Public Sector Management Reforms Research Articles

Transforming Governance in Indonesia: Exploring New Frontiers in Public Sector Management

Indonesia's recent governmental reforms, focusing on the need for enhanced public sector management to cope with modern administrative demands and societal expectations. The primary objective of the research is to evaluate the effectiveness of these reforms and to identify areas for further improvement in Indonesian governance. The methodology employed in this study includes a comprehensive review of existing literature, qualitative analysis of policy documents, and interviews with key stakeholders in the Indonesian government. This multi-faceted approach allows for a thorough understanding of the complexities involved in public sector management reform. The findings reveal significant advancements in transparency, accountability, and public engagement within Indonesia's governance structures. However, challenges such as bureaucratic inertia, inadequate resource allocation, and resistance to change remain prevalent. The study concludes with recommendations for enhancing governance practices, emphasizing the need for continuous innovation and stakeholder engagement in the public sector. This research contributes to the broader discourse on governance reform in developing countries, offering valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners involved in public sector transformation.

Reforming the Public Sector in Eastern European and Former Soviet Union Countries: A Systematic Literature Review

ABSTRACT This article applies a systematic literature-based approach to select, analyze, and categorize publications appearing on public sector management (PSM) reforms in Eastern European (EE) and former Soviet Union (FSU) countries. Findings of the literature review reveal the complexity of reformation in the region and point to the multilayered character of the reform processes, including design of the reform content, implementation, and evaluation of achieved results. The analysis, also shows that the reforms’ results are uneven and somewhat controversial. This article contributes by systematizing literature on transforming PSM in EE and FSU countries; analyzing the trajectories of the dominant reforms and finding overlooked topics; providing avenues for future research; and by contextually covering twenty-eight countries that experienced economic transition and significant societal transformations.

New Public Management Critical Riview

The emergence of various criticisms directed at public sector organizations eventually gave rise to a public sector management reform movement, namely the concept of New Public Management. In the NPM concept, all leaders or managers are encouraged to be able to find new and innovative ways to get maximum results or to privatize government functions. This research is part of a qualitative research using a systematic review approach. Systematic review is a method that uses previous evidence-based evidence through review, evaluation, structured evaluation, classification and categorization. Because the steps and strategies for carrying out a systematic review are well planned and structured, this method is very different from the method used only to convey literature studies. Based on the results of the analysis that has been carried out, several things that have become critics regarding the implementation of NPM are: 1) decentralization can have a negative impact on community participation, especially in social policies. 2) Refers to the application of management techniques from the private sector to the public sector. Many academic commentators such as Pollitt (1990) and Armstrong (1998) argue that most fields of public service and administration have distinct political, ethical, constitutional, and social dimensions, and that these factors make the public sector different from the private sector. 3) National culture influences the implementation of NPM.

Issues in the Designing of Public Sector Reform

“Civil service reform,” which has become the nickname for public sector management reform in the parlance of development economics, has only recently and grudgingly been accepted by those who advise on policy in the poor countries. Even then, the approach is somewhat paternalistic in that it emphasises externally-designed rules and processes for management, organisation, audit and accountability. It recognises the role of people in terms of noting that incentives and employment policies matter but only in terms of right-sizing the government and second to the need to spread budgetary resources over the politically chosen level of employment. What it does not accept is that and the drive to manage the public sector better has to be led and implemented by the domestic talent and in that they must have both the incentive and the honour of doing just that. This paper argues that the main reason that the public sector management has suffered in many of the poor countries is that incentives have been allowed to erode rapidly as public sector employment was viewed politically as a means of providing welfare.

The Power Actor and Madrasah Performance: Political Connections as a Moderating Variable

With the background of public sector management reform in the world of education, the characteristics of the leaders have become the main thing in improving an institution’s performance theory; this study explores the influence of aspects of the heads of madrasah (their age, education, and tenure) and madrasah performance in Islamic educational institutions in East Java, Indonesia. This study shows that political relations strengthen the positive influence of the head’s age and tenure on madrasah performance. Meanwhile, political connections do not enhance the positive impact of the madrasah head’s formal educational background on madrasah performance.

From New Public Management to Public Sector Management Reforms during the pandemic. The effects of Covid-19 on public management reforms and effectiveness

The current paper presents some aspects and criticisms from the theoretical literature concerning the New Public Management (NPM). The article also critically examines whether the NPM model is appropriate and the drivers that affected its efficiency and effectiveness in the public sector especially in Greece, during the current pandemic. The research concluded that the process of managerial reform and the specific criteria in order to evaluate NPM’s effectiveness are not completed yet and that there are some key barriers such as the statist perception of citizens and politicians, the corruption of public, the fragmented organizational structures, the resistance to change that hinder the success of change and of NPM’s effective implementation in public sector. However, Covid-19 was a situation that helped many aspects of NPM such as digitalization, digital transformation, e-governance etc. to effectively be introduced and implemented in public governance of Greek organisations.

