scholarly journals The role of public service bargains in cutback management: Insights in reforms in the Dutch penitentiary sector

2019 ◽  
pp. 095207671986979
Author(s):  
Eduard Schmidt

Public managers need to interact with their political principals when managing cutbacks. However, research on cutback management did not put much emphasis on this interaction. We analyse how the interaction between public managers and political principals develops during cutbacks, and how this affects cutback management. We analyse these interactions between political principals and public managers as a public service bargain. This study employs an in-depth qualitative case study on recent cutbacks in the Dutch penitentiary system. The results show that cutbacks put the interaction between public managers and political principals under pressure. As political principals feel that public managers’ loyalty towards them is violated, they centralise decision making. Consequently, public managers are withheld responsibility for cutback management. Strong resistance to cutbacks from public managers and subsequent political uproar leads to both actors having to find a new balance in the bargain. Furthermore, it leads to changes in both the content (what is cut back back) and the process (how are cutbacks decided upon and implemented) of cutback management. The first conclusion of this study and our contribution to the cutback management literature is that if we want to understand the work and behaviour of public managers during cutbacks, we cannot neglect the political context public managers work in. Second, we contribute to the literature on PSBs, as we conclude that cutbacks, even if they do not impact the institutional, formal part of the bargain, have the potential to affect public service bargains and thus, the interactions between public managers and political principals.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Lang

AbstractOrganisations are important gatekeepers in the labour market inclusion of immigrants and their children. Research has regularly documented ethnic discrimination in hiring decisions. Aiming to further our understanding of the role of organisations in influencing the professional trajectories of individuals of immigrant origin, this paper investigates the recruitment practices of public administrations. Drawing on approaches from organisational sociology and a qualitative case study of public administrations in the German state of Berlin, the article identifies three crucial elements of organisational decision-making affecting the recruitment of staff of immigrant origin: decisions regarding advertisement strategies, formal criteria, and individual candidates. Further, the article shows the underlying decision-making rationalities and the role of organisational contexts and ethnic stereotypes for recruitment-related decisions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 902-916
Author(s):  
Irina Deretic

In this paper I will discuss Aristotle?s controversial philosophical views on women. I will critically examine three main interpretations of his claim that women have deliberative faculty ?without authority?. According to the first line of interpretation, Aristotle has in mind that women?s incapacity of advice-giving and decision-making in public affairs are determined by conventions in the political context of his time. I will attempt to point out the disadvantages of this kind of interpretation. Furthermore, I will put forward the reasons why is implausible the more recent interpretation, given by Marguerite Deslauriers. According to her reading, the lack of authority of deliberative faculty in women means nothing else than the tasks over which women have authority are for the purpose of the tasks put forth by men. The prevailing interpretation among scholars is that, in Aristotle?s view, women are naturally inferior to men, due to the fact that they are all too frequently overruled by the irrational ?forces? of their nature. I will argue that this line of interpretation elucidates what Aristotle presumably has in mind, although it makes his account of women and their rationality, if not inconclusive, then indisputably problematic. In other words, I attempt to prove that, if the prevailing line of interpretation is correct, such view of women produces some philosophically ?insurmountable? problems for Aristotle. The aim of the last section of the paper is to point out how some of these problems could eventually be resolved.


Author(s):  
Eva Novrup Redvall ◽  
Katrine Bouschinger Christensen

This article explores the strategies for fictional content of the Danish children’s channel DR Ultra through a qualitative case study of the production framework behind its successful series Klassen (2016–now). Building on studies of television production and theories of co-creation, the analysis investigates the use of co-creative initiatives during the development and writing as well as the production of programmes. The analysis highlights the value of involving children more closely in content targeting them, not only to ensure that what is told and how it is told is relevant and appealing, but also to create a sense of participation and co-creation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1690
Author(s):  
Beniamino Callegari ◽  
Ranvir S. Rai

Organizational ambidexterity is widely recognized as necessary for the economic sustainability of firms operating in the financial sector. While the management literature has recognized several forms of ambidexterity, the relationship between them and their relative merits remain unclear. By studying a process of implementation of ambidextrous capabilities within a large Scandinavian financial firm, we explore the role of top-down reforms and bottom-up reactions in determining the development of sector-specific innovative capabilities. We find that blended ambidexterity follows naturally from the attempt to correct the tensions arising from harmonic ambidextrous blueprints. The resulting blended practice appears to be closely related to the reciprocal model of ambidexterity, which appears to be a necessity rather than a choice, for large firms attempting to develop innovative capabilities. Consequently, we suggest to re-interpret current taxonomies of ambidexterity not as alternative blueprints, but rather as stages in a long-term process of transition.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Amanda K. Winter ◽  
Huong Le ◽  
Simon Roberts

