scholarly journals Siefken, Sven (2018). Parlamentarische Kontrolle im Wandel. Theorie und Praxis des Deutschen Bundestages. Baden-Baden: Nomos. 461 Seiten. ISBN: 978-3-8487-4966-9

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2019) ◽  
pp. 232-235
Author(s):  
Tobias Bach

This book addresses the practices of the German Bundestag in controlling the federal administration. Siefken elaborates on different notions of parliamentary control and provides a detailed mapping of the parliament’s use of formal control instruments from 1949 - 2017. Most interestingly for scholars of public administration, Siefken conducted eight case studies of parliamentary control of federal agencies – both “traditional” and “modern” agencies established according to the ideas of the New Public Management or the independent regulatory agency model. Those case studies are instrumental for answering the book’s overarching research question about the exercise of parliamentary control under the conditions of major changes in the organizational setup of the state. With the exception of regulatory agencies, Siefken finds no major differences in control practices according to those categories, but fleshes out middle-range explanations of parliamentary control behaviour. This is an empirically rich book providing unprecedented insights into the actual practice of parliamentary control.

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elin Thunman

This paper examines how today’s public workers cope with moral stress in organizations where new public management reforms have been implemented. More specifically, the interest is focused on examining which practices are developed in order to fulfill professional standards within the limits of inadequate resources in order to manage moral stress. Case studies at Swedish public work places are analyzed with the help of Lipsky’s theory about street-level bureaucrats’ coping behavior and theories about the elements of resistance in coping. The main result is the discernment of three dominant modificational strategies to manage stressful moral dilemmas in encounters with clients. The paper contributes to the understanding of coping with moral stress by highlighting that the detected coping forms among a varied group of public professionals imply an active adaption, reification, and opposition to the managerial reforms.


Author(s):  
Ana Cunha ◽  
Augusta da Conceição Santos Ferreira ◽  
Maria José Fernandes

The changes recommended by the New Public Management (NPM) in public accounting have given special attention and importance to the evaluation of mayor's performance by citizens/voters. Thus, this study aims to assess the impact of accounting information on the re-election of Portuguese mayors. Taking the agency theory as a point of departure, we start from the following research question: Does the accounting information disclosed by the municipalities influence the re-election of Portuguese mayors? The research methodology used in this study is the quantitative type, through which a multivariate analysis of data was performed on 308 Portuguese municipalities, in the period 2005-2008, based on the election results of 2009. The results from the binary logistic regression show that some indicators of accounting nature have impact on the re-election of mayors in Portugal, namely, the components of financial accounting and municipal revenues.


2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 638-653 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Hellman ◽  
Gustaf Kastberg ◽  
Sven Siverbo

Purpose – In order to improve cooperation and collaboration between units, clinics and departments, many health care organizations (HCOs) have introduced process orientation. Several studies indicate problems in realizing these ambitions. The purpose of this paper is to explain and understand the success and failure of process orientation in HCOs. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted three case studies and applied Actor-Network Theory as an analytic lens. Findings – The realization of process orientation is hindered by neglect or resistance from physicians, who find the process targets to be of low medical priority. However, the authors also see that medical priorities are no stable entities but are susceptible to negotiations. Over time, process organization, process mapping, process measurement activities and the acting of enroled actors may have impact on medical priorities. Originality/value – Contrary to previous research, the findings indicate that New Public Management may not be the main obstacle against processes, that accounting figures may not be hard to disregard and that the role of leadership is not paramount.


Author(s):  
Ilse Hagerer ◽  
Uwe Hoppe

After the latest reforms in higher education according to the NPM (New Public Management), the autonomy of universities and the organizational perspective have been strengthened. According to predominantly used neo-institutional research in higher education, organizations adapt their structure by the pressure of legitimacy from outside. So the research question arises, if universities are actors and if so, what are the influencing factors on organizational structure. The goal is to point out the reasons for organizational design and if they act on their own or only adapt changes by pressure from outside. For this, interviews with 16 experts in faculty management are conducted and interpreted using qualitative content analysis according to Mayring and Grounded Theory. The results show that it is possible for faculties to change and design their organizational structures. There is staff responsible for this task. They work in the faculty between management and administration. Reasons to change the organizational structure are not caused by legitimacy. Much more, the new tasks cause a real need for new positions. This argumentation is not in line with neo-institutionalism. So the results strengthen the thesis that neo-institutionalism is not sufficient anymore to explain the organizational change of universities.


2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (148) ◽  
pp. 369-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Ludwig-Mayerhofer ◽  
Ariadne Sondermann ◽  
Olaf Behrend

The recent reform of the Bundesagentur fijr Arbeit, Germany's Public Employment Service (PES), has introduced elements of New Public Management, including internal controlling and attempts at standardizing assessments ('profiling' of unemployed people) and procedures. Based on qualitative interviews with PES staff, we show that standardization and controlling are perceived as contradicting the 'case-oriented approach' used by PES staff in dealing with unemployed people. It is therefore not surprising that staff members use considerable discretion when (re-)assigning unemployed people to one of the categories pre-defined by PES headquarters. All in all, the new procedures lead to numerous contradictions, which often result in bewilderment and puzzlement on the part of the unemployed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document