Search results

The purpose of this paper is to advance a set of criteria for appraising the merits of alternative options to financing common property capital expenditure in multi‐owned housing (MOH) complexes and to then draw on this conceptual framework to determine which mode of common property capital expenditure funding is preferable.

A priori reasoning has been provided to pursue the study's objective.

Sinking funds represent the preferred approach to financing common property expenditure in MOH schemes and special levies are the least preferred approach.

Due to the a priori based conceptual development undertaken, some subjectivity is bound to be invoked.

The study provides key insights to government policy makers charged with drafting MOH legislation and provides strong support for those jurisdictions that require sinking funds to be raised in MOH complexes. The study also informs the owners executive committees of MOH schemes of the benefits of maintaining sinking funds.

The study highlights the considerable MOH unit owner financial distress that can be averted by pursuing a policy of raising sinking funds.

The study has immense originality, as it is the first academic study to focus on MOH common property capital expenditure issues.

This case study aims to present the implementation of knowledge management (KM) in the Ministry of Health (MoH) of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Ministry is a very complex environment and it is suffering from information overload. The health care industry is a very intensive knowledge field where experience and tacit knowledge play an important part in delivering efficient health care to the nation.

The paper takes the form of a case study conducted by people involved in the implementation of the KM initiative at the MoH and by the observation and interviews conducted by external researchers.

The paper finds that the implementing of KM had many positive impacts on the MoH in terms of planning and decision making. Even though it is difficult to create a knowledge sharing culture in an environment under pressure involving medical and administrative staff, the initial KM initiatives implemented at the MoH of Bahrain are believed to be the start for a serious and comprehensive KM drive within the Ministry in the coming few years.

The lessons learned from this case can help other health organizations to better understand the barriers and enablers associated with implementing a KM initiative in a complex environment.

This paper aims to provide insights into how the New Zealand Office of the Auditor-General (NZOAG) legitimised the selection of topics for performance audit in the New Zealand public health sector over a 10-year period, 2003-2013, by fulfilling the key actors’ “taken for granted beliefs” of the dual roles of the NZOAG: its independence and accountability.

This paper uses evidence gathered from interviews with representatives of the District Health Boards, the Ministry of Health (including Health Advisory Committee members) and NZOAG staff, along with publically available documentary evidence over a 10-year period. The authors draw on Suchman’s (1995) authority on institutional legitimacy to inform the research findings.

The New Zealand Auditors-General (NZAGs) get inputs from various sources such as their own audit teams, parliamentary deliberations, the Ministry of Health, the District Health Boards, media and public concerns and complaints. These sources initiate ideas for performance audits. Subsequently, the NZAGs use the recurring themes and risk assessment criteria while simultaneously consulting with the auditees (the MOH and the DHBs) and other actors, such as health advisory groups, to select topics for such audits. This signals to the key actors, such as the MOH and the DHBs, that the NZOAG is addressing the topics and concerns relevant to the former while discharging its public accountability role. Furthermore, the consultative approach acts as a catalyst, ensuring that the actors involved with public sector health service delivery, specifically the auditees, accept the selected topic. This leads to a lack of resistance to and criticism of the topic; the selection process, therefore, is legitimatised, and credibility is added to the audits. Because of the consultative approach taken by the NZAGs, the actors, including the performance auditors, continue to believe that the Office acts independently from third party influence in selecting their audit topics, elevating the NZAGs’ moral legitimacy with respect to their public accountability role.

The study’s focus group does not include parliamentary representatives, only representatives from the DHBs, the MOH and the NZOAG; therefore, the conclusions on effective discharge of the NZOAG’s accountability role and Parliamentary acceptance is not conclusive – the NZOAG acts on behalf of the Parliament in discharging its accountability role and the latter is also the formal recipient of the reports.

The implications for practitioners and policymakers are that the use of a consultative approach to select topics for performance audit in the absence of performance auditing standards ensures auditee readiness and acceptance of such audits. This also promotes mutual benefits and “trust” between the AG and auditees. Such audits can be used to bring about efficacy in health service delivery.

The selected topics for audits will have an impact on citizens’ lifestyles, with improved health services delivery.

There is a dearth of research on who initiates the ideas for performance auditing and how the Office of the Auditor-General selects topics for such audits. This study adds a new dimension to the existing performance auditing literature. The authors reveal how the NZOAG seeks to legitimise the selection of topics for such audits by consulting with the auditees and other actors associated with public sector health service delivery, while upholding its independent status and making transparent how it discharges its accountability role within the context of performance auditing.

Purpose – The major question posed in this paper is whether public finance management (PFM) reforms undertaken by development partners (DPs) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Ghana were to find solutions to the many PFM challenges or it was merely a façade to pursue latent political interest?

Methodology – Study information was gathered via a desk review of major PFM policy documents, procedures, manuals, guidelines, and findings of commissioned studies covering the period under review. Information generated from the desk review was triangulated via extensive interviews with a sample of policy makers from MOH and DPs.

Findings – The findings suggest that MOH and DPs pursued reforms mostly to address the PFM challenges in the sector. Additionally, the study finds questionable the attitude and posture of the two actors and calls for further investigations to unearth what the said attitude and posture may imply in terms of intentions.

