different functions. The port can be divided into three separate areas of responsibility - port landowners, port operators and port regulation. "Privatize" in the sense of "make private" means the ability to transfer services or assets from state ownership or control to the ownership of a private entity. This happens in three ways: "deprivation of the right" – the transfer of state assets to private ownership through sale, return, transfer or liquidation; "Delegation" – the transfer of management and control over such government assets or activities to agents operating in accordance with certain market indicators; "Relocation" – passive assistance to the private sector to expand or by actively promoting the involvement of the private sector in former public sector activities – for example, transmission construction and operation projects and outsourcing. Privatization can be viewed in different ways, given the role of the state and its ability to produce results similar to those of privatized firms. Intervention by government agencies creates serious obstacles to the realization of competitive advantages, which allows such markets to operate effectively. Due to high cost structuring, underutilized resources and, as a result, high prices, SOCs are not only uncompetitive, but government regulation can actually continue to do so. SOC's ability to be innovative suggests that as consumer demands have changed, SOCs have adapted to more efficient production methods, which may not necessarily be new to the industry, but are at least new to the organization. However, this transformation is slower than private firms, and negative perceptions of the public interest persist.

Organizational mechanism of formation and development of municipal infrastructure

The article considers the main indicators of the formation and development of municipal infrastructure, which comprehensively characterize the level of municipal security of the population and the living conditions of the population of the region. In a changing market environment, the processes of solving the problems of formation and development of municipal infrastructure are poorly structured, with a large number of influencing factors and the presence of many alternatives. The complexity of solving such problems lies in the fact that in a changing market environment, the number of participants in the functioning of municipal infrastructure facilities is significantly increasing, and, accordingly, the requirements for the results of production and provision of public services. The number of goals (sub-problems) and tasks for the formation and development of municipal infrastructure, as well as their interrelations, is currently difficult to identify and measure.