International Public Management Review
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Governance of Public-Private Corporations in Provision of Local Italian Utilities
Get PDFThis work proposes to examine the governance structure of public-private corporations that manage local utilities (water, energy and multi-utility) in Italy. The objective is the verification, from a qualitative point of view, that the governance structure adequately guarantees the reconciliation of interests of different categories of shareholders (public and private), as local public service corporations increases their own shareholding basis by involving financial and industrial shareholders who bring with them both financial and industrial interests. The work shows that the corporate governance structure is one important tool in the end of the public owner in order to steer and control the public and private corporations
Public Administration in the Age of Globalization
Get PDFThis article explores why some countries have benefited far more from globalization than others, how public administration systems have responded differentially to the challenge of globalization, and what kinds of limitations of public administration responding to global forces beyond public administration systems exist. Many developing countries have benefited less from globalization because they have considerable disadvantages in the global marketplace in addition to weak public administration systems. Those countries have fewer resources and less effective economic or political systems to put on the table in the global marketplace. The concern is the nature of globalization and the global market systems beyond public administration systems in addition to the limitations of public administration responding to those factors. Additionally, it is questionable whether rapidly developing countries, including the East Asian and Eastern European countries, have benefited from globalization due to transitioning public administration systems
Quality of Government and Poverty: Factors in Mexico Fueling Illegal Immigration to the United States: Lessons for Developing and Developed Nations based on the Chilean Experience
Get PDFThe kidnaping, rape, mutilation, and murder of more than 400 women and girls in Juárez, Mexico since l993 expose the dismal weakness of all the institutions responsible for criminal investigation, prosecution, prevention, and justice. If the inept handling of the femicides were confined to Juárez, that would be tragic enough. However, the 2007 report of Amnesty International suggests that this is a national situation, with implications for Mexican poverty and the pressure to illegally migrate. A theory of national poverty (political elasticity theory) is put forward to link injustice in Juárez to Mexican poverty and illegal immigration, suggesting that Mexico is politically inelastic, without the capacity to effectively decentralize (like a rubber band) and to influence and control national behavior (like a balloon). Corruption is therefore uncontrollable (i.e., secondary in nature) and forms of decentralization cannot be used to facilitate business and rural development. At the conclusion, a comparison with Chile is made, indicating that, because it is far less corrupt than Mexico, its globalization efforts have been far more effective than those of Mexico in improving living conditions for the majority of its population
Symposium on Trust and Governance Institutions: Asian Experiences
Get PDFThe concept of “social capital” has been one of the mostly discussed topics in the field of social sciences. Putnam (1993: 167) perceived social capital as the most important element for improving the “efficiency of society by facilitating coordinated actions, and the notion of “trust” is one of the defining features of social capital. In his study, Putnam (1993) was able to demonstrate that the different stocks of social capital can better explain the variations in the level of performance among Italian local governments. It can be argued that “trust” is an important ingredient in the process of governance
Public-Private Partnerships and Urban Infrastructure Development in Southeast Asia
Get PDFPublic-private partnerships (PPPs) are arrangements between government and private sector entities for the purpose of providing public infrastructure, community facilities and related services. PPP infrastructure development can take place at a regional level on a large scale, such as a cross country tunnel construction or on a small scale at an urban level such as city waste water treatment and sewerage rehabilitation. The purpose of this article is to identify issues and challenges in the area of public-private partnerships for infrastructure provision and finance at the urban and national levels in Southeast Asia. More thought will be given to discuss essential features of regulatory and legal frameworks required to support public and private sectors to effectively deliver urban infrastructure services. These include building legal frameworks and institutions at the outset; introducing sound regulations to protect private sector investment; using contractual safeguards against potentially disputable matters; and implementing governance and accountability frameworks. It also offers some insights into the regulatory and surveillance machinery required at a national-urban PPP setting to ensure effectiveness, fairness and openness for executing urban infrastructure development projects. Reviews of impediments to successful PPPs have indicated several prevailing issues and challenges. Urban local authorities often encounter overlapping regulations and still need adequate clarity on their roles and authority levels. For central governments, there is a real need for a comprehensive and consistent regulatory framework and a more streamlined process for implementation of PPP projects
The Process of Formation and Development of Organizational Competences in a Brazilian Public Sector Institution
Get PDFThe study of organizational competences has shown that, even according to the Resource-Based View – RBV - which characterizes itself for the most proficient convergence of studies about the collective and synergetic perspective of the relationship between resources and capability, we find little empirical research that investigates the internal configuration and dynamic of these elements. In this study we have tried to emphasize the composition and the relational dynamic of the organizational competences (OCs). From the presentation and analysis of different frameworks that comprise the theoretical basis for this article, the main focus was on the analysis of the formation and development process of organizational competences in a Judiciary Institution. The method used is the case study with an exploratory approach. The results of the research identify three important organizational competences in the institution as well as the elements that comprise them. In addition, the analysis emphasizes the interrelationship between these elements and the competences, which leads to the mapping of the formation and development of these competences throughout the time. Using this mapping technique, together with the theoretical fundament, a new framework is proposed. This new framework defines the composition of the subject OCs identified in the study in a way that is intended for empirical and theoretical application
Organizational Change as a Strategic Tool: The Case of a Public Organization in Brazil
Get PDFAt the Instituto de Pesquisa Clínica Evandro Chagas, a public research institute, a purposeful organizational change restructured productive activities into the form of Integrated Action Programs (briefly, PAIs). Taking into account the complexity of the new format, this article defines and computes managerial indicators to temporally assess those programs. Several optimization models were specified, considering efficiency frontiers with either constant or variable returns to scale. Findings suggest that PAIs are consistent with a pro-efficiency strategic path between 2002 and 2006. To that extent both the choice of PAIs as an organizational format and the adopted strategy may be considered successful
Book Review: Janice Perlman, 2010. Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro. New York: Oxford University Press.
