Smart Principles and Smart Principals: Smart Mechanism to Enhance Street-Level Accountability

2021 ◽  
pp. 143-165
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Public ◽  
Deviant Behaviors ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Technological Tools ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
Key Dimensions

This article presents a novel theoretical approach that aims to enhance the accountability of street-level bureaucrats. The authors conceptualize changes and reforms in and around the public sector as a smart mechanism that is composed of two key dimensions; a) smart principles (i.e., institutions and technological tools that support citizen participation), and b) smart principals (i.e., citizens who adopt those smart principles in monitoring and evaluating street-level agents’ behaviors). Then the authors suggest a theoretical framework that explains how applying the smart mechanism can limit deviant behaviors of street-level bureaucrats and contribute to enhancing street-level accountability.

Social media responsiveness in the public sector: A study of social media adoption in three functional areas of local government

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Seigler
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Organizational Influences ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Social Media Tools ◽  
Similar Path ◽  
Functional Areas

Based on the importance of citizen participation and the collaborative potential of online social media tools, this study tests four proposed influences on administrators who are deciding whether or not to adopt these tools to engage citizens. A survey of 157 department managers from large U.S. cities shows that 82% report using some form of social media to engage citizens and that perceived organizational influences and administrator preconceptions have the strongest impact on the respondentsʼ decision to adopt social media. Possible explanations for the results are that the use of online social media in the public sector may be following a similar path of adoption as earlier forms of e-government or managers may be operating in a rational environment when deciding whether or not to adopt online social media tools.

scholarly journals The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the performance of street level bureaucrats in Brazil

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Spanghero Lotta ◽  
Giordano Morangueira Magri ◽  
Ana Carolina Nunes ◽  
Beatriz Soares Benedito ◽  
Claudio Aliberti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Care Access ◽  
Structural Problems ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Government Level

Abstract: Dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic requires that the State make hard decisions that involve the action of bureaucrats who interact with the population through the implementation of public policy, the street-level bureaucracy (SLB). In this paper, based on a mixed- method exploratory study, we analyze how the daily performance of street-level bureaucrats in different policy areas- health and social care, access to the justice system, public security and education - has changed during the pandemic. We also explore the repercussions of those changes. Based on the analysis of the perceptions of bureaucrats, changes in their work and in their relationship with the public, we identify three categories that illustrate the dynamics of SLB work during the pandemic: the SLB who faces the crisis on the front lines; the SLB who suffers the effects of the pandemic, but whose work does not require her to face it directly; and the SLB who began to work remotely. We conclude that, during the pandemic, SLB suffered in varying degrees an aggravation of structural problems, such as their removal from decision-making processes - now restricted to the highest government level - and the exacerbation of already existing conflicts and ambiguities.

M-Powering

2015 ◽  
pp. 97-107
Author(s):  
Benard Magara Maake ◽  
Naftal Nyarangi Oino ◽  
Fredrick Mzee Awuor
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Mobile Technology ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Telecommunication Networks ◽  
Digital Government ◽  
Mobile Money ◽  
The Public ◽  
Money Transfers

A mobile government affords, for instance, a powerful and transformational capacity to extend access to existing services, to expand the delivery of new services, to increase active citizen participation in government operations, and to change the way of working within the public sector. With the advancement of wireless and mobile technology, more people have been enabled to connect to local and regional resources that might have been unreachable in the absence of these telecommunication networks. The ability to perform both private and government transactions using mobile phones has enhanced and promoted the awareness of a digital government, reducing the level of digital divide in marginalized, poor, and developing nations. M-PESA is a mobile money service in Kenya transforming the citizens' lives and the government's operations. This chapter shows how Mobile Money transfers (M-Pesa) transactions have been a driver to realize an e-Government in Kenya through the monetary controls.

scholarly journals Public sector wage reforms in the light of equity principles

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-50
Author(s):  
Benjamin Yaw Tachie ◽  
Harriet M. D. Potakey
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Equity Theory ◽  
Equity Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Expected Outcome ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Equity Principles

