scholarly journals Specific investments, cognitive resources, and specialized nature of research production in academic institutions: why shared governance matters for performance

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Giacomo Degli Antoni ◽  
Magali Fia ◽  
Lorenzo Sacconi
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
Shared Governance ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Original Data ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Research Production ◽  
Contractual Incompleteness

Abstract New institutional economics (NIE) studies institutions and how they emerge, operate, and evolve. They also include organizational arrangements, intended as modes of governing economic transactions. Universities offer an exciting ground for testing the role of different institutional arrangements (governance forms) in coordinating (academic) transactions. In a context of contractual incompleteness where production is characterized by a highly specialized nature and requires the cooperation among co-essential figures, we argue that shared governance models (versus models with more concentrated authority) foster idiosyncratic investments in human capital and promotes performance. From the evolutionary viewpoint, we explain why institutions based on shared governance have developed within universities. The normative question of how universities should be governed is a debated issue in the literature. Since the 1980s, the new public management paradigm provides a theoretical framework that suggests analyzing university like firms. It is based on the firm's archetypical conception as top-down hierarchical organizations and as a descending sequence of principal–agent problems. We advance a different interpretation of the university–firm analogy leveraging on the NIE and its developments. To empirically analyze our hypothesis, we collected original data from Italian universities in 2015. We find that more shared decision-making processes are correlated with better research performance.

scholarly journals Economic Transitions in South Africa’s Secondary Cities: Governing Mine Closures

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lochner Marais ◽  
Verna Nel ◽  
Kholisa Rani ◽  
Deidré Van Rooyen ◽  
Kentse Sesele ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Economic Transition ◽  
Intergovernmental Relations ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
Economic Transitions

Many South African secondary cities depend on a single economic sector, often mining or manufacturing. This makes them vulnerable to economic change and national decision-making. We describe change in three secondary cities—Emalahleni, Matjhabeng and Newcastle—all at different phases of economic transition due to imminent mine closure. We investigate the way local governance and planning are dealing with the change. We draw on concepts from institutional economics and evolutionary governance theory, material from strategic planning documents, and approximately 50 key informant interviews. We show how difficult it is to steer economic planning during economic transitions, and we demonstrate how both economic change and governance are path-dependent. Path dependency in South Africa’s mining towns has several causes: the colonial influence, which emphasised extraction and neglected beneficiation; the dominance of a single sector; the long-term problems created by mining; and the lack of the skills needed to bring about economic change. The local governments’ continuing reliance on the New Public Management paradigm, which focuses on steering as opposed to building networks, compounds the problem, along with poor governance, inadequate local capacity and inappropriate intergovernmental relations. Of the three towns, only Newcastle has shown signs of taking a new path.

It’s the Mix That Matters

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. W. Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Game Playing ◽  
Power Dependence ◽  
Institutional Complexity ◽  
New Public ◽  
Self Organizing

After explaining the idea of the differentiated polity, the chapter discusses the characteristics of governance with examples; institutional complexity, power-dependence, game playing, self-organizing, and steering. It argues that the shift to governance requires the new language of diplomacy, not marketization. Governments must choose between markets and networks and bureaucracy. It is the mix that matters. Networks are pervasive. Government is picking up the skills of indirect management, but slowly. This chapter aims to hasten that process by providing a language for exploring and managing the mix of governing structures in the differentiated polity. The new public management, whether in the guise of managerialism or institutional economics, is no longer the challenge confronting government. The challenge is diplomacy in governance. The Afterword expands on the ideas of governing structures, unintended consequences, and metagovernance.

scholarly journals History of research performance measurement systems in the Australian higher education sector

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Martin-Sardesai ◽  
James Guthrie ◽  
Stuart Tooley ◽  
Sally Chaplin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Education Sector ◽  
Measurement Systems ◽  
History Of ◽  
Performance Measurement Systems

