International Public Management Review
Not a member yet
328 research outputs found
Sort by
Managing Organisational Change: The Experience of Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) of Ghana
Full text linkThe need for change in the public service is widely recognized by the public, professionals and government. In most recent times, reforms under the influence of the New Public Management (NPM) have been driven by a combination of economic, social, political and technological factors, which have triggered the quest for efficiency and effectiveness in delivering public services. A qualitative approach was adopted where respondents were interviewed. The study revealed that the changes such as the introduction of public-private-partnership and banking services have significantly transformed the activities of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) in terms of service delivery. The change that occurred at DVLA is a transformational one in the sense that it changed the structure of the organisation granting it more autonomy in the discharge of its functions. The process has not been an easy despite the successes chalked so far. It is self-evident that public sector institutions need to always adopt an approach to change which incorporates both the structural and cultural aspects of change, and which recognises the need to appreciate and address extensively the issues raised by employees
Does Citizen Participation in Local Government Decision-Making Contribute to Strengthening Local Planning and Accountability Systems? An Empirical Assessment of Stakeholders’ Perceptions in Nepal
Full text linkCitizen participation in local government is usually considered to be an important mechanism for achieving development gains, strengthening local accountability, and empowering citizens. Using exploratory interviews and focused discussions, this study examines qualitatively the role of citizen participation in local government decision-making and its contribution towards strengthening local planning and accountability systems in Nepal. The findings show that participation strengthened local planning and accountability systems, but that it was also linked to some potential negative outcomes. Outcomes varied depending on the participation structures and other factors, for example, local power and politics, incentives for participation, the capacity of citizens and local governments, and the level of support from elected representatives. These findings suggest that the relationship between citizen participation and participation outcomes is rather complex and dynamic, and that effective participation often depends on the building agency of marginalized groups, the mobilization of citizens, and on the establishment of vibrant social networks, all of which produce forces that may have various impacts on the effectiveness of participation
The Urban-Rural Gap in Governance and Public Administration: Evidence from Vietnam
Full text linkThe relationship between development and governance is a central question in the public administration literature on developing countries. Yet, we still understand little about the gap between urban and rural governance in these nations. Our paper tackles this issue using the novel Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI). PAPI is Vietnam’s largest nationwide survey, and it is considers six dimensions of local public administration, including participation, transparency, accountability, corruption control, administrative procedures, and public service delivery. Using a small area estimation approach we present three new findings. First, urban citizens report better local governance and public administration than rural citizens do. Second, districts with better reported governance tend to have a smaller urban-rural public administration gap. Third, this gap follows a U-shaped pattern, decreasing initially and then increasing slightly as local living standards rise. These findings have implications for priorities in public administration reforms
Performance Management: A Guide for City Leaders
Full text linkWe are pleased to present, Performance Management: A Guide for City Leaders, a report written and published as a service to NLC members and all cities. This guide presents an overview of existing performance management best practices with an eye toward the future of service delivery in cities. We also aim to empower more city leaders to launch performance management programs in their own cities.Performance management and data analytics in general are key aspects of the continued shift toward data-driven decision-making in cities nationwide. Data-driven decisions help local governments provide city services that are efficient, effective and driven by community priorities. The value of making data- driven decisions is imperative as many cities continue to face the post-recession realities of decreased city revenues, limited intergovernmental aid and reduced municipal workforces. At the same time, there is a growing trend towards openness and making the inner workings of municipal governments more accountable and transparent.Looking to the future, as advanced data analytics and open data become more prevalent in cities, there will be more opportunities to prepare and predict service needs of constituents. We plan to continue highlighting the importance of this epochal shift in city governance through our City of the Future initiative that seeks to advise cities on coming trends and opportunities. Within the Center for City Solutions and Applied Research we strive to strengthen communities, transform and improve cities and assist city leaders.Performance Management: A Guide for City Leaders was developed through staff interviews and surveys with a cross-section of large cities across the United States. This work was supported financially by a grant to the National League of Cities Institute by The Pew Charitable Trusts. We join the authors in thanking the city officials who helped make this work possible, and welcome comments and thoughts from readers, as we continue to work to help city leaders lead
Escaping the “Capability Trap”: Turning “Small” Development into “Big” Development
