Second Order Interactive End User Development Appropriation in the Public Sector

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Avdic
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Domain Knowledge ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Primary User ◽  
Second Order ◽  
End User ◽  
Problem Domain ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
The Public ◽  
Problem Solving Process

This paper seeks to respond to the research question: How does appropriation take place in the public sector in the development of end user applications by civil servants? Appropriation is defined as taking advantage of opportunities related to the development and use of applications, when the developer has in-depth knowledge of the problem domain and is also the primary user of the application. The author's results showed that public servants who have deep problem domain knowledge can take advantage of end user tools (e.g. spreadsheet programs) in the problem- solving process to solve vaguely defined problems. Appropriation is manifested in the continuous development of various ICT applications. In this paper, the author differentiates between first- and second-order appropriation. First-order appropriation takes place when the potential of the development tool is appropriated by the end user. Second-order appropriation takes place when an application is continuously developed and refined in parallel with the end user's learning process and the development of organizational requirements.

scholarly journals Who wants to work in bureaucracy? Career intentions of post-millennial students

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Jäkel ◽  
George Alexander Borshchevskiy
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Public Employment ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Millennial Students ◽  
The Public ◽  
Career Plans

This article investigates who wants, or does not want to work in Russian public administration, and why. A majority of Russians believe that public servants are concerned with improving their personal well-being rather than serving the public interest. Understanding working sector choices is thus the first step to attract talent into the civil service. We study public employment intention among a group of students of public administration in two elite Moscow universities who are relatively early undergraduates. Parents working in the civil service are the most important public sector career motivators of students in Russia, more important than positive perceptions of public sector compensation and its impact on society. Our findings imply that early-stage career plans are shaped outside university lecture rooms. We conclude that teaching public administration in Russia will have to focus on drawing a line between behavior that falls below standards of the profession and efforts to contribute to the well-being of citizens.

Emotional intelligence as an antidote to the negative implications of perceived managerial supplication: a sectorial comparison

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Galit Meisler
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Aggressive Behavior ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Turnover Intentions ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Moderated Mediation Model

PurposeThis study investigated whether managers' nonaggressive political behavior can result in negative emotional and attitudinal outcomes such as aggressive behavior and the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in this context. The authors explored a moderated mediation model in which perceived managerial supplication elicited hostility that increased turnover intentions and the emotional abilities included in EI acted as antidotes to these outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe authors tested the moderated mediation model using two large samples, one from the public sector and the other from the private sector, providing a cross-sectorial comparison. The authors collected the data for this study in three waves.FindingsThe authors’ findings revealed that the model fit the public sector alone. Moreover, others' emotion appraisal was the only aspect of EI that moderated the hostility and turnover intentions of public servants.Practical implicationsInterventions aimed at increasing the EI level of public servants can be a powerful tool for reducing their hostility and turnover intentions. However, these interventions must focus on all four aspects of EI , particularly others' emotion appraisal.Originality/valueManagers' nonaggressive political behavior can result in negative emotional and attitudinal outcomes such as aggressive behavior. However, EI reduces these negative outcomes among public servants.

Mexico power centralisation will bring heavy criticism

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Central Government ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
State Capture

Subject Balance of powers in Mexico. Significance Since taking office last year, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) and his National Renovation Movement (Morena) have taken several measures to make savings in the public sector and to allocate resources to tackling poverty and corruption. Such goals enjoy widespread support, but some of the mechanisms employed to achieve them are concentrating power with the central government. The areas most affected include constitutionally autonomous entities within the administration, other branches of government such as the judiciary, and state governments. Impacts Given the role of poorly paid public servants in state capture, salary cuts may prove counterproductive in fighting corruption. Without a system that impartially investigates, prosecutes and sanctions wrongdoing by public servants, corruption will not abate. Centralisation will strengthen the administration initially but leave it vulnerable in the long term when things do not work as intended.

scholarly journals Public Sector’s Innovativeness: Theoretical and Methodological Perplexities

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Ljubinka Joksimovic ◽  
Slavica Manic ◽  
Danica Jovic
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Innovation ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Theoretical Considerations ◽  
Very High

