STRENGTHENING THE LINK BETWEEN PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND DECISION MAKING

Many public agencies now face dual pressures to meet external accountability demands on one hand, and improve their internal performance on the other. This begs the question whether the demands that are made on public agencies to externally report on their performance have a limited or wide ranging impact on the utilization of performance indicators (PIs) for internal improvements. This article…

UNDERSTANDING LOCAL GOVERNANCE : INSTITUTIONAL FORMS OF COLLABORATION

The article discusses institutional forms of governance, understanding governance as hybrid forms of collaboration, involving government, market actors and/or civil society actors. By utilizing data from a study made of three Norwegian cities, six collaborative efforts are presented, and discussed in relation to analytical characteristics derived from both network theory and organizational theo…

CORPORATE CAPACITY AND PUBLIC SERVICE PERFORMANCE

Corporate capacity is arguably a key determinant of the success or failure of public sector organizations. However, while there is growing evidence on the extent of corporate capacity, few researchers have systematically examined whether it is linked to public service performance. Does a larger corporate centre lead to better or worse performance for the organization as a whole? To answer this …

THE THIRD SECTOR, USER INVOLVEMENT AND PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM : A CASE STUDY I…

The ‘modernization’ of British public services seeks to broaden public sector governance networks, bringing the views of third sector organizations, the public and service users (among others) to the design, management and delivery of welfare. Building on previous analyses of the contradictions generated by these roles, this paper draws on longitudinal qualitative research to enunciate the chal…

TOWARDS DEVELOPING NEW PARTNERSHIPS IN PUBLIC SERVICES : USERS AS CONSUMERS, …

The causes and effects of marketization of public services have been analysed extensively in the literature, but there is relatively little research on how those policies impact on the development of new forms of governance, and the role of users in these new arrangements. This study reviews examples of competition, freedom of choice and personalized care in health and social services in Englan…

DOES OWNERSHIP MATTER FOR THE PROVISION OF PROFESSIONALIZED SERVICES? HIP OPE…

In terms of clinical procedures (to take the example used in this article, hip operations), both public and private organizations provide highly professionalized services. For this service type, our knowledge about ownership differences is sparse. To begin to fill this gap, we investigate how the ownership of hip clinics affects professional behaviour, treatment quality and patient satisfaction…

ANALYSING POLICY DELIVERY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM : THE CASE OF STREET CRIME AN…

For all governments, the principle of how and whether policies are implemented as intended is fundamental. The aim of this paper is to examine the difficulties for governments in delivering policy goals when they do not directly control the processes of implementation. This paper examines two case studies – anti-social behaviour and street crime – and demonstrates the difficulties faced by poli…

FAITH-BASED INITIATIVES AND THE CHALLENGES OF GOVERNANCE

The task of this paper is to offer an analysis of the Faith-Based and Community Initiative (FBCI) established by George W. Bush and continued under the Obama administration based on a critical and decentred approach to governance (networks). The paper starts out by placing FBCI in the context of the welfare reform of 1996 arguing that both share certain basic assumptions, for example, regarding…

CHANGES IN PUBLIC SERVICE BARGAINS : MINISTERS AND CIVIL SERVANTS IN DENMARK

Edition

Volume 89, Issue 3, September 2011, pages 1015–103

ISBN/ISSN

00333298

Collation

-

Series Title

Public Administration

Call Number

-

MANAGERIAL CHALLENGES IN PUBLIC SERVICE CONTRACTING : LESSONS IN GREEN-SPACE …

In this article, we address a series of interrelated issues in the managerial challenge of public service contracting. This is done by prompting ten issues within four objectives and highlighting their relevance and potential interrelatedness in effective contract management. In contrast to prevalent piecemeal and theoretically one-dimensional approaches, the objectives and issues constitute a …

THE IMPACT OF FORMAL ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE ON POLITICO-ADMINISTRATIVE INTE…

The effects of different organizational structures are often assumed, expected or promised but seldom well documented through systematic studies (Christensen et al. 2007, p. 144). Using evidence from a natural experiment including organizational data from 65 Danish municipalities and survey responses from 1014 politicians and 403 administrators, the article analyses whether and how two differen…

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT IN SPANISH LOCAL GOVERNMENTS. A CROSS-CASE COMPARISON…

This paper explores local government in Spain: the nature of and extent to which performance measures are developed and how they are used in some of the biggest Spanish local governments. The features of performance measurement in Spain raise the question of why non-mandatory performance indicators are introduced and why specific initiatives are undertaken. A cross-theory strategy allows us to …

FUZZY JOBS IN LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS : CASE STUDIES OF URBAN AND RURAL REGENERATI…

By means of an Anglo-French comparison, this article shows the existence of certain atypical forms of public sector work that are associated with internal and external coordination, particularly in the context of locality based partnerships. In the case of rural and urban development in France in the 1980s, such atypical work involved organizations that were on the fringe of local authorities, …

ATTRACTION TO PUBLIC POLICY-MAKING : A QUALITATIVE INQUIRY INTO IMPROVEMENTS …

This article presents improvements for the dimension of ‘Attraction to Public Policy-making’ within the Public Service Motivation measurement scale. The literature concerning the theory behind this and a large number of empirical studies point out the shortcomings of this dimension with regard to both the contents and the methodology employed. This article deals in depth with the aspect of ‘Att…

THE TRADITION OF MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ITS ROLE IN THE BUREAUCRATIC …

This article explores the relationship between the United Kingdom's doctrine of ministerial responsibility and bureaucratic efforts to control four contemporary crises. Evidence emerges from a series of interviews with experienced crisis managers, which draws attention to the way in which this convention: (1) tacitly conditioned the thinking and behaviour of bureaucratic crisis actors through t…

A LIPSKIAN ANALYSIS OF CHILD PROTECTION FAILURES FROM VICTORIA CLIMBIÉ TO â€â€¦

This paper explores the issue of joined-up governance by considering child protection failures, firstly, the case of Victoria Climbié who was killed by her guardians despite being known as an at risk child by various public agencies. The seeming inability of the child protection system to prevent Victoria Climbié's death resulted in a public inquiry under the chairmanship of Lord Laming. The La…

UK LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION : USING CONJECTURES TO EXPLAIN T…

The relationship between local government and public participation is a problematic one. Taking the UK as an example, it is evident that, despite 40 years of experimentation with public participation initiatives, there has been little impact on local policy processes. While a range of plausible explanations can be found for this state of affairs, no overarching theoretical framework is availabl…

Introduction : Recurrence of Limits on Knowledge

For as long as rulers have ruled, they have tried to monopolize and control information. The institution of secrecy is as old as the state. But as new media for communication have appeared, it has become more difficult to control the flow of information, just as the rise of democracy as an ideal has made it harder to justify the institution of secrecy. The articles that follow consider the recu…

Secrecy and National Security Whistleblowing

The promise to keep "secrets of state," once demanded and given, becomes virtually part of one's core identity. In the national security apparatus, one's pride and self-respect is founded in particular in the fact that one has been trusted to keep secrets in general and trusted with these particular secrets. I suggest that there are psycho-social aspects of promises made under these circumstanc…

The Freedom of Information Act and the Press : Obstruction or Transparency?

When government officials can look you in the eye and invoke the Federal Freedom of Information Act, they know full well that they have donned a cloak of invisibility. They are saying, in effect, "You can't touch me," and they are calculating that you will get the message and go away. Worse yet, they are putting a premium on "access" journalism—they are elevating the importance of access, of au…