scholarly journals The Lexicon of Public Sector Reform in New Zealand 1984 - 1994

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Katherine Jane Quigley

<p>This is a study of the lexical effects on New Zealand English of the legal, social and economic changes brought about by the fourth Labour government and its successor during the decade from 1984 - 1994, during which period the New Zealand public sector was radically reformed. In order to carry out this study a corpus of approximately five million written words was compiled, consisting of three parallel sets of documents from four domains of use in the public sector. Chapter One provides the rationale for scoping the study both to this particular ten-year period and to the lexis of four particular government departments, namely The Treasury and the Ministries of Social Welfare, Health and Education. A review of previous related work in the field of lexicography, and the aims and specific research questions which motivated the study, are located at the end of this first chapter. Chapter Two explains the reasons behind the selection of three particular documents for use as data sources: the Annual Reports, the annual Corporate Plans, and the triennial Briefings to the Incoming Government. This chapter also describes the methodology used to determine words for inclusion in the glossary which is located in Appendix I. The advantages and pitfalls of the Google search method are discussed, as are the approaches taken to dealing with multiword units, proper nouns, abbreviations and words of Maori origin. The construction and arrangement of the glossary are explained here, including the basis for selection of citations. In Chapter Three an overview of each ministry's dataset is given in terms of its linguistic characteristics, and the results of the study are described. The penultimate chapter catalogues the discovery of a rich vein of figurative language throughout the documents of the New Zealand Treasury, as evidenced by varied and extended metaphors used to express economic concepts. This chapter gives a brief account of metaphor theory and discusses the methodology used for identification of metaphors in the dataset. The fifth and final chapter of this study sums up the overall findings and points the way towards useful future research in this field. A major part of this study consists of the aforementioned lexicon in Appendix I of New Zealand-specific words from these domains and their illustrative citations. This lexicon is a record of the NZE words used in a particular dataset in the public sector of New Zealand. It amounts to approximately 260 entries supported by 660 citations, which were collected via an exhaustive data search of three types of government document over one decade. These terms are not new in the sense that they first appeared in NZE during the decade of this study, but approximately two-thirds of them are new in the sense that they do not appear in any dictionary of English. This collection of terms constitutes a cultural and historical archive, which records the distinctive identity of New Zealand's public sector as it underwent a revolutionary era of profound political and economic change.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Katherine Jane Quigley

<p>This is a study of the lexical effects on New Zealand English of the legal, social and economic changes brought about by the fourth Labour government and its successor during the decade from 1984 - 1994, during which period the New Zealand public sector was radically reformed. In order to carry out this study a corpus of approximately five million written words was compiled, consisting of three parallel sets of documents from four domains of use in the public sector. Chapter One provides the rationale for scoping the study both to this particular ten-year period and to the lexis of four particular government departments, namely The Treasury and the Ministries of Social Welfare, Health and Education. A review of previous related work in the field of lexicography, and the aims and specific research questions which motivated the study, are located at the end of this first chapter. Chapter Two explains the reasons behind the selection of three particular documents for use as data sources: the Annual Reports, the annual Corporate Plans, and the triennial Briefings to the Incoming Government. This chapter also describes the methodology used to determine words for inclusion in the glossary which is located in Appendix I. The advantages and pitfalls of the Google search method are discussed, as are the approaches taken to dealing with multiword units, proper nouns, abbreviations and words of Maori origin. The construction and arrangement of the glossary are explained here, including the basis for selection of citations. In Chapter Three an overview of each ministry's dataset is given in terms of its linguistic characteristics, and the results of the study are described. The penultimate chapter catalogues the discovery of a rich vein of figurative language throughout the documents of the New Zealand Treasury, as evidenced by varied and extended metaphors used to express economic concepts. This chapter gives a brief account of metaphor theory and discusses the methodology used for identification of metaphors in the dataset. The fifth and final chapter of this study sums up the overall findings and points the way towards useful future research in this field. A major part of this study consists of the aforementioned lexicon in Appendix I of New Zealand-specific words from these domains and their illustrative citations. This lexicon is a record of the NZE words used in a particular dataset in the public sector of New Zealand. It amounts to approximately 260 entries supported by 660 citations, which were collected via an exhaustive data search of three types of government document over one decade. These terms are not new in the sense that they first appeared in NZE during the decade of this study, but approximately two-thirds of them are new in the sense that they do not appear in any dictionary of English. This collection of terms constitutes a cultural and historical archive, which records the distinctive identity of New Zealand's public sector as it underwent a revolutionary era of profound political and economic change.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 1101-1120
Author(s):  
O.V. Shimko

