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Performance auditing (PA) has undergone relevant evolutions in recent decades, attracting considerable interest from academics and practitioners alike, in terms of its emergence, evolution, transformation, and outcomes in various international contexts. Through a systematic review of the literature published over the past five decades, totaling 125 papers, this study maps the existing knowledge on PA and recommends avenues for future research. Based on the analysis of the selected articles, the paper identifies and discusses the main themes emerging from the literature, including the scope and evolution of PA; the two faces of PA (accountability and performance improvement); the tensions and contradictions of influence and independence of PA; and unintended consequences and conflicts of PA. Considering the synthesis of the literature and current issues in public administration, the paper highlights themes that warrant further research, including the PA implications of digitalization and emerging technologies, the potential for widening accountability, PA's connections with media, and the relevance of PA in a risk management perspective. The paper also offers insights into the potential of international and comparative approaches to research on PA issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance management in the public sector is both multifaceted and convoluted. This is particularly pertinent in hospitals, which are complex institutional organizations. Our paper explores the key drivers compelling Irish public acute‐care hospitals to monitor their performance. The context of our study is located against the unique historical backdrop of the Irish health service, whose evolution over time reflects religious control, underfunding by the State and reliance on a decentralized structure up until the early 2000s. This study was conducted during 2009–2010, in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008–2009. Interviews were conducted with members of the hospital executive management team, comprising clinical and nonclinical senior managers, using the framework of Kelly et al. (2015) to explore and analyze respondent perspectives. We propose that a combination of key forces, emanating from new public management, the institutional environment, and its constituent elements spurs hospitals to monitor their performance. The confluence of these forces reveals a perceived change in the institutional logic underpinning hospital performance management. This change involved the substitution of autonomous clinical decision‐making for a more team‐based managerial logic whereby clinicians engaged as part of a multidisciplinary executive unit and accepted responsibility for hospital performance. This paper contributes to the literature on performance management in public services and, more specifically, builds on and addresses the paucity of research on Irish acute‐care hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 30 years, Sudan has experienced several severe floods which have caused loss of life and significant damage to property. The frequency and intensity of floods in Sudan are predicted to increase as a result of climate change. The main objective of this research was to assist policymakers in establishing a mechanism for public participation in Sudan to enable communities to be engaged in improving flood risk management. This paper focuses on Tuti Island, which is located near the confluence of the Blue and White Niles in Khartoum which is severely affected by flooding. The research was based on surveys and interviews with both officials and the public to examine the degree of public participation in mitigating flood risks. The research concluded that Sudan has no policy or official way of engaging the public in disaster risk reduction; however, the traditional method of social mobilization called Nafeer (building together) can play a significant role in increasing communities' flood resilience. Establishing a clear framework for public participation, such as Nafeer, for the various stages of the flood management cycle that coordinates with decision‐makers can help increase the resilience of urban areas in low‐income countries like Sudan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decades, public management and accounting scholars have focused increasingly on the study of interorganizational initiatives involving multiple public organizations in the pursuit of common goals. This paper is an investigation of management control in a public interorganizational program. It adopts a "management control as a package" approach with the aims of (i) identifying the control mechanisms used in interorganizational initiatives; (ii) exploring the interdependencies between them; and (iii) understanding the contribution of organizational controls in supporting collaborative actions. To address the research objectives, this paper presents the case study of a public initiative. The empirical research combines an interventionist approach with semistructured interviews. As a result, the research highlights that management controls in public interorganizational initiatives could require a package of multiple control mechanisms interdependent; moreover, controls at the inter and intraorganizational level influence each other to guide administrations toward the achievement of common objectives. In particular, in the case analyzed, interorganizational controls seem to support public organizations in overcoming the silo logic that often characterizes public administrations' structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the books on family relations. It presents book abstracts and book review essays. A book abstract is a brief summary of a book. A book review essay, however, centers around issues raised in two or more books: Book review essays are peer-reviewed and subject to revision, request for resubmission, and rejection. Book abstracts and book review essays are based on books published within the past two years. These books are based on following topics: Adolescence; Aging; Communication; Cross Cultural Issues; Families and Religion; Families Around the World; Marriage and Family Therapy; Parent-Child Relationships; Parent Education; Public Policy Effects on Families; and Sexuality. Names of some of these books are: "Adolescents After Divorce"; "Social Networks and Social Influences in Adolescence"; "Adolescent Health: The Role of Individual Differences"; "Teenagers: An American History"; "Research on Family Resources and Needs Across the World"; "Family Scripts"; and "Pathways to Manhood: Young Black Males Struggle for Identity."

