Search

https://www.ester.ee/record=b5386478*est

https://www.ester.ee/record=b5361497*est

Uuringuprobleem. Kui riigiasutus jaotab oma ressursse, on nõudlus nende teenuste järele tihti kindlalt teadmata. Omamata täielikku teavet nõudlusest, kindlustab otsustaja ennast nõudlusšokkide vastu täiendavate ressurssidega (suurendab valmisolekut). Kulu- ja tõhususanalüüsid eeldavad üldjuhul, et nõudlust iseloomustavad parameetrid on teada (või ei pöörata sellele tähelepanu), mis on aga ebarealistlik ega arvesta teenuse osutamise keerukusega riigiasutuses. Enamasti toob see kaasa soorituse tõhususe liiga madala hinnangu. Üleliigset ressursivarustatust (valmisolekut) teenuste osutamiseks võib osaliselt selgitada otsustajate riskikartliku käitumisega, mistõttu peaks riskihinnang olema osa soorituse hinnangust, vältimaks sellise ressursivarustatuse käsitlemist ebatõhususena. Ex ante, võttes arvesse oodatud nõudlust, võib ressursside jaotus olla optimaalne, kuid mitte ex post, kui on teada reaalne nõudluse tase. Doktoritöö eesmärgiks oli välja töötada teoreetiline kontseptsioon ja rakendus, kuidas hinnata sooritust riigiasutuses, mis toimib ebakindla nõudluse tingimustes. Et hinnata mitme üksusega ja mitmel tasandil toimivat teenuseid osutavat riigiasutust ebakindla nõudluse tingimustes, loodi süsteem, milles hinnati (a) keskse riigiasutuse kulutõhusust, (b) allüksuste alavarustatust ja (c) allüksuste väljundtõhusust. Soorituse hindamiseks kasutati piirianalüüsi meetodeid (DEA, FDH, DFA) ning kontseptsiooni rakendati Eesti, Soome ja Rootsi päästevaldkonna näitel. Tulemused ja tähtsus. Päästeteenuseid pakutakse mitmete allüksuste poolt erinevates piirkondades. Teenuste osutaja otsustab esialgselt, kuidas ressursid (päästjad, masinad) erinevates piirkondades jaotada, teadmata seejuures, kui palju päästesündmusi seal tegelikult aset leiab. Allüksused hoiavad teatud valmisoleku taset, et vajaduse korral päästesündmusele reageerida. Valmisoleku tagamine on aga kõige kulukam komponent eelarves, mistõttu on oluline, et ressursid oleks jaotatud nii, et ei tekiks liigseid kulusid, st minimeeritakse valmisoleku taset optimaalse mahu ja kvaliteediga päästeteenuse pakkumiseks. Saadud tulemused näitavad veenvalt, et mudelid, mis arvestavad nõudluse ebakindlusega, hindavad kulutõhususe kõrgemaks kui standardsed mudelid, olenemata hindamismeetodist või hinnatud riigist., Description of the Problem. When planning the allocation of resources in public agencies, the demand for services is often unknown and prone to uncertainty. Without having the full information of the possible demand, the decision maker will insure oneself with additional standby capacity against upsurges in demand. Cost and efficiency studies predominantly assume known demand, which is unrealistic and hinders understanding the essence of service provision in public agencies. In many cases, it has probably resulted in underestimation of efficiency. The observed excess capacity can partly be explained by risk averse behaviour and should be incorporated to the analysis to avoid unjustly labelling such input usage as inefficiency. Ex ante, given expected demand, the resource allocation is optimal, but not ex post, given realised levels of demand. The challenge is to distinguish the necessary standby capacity from excessive mismanagement. This thesis develops the theoretical concept and application to measure the performance of public agencies in the case of demand uncertainty. To evaluate the efficiency of a multi-unit and multilevel service providing public agency in the presence of demand uncertainty, one is interested in: (a) the cost-efficiency of the central agency, (b) any under-resourcing of subunits, and (c) the output-oriented technical efficiency of each subunit in jurisdictions. The suggested models would be the basis for planning resource allocation improvement in public agencies. The models are implemented using the example of the Estonian, Finnish and Swedish fire and rescue services. For estimation, different frontier analysis methods (DEA, FDH, DFA) are proposed. Result and Benefit. Typically, the rescue authority decides beforehand to allocate resources (rescuers, vehicles, etc.) between different subunits in jurisdictions without knowing how many emergencies will occur. The subunits must maintain a certain level of standby capacity to be able to respond to emergencies. Sustaining the readiness, however, is the most expensive component in the running costs. The results show convincingly that the models taking the demand uncertainty in the form of minimum service level into account, estimate a higher cost-efficiency irrespective of the estimation method or country (with different level of centralisation for management) analysed.

