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There is a remarkable gap in research regarding principal‐centred analyses of control means towards—in a formal sense—rather weak independent administrative actors as agents. Therefore, the paper develops a theoretical notion to link means of ex ante and ex post control and applies it to the (re‐)actions of ministries vis à vis hardship commissions in the German Länder by asking: How does the super‐ordinated ministry (principal) try to control the hardship commission (agent) and with what effect? The theoretical framework is based on principal‐agent theory and argues that the respective relationship is best understood by a notion of control pliers which interlinks the principal's preferences, its means of ex ante and ex post control and the agent's output. We hereby draw on partisan and organization theory. The overall research design of the paper is confirmatory and the focus on the federal states allows to control most of the external variance. We use descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling for path analysis to investigate the ex ante and ex post elements of the control pliers. Our empirical analysis is based on the output of 12 hardship commissions for the period of 2005–2017. Our results show that ex post control seems to matter more than ex ante control, but also that the effects of both may be characterized as interdependent. Furthermore, we show that partisan influence seems to matter more than organizational factors considering the output of the agent but that most can be won by combining the two approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In times of crises, such as the refugee crisis or the corona pandemic, the workload in public administrations increases because of the demands of citizens or short-term legal changes. In addition, there is an increasing need for digitalization or to be able to react flexibly to changes. Agile process models and agile practices are appropriate to overcome these challenges. The objective of this paper is to investigate how public administrations can measure their degree of agility to identify potential for improving it. The authors conducted a descriptive single-case study which included multiple units of analysis in a public administration in Germany. The case study was supported by their questionnaire for measuring the degree of agility. One outcome of this study is a conceptual framework that can be used to drive agile transformation in public administrations by continuously measuring agility. Therefore, a questionnaire for measuring agility at team level in public administrations has been developed. The application of the questionnaire in three teams provide insights into dysfunctionality in the interdisciplinary teams as well as optimization potential in terms of affinity to change. The adoption of agility in public administration is a challenge, given that resistance to change is still prevalent. A transformational change is a constant journey, and therefore, the measurement of progress plays an important role in the continuous improvement of an organization. The applied approach delivers high potential for improvement in terms of agility and provides interesting insights for both practitioners and academics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hybrid working arrangements that combine remote and office work are on the rise. Although hybrid work has been associated with mental health benefits in employees, challenges in the transformation to hybrid persist particularly in public administration organizations which have been connected to a pronounced culture of presence and inadequate technical infrastructure. Further evidence on the link between hybrid working conditions and employee health is needed. To support the establishment of healthy hybrid working conditions, this study aims to identify employees' job demands, resources and support needs in public administration. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with N = 13 employees who work hybrid in public administration organizations in Northern Germany between February and May 2023. Interviewees were asked about their perceived job demands, resources, and support needs in hybrid work. The data was analyzed in a deductive-inductive approach of qualitative content analysis, primarily supported by the job demands-resources model as a theoretical framework. Results: Several job demands, e.g., an increase in work and meetings, and resources such as personal freedom and responsibility, were identified in the context of hybrid work. A multitude of the reported job resources and demands relate to work organization and social relationships. The results disclose discrepancies between participants' experiences of job demands and resources, underlining the subjectivity of employees' perceptions of hybrid working conditions. Interviewees' support needs for hybrid work also varied, encompassing structural-level aspects such as increased acceptance and promotion of hybrid work in the organization as well as behavioral-level aspects, for instance, strategies and self-discipline for boundaries and structure. Conclusions: This study provides a first comprehensive overview of the job demands, resources and support needs in hybrid work in public administration. This study builds an important basis for further research to understand the impact of hybrid working conditions on health-related employee outcomes. The identified support needs provide a valuable point of reference for health-promoting hybrid working conditions which public administration employers should begin establishing as early as possible in the ongoing transition to hybrid work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to better understand the paradigm shift towards ‘networked governance’ in digitalisation discourse. Little is known about the link between digitalisation reforms and the main reform paradigms in public management studies. By analysing French and German national digitalisation strategies over time, we find that neo-Weberian, new public management, and networked governance discourses co-exist within the digital era, although networked governance rhetoric is increasingly influential. However, a closer examination reveals that this shift in discourse is unrelated to the increased integration of nonstate actors in actual decision-making