Search results

This paper aims to explore and develop knowledge about implementing and applying a quality management system (QMS) in the public sector.

A study was conducted including 16 qualitative in-depth interviews with 18 respondents, all working with QMSs in the Swedish public sector.

The study identified five main themes that are problematic in relation to the implementation of the statutory QMS in the public sector. The identified themes show that there exists a gap between theory and practice regarding how the statutory QMS needs to be implemented and applied.

Based on the analysis of the findings, the authors propose a model of core values and supporting elements for QMS in the public sector to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

The study identified problems when implementing statutory QMSs in the public sector and presents a model of improvement. Further research is needed regarding statutory QMS in the public sector.

This study examined factors influencing the organisational capabilities of the public sector for building information modelling (BIM) implementation in construction projects with a view to enhancing the performance of public sector projects.

The study adopted a quantitative descriptive analysis that was based on primary data. In total, 198 valid questionnaires obtained from construction professionals within the public sector provided primary quantitative data for the assessment. The respondents provided the responses on the factors which were identified through an in-depth synthesis of literature relating to organisational capabilities of the public sector. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The findings established that the potential of the public sector to deploy BIM in construction projects is greatly influenced by varying degree of organisational capability attributes with bureaucratic culture (mean score, MS = 3.37), structural complexity (MS = 3.17), lack of skilled and trained staff (MS = 3.12), personnel stability (MS = 3.11), staff cooperation (MS = 3.09) and political constraint (MS = 3.07) ranked highest. Through factor analysis, these and other highly influential factors were grouped into eight components, namely management-related, policy-related, technical-related, attitude-related, work structure-related, work ethic-related, decision-related and feedback-related factors. This grouping reflects the various components of organisational capability attributes which the public sector needs to efficiently develop to benefit from project management paradigm introduced by BIM.

This study provided information for improving specific capability attributes with respect to human and technical resources as well as other soft infrastructure to support BIM implementation on building projects by the public sector client. The study also serves as a guide for understanding BIM implementation by the public sector in similar socio-political and economic contexts.

This assessment indicates various degrees by which the organisational attributes of public sector have influenced the attributes' capability to implement BIM on construction projects. Thus, findings provide information on areas of improvement for better implementation of BIM by the public sector in project delivery.

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 objective of this study is to examine developments in the discursive practice of non-financial reporting in the public healthcare sector. In doing so, the authors investigate how the main reform foci of productivity and quality are represented, with a specific focus on the patient.

Drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA), the authors conduct a longitudinal study (2007–2018) of healthcare reporting foci across the five administrative regions responsible for public hospitals in Denmark. The study analyses sixty annual reports and draws on contemporary reform documents over this period. CDA enables a micro-textual analysis, combined with macro-insights and discussions on social practice.

The findings show complex webs of presentation strategies, but in particular two changes occur during the period. First, the patient is centred throughout but the framing changes from productivity and waiting lists to quality and dialogue. Second, in the first years, the regions present themselves as actively highlighting financial and quality concerns, which changes to a passive and indirect form of presentation steered by indicators and patient legislation enforced by central government. This enhances passivity and distance in healthcare regional non-financial reporting where the regions seek to conform to such demands. Simultaneously, however, the authors find a tendency to highlight very different local initiatives, which shows an attempt to go beyond a pure automatic mode of reporting found in earlier studies.

Responding to the literature on both healthcare and financial reporting, this study identifies novel links between micro-level texts and macro-level social practices, enabling insights into the potentially intertwined impacts of public-sector reporting. The authors offer insights into the complexity of the construction of non-financial reporting in the public sector, which has a wider impact and different intentions than private-sector reporting.

This study aims to investigate the relationship of employee motivation to team support, financial incentives and public sector motivation in various agencies under the Binh Dinh People's Committee in Vietnam. These agencies fulfil state management functions in many fields, such as investment, finance, construction, sports, culture and tourism.

This study applies the quantitative method to test team support, financial incentives and public service motivation (PSM) in relation to employee motivation in the public sector. The data are analysed using covariance-based structural equation modelling (SEM), with a sample size of 263 employees who work at provincial government agencies.

The study results show that team support, financial incentives and PSM have a positive influence on employee motivation in the public sector.

The findings provide theoretical evidence that team support, financial incentives and PSM are key predictors of employee motivation in the public sector in the context of an emerging economy. Consequently, the authors propose that managers in the public sector should motivate employees by communicating with employees about the employees' roles in improving the local people's lives to stimulate the PSM of employees. In addition, managers should always provide constructive feedback that recognises employees' achievements and pay bonuses based on job performance and successful projects to improve public service.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the most relevant literature related to the adoption of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) in the public sector in developed and developing countries, identifying the constraints and stimuli they represent in the implementation of the public accounting reform. It also presents future research proposals on the factors identified.

The methodology is based on a systematic review of the literature described by Moher et al. (2009). The final sample includes 90 academic papers published from 2000 to 2022.

The main findings indicate that there are differences between constraints and stimuli in the implementation of accounting standards between developed and developing countries. In terms of constraints, the main factor in developed countries is the lack of training, whereas in developing countries it is the limitation on financial resources. In addition, the results demonstrate that in developed countries the factors that most encourage the implementation of accounting standards are modernization and improvement of accounting, while in developing countries, encouragement comes mainly from external and internal pressure.

