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.

Does Citizens’ Self-Identification of Their Public Role Affect Their Satisfaction with Public Services?

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-100
Author(s):  
Hemin Choi ◽  
Jong Seon Lee
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Role ◽  
New Public ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Service Expectations ◽  
Manova Analysis

This study investigates how citizens define their role qua citizen and how the public role they assign themselves matters in their assessment of satisfaction with public service performance. We compared survey respondents who identified their citizen role as customer (n=280), partner (n=353) or owner (n=467) to test this relation. Theoretically, the dominance of New Public Management (NPM) scholarship has resulted in the framing of citizens as simply customers, but our empirical study finds that citizens consider themselves more as partners or owners of government. This mismatch in conception was our research hypothesis for further research. We then ran a number of t-tests and carried out a MANOVA analysis, the results of which indicate that there is a significant difference between the customer and partner groups regarding expectations and satisfaction on the quality of their living area but not regarding performance. There is also evidence that shows that the role citizens assign to themselves is related to their public service expectations but that the connection between their view of their role and their assessment of performance is weak.

FORMATION OF THE BASIC KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM IN THE PUBLIC MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION SPHERE

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-216
Author(s):  
Valerii Bakumenko ◽  
Oleksiy Krasnorutskyy ◽  
Anatolii Hatsko
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Knowledge System ◽  
Basic Knowledge ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Administration Reform

The modernization of the management system and the knowledge management model is needed in the context of the public administration reform, taking into account the concept of decentralization and Good Governance. That is why the article focuses on the author’s approach to substantiating the formation of a modern knowledge system in public management and administration in Ukraine. It is proved that the approach to the knowledge system formation should be based on the identification of the needs of public administration objects. The need to comply with the necessary diversity law for a management subject of public entity regarding its knowledge of the entity has been identified. The content of the principle «from general to specific» for the objects of public administration is considered. The formation structure of the basic knowledge system in the public sphere is presented, which unites a number of blocks. The first block deals with the system of basic knowledge of public management and administration. The second block deals with the idea of a public authorities system at different levels. The third block concerns the formation of basic knowledge about public service. The fourth block concerns the formation of a basic knowledge system about current trends in the development of domestic public administration. The fifth block deals with the knowledge about the development and implementation of public policy and implementation of public administration. The sixth block deals with the consideration of public administration as a deliberate activity to establish internal procedures and processes in public administration to ensure their smooth functioning. The seventh block concerns the knowledge system for ensuring social stability. The eighth block is a glossary of basic terms and the ninth is a bibliography. The proposed approach is the scientific substantiation of the development of educational and professional programs of the basic textbook and standards for the specialty 281 – «Public Management and Administration». Keywords: knowledge, public administration, the necessary diversity law, public policy, public service, public authorities, public stability.

scholarly journals When a Market Runs a Hierarchy: Retrenchment of Bureaucratic Practices in Lithuanian Uniformed Services

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-24
Author(s):  
Svajūnė Ungurytė-Ragauskienė ◽  
Mantas Bileišis
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Practical Implication ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
New Governance ◽  
The Public ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Public Administration Reform

Some public administration literature that focuses on public administration reform indulges in constructing grand narrative theories such as New Public Management (NPM), or New Governance (NG). The most recent such theory that has been gaining attention over the past decade is the Neo Weberian State (NWS). The content of the theory with regard to its practical implication when it comes to reform is still unsettled. However, one key assumption behind the NWS is that reforms should be handled with care, as they may undermine the very institutions that have brought Western societies to the levels of their development they are in now. NPM’s drive to increase efficiency, and NG’s – democracy from the point of view of NWS is impossible if reforms deconstruct institutions that ensure the protection of the public interest and rule of law. NWS’s critique of post-communist reform efforts in the new eastern EU member-states is a case in point suggesting that leapfrogging the construction of a professional bureaucracy is ill-advised and does not lead to politically desired outcomes. In this paper we aim to evaluate which path of reform may lead to the best outcomes in a particular area of the public service – two non-military uniformed services of Lithuania – customs and penitentiary. These services have to a large degree avoided sweeping reforms throughout the independence period, in both cases – a soviet institutional legacy is also a factor. Both Customs and the Penitentiary service are suffering from multiple corruption scandals and very low public trust levels. These services are continuously in the crosshairs of reform, but few have been clearly articulated, even less so – implemented. Applying NPM to uniformed services, due to the nature of their functions was complicated, so as reforms in the 1990s and 2000s went along in the other sectors, policy-makers have largely left uniformed to their own devices, and this has led to retrenchment of the bureaucratic principles as would historical institutionalisms theory predict. We suggest that NPM-oriented governance avoids intervention in areas where NPM principles are hard to apply, leaving such areas without proper attention to continue down undesirable development paths. When the deconstruction of a hierarchy appears impossible, higher order governance needs to remain modelled as hierarchy as well. NWS in this case does offer a management modernization agenda, which could keep state institutions in step with social, technological, and economic developments.