Despite significant information technology (IT) implementations in public administrations of developing countries to change their dysfunctional traditional practices towards modern forms, the outcomes are typically disappointing relative to the potential of IT for organizational change. With a case study of the customs clearance process when importing goods through Ghana's main port, the Tema Harbour, we explore why IT struggles to modernize traditional practices of public administration in a developing country context. We focus on explaining the persistence of paper use at Ghana customs despite more than a decade of digitalization and automation to establish paperless processes that eliminate malpractices of traditional clearance. We view modernization as a process of long‐term institutional change and therefore draw from the literature on IT and institutional change to focus our investigation on the dynamics of incongruent institutional logics of IT and public administration. We show that in the administration context of a developing country like Ghana, the endurance of patrimonial logics in the state and broader society, coupled with high levels of administrative discretion and ambivalent or weak compliance pressure limit the realization of IT for modernization and allows hybrid practices to emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns exist that practical relevance is becoming devalued as accounting scholars respond to signals about what sort of research ‘counts’. We categorize public sector management accounting papers in six leading journals according to two criteria: the practical orientation of the research objective(s), and whether the conclusions communicate issues of practical relevance. The findings reveal that most of the papers are directed towards understanding or critiquing the use of management accounting techniques, while other practically oriented research objectives are largely absent. Although half of the papers identify practical research implications, few suggest guidelines for practice. Reflections are offered on the role of leading journals in shaping how practical relevance is valued in accounting research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the impact of economic uncertainty shocks at the industrial disaggregated level is critical for both fiscal and monetary policy response. We estimate an SVAR model using quarterly Australian data from 1987:2 to 2018:4. The results of this paper emphasise that individual industries have a unique response to an economic uncertainty shock and do not necessarily reflect the response of the broader aggregate macroeconomy. We found the following stylised facts: (i) The construction industry is the most negatively impacted industry by an economic uncertainty shock in terms of investment, output and employment in Australia, (ii) The financial and insurance services industry also endures a substantial decline to the shock, particularly on investment and employment indicators, and (iii) Economic uncertainty is shown to have less impact on the mining, health care and social assistance and public administration and safety industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine how verbal rewards (praise) from superior public managers influence subordinate public managers' work motivation coming from experiencing work tasks as important, exciting, interesting, and fun, so‐called autonomous motivation. We use self‐determination theory (SDT) to theorize that depending on how they are provided, verbal rewards can enhance or undermine autonomous motivation. This is because different verbal reward practices have different effects on subordinate public managers' basic psychological needs, which in turn influences their autonomous motivation. Based on a cross‐sectional survey completed by 331 public managers in four Swedish local government organizations, we find that verbal rewards that are performance‐contingent and provided frequently undermine public managers' autonomous motivation. Verbal rewards enhance autonomous motivation when they are based on skills and results. Our study contributes to the public management literature discussing the applicability of rewards in public sector organizations where autonomous motivation is crucial for performance. It contributes to practice by suggesting that superior managers who provide skills/result‐based verbal rewards are more likely to enhance than undermine the autonomous motivation of subordinates. In support of SDT, the overall conclusion is that the impact of verbal rewards on public managers' autonomous motivation is contingent on how verbal rewards are provided by superiors. However, our results should be interpreted with some caution due to the circumstance that cross‐sectional survey research can only ensure associations between constructs and not causality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the implementation of the rule by the Advisory Council on Public Records under the provisions of the Public Records Act of 1967 in Great Britain. Most contemporary historians saw the First World War as a historical watershed from which time onwards the activity and potential role of governments in influencing British economic and social development were much enhanced. As a result, particular areas of historical research, such as diplomatic history and historical studies of social and economic policy, were given enormous stimulus. For all historians access to records is essential. New records are almost always welcome and any restriction on access to information is generally deplored or regretted. In the initial euphoria at the release of so much new material comparatively little attention was paid to the status of the public records as research evidence. In 1970, however, doyen of British interwar historians, the late G. L. Mowat, referred to a part of the new material with characteristic shrewdness.

