scholarly journals Public Service Innovations and Changing Ethos in Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chukwuemeka Okafor ◽  
Jacob Olufemi Fatile ◽  
Ganiyu Layi Ejalonibu
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Analytical Method ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Market Values ◽  
The Core ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
The Ideal

One of the widely held beliefs in public management is that strict commitment to an ideology of public service values, which is a critical factor in the delivery of public services. However, with the introduction of market-oriented reforms-innovations, most of these values face severe and serious challenges. This study, using a comparative and analytical method, examines the principles which underpin the African governments’ program of innovation in public service delivery and in particular the traditional public service ethos. The article reveals that over the years, African public services and those who work in them fall short of the ideal leading to the attempt to innovate by introducing the market values which have equally raised questions about possible threats to the ethos. After identifying some challenges that innovation may pose, the article suggests that traditional public sector ethos should be redefined to allow for innovative ideas in service delivery. Finally, the study concludes that a new “synthesized” ethos that draws on the core elements of bureaucratic principles as well as market based values, would deliver superior public services.

Delivery of Time-Bound Public Services to Citizens: Indian Experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-355
Author(s):  
Urvashi Pareek ◽  
Nagendra Ambedkar Sole
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Critical Function ◽  
Public Service Delivery ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Government

The delivery of public services to the citizens is the most critical function of the government, among the other functions being development and regulation. The three essential pillars of public service delivery are timelines, quality and grievance redressal. The concept of public service delivery emerged in the 1990s, with New Public Management and Citizen Charter’s evolution in the UK. With the shift in the role of the state from provider to facilitator and regulator of public services, the focus is to ensure transparency, accountability and citizen centricity in administration and maintain citizen’s satisfaction and trust in the government. This article highlights the concept of public service delivery, and time-bound delivery practices, adopted internationally and nationally. The article concludes that India needs to look beyond Information and Communications Technology and capitalise on other options as listed in suggestions.

Organizational Concepts of Public Services in the Republic of Macedonia

10.4335/77 ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Borce Davitkovski ◽  
Ana Pavlovska Daneva
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Public Institution ◽  
Legal Person ◽  
Public Service Delivery ◽  
The Public

The public services which fulfil some common social needs are provided by public, private and mixed institutions in Macedonia. Their legal framework is the Public Institution Act. Public institutions can be established by the state-owned, municipal and private funds. An institution has the capacity of a legal person with the rights and obligations determined by law. It can conclude contracts and perform legal affairs within the professional framework as it is registered in the Central Register. Each institution has its own bodies: the management board, director, a supervisory body and other bodies determined by law. During the 17-year process of Macedonia’s approaching the Euro-Atlantic integration and legal harmonization, the field of profession-specific organizations, oriented solely at providing public services, has undergone major changes. The results of these changes are still to be measured and assessed. KEY WORDS: • public service delivery • public institution • financing public service delivery • public management • Macedonia

Public service delivery in the Nordic Region: An exercise in collaborative governance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elin Cedergren ◽  
◽  
Diana Huynh ◽  
Michael Kull ◽  
John Moodie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Collaborative Governance ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Public Service Delivery ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Nordic Region

Nordic welfare states are world renowned for providing high quality public services. Nordic municipal and regional authorities, in particular, play a central role in the delivery of key public services in areas, such as, health, education, and social care. However, in recent years, public authorities have faced several challenges which have reduced capacity and resources, including long periods of austerity following the 2008 financial crash, rapid demographic changes caused by an ageing population, and the COVID-19 health crisis. In response to these challenges many public authorities have looked to inter-regional, inter-municipal and cross-border collaborations to improve the quality and effectiveness of public service delivery (OECD 2017; ESPON 2019). Indeed, collaborative public service delivery is becoming increasingly prominent in the Nordic Region due to a highly decentralized systems of governance (Nordregio 20015; Eythorsson 2018).

Perceptions towards the quality of public services in Romania. Poor outcomes of public administration reforms?

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-285
Author(s):  
Claudia Petrescu ◽  
Flavis Mihalache
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Administration Reform

Public services represent an important dimension of quality of society, as they create the contextual conditions for people to further their quality of life. Romanian public administration reform has brought about a constant institutional transformation, which has influenced both the specific features and the quality of the services. This article aims to analyse trends regarding the perceived quality of public services in Romania, in European comparative perspective, using the data of the European Quality of Life Survey (2003–2016). The article aims to understand the low satisfaction with public services in Romania against the background of the public service reform measures taken by government in this period. The article describes the context of Romanian public administration and public service reform, the most important public policy measures adopted and the most important challenges. The lack of vision in the public service reform, the partial introduction of reform elements, the permanent and, sometimes, conflicting changes are issues that may have influenced the way in which the population perceives the quality of public services. The decentralisation process of public services and the insufficient allocation of public funds for delivering such services at local level might have an impact on their quality and quantity perceived by the population. Keywords: public services; public administration reform; citizens’ satisfaction; New Public Management; New Weberianism.

scholarly journals Autonomy of Public Service Delivery Units in Vietnam: An Institutional Perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Minh Thi Hai Vo
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Institutional Perspective ◽  
Sociological Institutionalism ◽  
Public Service Delivery ◽  
State Management