Abstract This paper explores the perception and politics of air pollution in Shanghai. We present a qualitative case study based on a literature review of relevant policies and research on civil society and air pollution, in dialogue with air quality indexes and field research data. We engage with the concept of China's authoritarian environmentalism and the political context of ecological civilization. We find that discussions about air pollution are often placed in a frame that is both locally temporal (environment) and internationally developmentalist (economy). We raise questions from an example of three applications with different presentations of air quality index measures for the same time and place. This example and frame highlight the central role and connection between technology, data and evidence, and pollution visibility in the case of the perception of air pollution. Our findings then point to two gaps in authoritarian environmentalism research, revealing a need to better understand (1) the role of technology within this governance context, and (2) the tensions created from this non-participatory approach with ecological civilization, which calls for civil society participation.


Corpora ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-416
Author(s):  
Tatyana Karpenko-Seccombe

This paper considers the role of historical context in initiating shifts in word meaning. The study focusses on two words – the translation equivalents separatist and separatism – in the discourses of Russian and Ukrainian parliamentary debates before and during the Russian–Ukrainian conflict which emerged at the beginning of 2014. The paper employs a cross-linguistic corpus-assisted discourse analysis to investigate the way wider socio-political context affects word usage and meaning. To allow a comparison of discourses around separatism between two parliaments, four corpora were compiled covering the debates in both parliaments before and during the conflict. Keywords, collocations and n-grams were studied and compared, and this was followed by qualitative analysis of concordance lines, co-text and the larger context in which these words occurred. The results show how originally close meanings of translation equivalents began to diverge and manifest noticeable changes in their connotative, affective and, to an extent, denotative meanings at a time of conflict in line with the dominant ideologies of the parliaments as well as the political affiliations of individuals.


2021 ◽  
pp. 009539972110483
Author(s):  
Youngmin Oh ◽  
Heontae Shin ◽  
Jongsun Park

This study identifies the impacts of different citizen satisfaction signals (positive/negative) on managers’ agreement to use various participation channels. Citizen satisfaction with public service quality plays an essential role in managers’ accountability expectations. Accordingly, it is crucial to examine how public managers use participation mechanisms, reacting to citizen satisfaction signals on public service quality. The results confirm a negativity bias: Managers are more reactive to citizens’ negative signals than a positive signal in their service quality evaluations. However, the negative signal’s effect does not reach the participation tools, where the degree of their decision-making is highly delegated to citizens.


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald L. Ariail ◽  
Joe Durden ◽  
Marilynn Leathart ◽  
Lynette Chapman-Vasill

ABSTRACT The 82 years of accounting evolution that separate the audits of 1928 and 2009 under different accounting and auditing standards are examined through a cross-disciplined case study that compares the historical 1928 and the contemporary 2009 financial statements and the accompanying audit reports of Avondale Estates, Georgia. The 1928 and 2009 reports and financial statements of this municipality, along with the municipality's current budget information accessible over the Internet, can be used in a number of ways to enhance the instruction of governmental accounting at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. In addition to aiding in the teaching of current governmental accounting standards, the case also can be used to give the student a historical perspective on governmental accounting and the accounting profession. By comparing the accounting and reporting standards used in 1928 and 2009, the student will gain an understanding of the evolution of accounting thought. Moreover, the auditors' reports for the two periods illustrate the historical and continuing public service role of the CPA profession as detailed in ET Section 53 of the AICPA Professional Standards (AICPA 2010). Thus, this case study gives the accounting instructor a useful vehicle for teaching accounting history and thought.


2021 ◽  
Vol VI (I) ◽  
pp. 470-476
Author(s):  
Hazrat Bilal ◽  
Shaista Gohar ◽  
Ayaz Ali Shah

An effort has been made to revisit the political participation of Pakhtun women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa former NWFP. The active role in the politics of Pakhtun women was quite difficult due to socio-cultural constraints. In such circumstances a woman from the elite class emerged on the political scene of NWFP; Begum Zari Sarfaraz who not only participated in the independence movement of Pakistan but also participated in politics after the creation of Pakistan and had rendered great services for women folk as members of national and provincial assemblies. The paper shed light on her opposition to One Unit. The paper also investigates the reason that why she quit politics. There is hardly any literature on the role of Begum Zari Sarfaraz in the politics of Pakistan.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document