scholarly journals Innovation in public administration reform: a strategic reform through NPM, ICT, and e-governance. A comparative analysis between Lebanon and Romania

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (35) ◽  
pp. 75-89
Author(s):  
Charbel EL AMMAR ◽  
Constantin Marius PROFIROIU
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Organizational Innovation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Road ◽  
Public Administration Reform ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Challenging Situation

In addition to the involvement of public administration (PA) as a catalyst for economic development, today we are witnessing the need to enhance innovation in PA itself, with a commitment to maximizing efficiency, effectiveness, performance, and to improve quality of public service. In PA, the emerging theory of innovation represents a combined effort between conventional organizational innovation tools such as strategic planning and modern ones such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and e-governance. With regard to this challenging situation, this paper seeks to present a substantial literature concerning the theory of innovation, New Public Management (NPM), ICT, and e-governance. Furthermore, using a qualitative approach based on centered semi-structured interviews, this article illustrates the current activities conducted by the Lebanese government, specifically the Office of Ministry of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR), compared by data gathered from platforms and databases from Romanian PA such as Ministry of Communication and Information Society, OECD, DESI index, and Eurostat on ICT and e-governance at European level. The paper results reveal the significant effect of innovation in Romanian PA paving the road toward facing the challenge to achieve its digital 2020 agenda and contributing to transparency, efficiency, effectiveness, community participation, and development of public service. However, Lebanese PA should join and shake hands to strengthen the adoption of innovation in its public corridors and should cross the notion of “still born” application of ICT to a fruitful implementation contributing to strategic innovation in public services and improved PA efficiency and performance.

Public Administration (PA) Education in Italy

2022 ◽  
pp. 107-124
Author(s):  
Tanzer Celikturk
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Bologna Process ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Administration Reform ◽  
European Public

PA education is closely related to the public administration understanding of the relevant country and the public administration reform process. In this context, the structure of the Italian public administration, its historical roots, traditions, and public administration reform processes are discussed in order to understand the PA education in Italy. Since Italy is from the Continental European school of public administration, its effects on public administration reforms and PA education in Europe have been examined. Factors such as the spread of the new public management approach and the Bologna process initiated by the European Union, the convergence process in PA education and its effects on Italy are discussed. It is aimed to shed light on the PA education studies in Turkey by considering the PA education in Italy, one of the important representatives of the Continental European public administration understanding, which constitutes the intellectual foundation of the Turkish administrative system.

scholarly journals New Public Management-based Reform in Bangladesh: A Review of Public Administration Reform Commission

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Shariar Islam
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Service Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Reform Implementation ◽  
Public Administration Reform ◽  
The People ◽  
New Public

This article highlights that Bangladesh has not been able to achieve desired success in implementing Public Administration Reform Commission’s (PARC) new public management (NPM)-driven reform recommendations as there are major challenges such as lack of political commitment, bureaucratic unwillingness to bring about change, lack of advocacy for NPM reform among the people and inefficient public service management. To face the challenges of NPM reform implementation, it is needed to ensure political commitment, bureaucratic support, awareness among the people through government, non-government and social organisations.

