Public Managers’ Contribution to Public Service Performance

Author(s):  
Lotte B. Andersen ◽  
Christian B. Jacobsen ◽  
Ulrich T. Jensen ◽  
Heidi H. Salomonse

This chapter describes how public managers contribute to public service performance. First, the chapter investigates three critical contextual factors for how public leadership can make a difference to organizational performance: managerial autonomy, capacity, and ability. Second, three leadership strategies are introduced which have been positively related to organizational performance in the public sector: goal-oriented, relational, and non-leader-centered leadership. Third, a new concept with particular relevance for public management is presented—reputation management—and this points to the relevance of considering the nexus between reputation and performance. It is argued that an organization’s reputation and performance may be more or less aligned. However, more importantly, an organization’s reputation per se also provides an important but less studied contextual factor of relevance for public managers’ ability to improve organizational performance. Finally, the chapter discusses how to develop leadership skills that increase public managers’ ability to contribute to public service performance.

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 2877-2881

The goal of the study is to check the impact of human capital on the performance of public services in Bahrain. Through the literature reviewing showed that human capital is considered to be one main element which helps to the enhancing and improvement organizational performance especially public service performance. The lack of enough previous studies in the area of human capital and performance of public services in the public sector was the motivated to conduct this study. The number of questionnaires that distributed to citizens of Bahrain was 640 via systematic random sampling in the four governorates of Bahrain: Capital, Muharraq, Northern and Southern and 384 questionnaires were returned, with 368 responses found usable. The results of the study revealed that human capital has a significant and positive relation on the performance of public services.


Author(s):  
Peter Leisink ◽  
Lotte B. Andersen ◽  
Gene A. Brewer ◽  
Christian B. Jacobsen ◽  
Eva Knies ◽  
...  

This chapter introduces the overall question that is central to this volume: How does management make a meaningful contribution to public service performance? A summary review of our knowledge of the concepts and relationships that feature in this overall question is provided. Describing the gaps in our knowledge, the chapter explains the approach taken by this volume in order to generate fresh insights. Thus, noting that what constitutes performance is dependent on the institutional context, the public values, and different stakeholders that emphasize some rather than other aspects of public service performance, the chapter introduces the institutional perspective. Signaling parallel lines of research with some centering management systems and others managers’ leadership, the chapter explains the multidisciplinary approach which combines the insights from public management, leadership, human resource management, and work and organization psychology to gain a better understanding of what managers do to impact performance. In addition, this multidisciplinary approach provides insight into how public employees’ attitudes and behaviors contribute to job and organization performance. The chapter concludes by presenting the conceptual model underlying the volume and explains the focus of the individual chapters and their contribution to answering the volume’s overall question.


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-217
Author(s):  
Daniel E. Bromberg ◽  
Étienne Charbonneau

One of the main practical recommendations from the copious public service motivation literature is that human resources (HR) professionals should use public service motivation (PSM) to assist in selecting candidates for public service jobs. To test if PSM is indeed attractive to HR professionals in selecting applicants to work in the public sector, 238 HR managers recruited from the International Public Management Association for Human Resources rated three cover letters and then rated themselves about PSM and the Big 5 personality traits. The cover letters were randomized on most likely combinations of PSM and Big 5, revealed in earlier research. Our results are that real HR professionals did not rate cover letters more highly when they displayed aspects of PSM.


2009 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Ritz

During the last 20 years public sector reforms focused on the increase of organizational performance mainly by implementing managerial tools and methods. The one-sided, output-oriented reforms meet with criticism. In our study we focus on the links between employee attitudes, managerial measures, institutional factors and organizational performance. Therefore, three attitudinal constructs, public service motivation, organizational commitment and job satisfaction, are analysed. The study empirically tests the effects of these dimensions on perceived performance in the federal administration of Switzerland. The analysed data of 13,532 federal employees give insight into the importance of employee commitment to the public interest and the need for goal-oriented management techniques. The results are discussed in light of previous studies. Points for practitioners Public administration research raises more and more criticism against New Public Management reforms. This study, however, shows that there is an important link between managerial techniques and the individual perception of organizational performance in administrative practice. There are a range of private management tools immigrating into the public sector. But for the tools to be effective, practitioners need to integrate them with consideration of the specific requirements of the employee's commitment to the public interest.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 770-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunkui Zhu ◽  
Chen Wu