and service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So far, there is little evidence on the relevance of public sector accounting (PSA) in the academic education of public administrators. This article presents empirical evidence of PSA in public administration and public management programmes in German universities. The authors show that PSA is almost irrelevant in research universities compared with programmes at universities of applied sciences—particularly at the bachelor level. If taught at all, subjects such as financial reporting, budgeting and cost accounting dominate the curricula; others are represented to a minor degree. Building on this, the authors discuss factors influencing the role and integration of PSA content in the respective curricula. They argue for broadening the narrow legalistic teaching of accounting and budgeting at undergraduate level and for introducing accounting basics in graduate programmes in research universities. Empirical data about PSA education in Germany is rare. This article provides some basic information and explanation. Based on the analysis of curriculum documents and on expert interviews, the paper presents a detailed empirical picture of the relevance of PSA in programmes training public administrators in Germany. While accounting issues are quite relevant in bachelor programmes at universities of applied sciences, they are less relevant at the master's level of such universities and almost irrelevant in research universities. Several factors influencing the decision to include PSA in the respective curricula were identified, among them the representation of accounting professors in the faculty, the development status of accounting reforms at the respective government level and the demands of recruiting authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development and use of new data sources and the linking of data open up new opportunities for economic research, particularly in conjunction with new empirical methods. The insights gained are an indispensable basis for valid, evidence-based policy advice, and they generate further direct benefits for public administration and citizens. This article uses best-case examples from other countries to show the potential of such innovations. The article also discusses the benefits generated by data innovations and the factors that would enable similar projects in Germany. In particular, the Research Data Act currently under discussion will provide a decisive foundation in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Swiss Political Science Review is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The authors explain the importance of issues of trust in terms of collaborations between the public and private sectors, for example PPPs. They show that transaction costs particularly are impacted by levels of trust—even though the public administration's level of trust in the private sector was higher than expected. The authors also found that reservations against PPPs on the political level increased the likelihood of mismanagement (regarding contract design and implementation) and delays. Politicians need to rethink how they communicate with officials to minimize these problems. ABSTRACT The number of public–private partnerships (PPP) is on the rise. The authors analyse empirical evidence (including outcomes from interviews and a survey of civil servants in Germany), about the importance of transaction costs and trust in PPP implementation and performance. The paper makes an important contribution to the literature by reflecting on trust relations in PPPs, as well as providing empirical evidence for higher transaction costs in PPPs, compared to entirely public sector provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ORDO: Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

German public sector wage restraint has been explained through the presence of a specific type of inter‐sectoral wage coordination in the industrial relations system—that is, export sector‐led pattern bargaining. First, as a literature‐assessing exercise, this paper reviews the literature in industrial relations and comparative political economy (CPE) and finds that (i) the origins and mechanics of inter‐sectoral wage coordination through pattern bargaining have never been laid out clearly; (ii) that the mechanisms of the pattern bargaining thesis have never been tested empirically; and (iii) that the CPE literature reveals an export‐sector bias. Second, as a theory‐testing exercise, hoop tests are performed to verify the pattern bargaining hypothesis. The key finding is that Germany cannot be considered a case of export sector‐driven pattern bargaining, opening a new research agenda for the study of public sector wage setting centred on public sector employment relations, public finance, public administrations and the politics of fiscal policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As gender equality is a priority for 17 sustainable development goals, it is appropriate to establish a correlation between the Gender Gap Index (GGI), economic efficiency and governance. Three hypotheses have been investigated. It is established that there is no general direct relationship between the level of GGI and GDP per capita growth (annual) for all countries, regardless of their level of development. In the UK, small fluctuations in GDP per capita growth (annual) do not affect GGI levels; however, the Covid-19 pandemic does have its impact. In Germany, any fluctuations in GDP per capita growth (annual) do not affect the level of GGI, yet it is affected by changes in population, in particular by increasing migration. In Ukraine, significant fluctuations in GDP per capita growth (annual) do not affect the level of GGI, although this index is reduced by the effects of the pandemic a year after its onset. In addition, the relationship between the population, civil servants, their distribution by sex, average wages and GDP per capita growth (annual) and, consequently, the welfare of the population of these countries was established. The obvious efficiency of the UK's and Germany's strategic governance systems has different implications for achieving gender equality and well-being. It is proposed to use the Windmill economic model to achieve gender equality among civil servants in the developing