Traditional Public Administration Research Articles

Bureaucracies’ Extended Arm in Co-creation: A Study of Institutional Complexity in the Context of Public Services

Co-creation, as a central strategy of the New Public Governance (NPG) paradigm, is deemed essential to address complex societal challenges. A qualitative, in-depth study was conducted to explore collaborative processes between the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) and three external organizations. The aim of co-creation among these actors was to limit/prevent outsiderness by providing more individualized work inclusion services to young adults facing vulnerabilities. Our study examines collaborative processes between NAV and external actors in work inclusion efforts and explores how institutional complexity within NAV influences the potential for co-creation among these actors. We found that the bureaucratic logic of the Traditional Public Administration (TPA) within NAV forces external actors to engage in challenging, time-consuming procedures, turning them into bureaucracies’ extended arms rather than independent contributors of resources. Additionally, core principles of New Public Management (NPM), such as resource control and optimization, overshadow the importance of shared responsibility, equality, and knowledge sharing (NPG). With NAV as an example, the article demonstrates the importance of effectively managing institutional complexity in public organizations to succeed in co-creation. It contributes empirical and contextual examples of co-creation processes in the public sector, as the co-creation literature is still very theoretical, descriptive, and conceptual.

Accountability as a function of power relationships in public governance networks

AbstractIn public governance, power and accountability are inextricably linked. However, although an integrated exploration of these concepts could enhance our understanding of how governance operates, few studies have examined them together. Drawing on resource dependency theory, we suggest that power relationships within networks shape accountability and have a concomitant impact on the prevailing governance paradigm. Specifically, where principals possess important resources that enable them to exercise power over agents and hold them to account through hierarchical mechanisms, Traditional Public Administration approaches predominate. Where resources are diffused within elite networks in New Public Management contexts, individual actors can exercise greater power to achieve their objectives, and accountability arrangements become increasingly multidirectional and complex. Finally, if resources are shared across society as in the New Public Governance paradigm, actors generate power with each other to achieve shared goals, and accountability relationships are more horizontal with a focus on learning.

Transition from Traditional Public Administration to Digital Public Administration and Adaptation of Public Administration to Emerging Technologies

Transition from Traditional Public Administration to Digital Public Administration and Adaptation of Public Administration to Emerging Technologies

Developing effective leaders for the civil service: A case study of Bahrain

ABSTRACT The civil service has seen dramatic changes over the last 50 years, symbolized by the shift from Traditional Public Administration, to New Public Management and now New Public Governance. Likewise, the role and nature of people management functions has changed with the development of Strategic HR and Human Resource Development (HRD). Finally, the nature of higher education has changed with a growing emphasis on research impact, knowledge exchange, and industry-academia links such as focusing on employability. In this research we explore the development of the Bahrain Institute for Public Administration’s (BIPA) Master in Public Management (MPM) program. Drawing on extensive fieldwork with students, managers, and stakeholders we identify how this program was established, how students were selected, and the implications of their study on the program for the success of the Bahrain government.

Governance modes, mayoral leadership and transitions to public sector co-creation across Europe

Increasing interest in ‘co-creation’ raises an intriguing question about the role that political leaders can play. This role may have changed as wider models of public governance have evolved from Traditional Public Administration and New Public Management to more collaborative and networked approaches. With growing recognition that local solutions to complex public policy problems are needed, the role of mayors as important political leaders has come into sharp focus, yet few have considered how governance context influences political leadership of co-creation. Drawing on strands of theory on public governance and leadership, we specify how extant governance models can influence political leaders’ attempts to inspire co-creation. We illustrate these proposals by showing how mayors performed leadership to inspire co-creation in two contrasting cases drawn from Roskilde, Denmark, and Ljubljana, Slovenia. We demonstrate, counterintuitively, that an embedded form of TPA that coincided with a hierarchical approach to leadership better supported the adoption of co-creation. Thus, we propose that mayors may resourcefully adapt co-creation to local contexts. Political leaders may find these conclusions insightful for understanding how governance context may impact their co-creation efforts.

Vincent Ostrom’da çok merkezlilik düşüncesi ve yönetişim ilişkisi

The end of the 1960s and the 1970s were the years when the social, political and administrative events experienced for the whole world were criticized in the name of democracy. These years were also a period in which the American public administration was not qualified to respond to the conditions of the period, social welfare was not distributed fairly, the ongoing poverty, violence, racism, and gender-based inequality in the society were discussed, and the decreasing trust in institutions and its traditionality were questioned. One of the important names of this period of interrogation is Vincent Ostrom. While Ostrom included his criticisms of traditional public administration in his work titled "Intellectual Crisis in American Public Administration" published in 1973, he advocates polycentrism against a single-centered hierarchical administration. Ostrom's idea of polycentricity and his search for democratic governance is the subject of this study. The study accepts that Ostrom's concept of polycentricity and democratic administration thought are compatible with the governance model and form the basis for the governance process. In addition, the study aims to clarify the relatively little discussed "Vincent Ostrom framework" in the Turkish literature.