Embedding Australian Public Service management reforms: The Secretary could not make it so

AbstractPublic sector leaders in the Australian Public Service (APS) can learn from the demise of programme evaluation introduced as part of managing for results reforms, as they implement the evaluation of agency performance outcomes under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act (2013) (PGPA). This paper demonstrates that public sector management reforms require more than top‐down initiation by agency heads and that implementation needs to occur over an extended time frame. Although there has been increased communication of APS agencies’ purpose in annual reports, as required by the PGPA Act (2013), ambiguity continues in relation to how planned performance aligns with performance outcomes. The potential for inertia and resistance to management reforms from middle managers and employees may also re‐emerge where there is insufficient training to develop their skills to conduct performance evaluations; skills shortages and inertia from middle managers and employees may also be more evident in geographically dispersed APS offices. To increase the potential for performance reporting and evaluation reforms to be embedded, central agency and agency public sector leaders need to work together to reinforce the value of these reforms, particularly where government ministers or governments change.

Persistent public management reform: an egregore of liberal authoritarianism?

ABSTRACTThis paper explores how we may better understand public administration and public sector management reform. We often interpret our world through stories and this allows us to mentally map where we have been and where we are going to. The paper explores developments in understanding public awareness and that of policy-makers and its impact on policy. It uses the financial crisis and reforms implemented 10 years on to illustrate the points and explore the use of the term ‘egregore’ as a tool for understanding change. A mature free economy requires a strong state to balance deregulation for economic growth with regulation for the public good, necessitating improved policy capacity and good governance. It also needs public administrations staffed with competent, honest officials skilled in the art of statehood. The story of the financial crisis, and how we got there, conveys how to avoid future dangers.

Effectiveness of the development and implementation of Australian public sector management and financial reforms: E = MC2

The current Australian public sector reforms consultations commenced in 2010. The legislative basis for the reforms—the PGPA Act—was passed in June 2013, and commenced operation on 1 July 2014. Since then, considerable time and effort has been put into implementation of the performance framework involving extensive finance regulations, instructions, guidance, and co-operation and feedback on shared experience and practice, including shared arrangements within and outside the public sector. Questions have been raised about the relationship between administrative process and outcomes, particularly about the changing relationship between the public, private and third sectors of the economy. This article examines the likelihood that the framework being put in place will achieve the reform’s objectives.

Public Sector Management Reform in Developing Countries: Perspectives Beyond NPM Orthodoxy

SummaryWith the passage of time and the accumulation of experience, the hegemony of the New Public Management (NPM) (now no longer new) as the dominant approach to public sector reform has weakened, particularly as applied to developing countries. What alternative frameworks for theory and practice offer insights and guidance beyond the NPM orthodoxy? This article offers some answers to this question and draws upon the contributions to this special issue to explore four analytic strands that constitute post‐NPM approaches to reform: political economy and institutions, public management function over form, iterative and adaptive reform processes, and individual and collective agency. The discussion highlights the significance of functional mimicry, the challenges of measuring results, the practical difficulties in achieving contextual fit and accounting for the inherent uncertainty in reform processes, the tensions between ownership and outside expertise, and unpacking political economy dynamics within various micro‐contexts and across regime types. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Editors' Preface

Public Administration and DevelopmentVolume 35, Issue 4 p. 221-221 Editorial Editors' Preface First published: 08 December 2015 https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1742Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume35, Issue4Special Issue: Beyond Conventional Public Sector Management Reforms in Developing CountriesOctober 2015Pages 221-221 RelatedInformation

The Role of Employee Task Performance and Learning Effort in Determining Empowering Managerial Practices

Touting its potential benefits, employee participation or empowerment has served as an underlying theme in many recent public sector management reforms. However, few studies have investigated the conditions under which public managers are more or less likely to use participatory practices while making decisions with their employees. This study contributes to the public management literature by investigating how public manager assessments of employee behavior can affect the degree to which the manager uses two different types of empowerment: consultation and delegation. Using survey data from both employees and their supervisors collected in a large government agency, we find that supervisor perceptions of subordinate task performance and learning efforts are important in predicting their use of the two empowerment practices. In particular, public managers are more likely to delegate work to employees they perceive as higher performers but more likely to consult with employees who they perceive as exhibiting greater learning effort.

