Change In Public Sector Research Articles

Managing records, making knowledge and good governance

PurposeThis paper aims to stimulate debate on the future development of records management, especially in the public sector, in the context of challenges from modernisation of government and from social and cultural changes emerging from internet developments.Design/methodology/approachThe paper discusses relevant concepts of knowledge, records and public sector change, and attempts a high‐level synthesis.FindingsThe paper proposes a framework for characterising a social dimension to records management, relating records with knowledge communities and processes, and for mapping a records/knowledge dynamic in the policy‐to‐delivery process.Originality/valueThe paper integrates recent experience with electronic records management with developments in government policy delivery and programme development.

Factors Impacting the Adoption and Operation of Corporate Governance Reform in Australian State Government Departments

Corporate governance reforms are increasingly common in public sector organisations. Despite the scope of recent and ongoing public sector change, the processes used to adopt and operate public sector corporate governance reform are not clearly documented. In some cases there is evidence of reform failure. This study sought to identify and describe the variables associated with corporate governance change in Australian state government departments, particularly the factors that impact on the adoption and operation of reform. Concepts associated with scientific management (rational/technocratic influences) and organisational culture (political/cultural influences), and their impact on change, were combined to produce a framework that was tested in two phases. Phase one focused on the collection of qualitative data relating to corporate governance reform in the Victorian Department of Human Services. The second phase involved the collection of quantitative data from chief executives and senior executives in all Australian state government departments. The qualitative data collected in phase one was used to validate the conceptual framework which was then further tested using quantitative methods during phase two. Phase one and two findings were consistent with the conceptual model. In particular, a factor analysis of phase two results identified the adoption of change being influenced by leadership capability; external improvement drivers; internal improvement drivers; organisational politics; the capacity of an organisation to interpret knowledge; and changes in an organisation’s operating environment. The operation of reform was influenced by continuity of leadership; actions taken to embed change and build supportive attitudes to change; management of organisational politics; and the capacity of an organisation to understand change. The immediate implication of this research is the definition of a new model to manage corporate governance change. The rational/scientific and political/cultural factors identified by this project provide an integrated approach that can be drawn upon by change actors. It acknowledges the significance of the rational/scientific and political/cultural factors that come into play during corporate governance reform. This study has filled a gap relating to how public sector organisations go about making corporate governance changes and provides customised and practical recommendations for future corporate governance reforms in Australian state government departments. These include giving priority to corporate governance reform training (the research found that only around one in two senior officers had been trained in corporate governance reform) and further strengthening organisational leadership (leadership was identified as a critical factor at both the adoption and operation stages of corporate governance reform). This research provides new insight into understanding corporate governance change in an Australian public sector context and provides a model to more effectively manage future reform.

Knowledge integration between the change program and the parent organisation

Change programs interact with the surrounding parent organisation to access resources, support and knowledge relevant to their goals. Prior research has investigated knowledge integration particularly in product development and not sufficiently between change programs and their parent organisations. More research is needed on knowledge integration during the entire lifecycle of change programs. The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding on the situated practises used for knowledge integration between a change program and its parent organisation during the program lifecycle. We use a qualitative single-case study methodology in a successful public-sector change program to develop and test a framework on knowledge integration practises and roles, and to reveal knowledge integration practises regarding organisational and project management routines during the program's lifecycle. The results report evidence on the situatedness and dynamics of knowledge integration, and on the rather improvisational nature of project management even in highly institutionalised contexts.

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

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

Distance and coupling: analyzing the pressures of accounting change in a city

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the accounting performance measurement (PM) change process in a Finnish city.Design/methodology/approachInterpretive case study. Data consisted of 16 semi‐structured interviews. Analysis was based on institutional theory, particularly on “new institutional sociology” (NIS) studies.FindingsBudgeting and accounting PM became coupled into action when various intertwined (mostly institutional) pressures affecting change converged. Perceived crises were found to accelerate accounting change by deinstitutionalization, i.e. by breaking (drastically) existing routines and myths. Further, accounting rules and routines changed somewhat independently. Further, the notion of “distance” between rules and routines clarifies the dynamic nature of coupling of institutional rules and routines. Further, analysis of both internal and external institutional pressures facilitates understanding of the case events.Research limitations/implicationsCase studies cannot be generalized and so further research on public sector PM change is encouraged.Practical implicationsUnderstanding of the interplay of various organizational pressures, deinstitutionalization and institutionslization of routines may facilitate management of PM change processes.Originality/valueThis analysis of the pressures and rationales of PM change in a Finnish city contributes to the accounting literature by noting the complexity of public sector change pressures. For example, some changes in accounting PM in the municipal field only occur when several non‐dominant pressures align.