Since 1967 seven committees and commissions have been set up to review disparities, distortions and anomalies inherent in the pay policy and wages in the public sector in Ghana. The introduction of the Single Spine Pay Policy in the year 2010 was meant to address these anomalies but has been bedevilled with several unrests at the labour front. This has manifested itself in various ways such as strike actions, protests, petitions, legal actions, and appeals to the Labour Commission and other stakeholders. Several attempts at resolving these agitations since independence have not yielded the expected outcome which would have led to a more stable labour front. The literature on the various pay reforms in Ghana has not addressed the equity issues inherent in them. The aim of this article therefore, is to review the pay policies, in the light of equity principles and propose solutions to minimise the labour unrest associated with public sector wage reforms. The article uses Adams Equity theory of motivation to explain the frequency of labour unrest in Ghana and proposes the application of the tenets of equity theory as a solution. We use documentary analysis to examine the various reforms and propose a theoretical approach to resolve the canker within and among the labour groups. We conclude this article by arguing that the frequent labour unrest within the public service in Ghana is mainly as a result of perceived inequity in the implementations of the public sector wage reforms.

scholarly journals Public agents of front line: the creator of administrative law

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Bonacorsi de Palma
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
Front Line ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Action ◽  
Street Level ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats

<span>Abstract: The role of the front-line public agents in the implementation of the public policies created by the first-tier is the subject addressed by the author. From the notion of street-level bureaucrats, it seeks to identify the difficulties encountered by such public agents in decision-making and the need for standards that provide for institutes and administrative dynamics that in fact lead to more efficient, impersonal and guaranteeing public action to protect the well-intentioned front-line public agent to fully exercise the discretion he needs in case-by-case action.</span>

Which Clients Inspire or Reduce the Trust of Street-Level Bureaucrats?

2021 ◽  
pp. 009539972110616
Author(s):  
Maayan Davidovitz ◽  
Nissim Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Service Providers ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats

Which types of clients increase or decrease the trust of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs)? Using interviews and focus groups with two groups of Israeli social service providers—teachers and social workers—and comparing them, —we develop a theoretical framework for determining the types of clients who evoke and reduce the trust of SLBs. Our findings indicate that there are seven types of clients who inspire or diminish this trust: —cooperative, honest, familiar, benevolent, aggressive, open, and manipulative. We discuss the significance of our findings for the implementation and outcome of public policy and suggest several avenues for future research.

Professionals, discretion and public sector reform in the UK: re‐visiting Lipsky

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 629-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Taylor ◽  
Josie Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Managerial Control ◽  
Public Sector Reform ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Rule Making ◽  
Street Level Bureaucracy

PurposeSeeks to examine how far Michael Lipsky's theory of discretion as it relates to public sector professionals as “street‐level bureaucrats” is still applicable in the light of public sector reform and in particular the introduction of increased managerial control over professionals.Design/methodology/approachThe main thesis in Lipsky's work, Street‐Level Bureaucracy, that street‐level bureaucrats devise their own rules and procedures to deal with the dilemmas of policy implementation is linked to public sector reform over the past 25 years or so. The article differentiates between three forms of discretion, rule, task and value and assesses the extent to which these different forms of discretion have been compromised by reform. Examples are drawn principally from the literature on school teachers and social workersFindingsThe findings suggest that the rule‐making (hence bureaucratic) capacity of professionals at street‐level is much less influential than before although it is questionable whether or not the greater accountability of professionals to management and clarity of the targets and objectives of organisations delivering public policy has liberated them from the dilemmas of street‐level bureaucracy.Research limitations/implicationsThe work has focussed on the UK and in particular on two professions. However, it may be applied to any country which has undergone public sector reform and in particular where “new public management” processes and procedures have been implemented. There is scope for in‐depth studies of a range of occupations, professional and otherwise in the UK and elsewhere.Practical implicationsPolicy makers and managers should consider how far the positive aspects of facilitating discretion in the workplace by reducing the need for “rule‐making” to cope with dilemmas have been outweighed by increased levels of bureaucracy and the “de‐skilling” of professionals.Originality/valueLipsky's much cited and influential work is evaluated in the light of public sector reform some 25 years since it was published. The three forms of discretion identified offer the scope for their systematic application to the workplace.

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