Käesoleva töö eesmärgiks oli vaadelda läbi valitud sotsiaalmeedia strateegia teoreetiliste käsitluste Eesti riigiasutuste kaasamise ja kommunikatsiooni kontekstis, millised on Eesti riigiasutuste sotsiaalmeedia kasutajate senised kogemused ja ootused riigiasutuste sotsiaalmeedia lehtedele. Soovin omapoolse uurimusega anda lisapanuse eelnevatele uurimustele, uurides sotsiaalmeedia kasutajate kogemusi riigiasutustega sotsiaalmeedias suhtlemisel ning leida nende üldised ootused riigiasutuste sotsiaalmeedia lehtedele ja nende sisule. Töö kontekstis välja toodud Eestis läbiviidud Poliitikauuringute Keskuse Praxis ja e-Riigi Akadeemia eelnevate uurimuste arvates on Eesti riigiasutuste kaasamistegevus ja kommunikatsioon sotsiaalmeedias puudulik ja esineb võimalusi, kuidas seda paremini teha. Eelkõige peaks kogu riigi avaliku halduse kultuur soodustama riigiasutuste ja kodanike vahelist suhtlust nii reaalses kui ka virtuaalses ruumis. Valisin töösse Accenture's Public Service Value Govemance Framework´i printsiibid, mis kirjeldavad, milliseid põhimõtteid peaks riigiasutus sotsiaalmeedias hea avaliku halduse teostamiseks järgima ja mida võtta aluseks sotsiaalmeedia strateegia planeerimisel. Et kuidas leida sobivat tegevusviisi strateegia väljatöötamiseks, olen poolt tööse valinud I. Mergeli kolme võimaliku strateegia lühikirjelduse koos soovitustega. Töös on lisatud soovitused A. Kaplani ja M. Haenleini poolt, mida sai uuringu tulemuste hindamiseks kõrvutada küsitluste vastustega. Uurimuse läbiviimiseks koostasin küsitluse ja viisin selle läbi veebipõhiselt küsitluskeskkonnas E-Formular. Küsitlus oli veebipõhine seetõttu, et see oleks internetikasutajate, sh sotsiaalmeedia kasutajate jaoks sobilikum ja ei eeldaks mingil kellaajal aktiivset massi kusagil füüsilises punktis. Küsitlust levitasin juunis ja juulis 2012 sotsiaalmeedias, et leida kindlasti sotsiaalmeedia kasutajaid (Facebook, foorumid, blogid), organisatsioonide e-posti listides ja koos uurimust tutvustava artikliga portaali Delfi rubriigis Forte. Kasutajate senise kogemuse põhjal iseloomustab riigiasutuste sotsiaalmeedia lehekülgi tihti liigne ametlikkus, kantseliidi kasutamine postitustes, igavad postitused, familiaarsus, info puudulikkus, enesekesksus ja ükskõiksus. Samuti on kasutajad märganud, et tihti ei olda päriselt kaasamisest huvitatud. Mulle jäi uuringu tulemustest mulje, et kasutajad on olukorraga juba leppinud ja enda jaoks seadnud standardi, mida riigiasutus suudab sotsiaalmeedias teha. Põhiline kasutajatepoolne ootus on saada riigiasutuse sotsiaalmeedia profiili postitustest endale kasu läbi teenuse, info või muu. Sotsiaalmeedia kasutajad on valmis aruteludeks ja kaasamiseks, kui riigiasutus seda ise oma sotsiaalmeedia lehel alustab. Enamiku vastajate ajendiks riigiasutuste sotsiaalmeedia lehtede külastamisel on saada infot, leida uudiseid, abi või nõu, enamus kasutajaid ei plaani lehte külastada mõttega arvamust avaldada või kritiseerida. Pakutav info riigiasutuse sotsiaalmeedia lehel peaks täiendama muudes kanalites ilmunut, kuid seejuures on oluline, et see on tehtud sotsiaalmeediapäraseks ja kandma mingit lisaväärtust. Riigiasutused peaksid kasutajate arvates sotsiaalmeedias olema ja samuti soovitab seda valitsuse kommunikatsioonibüroo. Kuid kui riigiasutused sotsiaalmeedias oma profiili loovad, siis peaks neile kehtima alljärgnev käesoleva töö põhjal kasutatud teoorite ja tulemuste põhjal sõnastatud põhimõte: „Riigiasutused peavad enda sotsiaalmeedia profiilil kodanikega tegema koostööd planeeritult ja sotsiaalselt, et kodanike ja teiste profiili kasutajate arvamuste abil toetada hea avaliku halduse elluviimist, tagades nii parema avaliku teenuse kvaliteedi kodanikele.“, http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2659758~S1*est

