Stakeholder attributes and attitudes during privatisation: a New Zealand case study

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-174
Author(s):  
Hafsa Ahmed ◽  
David A. Cohen

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on understanding of stakeholder attributes and attitudes towards privatisation. It examines the stakeholder attributes through the framework provided by Mitchellet al.(1997). By combining it with the concept of issue salience proposed by Bundyet al.(2013), it addresses the current gap in research on how stakeholders influence the process of privatisation.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses a process research approach to examine the privatisation process in New Zealand’s electricity industry in order to explore contexts, content and process of change. By collecting real-time data during the period of privatisation, utilising a process approach provided the authors a view of the historical path and associated events which lead to identification of stakeholder attributes and attitudes towards privatisation.FindingsThe research offers a unique insight into stakeholder attributes exhibited by different groups during privatisation. The authors identified that during privatisation the government is the ultimate stakeholder who sets the rules of the game of privatisation by exhibiting the attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency. The attributes exhibited by other stakeholders were transitory and were impacted by issue salience. The authors also identified that stakeholders exhibiting all three attributes (the government) chose a non-response approach to deal with any conflicting issues raised by other stakeholders.Originality/valueThe research examined the new public management emphasis on the privatisation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs)vis-à-visstakeholder groups, utilising the complementary concepts of stakeholder salience and issue salience. This research makes a contribution to stakeholder management theory in the public sector by identifying how various stakeholders influence the process of privatisation of SOEs.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-24
Author(s):  
Nanda Herijal Putra

This study examines about public administration in an Islamic perspective, studies on the system of government of Umar Bin Khattab. The administrative system was not implemented before Nabi Muhammad SAW moved to Medina, after Nabi Muhammad SAW moved from Mecca to Medina, reading and writing activities began to be carried out among the Muslims and to build a government based on Islamic law. The development of the administration was increasingly rapid during the Caliphate of Umar bin Khattab. This research is a type of library research with a research approach using qualitative research methods. Literature research is research that uses data collection techniques by reviewing books, literature, notes and various reports related to the problem to be studied. Public administration as a discipline that is dynamic in accordance with the times. In line with the times, public administration has changed for the better in accordance with the demands of an increasingly complex era. In the western perspective, public administration has experienced developments starting from the old public administration paradigm, new public management, to the new public service. In an Islamic perspective, administration is known as al-idara. Administration in Islam refers to the Qur'an and its interpretations as well as hadiths and syarahs. The sources of interpretation provide an explanation of the signs of the Qur'an whose position exceeds the general rules relating to the order of people's lives. In the context of public services, excellent service is a must and obligation for both the government and the state civil apparatus. Public services are carried out based on Islamic teachings, namely the services provided must be good, honest, quality and trustworthy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michela Arnaboldi ◽  
Irvine Lapsley ◽  
Martina Dal Molin

Purpose This paper aims to examine the trajectory of public management reforms in Italy. This experience indicates the complexity of managerialism in countries with a legalistic system and where public administration cultures have been, and continue to be, embedded in politics. Design/methodology/approach The analysis of managerial reforms in Italy was carried out with a documentary analysis. In addition to official reports and acts of parliament, the analysis was based on monitoring the government websites and innovative channels (e.g. Facebook) which communicated the progress of the later reforms. Findings The paper shows how modernization of public services has been a continuous priority in the agenda of the Italian Government across four phases: an early attempt in the late 1970s; a lively, phase for Italian managerial reforms in the 1990s; a later advocacy in the 2000s of a specific new public management (NPM) element – performance management; an after-crises reform aimed at reducing public expenditure. Originality/value The paper takes a historical and long-term perspective to analyse the success and failure of NPM reforms implementation in Italy. Differently from previous studies, this papers analyses NPM reforms in a longitudinal perspective, to show how the legalistic culture of Italy continues to affect the implementation of NPM reforms.


