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.     

Institutional Shifts In Inter-Municipal Service Delivery

Comparative research on inter-municipal cooperation in eight European countries shows that there is a great variety of institutional arrangements for cooperation across the different countries. Also, these arrangements tend to change over time in terms of the scope of cooperation among partners, their composition and the degree of organizational integration. This article describes and analyzes the variety of and shifts in institutional arrangements for a specific class of inter-municipal cooperation arrangements: those that are set up to provide for the joint delivery of public services. It is argued that specific arrangements are typically the outcomes of interaction between national institutional contexts, environmental factors and local preferences.     

Institutional and Stakeholder Mapping: Frameworks for Policy Analysis and Institutional Change

Despite its importance and its widespread employment in policymaking practice, the theoretical and epistemic foundations of institutional mapping have not been elaborated and its legitimacy is yet to be fully granted by the academic community. This paper is a contribution to this overdue effort. The paper has two parts. First it introduces mapping as a cognitive process and explore in this context the structural similarities between maps and theories. While doing that it identifies the basic elements of mapping as a cognitive procedure and based on that it outlines the optimal features of the possible meta-theories framing policy-oriented institutional mapping. The second part goes a step further and discusses two concrete examples that may come close to illustrate the meta-theoretical ideal-type outlined at the end of the first part: the theoretical system implied in the Chicago School of sociology and the Institutional Analysis and Development framework inspired by the new institutional economics.     

制造商售后服务质量决策对灰色市场的影响研究

考虑一个分散式供应链下零售商窜货的灰色市场结构,其中制造商直接将产品销往高端市场,但通过中间零售商销往低端市场,两个市场相对独立。零售商未经制造商授权私自将产品窜货到高端市场而形成灰色市场。为了抑制灰色市场,制造商额外在低端市场提供增值售后服务。本文将建立两种模型：基本模型和服务决策模型,通过两种模型的对比分析,研究制造商售后服务质量决策对灰色市场规模和企业收益的影响。研究发现：对于制造商而言,售后服务质量决策是一种有效的灰色市场管理手段,不仅可以抑制灰色市场规模,同时还可以增加制造商的收益;对于零售商而言,售后服务质量决策有可能降低零售商的收益,也有可能增加零售商的收益,取决于消费者对高端产品和低端产品支付意愿的差异程度。     

Change Communication in Public Sector Cutback Management

Public Organization Review - Budget cuts in public sector organizations create additional strain for employees, often contributing to uncertainty, rumors, and low morale. This study examines the...     

一个公用服务质量测评模型的构建和分析:来自中国公用服务业的证据

本文考虑了公用服务的特殊性和行业特征,在对天津经济技术开发区公用服务企业(包括自来水公司、电力公司、燃气公司、热电公司)调查研究基础上提出了公用服务质量概念框架,构建了公用服务质量测评模型。本文提出公用服务质量包括供能质量和服务过程质量两个维度。其中供能质量由标准性、稳定性、安全性、服务补救四个要素组成;服务过程质量由服务交互界面、员工服务表现、服务标准、服务流程、服务设施与工具、服务承诺、顾客期望管理、服务投诉八个要素组成。对四类公用服务的调查包括对27家企业用户和50位居民用户的访谈,以及对150家代表性企业用户、304名居民用户作为样本的问卷调查,收到企业用户的有效问卷120份、居民有效问卷256份。本文利用调查数据检验上述服务测评初步维度结构的信度和效度,修正并形成了最终的公用服务质量测评模型,并发现了模型在评价居民用户和企业用户服务质量感知的异同,讨论了该测评工具的管理实践意义和未来的研究方向。     

制度变迁、国家控股与股权激励

本文在代理理论的框架下,基于中国国有企业与制度变迁背景,就经理人股权激励与公司价值关系进行分析,并以2001-2006年宣告实施股权激励国有上市公司为样本,实证检验了股权激励对公司价值的改善作用。结果发现,对国有企业的经理人实行股权激励能提高公司价值,受地方政府控制的公司,股权激励更能明显增加公司价值。并且,股权分置改革这种制度变迁进一步改进了原有的激励效果。上述研究发现为理解国有企业治理机制的改善、资本市场改革提供了一个有益的视角。     