country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What explains different rates of positive asylum decisions in Western democracies? Legislators and bureaucrats respond to public preferences on immigration, though studies have not accounted for salience amplifying preferences. Using autoregressive models, I find relationships between salience, preferences, and asylum recognition rates in Germany and the UK, indicating that asylum administration responds to public opinion. High salience and more open immigration preferences are associated with increased asylum recognition rates in Germany, while lower rates in the UK follow high salience and restrictive preferences. Applications rejected under these adverse conditions precede increases in successful appeals, suggesting political pressure or their own preferences lead bureaucratic actors to reduce rates in the UK. These results do not support lobbying or a culture of disbelief as influences on immigration policies. Rather, they raise questions about Western democracies' adherence to an international rules-based asylum system and highlight mechanisms by which policy responds to public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst both the level and the make-up of public debt are high salience issues, the management of public debt seldom commands public attention. This study examines the quiet politics of public debt management in advanced capitalist societies, comparing debt management reforms and the everyday practice of debt management in Germany and the UK. We present evidence of two factors contributing to the political quietude around public debt management: a persistent absence of partisan contestation and conflict; and the dominance of 'market discipline' as an interpretative frame, which prevents changes in interest rates and debt servicing costs to be seen as the product of faulty debt management. We also find that this quietude creates a space for the coordination and cooperation between contemporary capitalist states and large dealer banks, whose capacities effectively to act within their respective domains depend on each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study how satisfaction with government efforts to respond to the COVID-19 crisis affects compliance with pandemic mitigation measures. Using a novel longitudinal household survey for Germany, we overcome the identification and endogeneity challenges involved in estimating individual compliance by using an instrumental variable approach that exploits exogenous variation in two indicators measured before the crisis: political party preferences and the mode of information measured by the frequency of using social media and reading newspapers. We find that a one unit increase in subjective satisfaction (on the 0-10 scale) improves protective behavior by 2-4 percentage points. Satisfaction with the government's COVID-19 management is lower among individuals with right-wing partisan preferences and among individuals who use only social media as an information source. Overall, our results indicate that the effectiveness of uniform policy measures in various domains, such as the health system, social security or taxation, especially during pandemic crises, cannot be fully evaluated without taking individual preferences for collective action into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Public Money & Management is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Management Analysis / Revista Gestão em Análise is the property of Revista Gestao em Analise and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Paul Schiemann’s name is well-known only in relatively small academic circles, for example among historians interested in Latvia, the Baltic states and German national minorities. He had formidable intellectual strength, clear moral vision and substantial personal courage, all of which enabled him to resist the rise of Nazism among German national minorities. This paper explains Schiemann’s world view, together with his attempts to promote values of tolerance and justice in the face of destructive nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal uncertainty may hinder the effective implementation of public policies. Still, the political and legal dynamics that underpin its persistence are underexplored. This article proposes that legal uncertainty is more likely to persist in multi-level political and legal systems where actors with authority on the same issue hold different interpretations of rules. Also, it suggests that, under these conditions, actors can use legal uncertainty as an opportunity to advance their own interests. We illustrate this argument by investigating the legal uncertainty concerning EU citizens' access to social benefits in Germany. Through the analysis of social legislation and courts' rulings, the article shows that different interpretations of EU law by domestic actors hindered the possibilities of settling uncertainty: national courts of different levels used litigation processes and referrals to the Court of Justice of the European Union to advance their legal interpretations and the German government profited from the uncertainty to exclude EU citizens from social benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state and its administration have been constantly confronted with profound changes, which they not only faced, but which must be shaped in order to better fulfil their diverse tasks and be able to fulfil their responsibilities. One such modern and fast-moving change is digitalization, which affects every area of life. The potential of digitalization has, of course, also affected the administrative activity of the state, from the design of optimal framework conditions for the economy and society through the improvement of infrastructure to more efficient administrative work. The aim of the article was to identify the key moments in building e-Government in Germany and, in the context of assessing its current state, to identify the main shortcomings of German e-Government. In this context, we have focused on defining and clarifying the nature of e-Government, introducing the positives and negatives. In the second part, we have focused on a brief analysis of the development and current state of implementation of the e-Government concept in Germany. The biggest shortcoming of the German public administration in terms of digitalization is the issue of effective interconnection of online services into one functioning overall system. There is still no central portal in Germany that contains all the information and service offers from a single source. It is still in the process of building. Even public registers, i.e., data collection and office archives, are not sufficiently interconnected. It requires, first and foremost, political will, an attractive range of services, initial investment as a driving force and a source of inspiration, and municipalities and Länder are also key in this process as the first points of contact for citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