An Interpretive-Phenomenological Critique of the Science of (New?) Public Management: A Polemic

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence M Garrett
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Public Organizations ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public ◽  
Technical Rationality ◽  
Executive Level ◽  
General Technical

Public Administration as a field of academic inquiry has faced numerous challenges. Public management scholars focus exclusively on the executive level of management in public organizations. Knowledge possessed by lower-level managers, workers, and/or the public is ignored and deemed to be irrelevant or unimportant in the decision-making process within agencies. In general, technical rationality, or what passes for traditional management practice and the new public management, has had some success for executives and managers in public organizations insofar as motivating individuals for instrumental purposes. (*) The success of public management as a social and political movement makes it difficult to overcome. The concentration of the “public management movement” on the executive level of management has supplanted traditional public administration and public service. It is the ideology of public management that is the primary focus of this paper. Alternatives including the New Public Service and the knowledge analytic will be presented briefly as a counterpoint to address the democratic shortcomings of the public management movement, both new and old.*See Guy B. Adams and V. Ingersoll’s “Culture, Technical Rationality, and Organizational Culture,” in American Review of Public Administration, December 1990, 20/4: 285 – 302, for an excellent elaboration of the concept. In general, technical rationality is an approach to thinking that “has stripped reason of any normative role in shaping human affairs” (Adams and Balfour 1998, xiii).

scholarly journals The Legacy of Deferred Compensation in Korea`s Administrative Reforms

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-218
Author(s):  
Kim Dong Ryul
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Organizational Capacity ◽  
Deferred Compensation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Performance ◽  
Administrative Reforms ◽  
New Public

While New Public Management is becoming an established program for improving the quality of public administration, this study redirects our attention to the merits of an older system. Some of the public administration mechanisms that were reformed with the advent of democratization and globalization are argued in this study to have worked better than their newer versions. Using the Korean example, this study demonstrates that liberal political reforms may be harmful for public management, contrary to the usual expectations about their benefits. In the Korean bureaucracy, the disruption of deferred compensation-attractive post-retirement employment as a reward for policy performance during one`s tenure as a civil servant-impaired its organizational capacity, as policy autonomy dropped and corruption increased within the bureaucracy.

scholarly journals MANAJEMEN KINERJA APARATUR SIPIL NEGARA DI INDONESIA: SEBUAH KONSEP MANAJEMEN PUBLIK BARU

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-60
Author(s):  
Bertha Lubis
Keyword(s):  
Performance Management ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Administrative Services ◽  
New Public ◽  
Management Concept ◽  
Results Orientation

New public management is a new concept in public administration science. This concept is results oriented, transparency and accountability of administrative services. Performance management is the key to results orientation. The Performance Management System is a record of the inputs, processes, outputs and results of government procedures. This helps to achieve the government's progress towards the goals. The Research goals to introduce the concept of performance management of the state civil servants in Indonesia as a new public management concept. The research used qualitative methods in the analysis of the research object. The results show that the bureaucracy that is complicated and still lacks quality of public services has become the curse of public administration science in Indonesia. The ASN performance management concept as a new performance-based public management is a breakthrough that can improve ASN performance which in the end has an impact on the performance of public services.

scholarly journals Improving Public Services: Public Administration Reform in Northern Ireland

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
COLIN KNOX ◽  
PAUL CARMICHAEL
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Formative Evaluation ◽  
Public Services ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Public Administration Reform ◽  
Effective System

The devolved government in Northern Ireland set about the task of putting in place ‘a modern and effective system of public administration that can deliver high quality public services to our citizens’. It did so through a review of public administration launched in June 2002. This article offers a formative evaluation of the quest to improve the quality of public services, now being taken forward by a British minister since the suspension of devolution. It argues that the review is being driven by institutional concerns and is devoid of a public service modernising agenda. Additionally, it contends that how people in Northern Ireland perceive public services is contingent on their views on its constitutional status (Direct Rule or devolved government) which, in turn, is linked to their support for the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, rather than the performance of public bodies. As a consequence, the reforms may result in little more than institutional tinkering with doubtful impact on the quality of public services.

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