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Article
Publication date: 8 May 2018

Tuan Trong Luu, Chris Rowley and Khai Cong Dinh

When public employees demonstrate ambidexterity in serving customers, through efficiently providing customers with current public services as well as exploring ways to create…

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Abstract

Purpose

When public employees demonstrate ambidexterity in serving customers, through efficiently providing customers with current public services as well as exploring ways to create more, new public service solutions for customers, they may activate customers’ co-creating value with the public organization. The purpose of this research is to examine the role of public employees’ individual ambidexterity in promoting customer value co-creation. This research also seeks to investigate the levers behind individual ambidexterity, including ambidextrous leadership as an antecedent and public service motivation (PSM) as an enhancer for the leadership effect.

Design/methodology/approach

Public employees from public legal service agencies and customer companies they had served have been invited to participate and provide data for this research. The data collated have been analyzed using multilevel structural equation modeling approach.

Findings

Ambidextrous leadership was positively associated with frontline public employees’ individual ambidexterity. This positive association was enhanced by PSM among frontline public employees. In turn, frontline public employees’ individual ambidexterity demonstrated a positive link with customer value co-creation through the mediation mechanisms of customer–employee identification and customer–organization identification.

Originality/value

This research extends and marks the convergence between ambidexterity and customer value co-creation research streams.

Article
Publication date: 11 May 2015

Petri Virtanen and Jari Kaivo-oja

The purpose of this paper is to address questions related to public service delivery. Specifically, the authors note that existing research relating to public services is usually…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address questions related to public service delivery. Specifically, the authors note that existing research relating to public services is usually based on a number of oversimplifications, and that a novel conceptual understanding of change management practices related to public services is necessary. As such, the authors base the argument on the observation that the notion of public services has evolved into one of service systems, which call for new kinds of conceptual and theoretical approaches in order to understand this transformational shift.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is intended to be inherently interdisciplinary – meaning that the authors discuss systemic governance challenges in a specific context (public service) relating this notion to a body of literature that is relevant to this context, though one which has not previously been used in this way (e.g. Modern Systems Theory, New Public Management and New Public Governance). This paper highlights the ongoing discussion on service-dominant logic and links these discussions to the framework of public services. The notion of public services is inherently under-theorised in the service science literature and thus presents a unique and important area for future inquiry.

Findings

The paper provides three main conclusions. The first concerns the new understanding of public services as an embedded part of the service economy when looking at service delivery from the organisational viewpoint – and also from the viewpoint of service users. Public service systems operate in a world of open systems which are more or less difficult to govern and manage. Second, the emergent systemic governance changes will be both pervasive and profound. These changes cannot, however, be understood only in economic terms; only by adopting a wider societal standpoint can they be fully appreciated. Such changes include, for instance, gene technology, robotics, informatics and nanotechnology and they cover various technological fields. Third, systemic adaptability requires new leadership and management styles. Future governance, leadership and management models must therefore be agile and adaptive to complex changes.

Practical implications

Based on this paper, potential future research topics include, analysing the role of public services as a delivery mechanism for public policies from the perspective of the coherence of public policies, to leadership models, forecasting methods and decision-making in service systems, the capacity of public service systems to adapt to systemic governance challenges, co-ordination in service organisations and service systems, service delivery mechanisms adopted at the service organisation level, touch-points between service staff and service users and the accountability functions of public service systems.

Originality/value

Public service systems clearly face new challenges, challenges that are not adequately addressed by the currently dominant paradigmatic approaches such as NPM and New Public Governance. The connection between the challenges posed by systemic governance and their impact on public service systems has not been adequately analysed thus far, either theoretically or empirically.

Details

International Journal of Public Leadership, vol. 11 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4929

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 2005

Bob Sang

This paper is about purpose… or, rather, the confusion of purposes. If we are to continue to invest in ‘leadership development’ in public services, what's the reason? How will we…

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Abstract

This paper is about purpose… or, rather, the confusion of purposes. If we are to continue to invest in ‘leadership development’ in public services, what's the reason? How will we know, in respect of outcomes, that spending money on selected individuals will result in public value?‘Value for money’, ‘best value’, ‘service excellence’, ‘patient/client‐centred’; the phrases spill out comfortingly, especially at leadership conferences or on management and professional development programmes. Are these mere words, or part of something big and important? Are they jargon and tokenism, or a positive, meaningful set of aspirations and goals that inform public leadership at the beginning of the 21st Century? ‘Yes’ and ‘Yes’.

