Reducing Red Tape’s Negative Consequences for Leaders: The Buffering Role of Autonomous Motivation

In a context where the amount of red tape in healthcare organizations continues to rise, head nurses’ job satisfaction is constantly under pressure. By building on the Job Demands-Resources model, we developed a theoretical model investigating the relationship between red tape and job satisfaction. By investigating the mediating role of discretionary room and the moderating role of autonomous motivation in this relationship, this study does not only aim to provide additional knowledge regarding the underlying mechanisms in this relationship, but also to increase our understanding of how this suffering at work can be mitigated. Our conditional process analyses (N = 277 head nurses) indicate that red tape undermines head nurses’ job satisfaction and that discretionary room acts as an underlying mechanism in this process. By revealing the mediating role of discretionary room, this study advances our understanding of the risks originating from red tape for leaders. Furthermore, our findings also indicate that autonomous motivation mitigates the negative relation between red tape and discretionary room and between red tape and job satisfaction. As autonomous motivation turns out to be an important protection mechanism against the negative consequences of red tape, organizations should put extra effort into stimulating the autonomous motivation of their leaders. When organizations make sure that their leaders’ job designs and work environments meet the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, leaders will become more autonomously motivated, which will buffer the negative impact of red tape.

Red Tape, Rule Legitimacy, and Public Service Motivation: Experimental Evidence From Korean Citizens

While legitimacy plays a key role in determining if a public sector rule or process objectively qualifies as red tape, it is unclear if legitimacy shapes subjective red tape judgments. We use a sample of South Korean citizens and a vignette-based survey experiment describing applying for a small business COVID-19 relief fund to test the relevance of rule legitimacy for perceived red tape. We find that obtaining a favorable outcome (receiving the fund) reduces perceived red tape, but that neither input nor output legitimacy plays a consistent role. Second, we find that public service motivation moderates the role of both input and output legitimacy on perceived red tape, though in different directions. For those with high levels of public service motivation, output legitimacy reduces perceived red tape. However, for the same group, input legitimacy increases it. We provide a detailed discussion of the contributions of our study.

The Simplification of Procedures in Portuguese Administrative Law

The present paper intends to provide an overview and a critical assessment of the administrative simplification policies implemented in Portugal over the past 20+ years. Throughout these decades, the major instruments for administrative simplification have been: (i) Decree-Law n. 135/99, of 22 April; (ii) the Simplex programme; (iii) the 2015 new Code of Administrative Procedure and its 2021 amendment; and (iv) the COVID-19 legislation. Although Decree-Law n. 135/99 (i) was the first attempt to specifically address simplification, it was a very thin one. The Simplex programme (ii), created in 2006, was the first cross-sectoral robust policy of simplification; its motto is “the simpler the better” and it encompassed reforms in all government areas aiming at cutting red tape, promoting administrative efficiency, and making the citizens’ and the corporations’ lives easier when dealing with State. The new Code of Administrative Procedure (iii), approved in 2015, brought about specific normative solutions to simplify procedures, namely, prior communications, administrative assistance, procedural conferences, and the electronic one-stop shop. Finally, the COVID-19 legislation (iv) was made necessary by the COVID-19 pandemic and by the fact that public health restrictions made it impossible for citizens to establish personal contact with the administration in many cases.

Forming expert environment for accreditation of educational programs: A case of Ukraine

The new system of educational programs’ accreditation and the establishment of the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance (NAQA) as an independent regulator has led to the demand for professional experts who can evaluate the educational programs of universities at a qualitatively new level. The paper aims to analyze the formation of the expert environment in Ukraine by conducting numerous training in various formats, as well as to assess the relationship between training and the quality of accreditation visits. The correlation analysis was used to substantiate the conclusions. Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the experience of training experts in the accreditation of study programs in Ukrainian higher education institutions, the results of a pro-active approach by the NAQA in 2019–2021 were presented. It is shown that the accreditation system has been working without red tape, the taint of corruption, using transparency mechanisms, and expert advice since the end of 2019. The accreditation format according to the ESG-2015 standards made it possible to form an expert environment in Ukraine in a short time and encourage changes in higher education. Despite many pieces of training and consultations, many experts and representatives of the Sectoral Expert Council (SEC), evaluating study programs, still provide criticism, prejudice, and not advice and assistance. To minimize such negative practices, NAQA regularly conducts online webinars, briefings for expert groups and heads of study programs, and rotates experts and members of the SEC.

Socio-political risks of digitalization and their impact on public administration

The article is devoted to the study of the influence of digital technologies of public administration on its efficiency. The development of new information and communication technologies, the redistribution of managerial powers in the network space, the transition to a qualitatively different level of interaction between the subjects of public administration lead to large systemic changes in both the environment of the functioning of the state apparatus itself and the process of making and implementing various state management decisions. The issues of readiness of executive authorities to use modern digital technologies are considered, an analysis of the advantages and risks of digitalization of public administration is given. The article empirically proves that the state's efforts to create a digital environment of interaction with citizens highly respond to society's request to reduce the level of bureaucracy and red tape, make the process of performing public functions and providing public services to citizens operational and accessible. Digital technologies of public administration (in the form of various digital services and Internet platforms) not only facilitate the adoption and implementation of public services. management decisions, but also positively perceived and actively used by citizens. The empirical basis of the article is the data of a sociological survey of experts - civil servants conducted within the framework of the scientific project of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research No.20-011-00749 "Mechanism for ensuring the effectiveness of state management decisions in the context of digitalization".

