Service Delivery Through E-Governance: Perception and Expectation of Customers in Fiji and PNG

Empirical studies on e-governance are replete with evidences highlighting its potential for improving service delivery. This study was conducted in PNG and Fiji using structured questionnaires distributed to different groups of respondents. The results indicate that e-governance has the potential to improve Public Service Delivery. It is also confirmed through the findings in this research that the expectations of citizens from public services are quite high, but experience has often been negative i.e. there is a huge variance in the perception and expectation of normal citizens in PNG (Papua New Guinea) and Fiji regarding service delivery, quality of services.     

乡镇企业产权改革、所有制结构及职工参与问题研究

运用改制企业及其职工问卷调查资料 ,本文研究表明:(1)县以上政府出于财政目标的需要 ,鼓励并主导了乡镇企业产权制度的改革 ,改革具有自上而下推动的特征 ,而并非完全像过去主流观点所认为的那样 ,改革完全是自下而上推动的结论;(2)地方 (社区 )政府、改制企业的原经营者、企业职工及社区全体居民在改革后具体企业产权模式的选择上 ,具有明显的鹰—鸽博弈特征 ,地方社区政府、改制企业的原经营者之间的博弈结果是改革后具体企业产权模式的选择的主要的决定力量。乡镇政府和企业经理共同控制了乡镇企业的改制 ,普通职工只有被动的参与权;(3)乡镇政府和原企业经理均无选择股份合作制的动力;(4)企业职工对于是否持股并不十分积极、其能否持股取决于多种因素;(5)职工对改制企业在激励机制、决策机制、管理机制等方面的进步给予积极的肯定;(6)股权结构对企业生产率影响不明显 ,它表明所有权结构只是生产率提高的必要条件 ,而非充要条件 ,它也不是改革最终走向“经营者持大股"的逻辑原因;(7)企业改制、特别是经营者持大股企业对就业、企业长期投资产生了积极影响 ,改制推进了企业经营水平、市场竞争力的提高。     

中国电力企业对电力体制改革适应性的管理结构模型研究

中国电力市场化改革实施以来效果如何,是公众广为关注的问题.本文依据路径-目标理论,构建了电力企业对电力体制改革适应性的管理结构模型,通过问卷调查分析,运用PLS(Partial Least Squares)方法,从电力企业管理的微观角度,审视电力体制改革对发电、电网两种类型企业的影响以及电力体制改革中存在的问题.模型可靠性和有效性良好.结果表明,市场化改革的思路可以有效引导企业积极变革,企业管理总体上是健康的;电力体制改革应该增强系统性,增加透明度,稳定企业对改革的预期;发电企业和电网企业需要进一步适应市场化环境,提高发展战略等薄弱环节的管理水平.     

“政资分开”能改善国有企业投资效率吗?

我国新时代深化国有企业改革的重要方向是以管企业为主向以管资本为主转变，实现“政资分开”.本文选择实施国有资本经营预算制度作为促进“政资分开”的重要举措，发现其对国有企业的投资效率具有显著的正向影响.进一步分析表明，国有资本经营预算制度对投资过度的国有企业、高干预地区的国有企业，以及对具有较高程度预算软约束的国有企业的投资效率具有更大的改善作用，说明减少政府对国有企业的干预以及约束预算软约束下的投资过度行为是国有资本经营预算制度提升国有企业投资效率的重要作用机制.这些发现为深化国企改革，优化国有资本配置，及公有制和市场经济的兼容性提供了有力的经验证据.     

考虑公众参与环境行为的公共健康两方博弈演化模型研究

公众参与环境行为是深化生态文明改革的重要组成部分,对化石能源消费排放引发的公共健康水平有着不可忽视的影响。将“公众参与”作为博弈模型的主要策略参数,“政府”与企业设为公共健康影响主要主体。运用演化博弈构建了公共健康影响主体交互机制博弈模型,基于复制动态方程原理与问卷调查数值仿真方法,详尽分析了公共健康主体各相关要素交互演化路径的变化快慢。研究结果表明：模型有{监管,不转型},{监管,转型}两个演化稳定策略。公众参与环境治理程度以及公众自身健康关心度对企业能源转型和政府监管演化路径有显著正向影响,同时与“政府”和企业自身特征相关;公共健康损失赔偿大小是政府监管与企业实行能源转型的重要因素;政府监管知识掌握程度、能源政策执行力、企业能源转型成本大小及额外收益极大影响公共健康主体演化路径;学习型“政府”的监管更能有效加快企业能源转型。同时发现,只有各主体参数共同改变,其中公众参与环境行为群体达90%以上时,公共健康损失才会显著下降;单一主体不能有效作用于公共健康水平;目前,{政府不监管,实行能源转型}这一最理想演化博弈策略在我国国情下还未出现。本文为激发公众参与环境行为、助推企业能源转型与提升公共健康政策的制定提供了新的视角。     

Strategic Planning in the Malawi Public Sector: Potential Tool for Progress or Regression?