A Case Study in the Programming and Maintenance of Institutional Change

While behavior change projects and component analyses have been critical to the development of behavioral technology, behaviorists working in human service institutions have not focused enough attention on the "packaging" and systematic application of a technology for institutional change. In the present study, a package of organizational behavior management procedures was systematically introduced in a human service setting. The goal of intervention was to promote and maintain institutional change sufficient to support the wide scale implementation and maintenance of state-of-the-art behavioral procedures for program management and service delivery. The specific procedures utilized in the study included the following: (1) planning; (2) establishing functional organizational structure; (3) recruiting, orienting, and training management and direct service personnel; (4) contracting for staff performance; (5) scheduling, supervising, and evaluating personnel; (6) obtaining and managing financial resources; (7) evaluating program operation; (8) ensuring legal safety; and (9) disseminating results. Sixteen dependent variables, chosen to illustrate the quantity and quality of institutional change, were measured for the three years prior to, and five years following, intervention. Data from these measures indicated that intervention resulted in a positive change in virtually every aspect of program operation and that change resulting from the study was durable over time. Within the limitations imposed by case study design, these results were interpreted to suggest that institutional change is possible and that the technology required to effect such change is currently available.     

资源禀赋与公共品供给——合作视角下的实验研究

本文引入实验方法,从合作体和合作者两个层面考察了资源禀赋对公共品供给的影响。将合作体的资源禀赋特征操作为"等资源禀赋型"、"高资源禀赋主导型"和"低资源禀赋主导型"三类,将合作者的特征操作为"等资源禀赋"、"高资源禀赋"和"低资源禀赋"三类。将被试随机分配在三类合作体中,扮演不同的合作者,进行五轮重复实验。结果表明,在合作体水平上,资源禀赋分布特征不同的合作体具有不同的合作绩效与风险,在各合作体内,合作者的贡献比例差异均有逐轮缩小的趋势。在合作者水平上,资源禀赋水平较低的一方相对贡献更高;个体合作贡献比例受不同资源禀赋合作伙伴上一轮贡献的影响;资源禀赋的高低和对等伙伴的数量决定了合作的可持续性。结合这些发现,对进一步创新我国公共品供给机制提出了建议。     

Tendencies of the Development of Public Service in Lithuania

The article analyzes the development of the Lithuanian civil service and the influence of some of the prevailing models of public management on the changes that occurred in the service. It also reviews the attitude of society and experts towards the bureaucracy and points out that in Lithuania, society is becoming more and more skeptical about politics and the whole public environment. It emphasizes that it is not easy to implement the managerial approach in the Civil Service in post-Communist states.     

The Future of Labour Relations in the Public Service

Abstract. During the last decade, labour relations in the public service have been subject to pressures for change, less direct, given their protected character, than in the private sector, but not less strong. The main factors of change are (only) in part common to those operating in private sector labour relations: economic constraints and budgetary restrictions, coupled with a general reaction toward the ‘public’ in general have put pressure on employment whose costs represent the major part of public expenditures; the need for greater productivity and efficiency has been increasing in order to reduce labour costs and (possibly) meet the growing demand for (social) services; technological innovations (office automation. computerization and the like) are spreading; the impact of the international competition has begun to be felt not only indirectly via constraints on the state budgets but directly in those sectors of public services which can be somehow ‘transportable’ across borders and hence exposed to foreign initiatives (public works, TLC, to some extent health services. All these factors are emphasized by the European unification process which has already introduced limits in the monetary and financial autonomy of the member states.     

Managerial Networking and Stakeholder Support in Public Service Organizations

Resource dependence theory suggests that to function successfully, organizations must obtain certain resources controlled by actors in their environment. To do this effectively, managers often develop networking relationships with key stakeholder groups in order to make critical resources available. Managers in public service organizations, in particular, are frequently under great pressure to network with relevant actors from stakeholder groups in order to build support for service (co)production and legitimacy for strategic and operational decisions. To identify networking strategies which are conducive to stakeholder support, we explore the networking behaviour of over 1,000 English local government managers. Fuzzy cluster analysis identifies four distinctive, though inter-related types of managerial networking: technical, reputational, political, and tokenistic. The cluster membership functions from this analysis are used to examine the relationship between types of networking and stakeholder support in depth. The results of hierarchical regression analysis suggest that technically-orientated networking is the most conducive to stakeholder support, with tokenistic networking the least conducive.     