Contemporary societies are characterised as insecure and unpredictable. Due to that, society members’ ability to cooperate with each other and the persistance of democratic structure face many challenges. Trust facilitates social interactions in such a complex environment by acting as means of taming risks and countering uncertainties. It allows an institution (or an individual or a social role) to liberate itself from constant social monitoring and control and gain more freedom of action that is essential for original and innovative behaviour. Katrin Arvisto’s bachelors thesis „Institutional Trust: Dimensions and Influencing Factors“ deals with trust toward social institutions. It strives for a more detailed explanation of institutional trust and aims to identify whether the hypothesis about multidimensionality of institutional trust is relevant in Estonia. Research questions focus on the dimensionality of institutional trust and on factors that have in prior research been proven to influence people’s trust toward social institutions. Data used in this study was gathered during a nationwide representative survey in 2008, the dataset includes answers of 1507 respondents. To answer the first question posed in her study the author used the technique of exploratory factor analysis in order to detect the dimensionality of institutional trust. Research revealed that social institutions can be grouped into three distinct categories that are differentiated by different kind of expectations directed towards each group. The three dimensions of institutional trust are labeled by their dominant expectations as communicative, legitimacy-oriented and procedural. Although the question of what a person actually has in mind when evaluating his degree of trust towards specific social institution remains unanswered in current study, the three-dimensional nature of institutional trust provides new possibilities for interpretation of the phenomenon. Additionally the author tested relationships between institutional trust and two variables both representing the ways respondents perceive their social environment – attitudes towards recent changes in society and satisfaction with their personal economic situation. Results show that there are positive correlations between these 49 variables and those of institutional trust. The results aslo indicate that the better an individual feels about changes in society and the more pleased he is with his or his family’s economic situation the higher he evaluates trustworthiness of social institutions. Socio-demographical characteristics such as gender, age, education, and ethnicity were also tested. Keywords: trust, trust toward institutions, dimensions of institutional trust, http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2510587~S1*est

The current bachelor thesis concentrates on the role and communication of Ida-Virumaa County Government and the Union of Ida-Virumaa County Municipalities with their coherent groups. The theoretical part of the paper shows the peculiarities of the public sector communication, the concept of describing roles and gives a summary of how an organization deals with changes. The purpose of the study was to find out how the roles of Ida-Virumaa County Government and the Union of Ida-Virumaa County Municipalities have been divided over the same operational area. The other purpose was to find how these roles are seen in the future and what kind of information the county government, the union of county municipalities and the coherent groups get about the forthcoming changes. I carried out nine semi-structured interviews with the members of the county government, the union of county municipalities and the coherent groups. The interviews showed that the county government’s vision of its role differs much from the opinion of the coherent groups, at the same time the role of the union of county municipalities equals the opinion of coherent groups. The problem of the county government is its bad relations with the leaders of local government, as to the union of county municipalities the problem is lack of awareness of their work by third-party organizations. The main communication with the coherent groups happens through the internet, by using e- mails. All the representatives on the coherent groups were aware that the collaboration between Ida- Virumaa County Government and the Union of Ida-Virumaa County Municipalities is not the best. The county governor and the director of the union of county municipalities both named this to be due to the two organizations resemblances to the same functions and conflict between individuals. This opinion was also agreed by the coherent groups. Interviews that were carried out in this bachelor thesis showed that local governments, which are close coherent groups to the union of county municipalities, are also in conflict with the county government. Therefore the conflict between individuals is even larger. In the situation where communication between the two organizations does not work, the communication with the coherent groups suffers. Coherent groups are looking for changes which would specify the roles of the county government and the union of county municipalities. All the interviewees except the county governor expected the union of county municipalities to grow stronger and the county government to change into an institution that only attends government control., http://www.ester.ee/record=b3755250*est

