The state of environmental performance evaluation in the public sector: the case of the Portuguese defence sector

Journal of Cleaner Production, nº 17, p. 36-52

Environmental performance policy indicators for the public sector: The case of the defence sector

Journal of Environmental Management, nº 82 p. 410–432

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL UNIFICATION OF GERMANY: 1815-1871. PART 2: THE SHARE OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR IN THE ECONOMY..

Rapport de recherche

Recruitment And Training Of Managers In The Public Sector Concerns In Kerala

Public undertakings have been assigned a significant role to play in the systematic socio-economic development of India. My interest in the subject was kindled while I was doing my Masters Diploma in Public Administration at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi during 1960-61. It was further strengthened by my teaching of the subject in different courses offered by me at the School of Management Studies and in several programmes organised by various voluntary and training organisations like the Institute of Management in Government, Trivandrum, Centre for Management Development, Trivandrum, etc. The several years in which I served as a member of the faculty in the School of Management Studies, University of Cochin,gave me the opportunity to come into close contact with different public sector concerns and their managers at various levels. This rich opportunity gave me a better insight into the problems faced by these concerns. The present study is a result of the interest so developed.

Supporting multi-organisational collaborative groups in the public sector

In this paper, the issues that arise in multi-organisational collaborative groups (MOCGs) in the public sector are discussed and how a technology-based group support system (GSS) could assist individuals within these groups. MOCGs are commonly used in the public sector to find solutions to multifaceted social problems. Finding solutions for such problems is difficult because their scope is outside the boundary of a single government agency. The standard approach to solving such problems is collaborative involving a diverse range of stakeholders. Collaborative working can be advantageous but it also introduces its own pressures. Conflicts can arise due to the multiple contexts and goals of group members and the organisations that they represent. Trust, communication and a shared interface are crucial to making any significant progress. A GSS could support these elements.

Which work characteristics predict employee outcomes for the public-sector employee? An examination of generic and occupation-specific characteristics

The wide-ranging changes that have occurred in the public sector over recent years have placed increasing demands on public-sector employees. A survey of employees within a relatively commercially-oriented public-sector organization in Australia was used to test a demand-oriented generic model of employee well-being and a variety of situation-specific variables. The presence of support at work and the amount of control an employee had over their job were found to be key predictors of employee-level outcomes. Perceptions of pay and the perception of a lack of human resources (HR) were also found to predict employee outcome variables. The results emphasize the impact that middle managers and HR managers can have in terms of reducing the detrimental employee effects that can be caused by the introduction of new public management (NPM) and the potential for a positive impact on employees. In particular, public-sector managers can use the design of jobs and the development of social support mechanisms, such as employee assistance programmes, to maintain, if not improve, the quality of working life experienced by their employees. More broadly, this study has found that the job strain model is a useful tool in a public-sector environment and is likely to be of increasing utility with the continuing introduction or consolidation of NPM over time. Managing these issues in the new public sector could be a key means of protecting the key resource of the Australian public sector - the employees.

Reconceptualising outsourcing in the public sector : choices and outcomes

National Competition Policy’s introduction encouraged the use of outsourcing in the public sector, but variations in the extent and types of services outsourced were evident. Through reviewing the economic and political literature, this paper has uncovered six reasons for outsourcing that straddle the two paradigms. The desire to reduce costs and increase efficiency, focus on core competitive advantage, introduce workforce flexibility, manage industrial relations’ problems, satisfy decision-makers’ personal objectives and adhere to the neo-liberal government agenda are discussed. The paper puts forward a number of models which delve into the relationship between the theoretical factors which economic and political theorists have proposed as being important in making the decision to outsource and delineates between those factors which are perceived by decision-makers as important in their reasoning and those which are unperceived but impact on the outcomes. It concludes that is only by understanding the complex relationship between reasons, and perceived and unperceived factors, will outcomes be able to be predicted.