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New public management (NPM) has transformed the public sector auditing context, although in quite different ways. Further, investigations into NPM’s impact on public sector auditors and audit institutions have been largely unconnected, with the exception of the critical examination of performance audits. We investigate the question of how public sector auditors’ roles and activities have changed as a result of NPM and later reforms.

We examine and synthesise public sector audit research examining reforms since the year 2000. The research presented considers changes to external and internal public sector audits as well as the development of public sector audit institutions – known as supreme audit institutions (SAIs).

Considerable changes have occurred. Many were influenced by NPM, but others have evolved from the eco-system of accounting, auditing and public sector management. External auditors have responded to an increase in demand for accountability. Additional management and governance techniques have been introduced from the private sector, such as internal auditing and audit committees. NPM has also led to conflicting trends, particularly when governments introduced competition to public sector auditing by contracting out but then chose to centralise to improve accountability. There is also greater international influence now through bodies like the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and similar regional bodies.

NPM reforms and the eco-system have impacted public sector auditing. Sustainability reporting is emerging as an area requiring more auditing attention; auditors also need to continue to develop better ways to communicate with citizens. Further, research into auditing in non-Western nations and emerging technologies is also required, especially where it provides learnings around more valuable audit practices. Empirical evidence is required of the strengths and weaknesses of SAIs’ structural variety.

This study aims to assess the alignment of South Korea’s government-certified social enterprises (GCSEs) with prevailing social enterprise (SE) models, notably the entrepreneurial nonprofit, social cooperative and social business models delineated in the “Emergence of Social Enterprises in Europe” (Defourny and Nyssens, 2012, 2017a, 2017b) and the “principle of interest” frameworks (Defourny et al., 2021). Thereby, it seeks to situate these enterprises within recognized frameworks and elucidate their hybrid identities.

Analyzing panel data from 2016 to 2020 for 259 GCSEs, this study uses tslearn for k-means clustering with dynamic time warping to assess their developmental trajectories and alignment with established SE models, which echoes the approach of Defourny et al. (2021). We probe the “fluid” identities of semi-public sector SEs, integrating Gordon’s (2013) notion that they tend to blend various SE traditions as opposed to existing in isolation.

Results indicate that GCSEs do align with prevalent SE frameworks. Furthermore, they represent a spectrum of SE models, suggesting the versatility of the public sector in fostering diverse types of SEs.

The concept of a semi-public sector SE model has been relatively uncharted, even though it holds significance for research on SE typologies and public sector entrepreneurship literature. This study bridges this gap by presenting empirical evidence of semi-public SEs and delineating the potential paths these enterprises might take as they amalgamate various SE traditions.

The purpose of this study is to examine mediating role of public sector governance in the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth in the Palestinian context during the years 2005–2020.

The necessary data were collected from the World Bank website and the annual financial reports of the Palestinian Monetary Authority. To achieve the study’s objectives, the researcher used content analysis method and regression model.

There is an effect of some dimensions of entrepreneurship (starting a business, obtaining credit, women starting a business) and public sector governance with dimensions (voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, effectiveness of government performance, organizational quality, the rule of law and control of corruption) on economic growth. In addition, there is no mediating effect of public sector governance in the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth.

The study helps in enhancing the elements of entrepreneurship by evaluating public governance in Palestine. It also offers future researchers a comprehensive vision that encourages Palestinian economic growth.

The paper contributes to showing the reality of public governance indicators for the Palestinian context and the amount of support for entrepreneurial activities indicators that affect economic growth.

Trying to activate cooperation mechanisms between government institutions and entrepreneurial institutions to adopt creative projects and ideas, especially for women, needs to focus on activating the principles of public sector governance in addition to facilitating administrative and financial procedures to start commercial projects in a way that enhances economic growth with the need to achieve the highest level of public sector governance indicators.

Although the innovative behaviour of public employees is critical for the creation of public value and meeting of public interests, the authors are uncertain about the role of the human resource (HR) system in affecting individual behaviour as past studies tended to discuss innovation at the organisational level of analysis. Based on corporate human resource management (HRM) literature, the authors draw from the ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) model to examine the influence of innovation-based HR practices on work-related risk propensity and innovative behaviour and the moderating role of perceived error tolerance of public sector organisations.

Dyadic data were collected from supervisors and their subordinates in various public sector organisations in the UAE. The authors collected valid responses from 100 managers and 200 employees.

This study's findings demonstrate that the HR system in the public sector shapes employees' behaviour at the individual level of analysis, consistent with the corporate HRM literature. The authors reveal that innovation-based HR practices significantly promote employees' innovative work behaviour because they trigger their inclination and disposition to take risks. Furthermore, the authors provide evidence that such risk-taking propensity at work is heightened under the conditions of a high level of error tolerance by the organisational management.