Research on the Development of Public Administration in Lithuania

<div><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left"><tbody><tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p class="AbstractText">Research conducted on public administration in Lithuania covers various subjects related to different fields and activities within the public sector. However, most research focuses only on challenges associated with the civil service and local self-government in Lithuania. This research aims to define public administration research and improve understanding of the progress and trajectory of contemporary public sector research in Lithuania. The research methods include document analysis, qualitative descriptive approaches, and historical data analysis. Moreover, the triangulation method verifies research results by integrating data and observations from many sources. The research results found that in the development of public law in Lithuania, researchers in the field of Lithuanian public administration focused on the goals of government reform, civil service modernization, creative solutions, and trends and reforms in central and regional administration. They also concentrate on social policy procedures, improving public governance, and intelligent examination of public administration. Lithuanian authors also focus on improving public governance through the use of the concepts of cooperation, participation, and teamwork. The study of Lithuanian public administration is closely related to the evolution of traditional public administration, focusing on evaluating new public management practices and implementing various public management innovations in government sector organizations since the start of state restoration. Future directions of public administration research in Lithuania will focus on addressing the challenges faced by the public sector and society in other countries. These challenges include sustainable development, climate change, gender equality, and other contemporary issues that directly or indirectly impact the public sector.</p></td></tr></tbody></table></div>

The Role of Open Government in Maintaining Trust in Public Administration

The concept of trust has gained significance in the discourse surrounding traditional public administration, which has been questioned in various respects regarding its relationship with the public. The political, social, and economic changes that have occurred in recent times have led to numerous transformations in the unx”derstanding of public administration. It is crucial to maintain trust in relationships, and this is a topic that has been thoroughly discussed. Trust approaches are evaluated within public administration paradigms in this study. The objective of this research is to assess how government openness impacts citizens’ trust in the government. To measure the influence of open states on public trust, European social research data and data from the open government index, developed by the World Justice Project, were utilised. To investigate whether the countries’ level of open statehood alters trust in public administration, the study initially utilized the Kruskal-Wallis test, followed by the Mann-Whitney U test to identify the variance origin. The findings confirmed the positive impact of open statehood on trust.

New public management and post-new public management paradigms

Over the past decades there has been a remarkable paradigm shift in Public Administration. Traditional Public Administration was in dire need for a change of a New Public Administration (NPA) approach in the 1980s. From early 2000s, the NPA began to be subjected to heavy criticism, which influenced public administration to take complete control of different reforms and approaches regardless of their diversity, complexity, hybrid and contradictory situations rather than offering the perfect approach and reform to the public sector. The New Public Management (NPM) and Post-New Public Management (Post-NPM) paradigms emerged in times whereby the NPA was already experiencing a massive deconstruction and reconfiguration of the public sector management. To scan and understand the remarkable paradigm shift in the field and practice of public administration, this study applies both NPM and Post-NMP to examine different views, principles, values and norms, and reform proposals for South African Public Administration. Methodologically, this study used qualitative research methods with the aid of secondary data to evaluate both the NPM and post-NPM paradigms, criticisms, arguments, challenges, and changes in public policy implementations. Recommendations are provided based on the existing challenges confronting the current public administration in South Africa. This study contributes to literature, new policy proposals and research within public administration.

Who Runs Public Administration? A Longitudinal Study of Technocratic Ministerial Appointments in Post-Communist Romania (1991–2021)

Starting from the traditional public administration dichotomy ‘power versus knowledge’, concerned with the cleavage between politicians and bureaucrats, this paper’s main purpose is to reframe a classic theoretical model, by placing the spotlight on a new, under-conceptualized public sector actor: the technocrat. Second, the paper performs empirical research starting from an own-build comprehensive database that includes all the ministers appointed in the Romanian Government during a 30-year timeframe (October 1991-November 2021). In spite of being a rather young democracy with a communist public sector legacy, research findings indicate that in Romania we can clearly identify patterns similar to other European countries (primarily Italy), consisting of appointing technocrats to the cabinet. Such nominations are discussed in correlation with the advancements of new theories of democracy and public administration, imprinted with Neoliberalism, New Public Management, and Good Governance paradigms.

