Search results

New style health authorities and trust boards have a lower percentage of women members/directors than pre‐reform. This is attributable to recruitment procedures, selection criteria, those excluded and the inclusion of executives. The NHS is also seeking to implement Opportunity 2000 to improve the opportunities for women. Changes in the culture required by the introduction of private sector structures and values are not necessarily compatible with those required for equal opportunities. The research shows that women have as important a contribution to make at board level as men. Differences in background and attitudes serve to broaden the base of experience and expertise. A key question is how to increase the numbers of women executive directors/members, to increase their influence over organizational policies. The adoption of private sector values for the public sector can be questioned; with equal opportunities, private sector organizations may learn from the public sector.

In many organisations, changes in organisational structure and the introduction of technology are occurring simultaneously, impacting upon personnel in many different ways. The process of such changes, how they interrelate and how they affect personnel are discussed, through examining some of the findings of a recent research project. It is argued that the interrelating developments of decentralisation, line management access to the personnel database and the use of IT not only affects the relationship of the personnel function to the line but also strengthens the position of management in relation to the workforce. Benefits brought by the introduction of computerised personnel systems are related to organisational culture, i.e. the existing status of the personnel function within the organisation and the structure of the organisation, rather than the extent of the use of computers within it.

Equal pay for men and women was a principle en‐shrined in the Treaty of Rome and was the subject of a European Directive in 1975. This investigation of progress towards equal pay in three member‐states, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, reveals the importance of differences in employment structures and reward systems in determining relative pay for women. The author argues that differences in the structure and size of pay differentials among countries suggest that more attention needs to be paid to the general system of labour market regulation than to explicit equal‐pay policies. She concludes that women would be more likely to benefit from a strategy of establishing labour standards and regulation than from equal‐pay Directives which have little effect on the general practices and principles of pay determination.

Discussion of ‘governance’ has become commonplace in health and social care in recent years, and ‘good governance’ seems to be seen in some quarters as offering potential answers to some of the complex challenges facing public services. Drawing on evidence from both the private and public sectors on governance, this short paper explores three key interrelated questions: What do we mean by governance (and how does it differ from management)? What is the evidence on governance? What can good governance do? It concludes with some reflections on the key messages for governance in health and social care. In so doing, it draws on material from the Integrated Care Network paper on governance and partnerships written by two of the authors (ICN, 2004) and an ESRC‐funded study of these issues by another (Skelcher & Mathur, 2004).

The purpose of this paper is to study the potential interest in and the possible limits of the concept of organizational ambidexterity (Duncan, 1976; Tushman and O’Reilly, 1996) in the context of public non-profit organizations (PNPOs), a concept that is frequently studied in the private sector.

From an inductive and qualitative approach, this research is based on observations of ambidextrous innovation processes implemented in a French PNPO in charge of job search and unemployment compensation operations.

This research shows that the concept of organizational ambidexterity might provide some strategic leads for balancing the possible paradoxes within different kinds of expectations of the stakeholders of PNPOs. It might also facilitate the combination of the stability of public service deliverance and organizational transformation. Beyond its interest, this study identifies the limits of the concept in the context of PNPOs. For overcoming its limits, the study suggests a renewed understanding of organizational ambidexterity by taking account of PNPOs’ specificities, especially in terms of the regulation of the different tensions generated by ambidextrous organizational change.

This research proposes a conceptual framework built with the integration of sectorial and organizational characteristics of the public non-profit sector for understanding the organizational ambidexterity and its possible strategic, organizational and management implications in this sector. The results are limited to the context the author studied because of several sectorial, national, organizational and cultural specificities.

The results might inspire management practices in PNPOs and potentially in private non-profit organizations or in voluntary organizations, since these three types of organizations could have certain similar organizational characteristics and might encounter similar questions in terms of strategy and innovation management.

This research suggests a renewed understanding of the concept of organizational ambidexterity in a sector in which the complexities, tensions and paradoxes generated by different stakeholders’ expectations are probably more present but less explicit than other organizations.