<p>Intrigued by the burgeoning commercialisation of public services in Vietnam, this research seeks to understand the nature of autonomy that public service delivery units have been given as part of the greater effort of the Government of Vietnam to separate business and service provision from state management. In addressing this objective, the research bases its analysis on historical institutionalism and sociological institutionalism that illuminate insights into institutional factors shaping the autonomy policies and the implementation of the policies in practice. The main data sources the research draws on are legal documents, government reports and in-depth interviews with managers and staff of public service delivery units.  The research findings illustrate that autonomy is very limited in many aspects of management because the autonomy reforms are largely influenced by the socialist-oriented market path dependence. Amidst the exhaustion of resources and legitimacy due to the regime’s flawed economic structure and inherent problems of cronyism and corruption, autonomy is utilized primarily as a strategic instrument to mobilize resources indispensable for the socialist survival. This policy direction creates incentives for the various forms of rent-seeking and corrupt behaviour among public service delivery units, occasioning the rapid and aggressive commercialization of public services. While the root of these problems lies in the intent of the policies, these problems are further nurtured by historical and cultural factors, and seriously compounded by the absence of an effective regulatory and accountability system and the lack of political commitment to fight corruption from the top leaders.  The research addresses the gap in the academic literature by offering an illuminating insight into the nature of autonomy of a country context and demonstrating the merit of converging historical institutionalism and sociological institutionalism for the study of public policies. The research’s significant contribution to policy-making is that it highlights the need to build institutions to fit in well with the reform ideas, especially when such ideas are borrowed or transferred from advanced countries with well-developed institutional foundations.</p>

Why are Local Authorities Reluctant to Externalise (and Do They Have Good Reason)?

10.1068/c0419 ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Entwistle
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Performance Improvement ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Labour Government ◽  
Theoretical Support

In vogue with the international currents of public management, the United Kingdom's New Labour government sees the outsourcing, or externalisation, of public service delivery as a key instrument of performance improvement. Evidence suggests, however, that a significant proportion of local authorities are reluctant to externalise. On the basis of fifty interviews in six case-study authorities, the author identifies five reasons for a reluctance to externalise. He further considers the degree of theoretical support for this reluctance, concluding that gaps in our knowledge—critical to ‘make or buy’ decisions—make it impossible to determine whether a reluctance to externalise is well founded or not.

Pandemic effects on public service employment in Australia

2021 ◽  
pp. 103530462110560
Author(s):  
Linda Colley ◽  
Shelley Woods ◽  
Brian Head
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Considerable Change ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Public Sector Employment ◽  
The Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic is sending shockwaves through communities and economies, and public servants have risen to the novel policy challenges in uncharted waters. This crisis comes on top of considerable turmoil for public services in recent decades, with public management reforms followed by the global financial crisis (GFC) leading to considerable change to public sector employment relations and a deprivileging of public servants. The research adopts the lens of the ‘public service bargain’ to examine the effects of the pandemic across Australian public services. How did Australian public service jurisdictions approach public employment in 2020, across senior and other cohorts of employees? How did this pandemic response compare to each jurisdictions’ response to the GFC a decade earlier? The research also reflects more broadly of the impact on public sector employment relations and to what extent pandemic responses have altered concepts of the diminished public service bargain or the notion of governments as model employers? JEL Codes J45

Local Public Service Delivery Arrangements in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

2016 ◽  
pp. 405-423
Author(s):  
Juraj Nemec ◽  
Jana Soukopova ◽  
Beata Mikusova Merickova
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Main Part ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Final Part ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Local Public Services ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
New Eu Member States

This chapter discusses the issue of efficiency of the different modes of the provision of local public services in two selected new EU member states – the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic and Slovakia have a long common history and it is feasible to include both of them in the analysis. The first main part of the chapter analyses the history, transformation and the current local public delivery arrangements in the Czech Republic and Slovakia with the focus on the efficiency of the different modes of production. The final part tries to explain the main purposes behind the fact that externalisation does not deliver visible improvements.

Scotland's Civic Society v. England's Big Society? Diverging Roles of the VCS in Public Service Delivery

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Danson ◽  
Geoffrey Whittam
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Public Service Delivery ◽  
Civic Society ◽  
Big Society ◽  
The Public

The devolved governments and parliaments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland increasingly have been adopting different approaches from England to the delivery of public services. With more powers and responsibilities, Scotland has initiated these moves to divergence, not least with respect to the roles of volunteering, the Voluntary and Community Sectors (VCS) in the context of the ‘Big Society’. This article explores how the environment and institutions in Scotland increasingly are generating moves for different relations between the public, private and VCS. With key powers reserved for the Westminster parliament, differences are demonstrated in the position and development of the VCS.

Voluntary cooperation of citizens in the community model of public service delivery

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beáta MIKUŠOVÁ ◽  
Nikoleta JAKUŠ ◽  
Marián HOLÚBEK
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Revealed Preferences ◽  
Public Service Delivery ◽  
Continuous Increase ◽  
The Public ◽  
Community Model

Most of the developed countries have implemented new principles of public sector reform – new approaches to the management of the public sector. A major feature of the new public management (NPM) is the introduction of market type mechanisms (MTM) to the running of public service organizations: the marketization of the public service. The marketization of public services aims at a continuous increase in public expenditure efficiency, continual improvements in public services quality, the implementation of the professional management tools in the public sector, and last but not least, charge for public services. Price of public services in mainstream economics theory is connected with preference revelation problem. Economic models explain the relationship between consumer behavior (revealed preferences) and the value of public goods, and thus determine the value of the goods themselves. The aim of the paper is to determine the success of the community model of public service delivery based on the demonstrated preferences of individuals in the consumption of public services / public goods. The direct way of determining the preferences of individuals was used in this paper (willigness to pay and willigness to accept). These preferences will be identified based on the crowdfunding campaign as an example of community model of public goods provision by using survey experiment method. The willingness of individuals to pay is dependent on the individual's relationship with the organisation, the organisation's employees, or sympathise with those for whom the collection is, for whom the project is designed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document