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Government Organizations (government + organization)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	71%
Humanities and Social Sciences	14%

Selected Abstracts

The Measurement of Success of Activity-Based Costing and Its Determinants: A Study within Canadian Federal Government Organizations,/L'évaluation Du Succès De La Comptabilité Par Activités Et Ses Déterminants: Étude D'Organismes Du Gouvernement Fédéral Du Canada

ACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVES, Issue 3 2007
Anne Fortin
ABSTRACT This research first measures the success of activity-based costing (ABC) implementation within Canadian federal government organizations along five constructs, which are the use and frequency of use of the ABC information, decision actions taken, financial improvements, evaluation by management as to overall success, and a composite measure of the four constructs. Second, it identifies the determinants of ABC success. The success determinants used in this study are organizational culture, involvement of a champion, change process, commitment, controls, and continuous education. Measures of ABC success and determinants were obtained using a survey of managers who have participated in ABC implementation in Canadian federal government organizations. The study found that the benefits derived from ABC implementation within Canadian public sector organizations do not measure up to the efforts invested, although respondents consider that some financial improvements have resulted from the implementations. Controls and culture proved to be the two variables that significantly relate to ABC success. The results could have implications for policymaking organizations such as the Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada and the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG). The latter should question the benefits of investments made in management accounting best practices in the federal government. The OCG could also direct departments and agencies to the right environment (success determinants) to be put in place in order to ensure the success of ABC initiatives. RÉSUMÉ Les auteurs évaluent le succès de la mise en ,uvre de la comptabilité par activités (CPA) au sein d'organismes du gouvernement fédéral du Canada selon cinq paramètres, soit l'utilisation et la fréquence d'utilisation de l'information produite par la CPA, les mesures décisionnelles prises, les améliorations financières, l'évaluation du succès global par la direction et une mesure composite regroupant ces quatre paramètres. Ils définissent ensuite les déterminants du succès de la CPA. Les déterminants utilisés dans la présente étude sont la culture organisationnelle, l'intervention d'un défenseur, le processus de changement, l'engagement, les contrôles et la formation continue. Les auteurs obtiennent les critères d'évaluation et les déterminants du succès de la CPA en procédant à un sondage auprès de cadres ayant participé à la mise en ,uvre de la CPA dans des organismes du gouvernement fédéral du Canada. Ils constatent que les avantages découlant de cet exercice au sein des organismes du secteur public canadien ne sont pas à la hauteur des efforts investis, même si les répondants estiment en avoir tiré certaines améliorations financières. Il semble que les variables des contrôles et de la culture soient celles qui se rattachent de façon significative au succès de la CPA. Les résultats de l'étude pourraient avoir des conséquences pour les organismes responsables de l'élaboration des politiques comme le Secrétariat du Conseil du Trésor du Canada et le Bureau du contrôleur général (BCG). Ce dernier devrait s'interroger sur ce que rapportent les sommes investies par le gouvernement fédéral dans les pratiques de comptabilité de management les meilleures. Le BCG pourrait également orienter les ministères et les organismes gouvernementaux vers l'environnement (ou les déterminants du succès) qu'il convient de mettre en place pour assurer la réussite des projets de CPA. [source]

Examining the Nature and Significance of Leadership in Government Organizations

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 2 2008
Tracey Trottier
Though the mainstream organizational literature has advanced in the last 20 years with the integration of transformational and distributed leadership theories, as well as genuine attempts at comprehensive models, the public sector literature has lagged, especially in utilizing large-scale empirical studies. This study takes advantage of a very large government data set to test the utility of one of the best known theories, the "full range" leadership theory of Bernard Bass. It addresses three important research questions: How inclusive is Bass's operational definition of leadership? How much of an impact do Bass's leadership competencies have on follower satisfaction? Finally, how important is transformational leadership compared to transactional leadership in government settings? The results indicate that Bass's broad definition of leadership comes quite close to capturing what federal employees perceive to be effective leadership. The relationship between good leadership in an organization and follower satisfaction is also presented as an important outcome in the federal government. Finally, both transactional and transformational leadership are perceived as important in the federal government, although transformational leadership is considered slightly more important even after shifting one important factor, individualized consideration, back to the transactional model. [source]

