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This article explores the factors that shape perceptions of administrative and rules burdens among street-level bureaucrats in Romania. Recent research examining the concept of administrative burden has focused on burdens experienced by a citizen or client. We argue here that national context shapes the features of public service delivery, and that burdens must also be understood from the perspective of bureaucrats in transitioning post-communist countries. Street-level bureaucrats represent an important category of public servants given their main characteristics in implementing policy. Findings of two analyses—one examining broader concepts of administrative burden and one looking at the narrower concept of rules burdens—indicate that rule complexity, autonomy, conformity, job satisfaction, educational attainment, and perceived corruption impact perceptions of administrative burden, while perceptions of rules burdens are impacted by rule-abiding tendencies, discretionary latitude, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and supervisory status. Points for practitioners: A major practical implication of this study derives from our findings on the factors that impact attitudes and perceptions of street-level bureaucrats in Romania. Managers that aim to improve public service delivery in this context will be able to disseminate the fact that reduced rule complexity and increased autonomy, among other organizational variables, positively impact perceptions on administrative and rules burdens. In this sense, our study provides evidence for new and current structures to improve organizational performance and service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite our relatively broad and robust understanding of street level bureaucracy in a Western context, this area of inquiry remains somewhat understudied in an Eastern European context. This is particularly problematic for Romania, where poor educational stock, weak accountability mechanism, and rather frail media make front line bureaucrats' behavior disproportionately critical to public service provision. This article partially fills this void and brings a much needed overview of street-level bureaucracy in Romania. Relying on recent survey data collected from 407 front line workers, the study covers four key public administration services (taxation, consumer, environmental, and labor protection) and street-level bureaucracy, describes demographics, values, work environment, and attitudes towards rules and citizens. It shows that Romanian front line workers are relatively willing to bend and break the rules if their organizational goals demand so, and that they enjoy important levels of discretion and work autonomy. These bureaucrats also depict high levels of organizational commitment, low levels of uncertainty tolerance, and high power distance. The article concludes with comments and implications for future research in policy implementation at the front lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article tries to highlight the main characteristics of the council manager form of government, as it presents itself in the American administrative system. This effort is made in the context in which the Romanian authorities have created an administrative function that is supposed to replicate the American city manager: the Public Administrator. Such an analogy is impossible to be made in the absence of a clear view of what city manager means and this insufficiency is what the paper tries to remediate, given the scarcity of information regarding this problem that exists in the Romanian literature. Among the approached issues are: the political-administration dichotomy, the relationship between the city manager and the main local political actors, the efficiency of the system and also the possible typologies of city managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the patterns of Romanian ministerial control over executive agencies, based on the data collected in 2010 using the COBRA survey. Seven research questions were constructed starting from the major theories existing in the field aimed at describing and understanding the control patterns. The paper's main conclusion is that ministries still prefer ex ante types of control in exchange to those after-the-fact, although some rather incremental shifts toward ex post control can be noticed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The research starts from the premise that young people do not pay enough attention to adopting a healthy lifestyle where they show a genuine concern regarding physical activities, nutrition and the spending of useful leisure time. Aims. The main purpose of the paper is to outline a clear image regarding young people's attitudes towards physical activity and sports and about how they spend their leisure time (reading, TV programs or activities on the computer etc.). Methods. The main method which was used was a survey (based on a questionnaire - FRESH - physical activity and lifestyle) translated into Romanian. In the study students from the Physical Education and Physical Therapy sections of the "Babes-Bolyai" University, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, Cluj-Napoca were included. Results. 44.6% of the answers related to the participation in physical activities more than 4 times a week while 5.4% participated in a physical activity only once a week. Results showed that the primary purpose for which young people practice a physical activity is the increased energy, with an average of 4.38 ± 0.85. From the response options, regarding the motivation for a physical activity, body image had the highest average 4.25 ± 0.82. At the questions regarding alimentation, 55.6% of the responders answered they took breakfast regularly. Regarding the prevalent food in the diet, the highest average, 4.12 ± 1.08, was attributed to animal origin protein. 64.1 % claimed that they did not consume alcohol, while 25.9% admitted to having more than two drinks per week. Comparing the data on different motivations for practicing a physical activity, these were the following results according to their importance: body image, weight control, stress control site, performance achievement, the joy of exercising, spending time in the company of friends, participation in competitions. Conclusions. The results of the study shows that young people have an active lifestyle and they are concerned about their body image, their maintenance of health, about the practice of leisure physical activity, and last but not least about the socialization through these activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the management of government agencies in Central and Eastern Europe. It seeks to explain the similarities and differences of agency control and steering in the two selected post-communist countries: Lithuania and Romania. Our comparative research is based on desk research and statistical analysis of the COBRA data. In contrast to Romania whose agency management has gravitated around the Weberian-style model, Lithuania has shifted its agency landscape more towards the NPM-style management as a result of more extensive and centralized managerial reforms in the 2000s. This is attributable to a more systemic and top-down approach to result-oriented management in the latter country. Despite the adoption of NPM-inspired reforms in Romania and Lithuania, agencies in these countries do not exhibit systematic relationships between the level of autonomy and ex post control, which can be related to incomplete implementation, differences in the selected management instruments, and certain agency specificities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]