Purpose This paper aims to examine different hypotheses concerning the effects of public service motivation (PSM) and other attitudinal or institutional dimensions on organizational performance (OP). Specifically, based on the experience of Chinese provincial governments, this study provides new evidence about how PSM may affect OP. Design/methodology/approach This study collected data from a survey of different provincial government departments in Sichuan Province, Hubei Province, Hunan Province and Chongqing Municipality in 2011. Using data from 761 respondents, Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to explore the relationships between related factors. Findings PSM, job satisfaction, affective commitment and job involvement have statistically significant effects on OP, and these results are consistent with the findings of previous researches that PSM positively affected OP at a significant level. The results suggest that, if civil servants have a strong PSM, the performance of their organizations will be high. Research limitations/implications Future research should look for additional factors that affect OP, comparing employees’ perceptions of an organization’s performance with objective data to determine whether, and to what degree, subjective measures of performance are valid measures of OP in the public sector. Practical implications In the process of improving government performance, it is significant to give attention to the government employees’ mentality. The government training and promotion system should encourage civil servants to care about the public interest. A more flattened organization should be considered as part of the next steps in government reform, and more opportunities should be provided to involve more government employees in policy making. Originality/value This study helps to clarify the effects of individual factors of PSM on OP in China in a tightly controlled bureaucratic environment, where related data are hardly accessible.


2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-285
Author(s):  
Claudia Petrescu ◽  
Flavis Mihalache

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.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Bernard Oladosu Omisore ◽  
Oyende Adeleke A.

Performance of the Nigerian public service has been a major concern to policy makers and researchers alike. This is because despite all measures put in place to arrest the ugly trend, it seems, it has defied all approaches towards tackling the problem of inefficiency and capacity collapse. Work ethics, attitudes and values can be influenced by the organization, through interventions like training, motivation and coaching, etc. However, they cannot be changed forcibly because they are intrinsic. It is, therefore, of fundamental importance that public functionaries act justly and fairly to all, not only paying lip service to ethical conduct but also ensuring that these are manifestly and undoubtedly seen to be done. This paper discusses the challenges of work ethics, values, attitudes and performance in the Nigerian public service. The major causes of unethical conduct in the public service were identified and the institutional mechanisms established by the government to curb these unethical behaviours were examined. This paper adopted content analysis as a method of data gathering and analysis. It suggested viable options for effective and efficient service-oriented public service. 


2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 361-368
Author(s):  
Qaanita Yuuha Mustafid

Innovation is important for organizational survival, not only for private company but also for Public Service Company. When the private company needs to develop innovation to win the market competition, public service sector develops innovation in order to increase efficiency and public service quality. In order to evaluate and develop the successful innovation, the company needs to measure innovation performance. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for measuring innovation performance in the public service sector. This paper also identified the variables associated with innovation performance measurement in the public service sector. Using qualitative methods, we developed a performance measurement framework based on the literature review of innovation and performance measurement. The measured variables consist of inputs for innovation, innovation processes, innovation outputs, and the outcomes of implementing innovation. This research is expected to contribute to the literature used by academics and companies that have similar characteristics to measure innovation performance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-55
Author(s):  
Salome Sakvarelidze

Abstract The motivated employee represents the essential condition of any organization’s success. Public and private sector managers should constantly work toward coordinating and increasing employee motivation in order to ensure the timely and effective implementation of the plans set by the organization. Accordingly, proper assessment of processes and prompt determination of individuals’ driving motives are needed. Studies have shown that public service employees from all around the world face challenges, such as: incompatibility of knowledge, experience and position, as well as hard and lightweight work. Consequently, public managers should be aware of modern human resource management methods that can be used in effective and efficient ways to increase employee work quality. The main purpose of the paper is to determine the current situation of the public sector in Georgia. In addition, the research seeks to identify and examine the factors that influence employee demotivation and to determine under what conditions motivation can be a worthwhile investment in a public organizations. Methodologically, the work is based on analysis of the available literature and the results of the research statistically processed based on the survey example of 449 respondents from different Georgian ministries selected by a random simple.


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