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The principle-based approach is at the heart of the inspection philosophy of the Netherlands Inspectorate of Education. In this paper, we present the results of complementary qualitative and quantitative studies analysing the impact of this approach. In the first study, we apply a system dynamics approach to provide insight on the impact of the principle-based approach in schools. The second study builds on these findings and uses quantitative survey data to "test" the various ways and mechanisms by which the respondents perceived principle-based approach affects schools. Together, these complementary studies provide a deeper understanding of the impact of the principle-based inspection approach on educational quality and beyond. Overall, we find positive effects of the principle-based approach. The qualitative study reveals variation in mechanisms within schools that affect educational quality. These findings appear to be robust in our quantitative analyses; the effect sizes are small and curvilinear.

The article explores the topic of municipally owned corporations (MOCs) and their governance and accountability. It discusses the challenges faced by MOCs in balancing organizational autonomy with accountability to municipal owners. The article emphasizes the importance of context-specific choices and risk management in MOC governance, as well as the balance between close connections and the risk of corruption. It calls for better understanding and research on MOC governance and highlights the potential benefits and risks of corporatization. Overall, MOCs have the potential to improve public service provision, but careful management and accountability are essential. [Extracted from the article]

The inspectorate's judgements about a school's educational quality in the Netherlands are to a large extent based on sophisticated desk research, risk analyses and analyses of the school's self-evaluation reports. This relatively distant mode of inspecting schools relies on rational ideas about organizational management and control while aspects that might hinder boards from effective steering and influencing processes in schools are almost neglected. By comparing two schools that have boards that are considered to be in control and two schools that have boards that are not in control, we examine whether and how an inspectorate's judgement of being in control fits the behaviour of teachers, team leaders and middle managers. This study among teachers, team leaders, middle managers and quality assurance managers shows that the extent of board control only partly fits the behaviour of teachers, team leaders and middle managers.

While we have increasing knowledge of causes and effects of municipal corporatization, we know relatively little about governance of municipally owned corporations (MOCs). The literature has pointed to various governance problems that can occur when MOCs are owned by multiple municipalities. We conduct six case studies into Dutch jointly owned MOCs to understand governance problems that occur in these MOCs and coordination mechanisms used to overcome these problems. We find various governance problems, including free‐riding and duplication in governance and lobbying of MOCs. We also find coordination mechanisms in place that help bridge differences in interests between municipalities, wherein local civil services play a particularly large role. The result is a level of consensus and stewardship in MOCs, regardless of context. However, this is undermined by interventions of municipal councils of individual municipal owners in private‐law MOCs, and the conflict of interest of the municipal executive board as both principal and agent in public‐law MOCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remunicipalization literature posits that municipalities increasingly reject privatization in favor of in-house service delivery. A frequent interpretation is that remunicipalization therefore demonstrates a rejection of business-like service delivery in local public service delivery. We perform a systematic review of the literature on remunicipalization, to argue why this interpretation may be inaccurate. First, remunicipalization often involves corporatization, and these public corporations are very business-like. Second, cost savings are often at the root of remunicipalization rather than political ideology. We call for a more nuanced debate on remunicipalization in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss the state of the art on the creation of arm's length bodies (ALBs) by local governments. We make three main contributions. First, there are many different types of ALBs and each country has its own categories; an expert survey was held identifying three common types of body, to enable future comparative research. Second, we point out that the creation of ALBs has led to a number of new challenges for local governments, particularly regarding governing bodies at arm's length to ensure ALBs' good performance. A lack of capacity and information have to be countered, for example, by increased monitoring – also for democratic accountability purposes. Special attention is needed for the multiple principal problem that arises when local governments jointly create ALBs. Third, research into local ALBs is still in its early stages. We present a research agenda to develop knowledge on the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employees' competencies are key to understanding individual performance. In this article, we investigate which competencies are considered important in government using the results of a survey among civil servants. Respondents listed 248 competencies they deemed necessary for their current and future job. To some degree, these competencies can be linked to three major governance philosophies, traditional Public Administration, New Public Management, and New Public Governance, but several other meaningful clusters of competencies can be distinguished as well, including creativity-related competencies and self-development skills. Based on our results, we draw lesson for civil servants and public (human resource) managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents new evidence about the governance of risk in public service innovation. It finds that risk is currently poorly understood with public service organizations. Either it is presented as a professional issue or it is dealt with purely as an actuarial or health and safety issue. There is little understanding of risk as a core component of innovation. In response, this paper argues for a more nuanced risk governance approach that calls for transparent decision-making on risk in public service innovation in relation to its intended outcomes. Politicians and public service managers need to understand that risk is an inherent element of innovation, because it engages with uncertain outcomes. A framework needs to be evolved to balance these risks against potential benefits and which can drive forward transparent risk governance involving politicians, public service mangers, citizens and local communities and other key stakeholders. This approach also needs to accept that failure can often by an outcome of innovation. The key here is not to maintain the blame culture that has dominate the debate to date but rather to embrace failure as an opportunity to learn and to improve public services and their outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boards are expected to contribute to an organization's performance. In the case of schools, this means that the board should contribute to educational quality. However, there is no scientific proof that this expectation is valid. The (growing) literature on boards suggests that the effects of school boards depend on variables, such as board behaviour and corporate governance. In this study, we present the results of a secondary analysis drawing on representative existing datasets on Dutch secondary schools. This is unique as previous research usually dealt with non-representative cases or samples. Our merged dataset includes measurements of board characteristics, board behaviour and pupils' achievements. Through Structural Equation Modelling, we show that there is ample evidence that board characteristics and board behaviour affect pupils' achievements. The only variable affecting pupil's achievements is counter vailing power perceived by the executives in the school board. The model also hints at more complex patterns of interacting variables at the board level. To get more insight into how these variables interact, a different research approach is necessary, such as case studies on board behaviour, and on the effects thereof within the school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]