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This study draws parallels between the Major and Johnson eras to reclaim a discursive space beyond the media and political battlefields to examine long-term systemic failure of government PR.

As part of a wider study into government communications from 1979 to date, this paper draws on evidence from government archives from the 1990s, as well as contemporary accounts, official documents, media accounts, memoirs and biographies, to examine the PR record of two Conservative administrations divided by three decades.

News management during the Major premiership is worth serious scrutiny, not just as an interlude between two media-friendly Prime Ministers, Thatcher and Blair, but in comparison to Boris Johnson's struggle to contain the news narrative between 2019 and 2022. Both administrations experienced terminal reputational crises during their closing years but their means of managing the news were counter-productive and damaging to public trust (65).

Does this failure in public communication illustrate a systemic dysfunction in government-media relations and, if so, what is the role of government PR in these circumstances?

This article uses a comparison between fixed and moving variables associated with two very different administrations to identify the causes of ongoing systemic failure in government communication.

Scholars have pointed out the need for improvement and refinement in public management research, also depending on the role of public administration for sustainable development. Because government organizations employ a substantial portion of the workforce, management practices in the public sector are critical areas for designing, implementing and delivering policies that can achieve the goals set forth in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. For these purposes, and in implementation of the Next Generation EU (NGEU) programme, Italy recently launched an ambitious National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) which includes, among other things, upskilling goals for staff employed, following the modernization process that has involved the Italian public sector in the last decades, with the Decree n. 150/2009. Aiming both to understand the extent of the application of the reform and to answer some basic questions (why, what and how) concerning Individual Performance Appraisal Systems (IPAS), we conducted a content analysis on the 220 documents already produced by the Italian Ministries. The study has been conducted in two different steps of the reform process and provides solid evidence of the reforms' effects on designing and implementing individual performance systems. The analyzed documents reveal no longer-term vision in implementing the IPAS that involves some critical performance management utilities such as training, development, fair pay and deployment of employees, raising new questions about a sustainable approach to the individual performance management process even in public organizations.

The study seeks to analyze concepts of “career grades” and “job grading,” to highlight their importance and objectives for the efficiency of administrative systems. In addition, it identifies the international standards that can be used to draw grading systems. It explores the most important types of grade structures. It also clarifies grading systems in the Egyptian administrative system. It indicates some methods that can be considered a form of career progression.

The study employs descriptive, analytical, as well as, legal approaches; it analyzes the information given in the study in terms of relevant legal texts.

The study identifies precise definitions of both career grades and job grading, referring to these concepts in the Egyptian administrative system. It also suggests that there is no ideal hierarchy to be applied in all administrative systems. Therefore, the study provides some criteria that help to form the appropriate grade structure for each system.

The study analyses some literature on “job grading,” its objectives, its criteria and its main types, presenting an integrated framework that can be used to develop career-structure systems. Finally, the study identifies some methods that can be considered as a means of grading.

This chapter focusses on entrepreneurship and policies of public services in England, specifically leisure centre provision in the UK during the late twentieth century. The central role played by local authorities in sport provision was complimented by an increasing cadre of leisure sector professionals and with increasing architectural interest in the provision of leisure. The institutional context was framed by the Sports Development Council (SDC) after 1965 together with the broader action of local authorities who aimed to provide their ratepayers with access to improved sport and leisure services. The resulting leisure centres were perhaps a way to signal the prestige of local authorities but were expensive investments. The capability of local authorities was boosted by the local government reforms of the 1970s, which merged districts, pooling their resources. The possibility of support from private capital and after 1973 from the European Economic Community (EEC) also provided new opportunities for the organizational form. Eventually, there was a shift in emphasis from the provision of organized sport to that of more individualized and commercialized “leisure” as a product. Whether or not this achieved the long-term aims of central government, to improve access to sport and to tackle urban challenges, remains questionable. However, the story of leisure provision in the UK remains one of remarkable public sector entrepreneurship within an institutional context.

Concerns regarding the dysfunctional behaviours of public officials have sparked renewed interest in public service ethics and spirituality. While national and organizational systems have been established to eliminate dysfunctional behaviours such as corruption, sexual harassment and misuse of confidential information, the practice continues to have a demoralizing impact on developing countries. The study aims to intend to investigate the empirical relation between the application of spirituality and ethics in reducting dysfunctional behaviours within Ghana's Public Sector.

The study conducted a qualitative case analysis that utilized 28 semi-structured interviews and four focus groups. Interviews and group discussions with public sector staff, managers and policymakers were used to collect qualitative data. This approach facilitated an in-depth investigation into their views on dysfunctional actions and the possible impact of workplace spirituality and ethics in the Ghanaian public service.

The study uncovered a persistent recurrence of dysfunctional behaviours, such as fraudulent activities, resource misuse, unofficial work and inappropriate use of official time. There was uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of integrating ethics and spirituality to curtail dysfunctional behaviours. Nevertheless, the results supported adopting spiritual and ethical rejuvenation in the public service as a universal solution to overcome these behaviours.

This study enhances comprehension of dysfunctional behaviours in Ghana's public service by providing insights into how spirituality and ethics can transform it. The potentials of workplace spirituality and ethics can lead to a strong public service that embodies accountability, integrity and effectiveness, thereby serving as a pivotal device for Ghana's holistic advancement.

