One Government,Multiple Systems: Hong Kong Public Administration in Transition

This study addresses the impact of a transformative political event—the reversion of sovereign authority—on the policy-making roles of public organizations and public administrators in Hong Kong. With the transfer of sovereignty, the environment of public administration in Hong Kong became increasingly politicized. Civil servants now encounter pressures and conflicting demands from Beijing, from pro-democracy forces, from the Chief Executive, from members of the Legislative Council, and from the business community. Although the public bureaucracy retains its policy-making preeminence, its authority no longer is unquestioned and unchecked. The Central Government exerts hidden influence. Members of the Legislative Council are striving to become respected players in the policy-formulation process. The Chief Executive aims to introduce means of ensuring heightened bureaucratic responsiveness. The result has been a fragmented and volatile political-administrative environment. In the ongoing transition from colonial to reunited polity, the Special Administrative Region's one government is composed of competing systems of governance superimposed uncomfortably and inconclusively upon one another. The most probable governance outcome, at least until the possible popular election of a Chief Executive and Legislative Council on a competitive political-party basis in 2007, is for fragmentation, role conflict, and interest-accommodation to continue to characterize the policy-making process in the SAR.     

Exploring Types of Public Sector Organizations: Past Exercises and Current Issues

Classification is important generally as an aid to better understanding of complex phenomena. In the context of public sector understanding and reform, it should have added importance as a guide to policy makers and reformers. There have been some notable efforts to classify public sector organizations, mostly built on interactions between analysts and the reformers themselves. One such mid-20th century exercise postulated a division of public sector organizations into three categories: departments, local governments, and the rest embracing a mass of quasi-autonomous agencies. The developments of the later 20th century, often associated with changing views about the role of the state, have increased the complexity of this third category and have imposed new pressures on our understandings, with the result that there is now a renewed interest in classification issues.     

Public Sector Reform in Denmark: Organizational Transformation and Evaluation

Public sector reform in Denmark has not been studied extensively, despite the country's tireless reorganization efforts and track record of trying new ideas. This article thus seeks to fill a gap in the literature. It does this by examining the reorganization of the public sector in terms of the transformation of organizations, and by assessing how successive governments have evaluated the initiatives taken with the aim of knowing whether or not reorganization has worked. The discussion shows that reorganization has been incremental and pragmatic, and that governments have rarely evaluated their reorganization efforts in any systematic way. One of the primary reasons for this has been the desire of politicians and top civil servants to have political and administrative flexibility and freedom to seize on strategic opportunities, unconstrained by the findings of detailed evaluations.     

Managing Integrity: The Regulation of Post Public Employment in Britain and Hong Kong

In this article, we examine the regulatory mechanisms governing post public employment in Britain and Hong Kong in the context of changing views on how integrity should be managed in their civil services. In both places, new public management practices have increased the possibility of ‘soft’ conflicts of interest which in turn has resulted in debates over the necessary degree of regulation, the organizational form that this should take, and the extent to which ethical concerns should be more focused on the communication and inculcation of core values in civil servants. We argue that the difficulty of regulating ‘soft’ conflicts of interests is driving moves toward the greater centralisation of ethical regulation in both Britain and Hong Kong and that there appears to be a return to more traditional ways of managing integrity.

Client-Quality Dimensions: Empirical Evidence from the Public Sector of the United Arab Emirates

The study attempts to identify the most essential components, which contribute to the clients satisfaction with the quality service of three federal institutions in the United Arab Emirates public sector. The study reveals that clean office, job knowledge, respect for client, and clarity of regulations were the most important dimensions determining the quality services in the surveyed institutions. Suggestions and recommendations are included in the study.     

Organizations in Public Management: Guest Editors' Introduction

This brief introduction sets the scene for the symposium. It identifies three factors which prompted its preparation, and then outlines the six contributions to it.     

The Government and Statutory Bodies in Hong Kong: Centralization and Autonomy

Over the past decade in Hong Kong, the relationship and accountability of statutory bodies to core government, to the legislature, and to the broader public have been the subject of continuing and, as yet, unresolved debate. Faced with scandals and other serious problems in a number of the major statutory bodies, and in the context of its own problems of lack of political support and legitimacy, the Tung administration tended to reduce the autonomy of the statutory bodies by increasing central control and integrating their functions with those of core government. Legislators have seen the problems of statutory bodies from a rather different perspective, arguing that they result from a lack of accountability and transparency. The government’s eventual concession to the need for reform has resulted, since 2003, in a review of the principles governing the work of all advisory and statutory bodies and of specific statutory bodies which have experienced serious problems. This article examines the principles contained in the review and assesses whether they are likely to lead to increased autonomy and improvements in governance standards.     

Perceptions of Nonprofit Funding Decisions: A Survey of Local Public Administrators and Executive Directors of Community-Based Housing Organizations (CBHOs)

This article compares how local public administrators and executive directors of community-based housing organizations (CBHO) perceive nonprofit funding decisions. The article’s findings suggest that both groups shared perceptions about the scope of affordable housing and factors influencing its funding. Yet, important differences existed. Public administrators were ambivalent about nonprofit capacity and affordable housing outcomes. They also underestimated the importance of networks, partnerships, and minority leadership. Professionals in the nonprofit sector underestimated fair housing concerns and overestimated the importance of promoting homeownership. These insights improve our understanding of the connection between funding patterns, public-nonprofit sector relations, local governance, and administrative structures.

Introduction to the Symposium: Communities,Organizations, and Restorative Justice Reform

Restorative justice, in treating organizations as communities, and viewing them as both cause and solution to problems of crime, harm and conflict, provides its revolutionary insights and groundbreaking efforts to transform and localize intervention in response to these problems. The contributions to this special issue focus on restorative justice as a way of addressing crime and crime-related concerns to the greatest extent possible within such community organizational contexts (i.e., workplaces, schools, universities, and residential programs for delinquents). The authors demonstrate how restorative practices have implications for community building and organizational reform based generally on a learning theory of cultural change.     

Making Sense of Organizations in Public Management: A Back-to-Basics Approach

This article addresses some basic facts and ideas about organizations as a way of concluding the symposium. It identifies different types of organizations in terms of their legal-structural characteristics, and considers aspects of their legal power, ownership, financing, staffing, and outsourcing. It ends with some suggestions for further related research on organizations.     

Dissecting Public Sector Corruption in Bangladesh: Issues and Problems of Control

The public sector in Bangladesh is ridden with corruption of various dimensions and shades. Apart from bribery, rent-seeking and misappropriation of funds, the performance of public organizations is adversely affected by a host of other factors like excessive lobbying, delays in service provision, pilferage and larceny, irresponsible conduct of officials, bureaucratic intemperance, patronage and clientelism. The several institutional mechanisms to combat administrative malfeasance are rendered ineffective by a non-committed political leadership, a blase"d bureaucracy, weak accountability structures, and unproductive legislative labors. The public body for controlling corruption is itself associated with all sorts of malpractices and conducts its affair most unprofessionally. Despite several attempts, the constitutionally authorized ombudsman is yet to find its place in the governance framework.     

Revisiting the Dartmouth Court Decision: Why the US has Private Nonprofit Agencies Instead of Public Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

In 1819, the US Supreme Court ruled in Dartmouth v. Woodward that Dartmouth College, even though originally chartered by government, was legally akin to a private corporation. This landmark decision was the founding legal document of what has become the American private nonprofit sector. While the decision has attained hagiographic status, this paper explores what the US nonprofit sector would look like if the Supreme Court had ruled the other way. Using alternate history and scenario writing as research methodologies, it highlights the invisible losses due to the decision and depicts what a public nonprofit sector would have looked like.

New Public Management,Service Provision and Non-Governmental Organizations in Bangladesh

New public management (NPM) is now a universal phenomenon dominating the reform agenda of all countries. Bangladesh is no exception. Following the dismal performance of the state-led development the old paradigm of public sector has come under scrutiny. There is now a call for a minimal government. The scale of operations and the role of the government have to be drastically reduced to focus on core functions. In doing so, this will pave the way for the private sector and the civil society organizations to undertake developmental responsibilities in their areas of expertise. This article is an attempt to analyze the significant role played by Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) in rural development service provisions. It argues that the government has to share the developmental responsibilities with NGOs, which have proved their potential in reaching the target population and that an effective partnership is a sine qua non for the meaningful rural development in Bangladesh.     

Towards New Public Management in Greek Public Organizations: Leadership vs. Management,and the Path to Implementation

In the beginning of the 21st century, when the notion of constant transformation is so frequently invoked, organizational change in the public sector is gaining increased attention. Responding to regulatory, economic, competitive and technological shifts, the challenge of reorganization is universal for all public organizations. This paper aims to explore the shift from Traditional to New Public Management (NPM), as well as the driving forces (such as the information economy, the need for better public performance, the opening of global markets, greater knowledge intensity etc.) that lead to the formulation of transformational programs to Greece. A presentation of a transformational program called Politeia, will be provided, analysed and compared to previous efforts. Finally, we address the important role of leadership and management in Greek public organizations that want successful to implement any change effort successfully.     

