Assessing socio-technical resistance to public policy instruments: Insights from water performance indicators in the Grenoble area (France)

2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442098656
Author(s):  
Thomas Bolognesi ◽  
Antoine Brochet ◽  
Yvan Renou
Keyword(s):  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Governance Process ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Public Policy Instruments

This article puts forward the notion of socio-technical resistance with an application to the regulation through performance indicators in the water sector. Governance failures are mainly explained by concentrating on governance design, considering regulation as a set of control mechanisms. We propose an alternative perspective by putting the emphasis on socio-technical resistance to take into account both human and non-human actors in the governance process. We observe the misuse of performance indicators by local actors in urban water systems in Europe to highlight the empirical significance of socio-technical resistance. Results support that socio-technical resistance is frequent and reduces significantly the reliability of the information gathered through performance indicators. Drawing on a new typology of resistance, we show socio-technical resistance is a dynamic combination of cognitive, interpretative, territorial, strategic, technical and structural factors. These results and the proposed notion underline a crucial limitation of public policies and regulation in the process of policy-instruments implementation and compliance. Empirically, it reveals particularly relevant to provide new insights on New public management and performance-based regulation, where measurement are crucial.

scholarly journals “Deliverology” and Evaluation: A Tale of Two Worlds

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Birch ◽  
Steve Jacob
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Innovative Method ◽  
New Public ◽  
Permanent Campaign ◽  
And Performance ◽  
New Policies ◽  
Political Governance ◽  
Evidence Based Decision Making

In recent years, the new political governance, a partisan model that contributes to a permanent campaign, gained ground in public organizations. In this new context, “deliverology” is portrayed as an innovative method to help governments implement new policies and deliver on election promises. This article presents the similarities and diff erences that exist between “deliverology” and evaluation. Is deliverology really something new or is it another case of old wine in a new bottle? Is deliverology a substitute for or, instead, a complement to institutionalized evaluation? To what extent does new political governance (exemplified by deliverology and performance measurement) undermine evidence-based decision making? What is the value-added of deliverology? These questions are addressed through a critical reflection on deliverology and its value-added in Canada, where evaluation became institutionalized in many departments and agencies under the influence of results-based management, promoted by the advocates of new public management over four decades.r four decades.

Electronic Service Delivery in the Local Indian Community of Visakhapatnam

2011 ◽  
pp. 664-669
Author(s):  
V. Venkatakrishnan
Keyword(s):  
Performance Management ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Indian Community ◽  
The Public ◽  
Electronic Service ◽  
New Public ◽  
Managing For Results ◽  
And Performance

New public management (NPM) conceptualised public administration as a business, to be managed with business-like techniques. Since services had to be assessed by the criteria of quality, efficiency, and satisfaction of citizens, the public sector had to reorganize its processes. As strong emphasis was on the services, improving their delivery was expected to facilitate achieving the above criteria. The terms of the NPM approach such as “customer focus, managing for results, and performance management” have become part of the standard language of public administration (Ali, 2001; Bekkers & Zouridis, 1999; Crossing Boundaries, 2005; Spicer, 2004).

Regulating and manipulating the corporeal functions of women academics through political rationality

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 698-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurdiana Gaus
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Work Performance ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
The Body ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Women Academics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Audit Culture ◽  
The Government

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).

E-Government

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gisela Gil-Egui
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Knowledge Society ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Empirical Observation ◽  
New Public ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Government Websites ◽  
Definition Of

E-government refers to a set of public administration and governance goals and practices involving information and communication technologies (ICTs). It utilizes such technologies to serve public agencies’ external audiences and constituents. However, the scope of that service is the subject of much debate and, consequently, no consensual definition of e-government had been formulated. The prehistory of e-government resonates with assumptions from the “new public management” (NPM), which proposed a restructuring of governmental agencies by adopting a market-based approach to ensure cost efficiencies in the public sector. Coined in the mid-1990s, the notion of e-government as equivalent to better government, economic growth, human development, and the knowledge society in general was quickly and uncritically accepted by practitioners and scholars alike. As scholars from different disciplines, including politics communication and sociology, paid increasing attention to the intersections of structural factors, hardware, and culture in the adoption and use of ICTs, research on e-government began to show some diversification. By the twenty-first century, the number of e-government websites from local and national administrations has grown sufficiently to allow some generalizations based on empirical observation. Meanwhile critical and comprehensive approaches to e-government frequently adopt a critical stance to denounce oversimplifications, determinisms, and omissions in the formulation of e-governance projects, as well as in the evaluation, adoption, and assessment of e-government effectiveness. Beyond the particularities of each emerging technology, reflection on the intersections between ICTs and government is moving away from an exclusive focus on hardware and functionality, to consider broader questions on governance.

scholarly journals Nursing in Times of Neoliberal Change: An Ethnographic Study of Nurses’ Experiences of Work Intensification

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Selberg
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Medical Profession ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Care Work ◽  
New Public ◽  
Work Intensification ◽  
And Performance