This study's findings point out the importance of implementing innovation-based HR practices, such as recruitment, reward and training, to drive public sector employees' innovative work behaviour as they could galvanise their risk-taking propensity and, subsequently, innovative behaviour. Public sector managers also need to develop an innovation culture tolerant toward employees' mistakes to further foster employees' work innovativeness. Policy wise, this study's findings could be integrated into the national innovation strategy to drive the national growth in the UAE.

This study sheds light on the drivers behind innovative behaviour among public employees, which is a less researched area, especially in a non-Western context.

Based on the principle of equality, individuals with disabilities have the right to equal job opportunities and career advancements and to actively participate in the economy like other members of society. This study aims to provide an integrated description of discriminatory occupational practices and behaviours that individuals with disabilities face. This study followed the descriptive analytical approach to achieve the objectives. A questionnaire was used for data collection purposes.

The target population for this study was male and female employees with disabilities working in the Jordanian Government sector for the years 2019–2022 in all governorates of Jordan. The sample method used was purposive-convenient random sampling, and the size of the sample valid for statistical analysis was n = 1,043. Using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (v26), a number of statistical tests were conducted to infer the features of the researched phenomenon.

This study found an overall moderate level (mean = 2.76) of practices and behaviours of job discrimination against individuals with disabilities in the Jordanian public sector. All proposed practices and behaviours were at moderate levels of agreement, with the highest discriminatory behaviours being in the areas of training and learning opportunities (2.88), followed by job performance evaluation (2.84), work leave and vacation (2.75), integration and social participation (2.74), career advancement and promotion (2.73) and, last, the distribution of tasks and responsibilities (2.61). Furthermore, it was found that there are significant differences in the levels of discriminatory practices and behaviours towards people with physical disabilities, individuals with visual impairments and psychological disabilities, new employees at work and those with a low level of education. In addition, employees at higher administrative levels (manager, deputy/assistant manager and head of department/division) and workers in the southern and central governorates are exposed to the highest levels of discrimination.

Lack of data: There is often a lack of reliable and comprehensive data on employees with disabilities, making it difficult for researchers to accurately study and understand the experiences of this population. Stigma and discrimination: People with disabilities often face stigma and discrimination, which can make it challenging for researchers to engage with them and collect accurate information.

Moreover, it was found that the main agencies to which cases of discriminatory practices towards individuals with disabilities working in the Jordanian public sector are reported are the direct managers/supervisors (n = 381), the ministry to which the institution/department belongs (n = 278) and the Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (n = 261).

Supporting social inclusion: Employment can provide a sense of purpose, identity and social inclusion for people with disabilities, which can have a positive impact on their disabilities and overall quality of life. Improving diversity and inclusion: The inclusion of employees with disabilities can contribute to a more diverse and inclusive workplace, where all employees feel valued and respected.

This study found that discriminatory practices against employees with disabilities in the Jordanian public sector were largely because of a lack of awareness of reporting mechanisms and negative attitudes towards individuals with disabilities. This study proposes solutions such as raising awareness among non-disabled employees, implementing penalties for discriminatory behaviour and updating legislation for the rights of individuals with disabilities.

The optimal payment in the whole operation and maintenance period of water environment treatment PPP projects has become the main approach to realize sustainable development of projects. This study is aimed at constructing an effective payment model for the whole life period of projects to achieve win-win among all stakeholders, so as to provide a theoretical reference and managerial implications for the public sector in the whole operation and maintenance period.

In the whole operation and maintenance period of water environment treatment PPP projects, this article investigates how the public sector optimizes the payment in the whole operation and maintenance period of projects. Firstly, the projects' whole operation and maintenance period is divided into several stages according to the performance appraisal period. And then, the multi-stage dynamic programming model is constructed to design the payment construct model for the public sector in each performance appraisal stage. The payment from the public sector is the decision variable, and the deduction from the private sector is a random variable.

The optimal payment model showed that the relatively less objective weight of public sector leaded to its relatively more total payment and vice versa. Therefore, the sustainable development of the projects can only be ensured when the objective weights both of them should be balanced. Additionally, the deduction from the performance appraisal of private sector plays an important role in the model construction. The larger deduction the private sector undertakes, the smaller profits private sector has. Since the deduction at each stage is a random variable, the deduction varies with the different probability distributions obeyed by the practical deduction in each stage.