The process of developing strategic plans in the public sector is regarded as one indicator of positive reform in the system. The assumption is that strategic planning ensures that (just like in the private sector) public sector organizations’ operations should cost less but deliver better service. Ultimately the argument is that public sector institutional governance and responsiveness to the citizenry is not only seen but felt. However, strategic planning has to be done in an appropriate manner for it to deliver. For instance an analysis of the underlying motives, the role of leadership in the process as well as the relevance or viability of the guiding strategic planning model significantly affect the nature of expected results. In the early 2000s, the Malawi public sector embarked on a serious drive towards strategic planning process as part of its reform package. In order to ascertain it’s potential to transform the Malawi public service, this paper focuses at critically analyzing the strategic planning process in the Malawi public sector by among other things asking: who initiated and led the process? What approach determined the process? What is the possible potentiality of the adopted strategic planning approach in enhancing the reform agenda in Malawi? Based on interviews with senior officers in key Malawi public sector institutions, the paper concludes that the strategic planning process is ‘transitional and fluid’ hence lacks the clout to effectively enhance reforms in this sector. Another finding is that lack of effective leadership has largely contributed to the status quo.     

投资、消费与中国经济的内生增长:古典角度的实证分析

本文试图运用古典的内生经济发展思想对中国改革开放以来的经济增长做一个简单考察。文章考察了投资、消费与经济内生演进机制在中国的运行状况,分析了这一机制的总体特征,并依时序发展考察了其演进与变化的过程。我们发现,中国经济增长明显地表现为两个阶段。90年代中期后,经济演进机制的运行变化的紊乱,供给创造需求的能力不足。解决好上述问题,成为中国经济可持续增长的重要保证。     

Belonging at work

As a developing and most populous nation in the world, the People's Republic of China (P.R. China) faces unique challenges and opportunities in developing its tremendous human resources. Since its policy of ‘reform and open-door’ was initiated in the late 1970s, China has moved steadily towards establishing a nationwide policy of developing human capital and adopting practical measures of implementation. The paper identifies key themes of developing human capital at different levels: in government, business and families. The paper also discusses unique historical, social, political and cultural influences on the determination of such national policies and strategies. Different approaches to developing human capital are discussed for different sectors: state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private-owned business.     

第三方国际环境审计下考虑政府监管与公众监督策略选择的演化博弈研究

企业环境行为问题,特别是企业不当的环境行为对环境造成的潜在影响已成为全球迫切需要解决的问题。第三方国际环境审计能够驱动污染企业积极实施绿色环境行为,基于此文章引入第三方国际环境审计,致立于驱动企业环境行为朝着理想的状态演化,基于有限理性假设的条件,构建了政府、污染企业与公众的演化博弈模型,建立三主体的复制动态方程,得到不同情况下政府、企业与公众的演化稳定策略,探索第三方国际环境介入下的三方决策主体的演化路径和规律,进一步揭示第三方国际环境审计的应用价值。最后,通过仿真分析研究影响三主体最终策略选择的因素。研究表明,政府策略选择对企业是否加入第三方国际环境审计、公众是否参与监督企业加入第三方国际环境审计具有引导作用,公众是否监督企业加入第三方国际环境审计影响企业是否加入第三方国际环境审计;政府、企业与公众三主体的最终策略选择不仅与各主体的初始参与比例有关,同时与其余参数的初始值有关。在不同背景下,政府、企业和公众可以通过理性决策和策略选择,使得三方博弈主体的行为选择能够朝着理想方向演化联合有效遏制企业不当的环境行为,为企业绿色环境行为的积极实施提供相应的参考。     

TRUST,SOCIAL CAPITAL,AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Many argue that elements of a society's norms, culture, or social capital are central to understanding its development. However, these notions have been difficult to capture in economic models. Here we explore a possible role for “trustworthiness” as corresponding to social capital. Individuals are trustworthy when they perform in accordance with promises, even if this does not maximise their payoffs. The usual focus on incentive structures in motivating behaviour plays no role here. Instead, we emphasise more deep‐seated modes of behaviour and consider trustworthy agents being socialised to act as they do. To model this socialisation, we borrow from a process of preference evolution pioneered by Bisin and Verdier (2001). The model developed endogenously accounts for social capital and explores its role in the process of economic development. It captures in a simple, formal way the interaction between social capital and the economy's productive processes. The results obtained caution against rapid reform and provide an explanation for why late‐developing countries may not easily be able to transplant the modes of production that have proved useful in the West. (JEL: O1, O3, O4, Z1)     