What is the discipline of Public Administration (PA) ultimately for? The German community has recently entered new deliberations on this recurrent question, with several papers and workshops addressing the present and future of their national discipline. This article uses original survey data to introduce the views of the German community at large and analyzes intellectual commonalities against a background of institutional fragmentation. It scrutinizes preferences for epistemological positions, research aims, and publication strategies, while also investigating potentials for cooperation through interdisciplinary exchange and theoretical or thematic concordance. The results show a community in intellectual crisis. Faced with fears of decreasing reputation and influence, German PA is still divided about its purpose and separated by disciplinary borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing transformation of mobility, including new services such as on-demand mobility, raises the question of how services need to be designed so that everyone can use them. The number of persons with mobility impairments is increasing as a result of demographic change, and with the current amendment of the law, it will be mandatory in Germany to take these person's needs into due consideration. After all, a transport provider's success relies on sufficient demand in society (including persons with and without disabilities). Due to changing mobility routines, increased comfort, and other individual personal requirements, vehicles smaller than conventional buses are necessary for passenger transportation. The following investigation is a research study, which is based on an intensive literature review and expert interview study. The goal of this work is to evaluate the current status quo of the German public transport system with respect to inclusive on-demand services and their satisfaction with user requirements. Therefore, guideline-oriented interviews with experts from the mobility sector were consulted and analyzed. For this purpose, the procedure of the qualitative analysis was used. Furthermore, user analysis and methodological processes were conducted in order to strategically establish necessary measures. On the one hand, the current initial situation is addressed and initial experience with these new services is reported. The current focus is on the automation and electrification of these vehicles. In order to make them accessible to all potential customers, ergonomic requirements should be considered from the beginning. The previous experiences with other vehicle classes as well as the legal framework conditions are to serve as a benchmark. On the other hand, existing challenges will be discussed, and necessary steps will be worked out. A result of this situational analysis shows that the currently available vehicle concepts do not fulfill all requirements. It is important to consider the vehicle and the barrier-free mobility chain (booking and paying for the journey or vehicle, as well as boarding, traveling, and alighting). Overall, the design of barrier-free mobility systems requires a process of both political and social rethinking in order to succeed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policymakers, practitioners, and scholars have long-lauded digital technologies, such as smart waste containers or artificial intelligence for material recognition and robotic automation, as key enablers to more effective and efficient waste management. While these advances promise an increasingly digitalized future for collecting, sorting, and recycling waste material, little is known about the current extent of digitalization by waste management firms. Available studies focus on firms' digitalization intentions, largely neglecting the level of actual adoption of digital technologies, and do not differentiate the level of digitalization alongside different steps of the waste management value chain. Our study reports on a cross-sectional descriptive survey that captures current digitalization efforts and strategies of 130 public and private waste management firms in Germany. We analyze their levels of digitalization along with different steps of the waste management value chain, explore their different objectives, approaches, and transformational measures with regard to digitalization. Our findings reveal that while the perceived importance of digitalization in the waste management sector continues to grow, the actual adoption of advanced digital technologies falls notably behind intentions reported in 2016 and 2017. We explore the reasons for this gap, point out so far largely ignored research opportunities, and derive recommendations for waste management firms and associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Academic Inquiries / Akademik Incelemeler Dergisi is the property of Akademik Incelemeler Dergisi (Journal of Academic Inquiries) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of WISTA Wirtschaft und Statistik is the property of Statistisches Bundesamt and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: Quality management has become an integral part of management reforms in public sector organizations. Drawing on a new institutionalist perspective, this study aims to investigate the relation of management reforms and organizational performance in the context of higher education. Design/methodology/approach: The authors analyse the interaction between isomorphic conformity in quality management adoption, organizational learning and quality improvement and, in so doing, address the central theoretical question of what effects isomorphic conformity has on organizational performance. Empirically, the study draws on survey data