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Books > Business & Economics > Industry & industrial studies > Civil service & public sector
The literature on gender and professions shows that professional careers continue to be impacted by gender - albeit with important differences among professions and countries. Much less researched is the issue of the significance of gender and age-cohort or generation to professional work. Gender, Age and Inequality in the Professions explores men's and women's experiences of professional work and careers through an intersectional lens by focusing on the intersection of gender and age. The chapters explore different professions - including Medicine, Nursing, Law, Academia, Information Technology and Engineering - in different Western countries, in the present and over time. Through original research, and critical re-analysis of existing research, each of the chapters explores the significance of gender and age-cohort or generation to professional work, with particular attention to professionals just entering professional careers, those building professional careers, and comparisons of men and women in professions across generational cohorts. The book contributes to literature on inequalities in the professions by demonstrating the ways in which gender and age converge to confer privilege and produce disadvantage, and the ways in which gender inequality is reproduced, and disrupted, through the activities of professionals on the job. The book constitutes a departure point for future research in terms of theoretical perspectives and empirical findings on how gendered and age-related processes are produced and reproduced in particular organisational, professional and socio-cultural contexts. To enhance generational understanding, relationships and collaboration in educational institutions, organisations and professions, the book ends with a section on policy recommendations for educators, professionals, professional organisations as well as policy- and decision-makers. This book will also appeal to students and researchers in the fields of Sociology, Gender Studies, Organisational and Management Studies, Law, Medicine, Engineering and Information Technology as well as related disciplines.
The Conservative's privatisation programme was one of the most ambitious aspects of their attempt to redraft the political and economic map of the United Kingdom. Originally published in 1988, this book explores the processes of privatisation from a variety of standpoints. Its contributors include academics, enterprise executives and government officials, many of whom had been closely involved in the programme. Fiscal, legal and social aspects of privatisation are explored but the book treats the subject as more than an immediate political issue and takes the opportunity to discuss the success - or otherwise - of public enterprise and to explore the implication of the UK experience for other countries which have an interest in privatisation.
Originally published in 1971, when nationalized industries employed about 7 per cent of the national labour force, created about 10 per cent of the gross domestic product and had annual investment programmes which were equal to those of all private manufacturing put together. Even this understates the scope of public enterprise at the time, since there were many other organizations, ranging from the BBC to the Public Trustee, which were semi-autonomous public enterprises, but not nationalized industries. Moreover, the public enterprise sector continued to grow, even under Conservative governments, and there were many reasons for thinking that no government would succeed in reversing this trend, for it was felt unlikely that, as government became more complex, it would disgorge many new activities which would be given a semi-autonomous, that is, public enterprise status. The author, drawing on personal experience, shows that the facts of ministerial and parliamentary control were very different from what the public and Parliament thought at the time. He describes the very great practical independence of the Boards and also how much Ministers had come to rely on persuasion (which not only can impose serious waste of time and money on both Boards and Government but is also inefficient). Ministers have least power where the aims of public enterprise are social rather than commercial. If there were no changes, the growth of public enterprise to achieve social purposes would mean an important decline in the power of Parliament and Ministers. This book explores solutions to this problem and concludes that the government must build up a cadre and capacity for financial control which at the time were lacking to it.
Originally published in 1959, the author has observed at first hand the workings of public enterprise in Britain. He has coupled objectivity with an acute sense of economic perception and has produced a clear and ordered study of the workings of nationalization in industry at the time. His book does not contain an argument on whether nationalization is desirable or not. On the assumption that there is nationalization he attempts to discuss certain important problems raised by it in the fields of management, pricing, resource allocation and public control. He hopes that a discussion of this nature will contribute towards ensuring the most satisfactory results from nationalization.
Originally published in 1986, this volume brings together papers on the organisational structure of select public enterprises from nine countries, developed and developing. They are set in different forms, work in different sectors and have diverse experiences, often on similar issues. The papers are written by top executives of the respective enterprises and, therefore, contain an authentic presentation of the problems and processes of organisation. The editor has included, at the beginning, an analytical review on certain fundamental aspects of organisational structure which, for the purpose of this volume, has been conceived in wide terms. Every one of these aspects is not exactly covered by every empirical paper. At the end he has provided a comparative review, trying to keep to a minimum repetition of material from the papers.