Author(s):  
E. K. Botlhale

In an era characterised by fiscal stress in the post-global recession era, clichés such as ‘bang for the buck’ are commonplace. Governments are under increasing pressure to spend limited public resources in efficient and  effective ways. Efficient and  effective governments are a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for economic development. Hence, governments have adopted performance-improving interventions such as New Public Management. Botswana jumped into the bandwagon of public sector reforms in the 1990s through interventions such as Performance-based Management Systems. The focus was almost entirely on performance enhancement to the neglect of performance measurement through a result-based Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework. However, in 2009, the government decided to mainstream M&E into the development planning regime. Since the M&E tool is still in draft form, Botswana is very favourably circumstanced to learn from others. Meanwhile essentials to do are: attitudinal change, shared vision on M&E, stakeholder management and demand and use of M&E information by policy-makers such as Members of Parliament.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 340-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Goddard ◽  
Tausi Ally Mkasiwa

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the budgeting practices in the Tanzanian Central Government. New budgeting reforms were introduced following exhortations from the bodies such as the UN, the World Bank and the IMF and reflect the new public management (NPM). Design/methodology/approach A grounded theory methodology was used. This methodology is inductive, allowing phenomena to emerge from the participants rather than from prior theory. This ensures both relevance and depth of understanding. Findings The principal research findings from the data concern the central phenomenon of “struggling for conformance”. Tanzanian Central Government adopted innovations in order to ensure donor funding by demonstrating its ability to implement imposed budgetary changes. Organizational actors were committed to these reforms through necessity and struggled to implement them, rather than more overtly resisting them. Research limitations/implications The research is subject to the usual limitations of case study, inductive research. Practical implications This research has several implications for policy-makers of NPM and budgetary reforms. These include the recognition that the establishment of the rules and regulations alone is not adequate for the successful implementation of budgetary and NPM reforms and should involve a comprehensive view of the nature of the internal and external environment. Originality/value There are few empirical papers of NPM accounting practices being implemented in the public sector of developing countries and none at all based in Tanzania. The paper identifies the existence of struggling to conform to reforms rather than resistance identified in prior research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 255-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ileana Steccolini

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reflect various pathways for public sector accounting and accountability research in a post-new public management (NPM) context. Design/methodology/approach The paper first discusses the relationship between NPM and public sector accounting research. It then explores the possible stimuli that inter-disciplinary accounting scholars may derive from recent public administration studies, public policy and societal trends, highlighting possible ways to extend public sector accounting research and strengthen dialogue with other disciplines. Findings NPM may have represented a golden age, but also a “golden cage,” for the development of public sector accounting research. The paper reflects possible ways out of this golden cage, discussing future avenues for public sector accounting research. In doing so, it highlights the opportunities offered by re-considering the “public” side of accounting research and shifting the attention from the public sector, seen as a context for public sector accounting research, to publicness, as a concept central to such research. Originality/value The paper calls for stronger engagement with contemporary developments in public administration and policy. This could be achieved by looking at how public sector accounting accounts for, but also impacts on, issues of wider societal relevance, such as co-production and hybridization of public services, austerity, crises and wicked problems, the creation and maintenance of public value and democratic participation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 280-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee D. Parker ◽  
Kerry Jacobs ◽  
Jana Schmitz

Purpose In the context of global new public management reform trends and the associated phenomenon of performance auditing (PA), the purpose of this paper is to explore the rise of performance audit in Australia and examines its focus across audit jurisdictions and the role key stakeholders play in driving its practice. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a multi-jurisdictional analysis of PA in Australia to explore its scale and focus, drawing on the theoretical tools of Goffman. Documentary analysis and interview methods are employed. Findings Performance audit growth has continued but not always consistently over time and across audit jurisdictions. Despite auditor discourse concerning backstage performance audit intentions being strongly focussed on evaluating programme outcomes, published front stage reports retain a strong control focus. While this appears to reflect Auditors-General (AGs) reluctance to critique government policy, nonetheless there are signs of direct and indirectly recursive relationships emerging between AGs and parliamentarians, the media and the public. Research limitations/implications PA merits renewed researcher attention as it is now an established process but with ongoing variability in focus and stakeholder influence. Social implications As an audit technology now well-embedded in the public sector accountability setting, it offers potential insights into matters of local, state and national importance for parliament and the public, but exhibits variable underlying drivers, agendas and styles of presentation that have the capacity to enhance or detract from the public interest. Originality/value Performance audit emerges as a complex practice deployed as a mask by auditors in managing their relationship with key stakeholders.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Muhammad

Global competition among universities in the world has become more challenging over years. This makes it demanding not only for universities in Indonesia to create positive improvements but also for the government to adapt with its innovations and policy initiatives. Meanwhile, New Public Management approach which was initially introduced in 1990s has been proposing administrative reforms on the old inefficient bureaucracy. In response to this, universities along with the government have been incorporating some aspects of The New Public Management theory in order for them to strive in global competition. This study seeks to analyze the changing status of Indonesian universities. It further discusses how some aspects of New Public Management are incorporated in university’s administration. This Indonesian case study argues that NPM values has influenced the changing system of universities in Indonesia. NPS still exists partially if not fully, in Indonesian universities despite the problem of public acceptance responding to the government’s policy on university reforms.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gyorgy Hajnal ◽  
Katarina Staronova