Following is the summary of Margita Tuulik’s Baccalaureate Thesis “The Expectations of Public Sector Employees to the Intranet on the Example of the Ministry of Finance Estonia” that aims to map the primary expectations of officials towards the Intranet of their organization. The present Thesis is a pilot-research based on in-depth interviews and gives an overview of the main tendencies, evaluations and expectations. In order to get more representative overview of the expectations of the officials the number of respondents should be enlarged. In the theory chapter author introduces the theoretical grounds and keywords, such as organizational communication, internal communication, the definition and effectiveness of Intranet. Forming the theoretical basis author used theories of organizational and internal communication by Vos, Shomaker and Pace & Faules. Defining the Intranet, theories of Newell and Masel-Lewise were used. Explaining the Intranet effectiveness theories of Telleen, Edenius & Borgerson, Davenport & Pearlson and Curry & Stancich were discussed. The empirical chapter of the Thesis was to find answers to three practical research- questions: 1. What kind of expectations the officials of the Ministry of Finance hold towards the Intranet of their organization? 2. Are there any differences in expectations of the officials depending on different work fields? 3. Which kind of content structure of the Intranet supports the reception of information? The respondents of the quantitative and qualitative research were officials of the Ministry of Finance Estonia. Quantitative research was held through the Intranet were the questionnaire was available for all the people in the organization. The questions focused on the content, quality, display and user convenience of the current Intranet of the Ministry. The qualitative research was carried out using the method of in-depth interviews. The respondent selection was made from the people that responded to the quantitative questionnaire; a representative choice was made including different respondents that provided positive, neutral or negative evaluations to current Intranet. In addition, selection included both, men and women, as well officials from different career levels, e.g. heads of units, specialists, referents. The results of the quantitative research gave the primary overview of the officials’ evaluations to the quality of the content, user convenience and display of the current Intranet. The main conclusion was that most of the information in the current Intranet is useful and informative. Other main conclusion was that restructuring the content is highly needed. As previously mentioned, the qualitative research was based on the pilot-study, in-depth interviews with the officials of the Ministry. The main aim of the author was to study officials’ motivations of using Intranet, expectations to Intranet and needs of development for the internal communication Responding the research questions, author claims that the officials of the Ministry of Finance (as an example group of public sector employees) expect Intranet to be an important channel to support general communication, but not the main communicator. The users of the Intranet estimate highly structure of the content that is based on the needs of the users, highlighting that every section and piece of information should placed and formed considering its target group. As the volumes of information are quite high in the organization, displaying the information has to be carefully considered and providing logical structure is crucial in order to enable adequate reception. To assure the active usage of the Intranet and diminish the need for several parallel online- channels for internal communication, Intranet needs to be developed to a more news channel. Applying the “one window system”, linking the Intranet with other internal information systems would raise the effectiveness on the Intranet and develop generally the internal communication of the organization. The pilot-study showed that considerable differences in the expectations can be drawn by the career levels and not by the work fields. The need for information and expectations concerning the Intranet are different among the managers compared to specialists and referents. Concluding the summary, there is need for research based on bigger selection of the respondents to map more precisely the expectations of the organization. Author also points that the differences in public and private sector are a subject to study., http://www.ester.ee/record=b3753873*est

Current baccalaureate thesis “Organisational Communication in the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Estonian Republic” is based on an internal communication audit held in the Ministry in the year 2000. Communication audit consisted of two parts: a survey and interviews, both drawn up from the examples of International Communication Association methods. Present research tries to describe the management of information flow in the Ministry and as a result of the communication audit to point out the shortcoming in information flow management. The author argues that because of poor management of information flows the organisation suffers from poor organisational and communication climate, therefore organisation members are unaware of the overall objectives of the organisation and are demotivated to strive towards a common goal. The results of the internal communication audit that was held in the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Estonian Republic during the year 2000 proved the original hypothesis that there is a lack of coordinated management of information flows. In connection with that the results showed that while information is exchanged sufficiently within one structural unit, there are considerable limitations when other units come into question. In addition to that there is an inadequate flow of information from the top management, which results in mistrust for the management and lack of motivation. As a result of the reserach the author suggests to critically overlook information flows in the organisation with the objective to result in coordinated management of information flows and channels., http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b1406948~S1*est

http://www.ester.ee/record=b4162846*est