Competency frameworks can support public procurement capacity development and performance. However, literature on connecting professionalisation with national procurement contexts is limited. This paper aims to explain and conceptualise recent Romanian experience with developing bespoke competency frameworks at national level for public procurement that reflect the features of the Romanian public procurement system. The approach used could guide in broad-brush, mutatis mutandis, other (national) public procurement systems with comparable features, mainly those seeking a shift from a rather administrative function of public procurement towards a strategic function.

This case study reflects on the methodology used for analysing the Romanian public procurement environment in EU context to develop bespoke professionalisation instruments, and on ways to integrate competency management approaches in Romanian public procurement culture. That methodological mix has been mainly qualitative and constructionist, within an applied research approach. It combined desk research with empirical research and included legal research in this context.

A principled, methodological and pragmatic approach tailored to the procurement environment in question is essential for developing competency frameworks capable to resonate to and address the specific practical needs of that procurement system.

Competency frameworks can uphold societal objectives through public procurement.

Using valuable insights into the development of the Romanian public procurement competency frameworks, the paper provides a conceptual framework for instilling competency management approaches to public procurement professional development where the latter is governed by a rather distinct, public administration, paradigm. This conceptual framework can guide other public procurement systems and stimulate further research.

Educators are recognized as key agents of social change, responsible for shaping future citizens. Beyond imparting knowledge, teachers are crucial in addressing societal challenges such as sustainability, democracy and social equality. This study aims to investigate the attitudes of Jewish and Arab students toward democratic values and how they perceive their role as educators in a multicultural society.

This study explores the attitudes of majority and minority group students in an Israeli teacher training college towards realizing democratic values and promoting shared citizenship. The sample included 382 Jewish and Arab students, who answered a questionnaire about attitudes regarding education for democracy and shared society, and their perception of their role in promoting this education.

The investigation delves into students’ civic perceptions, shedding light on the moderate and pluralistic stances held by both Jewish and Arab students. They advocate for cross-cultural exposure and interaction, with Jewish students demonstrating slightly more moderate views than the prevailing norms in Israeli society. Interestingly, Jewish students exhibited a willingness to engage in discussions on conflictual topics, whereas Arab students tended to avoid them.

This study underscores the potential of teacher training colleges in shaping the upcoming generation of educators as advocates of tolerance, and democracy, and promoters of a shared society.

This research gains heightened relevance in a contemporary landscape where numerous nations, especially those comprising diverse cultures, grapple with surges of nationalism that threaten democratic values. Teacher training colleges hold the key to forging a more harmonious future by becoming beacons of transformative pedagogy. These institutions can shape a new generation of educators who are poised to catalyze authentic social change.

The unsustainable public debt of most African economies adversely affects their economic growth and stability. This study aims to explore the influence of cross-country indicators of governance from African countries on public debt accumulation.

The study deployed a quantitative research design technique. Secondary data was used in this study. The frequency of the data is annual, and it is available from 1996 to 2022 for 48 countries in Africa. The study deployed the system generalized method of moments for the estimation.

The study finds that countries with high regulatory quality standards, control corruption and ensure effective governance accumulate less government debt while countries that abide by the rule of law instead accumulate more government debt. The study also finds that economic growth and government revenue reduce government gross debt while government expenditure and investments increase public debt.

Due to data unavailability, other factors which are likely to influence government debt accumulation were not included in the study as control variables. This is the limitation of the study.

African governments should strive to maintain high regulatory quality standards through the formulation and implementation of sound policies and regulations that permit and promote private sector development, and ensure quality and accountability of public and civil services. Governments are also urged to control corruption and enact good laws so that the enforcement of these laws will not worsen the risk of becoming debt-distressed.

Recent studies on governance and public debt were focused on the Arabian Gulf countries, countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and a combination of high and low-income countries. This study scrutinizes exclusively the effects of the quality of governance indicators on public debt accumulation, in the context of Africa.

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.

This paper aims to explore financial anxiety and generalized anxiety as the serial mediators linking perceived organizational support (POS) to career commitment.

Data were collected from 388 managerial and nonmanagerial employees in diverse service areas, such as restaurants, airlines and hotels in Turkey. The direct and mediating effects were tested via the PROCESS macro.

Financial anxiety partly mediates the impact of POS on career commitment. The findings further reveal that financial anxiety and generalized anxiety serially mediate the effect of POS on career commitment.

Management should work with mentors to provide employees with psychosocial support during the COVID-19 pandemic. When employees perceive that the firm really cares about them and values their contribution during these challenging days, they display lower anxiety and higher career commitment. Management should also retain employees who are high on career commitment because such employees possess a sense of calling and are unlikely to quit. These implications may not be considered new. However, management would need such employees concerning the firm’s performance recovery after COVID-19.

Workers in the service industries suffer from financial and generalized anxieties and display reduced career commitment during COVID-19. However, little is known about the antecedents and outcomes of financial anxiety among hospitality and tourism workers. More importantly, no empirical piece has tested these anxiety variables as the mediators linking POS to career commitment in the pertinent literature so far.