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Permissioned blockchains are widely used in scenarios such as digital assets, supply chains, government services, and Web 3.0, but their development is hindered by low throughput and scalability. Blockchain sharding addresses these issues by dividing the ledger into disjoint shards that can be processed concurrently. However, since cross-shard transactions require the collaboration of multiple shards, blockchain sharding needs a commit protocol to ensure the atomicity of executing these transactions, significantly impacting system performance. To this end, by exploiting the characteristics of deterministic ordering, we propose a cross-shard transaction processing protocol called cross-reserve, which eliminates this costly cross-shard coordination while providing the same consistency and atomicity guarantee. Based on the ordering-free execute–validate (EV) architecture, we implemented a blockchain prototype called NeuChain+, which further reduces the cross-shard transaction processing overhead using the pipelined read sets transmission. Experimental results show that NeuChain+ is scalable and outperforms state-of-the-art blockchain systems with 1.7 – 75.3 × throughput under the SmallBank workload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowing the functions of buildings is valuable in urban planning and management. For example, it can be used for the assessment of urban planning implementation and the fine-tuning of community governance. At large scales, determining building functions can be time-consuming and laborious. While point of interest (POI) data can be used to identify urban building functions, it is prone to missing values. The present study proposes combining POIs with the spatial relationships between geographic entities and geographic information systems (GIS) to improve the accuracy of urban building function identification. First, the POIs are reclassified according to building functions. Second, the spatial relationships among road networks, buildings and POIs are analysed, and the frequency density ratios of POI types are calculated to identify the functions of buildings that contain POIs. Finally, buildings that do not contain POIs are identified by calculating the spatial similarity between unrecognised buildings and recognised buildings within the same road network mesh. The method can identify buildings with singular residential, commercial, office, and public services functions, as well as seven mixed functions, with an accuracy, recall, and F1 value of 90.28%, 97.52%, and 93.76%, respectively. Public service buildings and residential buildings have the highest identification precision, while the identification precision of mixed commercial and public service buildings and mixed residential and public service buildings are the lowest. An experiment demonstrates the effectiveness of the method. The results indicate that the spatial relationships between entities can compensate for missing POI data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protests over service delivery in South African local government have become a recurrent and pervasive challenge, reflecting dissatisfaction among citizens with the quality and accessibility of public services. This paper explores the importance of strengthening public accountability as a key mechanism for mitigating Protests over service delivery within the framework of local governance in South Africa. By examining the nexus between accountability mechanisms, citizen engagement, and service delivery, the study aims to provide insights into effective strategies for enhancing accountability to address the root causes of protests. The findings are expected to contribute to the development of evidence-based policies and practices that foster a more responsive and accountable local government, ultimately reducing the frequency and intensity of service delivery protests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proximity of local government to communities makes it the best instrument for ensuring social justice in the democratic era. Although social justice is desirable, there are various interpretations and understandings of the concept in South Africa because various actors, structures, and agencies have different perspectives. This paper explores the relationship between municipal service provision and social justice within the macroeconomic policy of neoliberalism in South Africa. Following the qualitative approach and using secondary sources, this paper argues that adopting neoliberalism in South Africa following the demise of apartheid has thwarted social justice. Further, it argues that the adoption and implementation of neoliberalism have resulted in perpetual relative deprivation based on race, leading to the formulation of new agencies that have utilised collective action against the local government. The adoption and implementation of neoliberalism constrained the financial resources available to the government, limiting the financial resources allocated to local government. Neoliberalism adversely affected the local government, which was operating in a financially constrained environment. This financially constrained environment perpetuated the legacy of relative deprivation inherited from the apartheid era, hence thwarting social justice. Furthermore, as time passed, the crisis of neoliberalism emerged, whereby neoliberalism proved ineffective, yet mainstream economists proposed neoliberalism, and more neoliberal practices have been adopted, thus cementing neoliberalism. This increase in neoliberal practices resulted in little prioritisation of social justice in local government, hence triggering rebellions usually directed at local government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental research has been increasingly recognized as the gold standard for causal inference. However, despite the call for the adoption of experimental approaches to the study of public service motivation (PSM) – one of the most researched topics in the field of public administration – we find that the number of such studies is small in this first-ever review of systematic assessment of experimental research on PSM. Reviewing the universe of such experimental studies − 41 in total – by their topic and type, first, we find that they are concentrated on the analysis of the efforts of PSM and in survey experiments by type. Second, while many studies confirm that PSM positively influences various outcomes, they also show that other intrinsic and extrinsic motivations often outperformed PSM. Third, while acknowledging that methodologically, the randomization of treatment has been well adopted in recent years, we highlight some key recommendations for further improvements regarding the type of experiment, sample characteristics, measurement, and treatment sequences based on our review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global pandemic was traumatic for everyone, and it revealed the vast inequity in public services to which people have access. Fortunately, community schools had been coordinating services to meet the needs of their families prior to the pandemic, and when schools closed in 2020, they kicked into high gear to provide for those needs. This paper reports on interviews with 15 community school coordinators in Baltimore conducted at the end of the pandemic period to find out how they went about meeting community needs. Findings indicate that coordinators played a crucial role in getting families' basic needs (i.e. food, shelter, clothing) met, but they also built trusting relationships, generating social capital in their neighborhoods set in racially segregated neighborhoods as a result of decades of redlining and policies meant to isolate Black communities. In the end, this paper argues that community school coordinators need more support to convert the social capital into further advocacy alongside the families with whom they work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Procedural justice can impact on street-level bureaucrat (SLB)-citizen encounters as it shapes citizens' experience with, and perception of, the delivery of public service. Specifically, in police encounters with the public, procedural justice has recently dominated the public discourse due to the tensions around police-community relations. One way to enhance the quality of SLB-citizen encounters is through procedural justice training. Utilizing a mixed methods design, we conduct a two-pronged analysis of (1) the content and teaching time of procedural justice training in state-mandated basic police curricula across U.S. states and (2) the ways training content (i.e., concepts of procedural justice) is conceptualized by the street-level bureaucrats who are the subjects of these curricula. The study identifies deficiencies in the length of the training and highlights discrepancies between the content emphasized in the training and the ways in which SLBs perceive and interpret its utility and applicability. It concludes by offering practical recommendations on how to improve procedural justice competencies, and by way, enhance SLB-citizen encounters through training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this conceptual study is to highlight the potential contribution of emotional intelligence as a tool in advancing the study of equity in public service delivery. By reviewing the literature on emotional intelligence in public administration and rationalizing its relationship with equity among street-level bureaucrats and bureaucracies, this article proposes a strategy to promote social equity in the provision of public service. The proposed strategy focuses on the role of EI-supportive organizational culture, and particularly human resource management practices, as a means to enhance bureaucrats' emotionally intelligent behavior in their interactions with citizens-clients. Finally, the article proposes a theoretical and methodological agenda for future research in this important field of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a crowdsourcing IT platform and working model intended to support knowledge management processes and systems change to help public service organizations fulfill their purpose and perform their tasks in a rapidly changing environment. The tool brings together tacit and explicit knowledge regarding organizational processes in one database and provides an AI-assisted platform for knowledge processing. Additionally, it allows for disseminating refined data to grassroots-level actors, enables the implementation of initiatives, and monitors their effectiveness. By utilizing crowdsourcing, the tool leverages the collective intelligence of actors across organizational boundaries, thereby promoting collective, knowledge-based learning and organizational self-renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'co-production' has been used in various fields, including planning, as collaborative forms of public goods and service delivery gain significance. Co-production has two sides—the 'co' side refers to actors and their motivations, while the 'production' side refers to phases and instruments. This paper examines privately owned public space/s (POPS) based on the two sides of co-production. Thereby, it addresses two research gaps. First, less has been written to date on the involvement of actors other than local authorities and developers. Second, little attention has been paid to the phase through which POPS are co-produced. The paper fills these research gaps by presenting the empirical work undertaken in HafenCity, Hamburg. It reveals a wide range of actors engaged in four different phases through various instruments. This paper also identifies challenges of co-production of POPS, and makes recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public service providers increasingly encourage users to actively coproduce as a means to enhance public service provision. But what drives users to coproduce? Using a unique combination of survey and actual behavior log‐data of 9992 smart public service users who reported service‐related issues, we examine the extent to which users' self‐centered and community‐centered motivations are associated with their actual reporting behavior as well as the effort intensity of such behavior. Our findings suggest that users' self‐centered motivations are positively related to their actual reporting behavior and effort intensity, while community‐centered motivations do not show a significant association. Our study highlights the importance of self‐centered motivations in (digital) coproduction and co‐assessment. It also showcases the potential of using log data from public services to measure actual coproduction behavior instead of relying solely on self‐reported behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public service motivation (PSM), public service values (PSV), and public service ethos (PSE), we argue, constitute theoretically complementary dimensions of public service psychology. Using multi‐dimensional scaling (MDS), we also empirically map the three constructs to identify their interrelationships as constituent parts of a public service topology. Using a survey of public and private employees, we determined which of the PSM, PSV, and PSE instruments most strongly correlate with (1) sector of employment, (2) preferences in public service decision vignettes, and (3) prosocial citizenship behavior. We find PSM, PSV, and PSE to be distinctly complementary, rather than competing psychological phenomena. Incorporating—theoretically and empirically—the three approaches into one topology suggests dimensions of an integrated public service psychology comprising two axes that vary on an advocacy–neutrality scale and a self‐focused–other‐focused scale. With this topographical orientation, public administration scholars can better select the appropriate instrument(s), whether PSM, PSV, or PSE, for the public service situation/question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public service provision reform widely calls for coproduction. Based on the framing effect theory, we took waste sorting as a research context and explored the effects of goal frames and temporal frames on citizens' willingness to participate in coproduction through two between‐subject survey experiments. We found that citizens' participation willingness was significantly increased when using goal frames or temporal frames. Furthermore, compared with gain frames, the effect of loss frames on citizens' willingness was significantly stronger, whereas the difference in the effect of present‐oriented frames and future‐oriented frames was not significant. When the information was constructed by combining loss frames and present‐oriented frames, citizens' willingness reached the highest level among the four combinations. This study has implications for nudging coproduction by information frames and implies that presenting the loss‐framed information in present‐oriented frames can maximally promote citizens' willingness to participate in coproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All organizations need to allocate labor to production and administration. In many cases—particularly within the public sector—the optimal allocation is far from obvious. Indeed, vocal concerns have been raised about the administrative burden in several public services, not least in education. We investigate this issue using detailed registry data on all employees at Swedish universities and colleges from 2005 to 2019 and document three stylized facts. First, the group of highly educated administrators has grown rapidly, almost by a factor of seven compared with teachers and researchers. Second, the number of less-educated administrators has stayed flat. Third, the time that teachers and researchers spend on administrative tasks has been roughly constant over time. This indicates that resources have been diverted from teaching and research and raises fears of excessive administrative growth in Swedish higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian Government is asking Australians for their views on the existing telecommunications universal service obligation. Fifty years ago, that obligation was on Telecom (now Telstra) to provide payphones and a voice service that would best meet the social, industrial and commercial needs of all Australians who reasonably require those services, so far as it is reasonably practicable to do so. The obligation is still the same: the provision of payphones and voice telephony. If the universal service obligation is to have any continuing relevance in the Australian communications framework, however, it must reflect the social, industrial and commercial needs of Australians in 2024 and beyond. Research shows that Australians are using broadband services for a wide range of services in their lives: access to government services, health, finances, education, entertainment, and social and family connections. And for the large majority of Australians, that communication is by mobile telephony. A new definition of the service for all Australians must be upgraded to reflect how Australians now communicate. And it must be continually reviewed and upgraded as necessary to meet the changing communications needs of