Through an ethnographic study of nurses’ experiences of work intensification, this article shows how nurses respond to and act upon neoliberal transformations of work. The article identifies and explores those transformations considered by the informants, nurses working in public sector hospital wards, as central to changing conditions of work and experiences of work intensifications. It further analyzes nurses’ responses toward these transformations and locates these responses within a particular form of femininity evolving from rationalities of care, nurses’ conditions within the organization, and classed and gendered experiences of care work. The article illustrates that in times of neoliberal change and public sector resource depletion, nurses respond to women’s traditional caring responsibilities as well as to professional commitments and cover for the organization. Maintaining the level of frontline service is contingent on increased exploitation and performance control of ward nurses, and their ability and willingness to sacrifice their own time and health for the sake of their patients. The article argues that in the case of ward nurses in the Swedish public sector, work intensification is a multilayered process propelled by three intersecting forces: austerity ideology linked to the neoliberal transformation of the welfare state and public sector retrenchment; explicit care rationalities impelled by aspirations of the nursing profession to establish, render visible, and expand the nursing field both in relation to the medical profession and in relation to so-called unskilled care work performed by assistant nurses and auxiliaries; and the progressive aspect of New Public Management, which challenges the power and authority of the professions and contributes to strengthening the positions of clients and patients.

scholarly journals Wybrane problemy wykonywania zadań oświatowych przez jednostki samorządu terytorialnego

2012 ◽  
pp. 161-184
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Majchrowicz-Jopek
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
School Management ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public ◽  
Legal Foundation ◽  
Subsidiarity Principle

Due to complex socio-economic structural factors education seen as a public task (executed by the State governmental administration and local government) becomes subject to privatisation and deregulation process, in line with the subsidiarity principle. The article discusses theoretic grounds for the issue of performing public tasks according to the classic perspective as well as the concept of new public management; it also presents doubts and concerns related to privatisation of public tasks and privatisation of performing public tasks. Basis problems of school management (instituting, administering and closure) have been outlined in light of doctrine and administrative courts’ jurisprudence. The articles sketches alternative institutional forms of educational tasks’ execution, including schools administered by non-public entities. Trends in the public and non-public compulsory school sector have been exemplified by the relevant statistics. Furthermore, the article describes the prospects of developments in schooling run by local government units as well as possible legal amendments and examples of already taken initiatives. Finally, the Author attempts to assess the proposals for legal foundation of privatisation of educational tasks, in terms of ensuring equal access to education and achieving social cohesion.

scholarly journals Innovation in public administration reform: a strategic reform through NPM, ICT, and e-governance. A comparative analysis between Lebanon and Romania

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (35) ◽  
pp. 75-89
Author(s):  
Charbel EL AMMAR ◽  
Constantin Marius PROFIROIU
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Organizational Innovation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Road ◽  
Public Administration Reform ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Challenging Situation

In addition to the involvement of public administration (PA) as a catalyst for economic development, today we are witnessing the need to enhance innovation in PA itself, with a commitment to maximizing efficiency, effectiveness, performance, and to improve quality of public service. In PA, the emerging theory of innovation represents a combined effort between conventional organizational innovation tools such as strategic planning and modern ones such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and e-governance. With regard to this challenging situation, this paper seeks to present a substantial literature concerning the theory of innovation, New Public Management (NPM), ICT, and e-governance. Furthermore, using a qualitative approach based on centered semi-structured interviews, this article illustrates the current activities conducted by the Lebanese government, specifically the Office of Ministry of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR), compared by data gathered from platforms and databases from Romanian PA such as Ministry of Communication and Information Society, OECD, DESI index, and Eurostat on ICT and e-governance at European level. The paper results reveal the significant effect of innovation in Romanian PA paving the road toward facing the challenge to achieve its digital 2020 agenda and contributing to transparency, efficiency, effectiveness, community participation, and development of public service. However, Lebanese PA should join and shake hands to strengthen the adoption of innovation in its public corridors and should cross the notion of “still born” application of ICT to a fruitful implementation contributing to strategic innovation in public services and improved PA efficiency and performance.

scholarly journals Performance management in Europe: An idea whose time has come - and gone?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wouter Van Dooren ◽  
conny hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Performance Management ◽  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
State Building ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Learning System ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public

New Public Management reforms in Europe, as elsewhere, heavily rely on performance indicators and targets. All corners of the public sector, from local to European and from policy formulation to management practice, have been affected. This focus on measurement fits well in a long tradition of measurement and state building. Yet, in recent years, disenchantment with performance management grows. More often than not, target regimes produce dysfunctional consequences. While the performance of performance target regimes is wanting, performance management is being reinvented. Rather than a system of accountability, performance management should prompt learning and dialogue. Performance management as a learning system may well be the next idea whose time has come.

scholarly journals Determinants of Online Local Budget Transparency in Croatia and Slovenia

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-188
Author(s):  
Katarina Ott ◽  
Mihaela Bronić ◽  
Branko Stanić ◽  
Maja Klun ◽  
Jože Benčina
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Budget Process ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Socio Economic Variables ◽  
Local Budget ◽  
To Come

As a part of the public governance, transparency started to come forward during the New Public Management reforms, mostly for the evaluation of public sector efficiency. This article focuses on online local budget transparency (OLBT) in two neighbouring countries – Croatia and Slovenia. The article is pioneering in a comparative study of the determinants of budget transparency in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, based on a unique database and measure of transparency. The article tests the determinants of OLBT that reflect the accountability of local authorities and a cornerstone for public participation in the budget process. The following methodology was applied: using a data set of 768 Slovenian and Croatian local governments over the 2015–2017 period and testing it against several financial and socio-economic variables, and a random effects panel logistic regression, separately for Croatia, Slovenia, and a pooled sample. The results indicate that greater size of the population, higher administrative capacity and lower unemployment rate in individual local governments significantly contribute to higher levels of OLBT. This study demonstrates the possibility of developing a standardised measure of local budget transparency and using it to investigate the reasons for different levels of transparency in the two – and potentially other – CEE countries. The results of this and similar studies can serve as a basis for establishing cohesive local budget transparency policies for different countries and creating a combination of policy instruments to enhance transparency.

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