Use of management control systems in university faculties : evidence of diagnostic versus interactive approaches by the upper echelons

Drawing on upper echelon theory and focusing on the context of higher education reforms in Australia within new public management in university faculties/colleges, this study investigates the diagnostic versus interactive uses of management control systems by Deans/Pro-Vice Chancellors of Faculties/Colleges (hereafter called Faculty PVCs). It seeks to identify how the professional and experiential characteristics of these senior academic executives and the structure of their Faculty, impact on their managerial and collegial orientation as reflected in their approach to using management controls. A mail survey of Faculty PVCs is conducted amongst a census of all Faculties/Colleges of all universities in Australia. Supplementing this survey are semi-structured interviews with the PVC of the business and science Faculty at a large Australian university. Results reveal that PVCs who have had a longer career in higher education tend to use MCSs more interactively (or collegially). There is also evidence that as PVCs hold their current position for longer periods, they tend to move from an early diagnostic use of MCSs to a subsequent interactive use. Further, the higher the complexity of a Faculty the more a PVC will adopt an interactive approach to MCS use. Other PVC and Faculty characteristics did not reveal patterns of significant influence on the interactive or diagnostic use of MCSs. A key revelation from interviews is that PVCs will give over-riding importance to meeting centrally-set diagnostically-focused KPI, but still take a collegial approach within their Faculty to the broader use of MCSs. The findings lend limited support to upper echelons theory, but provide a grounding for further research into the impact that a managerial versus a collegial approach by PVCs/Deans may have on their Faculty’s growth in innovative capacities, teaching qualities or financial strength.

Improving employee outcomes in the public sector

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the efficacy of the demand-control-support model, augmented with employee perceptions of organisational justice and degree of met expectations.

Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 128 public sector employees working in a large state police force operating under many of the elements of new public management. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted using four indicators of occupational strain: employee wellbeing, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and intent to quit.

Findings – The results of this study suggest that the demand-control-support model has great utility in identifying those aspects of the work environment associated with employee strain. Job control and social support at work in particular were the most consistent predictors. In contrast, the expectation and justice variables failed to make significant contributions to the model in all but one analysis providing no support for the “injustice as stressor” perspective.

Research limitations/implications – Although a cross-sectional design was utilized, these results highlight the value of applying the parsimonious demand-control-support model to a wider set of outcomes, especially in a public sector environment.

Practical implications – The results emphasize the importance of the relatively neglected “softer” work characteristics support and control. In order to combat the ill-effects of organisational reforms and prompt a shift towards the public value approach, managers operating under elements of new public management should ensure that adequate social support at work is available and that employee control is commensurate with their demands.

Originality/value – This study examined an augmented demand-control-support model and identified that whilst perceptions of justice can influence employee attitudes and wellbeing, the demand, control, and support variables remain the most influential factors with regard to public sector employee attitudes and wellbeing.

Securing institutional legitimacy or organizational effectiveness?

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of a major initiative (the National Competition Policy) and pieces of legislation (the Local Government Act and the Local Government Finance Standards) on the internal practices of a large Australian local authority.

Design/methodology/approach: A theoretical framework is developed using new public management (NPM) and neo-institutional theory literatures to explain the findings. A case study approach was applied to collect the data for the research.

Findings: The findings reveal that the National Competition Policy 1993, the Local Government Act 1993 and the Local Government Finance Standards 1994 mainly have brought about significant changes to the organisation's internal management control processes, such as financial reporting, budgeting and performance appraisal. The changes brought in appeared to be coincidentally similar to NPM ideals. Furthermore, senior managers (such as the chief executive and divisional heads) played a major role in implementing new accounting technologies (activity-based costing and the balanced scorecard type performance measurement system).

Research limitations/implications: Future research on public sector financial management from the outset of organisational contexts could considerably further the stock of knowledge in this area, especially given the rapid changes occurring within the public sector throughout the world. Future research may wish to extend this study by assessing how external legitimating functions become internal reality, the perceptions of reality of the organisational members, and how these perceptions change over time.

Practical implications: The findings reported provide evidence to further our understanding of how the introduction of private sector styles of organisational practices into large areas of the public sector brought about significant changes in the demand for “new” financial management practices.

Originality/value: The findings reported on in this paper will open a new path of research that may increase our understanding about the factors that play a role in the design of management and accounting systems in a public sector context. Further, they will help policy makers and public sector managers in their day-to-day decision-making.