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to examine whether the incentivizing type of performance appraisal (typical of New Public Management) has indeed been superseded by a post-New Public Management (NPM), developmental type of performance appraisal in European Civil Services.Design/methodology/approachThe literature review lead to a unidimensional, twofold typology: incentivizing (NPM) and developmental (post-NPM) performance appraisal. The empirical basis of the research is two surveys conducted among top civil servants in 18 European countries.FindingsFirst, there are crucial discrepancies between performance appraisal systems in contemporary European central government administrations and current theorizing on performance appraisal. Contrary to our expectations developed on the basis of the latter, “developmental” and “incentivizing” do not seem to be two distinct types of performance appraisal; rather, they are two independent dimensions, defining altogether four different types of performance appraisal systems.Practical implicationsThe authors results give orientation to policymakers and public service managers to engage in designing or applying performance appraisal systems, in particular by identifying assailable presumptions underlying many present-time reform trends.Social implicationsCitizens and communities are direct stakeholders in the development of public service performance appraisal both as possible or actual employees of public service organizations and as recipients of public services.Originality/valueThe paper proposes a new fourfold typology of performance appraisal systems: incentivizing, developmental, symbolic and want-it-all.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Bigoni ◽  
Warwick Funnell ◽  
Enrico Deidda Gagliardo ◽  
Mariarita Pierotti

PurposeThe study focusses on the complex interaction between ideological beliefs, culture and accounting by identifying during Benito Mussolini's time in power the contributions of accounting to the Italian Fascist repertoire of power in the cultural domain. It emphasises the importance of accounting in making the Alla Scala Opera House in Milan a vital institution in the creation of a Fascist national culture and identity which was meant to define the Fascist “Ethical State”.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts the Foucauldian concept of discourse in analysing the accounting practices of the Alla Scala Opera House.FindingsFinancial statements and related commentaries prepared by the Alla Scala Opera House were not primarily for ensuring good management and the minimisation of public funding in contrast to the practices and expectations of accounting in liberal States. Instead, the dominant Fascist discourse shaped the content and use of accounting and ensured that accounting practices could be a means to construct the Opera House as a “moral individual” that was to serve wider national interests consistent with the priorities of the Fascist Ethical State.Research limitations/implicationsThe study identifies how accounting can be mobilised for ideological purposes in different ways which are not limited to supporting discourses inspired by logics of efficiency and profit. The paper also draws attention to the contributions of accounting discourses in shaping the identity of an organisation consistent with the priorities of those who hold the supreme authority in a society.Social implicationsThe analysis of how the Fascist State sought to reinforce its power by making cultural institutions a critical part of this process provides the means to understand and unmask the taken-for-granted way in which discourses are created to promote power relations and related interests such as in the rise of far-right movements, most especially in weaker and more vulnerable countries at present.Originality/valueUnlike most of the work on the relationship between culture and accounting which has emphasised liberal States, this study considers a non-liberal State and documents a use of accounting in the cultural domain which was not limited to promoting efficiency consistent with the priorities now recognised more recently of the New Public Management. It presents a micro-perspective on accounting as an ideological discourse by investigating the role of accounting in the exploitation of a cultural institution for political purposes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 698-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurdiana Gaus

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of the politicisation of women academics body in higher education as a result of the implementation of audit culture of new public management. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted in Indonesian universities, by conducting interviews to collect data from 20 women academics from two universities in eastern regions of Indonesia. Findings The impacts of audit culture on women academics’ body in this study can be understood from the constraints told by them, reflected on the creation of several types of bodies. Research limitations/implications This paper, though, has some limitations in terms of the inclusion of only women academics, exclusion of male academics and of their limitations of addressing important constructs to elaborate the politicisation of the women body, such as culture, religion, patriarchy, and academic tribes and territories. Practical implications The results of this study are important for the policy maker of Indonesia to take into account “gender perspective” on research productivity and publication policy to effectively obtain the political objectives of the government. For higher education in Indonesia, the result of this study may give an indication of the importance to establish different and distinctive standards of work performance evaluation on research and publication for female and male academics. Originality/value The analysis of this issue is framed within the bipolar diagram of power that seeks to gain political-economic function of the body (bio-power), via a set of control mechanisms of sovereign power to regulate and manipulate the population (bio-politics), developed by Foucault (1984).


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