The findings from this study have provided theoretical and application references, and some managerial implications are also given. First, the improvement of the pricing system of public sector should be accelerated. Second, the reasonable profit of the private sector must be guaranteed. While pursuing the maximization of social benefits, the public sector should make full use of the price sharing mechanism in the market and supervise the real income situation of the private sector. Third is increasing the public to participate in pricing. Additionally, it is a limitation that the deduction is assumed to conform to a uniform distribution in this study. Other probability distributions on deduction can be essentially further sought, so as to be more line with the actual situation of the projects.

The optimal payment in whole operation and maintenance period of the projects has become an important issue, which is a key to project success. This study constructs a multi-stage dynamic programming model to optimize payment in the whole period of projects. Additionally, this study adds its value through deeply developing the new theories of optimal payment to more suitable for the practical problems, so that to optimize the design of payment mechanism. Meanwhile, a valuable reference for public and private sectors is provided to ensure the sustainable development of the projects.

Job characteristics can potentially influence employees’ attitudes and behaviors. However, their impact on employees’ innovative behaviors, particularly in public sector organizations, has received little scholarly attention. Based on relational job design theory and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, this study aims to examine the effect of job contact on public sector employees’ innovative work behavior through the mediator of happiness at work. It also assesses whether prosocial motivation strengthens the influence of job contact on innovative work behavior (via happiness at work).

The model was examined on a sample of 180 employee-supervisor dyads (90 supervisors and 180 employees) recruited from various government departments in the United Arab Emirates.

The findings support the proposed moderated mediation model in which job contact positively and significantly impacts innovative work behavior. The association between job contact and innovative behavior via happiness at work is found to be stronger for employees who are highly prosocially motivated.

The findings offer prescriptive insights into public sector employee happiness and prosocial motivation by illustrating when and how job contact influences innovative work behavior. The authors also present relevant managerial recommendations for promoting public sector employees’ innovative behavior.

Municipalities have the potential to become models of the circular economy (CE). This paper aims to examine the impact of the municipal council’s characteristics on municipal CE disclosure and promotion.

This paper is based on the resource dependence and upper echelons theories. For a sample of the 100 largest cities in Canada, a mixed methodology is used to code and analyze data and test the hypotheses.

Municipal councillors’ education and experience related to the environment or sustainability are both likely to affect CE disclosure, and their sector membership (public or private) moderates the relationship between CE disclosure and councillors’ experience. This experience may be reinforced by membership in the private sector, which has applied CE principles more extensively than the public sector has. Municipal councils with a greater number of councillors from the private sector appear to perform better in matters of transparency and to disclose more CE information on their public websites.

Municipalities could use the findings to foster their transition to CE by implementing a CE-related training plan for their councillors. A CE-dedicated section on their websites could improve transparency and inform and educate residents about CE.

The public sector could learn from the private sector’s best practices regarding CE.

This paper contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence of the transparency and engagement of municipalities toward CE. The authors extend the resource dependence and upper echelons theories to a new context, that of public organizations.

The purpose of this study is to empirically test the intelligent career framework in a public sector setting in a country with a clientelistic culture to inform human resource management strategies.

Based on a qualitative methodology and an interpretivist paradigm, 33 in-depth interviews were conducted with Greek civil servants before the COVID-19 pandemic. The interview recordings were subsequently transcribed and coded via a blend of inductive and deductive approaches.

Outcomes of the study indicate that in a public sector setting in a country with a clientelistic culture, the three dimensions of knowing-whom, knowing-how and knowing-why are less balanced than those reported by findings from private sector settings in countries with an individualistic culture. Instead, knowing-whom is a critical dimension and a necessary condition for career development that affects knowing-how and knowing-why.

The theoretical contribution comes from providing evidence of the dark side of careers and how imbalances between the three dimensions of the intelligent career framework reduce work satisfaction, hinder career success and affect organisational performance. The practical contribution offers recommendations for human resource management practices in the public sector, including training, mentoring, transparency in performance evaluations and fostering trust.

Current models of organizational excellence are appropriate for the private organizations. It is evident that if an appropriate model is not adopted, the process of excellence in the organizations fails and some dimensions of the organization get affected by unpredictable damages. This research aims to identify an appropriate excellence model for public organizations.

First, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the excellence criteria and models. Second, the models were through an expert-oriented questionnaire, analyzed by the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique. Participants were experts in the two domains of excellence models and public sector management. A sample of 15 experts was selected using purposive sampling. In order to emphasize on reliability, 10 questionnaires were adopted for analysis.

The findings showed that the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model is the most appropriate model for excellence measurement in the public organizations based on the five selected indices.

The identification of a model for measuring organizational excellence for public sector can significantly contribute to existing literature on excellence measurement.