The effect of organizational development on the Nigerian economy

Any organization whether private or public in which its systems are static cannot develop effectively and would not meet its competitive relevance in the market place. Hence organizational development is rooted on the theory of change management. This paper examines the effect of organizational development on the Nigerian economy with critical analysis of the current reform programmes articulated by the Obasanjo administration. The methodology used in the study was a selection of 200 respondents from government ministries and reputable banks in five states including Abuja the federal capital territory of Nigeria. Questionnaires were administered to the respondents using simple random sampling technique. The analysis of the results shows that the reform programmes have not been able to adequately address the problems that directly affect the Nigerian populace An analysis of the study shows that the reform programmes have not been able to adequately address the problems that directly affect the Nigerian populace The study recommends that, proper measure to prosecute corrupt officials and leaders should be put in place to reform the lives of leaders through attitudinal reforms before structural reforms or change can be articulated. Similarly, both private and public sector change programmes should be directed to carry the people in the entire system or organization along. And the change process should be constantly or on a continuous basis reviewed by the people and the change agents. Key words: Change management, reforms, organisational development, culture change, economic programmes and policy thrusts.

INTEGRATING GENETICS AND NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT FOR TECHNOLOGY TARGETING AND GREATER IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN THE SEMI-ARID TROPICS

SUMMARYGood management of natural resources is the key to good agriculture. This is true everywhere – and particularly in the semi-arid tropics, where over-exploitation of fragile or inherently vulnerable agro-ecosystems is leading to land and soil degradation, productivity decline, and increasing hunger and poverty. Modern crop varieties offer high yields, but the larger share of this potential yield can only be realized with good crop management. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), working over a vast and diverse mandate area, has learned one key lesson: that technologies and interventions must be matched not only to the crop or livestock enterprise and the biophysical environment, but also with the market and investment environment, including input supply systems and policy. Various Natural Resource Management (NRM) technologies have been developed over the years, but widespread adoption has been limited for various reasons: technical, socio-economic and institutional. To change this, ICRISAT hypothesizes that ‘A research approach, founded on the need to integrate a broad consideration of technical, socio-economic and institutional issues into the generation of agricultural innovations will result in a higher level of adoption and more sustainable and diverse impacts in the rainfed systems of the semi-arid tropics.’ Traditionally, crop improvement and NRM were seen as distinct but complementary disciplines. ICRISAT is deliberately blurring these boundaries to create the new paradigm of IGNRM or Integrated Genetic and Natural Resource Management. Improved varieties and improved resource management are two sides of the same coin. Most farming problems require integrated solutions, with genetic, management-related and socio-economic components. In essence, plant breeders and NRM scientists must integrate their work with that of private and public sector change agents to develop flexible cropping systems that can respond to rapid changes in market opportunities and climatic conditions. The systems approach looks at various components of the rural economy – traditional food grains, new potential cash crops, livestock and fodder production, as well as socio-economic factors such as alternative sources of employment and income. Crucially the IGNRM approach is participatory, with farmers closely involved in technology development, testing and dissemination. ICRISAT has begun to use the IGNRM approach to catalyse technology uptake and substantially improve food security and incomes in smallholder farm communities at several locations in India, Mali, Niger, Vietnam, China, Thailand and Zimbabwe.

ROLE OF POLITICS IN PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

In this paper we will address issues of organizational changes in public sector where the relevance of management has not diminished during the last two decades of the neo‐liberal market philosophy. Public sector organizations are susceptible to greater and more open accountability with politicians, pressure groups, taxpayers and voters all having an interest in the performance of it. In late 1990s Estonian government initiated reforms of health care system in the country. Estonian Hospital Master Plan (EHMP) 2015 was launched in 2000 which, within the others, was initiating the merge of seven Tallinn hospitals into North Estonian Regional Hospital (NERH). To evaluate efficacy of organizational changes during implementation of EHMP‐model into health care system in Estonia we utilized personal interviews of top and middle managers and annual reports of merged hospitals to benchmark these measures to earlier merged Univerity Hopsital and other EU hospitals. We conclude that even NERH was established and the reform‐initiated changes were mostly introduced by the deviation from first‐line governmental plans and introduction of new political directions in 2003 lead to new organizational changes and managerial efforts to gain the goals with, unfortunately, prolonged change process.