Power outages in urban area carry heavy social and economic costs. Although social cost, especially public sentiment, is concerned by engineers and managers, it has been only qualitatively investigated without a rigorous model in the state‐of‐the‐art research and practice of service restoration (SR) for a long time. To fill this gap, this paper investigates a hybrid model which takes public sentiment into consideration by quantifying public sentiment triggered by power outage. Furthermore, conventional SR method focused on the optimization model with ideal conditions, which leaves a large room for improvement in complex environment. To improve the robustness of the model, the authors propose a reinforcement learning framework to analyze emergency management process without prior rules. At each time step, the optimal decision can be made automatically by a learned model. The numerical simulations with modified IEEE 33‐bus and IEEE 123‐bus systems demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To a great extent, the effectiveness of a government may be traced to its constituting documents which serve as a guide or map for how it is supposed to function. From a systems perspective, we may expect a more systemic Constitution to inform the operation of a government that is more systemic and so more effective. This paper uses Integrative Propositional Analysis (IPA) to conduct a preliminary evaluation of the systemic structure of the US Constitution. The analysis finds that the US Constitution has a vanishingly low level of structure. This previously unrecognized lack of structure provides a new explanation for why the nation is increasingly misgoverned (and/or more difficult to govern) and why divisions are deepening between partisan groups, leading to argument and conflict. A path forward is suggested to develop a more systemic Constitution and more effective governance; one supporting a more just, prosperous, and sustainable society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the interaction between planning-programming-budgeting (PPB) and public policy-making system. PPB is closely related to politics, being strictly constrained by politics, trying a little to change politics, and serving as one of the symptoms of the state of politics. But, after all, not every symptom is a useful starting point for analyzing a complex series of developments and the author, for one, doubt whether PPB is a necessary or useful jumping board into the faster-moving streams of politics. As public policy is a product of complex interactions between a large number of components, similar changes in the output can be achieved through many alternative variations in the components. This means that different combinations of a variety of improvements may be equally useful in achieving equivalent changes in the quality of policy making. This is a very helpful conclusion, because it permits us to pick out of a large repertoire of potentially effective improvements those which are more feasible under changing political and social conditions.

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science 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.)

State-owned enterprises, referred to as 'government owned business corporations' in this paper, are a common phenomenon in Canada, are increasing in number, and are contributing substantially to the economy. The environment for these corporations is examined to establish the principal components and to identify two dominating trends in public policy, privatization and commercialization. The paper suggests that these trends, plus management's desire for flexibility, are resulting in the formulation of autonomy strategies designed to increase management's decision making capability relating to operating and strategic management with less government interference. A final section integrates the environment and autonomy strategies discussions to develop a typology for classifying the behaviour of government owned business corporations. The paper concludes that the managers of government owned business corporations in Canada are formulating and implementing autonomy strategies because of environmental factors, public policies, and management's desire for independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses a service approach in public management by highlighting the insufficiently explored concept of resource integration. Specifically, we identify the actors who contribute to such integration, as well as the kind of resources they bring. The empirical material draws from two action research cases in cancer care, suggesting that, for complex challenges, resource‐integrating actors may represent public, private and third‐sector organizations, citizens/service users, as well as their private spheres. Moreover, resources may be both tangible and, more importantly, intangible. Because all actors in the system are doing the same thing – integrating resources – multi‐actor resource integration frames interorganizational collaboration and citizen/user co‐production. In contrast to the private sector's foci on profit and customer satisfaction, the gain herein concerns better usage of common resources and addressing public interests – such as access to services that meet the needs of disregarded groups. In the complex realities of contemporary societies, actors from all sectors should help meet such needs through collaborative resource integration rather than competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of ownership on sustainable development and environmental policy in Italian municipally owned corporations (MOCs) dealing with urban waste management, trying to understand if multiple ownership can generate better performance compared to single ownership and if the presence of private partners could be crucial in this. The research question is answered by analyzing 41 MOCs of the largest Italian cities operating in urban waste management. In this specific sector, public administrations have tried to improve their offer in terms of sustainable development, environmental policy, and efficiency. The paper covers the Italian case study, where urban waste production per capita is higher than the European average figure. The waste cycle management service is operated in Italy at local level through totally publicly owned companies (monoadministration or multiadministration), mixed (public–private) companies, or via a full externalization achieved by means of public tenders. Through a multinomial ordered probit panel, we show that MOCs with multiple owners perform better than those having a single owner and perform much better with the presence of a private partner, confirming those academic findings according to which collaborative arrangements can increase efficiency, do better than public sector bureaucracy, and lower the costs of service provision. The results of this paper can be used by academics, practitioners, and policy makers alike. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only study that applies this perspective to the analysis of the current international waste management scenario with relation to MOCs having multiple ownerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a theoretical typology for categorizing the multiple roles played by public auditing today, containing four audit modes: classic administrative audit, policy analysis audit, values‐based audit, and public agenda audit. While some specific aspects of these functions have been studied in other contexts, to the best of my knowledge they have not yet been examined and articulated as a whole. Using examples from Israel, this paper seeks to bridge this gap in the literature by presenting this evolution, offering a theoretical framework for identifying and discussing its new scope, and their implications both for the future of the state audit and for democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional approaches to system management are not suited to highly uncertain conditions. Hard system approaches with a top‐down management approach are often used to manage well‐defined systems that are not easily able to cope with uncertainty. Soft system approaches of the with bottom‐up or participative style may cause a lack of conformance to industry standards. Few studies have investigated these approaches within the context of COVID‐19 pandemic. Therefore, this paper aims to use the philosophy of Total Systems Intervention to investigate the applicability of an integrated management approach to cope with the uncertainty of COVID‐19. Three different countries from Europe, Oceania and Asia are selected as typical case studies to clarify the strengths and weaknesses of differing management approaches. The case studies demonstrate that using an integrated management approach can potentially assist decision‐makers to deal with crises and conclusively reveal the superiority of the integrated approach, independent of cultural milieu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to pursue sustainable development has become a central topic in Western countries due to citizens' greater sensitivity to improving environmental and social conditions. Companies can reach this objective more easily through green innovations, which are now considered a strategic opportunity that simultaneously allows for adherence to sustainable development criteria and the pursuit of competitive advantages. Scholars have identified the determinants that encourage companies to adopt green innovations, but the outcomes of their investigations thus far have often been ambiguous and contradictory. Our paper proposes an interpretative framework for addressing such inconsistencies. Using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS‐SEM) methodology, we validate this framework on a sample of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and show that SMEs' choices are influenced by cultural elements and stimulated by the prospect of obtaining economic advantages over competitors. SMEs also pay close attention to stakeholder solicitations, while public administration does not affect their eco‐innovating choices. The results have policy implications for executives and insiders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of New Public Management reforms on the information infrastructure underpinning the work of public service professionals. Focussing on the case of the British National Health Service (NHS), the paper argues that hospital accounting reforms played a significant role in the emergence of standardised models of clinical practice. The paper moreover argues that, under the label 'care pathways', such standardised models of clinical practice became embedded in the information infrastructure of the NHS and concludes by discussing their implications for the work of doctors and hospital accountants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2010, local authorities in England have experienced an unprecedented reduction in their resourcing at a time when demands on services have risen substantially through social and demographic changes. Faced with such external challenges, various Councils' internal transformations have sought to change the organisation as a system, but also to alter the relationship with the environment. These have clearly been attempts to create viable systems, but have not been explicitly termed as such. This paper outlines a series of transformation interventions that have used the principles of the viable systems model to improve business governance and make evident the criticality of the effective functioning of Systems 2-5 of the viable systems model. The paper also considers why, when such individual transformations have evidentially supported the viability of local authorities, systemic thinking has not yet been embraced by the sector to improve its governing business systems. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is assumed in many countries that the merger of municipalities can increase the capacity of their public administrations. This paper concentrates primarily on the activities preceding the implementation of the merger, by analyzing the ex-ante stages of the process. Using a case study, the paper analyzes the activities used to explain the merger initiative to citizens and to overcome any potential resistance. The analysis is developed using the Foucauldian concepts of discourse and technology of the self. The aim is to explain the way human resources can and should be managed during the implementation of a capacity-building initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the concept of an accountability web, this paper analyzes the 2‐year long extraordinary administration of the archaeological site at Pompeii, where the Italian Prime Minister appointed a special Commissioner to deal with the alleged decay of the site in July 2008. Findings shed light on critical issues related to the appointment of "loyal experts" in terms of strong personalization, short‐term thinking, and the influence of the media in the administration of public services. Moreover, the paper introduces patronage accountability as a distinct accountability dimension that is characterized by a hierarchical and informal nature, and which cannot be accessed by those who are not part of the transaction. We add to the literature by identifying patronage accountability as a separate accountability dimension that conflicts with more common ones, and examine the implications of this practice for public administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.K. Whole of Government Account (WGA) has been conceived by the Treasury as having a macro-fiscal role. This WGA is about fiscal transparency at the aggregate level, rather than at a more disaggregated level with regard to public sector decision makers at tiers of government, each with their own chain of accountability. This paper analyses the U.K. conception of the WGA, examining its theoretical background and evolution since the 1995 decision to convert central government accounting from cash to accruals. The definition of the area of consolidation is governed by statute, the declared intention being to align as far as possible with the national accounts definitions that provide the basis for fiscal aggregates, thereby overriding IAS 27. Net liabilities per WGA is mapped in this paper to macro-fiscal aggregates, including public sector net debt (the U.K. preferred measure), general government gross debt (the EU preferred measure) and