from quality managers at public higher education institutions in Germany. Methodically, it applies confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Findings: The results suggest that mimetic isomorphism is surprisingly compatible with processes of organizational learning, and thus, does not inevitably compromise organizational development. Originality/value: By presenting these findings, the authors contribute to the controversial theoretical debate concerning the effects of isomorphism and to the ongoing discussion regarding the organizational impact of quality management in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: As the digitization of the working world progresses, the demands on employees change. Not least, this is true for the setting of public administrations in Germany, which is currently affected by the transformation to E-Government. This study aims to identify and describe a risk cluster of digitally stressed employees in public administrations.Methods: An online sample of 710 employees from three public administrations in North Rhine-Westphalia were surveyed about digital stress (7 items) and several potential risk factors (19 items) derived from the current research. In the first step, a hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis is used to detect the risk cluster. This is followed by a comparison to the group of the remaining employees regarding their risk profiles.Results: The analysis states that the digitally stressed cluster accounts for approximately ten percent of the public administration's employees of the total sample. Employees in the risk cluster are less satisfied with on-site work overall, experience less collegial support on-site, experience less collegial support in the home office, resign more often, are more likely to feel overwhelmed, are less educated, are older in age and more often have relatives in need of care.Conclusion: This work was able to identify and describe a group of digitally stressed rather than left-behind employees in public administrations to bring awareness to potentially destructive factors in the digital transformation process but eventually to social inequalities. The findings offer the basis for interventions to arise and evoke potential for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Internationally, management in medicine has become a topical issue in health care research and policy. Against this background, the purpose of this paper is to examine the changing role of doctors in the management of German hospitals. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a literature review on the one hand, explorative research drawing on field document and expert interviews, on the other. In the light of basic assumptions of neo-institutionalist and contingency theory, major developments regarding the relationship between medicine and management in Germany are sketched. Findings – In the German health care sector, the importance of management in medicine is generally increasing, with more managerial (administrative) functions included in the clinicians’ activity. However, the current situation proves complex. On the one hand, there is more management within medicine, materializing, e.g. in further education schemes embracing economic training or in a general expectation that physicians striving for higher ranks within a hospital's hierarchy should exhibit economic knowledge. On the other hand, the authors see a hesitant attitude of the medical profession toward a greater involvement in management. In addition, policies of hospital owners affecting management roles prove diverse. They range from organizing medical departments as autonomous profit centers to ensuring strong hierarchical control by top management, with this entailing different demands regarding a doctor's managerial skills. Due to the advent of powerful non-clinician managers in part of the sector, moreover, medics are losing influence at top level. Altogether, there seems to be a polarization within the hospital system concerning the role of doctors in hospital management. This, to some extent, sits uneasy with key propositions from neo-institutionalist and contingency theory. Originality/value – The paper retraces general developments concerning the involvement of German hospital doctors in management. Given the paucity of research in this field, it provides preliminary insights on the dynamics that influence the way and degree of this involvement. The major result is that there is structural polarization within an environment which, though streamlining both institutional mind-maps and organizational structures, leaves considerable discretion to the organizational level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Review of Public Law is the property of European Public Law Organization and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Public management reforms in Germany have long been characterized by slow-moving incrementalism and maintenance of its administrative system's central characteristics. This article reviews recent developments in administrative reforms against the background of the traditional German reform style. More ambitious reform efforts in the field of digitalization raise conceptual puzzles related to the conditions under which incrementalism can generate substantive change – and at what point incremental reforms give way to more rapid patterns of change. The article also discusses the implications of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis on public management reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on psychiatric nurses' role in the holocaust and implications. Topics include the numbers of people able to provide first-person accounts of the atrocities of the Holocaust are dwindling, and the education for German women to provide care to the sick and needy occurred in Deaconess schools or motherhouses.

