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1 – 10 of over 44000The purpose of this study is to examine the information distributed on social media by government ministries. In addition, this study seeks to categorize and identify the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the information distributed on social media by government ministries. In addition, this study seeks to categorize and identify the characteristics of the highest engaging government social media posts.
Design/methodology/approach
This article is based on content analysis to examine the work of Israeli government ministries on Facebook. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze 6,292 posts posted over a six-month period, and a sample of 230 of the most popular posts was analyzed qualitatively.
Findings
Findings indicate that government ministries primarily direct and link to internal Facebook pages, with few, if any, referrals to official government websites. In addition, the types of content that generate the highest levels of engagement are classified as operations and events or symbolic acts (e.g. greetings or condolences) and are containing visual content as photos or video clips.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on the topic in several ways. First, it presents findings from a cross-national study of government authorities and organizations that operate and serve diverse populations in a multicultural country. Second, this study presents a novel examination of information strategies by government organizations with focusing on the characteristics of links, media types, content and posting frequency.
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Steffen Roth, Teemu Santonen, Maximilian Heimstädt, Carlton Clark, Nikolay Trofimov, Jari Kaivo-oja, Arthur Atanesyan, Balazs Laki and Augusto Sales
The purpose of this paper is to examine how much value national governments worldwide place on political, economic, scientific, artistic, religious, legal, sportive…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how much value national governments worldwide place on political, economic, scientific, artistic, religious, legal, sportive, health-related, educational and mass media-related issues. This knowledge is critical as governments and policies are typically expected to be congruent with the importance these issues have for society.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on theories of polyphonic and multifunctional organization, the authors recoded and analyzed a US Central Intelligence Agency directory to test the cabinet portfolio of a total of 201 national governments for significant biases to the above issues.
Findings
The results suggest that governments worldwide massively over-allocate their attention to economic issues.
Originality/value
The authors conclude that this strong pro-economic governance-bias likely translates into dysfunctional governance and development at both the national and supra-national level.
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Performance budgeting had been tried once and failed. Is there any reason to believe that the new performance budgeting will work? After reviewing existing studies on performance…
Abstract
Performance budgeting had been tried once and failed. Is there any reason to believe that the new performance budgeting will work? After reviewing existing studies on performance budgeting, the paper proposes that two obstacles continue to undermine its success. They are the poor quality of performance measures and their rare acceptance by budgetary decisionmakers. Unfortunately, these two impediments result from the generic defect of performance budgeting: i.e., its attempt at both comprehensiveness and rationality. The paper concludes by suggesting ways by which performance measures can be better utilized.
Stephen Korutaro Nkundabanyanga, Venancio Tauringana, Waswa Balunywa and Stephen Naigo Emitu
The purpose of this study is to examine the association between accounting standards, legal framework and the quality of financial reporting by the Ministry of Water and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the association between accounting standards, legal framework and the quality of financial reporting by the Ministry of Water and Environment in Uganda.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a self‐administered questionnaire to survey 120 staff and stakeholders of the Ministry of the Water and Environment. Correlation analysis was employed to determine the association between accounting standards, legal framework and the quality of financial reporting.
Findings
Results indicate that accounting standards and legal framework are all positively and significantly associated with the quality of financial reporting, providing evidence of the effect of accounting standards and legal framework on the quality of financial reporting in Uganda
Research limitations/implications
Scarce literature using African data means that it is not possible to compare the findings to previous research.
Practical implications
The finding of an association between accounting standards, the legal framework and quality of financial reporting implies that the government of Uganda needs to adopt a more robust approach in enforcing compliance to improve the quality of financial reports produced by the Ministry of Water and Environment.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the dearth of evidence on government accounting literature in Africa by investigating for the first time, the association between accounting standards, legal framework and the quality of financial reporting by a government department.
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Governments of the developing countries must be ready to embrace the evolution of information technology. However, the growth in demand for online services and expectations for…
Abstract
Purpose
Governments of the developing countries must be ready to embrace the evolution of information technology. However, the growth in demand for online services and expectations for convenient access to government resources are placing governments under pressure to deliver outstanding e-services. Despite the successful attempts of the Saudi Government to deliver e-government services, the literature still needs to be advanced with evidence to demonstrate the current status of government websites. Additionally, the growth of e-government services should be periodically monitored and evaluated.
Design/methodology/approach
This study aims to revisit e-government websites previously surveyed (2006-2012) in Saudi Arabia and examine growth based on the five-stage maturity model. This study supports the approach with a review of the United Nations data and links this assessment with the five-stage maturity model.
Findings
The results revealed remarkable improvements in the maturity level of online services provided by the government websites of Saudi Arabia.
Practical implications
The relationship between e-government use and investment decisions appears to be bidirectional, as greater levels of investment seem to offer more opportunities for service improvement.
Originality/value
The outcomes are expected to assist executive authorities in understanding the current situation of e-government and plan appropriate strategic suggestions and development.