The practitioner perspective on the modeling of pedagogy and practice

JOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 1 2008
S. De Freitas
Abstract The promotion of e-learning in policies internationally has led to questions about how best to employ technology in support of learning. A range of models has since been developed that attempts to relate pedagogy to technology. However, research into the effectiveness of such models in changing teaching practice is sparse, and work that compares these models to practitioners' own representations of their practice is absent. The study described here involved asking practitioners to model their own practice, and to compare these with a model developed by a government organization. Practitioners were adept at using existing models and repurposing them to suit their own context. Our research provided evidence of broad acceptance of the existing model with practitioners, but indicated that practitioners would take this tool and remodel it for their own contexts of learning to make it meaningful, relevant and useful to them. [source]

The Measurement of Success of Activity-Based Costing and Its Determinants: A Study within Canadian Federal Government Organizations,/L'évaluation Du Succès De La Comptabilité Par Activités Et Ses Déterminants: Étude D'Organismes Du Gouvernement Fédéral Du Canada

How Race, Sex, and Age Frame the Use of Authority by Local Government Officials

LAW & SOCIAL INQUIRY, Issue 3 2010
Shannon Portillo
Thanks to the civil rights movement, women and racial and ethnic minorities increasingly hold positions of public authority,but they experience and exercise this authority differently from white men. Based on 162 narratives collected from 49 US local government officials (city administrators and police), I find that women, minorities, and younger officials in positions of authority face a paradox of rules. Because they have lower social status with the public and within their organizations, they must rely on formal and explicit rules as a key basis for their authority, but such reliance causes their very authority to be questioned. Social status based on implicit assumptions about social identities, including race or ethnicity, sex, and age, originates outside of organizations and has effects society wide. This study shows that social status continues to permeate US local government organizations in both subtle and explicit ways, even in bureaucratic settings that are formally committed to merit and professional norms. [source]

TIME FOR EU MATTERS: THE EUROPEANIZATION OF DUTCH CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 1 2010
ELLEN MASTENBROEK
To what extent does the European Union (EU) affect national governments? This article seeks to answer this question by assessing the Europeanization of Dutch central government. Using data from a large-scale survey among civil servants, we assess to what extent the EU affects the structure and culture of governmental organizations, as well as the activities of individual civil servants. On the basis of this analysis, we conclude that the impact of the EU both on individual civil servants and on organizations in Dutch central government is two-sided: a small core of civil servants and organizations are deeply involved in EU-related activities and this exists alongside a much broader base of civil servants and organizations that are less affected by the EU. These differences appear more clearly on the level of daily working practices than on the level of formal organizational structures. Nevertheless, the impact of European integration on government organizations remains limited to particular organizations and particular civil servants within central government. [source]

TRADITIONS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 3 2009
KEVIN ORR
This article explores local government traditions in the UK. This task is an important one for scholars who wish to understand and appreciate the rich cultural complexity of local government organizations. In local government settings, traditions can be used in the study and evaluation of political and managerial practices. They provide lenses through which the routines, structures and processes of management and politics may be viewed. The delineation of multiple traditions heightens the sense that local government is not a unified homogeneous organizational entity, but rather a melange of voices, interests and assumptions about how to organize, prioritize and mobilize action. They can be used to engage practitioners with the idea that different traditions inform political and managerial practices and processes in local councils. The approach embraces the significance of participants' constitutive stories about local government rather than the search for essential truths about the politics and management of the public sector. [source]

GOVERNMENT CALLING: PUBLIC SERVICE MOTIVATION AS AN ELEMENT IN SELECTING GOVERNMENT AS AN EMPLOYER OF CHOICE

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 4 2008
WOUTER VANDENABEELEArticle first published online: 11 JUL 200
The article assesses public service motivation as a possible influence in the attractiveness of government as an employer by embedding it into a person-organization fit framework. First, a theoretical framework is developed and all relevant concepts are discussed. In addition, a set of hypotheses concerning the research question is developed. A sample of 1714 final year masters students demonstrates that the presence of public service motivation positively correlates with the preference for prospective public employers. For government organizations that display a high degree of publicness, the effect of public service motivation as a predictor for employer preference is stronger. Next to building a middle range theory on public service motivation, the article also reveals that public service motivation is present at a pre-entry level. [source]