Subject. The article investigates key figures disclosed in consolidated cash flow statements of 25 leading publicly traded oil and gas companies from 2006 to 2018. Objectives. The focus is on determining the current level of values of the main components of consolidated statement of cash flows prepared by leading publicly traded oil and gas companies, identifying key trends within the studied period and factors that led to any transformation. Methods. The study draws on methods of comparative and financial-economic analysis, as well as generalization of materials of consolidated cash flow statements. Results. The comprehensive analysis of annual reports of 25 oil and gas companies enabled to determine changes in the key figures and their relation in the structure of consolidated cash flow statements in the public sector of the industry. It also established main factors that contributed to the changes. Conclusions. In the period under study, I revealed an increase in cash from operating activities; established that capital expenditures in the public sector of the industry show an overall upward trend and depend on the level of oil prices. The analysis demonstrated that even integrated companies’ upstream segment prevail in the capital expenditures structure. The study also unveiled an increase in dividend payments, which, most of the time, exceeded free cash flows thus increasing the debt burden.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Lars Fuglsang ◽  
Anne Vorre Hansen ◽  
Ines Mergel ◽  
Maria Taivalsaari Røhnebæk

The public administration literature and adjacent fields have devoted increasing attention to living labs as environments and structures enabling the co-creation of public sector innovation. However, living labs remain a somewhat elusive concept and phenomenon, and there is a lack of understanding of its versatile nature. To gain a deeper understanding of the multiple dimensions of living labs, this article provides a review assessing how the environments, methods and outcomes of living labs are addressed in the extant research literature. The findings are drawn together in a model synthesizing how living labs link to public sector innovation, followed by an outline of knowledge gaps and future research avenues.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fahad Shakeel ◽  
Peter Mathieu Kruyen ◽  
Sandra Van Thiel

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer a review of the selected literature in ethical leadership synthesizing findings from 45 articles selected from journals on leadership, public administration, organizational behavior, psychology and ethics. Design/methodology/approach Four themes are addressed: the conceptualization of ethical leadership theories, the existence of popular measurement instruments for ethical leadership, findings on ethical leadership in the public sector and outcomes of ethical leadership in terms of benefits and negative consequences. Findings The definition by Brown et al. (2005) is the most frequently used definition, even though recent criticism states that this definition may be too narrow. Ethical leadership is usually measured by means of a survey; however, there are at least three different questionnaires in use. In the public sector, ethical leadership has been linked to both positive outcomes and negative consequences. Research limitations/implications This paper only includes selected academic articles and does not include published books. Originality/value Based on our findings, the authors present recommendations for future research, among others into a broader conceptualization of ethical leadership and the use of mixed methods.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Oppi ◽  
Cristina Campanale ◽  
Lino Cinquini

PurposeThis paper presents a systematic literature review aiming at analysing how research has addressed performance measurement systems’ (PMSs) ambiguities in the public sector. This paper embraces the ambiguity perspective that PMSs in public sector coexist with and cope with existing ambiguities.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a literature review in Scopus and ScienceDirect, considering articles published since 1985, and the authors selected articles published in the journals included in the Association of Business Schools' Academic Journal Guide (Chartered ABS, 2018). Of the 1,278 abstracts that matched the study’s search criteria, the authors selected 131 articles for full reading and 37 articles for the final discussion.FindingsThe study's key findings concern the elements of ambiguity in PMSs discussed in the literature. The study’s results suggest that ambiguity is still a relevant problem in performance measurement, as a problem that is impossible to be solved and therefore needs to be better understood by researchers and public managers. The analysis allows us to summarize the antecedents and consequences of ambiguity in the public sector.Research limitations/implicationsThe key findings of the study concern the main sources of ambiguity in PMSs discussed in the literature, their antecedents and their consequences. The study results suggest that ambiguity exists in performance measurement and that is an issue to be handled with various strategies that can be implemented by managers and employees.Practical implicationsManagers and researchers may benefit from this research as it may represent a guideline to understand ambiguities in their organizations or in field research. Researchers may also benefit from a summary list of the key issues that have been analysed in the empirical cases provided by this research. Social implicationsThis research may provide insights to limit ambiguity and thus contribute to improve performance measurement in the public sector.Originality/valueThis research presents a comprehensive review on the topic. It provides insight that suggests what future research should attend to in helping to interpret ambiguity, considering also what should be done to influence ambiguity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 104 (6) ◽  
pp. 559-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Retzler ◽  
Nick Hex ◽  
Chris Bartlett ◽  
Anne Webb ◽  
Sharon Wood ◽  
...  

ObjectiveCongenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) is the most common infectious cause of congenital disability. It can disrupt neurodevelopment, causing lifelong impairments including sensorineural hearing loss and developmental delay. This study aimed, for the first time, to estimate the annual economic burden of managing cCMV and its sequelae in the UK.DesignThe study collated available secondary data to develop a static cost model.SettingThe model aimed to estimate costs of cCMV in the UK for the year 2016.PatientsIndividuals of all ages with cCMV.Main outcome measuresDirect (incurred by the public sector) and indirect (incurred personally or by society) costs associated with management of cCMV and its sequelae.ResultsThe model estimated that the total cost of cCMV to the UK in 2016 was £732 million (lower and upper estimates were between £495 and £942 million). Approximately 40% of the costs were directly incurred by the public sector, with the remaining 60% being indirect costs, including lost productivity. Long-term impairments caused by the virus had a higher financial burden than the acute management of cCMV.ConclusionsThe cost of cCMV is substantial, predominantly stemming from long-term impairments. Costs should be compared against investment in educational strategies and vaccine development programmes that aim to prevent virus transmission, as well as the value of introducing universal screening for cCMV to both increase detection of children who would benefit from treatment, and to build a more robust evidence base for future research.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Prae Keerasuntonpong

<p>The provision of statements of service performance (SSPs) by local government in New Zealand is a product of the economic reforms carried out in the late 1980s. A statement of service performance is regarded as an important document of New Zealand local government reporting. It is statutorily required by the Local Government Act 2002 and complemented by accounting guidance provided by the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA), with the objective of strengthening accountability obligations (Local Government Act 2002, s. 98; NZICA, 2002). In spite of twenty years‟ experience in preparing statements of service performance, the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) (2008) criticised that the quality of SSPs prepared by local authorities (and other public-sector entities) was poor. A fundamental problem of statements of service performance reporting is the lack of comprehensive authoritative requirements on their preparation and presentation (Office of the Auditor-General, 2008). Arguably, the present authoritative requirements have been written to cater for the needs of large, profit-oriented entities in the private-sector rather than for the public-sector‟s specific needs for performance reporting and pitched at a higher or more conceptual level than is typically required for financial reporting standards (Office of the Auditor-General, 2008, Webster, 2007). This may be due to the fact that the current authoritative requirements, developed in early 1990s, have been influenced by the economic framework highlighting the decision-usefulness purpose of private-sector reporting, which is not suitable for public-sector reporting (Mack, 2003; Parker & Gould, 1999). Responding to the need for more adequate guidance for non-financial performance reporting of public-sector entities, the OAG and the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) are working on improving accounting guidance applicable for the preparation for SSP reporting by public-sector entities (Office of the Auditor-General, 2010; International Public Sector Accounting Standard Board, 2010). Pallot (1992) points out that accountability is the preferred purpose for public-sector reporting since the nature of the relationship between providers and users of government is non-voluntary. Past theoretical literature has attempted to define the possible components of accountability that would be suitable for public-sector entities to adequately discharge their accountability. Among them, Stewart (1984) has developed accountability bases, which provide a platform for understanding accountability expectations and, hence desirable characteristics of any accountability documents provided by public-sector entities for the public. It is possible that accountability documents pertaining to these accountability expectations will enable the public-sector entities to adequately discharge their accountability. New Zealand local government is the important second tier of New Zealand government sector. Among the wide range of community services provided by New Zealand local authorities, wastewater services represent one of the most crucial services. New Zealand constituents could be expected to be concerned not only about the performance of wastewater services provided by their local authorities, but also with the disclosures about that performance. However, the research on SSP wastewater disclosures by New Zealand local authorities is limited (Smith & Coy, 2000). Given the criticism on the usefulness of authoritative requirements for SSP reporting and the recognition of accountability expectations by the literature, the first two objectives of this study are to examine the consistency of SSP disclosures, regarding wastewater services provided by New Zealand local authorities, with the existing authoritative requirements, and the accountability expectations, using the disclosure index as a measurement tool. To understand possible explanations for the cross-sectional differences on the extent of disclosures, according to the authoritative requirements and accountability expectations, the third objective of this study is to examine the influential factors of the disclosures, using multiple regression analysis. The study finds that the performance disclosures made by the local authorities have low levels of correspondence with the index that is based on the authoritative requirements. The result also provides evidence that the current authoritative requirements are focused on financial information reporting and pitched at a high conceptual level. This supports the view that the existing authoritative pronouncements are not providing sufficient guidance for local authorities. The index based on accountability expectations has relatively greater correspondence with the disclosures made. This identifies that local authorities are providing information consistent with accountability expectations. The study suggests that accountability expectations provide a model suitable for SSP reporting guidance. According to the multiple regression analysis, the result shows that only size is significantly related to the extent of the disclosures. Larger local authorities report more corresponding information. The findings of this study provide three immediate implications which should be useful to: (i) accounting standard-setters for their current work on improving accounting guidance for SSP reporting; (ii) the Office of the Auditor-General for providing more insightful comments in the audit statement for SSP reporting; and (iii) regulators for increased attention on some special local authorities. By doing so, it is expected that New Zealand local authorities may lead the world in providing comprehensive SSPs, which enable them to adequately discharge their accountability and, hence in reaching a reform principle for greater accountability.</p>


