1,721,048 research outputs found
Managing with a vision
No full textThis chapter focuses on the role and importance of visions in the management of public-sector organizations. The management literature generally defines this rationale as the “mission” of the organization. Mission statements that define an organization are widely believed to be antecedents to the strategic development process. The literature provides a multiplicity of definitions and characteristics of mission statements. The most extensive literature on mission statements is based on the compilation logic, which focuses on a “checklist of items”. The alternative approach is a framework logic, which emphasizes the necessity and coherence of the items that constitute a model or a framework. The distinction between inwards and outwards attention is particularly relevant in public organizations or public-sector services. Regional or local governments usually have a set of obligations and duties to fulfil. A vision can help people to bring their energy and emotion into play at the workplace, sometimes at levels resembling their behaviour during their leisure time
Introduction
No full textIn this chapter management of public services is introduced as a topic. The tasks and general challenges for management are described. Also, the specific setting for public services is elaborated on and discussed. In this uncertain environment management needs to be flexible and responsive to new ideas and practices to fulfil its purpose. The ability to adapt quickly to unpredictable changes in circumstances is crucial. This is not a simple question of selecting the appropriate means to achieve a given end. We argue that this mission requires steering away from recipe management and instead emphasizing and encouraging reflective managers with a critical mindset. The chapter ends with a plan for the rest of the book
Concluding comments : The reflective manager in action
No full textThis conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book argues that a vision can make explicit values and priorities in an organization. It elaborates on the use of strategic cost management and how it can be used, not solely but in connection with other more qualitative data. The book discusses performance management. It elaborates on challenges related to the implementation of information and communications technology (ICT) solutions. The book argues that uncritically introducing branding concepts from the private sector into public services. It focuses on Lean Management questions whether a tool devised by and for a major vehicle manufacturer is also applicable to public services. The book also focuses on resilience explains how resilient management may be constituted and understood by discussing resilience and sensemaking. It describes the risks of risk management
Managing Public services : Making informed decisions
No full textThis book explores innovations in public management, including establishing a corporate vision, strategizing an organisation and change management. Chapters provide a valuable frame of reference for the 21st century manager of public services by assessing the renewal of existing practices such as strategic costing, performance management, digitization and procurement and innovations in management practices including branding, lean management, resilience and risk management. The book suggests that, as the management of public services is imbued with financial, social, economic and political uncertainties, management needs to be flexible and responsive to new ideas and practices to fulfil its purpose. This book ultimately supports the reflective manager, those who think about their job and are open to new ideas on how their job can be done better, by revisiting existing practices and examining innovations in public management. Enriched with real-life cases and thought-provoking discussion questions, this is the ideal textbook for reflective, open-minded advanced students of public management and actual, or aspiring, reflective managers in public services
Public procurement a vehicle for change
No full textIn this chapter, we explore not only the challenges with public procurement, but also how public organization can turn procurement into a useful tool that can help develop quality in public services provision and delivery. There is a belief that public procurement can be an instrument for change. The public sector is a large procurer, and the idea is that if public procurers demand better products or new types of solutions, the market has no choice but to provide more environmentally and socially sustainable products. However, the public sector is not one single unit; the public sector consists of many different organizations each responsible for their own procurement. Consequently, each procuring entity has no advantage against larger suppliers or groups of suppliers on a market. Still, research shows potential for public procurement to be a useful tool for public sector organization to stimulate innovation and the development of new and improved products and services. When discussing public procurement, we draw on literature from business law as well as organizational theory
Brand orientation : Tensions and conflicts in public management
No full textPublic institutions such as cities, the police or schools are increasingly adopting a brand orientation, understood as an approach to organization aiming to create coherence around image and identity, such that consistent, precise and coherent messages can be presented about the organization to internal and external stakeholders. This may be seen as an expression of what is sometimes called “brand society,” meaning that branding affects ever more aspects of human life, including public sector organizations (Kornberger, 2010). Similar to other management techniques – like Lean Management or TQM – branding has its roots in private organizations. Although private and public organizations may gain from exchanging management practices, it also creates tensions between corporate and civic rationales and practices. For instance, whereas the corporate branding ideal is to seek to reduce complexity via a coherent or unified identity and presentation to customers, public organizations are complex and must communicate with and serve a diverse public (Wæraas, 2008). In the wake of this development toward brand orientation, it is important to understand intended and unintended consequences for organizations, public employees, citizens and other stakeholders
Strategizing : At a new crossroads?
No full textFinding ways to use limited resources to reach ambitious visions, what we call strategizing, is always a challenge. Possibly, the challenge is greater in public sector organizations aiming to fulfil a political vision for a future society. It is more challenging because public services have many and varied stakeholders and institutional arrangements and deliver different kinds of services and products to society. This is a demanding situation to manage. When adding a general shift towards higher complexity in some of the strategic contexts in which public services operate, the process of strategizing becomes even more demanding and complex. This shift in complexity can be interpreted as a new crossroads, making it increasingly important for managers to be aware of the conditions for strategizing given the contexts they operate in.The chapter analyses how managers understand the context and concepts of strategy by elaborating on a continuum of contexts, with a rational strategic environment at one end and a systemic strategic environment at the other end. Those two endpoints also affect how to think; is it possible to work with rigid analyses of vast amounts of data, or is strategic thinking shaped by an apparent lack of unambiguous data and the unknown future? Two approaches to acting strategically are introduced: a hierarchically based approach and a more dialogue-based approach. The chapter ends with a mind-map managers can use in positioning their strategic context to help them understand the consequences for strategizing public services
Rethinking performance management
No full textMany public sector managers and professionals perceive performance measurement as an administrative burden with limited benefits. Numbers are collected for other people's purposes. At worst, poorly incentivized indicators force managers and professionals to take actions that go against the overall objectives of the organization. Professionals in sectors such as healthcare, education and social services argue that they are subject to tight control that signals distrust and decreases their own motivation. Policy interest has recently turned towards new governance approaches in the public sector, allowing for a higher degree of professional autonomy and participatory processes. This change in governance has implications for performance management. Rather than being a tool for central control, the purpose of performance measurement is to support learning and the initiation of improvement work locally. This chapter offers guidance to several design questions that emerge when performance measurement is used for such purposes. Questions that will be discussed include what to measure, the role of targets, best approaches to feedback and implications for managers at different levels. A key question, considered in more detail, is the role of social interaction and how audits and meetings in different forms can strengthen both incentives to learn and change as well as the outcome of the process. The chapter also discusses what might realistically be expected if performance measurement is used to support learning given the different conditions that exist across public services. This chapter offers guidance to several design questions that emerge when performance measurement is used for such purposes. It discusses what might realistically be expected if performance measurement is used to support learning given the different conditions that exist across public services. The search for cultural control in ancient nomadic tribes or communities specified by geographical or other borders, or more technocratic forms of control within large organizations employing thousands of people, is a common thread through history. King Hammurabi carved laws for the Babylonian empire into stone columns. Fixation on target achievement when monitoring activities, without due regard to policy and operational outcomes. A general advice in the management literature is to develop a balanced score card combining both financial and non-financial measures. The "dark side" of coercive control and extrinsic incentives has been extensively researched
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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