Coordination failure, property rights and non-profit organizations

ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2000
Bernard Enjolras
This paper advances a socio-economic theory of nonprofit organizations aiming at conceiving this organizational form in its complexity and at analysing it from both the viewpoints of its economical and political (democratic) dimensions. This theoretical approach accounts for the existence of nonprofit organizations and the reasons why nonprofit organizations are relatively more efficient when compared with for-profit and government organizations in particular circumstances. The various current explanations of the existence of nonprofit organizations (contract failure, government failure, philanthropic failure) are regrouped around the concept of coordination failure. The paper then examines how nonprofit organizations are able to mitigate these coordination failures. The central thesis is that the specific distribution of property rights characterizing nonprofit organizations results in a particular type of governance structure which allows them to mitigate coordination failures. In turn, the ability of the organization to mitigate coordination failures and therefore its efficiency is conditioned on its democratic functioning. [source]

Environmental reporting in Australia: current practices and issues for the future

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 6 2002
Dr. Roger L. Burritt
This briefing addresses a number of current practices in environmental reporting in Australia. It is limited to consideration of mandatory and voluntary initiatives at the national level (rather than state or territory levels). Three initiatives are explored. Two of these are mandatory requirements,section 299 corporate disclosures required under the 2001 Corporations Act and section 516 disclosures by Commonwealth government organizations under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. One other initiative is voluntary,Public Environmental Reporting,and is aimed at all organizations. Links with the Global Reporting Initiative are considered, followed by a brief comment on incentives and users of environmental reports. The briefing concludes by raising three issues that need to be addressed in the future,sustainable development; education, training and communication; and environmental accounting. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment [source]

Organizational Flexibility in Western and Asian Firms: An Examination of Control and Safeguard Rules in Five Countries

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES, Issue 1 2001
Ignace Ng
This paper examines the influence of family and government ownerships and of labour unions on the adoption of control and safeguard rules in Asian (Hong Kong, Korea, and Malaysia) and Western (Australia and Canada) organizations. Following Ng and Dastmalchian (1998), control rules are those rules applied to employees and their behaviour at work, whereas safeguard rules are designed to address managerial discretion. Using data from 119 organizations, of which 58 are from Asia and the remaining 61 from the West, the results show that, contrary to general expectations, government organizations from both regions are no more rules-oriented than their non-government counterparts. Another unexpected finding is that unionized Asian organizations have fewer safeguard rules, not only in comparison with nonunion Asian firms but also relative to unionized Western organizations. The results also show that Asian family organizations have fewer safeguard rules in comparison with both other Asian firms and other family firms in the West. Résumé Cette étude évalue l'influence que peuvent avoir les syn-dicats, les sociétés d'état et les grandes firmes familiales sur l'adoption de règies de conduite et de précaution dans un nombre de sociétés en Asie (Hong Hong, Corée du Sud, la Malaisie) et en Occident (au Canada et en Australie). Conformément aux précisions formulées dans Ng and Dastmalchian (1998), nous entendons par règies de conduites celles qui gouvernent le comporte-ment des employés au travail, tandis que par règies de précaution nous désignons celles qui ont pour objet la marge de manoeuvre des gestionnaires. En basant nos données sur 119 sociétés, dont 58 en Asie et 61 au Canada et en Australie, nos résultats démontrent que, con-trairement aux attentes générates, les sociétés d'état dans ces deux aires géographiques ne sont pas plus lourdement réglementées que leurs homologues non-gouvernementaux. Autre surprise: les sociétés en Asie dont la main d'oeuvre n'est pas syndiquée ont moins de régies de précaution, non settlement par rapport avec les organismes non-syndiqués en Asie, mais aussi en com-paraison des sociétés syndiqués au Canada et Australie. Enfin, les résultats démontrent aussi que les grandes firmes familiales en Asie ont moins de règies de précaution que les autres sociétés d'Asie et que les firmes familiales au Canada et en Australie. [source]