E-Governance in Australian local government: spinning a web around community?

Local government in Australia is under pressure to modernize its structures in the new public management environment, as well as respond to  increasing demands from its local electorates for better delivery of services and greater levels of participation in the democratic process. This article analyzes local government’s response to these pressures through its use of information communication technologies (ICT) to execute its broad range of tasks. I begin by discussing e-governance in the light of Chadwick and May’s (2003) three basic models of interaction between the state and its citizens: managerial, consultative, and participatory. Using data collected from an analysis of 658 local government Web sites in Australia together with existing survey research, I analyze the extent to which local government sites fit into the three models. The article then concludes with a discussion of the issues and problems faced by local government in its attempt to develop e-governance, as both an extension of its administrative as well as democratic functions.

Integrating job stress and social exchange theories to predict employee wellbeing

This research examines the organizational characteristics that contribute to employee wellbeing in public sector agencies that have undergone substantial organizational change. Two studies were undertaken, the first involving 2,466 police officers working in a statebased law enforcement agency, whereas the second comprised 1,010 occupationally diverse employees working in a State Government authority. The research was guided by a theoretical framework that begins with a model underpinning many large-scale job stress investigations—the job strain model (JSM)—and is expanded to incorporate widely used social exchange variables (i.e., psychological contract breach and organizational fairness). The results of hierarchical regression analyses from both studies confirm the value of the JSM. There was also strong support for extending the JSM to include the breach and fairness variables; however, proposed interactions between job demands and organizational fairness failed to add to the explanatory value of the model. The implications of these results particularly for public sector organizations that have undergone extensive reforms consistent with New Public Management are discussed.

Job stress in the law enforcement sector: comparing the linear, non-linear and interaction effects of working conditions

This study addresses a gap in much of the research involving stress among high-risk occupations by investigating the effects of linear, non-linear and interaction models in a law enforcement organization that has undertaken a series of efficiency-driven organizational reforms. The results of a survey involving 2085 police officers indicated that the demand-control-support model provided good utility in predicting an officer's satisfaction, commitment and well-being. In particular, social support and job control were closely associated with all three outcome variables. Although the demand × control/support interactions were not identified in the data, there was some support for the curvilinear effects of job demands. The results have implications for the organizational conditions that need to be addressed in contemporary policing environments where new public management strategies have had widespread affects on the social and organizational context in which policing takes place.

Identifying the predictors of employee health and satisfaction in an NPM environment : testing a comprehensive and non-linear demand-control-support model

The Demand-Control-Support (DCS) model is investigated in the context of police officers working within an organization that has relatively widespread uptake of New Public Management (NPM) practices. A survey of 479 police officers from two geographic regions was undertaken and the results indicate that the DCS offers a simple, yet powerful, framework for identifying the conditions to be managed in an NPM-oriented environment. Job control and work-based support predict all four target variables, strengthening the view that decision-making latitude and support from supervisors and colleagues represent critical resources for promoting the well-being, satisfaction and commitment of public sector employees.

Doing justice' : stories of everyday life in disadvantaged schools and neighbourhoods

I worked as a school administrator in 'disadvantaged schools' for many years. In this study I asked colleagues from sixteen schools in the northern and western suburbs of Adelaide to co - theorise about changes in their neighbourhood, school populations and programs, now that their schools are no longer recognised by policy as 'disadvantaged1. I explore the use of narrative method and arts based approaches by constructing a 'literary' research text that uses conventional sociological forms together with images, poetry and personal stories. I use anthropological and geographical theoretical constructs to look at the changing material, economic, cultural and social landscapes and the mosaic of inequalities in the city of Adelaide. I suggest that this is not a simple binary polarisation, although large numbers of people are similarly positioned by de-industrialisation and the diminishing social wage. After examining the literature on poverty in Australia, I am eventually prepared to call this space class, understanding that this is a sociological metaphor. Through a theorisation of each school as a 'place' within a specific neighbourhood, I look at the similarities and differences across sites. I suggest that 'disadvantaged schools' are similarly positioned as sites for the mediation of social inequalities, and that this can be readily seen in the time consuming 'housework' of discipline and welfare. I indicate how each school is differently able to 'do more with less', because of their unique neighbourhood and its narratives, knowledges, histories, teleologies and people. I show that the common coercive regimes of market devolution, new public management and the 'distributive curriculum' frame the work of teachers, students and administrators in ways that are not conducive to 'doing justice', despite the policy rhetoric of equity and community. I provide evidence that the neoliberal imaginary of context free schooling enshrined in effective schools literatures is Utopian and irrational. I argue that the capacity of the school to 'generate context' is always paradoxically dependent on 'context derived'. I discuss the notion of 'doing justice' and the benefits of 'disadvantaged schools' having a local set of principles that guide their decisions and actions and provide evidence that the school administrator's understandings of 'doing justice' are important. I also suggest that, despite being increasingly isolated and hindered by policy directions, the majority of the sixteen schools continue to work for and with principles of justice and equity, drawing on a range of emotional and intellectual resources and deep, longstanding commitments. I conclude by speculating on the kinds of policy and research agendas that might take account of both the commonalities and differences amongst 'disadvantaged schools', and what might be included in a comprehensive and systematic approach to 'doing justice'.