all Australians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raising the price of municipal water services is highly fraught in many countries due to the political pressures to keep water bills affordable. As a result, most countries fail to recover the full costs of water provision, a problem made worse by an underestimation of the real cost of providing water. The case of Singapore illustrates that this problem is in part due to "mental accounting," which is consistent with Lasswell's concept of an "intelligence function." Situating an understanding of this intelligence function within the Singapore water case gives a better understanding of the reluctance to raise water prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers and practitioners are increasingly embracing systems approaches to deal with the complexity of public service delivery and policy evaluation. However, there is little agreement on what exactly constitutes a systems approach, conceptually or methodologically. We review and critically synthesize systems literature from the fields of health, education, and infrastructure. We argue that the common theoretical core of systems approaches is the idea that multi-dimensional complementarities between a policy and other aspects of the policy context are the first-order problem of policy design and evaluation. We distinguish between macro-systems approaches, which focus on the collective coherence of a set of policies or institutions, and micro-systems approaches, which focus on how a single policy interacts with the context in which it operates. We develop a typology of micro-systems approaches and discuss their relationship to standard impact evaluation methods as well as to work in external validity, implementation science, and complexity theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Public Service Media (PSM) have implemented innovation departments or labs that seem to be useful for experimenting and developing innovative ideas regarding technologies, content, audiences and other areas. We have identified 17 PSM labs. We analyse these units through the lens of the Model of Coordinated Action developed by Lee and Paine (2015) and the concept of "Community of Practice" that describes how a group communicates, learns, participates and transforms their practice, drawing from Wenger's theory (1998). This study addresses how innovative PSM labs are managed, focusing on the cases of BBC News Labs and RTVE Lab. The methodology is based on participant observation in their workplaces, as well as semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 23 managers and employees. The results highlight that both teams manage innovation in their functional organization through learning processes among their professionals and transfer their innovations to other areas of their respective corporations. PSM labs encourage their team members to innovate through a collaborative culture that makes it possible to identify them as Communities of Practice that foster coordinated action and learning in their work. Their organizational culture relies on a strategy that seeks to increase their public service function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in the foodservice industry can not only provide guidance for merchants, but also spatially optimize the urban foodservice industry, restaurants' location selection, and customers' purchasing decisions. In this study, taking Sanya city as the research object, using big data crawling technology to collect the directory and their attribute information of 2107 restaurants with more than 100 reviews. Kernel density analysis, grid analysis and the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model were applied to reveal the distribution characteristics and influencing factors of eWOM in the foodservice industry in Sanya, China. The main results are as follows. The foodservice industry in Sanya extends along the southern coastline and is characterized by little dispersion and agglomeration at the macro level. The overall eWOM score of the foodservice industry is low. Market popularity, restaurant rating, transportation conditions, and commercial development all have a positive impact on the eWOM of the foodservice industry. Population and price have both positive and negative effects and the public services has a nonsignificant impact on the eWOM. This study not only improves the theoretical understanding of the foodservice industry, but also provides a general reference for its development in other industries and cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality public services will give the impression of satisfaction and comfort to the people who receive them. This research focuses on patient satisfaction and comfort at Depati Hamzah Hospital, Pangkalpinang City, Sumatra, Indonesia. Patients and their families who received inpatient services became research respondents. In total, 105 participants participated in the survey as respondents to utilize the Windows SPSS 22 application for processing. Five significant service dimensions were the basis for measuring the service quality. The average level of patient satisfaction is 4.38 and the average level of service quality is 3.92 based on the results of importance-performance analysis calculations. This shows that 3.92 < 4.38, the quality of service has provided satisfaction to customers and patients but has not yet reached its best ability. The results of the Cartesian diagram analysis of the influence of service quality on patient satisfaction in quadrant I. The findings show that the gap is caused by the average perception and average expectations of unfavorable factors, namely the tangible, dependability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy factors. If the gap is negative, it indicates that fewer or dissatisfied customers are using the service. The results of the Cartesian diagram are more visible in quadrant I, which shows that the level of performance is below the level of expectations and additional performance improvements are needed to please customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental changes and developments that continue to develop in this century have caused uncertainties due to the development of information technology. These increasingly complex changes encourage various societal demands and increasingly tighter and sharper competition. This condition has led to pressure on the government to make changes in various sectors, especially public services toward Industrial Revolution 4.0 in the village government system. This research aims to analyze and test the partial influence of leadership and performance of the village government bureaucracy on the quality of public services toward the Industrial Revolution 4.0. This research design uses quantitative methods through a questionnaire survey, which will be tested for validity and reliability. The findings in this research indicate that the quality of leadership is still unsatisfactory, which causes the village government's performance to be suboptimal, which results in the quality of service to the community in the era of increasingly developing information technology. Therefore, there is a need for leadership and performance transformation to improve the quality of technology-based services to society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of this study is to assess administrative reforms and change from the point of view of theoretical administrative models of hierarchical (traditional) administration, New Public Management (NPM), and New Public Governance (NPG) in Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia. Normative models offer a critique of legacy administrative practices; their wholesale implementation is seldom practical or successful. Reforms framed as “modernization” in these countries over the past three decades have generally followed the principles of NPM. Although policy arguments for introducing elements of NPG can be observed in the studied cases, the paper argues that NPG’s rhetorical attractiveness for resolving perceived shortcomings of other models lacks specific implementation mechanisms that would be viable within the existing institutional framework of the studied countries. Factors, such as the relatively small size of Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia, and obvious benefits of EU integration, appear to have moderated reforms to a point that core institutional features have become stable, and are also similar among the three countries: the dominance of hierarchical administrative model with rigid separation of powers structure and strong courts that can adjudicate