Details

International Journal of Leadership in Public Services, vol. 1 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9886

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 23 April 2018

John Halligan

Australia is one of the Anglophone countries that readily adapted to a public management approach. Reforms since the 1980s have shown remarkable breadth, longevity and

Abstract

Australia is one of the Anglophone countries that readily adapted to a public management approach. Reforms since the 1980s have shown remarkable breadth, longevity and significance. The reforms acknowledge failure of existing approaches and the need to address management deficiencies, fiscal stress and increased complexity. This chapter discusses four cases, reflecting leadership from core agencies as well as executives. Financial management reform was initially led by Finance, and then a broader agenda was pursued through a senior management committee under the Department of the Prime. However, devolution of responsibilities from central agencies did not appear to make managers more accountable. Finance was weakened by devolution and unable to exercise appropriate leadership, and agencies did not integrate performance management reform with internal planning processes. By contrast, a one-stop shopping service for welfare was successful, although later folded in the Department of Human Services. DPMC also launched reform process in the 2010s, although not a priority of the prime minister, some recommendations, such as leadership development and talent management, were implemented that increased public service capacity. The case of Australia shows that in spite of variable political support and leadership by central agencies, a relatively stable environment (governments serving multiple terms) allowed implementation to proceed in the mid-term, including incentives to ensure responsiveness at department levels.

Details

Leadership and Public Sector Reform in Asia
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-309-0

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 November 2017

Luu Trong Tuan and Vo Thanh Thao

Public service failures need to be recovered to sustain citizen satisfaction with public services. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of charismatic leadership

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Abstract

Purpose

Public service failures need to be recovered to sustain citizen satisfaction with public services. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of charismatic leadership in leveraging public service recovery performance (PSRP) as well as a moderated mediation mechanism underlying such an effect.

Design/methodology/approach

Public employees and their managers from local governments were recruited to provide the data for this research. Data analysis was conducted through structural equation modeling.

Findings

From the research results, charismatic leadership demonstrated the positive association with PSRP via public service motivation (PSM) as a mediator. Besides, serving culture was also found to play a moderating role to strengthen the positive links between charismatic leadership and PSRP as well as PSM.

Originality/value

The research model adds further insights into charismatic leadership and service recovery knowledge through the relationship between these two concepts as well as a moderated mediation mechanism underpinning this relationship.

Details

Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 36 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-4503

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 November 2010

Julian Powe

This article describes how effective public service leaders are choosing to lead in exceptionally challenging circumstances. It outlines the current crucible of demand for…

Abstract

This article describes how effective public service leaders are choosing to lead in exceptionally challenging circumstances. It outlines the current crucible of demand for excellent services and significant cost reduction and radical organisational change. At its core, it shows how some public service leaders are making great progress by making five key choices ‐ demonstrating bold, engaging and collaborative leadership; majoring on the transformational not transactional elements of change; not letting the inevitable uncertainties get in the way of intense engagement of their people; making tough calls on priorities; and steering their leadership teams and broader leadership communities towards genuine collaboration and connectedness.The article also identifies six leadership frames that public service leaders are drawing on: confidence; safe uncertainty(Mason, 1983); employee engagement; trustworthy leadership; collective, mutually supportive leadership; and appreciative, transformational choices.

Details

International Journal of Leadership in Public Services, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9886

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 5 October 2023

Lord Michael German OBE

This chapter examines how elected politicians exercise their role as leaders (managers) of public services by employing three concepts: accountability, trust and authenticity…

Abstract

This chapter examines how elected politicians exercise their role as leaders (managers) of public services by employing three concepts: accountability, trust and authenticity. Political leaders have an obligation to their electors and the public services that they lead. Lord German examines this dual accountability. He maintains that the mediation of political power and leadership through interaction with a permanent civil service offers a rich field for interdisciplinary research. He suggests that authenticity in the political sphere has two dimensions which may not align: political authenticity and organisational authenticity. Lord German argues that both of these offer potential for research and the reinterpretation of authenticity in the political arena.

