O senior executive service (SES): especial referência ao perfil do top public service (TPS) em Portugal

Alguns dos países da OCDE (2002) enfrentam, hoje, problemas relacionados ao emprego público e à sua competitividade (recrutamento, retenção de pessoal, falta crítica de habilidades e competências, etc.). Em nível de recrutamento (OCDE, 2002), os países que já identificaram o problema são o Canadá, a Dinamarca e a Finlândia; a falta crítica de habilidades e de competências foi já identificada por: Itália, Coreia, Noruega, Polónia, Portugal1 , Espanha, Áustria e Alemanha. O desenho e a implementação de estratégias de recursos humanos nas organizações públicas desenrolam-se em ambiente altamente politizado (LACOVIELLO, 1996) e o processo de decisão está sujeito a influências que tomam proporções maiores pelas características particulares que apresentam e pelo conflito essencial que decorre das relações entre políticos e burocratas.

A mobile health care rule-based system

The relation between patient and physician in most modern Health Care Sys- tems is sparse, limited in time and very in exible. On the other hand, and in contradiction with several recent studies, most physicians do not rely their patient diagnostics evaluations on intertwined psychological and social nature factors. Facing these problems and trying to improve the patient/physician relation we present a mobile health care solution to im- prove the interaction between the physician and his patients. The solution serves not only as a privileged mean of communication between physicians and patients but also as an evolutionary intelligent platform delivering a mobile rule based system.

A mobile systems interface protocol

Recent progresses in the software development world has assisted a change in hardware from heavy mainframes and desktop machines to unimaginable small devices leading to the prophetic "third computing paradigm", Ubiquitous Computing. Still, this novel unnoticeable devices lack in various capabilities, like computing power, storage capacity and human interface. Connectivity associated to this devices is also considered an handicap which comes generally associated expensive and limited protocols like GSM and UMTS. Considering this scenario as background, this paper presents a minimal communication protocol introducing better interfaces for limited devices. Special attention has been paid to the limitations of connectivity, storage capacity and scalability of the developed software applications. Illustrating this new protocol, a case-study is presented addressing car sensors communicating with a central

Broad and restricted scope of the concept of civil service: a multipolarização do conceito de publica nos modelos hibricos. A capacidade transformadora dos memorados de entendimento: Portugal e Irlanda

Analise do conceito de Função Publica, identificando, á partida, uma dicotomia conceptual, entre um modelo marcadamente continental(broad concept of civil service) e um modelo restrito(restricted scope of the concept of civil service), característico dos países anglo-saxónicos, aflorando a reforma da Administração Publica, na senda da New Public Management, como o caminho para a afirmação de modelos híbridos, com características de laboralização da Função Publica e de flexisegurança, que surgem como consequência da pulverização daquela dicotomia, revelando uma miscigenação entre os modelos iniciais e elementos externos, de acordo com as idiossincrasias de cada país. Posterior estudo de caso, versando sobre Portugal e a Irlanda , dois países que, são contrario do que a tradição anglo- saxónica da Irlanda faria adivinhar, partilham um conceito amplo de Função Publica(broad concept of Civil Service), apoiado num sistema de carreira(carrear sytem). Percorrerem, quase em simultâneo, o caminho de um regate económico-financeiro desenvolvido pelo Fundo Monetário Internacional, Banco Central Europeu e Comissão Europeia. Procurara investiga-se se o acordo firmado entre os dois países e a Troika, materializado nos respectivos Memorando de Entendimento e sucessivas revisões, no período compreendido entre 16 de Dezembro de 2010 e 31 de Dezembro de 2012, introduziu modificações nos respectivos modelos de Função Publica, designadamente forçando-os a uma aproximação do restricted scope of the concept of Civil Service e, com isso, projectando-os para a adopção de modelos híbridos.

An empirical assessment of customer satisfaction and quality of service: comparing SERVQUAL and SERVPERF

This paper assesses the validity and reliability of two instruments measuring quality of service, the SERVPERF and SERVQUAL scales, replicated in a novel cultural settings, a Portuguese energy company. To provide insights and strategies for managerial intervention, a relation between customers’ satisfaction and quality of service is established. The empirical study suggests a superior convergent and predictive validity of SERVPERF scale to measure quality of service in this settings when comparing to SERVQUAL. The main differences of this study with previous ones, are that this one resorts on a confirmatory factor analysis, the validation of the instruments is performed by using the same measures suggested by their creators and extends the line of research to a novel cultural settings, a Portuguese energy company. Concerning the relationship between service quality and customers’ satisfaction, all of the quality of service attributes correlate almost equally to the satisfaction ones, with a lower weight concerning tangibles.

Use of Performance Measurement in the Public Sector: the case of the police service

Many public organisations have been under great pressure in recent years to increase the efficiency and transparency of outputs, to rationalise the use of public resources, and to increase the quality of service delivery. In this context, public organisations were encouraged to introduce the New Public Management reforms with the goal of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the performance organisation through a new public management model. This new public management model is based on measurement by outputs and outcomes, a clear definition of responsibilities, the transparency and accountability of governmental activities, and on a greater value for citizens. What type of performance measurement systems are used in police services? Based on the literature, we see that multidimensional models, such as the Balanced Scorecard, are important in many public organisations, like municipalities, universities, and hospitals. Police services are characterised by complex, diverse objectives and stakeholders. Therefore, performance measurement of these public services calls for a specific analysis. Based on a nationwide survey of all police chiefs of the Portuguese police force, we find that employee performance measurement is the main form of measurement. Also, we propose a strategic map for the Portuguese police service.