administrative decisions, with numerous NPM inspired “modernization” measures, including the introduction of various interactive public services. The paper’s findings support the idea that Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia are administrative systems that have stable core governance institutions, and national public administrations modernize various aspects of their operation by introducing elements of NPM and NPG within the executive, but not reviewing the basic setup of these institutions. From this point of view, the findings are in line with the assumptions of the normative model of Neo-Weberian State (NWS) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our digitally driven society, advances in software and hardware to capture video data allow extensive gathering and analysis of large datasets. This has stimulated interest in extracting information from video data, such as buildings and urban streets, to enhance understanding of the environment. Urban buildings and streets, as essential parts of cities, carry valuable information relevant to daily life. Extracting features from these elements and integrating them with technologies such as VR and AR can contribute to more intelligent and personalized urban public services. Despite its potential benefits, collecting videos of urban environments introduces challenges because of the presence of dynamic objects. The varying shape of the target building in each frame necessitates careful selection to ensure the extraction of quality features. To address this problem, we propose a novel evaluation metric that considers the video-inpainting-restoration quality and the relevance of the target object, considering minimizing areas with cars, maximizing areas with the target building, and minimizing overlapping areas. This metric extends existing video-inpainting-evaluation metrics by considering the relevance of the target object and interconnectivity between objects. We conducted experiment to validate the proposed metrics using real-world datasets from Japanese cities Sapporo and Yokohama. The experiment results demonstrate feasibility of selecting video frames conducive to building feature extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public water supply unreliability is a problem that causes human hardships and remains common in the United States. In this paper, we attempt to examine the factors associated with public water supply unreliability. We measure public water service unreliability by the issuance of boil water notices (BWNs). By using a Negative Binomial regression model and data from West Virginia community water systems in 2020, we find that water systems that purchase their water from other water systems, have more educated and experienced operators, and serve high-income areas and a higher percentage of Native residents are expected to issue more BWNs. On the other hand, water systems that are small and serve a higher percentage of rural, educated, employed residents are expected to issue fewer BWNs. The findings emphasize the need to move beyond simplistic assumptions about water system reliability and consider the combined influence of technical, socio-economic, and demographic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Increased working from home has imposed new challenges on public service employees, while also granting opportunities for job crafting. Grounding on the Job Demands-Resources model and Hobfoll's Conservation of Resources theory this exploratory research aims to investigate the work-nonwork balance of employees one and a half years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the research focus lies on employees' job crafting strategies to optimize their working from home experience concerning boundary management and energy resource management. Methods: Twelve semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with public service employees from different sectors in Germany. The experiences were content analyzed using the software MaxQDA and inductive and deductive categories were derived. Results: Boundary management comprised different strategies such as communicative (e.g., negotiating work time), physical (e.g., going to the garden), temporal (e.g., logging off in between the work day) and behavioral (e.g., prioritizing tasks) strategies. The job crafting strategies regarding energy management included preventing exhaustion (e.g. taking breaks), healthy cooking and energy management in case of sickness (e.g. deciding on sick leave). Conclusions: This qualitative case study enriches research on job crafting by offering insights on boundary tactics and energy resources management strategies for remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results point out different starting points for employees and decision makers, how a work-nonwork balance, energy management and thus employees' wellbeing may be increased when working from home in the future. Trial registration: The study design and methodology were approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Cologne and the study was prospectively registered (Ref No. 21-1417_1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of epidemic spreading, many intricate dynamical patterns can emerge due to the cooperation of different types of pathogens or the interaction between the disease spread and other failure propagation mechanism. To unravel such patterns, simulation frameworks are usually adopted, but they are computationally demanding on big networks and subject to large statistical uncertainty. Here, we study the two-layer spreading processes on unidirectionally dependent networks, where the spreading infection of diseases or malware in one layer can trigger cascading failures in another layer and lead to secondary disasters, e.g., disrupting public services, supply chains, or power distribution. We utilize a dynamic message-passing method to devise efficient algorithms for inferring the system states, which allows one to investigate systematically the nature of complex intertwined spreading processes and evaluate their impact. Based on such dynamic message-passing framework and optimal control, we further develop an effective optimization algorithm for mitigating network failures. The frameworks to simulate pathogen, malware and failure spreading are computationally demanding, and they are subject to large statistical uncertainty. The authors develop efficient inference and control algorithms based on dynamic message passing to study a two-layer spreading process, where the spreading infection triggers cascading failures and leads to secondary disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an original method for minimising the energy expenditure of electric vehicles used in municipal service undertakings, taking into account the uncertainty in the functioning of their charging points. The uncertainty of the charging points' operation was presented as the probability of the occurrence of an emergency situation hindering a point's operation, e.g., a breakdown or lack of energy supply. The problem is how to calculate the driving routes of electric vehicles so that they will arrive at charging points at times at which there is a minimal probability of breakdowns. The second aspect of this problem to be solved is that the designated routes are supposed to ensure the minimum energy expenditure that is needed for the vehicles to complete the tasks assigned. The developed method is based on two heuristic algorithms, i.e., the ant algorithm and genetic algorithms. These algorithms work in a hybrid combination, i.e., the ant algorithm generates the initial population for the genetic algorithm. An important element of this method is the decision-making model for defining the driving routes of electric vehicles with various restrictions, e.g., their battery capacity or the permissible risk of charging point breakdown along the routes of the vehicles. The criterion function of the model was defined as the minimisation of the energy expenditure needed by the vehicles to perform their transport tasks. The method was verified against real-life data, and its effectiveness was confirmed. The authors presented a method of calibrating the developed optimisation algorithms. Theoretical distributions of the probability of charging point failure were determined based on the Statistica 13 program, while a graphical implementation of the method was carried out using the PTV Visum 23 software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the development of Pitrufquén (located in the Araucanía Region, Chile, and founded in 1897) from a historical, territorial, urban, and architectural