Advancing the frontiers of genomic public administration: From genetics to administrative attitudes, behaviors, and practices

AbstractBiology's increasing applicability to the social sciences can inspire new approaches to public administration research and practice. Drawing on advances in behavioral genetics, genomic public administration may push its frontiers by examining the genetic foundations of administrative behaviors. While public administration scholars have pioneered the use of the twin design to assess the heritability of public sector employment and public service motivation, they may also use molecular genetics to explore how specific genes interact with environmental factors to shape administrative attitudes, traits, and behaviors. We highlight how relevant studies in management and political science may serve as models for similar explorations in public administration. We also outline four research agendas for genomic public administration. In addition to complementing traditional public administration theory by examining the genetic roots of administrative behaviors and practices, genomic public administration may enrich genetic inquiries by adding public sector applications.

Public Health Service Management is Characterized by 3 Pillars of Innovation

Traditional political science and public administration literature have long held the belief that the innovation in public service management is primarily contingent on the level of financial resources available. However, recent developments in China challenge this assumption, as they raise questions about why certain regions, despite having limited financial resources, are selected as pilot areas for "treatment first" reforms, and why some of these less affluent regions demonstrate superior implementation of specific pilot measures compared to their wealthier counterparts in the eastern regions. This article introduces a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding the innovation in public service management, positing a three-pronged approach that considers the interplay of finance, supply-side factors, and demand-side dynamics. It argues that the innovation in public service management within a given region is the result of a complex interaction among these three key elements. Drawing on empirical data, this article conducts a comparative analysis of the factors influencing "treatment first" reforms in four distinct regions of China: Wuhan, Shanxi, Chongqing, and Hunan. By exploring the unique dynamics at play in each of these regions, the study sheds light on the nuanced relationship between finance, public service supply, and demand. Additionally, it elucidates how these factors jointly determine the success and trajectory of public service management innovation in different locales, challenging conventional wisdom and providing valuable insights into the contemporary governance landscape in China.

The rise and fall of an NPM-style reform in China: a longitudinal case study of sanitation service delivery in Guangzhou

ABSTRACT This article explores how three types of logic of action – consequences, appropriateness, and power dynamics – configurate to shape the trajectory of an illustrative NPM-style reform in China, reflecting how the NPM paradigm has evolved through layering, displacement, and hybridization. Using a longitudinal case study in Guangzhou, we trace sanitation service delivery modalities from in-house delivery to contracting-out, to standardized contracting-out, to contracting-in, and finally, to public-private partnerships with state-owned enterprise. Our findings underscore the salience of the logic of power dynamics in an authoritarian context, suggesting NPM as a transitionary paradigm bridging traditional public administration and hybrid paradigms in China.

Strategies and transitions to public sector co-creation across Europe

This article analyses 14 co-creation cases in six European countries from macro and meso theoretical perspectives on strategic public management. The comparative case study includes focus group sessions and interviews with 107 professionals and 26 managers. Findings show, first, that co-creation is not limited to countries with a strong affinity to new public governance, but also occur in more traditional public administration – or new public management contexts. Second, co-creation cases show a large variety in strategies at the meso level of organizations and networks, but strategic planning seems a precondition for process-based strategies to succeed. Third, despite many differences between the cases and countries, frontline actors often encounter similar barriers in co-creation, in particular in public leadership and vertical organizational structures. Our findings contribute to the literature on strategic public management and transitions in public administration.

A Public Value Strategy for Sustainable Development Goals: Transforming an Existing Organization?

AbstractThe Public Value model is widely discussed in the contemporary public management literature. Despite the growing discourse, few associated publications reflect empirical research. The important question of how public organizations, originally based on traditional public administration models, change to become public value‐orientated is underexplored. We first review the literature on public value, given alternative models of Traditional Public Administration, New Public Management, and Network Governance. We apply a core analytical framework in the public value literature (the ‘strategic triangle’) to an intensive case study of a large national agency that chose a public value strategy. Although staff support for public value (in the form of sustainable development goals) is significant, constraining factors inherited from prior public management models interfere with realizing public value ambitions ‘purely’. The study enhances an understanding of applying the Public Value model in practice by producing insights about barriers and pre‐conditions to such an organizational transition, notably from a wider institutional context. Theoretically, we suggest that the Public Value model has the potential to move to a synergy of elements of existing models in a new configuration. The implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Literature Review of Public Administration and Good Governance from 1890 to 2023

This article examines public administration from 1890 to 2023 to see how it evolved and influenced practice and if good governance is a crucial component in this transformation. This paper presents an in-depth review of several different pieces of secondary literature sources. This paper produced several key findings. The most important finding of this literature study is that, between 1890 and 1980, the Public Administration transitioned from "Traditional Public Administration" to "New Public Management" due to the growing need for good governance. The year 2000 saw the birth of a novel idea in public administration known as "New Public Governance," which has persisted in practice ever since. This paper will be useful to Public Administration practitioners worldwide. There has been little empirical research into how the evolution of Public Administration encourages governments to act more like private corporations. Consequently, more research on this subject is encouraged.