Interaction of Supramolecular Congo Red and Congo Red-Doxorubicin Complexes with Proteins for Drug Carrier Design

Targeted immunotherapy has expanded to simultaneous delivery of drugs, including chemotherapeutics. The aim of the presented research is to design a new drug carrier system. Systems based on the use of proteins as natural components of the body offer the chance to boost safety and efficacy of targeted drug delivery and excess drug removal. Congo red (CR) type supramolecular, self-assembled ribbon-like structures (SRLS) were previously shown to interact with some proteins, including albumin and antibodies complexed with antigen. CR can intercalate some chemotherapeutics including doxorubicin (Dox). The goal of this work was to describe the CR-Dox complexes, to analyze their interaction with some proteins, and to explain the mechanism of this interaction. In the present experiments, a model system composed of heated immunoglobulin light chain Lλ capable of CR binding was used. Heat aggregated immunoglobulins (HAI) and albumin were chosen as another model system. The results of experiments employing methods such as gel filtration chromatography and dynamic light scattering confirmed the formation of the CR-Dox complex of large size and properties different from the free CR structures. Electrophoresis and chromatography experiments have shown the binding of free CR to heated Lλ while CR-Dox mixed structures were not capable of forming such complexes. HAI was able to bind both free CR and CR-Dox complexes. Albumin also bound both CR and its complex with Dox. Additionally, we observed that albumin-bound CR-Dox complexes were transferred from albumin to HAI upon addition of HAI. DLS analyses showed that interaction of CR with Dox distinctly increased the hydrodynamic diameter of CR-Dox compared with a free CR supramolecular structure. To our knowledge, individual small proteins such as Lλ may bind upon heating a few molecules of Congo red tape penetrating protein body due to the relatively low cohesion of the dye micelle. If, however, the compactness is high (in the case of, e.g., CR-Dox) large ribbon-like, micellar structures appear. They do not divide easily into smaller portions and cannot attach to proteins where there is no room for binding large ligands. Such binding is, however, possible by albumin which is biologically adapted to form complexes with different large ligands and by tightly packed immune complexes and heat aggregated immunoglobulin-specific protein complex structures of even higher affinity for Congo red than albumin. The CR clouds formed around them also bind the CR-Dox complexes. The presented research is essential in the search for optimum solutions for SRLS application in immuno-targeting therapeutic strategies, especially with the use of chemotherapeutics.

Invisible Resilience: Indigenous Knowledge Systems of Earthquake Disaster Management in Kagera Region, Tanzania

Indigenous environmental disaster management systems are maintained in remotely located communities through intergenerational transmission. This fieldwork illuminates a wealth of unprecedented survival techniques, strategies and skills for offsetting the worst effects of a natural disaster in earthquake-prone areas of north-west Tanzania. Normally, responses from the government and its foreign development partners are hamstrung by bureaucratic red tape, taking too long in reaching disaster victims to be of any actual help. The formal mechanisms of global assistance constitute disaster management failure by design. Rather, it is the local experts who sustain human lives in the weeks and months before external aid comes to the rescue. Yet local communities’ contributions to their own survival remain invisible to central government and the global arena. Traditional means of forecasting environmental catastrophes and of providing essential assistance in the aftermath of natural disasters are reflections of cultural values, socio-economic sophistication and scientific expertise within communities whose resilience needs to be recognized, assisted and promoted. Educational curricula of the future, involving a new generation of academicians, should integrate this crucial indigenous knowledge into the nation’s mainstream disaster management framework.

PECULIARITY AND ESSENCE OF “ONE-TIME (SPECIAL) VOLUNTARY DECLARATION BY INDIVIDUALS OF ASSETS BELONGING TO THEM” AS A DIFFERENCE OF “TAX AMNESTY”

The article analyzes the essence and peculiarity of one-time (special) voluntary declaration by individuals of their assets in accordance with the Law of Ukraine of 15 June 2021 “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine and Other Laws of Ukraine on Stimulating the Un-Shadowing of Incomes and Increasing the Citizens’ Tax Culture by Introducing One-Time (Special) Voluntary Declaration of Assets Belonging to Individuals and Payment of the One-Time udget Levy”. The author highlights the formal tasks of the proposed voluntary declaration, carries out a scientific analysis of the concepts of “tax amnesty”, “capital amnesty”, and proposed their own generalizing definitions. The author finds that “one-time (special) voluntary declaration” combines features of both “tax amnesty” and “capital amnesty”. The author recapitulates the practice of conducting tax amnesties by different countries and attempts to implement tax amnesty in Ukraine for legal entities in 2015 in the form of a “tax compromise”. To determine the effectiveness of amnesties, the author proposes to take into account not only financial indicators: the amount of legalized capital and taxes paid to the budget, but also factors that change society’s values: increasing legal awareness, improving tax culture and discipline, improving the business climate, expanding the tax base. Based on the analysis of paras 3, 5, 10 of the law on “one-time voluntary declaration” the author concluded that although the majority of citizens will not file a special declaration, the wealth of each citizen (“composition and volume of assets”) will actually be declared as of 1 September 2021. This “zero declaration” will be the starting point for assets calculation, which will be taken into account by the tax authorities in the future. The author draws attention to a number of debatable points of the law, which allow for the possibility of their ambiguous interpretation and may give rise to legal red tape and lawsuits in the future. Based on the analysis of the experience and effectiveness of “amnesties” in different countries, as well as “tax compromise” in Ukraine, the author identified and systematized factors that positively and negatively affect the effectiveness of tax amnesty. It is established that the conduct of “voluntary declaration” will be influenced by both groups of factors. In the conclusions, the author proposes measures aimed at neutralizing the negative factors.