This research review discusses some of the most influential literature in the area of empirical health economics. Health economics provides empirical evidence to aid decision-making across a broad spectrum of issues in health and health care. This evidence is often derived from econometric methods. This literature analysis covers landmark contributions to the development and application of these methods which span the field, ranging from structural models, models for health care costs and other microeconometric approaches, including bayesian methods, longitudinal data, applications to health technology assessment, along with field experiments and policy evaluation. This review will be of interest to economic researchers and students as well as health scholar's wishing to explore the development of modern econometrics applied to health policy.
At a time of growing pressure on health and social care services, this book draws together contributions which highlight contemporary challenges for their management. Providing a range of contributions that draw on a Critical Management Studies perspective the book raises macro-level concerns with theory, demographics and economics on the one hand, as well as micro-level challenges of leadership, voice and engagement on the other. Rather than being an attempt to define the 'wickedness' of problems in this field, this book provides new insights designed to be of interest and value to researchers, students and managers. Contributions from international researchers explore four main topics: identifying contemporary challenges in health and social care; managing, leading and following; listening to silent voices in delivering change; and new methodologies for understanding care challenges. The concerns discussed in this volume are 'wicked' in so far as they are persistent, pernicious and beyond the curative abilities of any single organisation or profession. Such problems require collaboration but also new approaches to listening to those who suffer their effects. This book demonstrates such listening through its engagement with policy makers, leaders, followers, professions, patients, forgotten groups and silenced voices. Moreover, it considers how future research might be transformed so as to shine a more inclusive light on 'wicked' problems and their amelioration. This is a timely and engaging book that challenges you - the reader - to think again about how we should look at, engage with and support all those involved in health and social care.
This extensive book critically examines and contrasts the civil service systems of eight diverse Asian countries; Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Laos, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand, using a common comparative framework. The authors compare the civil service systems in each country discussing several factors including historical development, internal labour markets, degree of representativeness, level of politicization, the effect of public opinion, the impact of reform and diffusion and their place in two popular configurations of civil service systems.The authors go on to demonstrate the utility of comparative research by analysing the findings of the country studies and comparing the Asian countries against each other and the Asian experience as a whole against that of the West. They discover that there are considerable differences between the Asian civil service systems, illustrated by the degree to which political parties penetrate the civil service and the extent to which government agencies act as employers of last resort. Other conclusions drawn highlight the fact that in spite of many similarities, there are also sizeable differences between Asian and Western civil services, including a lack of political neutrality in many Asian countries. Civil Service Systems in Asia will be of great interest and value to academics and advanced level students in public administration, law, political science and Asian studies.
Medical Professionals: Conflicts and Quandaries in Medical Practice offers a fresh approach to understanding the role-related conflicts and quandaries that pervade contemporary medical practice. While a focus on professional conflicts is not new in the literature, what is missing is a volume that delves into medical professionals' own experience of the conflicts and quandaries they face, often as a result of inhabiting multiple roles. The volume explores the ways in which these conflicts and quandaries are exacerbated by broader societal forces, including changing scientific and technological paradigms, commercialization, and strengthened consumer movements, which simultaneously expand the scope of roles and responsibilities that medical professionals are expected to fulfill, and make it more difficult to do so. Several empirical chapters analyze data from qualitative interview studies with clinicians and other stakeholders. The studies highlight the burdens on clinicians who are expected to make informed and justified judgments and decisions in the midst of competing pressures; authors describe the methods that clinicians use to address the associated tensions within specific contexts. Two conceptual chapters follow and offer some innovative ways to think about the challenges facing medical professionals as they strive to make sense of the changing landscape within healthcare. The first reflects on the challenges to clinical practice in the midst of shifting and often competing definitions of disease and associated ideologies of care. The second reflects more broadly on the utility of value pluralism as a framework for conceptualizing and working through moral and professional quandaries. The book concludes with a chapter containing suggestions for how members of the medical profession might reframe their thinking about their roles, responsibilities, and decision-making in the midst of inevitable quandaries such as those presented here. This book will be of vital reading for academics, researchers, educators, postgraduate students, and interested health care practitioners and administrators.
