scholarly journals Lost in transition? The personal and professional challenges for probation leaders engaged in delivering public sector reform

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Millings ◽  
Lol Burke ◽  
Gwen Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Transformational Change ◽  
Senior Management ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Senior Managers ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Management Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Community

The outsourcing and transfer of labour in the contexts of policing, prisons and courts illustrate that, even in a national context, these transitions are not uniform. Rather, there are a diverse set of ‘privatisation journeys’ that can be taken and that need to be understood. Our focus in this article is on the experience of probation leaders who, under the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reform programme, were charged with stewarding their organisation from the public sector, through a 10-month transitional period, and into the full relinquishing of ownership to the private sector. It is an account of how, with no clear ‘transition and transformation’ precedent to follow, a locally-based senior management team from one probation trust engaged with the task of implementing organisational change during a period of great uncertainty. We explore managers’ engagement with the language, working styles and vision of engineering transformational change and how they processed and began to articulate the challenges of new ownership, both for themselves (as individuals) and for their organisation (as a collective). We examine the resilience of the organisational culture at senior management level; the operational dynamism of leaders to embrace change; and the extent to which senior managers felt able to participate in, and take ownership of, the new Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) they were charged with forming.

New perspective on the black box of internal auditing and organisational change

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (8/9) ◽  
pp. 804-820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aviv Kidron ◽  
Yuval Ofek ◽  
Herztel Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Internal Auditing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Internal Auditors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Innovative Model ◽  
Audit Information

Purpose The shift from the traditional audit towards performance audit implies that internal auditors in the public sector function as change agents who underpin the fundamental change process. This paper aims to propose a model that identifies the determinants of organisational change in the public sector that result from internal auditing and the way internal auditors facilitate it. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual discussion of this paper is based on a review of relevant literature, both practical and academic. Findings This paper develops an innovative model that describes the factors leading to auditees’ change readiness after undergoing internal audit processes. The independent variable is audit information quality and the dependent variable, organisational change. Auditees’ perceptions is the mediator variable, and accessibility to audit information is the moderator variable. Practical implications The proposed model suggests the advantages that can be gained by audit-related services, which in turn will add value to the organisation. The relationships between the variables inform practitioners on how to support effective audits as a means of increasing performance and influencing organisational change. Originality/value As the paper offers an innovative model, it may open up new research areas in internal auditing that can be studied by using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Leadership of change in South Africa public sector turnarounds

2018 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mampe Kumalo ◽  
Caren Brenda Scheepers
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Director General ◽  
Change Processes ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Financial Consequences

PurposeOrganisational decline has far-reaching, negative emotional and financial consequences for staff and customers, generating academic and practitioner interest in turnaround change processes. Despite numerous studies to identify the stages during turnarounds, the findings have been inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to address the gap by defining these stages, or episodes. The characteristics of leaders affect the outcome of organisational change towards turnarounds. This paper focusses, therefore, on the leadership requirements during specific episodes, from the initial crisis to the full recovery phases.Design/methodology/approachA total of 11 semi-structured interviews were conducted with executives from the public sector in South Africa who went through or were going through turnaround change processes and 3 with experts consulting to these organisations.FindingsContrary to current literature in organisational change, this study found that, in these turnaround situations, leadership in the form of either an individual CEO or director general was preferable to shared leadership or leadership distributed throughout the organisation. This study found four critical episodes that occurred during all the public service turnarounds explored, and established that key leadership requirements differ across these episodes. The study shows how these requirements relate to the current literature on transactional, transformational and authentic leadership.Practical implicationsThe findings on the leadership requirements ultimately inform the selection and development of leaders tasked with high-risk turnaround change processes.Originality/valueFour episodes with corresponding leadership requirements were established in the particular context of public sector turnaround change processes.

Public Sector Reform and the Public Servant

2021 ◽  
pp. 359-379
Author(s):  
Avery Poole ◽  
Janine O’Flynn ◽  
Patrick Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Sector Reform ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Servant

The impact of management control systems on organisational change and performance in the public sector

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-495
Author(s):  
Nuraddeen Abubakar Nuhu ◽  
Kevin Baird ◽  
Ranjith Appuhami
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Dynamic Capabilities ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Management Control ◽  
Employee Empowerment ◽  
Strategic Flexibility ◽  
Interactive Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
And Performance

Purpose This study aims to examine the role of organisational dynamic capabilities (strategic flexibility and employee empowerment) in mediating the relationship between management control systems (MCSs), in particular the interactive and diagnostic approaches to using controls, with organisational change and performance. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected based on a mail survey of public sector organisations in Australia and analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). Findings The findings indicate that strategic flexibility and employee empowerment mediate the association between the interactive approach to MCSs with organisational performance, and strategic flexibility mediates the relationship between the interactive approach to MCSs with organisational change. Practical implications The study’s findings inform public sector practitioners as to how to enact change within and enhance the performance of public sector organisations. Specifically, managers are advised to focus on the use of interactive controls and the development of two dynamic organisational capabilities, strategic flexibility and employee empowerment. Originality/value The study provides an initial empirical insight into the relation between controls and dynamic capabilities and their role in enacting change and performance within the public sector. The findings suggest that the achievement of new public management ideals is reliant upon the organisational environment, with change and performance facilitated by the interactive use of controls and strategic flexibility and employee empowerment.

Towards formalisation: The organisation of work in the public and private sectors in Nordic countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-333
Author(s):  
Timo Anttila ◽  
Tomi Sakari Oinas ◽  
Armi Mustosmäki
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Cost Reduction ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Work Organisation ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
European Working ◽  
Everyday Work ◽  
Public And Private Sector

According to European comparative studies, organisational change and restructuration have been especially prevalent in Nordic countries. In particular, public-sector organisations have been under turbulence due to pressures for cost reduction and increased efficiency. Yet, not much is known about how these changes have affected the organisation of everyday work. Based on the three waves of European Working Conditions surveys (2000, 2005, 2010), this paper analyses the change in the organisation of work in Nordic countries. The aim is to look into types of work organisation in public- and private-sector organisations in Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. The questions asked are how the type of work organisation differs between sectors and to what extent are there changes in the prevalence of work organisation types. According to the results, the trend is a move away from the use of forms of work organisation characterised by high levels of learning and autonomy to more constrained or formalised forms. However, differences were also found between countries and sectors. The formalisation of work (i.e. features characteristic especially of the lean model of work organisation) is more common in the public sector and in Finland and Denmark compared to Sweden.

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