Explaining change in the Mexican public sector: the limits of New Public Management

The Mexican public sector has undergone significant transformations in recent decades. This article argues against the view that these changes are the result of New Public Management-style reforms. Even though the Mexican government has applied some of the tools associated with this paradigm, the essential NPM doctrines — granting more autonomy to public agencies and government officials, and using market mechanisms to promote competition in the public sector — have been absent from the agenda. The Mexican experience exposes two erroneous assumptions in the international debate about NPM: that there is a global trend of similar national reforms and that every change in the public sector is part of this new paradigm. Instead, the changes in the Mexican public sector are the result of incremental adjustments to two broader domestic processes: economic liberalization and political democratization — which have led to a smaller and relatively more accountable administration. Points for practitioners This article suggests that not all reforms are the result of New Public Management initiatives. It points towards alternative explanations for change in the Mexican public sector and identifies political democratization and economic liberalization as the main sources of change. This view challenges existing accounts of public sector change in developing countries and suggests a more complex process of reform. The main lesson for practitioners is that, when analysing reform experiences, they should look at the underlying causal processes rather than at the official rhetoric. Moreover, the article reminds practitioners that NPM is only one among several sources of doctrines for changing the public administration.

Public Sector Change, Organisational Culture and Financial Information: A Study of Local Government

Local government has undergone substantial change in Victoria, but the reforms have not necessarily resulted in improved financial management practices. This article examines the organisational culture of a sample of local governments, the critical events which have impacted on them, and their use of accounting, budgetary and financial (ABF) information. We find that despite the change process, organisational culture is not focused on competitive practices, although compulsory competitive tendering remains the most influential event. Consistent with the aims of reform, the quality and use of ABF information has improved over the last decade. This article will be of interest to those in government wishing to implement change programs aimed at increasing financial resource use efficiency.

The bubble strategy

PurposeThis paper seeks to describe a “bubble strategy” to public sector change, based on the principles that a change initiative must be defensible and supportive of an alternative, entrepreneurial culture.Design/methodology/approachThe research is developed through an action research case in Salford City Council, through which theory from technology innovation, change management and other sources is explored.FindingsThe paper finds that the managers developed a dynamic process wherein their ability to defend the new change initiative was primary. This required “under‐the‐radar” tactics that allowed different elements of the change initiative to grow before they were assessed or adopted by the wider organisation.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper speculates on the ways in which the characteristics of the “bubble” could be adopted elsewhere. However, as an action research case, restrictions on the generalisability of the evidence are noted.Practical implicationsThe “bubble” strategy is set out in its constituent parts and is thereby available for adoption elsewhere.Originality/valueThe strategy employed in the case is not documented elsewhere. The paper utilizes technology innovation theory and related literature like “skunk works”, outside their intended private sector context.