中国区域经济差异的时空变化:市场化、全球化与城市化

本文采用可以多层次分解的Theil系数测量了1952～2002年中国区域经济地带间、地带内和省际差异以及改革开放后典型年份的各省区内部地区经济差异程度。中国区域经济差异随时间波动明显,省际差异自改革开放以来呈现U型变化态势,但地带间差异则持续上升;东部沿海和西部省区内的地区差异较大,而中部省区内差异较小;总体而言,空间尺度越小,其经济差异越显著。本文进一步通过时间序列和横断面数据的统计分析探讨了影响中国区域经济差异的因素,发现改革开放政策、参与全球化程度、市场化程度以及城市化进程等是导致中国区域经济差距时空变化的显著原因。     

Assessing the effectiveness of a performance evaluation system in the public health care sector: some novel evidence from the Tuscany region experience

Since 80’s the introduction of New Public Management principles has promoted the use of performance measurement to drive a more efficient, effective and accountable public sector. The adoption of a sophisticated and comprehensive multidimensional performance measurement system, which looks beyond traditional financial measures, based on organization strategies, such as the balanced scorecard, has thus been suggested. This revolution in the public management came together with the devolution processes that involved most European public health systems. Set within this context, in the last decade, each of the twenty Italian regions developed its own management tools. Among others, the Tuscan performance evaluation system (PES) has been valued as a particularly innovative and comprehensive system. This paper reports the novel experience of the Tuscan PES; in particular, it measures PES effectiveness and discusses the critical factors that could have led to the PES success. Five are the critical success factors identified by researchers: the visual reporting system, the linkage between PES and CEO’s reward system, the public disclosure of data, the high level of employees and managers involvement into the entire process and the strong political commitment. All those factors run together to achieve better results; however, the process of development of the system plays a pivotal role. Scholars suggest the use of a constructive approach in order to gain effective changes in human organization. According to this stream of literature, this paper contributes by the novel experience of the Tuscan PES in addressing as a further fruitful application of the constructivist approach in healthcare.     

Diagnosis of Organizational Culture in Public Sector Undertakings Undergoing Reforms

This study investigates a comparative analysis of civil servants’ perceptions of organisational culture in two public sector undertakings undergoing public sector reform in Fiji, and a public administration industry reference group. Data collected from Fijian civil servants and analysed superficially indicate similarity in cultures and suggested intervention strategies to create the preferred organisational cultures. In addition, the findings show the criticality of deciphering and understanding public sector organisational culture at both the superficial and deeper levels, in order to guide intervention strategies and support sustained organisational change.     

混合所有制改革中政府激励行为与非国有资本策略选择的主观博弈分析

国有企业全面深化改革意味着经济利益格局的重塑,作为政策供给者的政府和作为政策核心反应者的非国有资本是混合所有制改革的重要参与主体。本文利用主观博弈理论分析了混合所有制改革历程中政府和非国有资本两大博弈主体策略选择的行为逻辑,并通过Matlab软件模拟不同初始状态下非国有资本策略选择受政府激励行为影响的动态演化过程。研究结果表明：受非国有资本参与混合所有制改革的交易成本和违约风险、额外收益和政府激励成本的影响,当政府支持的激励力度较小时,"不参与"是非国有资本的最优策略。当政府支持的激励力度较大时,"参与"是非国有资本的最优策略。从政策层面推动混合所有制的发展,实现国有资本和非国有资本在各自比较优势基础上发挥协同效应时,政府应进一步构建合理的政策制度,降低非国有资本的准入门槛,赋予非国有资本公平的进入机会,并推动资本间重组兼并,完善产权交易市场,以此降低混合所有制改革参与主体的交易成本和进入壁垒。     

经济转型与不同所有制部门的工资决定——从“下海”到“下岗”

本文利用中国家庭营养健康调查数据(CHNS)考察了经济转型与不同所有制部门工资分布演变的关系。结果表明,尽管20世纪整个90年代都伴随着劳动力比重在公有部门的下降和在民营部门的上升,但是1997年之前和之后的两个时期存在着显著的差异:前一个时期主要是能力比较强的人选择离开国有部门,他们在民营部门也能够获得较高的收入;后一个时期则主要是原来工资和教育水平比较低的人从公有部门转移到民营部门,在民营部门内部,他们的工资也比其他劳动者低。这一结果可以帮助我们解释不同所有制部门工资方程的差异,尤其是教育回报率的不同:本文的回归结果表明1997年,民营部门的教育回报率高于公有部门,但是到了2000年,国有部门的教育回报率开始高于民营部门。     

