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The purpose of this paper is to explore how an accounting association and its key members define, control, and claim their knowledge; adopt a closure and/or openness policy to enhance their status/influence; and respond to structural/institutional forces from international organisations and/or the state in a particular historical context, such as a globalised/neo-liberalised setting.

The authors draw on Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical tools (field, capital, habitus, and doxa) to understand how public sector accrual accounting was defined, and how the Korean Association for Government Accounting was formed and represented as a group with public sector accounting expertise. The research context was the implementation of accrual accounting in South Korea between 1997/1998, when the Asian financial crisis broke out, and 2006/2007, when accrual accounting was enforced by legislation. The authors interviewed social actors recognised as public sector accounting experts, in addition to examining related documents such as articles in academic journals, newsletters, invitations, membership forms, newspaper articles, and curricula vitae.

The authors found that the key founders of KAGA included some public administration professors, who advocated public sector accrual accounting via civil society groups immediately after Korea applied to the International Monetary Fund for bailout loans and a new government was formed in 1997/1998. In conjunction with public servants, they defined and designed public sector accrual accounting as a measure of public sector reform and as a part of the broader government budget process, rather than as an accounting initiative. They also co-opted accounting professors and CPA-qualified accountants through their personal connections, based on shared educational backgrounds, to represent the association as a public sector accounting experts’ group.

These findings suggest that the study of the accounting profession cannot be restricted to a focus on professional accounting associations and that accounting knowledge can be acquired by non-accountants. Therefore, the authors argue that the relationship between accounting knowledge, institutional forms, and key actors’ strategies is rich and multifaceted.

The purpose of this study is to identify the practical implications of Lean, Six Sigma (SS) and Lean SS (LSS) in the public administration sector. Determining the key themes of these practical implications is also an aim of the present study.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted based on the databases of six well-known academic publishers, namely, Emerald, Elsevier/Science Direct, Springer Link, Taylor and Francis, Sage and Willey online. The review revealed 56 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2004 and 2020. The “affinity diagram” was applied to group the practical implications of Lean, SS and LSS into logical themes.

A plethora of practical implications of Lean, SS and LSS in the public administration sector are identified in the literature, examples of which are analytically presented. The analysis showed that the practical implications identified can be grouped into 14 meaningful themes, and these themes in turn into categories, formulating thus, a conceptual framework. The key themes that are supported in the literature by most references are the following: human factors involved in Lean/SS/LSS, Lean/SS/LSS benefits and Lean/SS/LSS implementation issues.

Although several databases were used, some publishers might have been missed out in this SLR. The subjectivity in applying the “affinity diagram” is also a limitation of this study. Based on these limitations, further literature review studies can be designed.

Twofold implications arise from the present study, meaning from the practitioner and the academic perspective. The practical implications identified as well as their meaningful themes revealed constitute useful guidelines for managers and decision-makers wishing to implement Lean/SS/LSS in the public administration sector and bridge their knowledge gap between theory and practice. Moreover, all the practical dimensions of Lean/SS/LSS included in the comprehensive conceptual framework formulated could serve as research avenues for academics.

The application of Lean/SS/LSS in the public sector has not been widely reviewed, while the stream of literature focuses on limited issues (critical success factors, benefits, challenges, etc.). Moreover, SLRs in services and specifically in the public administration sector are fewer. Stimulated by this gap and the suggestions of other researchers for future studies, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first SLR which analyzes the practical implications of Lean/SS/LSS in the public administration sector and determines their key themes.

This paper aims to describe and explain women's labor participation in the public sector, particularly at the local level. The paper analyses the representation of women employees in the public sector through a case study of a city council in a mid-sized Spanish city. The authors delve into the extent of gender labor discrimination in public administration, exploring a diversity of situations, experiences, and perceptions of women workers in female, neutral, and male-dominated areas in the local administration.

The authors have applied a combined methodology of quantitative analysis based on an exhaustive analysis of the list of job posts, and qualitative analysis from the narratives of women workers in biographical interviews, in women-dominated, neutral and male-dominated areas.

The authors conclude by providing a clear description of women's representation in local administration. Despite the institutional efforts in applying gender equality norms and public policies in administration, employment and labor market, this article shows the persistent inequality in employment within the administration. The paper demonstrates that public administrations can be seen as gender regimes that tend to reproduce inequality by formal and informal dynamics. This inequality gender reproduction in a supposedly gender-neutral administration reflects discrimination in a labor market. The paper details phenomena relating to horizontal occupational segregation, glass ceilings, sticky floors, and the undervaluing of women's work, among other phenomena.