Movers and Shakers, Then and Now

WHAT truly shakes up the education field? How does real change begin? I asked myself all sorts of questions like these after reading the results of a recent Education Week survey that rated which people, groups, reports, and media have the most influence on education policy. The survey really raised more questions than it answered. I agree with Alex Russo's observation on his website that there is a difference between influence and prestige, and the results of this survey really said more about prestige. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), for example, is our only national indicator of overall student achievement. Thus it has a lot of prestige. The survey respondents picked it as the most influential resource, but I can't think of any significant policies that can be attributed directly to NAEP. What I consider the most important influence on public policy in the last half century--the judicial system--didn't even make the list. Nor can I see any way that Bill Gates deserves to be named as the most influential person affecting policy. The small-school movement existed long before the Gates Foundation endorsed it, and not much state policy with regard to small schools has showed up since the Gates money made its appearance. Meanwhile, federal policy has fizzled out. When the Gates Foundation realized that just being smaller did not guarantee successful schools, it moved on to such other issues as systemic district reforms. Some governors took up Bill Gates' call for high school reform, but we don't know yet if stiffer high school graduation requirements will produce the kind of fundamental changes that he called for last year. More than 10 years ago Congress (also listed high on influence) decided to invest in building-level, comprehensive school reform. This move encouraged and sustained dozens of reform initiatives, such as Success for All, Accelerated Schools, America's Choice, and the Talent Development High School. But recent research on both elementary and secondary comprehensive reforms has found that only a few of the models improved student achievement and then only moderately. Most had not produced any change whatsoever. So, what does make a difference in education policy? Unlike the business sector, which can order change ranging from total quality management, to downsizing, to outsourcing and, consequently, can change the culture of an organization or a sector, the public sector changes policies slowly and only with great difficulty. Often, the changes are the result not of clear and forceful action but, rather, of political compromise. Even with all its perceived clout, the No Child Left Behind Act is mired in controversy and resistance and does not seem to be as much of a vehicle for improving student outcomes as its supporters anticipated. There aren't any ready answers to these questions. But I do know of some examples of how change comes about. Many years ago, I sat in a hotel room in Las Vegas, listening to the female members of the National Association of State Boards of Education hatching a plot. They wanted to break the monopoly control of the organization by white men and decided to outmaneuver them by promoting the candidacy of an executive board member who was not only female but also black. This was a bold political move, and it worked. In this little group were a future state legislator and a future state superintendent. A few years later, I heard about another small group of change makers: state superintendents who wanted to wrest control of their organization from a backward-looking tyrant of an executive. At a fly-in meeting in an East Coast airport, they decided on a strategy to remove executive board members, one by one. In a short time, they had enabled a more progressive organization to evolve. …

Trade unions and employment relations in the context of public sector change

PurposeThis paper aims to study the impact of new types of market‐based management systems in Western European public sector industrial relations.Design/methodology/approachIt reviews the main literature on the topic and relevant policy texts.FindingsIt points to the different dimensions of public sector change in terms of industrial relations and outlines some of the contradictory outcomes and ongoing continuities.Research limitations/implicationsIt is a general overview of key developments.Practical implicationsIt is relevant for a discussion of the general trends and dynamic of public sector industrial relations.Originality/valueIt manages to take an overview of changes in the public sector and point to the uncertain development of a new market approach.

Battery Farming or Free Ranging: Towards Citizen Participation in E-Learning Environments

This article presents a model for conceptualising learner involvement in online environments. It takes as its starting point the emerging approach to service-user engagement in public-sector change in the United Kingdom. This is focused upon civic inclusion and empowered decision making. In turn this personalisation is related to issues surrounding information literacy and access to technology, in order to frame a structure for legitimate participation in e-environments. However, a key question is whether more controlled, academic environments can be activated for use by learners, and if so, what types of participative involvement are created and valued. Thus, a model for participation is developed, which captures how academic teams can move towards partnership and co-ownership with students. This focuses upon building an e-learning approach that is responsive and inclusive, and which has a ‘free-ranging’ structure that demands the legitimate participation of learners as co-owners of its environmental definition. The evaluation uses an action research-based approach to assess how academic staff can work with students to activate meaningful online spaces.

Movement and change in the public sector

This essay seeks to develop a theoretical framework for public-sector managerial change that draws on social movement theory, an approach located within the domain of political sociology. The essay opens with a brief examination of the literature on the New Public Management and governance which, it is argued, draws on a neo-liberal agenda, displays a tendency to de-centre or marginalize considerations of democracy and politics and offers abstract, top – down, descriptions of change. Approaches to social movement theory are considered, with particular attention paid to two dominant schools: the political process approach and new social movement theory which account for ‘how’ and ‘why’ change occurs. By operating through grass-roots networks, and offering symbolic challenges to the dominant neo-liberal order, social movements help us to see more clearly the limitations of conventional wisdom on public-sector managerial change, and consider resistances, accommodations and messy compromises. The essay seeks to use such insights to re-conceptualize public-sector managerial change.

CARING FOR PEOPLE OR CARING FOR PROXY CONSUMERS?