point of view. It is proposed that the city’s development is framed in a new moment, where the Chilean State abandons military criteria and assumes economic-territorial factors where the railroad’s presence is a determining factor. The choice of the site, its particular layout, and the development of its architecture are evidence of this change. From the historical point of view, it is analyzed how, in Pitrufquén, the Mapuche society had cattle raising as the main economic activity, as it had pastures to feed the cattle, the land was suitable for crops, and there was a vital ford to cross the Toltén River. This strategic location was maintained and accentuated by the city’s founding and the railroad’s arrival in 1898, turning the town into a railhead for progress towards the south of the country. In the case of the urban layout, its peculiarity was addressed since, together with Lonquimay, these are the only sections in the La Araucanía region organized based on an ellipse, which, in the case of Pitrufquén, also coexists with a checkerboard layout. The study analyzed its squares, diagonal avenues, and the perimeter ring road. At an architectural level, the article explores the three layers or aspects of the city: The first one studies the wooden architecture with works from the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the second refers to public architecture, represented by buildings such as the municipality, public services, the post office, and others; and a third layer addresses the modern architecture, such as housing and stores from the period between 1940 and 1960. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution applies the Q methodology to investigate Chinese public employees' accountability preferences under different accountability relationships in delivering public services. We identify four accountability preferences: a vertically oriented accountability, a network‐style accountability, a style of accountability between market and participatory accountability, and a vertically oriented style of market accountability. Our data show that Chinese public employees hold varied accountability preferences in public service delivery, and hierarchy is a relatively popular one. It is suggested that governors should effectively align different accountability relationships with the aim of better steering the behavior of public employees in public service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic that emerged in 2020 has caused significant health crises worldwide. Countries and regions around the globe have practiced different policies to contain the pandemic. One commonly adopted strategy is the Zero-COVID policy, comprising two phases: an initial suppression phase, typically enforced through lockdowns, followed by a sustained containment phase. However, sudden and strict lockdown policies in the suppression phase would inevitably bring unexpected challenges to vulnerable populations. There is a need to identify the emergent needs of underprepared, vulnerable populations under lockdowns to inform future pandemic management. In this study, the messages posted on an online mutual help-requesting platform during the 2022 Shanghai lockdown were leveraged as the near real-time agent to represent the side effects of the lockdown policy. This work explores the spatiotemporal correlation of the posts to their potential influencing factors and mines knowledge from the textual content of the posts. The results indicate that the help requests were clustered in downtown Shanghai. The access to profuse medical resources and public services may be hindered in districts with more stringent lockdown policies. The help requests' content unveils a need for medication and groceries under lockdown. It also underscores that the elderly population was affected most by the lockdown. Based on these insights, policymakers can better anticipate and address the urgent residential needs that may arise in future lockdowns. This knowledge can contribute to more effective planning and preparedness efforts to mitigate the impact on vulnerable populations and ensure their well-being during similar crisis situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the problem of duplicate registration in the database of refugees in Kenya, which has led to Kenyan citizens being at risk of statelessness. It is estimated that over 40,000 Kenyans have fallen victim to this duplication, which prevents them from obtaining a national identification card and fully enjoying their rights. The causes of this duplication include the voluntary registration of some Kenyan communities in the refugee database to access aid, as well as the registration of children born to refugee fathers and Kenyan mothers. This situation has resulted in limitations on freedom of movement and access to government services and socio-economic opportunities for the affected individuals. The Kenyan government has issued an ultimatum to UNHCR to design a plan for the closure of the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps. The article discusses the issue of duplicate registration in Kenya and the actions taken to address it. The NGO Haki na Sheria has filed an appeal to halt the repatriation process for victims of duplicate registration. The Kenyan Data Protection Act and the establishment of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner are mentioned. The Kenyan government has been conducting review processes to resolve the problem, and a plan for socio-economic inclusion has been designed for both refugee and host communities. The article highlights the importance of raising awareness about data security and the risks of duplicate registration. [Extracted from the article]

The aim of this text is to address the historical structuring of the waste problem in Mexico and the emergence and evolution of its regulations, highlighting the influence of regulations from the United States. The history of solid urban waste regulations in both countries is briefly reviewed, recognizing that they result from second and third-level processes in order to uncover epistemic frameworks and empirical domains underlying conflicts through an analytical and comparative documentary method from interdisciplinarity and complex systems perspectives. The influence of American regulations on those of our country is revealed, stemming from structural inertias of industrialization and neoliberalism. This text examines how this matter was regulated in different Mexican sanitary codes of the last century until the General Law for the Prevention and Integral Management of Waste, through environmental laws and their regulations over the last 40 years as well as regulations on public services in Mexico City; without neglecting the review of Mexican municipal law. Likewise, the history of American waste legislation from the 1960s to the present is reviewed for a comparative perspective. It is concluded that by understanding the genesis of the problem and the construction of solutions from neighboring countries rather than simply emulating them, true opportunities to solve the waste problem in Mexico and promote respect for human rights would be facilitated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study draws on interviews with service users about their experiences to inform the practice of psychodynamic couple therapy for depression. Five participants, who had received at least six months of psychodynamic couple therapy in London (UK) for the treatment of severe distress and depression, completed a semi‐structured interview. They were recruited using a purposive sampling technique. Data was analysed using a phenomenological approach to thematic analysis. Six themes were identified in relation to participants' experiences of couple therapy. Key aspects highlighted by participants include: the therapist, described as a 'third person', became a referee and mediated the communication within the couple, providing a different perspective, enabling a safe environment for reciprocal listening; the process of making links with the past enabled participants to understand their current behaviour as individual and dysfunctional areas as a couple; the therapist's ability to understand the couple as individuals rather than as a unified entity was key; therapist neutrality and capacity to empathise with the couple was valued by participants. The study highlighted the intertwined dynamic between relationship difficulties and depression. Participants were not able to make a clear distinction between these two experiences, and this microcosm may reflect the difficulties that clients face in accessing public services, which