Full text linkThe international development community has been grappling with how to overcome challenges in the implementation of development programs and, consequently, with the design of practical models and approaches that can assist in delivering on program objectives. This paper contributes to the emerging discussion around the development of a “science of delivery” by presenting one proven approach - Leadership for Results (L4R) – that supports leadership and implementation to improve service delivery in developing countries. The engagement documented in Burundi provides practical experience that exemplifies what it means to tackle development through ‘problem driven iterative adaptation’ (PDIA).[i]This sustained leadership capacity development program, supported with close engagement at the implementation levels, has facilitated the government’s own home-grown efforts to lead and manage the reform of their public sector. The outcome is that the government is now better enabled to hasten the process of developing its own implementation capacity over the long-term.[i] See Andrews et al (2012) for a discussion of the PDIA and Andrews (2013) for its relevance to institutional reforms
Using Complex Supply Theory to Create Sustainable Public-Private Partnerships for Service Delivery: The Case of Sesame Workshop
Full text linkThis paper analyzes the potential uses of complex supply theory to create more financially and institutionally sustainable partnerships in support of public-sector and nonprofit service deliveries. It considers current work in the field of operations theory on optimizing supply chain efficiency by conceptualizing such chains as complex adaptive systems, and offers a theoretical framework that transposes these ideas to the public sector. This framework is then applied to two case studies of financially and organizationally sustainable projects run by the nonprofit Sesame Workshop. This research is intended to contribute to the body of literature on the science of delivery by introducing the possibility of a new set of tools from the private sector that can aid practitioners in delivering services for as long as a project requires
Bridging the Gap Between Reform Practices and Literatures: New Public Service Delivery of Japanese Local Governments
Full text linkMany Japanese local governments introduced New Public Management (NPM) in the mid/late nineties. Most of them introduced performance measurement, programme evaluation, customer satisfaction surveys, outsourcing and/or contracting out to the private sector, revision of public service delivery, PFI, and PPP (Kudo, 2003). Local public services have been mostly outsourced to private and social sectors.After a decade of these experiences, some municipalities have started to distance themselves from the NPM-driven managerial style. After monitoring and evaluating their performance and considering customer satisfaction, some decided not to renew contracts to their private partners, to bring the service back to public administration, or to introduce new forms of collaboration between public and private sectors, mainly based on proposals from the private sector.The author has been taking part in a research group, which previously surveyed the financial situation of Japanese local governments and their managerial choices (Kudo, 2010) and recently conducted an extensive survey among municipalities to see if they were either in favour of NPM oriented managerial styles or if they were introducing New Public Governance (NPG) oriented (Osborne, 2006; Bovaird, 2007) approaches. Some ways to understand this shift are: 1) putting more importance on citizen participation than cost cutting; 2) preference of PPP to simple outsourcing; and 3) consideration of political accountability (Bakvis and Jarvis, 2012) in administrative implementations. The questioners turn to mayors and financial directors to understand the political as well as economic influences on these choices.The results of the survey and some interviews conducted with mayors and public servants show that some municipalities have shifted from NPM-driven management to public service delivery based on NPG (Pestoff, 2011), although they are rarely aware of the theoretical transition. The examples are small in number, and do not necessary confirm the theoretical framework of public service delivery under NPG (Hartley, 2005), since the reasons of these shifts vary among municipalities.The experiences of Japanese local government would make an interesting lesson for many countries with late introduction of NPM. Japanese NPM demonstrates several characteristics: 1) its NPM has been introduced with some elements of public governance without being recognised; 2) very strong and still dominant attention on NPM; and 3) less attention on NPG, since NPM results in self-reform and learning process of public servants, especially at the local level (Kudo, 2010). The paper analyses the results of the survey in relation to the Japanese literatures on public governance
Ghana’s Policy Making: From Elitism and Exclusion to Participation and Inclusion?
Full text linkIn its 57 years of nationhood, Ghana witnessed 22 years of military rule, 6 years of one-party government and 29 years of democratic reign. Policy making under the one-party and military regimes was exclusionary with the rulers alone making public policies. Because the military and one-party regimes’ approach to policy making was elitist and exclusionary this: left stakeholders with little or no opportunity to make input; failed to consider important constituencies and points of view; created implementation difficulties and raised questions surrounding the legitimacy of public decisions. In contrast, constitutional rule democratizes policy making; increases problem solution options; smoothens policy implementation; and legitimizes public decisions. Two cases: the Review of the 1992 Constitution and the Reform to the Social Security System are used to test this supposition. The evidence shows that a consensual approach to policy-making has emerged since Ghana’s return to democratic rule in 1993. This paradigm shift has improved the design and implementation of public policies and programs in Ghana. Nevertheless, the situation is far from satisfactory because marginalized and unorganized groups still suffer alienation; official actors still have a stronger urge over non authoritative players in participatory episodes; and elected and appointed participants still have informational advantage over their non state counterparts. Together these minutiae adversely affect the quality and effectiveness of participation and this throws into question the legitimacy of the democratic governance project in Ghana