Shifting Concepts of Autonomy in the Hong Kong Hospital Authority

The Hong Kong Hospital Authority is the main provider of public health care services in Hong Kong. It operates 41 public hospitals, 74 general out-patient clinics and 45 specialist out-patient clinics. This article examines the reason for its establishment as a statutory body in 1990 and offers an assessment of its success in meeting the goals of the reformers. A belief that health care service delivery would be improved is largely supported by the evidence, but this may have more to do with budget and policy consistency than management autonomy and flexibility. Statutory independence, with its promise of improved efficiency, has its limits in the highly complex field of health where there are multiple players and where professional autonomy remains a key claim. In recent times, the authority has been subject to several reform attempts and, together with the SARS epidemic in 2003, these have had a significant impact on its organizational structure and practices, in particular, on its degrees of autonomy.

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Solving the Labour Problem Among Professional Workers in the UK Public Sector: Organisation Change and Performance Management

This paper draws together evidence from across the UK public services to present an analysis of public sector organisational change that has been observed and experienced since the 1980s. The argument is that the pattern of persistent change, packaged as a myriad of reform measures, has been centrally concerned with solving the labour problem—low worker productivity and managers not being able to manage—in what are labour intensive services. The now familiar managerial discourse of empowerment and high commitment working practices is highlighted and express linkages are drawn between such themes and the day-to-day practices of performance and human resource management, seen here to be key levers in solving the same labour problem through a reduction in the quality of working lives of many public service workers.     

知识转化如何影响企业标准化能力——技术能力的中介效应

高水平的标准化能力能够提高企业产品和服务质量,引领产业升级。尽管标准具有知识和技术的双重属性,但是企业的知识转化和技术能力是否影响标准化能力的提升还有待验证。研究基于知识创造理论与吸收能力理论,构建了知识转化、技术能力和企业标准化能力的理论模型,通过问卷调查收集了234家企业数据,并用偏最小二乘法结构方程模型进行数据分析。实证结果显示,内部知识转化有利于企业标准应用能力和标准管理能力的提升,外部知识转化有利于企业标准应用能力和标准产出能力的提升,技术能力在内部知识转化和标准产出能力之间起完全中介效应,技术能力在内部知识转化和标准应用能力、外部知识转化与标准应用能力、标准产出能力之间起部分中介效应。     

构建现代企业问题求解环境

在知识经济时代的激烈竞争中,现代企业要在市场中保持竞争优势,企业的业务过程就要不断地改善以适应市场的变化,传统的企业业务管理方法已经不再适应新的经济形势,新型的信息技术能够支持企业实现业务过程的持续改善(BPCI),本文主要介绍支持企业实现业务持续改善的企业问题求解环境的软件体系结构和动态建模方法。应用先进的软件技术和方法可以帮助企业快速建立业务管理系统,同时降低实施成本,保护企业在信息系统的已有投资,最大限度满足企业动态多变的需求以适应多变的市场。     

Moving HRD from the periphery to the centre for transformation of an Indian public sector bank: Keynote address, 4th Asian conference of the academy of HRD

The transformation of Bank of Baroda, one of the largest commercial banks in the public sector in India, into a highly customer centric, technology driven and an innovative entity in retail and SME (small and medium enterprises) segments represents one of India's most remarkable success stories and one of the quickest turnarounds ever in public sector banking.

Known as an important player in commercial banking with international operations for several decades, the bank was gradually declining in recent years. In an environment of competition within the public sector as also due to entry of private banks with latest technology and young staff, the bank plunged into an unprecedented spiral of failing to innovate and adopt new technology.

Drastic action was required to regain its leadership position in the public sector space. Over the next one and a half years, the bank was back in reckoning and was firing on all cylinders. It retained its core business on track with a bang, restored its image as the most vibrant player among public sector banks (PSBs) through wide-ranging initiatives such as a logo change, hiring a cricketing icon as brand ambassador, heightened credit growth, improving the work culture, initiating many customer-centric initiatives and restoring the customer base, derisking the treasury portfolio, and winning several accolades and awards.

Today, Bank of Baroda has embarked upon more wide-ranging changes and a new vision to change the bank from a ‘vanilla banking’ entity to a ‘multi-specialist bank’. The author, who joined the bank as a HR specialist and eventually rose to become CEO of the bank, extensively used his HRD knowledge and academic background to initiate changes to harness energy in the bank's 40,000 staff to drive organization change.

Achieving a successful outcome seems to be far more difficult for a public sector bank with a legacy culture, high degree of unionization, poor compensation and aging staff. In spite of these constraining factors, the paper argues that it is through mobilizing the passion of people that leadership can transform organizations and put them on high growth trajectory.