public sector net worth (national accounts). Conceptually, the WGA measure is situated between net debt (against which only liquid assets are netted) and the long-term cash projections developed by the Treasury. Insights are provided into the damage inflicted on U.K. public finances by a period of over-optimism about fiscal performance and the economy's heavy exposure to the global financial crisis. Fiscal retrenchment in all countries can have a substantial illusory component, as proposals may reduce some measures of deficit and debt at the expense of the public sector balance sheet, to which the WGA draws attention. These measures may include: privatizing state assets; neglecting existing public sector assets; cutting public sector capital expenditure; substituting public-private partnerships for conventional procurement; and posting bills to the future. The U.K. WGA may also institutionalize some protection against accounting arbitrage that distorts policy choices and fiscal reporting. Well-documented reconciliations between figures derived from national accounts and from IFRS-based financial reporting are therefore imperative for fiscal transparency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open systems theory offers a conceptual platform to understand how systems can be effective in adapting to their environments through purposeful action. It is relevant to the performance of national systems of innovation: open‐oriented countries are more likely to be successful in innovation because of the knowledge exchange between international organizations and organizations within the same country. In this paper, the open systems concept is defined and measured by a number of factors including extent of open trade, information and communication technology development, and online government service measures. In this study, the relationship between the measures of openness and the level of innovation of each country (measured using the Global Innovation Index) is analysed using analysis of variance, with results indicating a positive relationship. The theoretical contribution resides in the argument that a nation's openness relates to innovation capability and that this can be assessed by the factors in the model used in the paper. We argue that rather than focusing on innovation, countries should consider developing an open systems platform for innovation by maximizing their interactions with the international environment and developing mechanisms to circulate knowledge internally within the country. This should result in a supportive context where innovations can emerge. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Global Forum on Reinventing Government has made government reform and new forms of comparative public administration and politics global issues. Since the forum was initiated in the United States in 1999, it has been held in locations around the world with broad representation. Yet the proceedings of these forums have not been fully reported to the international public administration community. This paper reports on the ideas on reinventing governance that emerged from the Sixth Global Forum. Many of the participants in the forum came from developing countries, so the paper also provides ideas and points of view on governance that are beyond the mainstream literature in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the intertwined nature of private and public interests, local governments tend to use collaborative partnerships involving entrepreneurs to promote regional entrepreneurship. However, there is still a gap in the theory with regard to the mechanisms underpinning these collaborative partnerships. Drawing on the institutional entrepreneurship literature, we identify the enabling conditions and articulate the role played by local government as an institutional entrepreneur in fostering regional entrepreneurship through entrepreneurial public–private collaborative partnerships. This paper explicates two distinct mechanisms – the establishment of new institutional arrangements by the institutional entrepreneur and the advocation of diffusion by other actors – that underpin entrepreneurial public–private collaborative partnerships. Importantly, we underscore the crucial role played by returnee entrepreneurs who interact collaboratively with the institutional entrepreneur in affecting institutional change and fostering regional entrepreneurship. We conduct in‐depth qualitative interviews with local government officials, entrepreneurs and high‐tech park managers, in conjunction with performing content analysis of policy documents in a peripheral region of China – areas that have largely been neglected in scholarly research. This paper concludes with some theoretical and policy implications for public management and entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this conceptual paper, we discuss from the service systems perspective how accountabilities differ from a hierarchic and organisational perspective within the domain of New Public Management, looking to shed new light upon accountability as a research topic. The concept of service systems and their accountabilities are scrutinised and the role of integrated social and health care services is discussed in particular. The main argument in the text is the changing nature of accountabilities as the public organisations are being transformed into service systems. To date, the understanding of accountability has remained structural by nature – such is the case also for productivity measurement – but the shift from organisations towards services systems means that accountability ought to be considered as processual by nature. By processual it is meant that accountability should be considered as flows within systems – that is: flows between agents the content of which we argue includes not only knowledge on the outputs of public services, but also values, empathy and thus multi‐layered understanding of accountability. The paper concludes with practical insights for managerial purposes on the basis for this accountability shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue for a systems perspective as the theoretical and analytical basis of national innovation ecosystems. Drawing on the system concepts of holism, emergence and open systems features, we analyse the national innovation ecosystems of Australia and Singapore. The analysis of national innovation ecosystems is based on five dimensions of policies: human capital investment and the availability of professional labour, infrastructure, private–public sector collaboration, support for funding and commercialization and innovation corporate culture. We find both countries' national innovation ecosystems to have aspects of holism, emergence and being open systems; however, the extent of these features varies between the two countries in terms of the five dimensions of national innovation policies that we focus on. The paper provides implications for theory and practice particularly for policymakers to consider systems perspective in order to properly design and also gain benefits from national innovation ecosystems. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science 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.)