In thirteen chapters, the contributors to this volume analyse the different dimensions of a new form of collaboration, termed collective co-production, in the Scandinavian countries. It is a characteristic of the Scandinavian countries - Sweden, Norway and Denmark - that they have both a large public and voluntary sector. For decades, the dominant type of collaboration between the two sectors has consisted of the public sector providing financial support to organisations in the voluntary sector, while the activities are undertaken by the organisation itself. In recent times, however, a new discourse has emerged, with a strong political focus on developing closer collaboration between the two sectors. The book analyses collective co-production between the voluntary and public sectors, and identifies what distinguishes this form of collaboration from others. It looks at the scope of collective co-production, how and why it differs between welfare areas, as well as the political vision for co-production and the extent to which it lives up to those expectations. This discourse promotes a type of collaboration wherein organisations, associations and volunteers can participate in the implementation of tasks for which public institutions are responsible. The book is a valuable resource for professionals in voluntary organizations and public welfare units working with co-production and for researchers and students in the fields of civil society, voluntary sector and welfare policy.
The choices made by governments about how to reward their top employees reveal a great deal about their values and their assumptions about governing. This book examines rewards of high public office in seven Asian political systems, a particularly rich set of cases for exploring the causes and consequences of the rewards of high public office, having some of the most generous and most meagre reward packages in the world. There are a range of economic, political and cultural explanations for the rewards provided by governments. Likewise, these choices are assumed to have a number of consequences, including variations in the levels of corruption and economic success. Reward for High Public Office includes case studies focusing on Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Singapore. It will interest students and researchers of politics, public administration and Asian studies.
Innovation has become an important focus for governments around the world over the last decade, with greater pressure on governments to do more with less, and expanding community expectations. Some are now calling this 'social innovation' - innovation that is related to creating new services that have value for stakeholders (such as citizens) in terms of the social and political outcomes they produce. Innovation in City Governments: Structures, Networks, and Leadership establishes an analytical framework of innovation capacity based on three dimensions: Structure - national governance and traditions, the local socioeconomic context, and the municipal structure Networks - interpersonal connections inside and outside the organization Leadership - the qualities and capabilities of senior individuals within the organization. Each of these are analysed using data from a comparative EU research project in Copenhagen, Barcelona and Rotterdam. The book provides major new insights on how structures, networks and leadership in city governments shape the social innovation capacity of cities. It provides ground-breaking analyses of how governance structures and local socio-economic challenges, are related to the innovations introduced by these cities. The volume maps and analyses the social networks of the three cities and examines boundary spanning within and outside of the cities. It also examines what leadership qualities are important for innovation. Innovation in City Governments: Structures, Networks, and Leadership combines an original analytical approach with comparative empirical work, to generate a novel perspective on the social innovation capacity of cities and is critical reading for academics, students and policy makers alike in the fields of Public Management, Public Administration, Local Government, Policy, Innovation and Leadership.
When this book was first published in 1973 there had been little study of the relationships between the organizational structures of public bodies and their use of information technology. This volume was therefore one of the first to describe how such strcures determine computer use, and how technology in turn influence the services provided. It also discusses the changes that computerization brought about in staffing structures and in the role of the specialist, analyses the ways in which they have modified human resource policies and practices and surveys signifcant trends in the employment and career development of IT staff.
Written by members of the Study of Parliament Group, this book assesses Parliament's response to the reorganization of much of the Civil Service into executive agencies. Chief executives have been given freedom to take operational decisions, yet ministers insist that they themselves remain constitutionally responsible for the work of the agencies. After reviewing Parliament's mechanisms and considering several case studies, the authors conclude that Parliament has yet to exploit fully the opportunities for greater accountability which the new arrangements provide. It contains case-studies of two new agencies, benefits and employment.