Performance measurement systems (PMSs) are a global phenomenon emanating from new public management (NPM) reforms. While they are now prolific and entrenched, they have attracted criticism based on their design and the manner in which they are applied. The purpose of this article is to explore the history of accounting for research in the Australian higher education sector (HES). It focuses on how successive Australian governments have steered research within the sector through the introduction of PMSs, in line with NPM reforms. Relying on publicly available online policy documents and scholarly literature, the study traces the development of performance measures within the Australian HES from the mid-1980s to 2015. It contributes to literature in management accounting aspects of NPM through the means of management accounting techniques such as PMSs. It also contributes to accounting history literature through an examination of three decades of accounting for research in the Australian HES.

scholarly journals A discourse analysis of managerialism and trust amongst nursing professionals

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Joseph McCabe ◽  
Sally Anne Sambrook
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Good Communication ◽  
New Public ◽  
Line Manager ◽  
Nursing Professionals

AbstractThis study explores the effects of New Public Management (NPM) on trust amongst nursing professionals, nurses and nurse ward managers within the British National Health Service (NHS). Thirty-nine nurses and nurse ward managers, recruited randomly, participated in semi-structured interviews. The original data, collected in 2000-2002, are re-analysed from a discourse analysis perspective. The findings support and extend contemporary research. They show that nurses have a strong professional identity and commitment and that increasing managerialism is eroding trust. Nurses both accommodate and resist managerialist discourses. They conceptualise trust in terms of their own ward environment, line-manager and colleagues. Trust is reciprocal and related to previous experiences and other factors. Trust is beneficial to healthcare organisations, healthcare professionals and their patients. Good communication and openness positively influence the development of trust. Nurse ward managers play a pivotal role in translating contested managerialist discourse into nursing practice to sustain trust and effect professional patient care.

Good governance, institutions and performance of public private partnerships

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 566-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Ismail Sabry
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Public Private Partnerships ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Regulatory Quality ◽  
New Public ◽  
Governance Institutions ◽  
Bureaucratic Efficiency

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore theoretically and empirically which institutional factors (including good governance ones) help public-private partnerships (PPP) in providing better infrastructural services, which would then in their turn lead to attracting more private investment for the whole economy. Design/methodology/approach – On the theoretical level, while a focus is put on discussing the institutions that should be responsible for PPP success, reconciliation is being attempted between institutional economics from one side and the new public management and networks management perspectives from the other. Empirically, OLS multivariate panel regressions test the suggestions of the theoretical discussion with emphasis on interaction terms between PPP and the studied institutions. Findings – Evidence is found that good governance institutions, and specifically good regulatory quality, bureaucratic efficiency and independence, help PPP in performing well as evident from their positive effect on investment growth. Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this paper are mainly empirical. Further results with great policy implications could have been obtained if better proxies were developed for a number of variables. Certainly this is the case for the proxies used for cronyism and public-private dialogues (PPD). Practical implications – Tackling bureaucratic efficiency and independence and higher regulatory quality should be a top priority if the great positive externalities resulting from PPP in infrastructure are to be realized. Originality/value – The novelty of this research is attributed to constructing a proxy for PPP, as well as testing empirically the effect of the interactions of PPP with other institutional variables on the performance of infrastructural services (as evident from attracting more investment). The synthesis between the literature on PPP, new public management, networks, good governance, and institutional economics is another aspect of this work. The obtained results suggest important policy recommendations, and, the author hopes to, add to the literature on PPP.

"Jedes starre Konzept ist schlecht und passt net' in diese Welt"

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (148) ◽  
pp. 369-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Ludwig-Mayerhofer ◽  
Ariadne Sondermann ◽  
Olaf Behrend
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Unemployed People ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Public Employment Service ◽  
New Public ◽  
Recent Reform ◽  
The Unemployed ◽  
New Procedures

The recent reform of the Bundesagentur fijr Arbeit, Germany's Public Employment Service (PES), has introduced elements of New Public Management, including internal controlling and attempts at standardizing assessments ('profiling' of unemployed people) and procedures. Based on qualitative interviews with PES staff, we show that standardization and controlling are perceived as contradicting the 'case-oriented approach' used by PES staff in dealing with unemployed people. It is therefore not surprising that staff members use considerable discretion when (re-)assigning unemployed people to one of the categories pre-defined by PES headquarters. All in all, the new procedures lead to numerous contradictions, which often result in bewilderment and puzzlement on the part of the unemployed.

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