Originality/value – The findings raises fundamental question regarding public sector – DPs collaborations in executing reforms. This could open up new frontiers for further research to better understand DPs/public sector collaboration in the implementation of reforms.

Limitations – The sample used for this study may constrain generalization to other jurisdiction. This limitation does not in any case invalidate the conclusions arrived at.

Formal structured leadership training is increasingly incorporated as a regular fixture in developed nations to produce competent leaders to ensure the provision of quality patient care. However, most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) rely on one-off external training opportunities for selected individuals as they lack the necessary resources to implement long-term training for a wider pool of potential health care leaders. This case study shares the establishment process of the Talent Grooming Programme for technical health care professionals (TGP), a three-year in-house leadership training programme specially targeted at potential health care leaders in Malaysia.

This case study aims to share a comprehensive overview of the ideation, conceptualisation and implementation of TGP. The authors also outlined its impact from the individual and organisational perspectives, besides highlighting the lessons learned and recommendations for the way forward.

TGP set out to deliver experiential learning focusing on formal training, workplace experiences, practical reflection and mentoring by supervisors and other esteemed leaders to fulfil the five competency domains of leadership, organisational governance, communication and relationship, professional values and personal values. The successes and challenges in TGP programme delivery, post-training assessment, outcome evaluation and programme sustainability were outlined.

The authors’ experience in setting up TGP provided valuable learning points for other leadership development programme providers. As for any development programme, a continuous evaluation is vital to ensure its relevance and sustainability.

Certain aspects of TGP establishment can be referenced and modified to adapt to country-specific settings for others to develop similar leadership programme, especially those in LMICs.

Some multi-owned housing developments do not appoint an external strata manager. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how governance is negotiated when there is no strata manager in place.

A semi structured interview was conducted as a case study to contrast and highlight issues that occur where no strata manager is in place.

The lack of a manager presented particular difficulties when negotiating outcomes. A market gap is identified highlighting implications for how strata managers may increase future market penetration.

The number and spatial occurrence of strata titled complexes operating without a formal governance structure in situ is not known. Further research needs to be undertaken in this area.

The resilience of Australia’s densification policies is dependent on how owners perceive and adjust to additional layers of governance. Difficulties arise for the individual and the scheme as a whole where no formal mechanism is operational.

As cities become more dense, multi-owned property is increasing. Where governance mechanisms fail, or fail to be implemented, sound governance outcomes may be problematic.

The issue of multi-owned property operating without or outside a governance structure has not previously been considered.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the management of the public sector health workforce in Botswana. Using institutional frameworks it aims to document and analyse human resource management (HRM) practices, and make recommendations to improve employee and health system outcomes.

The paper draws from a large study that used a mixed methods approach to assess performance of Botswana’s Ministry of Health (MOH). It uses data collected through document analysis and in-depth interviews of 54 key informants comprising policy makers, senior staff of the MOH and its stakeholder organizations.

Public health sector HRM in Botswana has experienced inadequate planning, poor deployment and underutilization of staff. Lack of comprehensive retention strategies and poor working conditions contributed to the failure to attract and retain skilled personnel. Relationships with both formal and informal environments affected HRM performance.

While document review was a major source of data for this paper, the weaknesses in the human resource information system limited availability of data.

This paper presents an argument for the need for consideration of formal and informal environments in developing effective HRM strategies.

This research provides a rare system-wide approach to health HRM in a Sub-Saharan African country. It contributes to the literature and evidence needed to guide HRM policy decisions and practices

Healthcare provision is costly, and patient expectations are increasing. Lean implemented within healthcare settings is one possible solution for dealing with this issue, with much of the current research in this respect mostly focused on developed countries. The research examines the applicability of lean in the healthcare sector of a developing country, specifically Oman.

Interviews were conducted with 32 individuals representing four public sector hospitals, along with two major hospital suppliers and the Ministry of Health. The readiness of lean thinking was assessed against seven criteria. Data were then analyzed thematically.

The authors found that Oman's healthcare sector is strong on leadership support, understanding value and customer groups, ability to undertake an end-to-end process view and engaging in the required training for lean. Interviewees showed awareness of the challenges, including aligning lean with the strategic agenda of healthcare settings, aligning measurement and reward systems to lean thinking and matching demand and capacity levels. The authors conclude that Oman's healthcare sector is ready for widespread application of lean, and if executed successfully, will generate strong strategic and operational outcomes.

This paper provides evidence of the applicability of lean in a very different context to the one that has been generally reported in the literature. The authors propose that lean thinking can be applied in countries and regions with similar cultural contexts such as the Middle East.

This study examines the impact of three cost accounting system (CAS) designs – traditional costing, activity-based costing, and time-based accounting – on manufacturing performance as measured in terms of demand fulfillment rate, cycle time, and net operating income – within a flexible, pull-production environment. A simulation approach allows for the direct comparison of these CAS designs under various scenarios. The introduction of supply and demand stochasticity, along with differing levels of product mix complexity modeled in environments with differing levels of manufacturing overhead burden, adds practical significance to the results. The fact that no single CAS outperformed along all performance measures has considerable implications for management accounting practice vis-à-vis manufacturing strategy, in particular for competitors in time-based industries. Also, this is the first known study to operationalize and test the theoretical time-based accounting methodology, further validating the efficacy of simulation methodologies in cost management contingency research.