International Public Management Review
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Reform of Program Budgeting in the Department of Defense
Get PDFIn this article we conduct a process analysis to assess evidence to test the following hypothesis: that the complicated architecture and processes of national defense planning, programming, budgeting and execution and the defense acquisition decision system lead to unintended and negative consequences for defense acquisition and procurement. The purpose of this article is to identify key points of linkage weakness or failure between Department of Defense (DOD) financial management and acquisition decision systems. We first describe the PPB system and decision process. We then provide an analysis of recent changes to PPB. Next, we describe the Defense Acquisition System (DAS) in detail. This leads us to identification of systems linkages and areas of misalignment between PPBES and the DAS, drawing on interview data. Finally, we provide conclusions with respect to our hypothesis, analysis of consequent key problems and issues, and areas that require further research
Wicked Problems and Network Approaches to Resolution
Get PDFGovernment officials and public managers are encountering a class of problems that defy solution, even with our most sophisticated analytical tools. These problems are called “wicked” because they have the following characteristics: 1). There is no definitive statement of the problem; in fact, there is broad disagreement on what ‘the problem’ is. 2). Without a definitive statement of the problem, the search for solutions is open ended. Stakeholders – those who have a stake in the problem and its solution – champion alternative solutions and compete with one another to frame ‘the problem’ in a way that directly connects their preferred solution and their preferred problem definition. 3). The problem solving process is complex because constraints, such as resources and political ramifications, are constantly changing. 4). Constraints also change because they are generated by numerous interested parties who “come and go, change their minds, fail to communicate, or otherwise change the rules by which the problem must be solved” (Conklin and Weil, no date: 1)
Knowledge Transfer in Local Governments: A Cultural Challenge for Internal Auditors
Get PDFDuring the last two decades, public sector experienced a number of management, accounting and policy changes. As a consequenc e the actors role had to meet the new accountability and responsibility requirements. The article aims at analyzing the role of internal audit committee in the Italian local government context and the attitude of auditors to transfer managerial culture to public authorities. Thus, the survey conduced over the auditors technical, human and conceptual attributes allows to underline the important strength and weakness auditors have as ‘agent of change’
All the King's Horses and All the King's Men: Putting New Zealand's Public Sector Back Together Again
Get PDFIn January 2003 the New Zealand government announced that it intended to redress the fragmentation of the state sector that was brought about by the radical state sector reforms of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Eschewing any “big bang” restructuring, over the next five years it proposes to enhance “coordination” among government agencies -- by means that may include the establishment of “circuit-breaker teams” and up to ten “super networks” to manage the proliferation of central government organizations. It proposes to reverse in some instances the policy/operational split that was imposed by the reforms, and seeks to achieve better integration between operational “outputs” and policy “outcomes.” This article discusses the suitability of these suggestions, in the light of a recent report by a government advisory group. This report examines what are, in fact, major flaws in the original reforms yet suggests remedies on the assumption that they are not. The case raises more general questions about the relationship between the theoretical bases of public sector reform, on the one hand, and practical experience on the other
Book Review
Get PDFBook Review: Graham Scott, 2001. Public Sector Management in New Zealand: Lessons and Challenges.Wellington, Australian National University, 407 pages
Ashizawa, K. (2013). Japan, the U.S., and Regional Institution-building in the New Asia: When Identity Matters. Palgrave Macmillan.
Get PDFManagerial Challenges and Tasks in Multirational Public Organizations
Get PDFThis paper explores multirationality of public organizations from the perspective of systems theory. In the tradition of this theoretical approach, it focuses on how communication may be used in explaining and understanding the hybridity of these organizations. It argues that faced with a variety of different rationalities of function systems in their environment, public organizations are responding, inter alia, by becoming more complex internally. In other words, they import different rationalities from their environment into their own house. Classifying public organizations as being comprised of highly autonomous subsystems, where each subsystem uses a specific type of specialized communication to process a subsystem specific rationality, this paper sheds light on associated tensions and conflicts within public organizations. It discusses managerial challenges and tasks deriving from multirationality within public organizations. The paper finally concludes that proper communication requires greater theoretical and practical consideration when explaining and dealing with conflicts stemming from the hybridity of public organizations
How Fiscally Distressed Local Government Authorities Can Create Public Value
Get PDFFiscally distressed local governments face a critical challenge – how to create and deliver public value and sustain it. Drawing from the works of Porter (1995) and Moore (1995), this study highlights the concept of organizational strategy and the need to look into the “hidden” strategic advantages of fiscally distressed local authorities as a coherent approach for creating and delivering public value. To this end, case studies of local authorities in Israel that had been scrutinized by an investigation committee appointed by the Ministry of Interior were analyzed. This investigation committee eventually suggested replacing the heads of the local authorities with temporary nominated management committees until new elections were conducted. Findings on value creation are provided in the conclusions
Giving Out But Not Giving Up: The Port of Lisbon Authority (1907-2005)
Get PDFThis article explores the way government has been managing the antagonism between institutional forces towards efficiency and those towards control in the international seaport of Lisbon. We conclude that the antagonism emerges in the presence of certain institutional forces, like economic downturns and political changes, that stimulate the adoption of new adequate templates. Governments have come to manage this antagonism through the separation between the strategic and operational structures, and by controlling strategic issues while giving operational autonomy. As such, organizational transformations have reflected this way to manage the antagonism. Given the emergence of new institutional templates (e.g. corporate governance) we also identify major challenges governments will face to integrate contradictory institutional forces
Importing Governance into the Thai Polity: Competing Hybrids and Reform Consequences
Get PDFThe author argues that the import of the idea of “governance” into the Thai polity has resulted in several competing interpretations. The body of knowledge on governance in Thailand is not yet well-developed. Chaos and contradictions are characteristics of the field of study. First, the author explains the six interpretations of governance: the new democracy or democratic governance, good governance, the efficiency perspective, the Ten Guiding Principles for the King, the Thaksin system, and the ethical issue interpretation. Second, the author discusses the four reform consequences arisen from the import of governance: the difficulty in determining which is the correct prototype of governance; the problem from cloning deformed hybrids; the confrontation among competing hybrids; and the appropriate level of analysis for the concept of governance