The administration should consider two essential factors that endanger gender equality: (1) the demonstrated regression of gender mainstreaming and the effects on women's employment as a consequence of the crisis, and (2) neoliberal governments and extreme right-wing parties (or neoliberal governments and extreme right-wing parties' support, as is the case with the current Andalusian regional government), whose agenda includes the fight against what neoliberal governments and extreme right-wing parties call “gender ideology”.

The gap between the effectiveness of gender legislation and actual working practices within the administration has been highlighted. This fact should be a wake-up call for the administrations to strictly comply with gender legislation, given that local administrations are the closest to the citizens. Future research should focus on changes to detect any regression and to prevent losing the improvements already achieved, which can still be very much strengthened.

This article helps to fill the gap in the literature on gender discrimination in the labor market, which often omits the public sector, especially in local administration, which is the closest administrative structure to citizenship respecting public policies. The article contributes to highlighting the need for an egalitarian labor market in order to achieve optimal performance, commitment and efficiency in egalitarian labor relations in local administration.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect various pathways for public sector accounting and accountability research in a post-new public management (NPM) context.

The paper first discusses the relationship between NPM and public sector accounting research. It then explores the possible stimuli that inter-disciplinary accounting scholars may derive from recent public administration studies, public policy and societal trends, highlighting possible ways to extend public sector accounting research and strengthen dialogue with other disciplines.

NPM may have represented a golden age, but also a “golden cage,” for the development of public sector accounting research. The paper reflects possible ways out of this golden cage, discussing future avenues for public sector accounting research. In doing so, it highlights the opportunities offered by re-considering the “public” side of accounting research and shifting the attention from the public sector, seen as a context for public sector accounting research, to publicness, as a concept central to such research.

The paper calls for stronger engagement with contemporary developments in public administration and policy. This could be achieved by looking at how public sector accounting accounts for, but also impacts on, issues of wider societal relevance, such as co-production and hybridization of public services, austerity, crises and wicked problems, the creation and maintenance of public value and democratic participation.

In Europe, the alignment of national public administration policies and practices to EU directions is regarded as a key factor in the process of integration. Administrative convergence within European public administration systems places new demands on human resource managers in every member state. Seeks to show that Greek public administration is aiming to investigate the organizational competencies needed for the successful alignment of the Greek civil service with EU directions.

The approach is survey research conducted within Greek public administration. The STAIR (strategy, targets, assignment, implementation, results) model has been used as the appropriate performance management framework.

Suggests that the HRM role in the contemporary public sector environment is to develop a strategic performance management framework for changing performance at organizational level and make human resources active drivers of this process.The results reveal that convergence with EU policies draws heavily on how human resource executives can manage the following three soft organizational capabilities: competence, commitment and continuity – the STAIR model's 3“Cs”.

Contributes to the literature on directions for public sector management in Greece.

The purpose of this paper is to stimulate interest in the use of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF), a self-evaluation quality tool for the public sector, to disseminate relevant experiences from CAF implementation in Europe, to offer ideas about CAF optimization and to provide a basis and direction for further improvement.

The methodology that is followed in the paper is based on the study of best practices (BP) of CAF implementation in European public administrations. The BP were selected in order to cover a wide range of political fields and to prove that CAF can be used by organizations in all parts of the public sector with different characteristics of size and structure.

Studying relevant examples leads to the conclusion that effective CAF implementation can improve the performance of public administration and help establish a quality philosophy. The paper shows that CAF is a tool that can be easily modified and adapted to the organizations' special needs and characteristics.

The study of the selected cases and the related information that is presented in this paper helps to disseminate relevant experiences from CAF implementation in Europe. It offers managers of the public sector ideas and helps on how to implement the CAF model, by providing real examples of organizations that have implemented it. It also helps them understand the benefits from CAF implementation, as well as the obstacles and barriers that may be faced, in order to be better prepared for its successful implementation.

The value of this paper lies in the identification and presentation of several ideas and tools which have been successfully developed by European organizations and may as well be implemented by others. Ideas about modifying CAF and adjusting it into the uniqueness of every organization can be obtained only through careful study and analysis of its implementation.