Contracting Out and Trust in the Public Sector: Cases of Management from Hong Kong

Contracting out generates competition and market discipline that is expected help reduce cost and improve the quality of the services. Several problems were detected in contract management of the Hong Kong Housing Authority and they were related to decision-making, monitoring, evaluation and the system of accountability. An examination based on the principal-agent perspective reveals several pitfalls of contracting out in the public sector. A lack of coordination, eagerness to cut costs by accepting the lowest tender bids, improper project supervision, and inadequate manpower resulted in serious problems. This paper suggests a more careful approach to the award of contracts, monitoring and quality assurance as well as the inculcation of a spirit of trust and cooperation between the principal and agent, instead of the customary adversarial approach.     

中国城市基层政府公共服务职能的不完全外包及其动因——基于扎根理论的研究发现

基于中国情境,运用经典扎根理论研究方法,以广州、深圳城市基层政府的环卫服务外包为样本,研究了中国城市基层政府公共服务外包的动因。中国城市基层政府公共服务外包的动因同时来自内部与外部,受政治和经济两方面因素的影响。政治压力强化是中国城市基层政府的公共服务职能的不完全外包现象的动因。同时,采用经典扎根理论研究方法进行政府公共服务外包研究也具有方法论的创新。     

The Challenge of Coordination in Central Government Organizations: The Norwegian Case

This paper addresses coordination problems in central government by focusing on the Norwegian case. The main research questions are: What are the experiences of civil servants concerning horizontal and vertical coordination, and internal and external coordination? What is the relative importance of structural, demographic and cultural variables for explaining variations in civil servants’ perception of coordination? The data base is a questionnaire to civil servants in ministries and central agencies in 2006. The main findings are that there are more problems with horizontal coordination than with vertical coordination; that coordination problems are bigger in central agencies than in ministries; and that a low level of mutual trust tends to aggravate coordination problems.     

Promoting Public Trust in Public Organizations: Explaining the Role of Public Accountability

This paper is aimed at explaining the role of public accountability in promoting public trust in public organizations. Initially a conceptual model was developed. Then, the model was tested empirically in Iran. The result shows that public accountability influences the public trust by improving citizens’ satisfaction. In other words, legal, ethical, financial, functional, and utmost political accountability affect public trust through influencing citizens’ satisfaction. This study also confirms that changes in social trust, citizens’ trust in government, and media will moderate trust in public organizations.

Reforming Public Administration in Southeast Asia: Trends and Impacts

In Southeast Asia, the recent two decades have witnessed major theoretical, structural, functional, and ethical reforms in the administrative system. In the region, the state-centric mode of public administration that emerged during the colonial and postcolonial periods, has recently been transformed into a businesslike public management in line with the current global movement for such a transition. This article examines the trends of administrative changes in countries such as Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It also briefly evaluates the critical impacts of these recent changes on the systems of public administration the conditions of citizens and societies in the region.     

The Governance of Voluntary Work in the Public Sector: Institutional Differences and Invariant Traits

In response to fiscal constraint and the introduction of quasi-market mechanisms into the public sector, in public policy there appears to be the acceptance of the increased use of voluntary labour in the delivery of public services. Traditional forms of governance have tended to ignore the use of voluntary labour in the public sector. The paper builds on an earlier (Hellshorm and Collins, 1999) model of concurrence between voluntary and municipal labour, by focusing onthe demand side of voluntary work. Our exploratory study uses this model to analyse two municipal organisations' mix of voluntary and municipal labour, one Italian and the other a Swedish context.The research method used to collect empirical data was semi-structured interviews of local government employees within the two sites. Thisis linked with an analysis of the institutional context of the two municipalities to inform and test the proposed model of demand for volunteer labour in local government. Resource scarcity, presence of agency for voluntary work, type of production and state rules and norm are used to analyse the institutional invariant traits. The study concludes that traditional institutional theory has ignored voluntary activities. Our case studies of actual practice indicate that different state norms and ruleson citizen rights and equal opportunities are stronger influential factors than the resources situation, in determining the demand for voluntary activities in municipalities.