`It is really encouraging to see that such a book has been published ... No one can deny that Open University students - and all other interested parties - are given both sides of case.' - Tribune
This book examines how India was placed and placed itself in the world during the first half of the 20th century in a period of global turmoil and set against the subcontinental contest for independence. In situating India in the world, it looks not just at current foreign policy studies, but also at geopolitics, World War experiences, theoretical and strategic approaches, early foreign policy institutional transitions and the role of Indian civil and foreign diplomatic services. The work explores history and theory with a focus on cosmopolitanism beyond nationalism. The use of extensive sources from archives in UK and Russia - especially in different languages, mainly German and Russian - lends this volume an edge over most other works. The book will be useful to professional academics, historians including military historians, security specialists, literary specialists, foreign policy experts, journalists and the general reader interested in international issues.
Remembering S R Nathan: A Mentor for All Seasons is a collection of essays commemorating the life of Singapore's sixth President, the late Mr S R Nathan. The book aims to give greater insights into the wide-ranging roles he had in his various contributions to Singapore. It reviews his leadership and influence, his distinguished civil service career, and his commitment to social service. The organisation of the sections in the book reflects the extensive footprints Mr Nathan has left in many different sectors: foreign service; security and intelligence; community building and social welfare; labour and trade unions; media; and research and academia. This book also contains views on his remarkable career from foreign observers. Other contributors include public servants, policymakers, and scholars who have worked with him, learned from him, and who were inspired by his lifelong dedication to Singapore. Told through the voices of these people, Remembering S R Nathan: A Mentor for All Seasons gives an informative, and yet, personal account of Mr Nathan as a leader and mentor.
Remembering S R Nathan: A Mentor for All Seasons is a collection of essays commemorating the life of Singapore's sixth President, the late Mr S R Nathan. The book aims to give greater insights into the wide-ranging roles he had in his various contributions to Singapore. It reviews his leadership and influence, his distinguished civil service career, and his commitment to social service. The organisation of the sections in the book reflects the extensive footprints Mr Nathan has left in many different sectors: foreign service; security and intelligence; community building and social welfare; labour and trade unions; media; and research and academia. This book also contains views on his remarkable career from foreign observers. Other contributors include public servants, policymakers, and scholars who have worked with him, learned from him, and who were inspired by his lifelong dedication to Singapore. Told through the voices of these people, Remembering S R Nathan: A Mentor for All Seasons gives an informative, and yet, personal account of Mr Nathan as a leader and mentor.
The creation of rules that govern processes or behavior is essential to any organization, but these rules are often maligned for creating inefficiencies. This book provides the first comprehensive portrait of rules in public organizations and seeks to find the balance between rules that create red tape and rules that help public organizations function effectively, what the author calls "green tape." Drawing on a decade of original research and interdisciplinary scholarship, Leisha DeHart-Davis builds a framework of three perspectives on rules: the organizational perspective, which sees rules as a tool for achieving managerial goals and organizational functions; the individual perspective, which examines how rule design and implementation affect employees; and the behavioral perspective, which explores human responses to the intersection of the first two perspectives. The book then considers the effectiveness of rules, applying these perspectives to a case study of employee grievance policies in North Carolina local government. Finally, the book concludes by outlining five attributes of effective rules-green tape-to guide future rule creation in public organizations. It applies green tape principles to the Five-Second Rule, a crowd control policy Missouri police implemented in the wake of protests following the Michael Brown shooting. Government managers and scholars of public administration will benefit from DeHart-Davis's investigation and guidance.
This updated edition of Marketing Management and Communications in the Public Sector provides a thorough overview of the major concepts in public sector marketing and communications, two fields that have continued to grow in importance for modern public administrations. With extended coverage of topics such as social marketing and institutional communication, the authors skilfully build on the solid foundations laid down in the previous edition. Replete with real-world case studies and examples, including new material from the USA, Australia, and Asia, this book gives students a truly international outlook. Additional features include exercises and discussion questions in each chapter and an illustrative extended case study. This refreshed text is essential reading for postgraduate students on public management degrees, and aspiring or current public managers. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315622309, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
IThis title was first published in 2003. In the early 1990s, Australia, Sweden and the UK dismantled the old centralised pay setting systems which set the pay of civil servants and adopted decentralised pay systems. Consequently, these systems are now being considered by many other European countries as they look to reform their own systems. Bender and Elliott analyse the outcomes of these pioneering reforms in all three countries and, in doing so, provide the most detailed analysis of the pay of civil servants in these three countries to date. The authors further assess the effect that decentralisation had on the inequality of pay both within and between different departments, agencies and ministries. They identify the differences in the rates of pay growth for the different grades of civil servants that lie behind the changes in pay inequality, and assess whether decentralisation changed the way in which civil servants are paid.