Stepping Stones to Permanent Employment in the Public Service

Abstract. Labour force transitions are investigated using a longitudinal database covering staff movements in the Queensland public service. The database covers those who have entered the public service through traditional recruitment methods as well as those who have entered through temporary and casual appointments. The analysis is based on a new methodology of cumulative incidence function testing and competing risks regression analysis. Interest is centred on entry by non‐standard employees and their subsequent transition through the public service. It was found that non‐standard employment can be a stepping stone to permanent employment but only for about one in four new non‐standard employees.     

制度环境变化与创业企业绩效--基于新三板企业的实证研究

以中国的市场化改革为情境,探讨和检验了制度环境变化速度和变化失调度与创业企业绩效的关系,发现:制度环境变化速度、变化失调度显著负向影响创业企业绩效;但是,企业研发行为会显著削弱它们之间的负向关系。     

Public Perception of Uncertainties Within Climate Change Science

Climate change is a complex, multifaceted problem involving various interacting systems and actors. Therefore, the intensities, locations, and timeframes of the consequences of climate change are hard to predict and cause uncertainties. Relatively little is known about how the public perceives this scientific uncertainty and how this relates to their concern about climate change. In this article, an online survey among 306 Swiss people is reported that investigated whether people differentiate between different types of uncertainty in climate change research. Also examined was the way in which the perception of uncertainty is related to people's concern about climate change, their trust in science, their knowledge about climate change, and their political attitude. The results of a principal component analysis showed that respondents differentiated between perceived ambiguity in climate research, measurement uncertainty, and uncertainty about the future impact of climate change. Using structural equation modeling, it was found that only perceived ambiguity was directly related to concern about climate change, whereas measurement uncertainty and future uncertainty were not. Trust in climate science was strongly associated with each type of uncertainty perception and was indirectly associated with concern about climate change. Also, more knowledge about climate change was related to less strong perceptions of each type of climate science uncertainty. Hence, it is suggested that to increase public concern about climate change, it may be especially important to consider the perceived ambiguity about climate research. Efforts that foster trust in climate science also appear highly worthwhile.     

Code Breaking: How Entrepreneurs Exploit Cultural Logics to Generate Institutional Change

If institutions are durable, how do they change from within and from without? We build on the emerging synthesis of social movement theory and institutional theory and articulate how institutional entrepreneurs from within and without deploy pre-existing cultural logics to push forward their institutional projects. We develop propositions, which show how the success of these framing activities is contingent on political opportunity, and illustrate them with a wide range of extreme cases.     

Market-Type Mechanisms and Public Service Equity: A Review of Experiences in European Public Services

In seeking to benefit from the competitive pressures exerted through marketization, governments have hoped to gain improvements in public service efficiency. Yet, concerns remain about the effects of marketization on how equitably public services are provided. We consider evidence about the relationship between the introduction of market-type mechanisms in the European public sector and the efficiency and equity of service provision. Our analysis reveals that although market-type mechanisms sometimes result in worse service equity, there is only weak evidence of a trade-off between efficiency and equity.     

我国公共服务动机的研究综述与展望

发轫于20世纪80年代的公共服务动机理论在本世纪初进入中国后,已经成为国内公共管理领域最受关注的话题之一。为掌握国内学者关于中国情境下公共服务动机研究的全貌,文章对围绕中国场景而发表的中英文期刊文献进行检索,在此基础上对公共服务动机的研究现状、存在的问题和挑战进行论述,从而为我国的公共服务动机研究提供启示。     

公共服务供给对公共服务感知绩效的影响机理——政府形象的中介作用与公众参与的调节效应

锦标赛式的公共投入扩张、以政府购买服务为主的公共服务市场化改革未能明显改善公共服务。本文试图打破从政府内部究"原因"、由供给模式找"突破"的思维定势,分析公共服务供给对公共服务感知绩效的影响,重点考察政府形象的中介作用和公众参与的调节效应。研究发现:公共服务供给对感知绩效具有显著的正向影响,并部分通过政府形象的中介作用产生;相比低程度公众参与,较高程度的公众参与下,公共服务供给对政府形象和感知绩效的正向影响增强,而政府形象对公共服务感知绩效的正向影响减弱。结果表明:公共服务供给特征是公共服务感知绩效的主导因素,良好的政府形象、深入的公众参与能促使公共服务供给更大程度上提升公共服务感知绩效。因此,在加大公共服务投入的同时,应注重改善政府形象、深化公众参与。