Studying the so-called refugee crisis in Germany, this article asks about the effectiveness of crisis management by a large number of local administrations, each acting upon the same crisis impulse of a high number of asylum seekers who entered the country in 2015 and 2016. Instead of theorizing the exact administrative design features fit for an effective crisis response, the focus is on the ability of administrations to adjust. We conceptualize such shifts in administrative practices as informal and temporary (latent) deviations from routine action along two dimensions of organizational behavior typically dominant in private and nonprofit sector organizations, respectively: internal flexibility and citizen participation (hybridity). Novel survey data from 235 out of 401 German district authorities are reported. We test the effects of different forms of latent hybridization on administrative effectiveness using regression modeling. Findings indicate that changes in administrative practices towards more flexible and participatory action had a positive impact on self-reported crisis management effectiveness. The effect of flexible action was especially pronounced in districts that were allocated higher shares of asylum seekers. These findings advance theory on crisis management and bottom-up implementation, highlighting the ability of local agencies to shift practices as a key explanatory factor for effective administrative action in exceptional situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine the implication of a simple class of fiscal rules for long-run economic growth and welfare. The Golden Rule of Public Finance that we examine is motivated by institutional arrangements in countries such as Germany and the UK. We find that rules that seek to limit government borrowing to productive investment spending have a clear justification in terms of growth and welfare when government-provided goods are otherwise excessively provided. Even in the case where it is private consumption that is excessive, the Golden Rule of Public Finance is likely to be good from a growth perspective, but the welfare effects are more ambiguous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local communities in Germany are under great pressure to modernize their services: high depth rate, increasing expectations concerning the quality of the services, socio-demographic change, environmental issues, regional competition-to name only a few of the challenges. In a society based on a federal structure and the principle of subsidiarity, it is almost natural to demand a vivid community with active citizens. Today, with the advent of social media and the new channels of communication, the question is how to leverage the benefits of this concept for local issues. More precise: How can the competence of the citizens be activated to make conditions of living in the neighbourhoods more attractive? In this paper, we discuss technical requirements for an open government. The SAGA standard of the Federal German Government strongly supports the notion of open-source software. With OpenSAGA, we introduce a new, performant and SAGA-compliant framework for the implementation of web applications for e-Government. Consequently, OpenSAGA is the platform for an OpenGovernment Suite, an extended prototype for affordable and interoperable open government solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study constitutes an exploratory approach to address public performance during crises. Drawing on expectancy disconfirmation and crisis theories, empirical insights into the quality of public services provided during the refugee crisis in Germany are derived. Findings show that bureaucratic structures may hinder the fast flow of information and lead to a slow response. External stakeholders, while understanding of a longer duration of administrative processes, end up dissatisfied due to this lack of information provided. These insights call into question the success of New Public Management and Governance reforms implemented over the last three decades when it comes to dynamic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most pervasive topics in public management discussions in recent decades is the notion of user orientation. More than ever, external stakeholders expect public organizations to "get closer" to users and to treat citizens as knowledgeable consumers of public services with a view and a voice. Existing literature highlights how, through a wide range of calculative practices, information gathered from and about public service users is assembled into descriptions of organizational activity that are useful for managers in addressing issues of surveillance and internal control as well as legitimation. In our multiple case study of hospitals and prisons in Germany, we introduce a two‐step model of translation for explaining how user voice is transformed into management objects, which are then further translated into organizationally "useful" information. In doing so, we make three contributions to further our understanding of how user views are formatted to organizational activity and put to use by managers in the public sector. First, we developed a model of translation that highlights how user voices and the prospect of user orientation are enacted across diverse organizational contexts. Second, we found that different types of organizations deploy distinct methods of accounting, which nevertheless make user feedback useful in similar ways: to develop information that helps construct an image of performance, gain financial leverage, and enact compliance. Third, we found that in addition to quantitative forms of accounting, narrative accounting techniques played important roles in making users "useful" in public organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose |!|#8211; Business process management (BPM) networks have become an important theme in both research and practice. Drawing from governance theory, this paper seeks to provide a theoretical understanding of BPM networks and introduce three types of BPM governance: market, network, and hierarchy. Subsequently, it aims to study the impact of BPM maturity, organization size, and financial stress (independent variables) on the three types of BPM governance (dependent variable). Design/methodology/approach |!|#8211; After a thorough literature analysis a quantitative study is conducted. Comprehensive data of 538 local public administration in Germany and Japan is comparatively studied by means of a PLS (model and multi group) analysis. Findings |!|#8211; The empirical study provides evidence for the significant dependence of BPM governance on contextual variables: the configuration of the BPM network relies on the BPM maturity and the perceived financial stress. Also, such dependence does vary between the two countries. Higher financial stress leads to more higher network sourcing in Germany and to higher market sourcing in Japan, respectively. Practical implications |!