The subject of innovation in public service has been gaining attention in Brazilian scientific practice and production. This paper aims to identify national studies on innovation in public administration and increase the level of knowledge about the subject, as well as to inspire new research and promote advances in theoretical and practical knowledge about innovation in the public sector.

The present study has a descriptive purpose, quantitative nature and was performed through a bibliometric study based on the protocol proposed by Cronin et al. (2008). Documentary data were collected from scientific articles, and quantitative techniques for descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results. Were selected Brazilian scientific journals classified with Qualis equal to or higher than B1, in the area of Public Administration and Business, Accounting and Tourism, in the quadrennium 2013-2016; a total of 164 journals searched.

The results herein indicate a research gap that should be filled by more theoretical studies. Also, they point to the need for multimethod research studies that promote the evaluation of product and process innovation, especially related to the phases of invention and implementation.

Few studies have covered public administration and, especially, innovation reviews; none of these studies focused on innovation in the Brazilian public sector, as proposed by this research; the period of analysis and coverage of journals used as search criteria also differ from other reviews in the area of innovation and public sector.

The purpose of this paper is to show the positive effects of a cross-sector collaboration between public administration and third sector in the Basque Country. Solidarity within European society is a concern increasingly addressed from broader perspectives in broader territories. Civil society involvement has also reached public administrations. The European Commission H2020 project, SOLIDUS Solidarity in European societies: empowerment, social justice and citizenship (2016–2018), responds to the need to build a “renewed” Europe after the economic crisis, addressing social areas as employment, education, housing, health, civic engagement.

The communicative methodology (CM) has been used in this research paper, including qualitative fieldwork involving representatives of third-sector organizations. The CM already showed its impact on society, through several research projects in which it has been applied. CM is based on including stakeholders’ voices into research from the initial design until the end, responding their needs from research evidence. Thus, it contributes to put in common the knowledge of experts and stakeholders.

Searching for successful practices of social innovation, this paper analyzed which elements enable such relationships between public administration and third-sector organizations to promote successful public policies. Even some risks and barriers have been highlighted, the authors’ specific aim focuses on the positive aspects. Therefore, it shows drivers for a most efficient way of public management, which could potentially be extrapolated to other contexts. Some of these drivers are the following: support and collaboration between sectors, institutional trust, co-creation, active participation of the third sector, solidarity and commitment, efficient social policies and workers’ professionalization.

This paper contributes to returning to institutions and society the atmosphere of trust that the crisis context has damaged. The Basque Countries’ comprehensive model of action proves to attend citizenship contributing to a better society, from engaging a successful collaboration across sectors. The creation of two models of collaboration helps to progress in the positive interaction between the third sector and government. This paper is also original because it gives voice to people directly involved on the field and uses their knowledge to describe drivers and assess collaboration and participation of the third sector.

The peer review history for this paper is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-06-2019-0378

Based on a three‐level digital preservation framework, the purpose of this paper is to suggest a solution for long‐term digital preservation for the public administration sector, in the form of a centralised intermediate repository, on the basis of the concept of cloud computing.

By means of a thorough review of the literature in this area and an analysis of the current state of the art, the paper investigates a three‐level digital preservation framework with a focus on the public sector. It cross‐links this framework with the cloud computing concept, in order to propose an appropriate solution.

The mapping of six factors of digital preservation to three levels of digital preservation shows that using appropriate steps supported by suitable strategies and policies enables the public administration sector to take advantage of modern information technology and solve the demanding and critical problem of digital preservation.

The paper suggests an organisational and technological solution in the form of a centralised digital preservation repository within a cloud computing framework, to aid both organisations of the public sector which deal with active life cycle document phases and archives and libraries which deal with passive phases of documents and records.

The paper addresses the difficulties of digital preservation implementation in the public administration sector. The findings indicate that while developing and implementing digital preservation, the public administration sector should formulate common policies and solutions based on the suggested results of this paper and, in doing so, maximise the benefits of current technologies.

The pillars of public administration rest on balancing the triumvirate of traditions, managerial, political, and legal, in developing and implementing public policy. The normative concept of leadership has consistently surfaced as an important dimension in the policy process. However, scholarship exploring the importance and relevance of leadership in public administration has been sporadic and limited in scope. This article elucidates the disconnect between the study of leadership and public administration. To validate the relevance of leadership in public administration, future empirical studies must embrace the long-view, heuristic inquiry, and the lifecycle of leadership.