This article examines staff participation and involvement in Swiss public organisations that are undergoing major administrative change. Officially, the new public management reforms have the following objectives: more organisational autonomy; increased organisational flexibility and adaptability; more responsiveness; and greater productive capacity. All these objectives are intended to be attained, in part, by increasing staff participation and involvement. After evaluating some of the new public management projects the paper identifies a number of obstacles which are preventing the achievement of government objectives. The paper concludes that the reforms are producing contradictory expectations that may be undermining the achievement of the government reforms.

The purpose of this paper is to study the changing relationship between auditing and evaluation. Over the past several years, supreme auditing institutions (SAIs) in a number of advanced democracies have evolved from conventional auditing institutions to becoming increasingly concerned with assisting policy change and administrative reform in the public sector; tasks that are traditionally associated with evaluation. The paper discusses the potential consequences of this development for the SAIs themselves as well as for the audited and reforming institutions and for policy-making.

The paper uses qualitative method and draws on the extensive literature on auditing and evaluation. The analysis has also benefitted from the authors’ recent comparative research on SAIs.

The findings, summarized in six points, are that the growth of auditing in areas previously assigned to evaluators, has led to a shortened time perspective; stronger emphasis on the administration of policies; increased focus on efficiency of the audited entity; greater independence from the evaluated organizations; a shift in receiver of information toward the legislature and/or the public; and improved communication.

Evaluation as a professional and scholarly field has developed theories and advanced methods to assess the effectiveness of public programs. The growth of auditing may thus change the focus and quality of policy evaluation.

The paper speaks to both scholars and practitioners. To the best of the knowledge a similar analysis has not been done before.

To provide a case study of a Belgian ministry, within the framework of the Copernicus reform.

The paper uses both interpretative and interactionist approaches and a range of research methods including a survey, involving a questionnaire and interviews, content analysis and some elements of speech analysis.

The paper confirms the hypothesis that an identities evolution is taking place following the implementation of new public management (NPM) principles in the Belgian federal service. Using two identity logics “public service,” relating to the principles and values associated with traditional public administration, and “public managerialism”, relating to the principles, values and representations linked to NPM, it distinguishes six identity profiles. These are characterised by their positioning according to two principles fidelity and reality. The conclusion is that organisational identity is complex, hybrid and composite and in constant evolution according to perceptions of reality and context

This adds to the literature on the change process in public organisations under the banner of new public management or modernisation. It illustrates that the change process results in multiple identities with implications for human resources management.

The purpose of this study is to investigate into the perception of new public sector management (NPM) and service delivery among senior officers of the Mauritian public sector in the context of reforms. Although improved service delivery is one of the salient outcomes of successful reforms of NPM, many governments in the world have not been able to fulfil this promise. While few extant research probe into the factors affecting service delivery, mostly from the customer’s perspective, this study probes into how senior public officers themselves perceive service delivery as part of their duty in government.

The qualitative stance was adopted for this study. Interviews were conducted with 23 senior public officers having on average 20 years of service in the Mauritian public sector. Data obtained was transcribed and coded under themes, sub-themes and emergent themes. These were then analysed in the light of the literature review conducted.

The findings of this study revealed that NPM was being practiced and service delivery was an imbedded factor among senior public sector officers of the Mauritian public sector. Among other factors, officers interviewed were of the opinion that serving the public was a legitimate part of their job, view that they had agreed to serve the government of Mauritius. Such a finding proves to be very encouraging for the Mauritian Government, still struggling to achieve reforms or NPM doctrines.

This study contributes to the scant literature on NPM and service delivery in small island developing states. It explores the perception of experienced senior officers about the practice of NPM and the state of service delivery.

This study elucidates how senior public servants themselves perceive service delivery and can, thus, serve as an example of public sector best practices in small island developing states.

While most studies with respect to public sector reforms concentrate on developed countries, this study takes place in the small island state of Mauritius. More so, the perception of public servants themselves have been explored in the context of service delivery improvement and reforms, contrary to other studies which concentrate of the customers’ perceptions.