ABSTRACT Reforms that aim at empowering recipients as ‘consumers’ are often seen as self-evidently favourable and unavoidable. Current narratives on public-sector change describe the previous service regimes as rigid, uniform and inhumane, whereas reforms are regarded as offering a flexible and responsive future. Accordingly, consumerism has become a major driving force behind Nordic welfare reforms. This paper presents a more nuanced analysis of the suppositions about the past systems for home care services and offers a critical view on current reforms and the assumptions underlying them. Empirical examples are drawn from field research and personal interviews undertaken before (1995) and after (2000) the Norwegian home care service was caught in the wave of New Public Management reforms. The paper demonstrates how contractual arrangements implemented in the name of the consumer run counter to established practices based on personal trust and continuous dialogue on needs.

New Public Management in Austria: Local Variation on a Global Theme?

This article tracks public sector reform in Austria with a focus on the influence of New Public Management (NPM) both as label and as specific set of reform ideas. We analyse to what degree current reforms have been influenced and shaped by this widely acclaimed international trend. In this empirical study we combine the different data sources of media coverage, reform documents and public sector executive survey to cover different levels of analysis. Although the reforms include NPM-features, we see no evidence so far for an archetype change in the Austrian public sector.

Focusing on public value: Something new and something old

This article develops two propositions. First, that the public sector needs new stories that make sense of recent storms of change. Second, that focusing on ‘public value’ helps tell a useful new story.Much contemporary commentary comes from analysts working within a particular field of thought. However, problems of public policy and management are hard to discipline. Public value is not the property of particular political parties, public service institutions, academic disciplines or professions.Public value is defined and redefined through social and political interaction. Such interaction involves politicians, officials and communities. Focusing on public value enables one to aggregate issues for scholarly analysis in terms that should also make sense to citizens and communities, political activists and people responsible for delivering public services.The article argues that: recent agendas for public sector change overlap and that implementation is incomplete; the skills of analysts and activists in the public sector, and in associated sectors delivering public services, need large components of expertise in interpreting ambiguous patterns and the management of complex relationships; and that the cumulative impact of succeeding agendas is to widen the scope of issues in play.Large components in both reform and agendas have involved bringing the public sector firmly under political control. However, the later emphasis on consultation and participation places political executives under great pressure. The more deliberation is promised the more is demanded. There is increasing pressure for the task of exploring for public value to be shared more widely.The article develops its key propositions by exploring three main themes: first, the notion of public value and the emphasis in it on search and interaction as a basis for political and managerial leadership; second, the contested impacts of recent agendas of change in the public and other affected sectors which have widened the scope of issues in play but have left key institutional and policy issues unresolved; and, third, a sample of current and emerging issues in which asking questions about public value may help activists, politicians and managers more creatively focus their attention.Focusing on public value can help communities, service providers and political leaders ask and answer a new and wider range of questions while continuing to learn from recent experience, however complex and contested.

Multilevel analyses of organizational change and working conditions in public and private sector

The aim was to investigate organizational impact on working conditions and to explore the associations between sector, different types of organizational change, and working conditions. A strategic selection was made of representative staff members from 72 work sites. Data pertaining to organizational factors were collected from managers, and to working conditions from employees. Multilevel analyses were performed, with 10 aspects of self-reported and expert assessed psychosocial and ergonomic/physical working conditions as the dependent variables, and patterns of organizational change and sector as the explanatory variables. The results showed that the variance in working conditions was significantly attributed to organizational level (16 – 65% of the variance), and that both the pattern of change and the sector were important. Organizations that had not undergone change provided the best work conditions. The “standardizing” and “market-adjusting” patterns of change had deleterious effects, while the “lean” and “centralizing” patterns led to dual outcomes. Organizational change was perceived as having more negative consequences in the public sector than in the private sector. The results indicate that organizational change contributes to increased differentiation of working conditions, as different types of changes congregate in specific areas of the labour market and affect groups of employees differently.

Poor Decisions, Compliant Management and Reactive Change: The Public Sector in 2003

Reviewing the public sector during 2003 highlighted how 'reform' as a strategy for public sector change no longer occupied the same centre stage as it did during the 1970s and 1980s. 'Reform' was then a major issue on the policy agenda and governments spent considerable time and effort outlining their visions for public sector change and devoting resources to its implementation. By contrast, during 2003 at both Commonwealth and state levels there was almost a total absence of the rhetoric of 'reform' in explaining or prompting administrative changes. It has almost disappeared as a major policy issue. Rather, public sector change has been subsumed under a host of other policy agendas like defence and national security, economic management, industrial relations, energy and transport issues, tax and competition issues.