Agency Theory: Its Discourse and Practice in the Selected Public-Sectors

This research investigates the discourse and practice of Agency Theory (AT) in the selected public-sectors of Ethiopia. The Agency Theory is assumed to bring about efficiency and accountability of the public-sector by adopting a contract and Pay-for-Performance (PFP) scheme; however, performance and citizens-cum-customers satiety was not improved as envisioned. Thus, to investigate this problem, the researcher has employed the mixed methods approach and, hence the cross-sectional design, where data has been collected at a point in time from selected public-sector employees to respond to the research problem and questions. To gather data, measurement scales like Binary and Likert Scales and research instruments like Self-Completion Questionnaires (SCQ), Semi-Structured Interviews (SSI), and Secondary Sources (SS) have been carried out at different tiers of government. The results indicated that the complex contexts like “Diverse Objectives, Public Values, and Diffuse Power” in the selected public-sectors required the co-existence of different initiatives and approaches based on what works and what does not work standard. Therefore, this study recommended adopting the home-grown reform system: The needed competencies that include the Traditional Public Administration (TPA), New Public Management (NPM), or Public Service Motivation (PSM) in the selected public-sectors based on the fitting contexts could increase the likelihood of performance enhancement.

Capable supervision, pragmatic engagement, and hands-off steering: Three preferences of Chinese government officials for governing non-profit organizations in public service delivery

Governments’ preferences for governing non-profit organizations (NPOs) are a relevant but understudied issue for governance scholars. Using Q methodology, this study investigates Chinese government officials’ preferences for governing NPOs that deliver public services. We identified three government preferences: capable supervision, pragmatic engagement, and hands-off steering. We found different theoretical perspectives identified in the literature combine with one another to formulate these government preferences for governing NPOs. A key implication is that the Chinese state predominantly prefers the traditional public administration perspective, although it pragmatically borrows useful ingredients from other steering perspectives simultaneously. We recommend that governments, when governing NPOs, seriously address the configurations of governance strategies.

The Role of Civil Society in the Labour Market Integration of Migrants in Europe: An Introduction

This paper serves as an introduction to a special issue that discusses the role of civil society in the labour market integration of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in six European countries: the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. The paper presents a typology of civil society’s involvement in migrant labour integration—a policy-contested field—based on the relationship between non-profit and public sector organisations. Such ideal-type models are traditional public administration delivery, co-management, co-production with a partial or non-existent role for public sector organisations, and full co-production. In the six countries covered by the special issue, the existing relationship between the public sector and the civil society sector is affected by the specific social, cultural and economic contexts that underpin both their labour markets and welfare states. Although one model predominates in each of the six countries, in different ways and with different mechanisms, in all of them there is a trend towards the development of coproduction whereby the state plays either a central or a residual role.

Attitudes, Perceptions and Practices of Influenza Vaccination in the Adult Population: Results of a Cross-Sectional Survey in Spain.

In Spain, the 2021/22 influenza season overlapped with the sixth wave of the 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19). Influenza is a major public health problem associated with high morbidity and mortality. The objectives of this study were to determine the knowledge, perceptions and practices of influenza vaccination in the Spanish population, coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic, with special attention paid to people over 65 years of age. A cross-sectional study was carried out by conducting 2211 telephone interviews. It was observed that 81.6% of people ≥ 65 years were vaccinated annually or with some frequency compared to 35.5% of those under 65 years (p < 0.001). Fifty percent of Spaniards showed an intention to be vaccinated in the 2021/22 campaign, during the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. In the case of people ≥ 65 years old, this figure was 83% compared to 42% of those under 65 years old (p < 0.001). Significant predictors of intention to be vaccinated were age of 65 years or older (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.3–2.5), female sex (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.5–2.4), belonging to risk groups (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.6–3.1) and having been previously vaccinated (OR 29.7, 95% CI 22.5–39.2). The main reasons for deciding to be vaccinated were the need to be protected against the virus and to be vaccinated annually. On the other hand, lack of recommendation and considering the influenza vaccine as not necessary were the main reasons for not getting vaccinated. In addition, health personnel stood out as the main source of information (32.9%) compared to traditional media (26.9%) and public administration (12.3%). This study aimed to assess and analyse the factors influencing willingness to receive influenza vaccines in the COVID-19 era among Spanish adults, as well as the main information channels and strategies to encourage vaccination.