Book part
Publication date: 23 May 2016

Rory Shand and Mark Hyde

Is public entrepreneurship an oxymoron? Why and how is enterprise/entrepreneurship important for public service delivery? The growing role of enterprise within the public sector…

Abstract

Purpose

Is public entrepreneurship an oxymoron? Why and how is enterprise/entrepreneurship important for public service delivery? The growing role of enterprise within the public sector has been the subject of much recent debate and policy focus, surrounding issues such as public value, meeting targets, and the need for innovation across public services by policy makers and managers given rapid reduction of budgets in this sector. This chapter reflects on these developments and examines the effects that an enterprise focus in the public services has in terms of vocation. Drawing on the Weberian notion of vocation (1941) in politics and the sciences, what does enterprise mean for the notion of public service? Certainly, historically the public services have enjoyed a strong vocational drive from its workforce, resulting in employee loyalty, and links with communities as well as higher levels of public trust than politicians or bankers, for example. The chapter draws on examples from education, public services and localism, all of which have seen to some degree the parachuting of managers in from the private sector or the aping of these behaviours and cultures in search of more entrepreneurial delivery. Drawing on the Weberian framework of bureaucracy and vocation, the chapter examines the changing role of public service and notions of community and duty, arguably damaged by failures of the Big Society agenda (Shand & Higman, 2014; Smith, 2010) and examines if and how enterprise can maintain the ethos of public service and vocational areas of the public sector in the enduring and pressurised new public management environment of meeting targets and value metrics.

Methodology/approach

The chapter adopts a Weberian approach in terms of vocation, and applies this concept to the notion of enterprise across the public services. The vocation approach in the public services, drawing upon Weber’s discussion of politics and science, underpins our discussion in this chapter as we argue that the role of innovation needs to be more widely applied and appreciated in the public services.

Findings

The chapter finds that examples of innovative behaviour and delivery are evident across the public services, but these need to be understood within the context of culture, values and ethos. These underpinning goals, across several frontline and first respondent public services particularly, are driven by dedication to duty and having to respond to rapid changes in targets, ‘customer’ service, and most recently, austerity. These responses need to be seen as innovative traits, linked to leadership and the Weberian notion of vocation.

Practical implications

The chapter raises several issues driven by failures or mistrust in the practical delivery and underpinning ethos of the public services. The focus on ethos has direct implications for both leadership within the public services and how these leaders’ roles and actions are interpreted by sections of wider society such as the media or the public. Notions of public trust are touched upon in the chapter, which highlight the role of key public services as different from the activities of politicians and bankers, areas which have become central to growing attitudes of mistrust among the public. The notion of vocation in the chapter is applicable to the practical arena as the role of innovation in public service needs to be reconsidered. The chapter suggests that, to date, the idea of innovation in public services has been driven by private sector innovation, and this has led to far too narrow an appreciation of what we term innovation within and across the public services.

Originality/value

This chapter unites debates around trust and innovation in the public and private sectors with the Weberian ideal of vocation, drawing upon key public services and their leadership and delivery to argue that we need to understand the drivers and motivating ethos behind the public services when we consider the role of innovation and indeed how we understand and apply this term within public service delivery.

Details

New Perspectives on Research, Policy & Practice in Public Entrepreneurship
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-821-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 January 2024

Achakorn Wongpreedee and Tatchalerm Sudhipongpracha

Village health volunteers are community health volunteers in Thailand that have helped the government deliver public health services for many years, particularly during the…

Abstract

Purpose

Village health volunteers are community health volunteers in Thailand that have helped the government deliver public health services for many years, particularly during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Though labeled as “volunteers,” the village health volunteers are recruited, trained and supervised in a manner similar to how a government agency recruits, trains and supervises its street-level bureaucrats (SLBs). This study examines the two factors that affect how these street-level quasi-bureaucrats use their professional discretion: transformational leadership and public service motivation (PSM). Transformational leadership means a leadership style that develops, shares and sustains a vision to elevate SLBs to higher levels of performance, while PSM is defined as an SLB’s predisposition to make a difference by working in the public sector with a sense of calling. This study attempts to analyze the mediating role of psychological empowerment in the relationship between transformational leadership, PSM and professional discretion.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a three-wave survey-based quantitative method to avoid common method biases. This method provides evidence gathered from 105 subdistrict health promotion hospitals and 798 village health volunteers (VHVs) in five provinces in Thailand.