|#8211; This study suggests that the role of process managers changes over time. In immature organizations, process managers appear to work alone and struggle for resources. However, once organizations start to mature, the role changes to that of an |!|#34;orchestrator of different actors.|!|#34; Process managers in future public organizations (assuming a positive development of capabilities), both in Asian and European settings, must be able to collaborate with actors from different governance mechanisms. Originality/value |!|#8211; First, the paper provides a governance-theory based understanding of BPM networks. It introduces market-type, network-type, and hierarchy-type BPM governance and thereby provides greater conceptual and theoretical clarity of this important phenomenon. So far, this research area has been under-theorized. Second, the paper provides a theory that explains BPM network governance. Here, relevant contextual variables are taken into account, including the BPM maturity of an organization. Third, the paper contributes comprehensive empirical insights into BPM networks structures, governance mechanisms, and their dependence on contextual variables (especially the BPM maturity of an organization). Fourth, it provides an ample comparative theory-based analysis of BPM networks in two different countries. Such an endeavor, as to the author|!|#39;s best knowledge, has not yet been undertaken so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of differing decentralisation strategies - political, administrative and horizontal - on administrative performance subsequent to reform. In this respect, the paper presents core results from a comprehensive research project that has been carried out between 2006 and 2009 on the impact of decentralisation in three European countries. The aim of the project has been to develop and apply an analytical framework for the measurement of the effects of national decentralisation policies on local government performance. A total of six reform ventures were scrutinised in French, German and English local communities applying a multidimensional set of performance measures. Surprisingly, many of the theoretical assumptions about the effects of decentralisation strategies could not be confirmed. Moreover, straightforward relations were not discovered between decentralisation strategies and performance effects but between policy fields, political interests and the time elapsed since the reform and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to show that the master narrative of bureaucracy of Max Weber had deep roots in the development of public administration in Germany. Design/methodology/approach - One nearly forgotten predecessor of Weber's was Johann Gottlob von Justi, an eighteenth century Cameralist. This paper compares his work with Weber in order to shed new light on the evolution of the theory and practice of bureaucracy. Findings - By taking von Justi as representative of Cameralism in general, the paper finds that there is in his work about half of the criteria of Weber's concept of bureaucracy as the rule-bound application of rules. Although Cameralism focused on economic regulation, it was political science rather than economics (where it is usually dismissed as an inferior version of mercantilism), for it constantly stressed political control of the economy and the use of administration and management to achieve that control. It was political science in a second sense, too, in that it supposed that there was an underlying analytic order to the world to be discovered by scientific investigation and study. The unique historical circumstance of the dispersion of German-speaking Middle Europe both provided the stimulus for Cameralism and ensured its failure. Research limitations/implications - Of course, there is more to Cameralism that just one writer, and that limitation needs to be recalled. It would be timely to investigate further the development of administration in early modem Europe. Originality/value - The scant research literature on Cameralism means that the comparison with Weber is seldom, if ever, made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, part of a sequence of comparative articles on local government reforms in The Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany, describes and analyses the recent public management reforms at the local level of Germany. After an overview about the constitutional framework of local self government and the reform waves of the last decades, the paper concentrates on the ‘new steering model’ as the German variant of NPM. The article shows the short history of this reform movement, describes the main elements of the reform concept and explains some of the causes, forces and actors of implementation. It goes on to discuss the present status of implementation, explains several shortcomings of the concept, and presents the – very limited – empirical evidence of achieved results. Finally, the paper draws some conclusions from a comparative view on the similarities and differences of local management reforms in Germany and the two other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the structure of preferences of olive oil importers in three countries (USA, Germany and Mexico, three non-producer countries with very different cultural characteristics) to evaluate the country of origin effect in their purchasing decisions. Using the conjoint analysis technique, the data collected through a survey sent to the list of importers in the "Alimentos de Extremadura-Food from Spain" project, a total of 31 companies, is analyzed. From the study of the origin, packaging, production system and price attributes, the overall results show that origin is the attribute most valued by the importers, very closely followed by price. The analysis carried out shows that the country of origin effect is not universal. Exporters of olive oil need more than one marketing-mix strategy and they may also be very useful for both business managers and for those responsible in the public administrations for managing trade policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public procurement is an important part of states' activities and a major market. As the potential of public