Opportunity lost? Victorian Labor's enactment of community development 1999-2006

The idea of community development has been evoked by Australian governments over many decades. The expressions of community have differed widely, often as a result of politics rather than informed policy. In 1999, after seven years of radical neo-liberal restructuring in Victoria, the Bracks government found itself unexpectedly elected to power. They faced new challenges such as a diminished public sector, growing social inequality and climate change. The first two terms of Victorian Labor were a seminal period in terms of the role they would invoke for ‘community’. Did grass roots participation take a central place, or did rhetoric rule over substance? The evidence points to a government maintaining a neo-liberal trajectory, and thereby losing an opportunity to enable an active citizenry.

The my school website in Australia

 The My School website in Australia offers moderately nuanced comparisons between any school and sixty other socio-educationally similar schools. Detrimental effects on poor-performing schools are small because it is forbidden to use these comparisons to construct league tables. More generally, however, the website promotes practices of auditing employees. As such it undermines teachers’ sense of integrity and any sense that they are professionals who society respects enough to entrust with an important task. It is not surprising that very few teachers use it, and it would seem not many parents use it either. A left-of-centre government established the website despite opposition by the teacher unions but with the support of News Corporation. New Public Management and an accompanying great increase in auditing offer a deeper explanation for why the website was established. Public servants and political leaders of both the left and the right support the transparency about school performance so My School is likely to continue. An alliance between teacher unions, parents and community groups might see education policy switch tracks from the present market orientation to a welfare orientation.

Market virtues and public failures : antecedents to public sector reform in the contract state

This paper considers the historical factors that have contributed to the pressures for reform in the Australian State of Victoria which proved to be more radical than paths taken by the Commonwealth Government and any other Australian states. As public management in Victoria made tentative steps towards market orientated practices, the inexperienced public officials, together with a mixture of political, economic, administrative and social factors made the government more vulnerable to a perceived need for reform. Australia, like the United Kingdom and New Zealand with which it shares similarities of government structure, commenced the path of reform in a tentative manner with major reforms being implemented by powerful leaders. Powerful reformers were Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom, a group of like minded politicians from Treasury in New Zealand and in the Australian State of Victoria, Jeff Kennett. Each capitalised on a sense of crises to move their reform agenda forward at a rapid pace. Victoria is offered as an illustration of how the past provides a means of understanding why Premier Jeff Kennett was able during the 1990's, to implement public sector reform into Victoria in such a dramatic way.

New product development process in the Australian grocery market

Examines current literature on new product development, addresses key issues in the Australian grocery market, evaluates existing processes, identifies success factors and provides the Australian grocery organisations with the optimum new product development model.

Risk-based trust management for e-commerce

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) offers enormous opportunities for online trading while at the same time presenting potential risks. Although various mechanisms have been developed to elevate trust in e-commerce, research shows that shoppers continue to be skeptical about buying online and lack of trust is often cited as the main reason for it. Thus, enhancing success in e-commerce requires eliminating or reducing the risks. In this chapter, we present a multi-attribute trust management model that incorporates trust, transaction costs and product warranties. The new trust management system enables potential buyers to determine the risk level of a product before committing to proceed with the transaction. This is useful to online buyers as it allows them to be aware of the risk level and subsequently take the appropriate actions to minimize potential risks before engaging in risky businesses. Results of various simulation experiments show that the proposed multi-attribute trust management system can be highly effective in identifying risky transaction in electronic market places.