2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (02) ◽  
pp. 162-167
Author(s):  
MUHAMMAD AYAZ BHATTI ◽  
MAHMOOD UR RAHMAN

Objectives: To measure the current status of preventive activities in civil and military hospitals. To compare the quantum ofpreventive and curative activities in the hospitals. To make recommendations for promotion of preventive activities to reduce the curative burdenfrom the hospitals. Study Design: This was a cross-sectional study. Sampling Technique: Universal sampling. All the major military and publicsector hospitals having bed strength more than 400 in Rawalpindi were included in the study. All the preventive and curative work was taken intoaccount. Methodology: A structured questionnaire was developed and data regarding the quantum of work was collected from all the fourmajor Military and civil hospitals having bed strength more than 400 beds through registers and annual reports of the hospital and was analyzedin the form of frequencies, tabulation, cross tabulation, percentages and was displayed in tables and graphs using SPSS (10.5), Microsoft Exceland calculus. Results: Only seven percent work is preventive and ninety three percent is curative. In the preventive activity MH is marginallyhigher than the rest of the hospitals. In all the hospitals among the preventive activities 31% are antenatal visits, 20 % tetanus toxoid injection,19% BCG, Growth monitoring 13%, Measles injection 11% and family planning 6% in all the hospitals. Ante natal activities in the army sectorhospitals are more prominent 39-44% and also in the public sector 17-26%. Next to the antenatal are tetanus toxoids to pregnant ladies whichrange from 16-35% in military and 16-20 % in the public sector hospitals. Growth monitoring is more efficiently carried out in the RawalpindiGeneral Hospital i.e. 17% while in others 7-12%. Family Planning services are delivered very poorly only 9% in RGH and 6% in DHQ, zero % inCMH and 5% in MH. Measles vaccination is carried out efficiently in DHQ 27%, 11% in RGH and 8% in MH and again poorly 3% in CMH. BCG is27% in DHQ, 20% in MH, 17% in RGH and 10% in CMH. Conclusions: The study show that hospitals are showing very poor performance inpreventive aspect and this is the reason that countries like Pakistan are facing economic burden on the national exchequer and this burden willkeep on increasing if no appropriate action is taken.


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