purchasing to foster gender equality has increasingly come into focus, regulatory policies in a number of countries increasingly draw the link between public procurement and equality. Analyzing the development of regulatory policies relating to gender equality and public procurement in Germany between 1990 and 2016, this article highlights the growing prevalence of such linkages in regulatory policies. This article then analyzes the implementation of equality considerations in public procurement in the specific case of a local council in Germany. The findings highlight the importance not only of the existence of legal regulations but also of their design and suggest that in the case of voluntary regulations, structural incentives may encourage public bodies not to use the existing scope for equality considerations, particularly if they encounter an unfavorable environment. HIGHLIGHTS The EU and member states, including Germany, increasingly aim to use public procurement as a lever to promote (gender) equality. However, the literature suggests low prevalence of equality considerations in public-procurement practices An analysis of gender-equality sensitive procurement in Germany finds the design of legal regulations is as important as their existence. Policymakers should create administrative incentive systems to promote the successful implementation of equality considerations in public procurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contribution payments and information are two important channels of lobbying influence. This survey analyzes what is known about these channels in Germany from a political economy perspective. Based on a discussion of the empirical literature and the available data, I argue that the state of empirical knowledge about lobbying in Germany is rather limited. To improve our understanding of the lobbying process, I identify research gaps and discuss potential methodological approaches which can be suitable to address these questions. Also, I discuss the role of party donations and temporary employment of bureaucratic staff, based on two novel data sets. The analysis indicates that party donations might play a role as a means to achieve access; in contrast, the temporary exchange of employees in the public administration seems to be of rather less importance in informational lobbying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2014 to 2015, the number of asylum applications increased by 155 per cent in Germany, which has severely altered Germany's refugee response system. This article analyses resulting local-level changes in the protection standards for refugees. It sheds light on the interplay between municipal and organisational actors in implementing protections concepts and measures for refugee accommodations. The study applies a neo-institutional research framework to explain organisational behaviour at the level of non-governmental organisations and public administration asking how the security needs of refugee women are met at the "street-level bureaucracy". Through empirical fieldwork, it shows that in 2018, gender-specific protection standards were higher than before 2014 due to mechanisms of regulative, normative and mimetic isomorphism. The joint development of Minimum Standards for the Protection of Refugees and Migrants in Refugee Accommodation Centres in 2016 by the United Nations Children's Fund, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and numerous non-governmental organisations has supported this process. The research combines current debates in refugee studies with theoretical concepts from organisational sociology, gender studies and policy research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politicization has an ambivalent reputation among public administration scholars. While considered an effective instrument to safeguard political control over ministerial bureaucracy, partisanship of senior civil servants is likewise associated with patronage and is deemed detrimental to professionalism and meritocracy. To scrutinize this contradiction, the article examines how the party‐political background of senior civil servants influences their decision‐making behaviour. Two theoretically derived conceptions of loyalty are therefore put to the test: responsiveness and responsibility. Effects are captured by using the vignette technique in 40 in‐depth interviews with former senior civil servants from ministerial departments at federal and state level in Germany. The results are surprising in so far as they reveal that politicized senior civil servants act neither more responsively nor less responsibly than their non‐politicized peers. These findings challenge common assumptions and call for a more refined analysis of the conditions under which politicization leads to negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies the key factors that have affected the ability of elected mayors in some German cities to introduce austerity measures in response to serious financial problems. Drawing on a detailed study of six municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia, it highlights how the mayor's managerial and/or legal experience, as well as the party-political make-up of the council, played a vital role in determining the success of savings initiatives. Such findings have important implications for countries such as England, where some have argued for the introduction of elected mayors in order to improve decision-making capacity within local government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany, a project team of 13 partners from business, science, and government has developed the Process Data Accelerator (P23R), a comprehensive framework for e-Service funded by the German government. The overall objective of P23R is to significantly reduce bureaucratic overhead cost for companies as well as the government. It is estimated that there are more than 10,000 different requirements to report business activities and data to administrative bodies of the German government, which result in bureaucratic costs of 50 billion € (euros) annually, mostly for companies. This paper describes the P23R concept, which is especially designed to deliver a methodology, a technology, and an organizational framework to simplify and fully automate as many of these reporting duties as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]