Risk Management with Duration: Potential and Limitations

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES, Issue 2 2000
Gerald O. Bierwag
This paper demonstrates the applicability of duration as a risk management tool for government organizations. Drawing on a real case, we present methodologies for quantifying (a) the durations of real assets on a government's balance sheet, and (b) the durations of the financial assets represented by shares in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In the area of real physical assets on the balance sheet we focus on the highway system and on real estate owned by the government. The methodology for measuring durations of SOEs focuses primarily on an electrical utility. Our main conclusion is that it is feasible to derive excellent practical measures of the real durations of physical assets on a government's balance sheet. Far from being academic curiosities,such durations can be estimated with a fair degree of accuracy in practice. The paper also indicates some of the potential limitations of duration analysis as a risk management tool for such organizations. Résumé En tant que grand succès de la finance académique, l'analyse de durée profite d'une application étendue de la part des praticiens de différents millieux du secteur privé. Cet article démontre la possibilité d'utiliser les durées comme outil de gestion du risque dans les organisations gouvernementales. En se basant sur un cas réel, nous présentons les méthodes pour quantifier (1) les durées des valeurs réelles d'un bilan gouvernemental et (2) les durées des valeurs financières représentées par des parts dans des sociétés d'état. Pour ce qui est des valeurs physiques réelles du bilan, nous nous arr,tons sur le système autoroutier et sur les biens immobiliers possédés par le gouvernement. La méthode de mesure des durées des sociétés d'état focalise sur une compagnie de service électrique. Notre conclusion principale est qu'il est possible de tirer d'excellentes mesures pratiques des durées réelles des valeurs physiques du bilan financier d'un gouvernement. Loin d',tre de pures curiosités académiques, de telles durées peuvent ,tre, en pratique, estimées avec un degré raisonnable de précision. L'article mentionne de plus certaines limites potentielles de l'analyse de durée comme outil de gestion de risque pour de telles organisations. [source]

Ministerial responsibility and the machinery of government

CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION/ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE DU CANADA, Issue 2 2007
Nicholas D'Ombrain
It discusses how constitutional government and the practical day-to-day functioning of a parliamentary democracy depend on ministerial responsibility as the bedrock principle for the organization and operation of the machinery of government across the range of government organizations. It concludes that ministerial responsibility remains the pivotal constitutional doctrine essential to the functioning of a parliamentary democracy; that notwithstanding the undue concentration of authority in the hands of first ministers, their machinery of government powers ought not to be reduced; and that first ministers in particular should pay closer attention to ministerial responsibility as the foundation of the machinery of government. Sommaire: Le présent article porte sur les relations entre la responsabilité ministéri-elle et l'appareil gouvernemental. Il examine comment le gouvernement constitutionnel et le fonctionnement pratique quotidien d'une démocratie parlementaire reposent sur la responsabilité ministérielle comme principe de base de l'organisation et du fonctionnement de l'appareil gouvernemental dans tous les types d'organismes gouvernementaux. L'auteur conclut que la responsabilité ministérielle demeure la doctrine constitutionnelle cruciale et essentielle au fonctionnement d'une démocratie parlementaire; que malgré la concentration exagérée de pouvoir entre les mains des premiers ministres, les pouvoirs de l'appareil gouvernemental ne devraient pas être réduits; et que les premiers ministres en particulier devraient prêter une plus grande attention à la responsabilité ministérielle en tant que fondement de l'appareil gouvernemental. [source]

Comparisons of U.S. Government Communication Practices: Expanding the Government Communication Decision Wheel

COMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 3 2010
J. Suzanne Horsley
Government communication is pervasive and has an impact on every aspect of American public life. However, there is minimal theory-driven research in this critical area of communication. This research explores comparisons of communication practices and the status of professional development among the four levels of U.S. government organizations through a survey of 781 government communicators. The study identifies six significant differences and two similarities in how the public sector environment affects communication practices at the city, county, state, and federal levels. The findings were applied to a modification of the government communication decision wheel, a model that offers a theoretical foundation for the study of government communication within its unique environmental context free from the bias of corporate-centric research assumptions. The findings contribute to communication theory development for the underresearched public sector. Comparaisons des pratiques de communication du gouvernement américain : pour développer la roue des décisions communicationnelles du gouvernement J. Suzanne Horsley, Brooke Fisher Liu, & Abbey Blake Levenshus La communication gouvernementale est omniprésente et affecte tous les aspects de la vie publique américaine. Néanmoins, il existe très peu de recherches guidées par la théorie dans ce domaine critique de la communication. Cette recherche explore des comparaisons dans les pratiques communicationnelles et le développement professionnel auprès de quatre niveaux gouvernementaux américains, par une enquête menée auprès de 781 agents de communication du gouvernement. L'étude identifie cinq différences importantes et trois similarités dans les façons par lesquelles le milieu du secteur public influence les pratiques de communication aux niveaux de la municipalité, du comté, de l'État et du pays. Les résultats ont été appliqués de façon à modifier la roue des décisions communicationnelles du gouvernement, un fondement théorique pour l'étude de la communication gouvernementale dans son milieu unique, sans les biais des hypothèses de recherche axées sur le secteur privé. Les résultats contribuent au développement des théories en communication à propos du secteur public, toujours sous-étudié. Vergleiche von Kommunikationspraktiken der US-Regierung: Eine Erweiterung des Kommunikationsentscheidungsrads der Regierung J. Suzanne Horsley, Brooke Fisher Liu, & Abbey Blake Levenshus Die Kommunikation der Regierung ist allgegenwärtig und berührt jeden Aspekt des Lebens der amerikanischen Öffentlichkeit. Dennoch gibt es wenig theoriebasierte Forschung in diesem zentralen Feld der Kommunikation. Diese Studie betrachtet Vergleiche der Kommunikationspraktiken und professionellen Entwicklung auf vier Ebenen der US-Regierung mittels einer Umfrage unter 781 Regierungskommunikatoren. Die Studie identifiziert fünf signifikante Unterschiede und drei ähnliche Aspekte, wie der öffentliche Sektor die Kommunikationspraktiken auf Stadt-, Landkreis-, Länder- und Bundesebene beeinflusst. Die Ergebnisse wurden zur Modifikation des Kommunikationsentscheidungsrads der Regierung herangezogen - eine theoretische Basis für die Untersuchung von Regierungskommunikation innerhalb ihres einzigartigen Kontextes und frei von Befangenheiten unternehmenszentristischer Forschungsannahmen. Die Ergebnisse tragen zur Entwicklung von Kommunikationstheorie im bislang unterbeleuchteten öffentlichen Sektor bei. Las Comparaciones de las Prácticas de Comunicación del Gobierno de los EE.UU.: Expandiendo la Comunicación de la Rueda de Decisión del Gobierno J. Suzanne Horsley, Brooke Fisher Liu, & Abbey Blake Levenshus Advertising and Public Relations, University of Alabama, 255 S Central Campus Dr., Room 2400, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA Resumen La comunicación del gobierno es dominante y toca cada aspecto de la vida pública Americana. No obstante, hay un mínimo de investigación dirigida por la teoría sobre esta área de comunicación crítica. Esta investigación explora las comparaciones de las prácticas de comunicación y el desarrollo profesional entre 4 niveles del gobierno de los EE.UU. mediante una encuesta de 781 comunicadores del gobierno. Este estudio identifica 5 diferencias significativas y 3 similitudes en cómo el sector público del medio ambiente afecta las prácticas de comunicación al nivel de la ciudad, el condado, el estado y el estado federal. Estos hallazgos fueron aplicados a modificación de la comunicación de la rueda de decisión del gobierno, una fundación teórica para el estudio de la comunicación del gobierno dentro de este contexto único del medio ambiente libre de las preconcepciones de las asunciones de la investigación centradas en las corporaciones. Los hallazgos contribuyen al desarrollo de la teoría de la comunicación para el sector público poco investigado. [source]