Overlapping Forms of Knowledge in Environmental Governance: Comparing Environmental Policy Workers’ Perceptions

Public sector environmental governance involves complex interactions between different forms of knowledge. Public sector reforms have important implications for environmental governance by changing the relationships between knowledge systems. By comparing the views of environmental policy workers the implications of public sector management reform for environmental governance are explored. The analysis presented highlights that environmental policy work is contested in ways that mainstream public sector management and environmental governance literature often overlook. It is concluded that the adequacy of the conceptual frameworks informing public sector environmental reform are unclear, as are the implications of such reforms for effective environmental governance.

From New Public Management to New Public Governance? Hybridization and Implications for Public Sector Consumerism

AbstractThis paper examines how variations in the notion of public sector consumerism become embedded in diverse governance practices. To this end, we extend the literature on public governance logics with insights from research on public sector consumerism and hybridization in public sector management reforms. Through a comparative, multi‐level analysis we trace the development of two governance logics largely corresponding to the distinction between New Public Management (NPM) and New Public Governance (NPG) in Swedish transport infrastructure policy. In contrast to research predicting or prescribing a relatively radical shift between such governance logics we show how they partly co‐evolved along two reform paths entailing notable variations in the degree of hybridization and the embedding of consumerist notions in emerging governance practices. In doing so, we draw attention to how the hybridization of governance logics is contingent on the alignment of diverse interests and differences in the process through which such logics are brought together. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research into public sector consumerism and hybridization in public sector management reforms.

The Management of the Public Sector : Reshaping a New Public Sector in the Context of Development , Technology and Competitiveness : The Possible Challenges for Developing Countries in Terms of the Political Economy of Public Policies

This paper draws on a series of articles written by a cross section of academics including the economic Research Working paper series of 2005 as outlined by the African Development Bank. It is proposed to break down this presentation in a series of five articles. On the other hand these papers do not pretend to capture all of the subtle nuances of the complexity of the title of the paper. In the first part of the five part series, an overview of public sector management in Africa will be undertaken on the basis of situating the subject matter for purposes of greater understanding and intervention by governments. The second paper will encompass the political economy of public policies in terms of their distortions to agricultural and food markets. In the third paper the authors will review the challenges of technology, globalization, and competitiveness from international perspectives as challenges for developing countries. The fourth paper will discuss the possibilities of reshaping and engineering a possible new public sector for developing countries by reviewing the work of Stephan, F. Jooste’s working paper of 2008. The fifth paper of the series will attempt to look at public sector management reforms in Africa. The final or sixth paper will focus upon public sector management reforms in Africa and in so doing will focus on the lessons learned. In crystallizing this series of six articles, it is hoped to synthesize the views of the various papers written by a set of different authors and to this end draw into the discussion the views of the authors, their experience and observations over time as public servants in the Republic of South Africa.

A specific accounting approach for public universities

Many universities in Germany and other countries have introduced financial (or commercial) accounting to manage effectively their finances. It aligns with so-called new public sector management reforms worldwide. In this paper we analyze whether the components of this type of financial accounting reform suit the nature and objectives of German public universities. While the analysis mainly relates to the German situation, there are likely to be implications for public universities universally. Drawing on an analysis of the reports of two well known German-speaking universities, Heidelberg and Vienna, we analyze whether the components of the new financial accounting reforms suit the nature and objectives of those public universities. While we argue that cash-flow statements and balance sheets remain important, it is shown that it is necessary for state-run educational institutions to change several key elements of traditional commercial accounting. Because the success goals of such universities are non-profit-oriented, their financial accounting should be augmented by a ‘change in value statement’, replacing the traditional income statement. As their valuation cannot be correlated with the definition of profit in (German) public universities this term is suggested. By change in value we mean specifically that assets may experience a total loss or a decrease in value. In management accounting output measures and performance indicators should substitute revenues as the counterpart of costs. Furthermore, long-term financial decisions play a crucial role in universities. Therefore, a form of investment accounting is very important for them. The conventional form has to be modified by ‘investment statements’ and ‘knowledge balances’ of their intellectual capital. In this paper we also show how the concept of a balanced scorecard can be applied to public universities and how specific accounting instruments can be integrated into it.