This study analyses an implementation of a government accounting reform in Benin directed at redressing fraudulent and corrupt practices. Although reforms to improve public administration and to mitigate corruption in Africa often have disappointing outcomes, our case study involving systems for payment of supplier invoices, payroll matters, and debt certificates had encouraging findings. The systems reduced inefficiencies and corrupt practices. An "enabling environment" (its main elements being emancipatory space, empowered participation, and ethical leadership) encouraged the deeper involvement of committed, expert, and ethical local civil servants in establishing effective financial controls. In the context of anticorruption reforms, this illustrates that public sector organizations in Africa should not invariably be regarded as monolithic bureaucratic top‐down entities, staffed by civil servants who are either passive "bystanders," purely self‐interested "players," or insufficiently expert, and hence in need for more training, and of imported, expensive, accounting systems implemented by foreign consultants. In contrast, the paper argues that, within a suitable environment, granting indigenous experts enough latitude to enact incremental yet substantive accounting changes at the local level may be more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democracies widely differ in the extent to which powerful elites and interest groups retain influence over politics. While a large literature argues that elite capture is rooted in a country's history, our understanding of the determinants of elite persistence is limited. In this paper, we show that allowing old-regime agents to remain in office during democratic transitions is a key determinant of the extent of elite capture. We exploit quasi-random from Indonesia: Soeharto-regime mayors were allowed to finish their terms before being replaced by new leaders. Since mayors' political cycles were not synchronized, this event generated exogenous variation in how long old-regime mayors remained in their position during the democratic transition. Districts with longer exposure to old-regime mayors experience worse governance outcomes, higher elite persistence, and lower political competition in the medium run. The results suggest that slower transitions towards democracy allow the old-regime elites to capture democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creation of environments that are more supportive of optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) requires countries to enact policies, such as those related to the Maternity Protection Convention, the International Code of Marketing of Breast‐milk Substitutes (the Code), and the Baby‐Friendly Hospital Initiative. However, challenges are experienced in the translation of international policy standards into national legal measures, and there is an important gap in understanding how countries achieve progress. Policy advocacy is a nearly universal feature, but there are methodological challenges and few studies evaluating strategies and effects. The purpose of this supplement to Maternal & Child Nutrition is to address those gaps. This supplement contains three papers that present findings from a real‐time evaluation of the advocacy efforts of Alive & Thrive (A&T), United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and partners, that sought to support governments in fostering enabling environment for optimal IYCF in Southeast Asia (SEA) and Africa. A combination of two emergent, theory‐based evaluation approaches was used: developmental evaluation and contribution analysis. The overall objective of the evaluation was to document the extent to which policy objectives were or were not achieved in each country and to identify the key drivers of policy change. One contribution of the supplement is a distinction between and illustration of triggers and drivers of policy change. Three main drivers of policy change were identified: (a) the use of an explicit advocacy approach; (b) the creation of a strategic group of actors; and (c) the realization of 15 critical tasks (more specifically for the Code). Each of the critical tasks has been identified as having triggered progress on the Code in those countries. This supplement provides evidence that the advocacy efforts of A&T, UNICEF, and partners contributed to enhanced IYCF policies in SEA and reveals how it helped to achieve progress. The insights contained in this supplement can serve as a guide for policy advocates for enhanced IYCF policies. A short communication puts findings into perspective within global context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite decades of research, we still need more long-term evidence of the effects of New Public Management (NPM) and accompanying changes in government over a generation. Looking at UK experience, a key case in NPM and digital-age developments, this paper evaluates administrative data to show what happened to indicators of fairness and consistency and of prudent management through limitation of running costs in public administration over three decades. The analysis shows that running costs rose substantially in real terms (contrary to the cost-cutting stereotype of NPM), while indicators of first-stage formal challenges to government suggest increased dissatisfaction with fairness and consistency in administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Public Management (NPM) has aroused significant interest amongst academe, policy makers and practitioners, since its first articulation in the seminal articles by Hood (1991 and 1995). However, in the 21st century, a body of opinion has developed which asserts that the NPM is passé. This paper seeks to determine the contemporary status of NPM in the context of the UK, one of the early adopters of NPM. Close inspection of UK Government policy underlines the importance of NPM ideas in the New Labour Government modernisation policy (1997-2010). Furthermore, the policy actions of the 2010-2015 UK Coalition Government reveal that the global financial crisis intensified the drive for NPM in the UK's public sector. This discussion reveals no evidence in support of the demise of NPM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The exception from informed consent (EFIC) rule was adopted in 1996, permitting waiver of informed consent for certain emergency research, including trials funded by the U.S. government. The rule requires prospective consent from patients or their legally authorized representative(s) (LAR) if practicable. For those enrolled without consent, the patient or their LAR must be given an opportunity to opt out from continued participation at the earliest opportunity. We sought to census the trials conducted under the EFIC rule to facilitate research to better understand how the rule is being used. Methods: We conducted a multipronged search to identify all trials conducted under the EFIC rule, drawing on