have historically held a more individualistic perspective of distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Royal Decree-Law 6/2023 of 19 December on urgent measures to implement the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan concerning the public service of justice, public administration, local governance, and patronage, has reformed procedural laws in the civil, criminal, administrative and employment jurisdictions. This article reviews each jurisdiction's reforms, with a particular focus on their practical effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strong local investment capability is an important source for sustaining urban resilience, while outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) is the overseas transfer of local investment. Has OFDI mitigated the resilience of Chinese cities? Using the panel data of 272 prefecture level cities in China from 2008 to 2021, this research quantitatively measured urban resilience and studied the impact and mechanisms of OFDI and its extensive margin and intensive margin (dual margins) on urban resilience. The results showed that: (1) OFDI and its dual margins significantly enhanced urban resilience, and the extensive margin played a greater role in promoting urban resilience. (2) From the perspective of urban scale, the role of OFDI in enhancing the resilience of large cities was stronger than that of small and medium sized cities, and large cities as well as small and medium sized cities had comparative advantages in enhancing urban resilience at the intensive and extensive margins of OFDI, respectively. (3) In terms of regions, OFDI and its dual margins in the eastern and central/western regions significantly improved urban resilience, and OFDI in the eastern and central/western regions had comparative advantages in improving urban resilience in terms of extensive margin and intensive margin, respectively. (4) In the period of shock resistance, the intensive margin of OFDI had a relatively large role in promoting urban resilience, and in the period of recovery and adjustment, OFDI and its extensive margin had a relatively large role in promoting urban resilience. (5) From the perspective of the action path, OFDI enhanced urban resilience by enhancing local technological innovation capability, improving local industrial structure, and promoting the integration of local industrialization and urbanization (industry city integration), and the mediating effect of industry-city integration was more prominent. This means that: (1) Government work in the eastern and western regions and large cities should focus on cultivating leading industrial enterprises and providing targeted public services, while that in the central region and small and medium sized cities should aim at reducing outward investment barriers and providing basic public services, with each other developing in a staggered manner. (2) During the shock resistance period and even during the pre shock resistance period, governments at all levels should take precautions, issuing warnings to leading industrial enterprises, and providing targeted assistance in hedging against shocks. The focus should be put on working with host countries through various bilateral agreements and investment arrangements to wade through difficulties, while during the recovery and adjustment period, governments at all levels should focus on further improving their own institutional constructions, improving the local business environment, and relieving enterprises of their worries to motivate more enterprises to engage in foreign investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explored the attitudes of Kuwaiti residents toward corruption practices in Kuwait and the role of the Nazaha Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority in tackling such actions. To achieve the aim of this study, a survey questionnaire, which was based on a survey introduced by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in 2018, was distributed to 535 participants in Kuwait. The questionnaire covered areas related to problems facing Kuwait, behaviors of public officers, opinions on practices of public sector employees, corruption in Kuwait by industry, the role of Nazaha in Kuwait, the correlation between bribery and access to government services, and the reporting of corruption in Kuwait. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS. The findings indicate that 374 respondents noted corruption as the most serious problem in Kuwait, which is practiced systematically in Kuwait due to the prevalence of nepotism and other cultural reasons. In addition, it was found that there is dissatisfaction with the role of Nazaha, with 46.9 and 32.3% of participants reporting that Nazaha did not react in time and did not catch offenders, respectively. This study suggests that Nazaha should be empowered with further legal means to tackle corruption in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, one in two women have experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime and one in five women has experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. Public facing organizations, such as public transport providers, have a role to play in providing safe environments and preventing violence. Our study examined the experiences and views of those working in public transport delivery organizations about the organizational challenges and opportunities to provide safe transport for women. Using Normalization Process Theory (NPT), our analysis of 19 semi-structured in-depth interviews with stakeholders focused on three key areas: making sense of safety of women on public transport; working towards women's safety on public transport; and monitoring the progress of safety initiatives. We found that public transport is delivered by multiple stakeholders, with individual and combined organizational and relational complexity. Participants highlighted the importance of leadership and the need for an overarching strategy for women's safety. Macro-level organizational and environmental barriers to implementing safety initiatives include a lack of proactive, consistent, and collaborative approaches. Differing understandings of what women's safety means can lead to conflicting strategies among organizations, but there are opportunities to develop and integrate enhanced and conceptually consistent training and policies in response to women's safety. At the micro-level, providers recognize the need to prioritize safety for women across public transport. Our findings indicate key opportunities to inform the development of interventions and policies for public transport, and public facing organizations more broadly, to provide for and sustain women's safety. • Complex solutions needed to address sexual assault & harassment against women on public transport. • Solutions require overarching leadership and a collaborative and consistent strategy. • Public transport planning and delivery still requires a gender-lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our objective in this paper is to evaluate the benefits of bus transit. To obtain the more accurate and highly discrimination results, this study establishes an evaluation indicator system from a stakeholder perspective and proposes a novel combined method consisting of dynamic network data envelopment analysis, cross-efficiency evaluation, and Shannon entropy aggregation method. An empirical study of bus transit systems in 33 key Chinese cities from 2016 to 2019 is provided. The results show that the benefit of bus transit in most key cities was ineffective. In contrast to production efficiency, focusing on improving service effectiveness is more conducive to improving the benefits of bus transit. Small cities have higher benefits than large cities. Meanwhile, the benefits of bus transit vary geographically. This evaluation outcome provides a more appropriate basis for decision-making related to the benefits of public transit services, as well as for operational and management studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the role of transformational leadership (TL) in critical situations with problem-solving performance (PSP) as the dependent variable. A sample of 258 respondents was randomly selected from public service employees in Central Java and Yogyakarta. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results prove that transformational leadership has a direct effect on problem-solving performance, but does not directly affect emotional engagement (EE). The results of this study also indicate that psychological well-being (PWB) moderates the effect of transformational leadership on emotional engagement and problem-solving performance. The direct effect of psychological well-being on emotional engagement and problem-solving performance showed significant positive results. The findings also prove that emotional involvement cannot mediate the effect of transformational leadership on problem-solving performance. The practical implications of this research provide clear directions for the role of transformational leadership, emotional engagement, and psychological well-being in improving employee problemsolving performance in critical situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of the territorial dynamics of the specialized healthcare network, focusing on medium and high complexity care in hospitals in the municipalities that make up the Belém Metropolitan Region. The analysis is based on secondary data from DATASUS available on the National Health Facility Registry (CNES) up to January 2022. The findings show that the private network accounts for the largest proportion of services in the region; however, the service capacity of the SUS is greater than that of the private sector due to the large volume of services outsourced to private facilities via public- private partnerships, with philanthropic hospitals allocating the largest proportion of services to public patients. This should not be confused with universal coverage, as public patient access to private services may be restricted by legal and institutional barriers depending on the form of access (open-door or closed-door). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to examine the implementation of the meritocracy principle in the Civil Servant Apparatus (ASN) employment system as an effort to strengthen the values of integrity and national spirit through the perspective of public ethics. Meritocracy is a concept that prioritizes assessment based on qualifications, performance, and individual achievements, rather than on political connections or nepotism. In the context of the ASN, the meritocratic system seeks to ensure that promotions, appointments, and rewards are given to individuals based on the achievements and competencies they have demonstrated. The implementation of the meritocracy system is expected to encourage ASN members to continuously improve the quality of the public services they provide. By considering performance and competency factors, it is hoped that ASN members will be more motivated to enhance their abilities and knowledge. This is also expected to reduce the practices of corruption and nepotism that often occur in non-meritocratic-based employment systems. This research will also analyze the challenges and obstacles that may arise in implementing a meritocratic system in ASN employment. Factors such as cultural resistance and policy sustainability will be the main focus of this analysis. Additionally, this research will discuss strategies and recommendations to overcome these challenges and strengthen the implementation of the meritocracy system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretically rooted in public service logic (PSL), this article explores managers' experiences constructing value propositions and facilitating the value creation process in a public sector environment. It reports on a qualitative study from a Norwegian municipal setting based on individual and focus group interviews supported by participant observations and relevant documents. The data were analyzed according to the guidelines of stepwise-deductive inductive analysis (SDI). The findings substantiate changes in the utilized supported housing forms and highlight urgency's pervasive effect on transition processes to supported housing for individuals with intellectual disabilities and the need for around-the-clock support. This study contributes to public management research by examining the process of constructing value propositions and the managers' efforts to contribute to the formation of more realistic expectations towards the municipality's scope and level of service among prospective service users and their families. The article contributes to the PSL discourse by providing the complementary concept of expectation–reality mitigation as a particular form of expectation management suited for the complexities and constraints of value creation in public service settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While public service motivation (PSM) and teamwork are widely recognized as crucial drivers for effective public service delivery, researchers primarily analyze these factors independently and at a personal level. The existing literature rarely explores the interplay between PSM, the project team learning process (PTLP), and psychological safety (PS) within research and development (R&D) project teams, particularly in national R&D organizations. This study addresses this gap by proposing a theoretical model that examines the combined effect of individual motivation and team collaboration, mediated by PS, on R&D PTLP. Additionally, it investigates the moderating influence of project management (PM) styles—fully agile and partially agile—on these relationships. The proposed method utilizes partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) for quantitative data analysis. Our findings revealed a positive relationship between PSM, PS, and R&D PTLP, with PS acting as a significant mediator. Notably, the relationship between PSM and R&D PTLP was stronger under fully agile project management compared to partially agile settings. These findings suggest that both project teams and organizations should prioritize promoting PS and consider the moderating effects of project management styles to foster a sustainable R&D team learning process, particularly within national R&D institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research presents four studies that developed and validated the Organizational Climate Perception Scale for Public Service (OCPS-PS). The first qualitative study consulted the literature and conducted a focus group to develop the initial version of the scale. The second study involved expert evaluation and pre-testing, aiming at the semantic and face validation of the items. This study resulted in 80 items forming the thirteen dimensions of organizational climate. The third study obtained the first quantitative sample for the exploratory validation phase of the scale. The final study, using a new sample, conducted confirmatory tests for the validation of the scale. A methodology for applying the scale was developed, allowing all interested parties to use the OCPS-PS for the assessment of the organizational climate in public service. The results of the four conducted studies indicate the adequacy of the OCPS-PS according to the proposed criteria of validity and reliability. Finally, the OCPS-OS was built to be applied in different public organizations and at different government levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile Samsat is an innovation launched by the Southeast Sulawesi Bapenda as a form of innovation in the field of public services with the aim of increasing regional revenues sourced from the re-registration of Motor Vehicle Tax (PKB). This research aims to determine the implementation of Mobile Samsat services in improving the quality of public services in Bapenda Southeast Sulawesi. The research method used is a descriptive research method with a qualitative approach. Data collection techniques use three methods, namely interviews, observation and documentation studies. The data sources in this research consist of two, namely primary data sources and secondary data sources. The data analysis technique uses three stages, namely data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The research results show that the overall implementation of Mobile Samsat services is running effectively. Communication variables that show that implementation has been effective. The resources variable shows that resources in overall implementation have been maximized, although there must be additional staff resources. The attitude or disposition variable of the implementer has shown a good attitude. The bureaucratic structure variable also shows the existence of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in the implementation of services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capabilities of the state civil apparatus can provide effective services for population and civil registration in Gayo Lues Regency. The aim of this research is to analyse the capabilities of Population and Civil Registration Service employees in providing services in Gayo Lues Regency. The subjects of this