This study helps countries and institutions to learn from experience and better prepare for the accounting reforms of public administration that they will undertake. Managers of public organizations may be willing to make decisions in the adoption of IPSAS if they take into account the factors established herein.

This study helps countries and institutions to learn from the experience, better prepare for the public administration accounting reforms that they will undertake and add greater transparency in the accountability of public accounts to citizens.

In addition to previous studies, this study addresses a number of factors perceived by those involved in the implementation of IPSAS in developed and developing countries and provides a robust research agenda to pursue during the coming years, as there are several important unexplored questions that invite further research.

In public management research, the focus in the public value debate has been on public administration organizations’ broader societal outcomes. Public value describes how public administrations form a vital part of the social context in which people develop and grow. However, there has not yet been an analysis of how public administration contributes to happiness in society.

In this study, we empirically analyze the relationship between people’s happiness and the public value of public administration. Our approach is based on a unique Swiss survey dataset comprising 870 individuals.

We find a positive relationship between public administration’s public value and happiness. We also find preliminary evidence with a moderation analysis that the relationship between a value-creating public administration sector and self-reported happiness is stronger for public administration employees.

While correlation studies cannot claim causal explanations and common method bias may additionally limit any research in social science, we took a number of measures to mitigate related problem. We tested our model in two samples and took both several procedural techniques and a survey design minimizing common method bias.

The paper discusses implications for public sector performance measurement for public management and practitioners.

This study calls for a more positive view on the multiple functions public administration performs for society. After an era of critical voices, our study helps reclaim public administration as a positive force for society at large in times of grand challenges, such as climate crisis, demographics and digitization.

This study has highlighted the importance between public administration’s public value and happiness in Swiss public service organizations. The study also showed that an employment in the public administration contributes to the happiness of individuals and beyond to society.

Although the development of public organisations and the continual enhancement of public services depend on the creative behaviour of public employees, it is uncertain from earlier studies how and when inclusive leadership (IL) affects innovative behaviours (IB). This study aims to resolve the inconsistency in the literature by applying social exchange theory to examine the effect of inclusive leadership on employees’ innovative behaviour, while also examining the mediating role of work engagement and the moderating effect of psychological safety within this relationship.

The research model’s analysis draws from a data set of 200 employee–supervisor dyads. Data was collected from employees across diverse public sector organisations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The results demonstrate that IL indirectly (via WE) and directly has a positive influence on employees’ IBs. This influence is enhanced when employees feel safe and do not have to be concerned about negative consequences.

Our study highlights a less-explored sector, unveiling the motivations behind IB among public sector employees. Moreover, this study provides valuable insights within a non-Western context, offering a unique perspective on the intricate relationship between IL, PS, employee engagement and IBs in the UAE public sector.

While the potential for digital innovation (DI) to transform organizational practices is widely acknowledged in the information systems (IS) literature, there is very limited understanding on the socio-political nature of institutional interactions that determine DI and affect organizational practices in social cash organizations. Drawing on the neo-institutionalist vision, the purpose of the study is to examine the unique set of institutional exchanges that influence the transition to digital social cash payments that give rise to new institutional arrangements in social cash organizations.

The paper draws on an in-depth case study of a government social cash organization in Pakistan. Qualitative data were collected using 30 semi-structured interviews from key organizational members and stakeholders.

The results suggest that DI is determined by the novel intersections between the coercive (techno-economic, regulatory), normative (socio-organizational), mimetic (international) and covert power (political) forces. Hence, DI is not a technologically deterministic output, but rather a complex socio-political process enacted through dialogue, negotiation and conflict between institutional actors. Technology is socially embedded through the process of institutionalization that is coupled by the deinstitutionalization of established organizational practices for progressive transformation.

The research has implications for government social cash organizations especially in the Global South. Empirically, the authors gained rare access to, and support from a government-backed social cash organization in Pakistan (an understudied country in the Global South), which made the data and the consequent analyses even invaluable. This made the empirical contribution within this geographical setting even more worthy, since this case study has received little attention from indigenous scholars in the past. The empirical findings showcased a unique set of contextual factors that were subject to BISP and interpreted through an account of socio-cultural sensitivities.

The paper provides practical implications for policymakers and practitioners, emphasizing the need to address institutional challenges, including covert power, during the implementation of digitalization projects in the public sector. The paper has certain potential for inspiring future e-government related (or public sector focused) studies. The paper may guide both private and government policy-makers and practitioners in presenting how to overcome certain institutional challenges while planning and implementing large scale multi-stakeholder digitization projects in similar country contexts. So while there is scope of linking the digitization of public sector organizations to anti-corruption measures in other Global South countries, the paper may not be that straightforward with the private sector involvement.

The paper offers rich social insights on the institutional interchanges that occur between the social actors for the innovation of technology. Especially, the paper highlights the social-embeddedness nature of technology that underpins the institutionalization of new organizational practices. These have implications on how DI is viewed as a socio-political process of change.

This study contributes to neo-institutional theory by theorizing covert power as a political force that complements the neo-institutional framework. This force is subtle but also resistive for some political actors as the force shifts the equilibrium of power between different institutional actors. Furthermore, the paper presents the social and practical implications that guide policymakers and practitioners by taking into consideration the unique institutional challenges, such as covert power, while implementing large scale digital projects in the social cash sector.

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.