Exploring public sector managers' preferences for attracting consultants or academics as external experts

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons why public sector managers approach either consultants or academics for their help in solving problems related to public sector accounting and management reforms.Design/methodology/approachA field study based on reactions to real‐life constructs and answers to questions about the experiences of public sector managers in Italian, Dutch and Swedish central government agencies.FindingsPublic sector managers approach consultants, due to their experience‐based knowledge, for solving well‐defined practical and technical problems. In the case of tacit knowledge, a strong interaction between the public sector manager and the consultant, denoted as socialization, is the typical way of knowledge transfer. In accordance with expectations, public sector managers approach academics for advice regarding value‐laden problems in their organization. However, academics also give advice about practical and technical issues, usually being the primary domain of consultants, but often when impartial advice is required. Although the authors expected academics to transfer knowledge rather detached from their clients (interiorization), this was not corroborated, because often academics work closely with their counterparts in the client organization.Research limitations/implicationsThe theoretical framework was helpful in explaining the role of consultants, but it required refinement in explaining the role of academics as external experts.Practical implicationsThe paper contributes to a better articulated set of preferences of public sector managers in asking advice from either a consultant or an academic.Originality/valueThe paper offers a simultaneous and systematic empirical examination of the roles that consultants and academics play in public sector management and accounting reforms.

Rethinking impact and redefining responsibility

PurposeThe starting point for the paper is an assessment of the impact of a 1993 special issue ofAccounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal,which provided an interdisciplinary analysis of the pursuit of accountable management reforms in the UK public sector. From this assessment, the paper offers a set of reflections on the development over the last two decades of “new” public management practice and research, and also indicates some of the obligations and responsibilities of academic researchers and managers alike in the context of a continuing appetite for such reforms.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is written in a reflective fashion, including assessments of: our role as guest editors of the special issue; the continuing pertinence of key messages emanating from the special issue; and broader considerations drawn from our own working experience in managerial roles in universities and personal reflections on the state of the public management literature.FindingsThe paper highlights the long‐standing litany of failure attached to such public management reform movements, as well as the limited degree of cross‐disciplinary learning within the field. The paper emphasises that we need to rethink the parameters of “public sector” (accounting) research, and avoid the partitioning of (accounting) research into ever smaller and self‐referential sub‐areas. We need more cross‐national studies. We need to know more about which management practices travel readily, and which travel less easily, and what happens when implementation is problematic. We need also to reinforce the importance of historical analyses, if we are to derive the most benefit from studies of the interrelations among accounting and public management reforms and wider transformations in ways of governing economic and social life. Finally, we need to retain or reinstate curiosity at the heart of our concerns, in order to dispel the self‐evidence or taken‐for‐grantedness of so much of our present.Research limitations/implicationsPersonal reflections, while being beneficially close to the subject under consideration, inevitably suffer from claims of bias and a lack of independence. We have sought to control for such risks by drawing on a variety of sources of information with respect to impact, including (albeit ironically) citation counts and an analysis of the writings of individual authors contributing to the special issue.Originality/valueThe paper is novel in that it seeks to combine an analysis of the literature on public sector accounting and management reforms over several decades with our own, multi‐faceted, engagement with public management research and practice.

Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure in Africa (1970 to 2007)

This study appraises the record of private sector participation in infrastructure (PPI) in Africa using the updated PPIAF database for 1970 to 2007. The results of almost two decades of regulatory reforms, implementation of the privatization and liberalization agenda, combined with the influx of private investment in infrastructure have decidedly been mixed. There has been a “policy mistake” founded on the dogma that infrastructure would be financed by the private sector. For various reasons, mainly involving investment climates and rates of return, private investment has been limited in terms of volume, sectors and countries. The current global economic and financial crisis poses a new threat. Its effects are already being felt in greater delays in financial closures, more cancellations, and higher financing costs for PPI projects. The lessons of experience, however, show that most countries will be better off working out a partnership with the private sector. To begin to solve Africa’s infrastructure investment problems, broad institutional reform along with greater financial commitments by governments and the private sector will be required. Private participation in infrastructure requires fiscal reform and improvements in public sector management. It also requires careful attention to the basics of project design, including identifying and allocating risk and ensuring sound procurement practices.

Autonomy, responsibility and accountability in the Italian school system

Abstract The attention on education and the management of the schools represent important elements of the overall public sector management reforms in many OECD countries. The Italian school system has been characterised, in the last decade, by a process of granting schools a degree of autonomy in terms of educational, managerial and financial functions. Autonomy goes hand by hand with responsibility and accountability systems of schools. This paper delivers a critical analysis of the accountability system designed intentionally or not by the reform. The reform is based on the assumption that more local managed schools will improve the overall performance, through more autonomy, responsibility and accountability. In doing so, the concept of accountability web and the role of cultural traits in developing forms of accountability are used in order to analyse the context of three case studies. The findings suggest that the reform created a dual-based accountability on schools causing higher level of stress in the organisation, and a misalignment on the accountability web between school manager and teachers.