reviews, database searches, examination of the FDA's docket, posting an inquiry on the institutional review board forum, and email requests to lead authors of all published EFIC trials and related review articles. We describe the trials, when they were started and completed, and whether they were terminated early. Results: We identified a total of 110 trials as of the end of April 2022: 78 complete, 13 recruiting, seven registered on clinicaltrials.gov but not yet recruiting, five trials that were abandoned before enrolling any subjects, and seven trials in early planning. Nine of the 78 completed trials were pilot or feasibility trials. Of 69 completed full trials, 30 (43.5%) were terminated early. The most common reason for early termination was futility (15 trials, 25.0%) followed by poor recruitment (10 trials, 14.5%). The rate of conduct of trials has been remarkably constant since 2001, with roughly 18 trials started in each 5‐year period. Conclusions: We have compiled a census of trials conducted under the U.S. FDA's EFIC rule, the availability of which we hope will stimulate further in‐depth data collection and analysis of this set of trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the apparent paradox that while public sector auditors have become more powerful by claiming performance auditing expertise and linking this to New Public Management reforms, the same reforms have provided an opening for competition between private and public sector auditors. In Denmark, the competitive relation has led to a jurisdictional dispute between public and private sector auditors in which the former have developed a special qualification for public sector auditors. The paper analyses the development of this qualification using Abbott's (1988) theory of the system of professions, thus focusing on how the involved groups have attempted to build networks of support for their competing jurisdictional claims of expertise. The case contributes to knowledge about the potential for development of a distinct public sector auditor identity. The case suggests that to develop such an identity and gain professional recognition, public sector auditors need to convince parliaments, standard-setting bodies and universities that a public sector auditing qualification serves as a solution to some of their problems, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents academic papers about the contribution of accounting to the modernization of the public sector in Great Britain. Public sector modernization is intertwined with the introduction of technologies and practices commonly used in the private sector. The first paper analyzes the budgeting of the Scottish parliament under decentralization. The second paper investigates the use of accounting information at the assembly level in Northern Ireland. The third paper takes a comparative and public-administration related viewpoint. The fourth paper reflects on the Public Finance Initiative, as a particular accounting instrument of public sector modernization. Management accounting research into public sector transition is the primary object of the fifth and final paper.

The employment relations community lost one of its best with the passing of Professor David Marsden, who died unexpectedly on Tuesday 10 August 2021 following complications of cancer treatment. His most recent paper, 'Patterns of organizational ownership and employee well-being in Britain' published in this issue of the BJIR (Marsden, 2021), focused on employee well-being, which David linked to the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of work. For example, Professor Elke Schuessler, who was a Master's student at LSE in academic year 2000-2001, fondly remembers participating in David's Comparative Industrial Relations and Comparative HRM classes, 'We learnt about the theory of employment systems, of course, but also so much more. [Extracted from the article]

The article presents commentary and criticism of Alice John Vandermeulen's report "Criteria of 'Adequate' Governmental Expenditure and Their Implications," originally published in the 1949 volume of the journal. The underlying philosophy of the paper concerning public expenditure evaluation criteria formation is addressed, particularly challenging Vandermeulen's treatment of total government expenditures as inadequate due to an "organic" economic approach, despite individual lesser functions being fulfilled.

The U.S. financial crisis and recession that began in 2007 poses profound challenges for public policy and administration. It also provides useful information about the effects of economic policies. This paper considers the implications of current developments for the use of implied guarantees as an instrument of public policy. It draws on experience with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to argue that implied federal guarantees have a severe disadvantage. Their costs are largely unmeasured, unrecognized in the budget, and unmanaged. Yet their use appears to be increasing in the current crisis. To minimize the costs of the expanded financial safety net, government should measure and manage those costs more effectively. To that end, this paper proposes new budgetary treatments of federal implied guarantees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dutch municipalities and provinces, denoted here as local government, have seen a succession of changes in their management accounting systems and have also introduced other changes related to New Public Management (NPM) in the last twenty years. This paper examines accounting changes, such as the introduction of accrual accounting, output and outcome budgets and performance measurement, from an institutionalist point of view. The paper presents experiences of 23 politicians and professional managers with the various changes over a period of fifteen to twenty years. The interviewees, just like various researchers in the field of NPM, were critical of the accounting changes and their effects. However, several of them also made clear that, seen over the long run, the changes did have some effects that they liked and seem to be in line with the ‘ideals’ presented in NPM literature. The paper suggests that an institutionalist perspective is helpful for studying change processes in organizations and for observing factors and developments that might not be noticed when a more functional and short-term perspective is adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines several papers relating to public policy schools and programs around the world. According to the author, the paper focused on six emerging programs that had representatives present, including four that usefully supplemented the conference paper's survey of broad trends in Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, the programs examined have complex relationship with the demand side of policy education. Furthermore, a table showing a descriptive overview of some of the programs discussed is offered.