Get PDFIn this book the author discusses her experience over forty years (1968-2008) of systematically observing residents of low income communities (“favelas”) in Rio de Janeiro, by way of some 2.500 interviews with residents and ex-residents. These interviews covered: the way they lived, their wishes, aspirations dreams, and expectations regarding life in the “favela”, and changes which took place, such as social advance. In addition to field observations, Janice (the author) reports on her contacts with several Brazilian intellectuals involved in social affairs, such as Ruth Cardoso (late wife of ex- President Cardoso), Carlos Lessa, Alba Zaluar, Lu Peterson, Sergio Besserman, Herbert de Souza, among other influential authors involved with poverty studies in Brazil
Work in Progress: Evaluating and Providing Solutions for Self-Leadership
No full textThe basic principle of team leadership within an organization is self-leadership. This is because leadership of the self within a team is so important. Self leadership can be defined as self-knowing, self-awareness, self-management and self-discipline: each of these components assists in the implementation of leadership within the organization. The goal of this paper is to analyze the components of self-leadership. This study is applicative in its goals, and statistical in implementation. All of the personnel of Payam Noor University- Kangavar branch in 2011-2012 were chosen as the statistical branch. 44 of 55 people were chosen as the sample size. A self-leadership questionnaire with 18 questions and reliability coefficient of 70% was used to collect data. Further data analysis was conducted with using a T-test; the research demonstrated that there is a significant correlation between the self-leadership components of Payam Noor University personnel
Essay Review: New Public Management in New Zealand: The Past, Present and Future
Get PDFAlmost three decades ago, the world of Public Policy and Administration (PPA) was rocked by New Public Management (NPM), a liberal gospel advocating the application of business administration models to the management of public services in lieu of the old ‘monolithic” and hierarchical neo-weberian ideal type. But nowhere than in the “Land of the Long White Cloud”, did NPM find a more fertile ground (Pollitt and Bouckaert 2004, Ryan and Gill 2011: 306). To quote Evert Lindquist, while the UK only took new “steps” and the US set on “re-inventing” its machinery of government, New Zealand launched a “revolution” (2011: pp. 46-84). Praised and flaunted around the world by the Bretton Woods Institutions, the country became known as the “Land of New Public Management” and Wellington, its capital, a site of pilgrimage for government practitioners seeking advice (Schick 1998: 123).Since then, to paraphrase Castles et al., the “Great Experiment” has continued to fascinate. But while we know the fine grain of this “bureaucratic phenomenon”, its broader picture especially after the mid-1990s is still unclear. In the words of Berman, “Generalizable links among their findings remain sparse and thin” (2001: 231). This review article attempts to connect the dots by analyzing four books that offer an in-depth account of the reform program but were published at different time-distances.The first, Public Management: The New Zealand Model dates from 1996, shortly after the virtual end of the experiment and was written by a team of academics led by Jonathan Boston, a keen observer of public policy in New Zealand. The second, Remaking New Zealand and Australian Economic Policy by Shaun Goldfinch, another academic was published in 2000 and is cast in a comparative perspective. The third, Public Management in New Zealand: Lessons and Challenges was published in 2001 by an insider, Graham Scott, the Secretary General of the powerful New Zealand Treasury from 1986 to 1993. The fourth, Future State, Directions for Public Management in New Zealand was published in 2011 and co-edited by Bill Ryan and Derek Gill. It recoups ideas from academics and policy practitioners who were asked by the State Services Commission, a public service watchdog to conceptualize the future state in a context marked by financial cuts, demands for more democratic accountability and complex challenges.The books are reviewed along four dimensions: policy change, policy content, policy outcomes and future trends. Relevant questions are: Where did the reforms originate? What are their characteristics (defining and secondary)? How successful was the model? What is its current state and the path laying ahead? The books are cross-referred and where necessary supplemented by additional literature.