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Kyungran Roh, Hyunok Ryu and Gary N. McLean
The purpose of this study is to explore ways to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of national human resource development (NHRD) policies led by South Korean central…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore ways to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of national human resource development (NHRD) policies led by South Korean central government agencies, identifying what policy decisions have been made and how they were implemented.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data from the 2016 NHRD policy budget plans of the ministries and used content analysis. The unit of analysis was the fourth level, a sub-task, in each ministry’s policy budget plan. All coded policy contents were analyzed in terms of the centralized NHRD model, as well as through the perspective of developmental task theory.
Findings
The study yielded the following policy and implementation problems. First, the current system of NHRD policies established and implemented by individual ministries risks hampering the validity and effectiveness of the policies. Second, the structure of NHRD policy execution may cause similarity and redundancy across policies, thereby hindering the efficiency of the policies. Third, it is problematic when NHRD policies focus on solving short-term problems to the exclusion of long-term ones.
Originality/value
This study provides public recommendations to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of NHRD policies created by South Korea’s Central Government. If such an analysis has been made internally by the government, it has not been made publicly available. It also offers practical insights that might help to improve state-led human resource development policies for other countries – especially developing countries – that are planning to introduce central government-led NHRD or to improve existing NHRD policies.
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It is commonly recognized that the transition to democracy in Korea was associated with economic progress. However, not many scholars have given attention to the role of…
Abstract
It is commonly recognized that the transition to democracy in Korea was associated with economic progress. However, not many scholars have given attention to the role of bureaucracy during the process of democratization, due to the fact that bureaucracy is usually thought of as belonging to politics, not democracy. As a refutation of this general view, first, this chapter argues that bureaucracy has been an important contributor to political modernization. Since the post-1945 period, the ‘ceiling’ strategy, which limits the total number of civil servants, was introduced into the personnel management method and system of checks and balances to limit undue political influence over staffing and to control bureaucratic expansion. Second, through this strategy as policy, the bureaucracy legitimately tried to avoid undemocratic political power by standardized process and allow coordination. The ceiling policy is originally the product of historical context during colonial and authoritarian period, but the bureaucracy utilizes it as the instrument to reduce corruption. The contribution of this chapter is provoking the new insights about democratization from bureaucrat’s perspective which is rarely highlighted.
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Nigeria has set up an e‐government initiative termed the “National e‐Government Strategy” (NeGSt) for the purpose of using ICT infrastructure to enhance public services. It was…
Abstract
Purpose
Nigeria has set up an e‐government initiative termed the “National e‐Government Strategy” (NeGSt) for the purpose of using ICT infrastructure to enhance public services. It was expected that e‐government would enable the Nigerian government at all levels to render efficiencies in the public sector, ensure higher productivity and economic growth, foster national competitiveness and lead to the attainment of the vision 20‐2020. Regrettably, the e‐services envisaged seem not to be impacting much on public service delivery in the country. The aim of this paper is to examine the benefits and the status of e‐government in Nigeria, the barriers to the accomplishment of the goal, and some ways out.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of ten federal government ministries in Nigeria that have an official website were sampled. The study population was 100 randomly drawn employees in the ministries, and a structured questionnaire and oral interviews were used. Data were analyzed using frequency tables, simple percentages, and bar charts.
Findings
The study finds that e‐government would provide faster access to government information, lower administrative costs, increase transparency in government ministries, and reduce bribery and corruption, among others. These opportunities are threatened by low bandwidth and internet penetration, inadequate ICT infrastructure and technicians, incessant power outages, technological obsolescence, and other barriers. The Nigerian government should carry out a SWOT analysis of the e‐government project in the country, strengthen the e‐government infrastructure and ensure steady power supply before embarking on the e‐government project again.
Practical implications
This paper exposes the challenges and strategies for the e‐government initiative in Nigeria. It will help leaders to see areas of weakness and the need to re‐strategize. The paper serves as a beacon for further research and discussion on e‐government and online public services in developing countries.
Originality/value
This paper exposes the challenges and strategies for the e‐government initiative in Nigeria and suggests some measures for e‐government to develop and to improve.
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To examine the budgetary procedures of Government ministry libraries in Delta State, Nigeria.
Abstract
Purpose
To examine the budgetary procedures of Government ministry libraries in Delta State, Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire and interview approach was used to identify the various components of ministry libraries and determine the budgetary process they used.
Findings
Even though the Government funds both types of libraries, budgetary procedures differ between ministry libraries and academic libraries. Perhaps the most noteworthy finding is that, unlike academic libraries, ministry libraries are often fully funded, yet they are rarely managed by a librarian. Furthermore, ministry library staff are often not involved in the budgetary process.
Originality/value
Provides insights into how the governmental funding process operates in Nigeria and how these processes could be improved.
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The authors discuss a large system transformation project they designed and implemented in Slovenia at the start of its independence in the early 1990s. Post-mortem insights are…
Abstract
The authors discuss a large system transformation project they designed and implemented in Slovenia at the start of its independence in the early 1990s. Post-mortem insights are useful for practitioners who embark on similarly broad transformation processes. Design issues are discussed such as structuring the pre-contracting phase to guarantee inclusive stakeholder representation and participation throughout the transformation process and how intervention design needs to allow for experimentation and multi-stakeholder alliance building. Application of action research and action learning in a risk-averse environment typical of central governments helped create a sense of ownership, control, and collective accountability in the partner country.
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