research were employees in the Gayo Lues Regency Population and Civil Registration Service. The research procedure is to use qualitative methods. This research identifies supporting and inhibiting factors in increasing employee capabilities. Research Results are Research results show that there are several challenges, including a lack of human resources and facilities, which affect the quality of service. Recommendations are provided to increase service capacity and efficiency through employee training and infrastructure improvements. The service experienced by the informant proves that the capability of the Population and Civil Registration Service in Gayo Lues Regency can be said to be good. ASN capabilities in the Population and Civil Registration Service are very closely related to the quality of public services. covers various aspects such as employee qualifications and skills, infrastructure, technology and policy procedures, providing faster and more efficient services such as in terms of issuing Population documents and recording important events such as births, deaths and marriages of employees at DISDUKCAPIL Gayo Lues has a high level of honesty (rating 5) with the indicator of always reporting the results of his work to his superiors according to the actual situation. Conduct technical training regarding population administration information systems, use of new software and management of population data. Carrying out excellent service training, namely training on how to provide effective and efficient services to the community, including good communication and handling complaints from the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research is to review the dynamics of organizational culture in tourism service companies in the city of Surakarta and also explain the shift in direction of existing organizational culture. In conducting this research, the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) was used to assess the condition of the actual company culture and the preferred culture that the company desires to have. It also measures the six dimensions of OCAI and assesses the cultural characteristics of the three samples of tourism service companies in the city of Surakarta. The results of this research show that currently the cultural profile of the three tourism service companies in Solo tends towards a fairly large clan culture pattern and secondly this is followed by a hierarchical culture which also dominates. Meanwhile, the culture that is expected in the next 5 years has shown that the cultural tendencies of hierarchy, adocracy and also the market, considering that in these three patterns of cultural tendencies, considering that the relationship is quite intense and sustainable in accordance with the hierarchical rank levels in each company, will provide greater benefits. intense and certainty in the future of the company regardless of the clan in the three tourism service companies and also some hopes to be increasingly able to compete innovatively by utilizing existing information technology and providing new services to consumers in accordance with what is in the culture adocracy and also culture in the market which is projected for the next 5 years along with a hierarchical culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The City of South Tangerang is trying to build a brand image by 2023. The concept of building a South Tangerang square is a positive thing in the environment, especially for the people of South Tangerang City. One of the goals is to provide entertainment with facilities and comfort for the community, such as exercising, gathering with family, especially for South Tangerang residents. South Tangerang Square can also help build and create a positive brand image in society. This research aims to find out the strategies carried out by the South Tangerang City government department in an effort to build a brand image through Pamulang Square as creative tourism. This research was conducted in South Tangerang City in 2023. This research approach is descriptive qualitative. Data were collected through observations at the location of Pamulang Square and interviews with administrators at the South Tangerang City Environmental Service. Source triangulation was carried out by interviewing residents who had visited the square. The results of this research show that the strategy used by the City of South Tangerang can make the public aware of the South Tangerang City square as an environmentally friendly location, thereby making it a location that can be used as a creative public space. The existence of regional, national and even international scale events held in the square shows that the city of South Tangerang is a creative tourist destination, thus attracting more and more tourists or visitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a scale measuring artificial intelligence capabilities by using the resource-based theory. It seeks to examine the impact of these capabilities on the organizational-level resources of dynamic capabilities and organizational creativity, ultimately influencing the overall performance of government organizations. Design/methodology/approach: The calibration of artificial intelligence capabilities scale was conducted using a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis tools. A set of 26 initial items was formed in the qualitative study. In the quantitative study, self-reported data obtained from 344 public managers was used for the purposes of refining and validating the scale. Hypothesis testing is carried out to examine the relationship between theoretical constructs for the purpose of nomological testing. Findings: Results provide empirical evidence that the presence of artificial intelligence capabilities positively and significantly impacts dynamic capabilities, organizational creativity and performance. Dynamic capabilities also found to partially mediate artificial intelligence capabilities relationship with organizational creativity and performance, and organizational creativity partially mediates dynamic capabilities – organizational creativity link. Practical implications: The application of artificial intelligence holds promise for improving decision-making and problem-solving processes, thereby increasing the perceived value of public service. This can be achieved through the implementation of regulatory frameworks that serve as a blueprint for enhancing value and performance. Originality/value: There are a limited number of studies on artificial intelligence capabilities conducted in the government sector, and these studies often present conflicting and inconclusive findings. Moreover, these studies indicate literature has not adequately explored the significance of organizational-level complementarity resources in facilitating the development of unique capabilities within government organizations. This paper presents a framework that can be used by government organizations to assess their artificial intelligence capabilities-organizational performance relation, drawing on the resource-based theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the effect of public service motivation, self-efficacy, and competency directly and indirectly through intervening variables on the State Civil Apparatus (ASN) performance. A good understanding of the factors that affect ASN performance is crucial in ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of the quality of public services provided to the community. The approach used was quantitative, using a questionnaire as a data collection instrument. The research population was ASN, who work in six Regional Offices that generate Original Local Government Revenue (PAD) throughout the Regional Government of South Sumatra Province, totalling 438 people. The total sample was taken using a Proportionate Stratified Random Sampling design, and data collection was done using the Slovin formula. The degree of error is 5% => e = 0.05 for 209 people. Data analysis was performed using SEM Lisrel 8.80, a combination of path and factor analysis used to examine the complexity of the relationships between variables assessed statistically. The results of the study showed that public service motivation, self-efficacy, and competency have a significant positive effect on ASN performance. The higher the public service motivation, self-efficacy, and competency possessed by ASN, the higher, more effective, and efficient their overall performance will be. The findings of this study make an important contribution to increasing our understanding of the factors that affect ASN performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]