Findings

PSM and transformational leadership influence the village health volunteers' use of professional discretion indirectly through the psychological empowerment mechanisms that make them feel positive toward their village health volunteer role and responsibility. The authors' findings suggest that the hospital directors' transformational leadership induces the village health volunteers' use of professional discretion by making them feel competent to do their work and feel fulfilled and valuable about their work. Similarly, the village health volunteers' PSM leads them to use professional discretion by making them feel fulfilled and valuable and by convincing them of the social and community impact of their work.

Research limitations/implications

While existing research focuses on VHVs' role in alleviating capacity constraints on the health care system, this study revealed an equally important role played by hospital directors. These directors' transformational leadership was instrumental in enhancing VHVs' psychological empowerment – particularly their perceptions of the meaning of their work and their competence – that ultimately enabled them to use professional discretion in their work. This study also highlighted the importance of VHVs' PSM, which leads to their use of professional discretion via the meaning and impact dimensions of psychological empowerment. Based on this study, PSM should also be incorporated into the community health volunteers' recruitment criteria. Also, public health agencies should consider including transformational leadership in the hospital directors' training programs and their promotion criteria.

Practical implications

As VHVs' high-PSM level was found to enhance their professional discretion, the process of recruiting ordinary citizens to serve as community health volunteers should incorporate assessment of the candidates' PSM. Also, the Ministry of Public Health should design and assign tasks that citizen volunteers, particularly VHVs, consider meaningful and at which they feel competent.

Social implications

Aside from technical training, directors of the subdistrict health promotion hospitals should regularly receive soft skill training (i.e. leadership training) and transformational leadership characteristics should be included in the government criteria for promotion.

Originality/value

While past research has examined the impact of other leadership styles on psychological empowerment, this study took a further step by examining the mediating effects of psychological empowerment on the relationship between transformational leadership and professional discretion among VHVs. The authors analyzed the mechanism linking PSM to the VHVs' professional discretion. In addition, by examining the relative importance of different dimensions of psychological empowerment, this study offers a nuanced understanding of the psychological processes by which transformational leadership and PSM shape the SLBs' use of professional discretion in their work.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 23 April 2018

Loo-See Beh

This chapter highlights how Malaysia has experienced a successful economy through different stages since independence. The development, administration and institution-building…

Abstract

This chapter highlights how Malaysia has experienced a successful economy through different stages since independence. The development, administration and institution-building phase was followed by reform initiatives throughout the years. Master Industrial Plans, 5-year development plans and other mid-term plans are used, which include governance and performance management reform. Today, public service reform continues to evolve with emphasis on better services, e-government and one-stop clearance centres. Under the Government Transformation Programme launched in 2010, seven National Key Results Areas have been identified, e.g., reducing crime, fighting corruption, improving education, and raising living standards of low-income households. Within this, political transformation programme, digital transformation programme, community transformation programme and social transformation programme have been created that advance public sector reforms. This chapter shows that while states and leaders remain powerful actors, leaders recognise a need to reform and overcome unethical and inefficient bureaucratic dysfunctions, or keep them at a minimum. Leaders manage such problems by using transparency to address problems of vested interests, stringent audits and punishing civil servants for criminal breaches of trust, removal of ministerial control over government-linked companies and removing resisting actors. Yet, more reforms in shepherding public service renewal are needed in sustaining reforms and reputations of public institutions. The author calls for increased values-based leadership that is inclusive at the highest levels.

Details

Leadership and Public Sector Reform in Asia
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-309-0

Keywords

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