The article provides a context for the paper "Explanators of Local Government Distress" by Stewart Jones and R.G. Walker concerning financial distress indicators. It focuses on the characteristics of local government in New South Wales. It states that the Department of Local Government (DLG) administers to the local government system and works to foster a sustainable local government sector that can meet the changing needs of the community. It mentions the need for financial sustainability and that a number of local councils struggle to utilize available resources to maintain the services expected by the communities served. It states that the DLG monitors the health of local council finances in an effort to ensure that the appropriate management strategies are available.

The challenge towards e-democracy, through the electronic transformation of political systems, has become increasingly evident within developed economies. It is regarded as an approach for increased and better quality citizen participation in the democratic processes. E-democracy forms a component of overall e-government initiatives where technology adoption and diffusion, to enhance wider access to, and the delivery of, government services, are apparent. However, previous research demonstrates that very few e-democracy proposals survive the stage of formal political decision-making to become substantive e-government projects within national or international agendas. Furthermore, the implementation of e-democracy projects is undertaken at a much slower pace and with dramatically less support than the implementation of other, so-called e-administration, activities in the public sector.The research in this paper considers the notion of the‘middleman paradox’, presenting theoretical and empirical evidence that further investigates the phenomenon associated with potential e-democracy improvements. Specifically, the paper adds a new dimension to existing theories on the hesitant evolution of e-democracy that clearly identifies politicians as an inhibiting factor. Proposals are made for an enhancement of these processes, and suggestions for further applicable research are demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this symposium, each paper addresses different strata in the governance framework, yet each explicitly links its findings to the larger issue of governance. Moreover, each of these papers incites curiosity as to how its findings relate to the larger literature on the specific governance concepts it considers. Specifically, it is shown that administrative structures affect resources and productivity in higher education. The papers illustrate how theory-based empirical research on the public governance and management that consistently references a broader framework can contribute to the accumulation of knowledge about public governance, management and the performances.

Accounting can both shape and be shaped by organisational reality (Nahapiet, 1988). This paper focuses on the shaping of an ABC (activity based costing) system in a public sector authority during a period of rapid change from 1993 to 1998. The reasons why management invested substantially in such a system are outlined, and are compared and contrasted with the views of the employees. Over time the ABC system became locked in as the transfer pricing system to meet the needs of a new style of business unit accountability where quasi–profit centres were set up within a public sector authority. A new CEO eliminated the profit–centre concept and returned to budgetary control as the primary form of financial accountability. At this stage ABC became side–lined but was still useful for strategic decisions relating to out–sourcing and improving lines of business, more in line with its initial objectives. Finally, the paper explores why ABC ceased to exist. It is a rare case of a longitudinal study of an accounting technology in a public sector organisation and provides insights into the moulding of accounting by organisational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the extent to which the new public management (NPM) project has succeeded in replacing the custodial mode of professional work supervision with a more bureaucratic approach. The paper conceptualizes the key components of each mode within two ideal types of professional work supervision. It then draws on findings from a study of local-authority social service departments to consider current arrangements against these ideal type configurations. The findings demonstrate that elements of the bureaucratic mode have emerged unevenly. So far, they have not displaced the emphasis that the supervisors of professional work place on protecting autonomy and limiting management control systems. This suggests that custodial approaches to the supervision of professional work may be more resilient than has been assumed within previous analyses of NPM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the Waldo Symposium held at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University in June 1996 in honor of professor Dwight Waldo. The symposium was attended by more than 100 students, colleagues and friends of Waldo. They enjoyed receptions in the Founders Room of Maxwell Hall, listened to papers and speeches in old Maxwell Auditorium, and ate together in the Commons of Eggers Hall. Participants came from many countries in Europe, from Japan and Korea, and from every corner of the United States. Some had not seen Professor Waldo for 30 years or more. The Waldo Symposium was sponsored by the Maxwell School and organized by an informal committee of three -- H. George Frederickson, Frank Marini, and Astrid Merget. The purpose was to honor Dwight Waldo and to discuss his contributions to the field of public administration. The symposium setting gave the event a special meaning. Old Maxwell Hall has been remodeled, but its traditional features have been retained, such as the Maxwell Foyer with the Athenian Oath, the Founders Room which has been the site of many of the most important events in the field, and Maxwell Auditorium, where many of the field's intellectual leaders have lectured, such as Paul H. Appleby, Frederick C. Mosher, Roscoe Martin, John Gaus, Jesse Burkhead, Guthrie Birkhead, Harlan Cleveland, Mary Parker Follett, Emmette S. Redford, Stephen K. Bailey, Bertram M. Gross and Arthur W. McMahon.