Research question: This article considers the problems of measuring public sector innovation by asking the question whether and why interpretation of the achievements regarding the public sector innovativeness might be questionable. Motivation: The most recent literature on public sector innovation reveals two perspectives. One of them is assertion that the public sector suffers an innovation deficit, while the other claims that it is actually more innovative than a common credit. Insights in the results from recent large studies of measuring public sector innovation have shown very high rates of innovations, higher than in private sector (between 50 % and 80 % of respondents have recorded at least one type innovation during the period of two years). The lack of a uniquely, or at least dominant, attitude regarding the above-mentioned standpoints represents the basic inspiration for the actualization of this problem. Idea: The aim of the paper is twofold: 1) to offer an overview of three established theoretical attempts (assimilation, demarcation and integrative) dealing with public sector innovation, in order to present the evolution of the issue; 2) to prove that the inclination to more general over contextually specific understanding of innovation (and vice versa) has an impact both on its operationalization and on the interpretation of the achievements. Findings: In spite of the fact that theoretical considerations show noticeable detachment from assimilation perspective, empirical studies still copy this approach and the associated methodology. Surveys introduced subjectivity through arbitrary interpretation of the innovation concept, choice of research techniques and respondents and using of non-measurable goals as indicators of innovation outputs. Since this has affected and overrated their outcomes, we have found that empirical studies have not provided reliable depiction of the state of affairs regarding the PSI. Contribution: Having presented theoretical and methodological arguments why relying on the assimilation approach is neither the only nor even the most adequate way to answer the question whether the  public sector is more innovative than the private one, we point to the necessity of using the other two approaches, particularly integrative one in order to find a coherent method of PSI measurement.

scholarly journals Building people up: Leadership and employee resilience

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Esmé Franken
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Mixed Method Research ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Face ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Five Phases

<p>This mixed method research, in the area of HR and leadership, explores leadership behaviours that foster employee resilience. Resilience is a key capacity in contexts where job demands and challenges are often dynamic and complex, such as in the public sector. This research uses a contemporary definition of resilience, one that views employee resilience as a set of behaviours that help people grow and develop in their jobs, even in the face of challenges. Two questions guide this research: 1. What leadership behaviours enable employee resilience in the public sector?, and 2. How do these behaviours enable employee resilience? This study is situated in the public sector context.  The research consists of five phases. The first phase was a cross-sectional survey of public servants’ views on whether paradoxical leadership behaviours, mediated by perceptions of organisational support, might foster resilience. These connections reflect the correspondence between paradoxical leadership and the dilemmas and paradoxes that arise in public sector work. Phases two and three concerned a series of qualitative studies which identified further leadership behaviours, as well as possible mechanisms and outcomes, and generated an explanatory framework to illustrate how managers can enable employee resilience. This led to the development of the construct resilience-enabling leadership. Phase four gathered feedback on the construct’s validity so that it could be tested quantitatively in a scale. The fifth and final phase tested the resilience-enabling leadership scale (RELS) as a predictor of resilience. It also tested psychometric properties of the scale, including factor structure, and discriminant and convergent validity.  Findings show that a unique combination of leadership behaviours that foster growth, trust and collaboration in employees, is likely to play a pivotal role in developing employee resilience. The RELS is an innovative contribution to organisational scholarship. It represents a leadership model that recognises the changing nature of leadership and responds to the development needs of employees.</p>

scholarly journals Reforming the public sector and Parliament - Chris Hipkins' goals

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin James
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
The State ◽  
Specific Time ◽  
Policy Studies ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Chief Executives ◽  
State Sector ◽  
The Public

Back in the late 1990s senior public servants worried at Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) roundtables that ‘siloisation’ of the state sector was hampering effectiveness. Also at that time an IPS roundtable of chief and deputy chief executives backed posting advice on agency websites when decisions were made or at some specific time after delivery.

scholarly journals Innovation and the Public Service: Facilitating Inclusive Industrial and Social Development

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Plantinga
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Innovation Policy ◽  
Inclusive Development ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
The Public ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Development Outcomes ◽  
Public Organisations ◽  
Legal Frameworks

Public servants involved in South Africa’s innovation policy and programmes are under pressure to adopt more agile and open ways of working to support industrial and social innovation, especially in relation to achieving inclusive development outcomes. Implementing these practices in public sector departments is a challenge. Whilst innovation agencies were established to play a more independent mediating role between the private sector and government, they operate within similar legal frameworks and depend on the same political principals for funding as their parent departments. As a result, there is significant friction between expected innovation-enabling practices and established bureaucratic procedures. Instead of calling for the de-bureaucratisation of the public sector, this chapter seeks to highlight the significant diversity in public organisations and officials involved in stimulating industrial and social innovation; the reasons why certain procedures and practices are in place; and the need to develop targeted interventions that can improve specific routines, capacities and legitimacy at organisational and individual levels as a way to achieve innovation outcomes

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document