Over the past forty years, numerous theoretical advances have been made. From Ayres' and Braithwaite's ground breaking work on 'responsive regulation', we have seen models of 'smart regulation', 'regulatory governance' and 'regulatory capitalism' emerge to capture the growing prevalence and importance of regulation in modern liberal Western capitalist societies. Important advances also have been made in the practice of regulation, with regulators evolving from traditional enforcement focussed 'command and control' models to being 'modern regulators' with a suite of diverse and innovative regulatory tools at their disposal. The book presents and critically examines these theoretical and practical developments from the perspective of governments who design regulations, and the regulators that deploy them. In doing so, the book examines the various forces and interests that influence and shape the regulatory endeavour, and the practical challenges facing governments and regulators when deciding whether and how to regulate. This volume is a study of regulation in context: in the context of the public policy it is designed to deliver; the law that enables, shapes and holds it to account; and the evolving societal and institutional frameworks within which it takes place. Aimed to provide innovative cross-disciplinary conceptual frameworks that regulators, regulatees, those whom regulation is intended to benefit, and academics, might employ to better understand and undertake the regulatory endeavour. This will be of great interest to researchers, educators, advanced students and practitioners working in the fields of political science, public management and administration, and public policy. .
Since 2008, the world has experienced an enormous decrease of wealth. By many measures the impact of the crisis was severe. The fall in GDP, the collapse of world trade, the rise in unemployment, and the credit slump reached bigger proportions than in any other crisis since World War II. Although the economic figures seem to improve in some countries, the crisis continues being a challenging issue and is said to be one of the most important problems governments face today. The crisis has put public finances under ever increasing pressure, and governments have responded through austerity measures such as new fiscal rules and budgeting procedures and cutbacks of public spending. Public Management in Times of Austerity seeks to explore the austerity policies adopted by European governments and their consequences to public management. It asks how governments have implemented new rules leading to more stringency in public budgeting and financial management, and how they have cut back public expenditure. These questions are examined comparatively through case studies in different parts of Europe, and variations across countries are discussed and explained. Throughout the volume, the consequences of the crisis and austerity policies for public management are discussed. What is the relationship between crisis and decision-making in the public sector, and how does austerity affect public-sector organisation? As the previous crisis in the 1970s resulted in a major reform movement, which was later referred to as New Public Management, Public Management in Times of Austerity look to understand whether the current crisis also leads to a wave of public management reform, and if so what is the content of this?
The recent shift away from reactive to creative public policy management has caused considerable problems in Central and Eastern Europe. This book questions whether public management reforms as applied in OECD countries can make a real contribution to establishing new forms of public management in Central and Eastern Europe. The book defines the main problems facing public administrations in transitional countries and provides a comparative evaluation of the relevance for these countries of reform measures undertaken in OECD states. In the first part an historical perspective on the role of the state in Europe is presented. Parts two and three present country case studies which focus on the key areas of public management and the attempts made to address its current problems. The case studies describe the constitutional and political framework in which the system of public management operates and present a critical analysis of ongoing reform processes. They focus on reforms at the central government level, changes in local-central government relations, and the high profile areas of health and education policy. The authors look at the characteristics of the policy process, financial and human resource management and the accountability system. In conclusion, they question whether models of public administration and strategies for reform applied in Western capitalist economic systems, can really provide solutions to the particular problems of Central and Eastern Europe, or whether those problems might be aggravated by copying Western models and strategies. Innovations in Public Management will be welcomed by policy makers and practitioners in both Western Europe and OECD countries as well as those working in transitional countries through its fresh comparative approach and analysis of the real applicability of reform strategies. It will also be welcomed by academics and students interested in public administration, public policy and government. |
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