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State Sector (state + sector)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences44%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting44%

Selected Abstracts

The role of the translator/interpreter in knowledge transfer environments

KNOWLEDGE AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT: THE JOURNAL OF CORPORATE TRANSFORMATION, Issue 2 2007
Jocelyn Cranefield
This paper reports on the results of a larger research project that investigated the factors impacting on inter-organisational transfer in the New Zealand State Sector. Seven gatekeepers (boundary-spanning individuals) from different organisations were interviewed about their experiences in facilitating knowledge transfer between a cross-sector working group and their organisation. The context for the research was the Pathfinder Project, a project based around the development and transfer of an emergent knowledge model for strategic management, Managing for Outcomes (MfO). A range of factors that facilitated knowledge transfer were identified. Among these, translation and interpretation activities were found to be critical to successful knowledge transfer. Gatekeepers reported acting as translator/interpreter, an essential role which demanded specialised skills. The nature of this role is outlined, with reference to a staged model for knowledge transfer that emerged from the research project. The translator/interpreter role required gatekeepers to engage in active and continuous conversion of knowledge to meet the differing needs of a range of recipients. This helped to increase the overall absorptive capacity of participating organisations. Implications of these findings for research and practice are outlined. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Similar Ends, Differing Means: Contractualism and Civil Service Reform in Denmark and New Zealand

GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2004
Robert Gregory
State sector reform was an integral component of the radical economic and social policy changes enacted by New Zealand governments between 1984 and 1991. This reform replaced the traditional tenured public service with a contractual regime. Through a comparison with Denmark, it is shown that New Zealand's reforms were not unique. Similar reforms were enacted in Denmark. But contrary to what occurred in New Zealand, the Danish reforms had already begun in the 1960s, and have since been gradually expanded. The parallel contractual regimes introduced in the two countries are accounted for by an increasing demand among politicians to secure a civil service that is responsive to political executive demands. However, because of institutional differences and diverging regulatory regimes, the strategic approaches in the two countries have been different. Whereas the New Zealand approach was dominated by an appeal to a coherent and sophisticated body of theoretical knowledge, combined with strict formalization, the Danish strategy has been based on political bargaining with the civil service unions. In both cases the reforms rest on critical assumptions regarding their positive and negative implications. [source]

Entering the Twilight Zone: The Local Complexities of Pay and Employment Equity in New Zealand

GENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 5 2009
Deborah Jones
This article introduces the recent pay and employment equity situation in the New Zealand state sector through a discussion of research carried out for a Pay and Employment Equity Taskforce. It investigates the twilight zone of pay and employment equity , the murky situations where pay and employment equity programmes already exist, but progress for senior women has stalled for no obvious reasons. Qualitative research is necessary to make sense of these complex situations and to complement labour-market level studies. The example used is a study of teachers in New Zealand schools, where a range of complex reasons, including lack of support, gendered job designs and intense workloads, creates a bottleneck for women at senior levels. The authors argue that highly decentralized human resources practices work against progress in equal employment opportunity in the state sector. [source]

Natural resources and ,gradual' reform in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan

NATURAL RESOURCES FORUM, Issue 4 2003
Richard Auty
Abstract Among low-income transition reformers, natural resource rents are an important initial condition that helps explain choice of reform strategy. Resource-rich Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and resource-poor China and Vietnam all claim to pursue gradual reform, but their strategies differ. In China and Vietnam, low resource rents have nurtured developmental political conditions and encouraged efficient resource use, which initially promoted agriculture as a dynamic market sector, capable of absorbing labour from the lagging state sector. In contrast, the scale and ease of natural resource rent extraction in the Central Asian countries has consolidated authoritarian governments that postpone reform. Despite high energy rents, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan still extract agricultural rents in ways that repress farm incentives, perpetuate environmental degradation and liquidate irrigation assets. Uzbekistan uses its rents to subsidize a manufacturing sector, that is neither dynamic nor competitive. As its dynamic sector, Turkmenistan promotes natural gas exports that depend on volatile markets. Resource-driven development models suggest that reform is required in both countries to avert a growth collapse. Turkmenistan's large energy rent-stream may postpone a collapse for some years, but Uzbekistan's position is already precarious: it has run down its rural infrastructure and accumulated sizeable foreign debts and will require external assistance to recover from a growth collapse. Such assistance should be made conditional on accelerated economic and political reform. [source]

Earnings Differentials between State and Non-State Enterprises in Urban China

PACIFIC ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 1 2002
Yaohui Zhao
The present paper estimates earnings differentials between state and non-state sectors for Chinese urban residents in 1996 by taking into account differences in non-wage benefits. Household survey data are used to estimate wage differentials while aggregate statistics are utilised in estimating non-wage benefits. We find that state-sector workers earned significantly more than workers in urban collective and domestic private enterprises in 1996. Unskilled workers in foreign invested enterprises (FIE) earned significantly less than those in the state sector but skilled workers earned more in FIE than in the state sector. These findings shed light on the source of labour immobility that state-owned enterprise had experienced until recently. [source]

Macroeconomic Control in the Transforming Chinese Economy: An Analysis of the Long-Run Effect

PACIFIC ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 1 2001
Michael K. Y. Fung
This paper analyzes the issue of macroeconomic control in the Chinese economy where there is a dual structure (consisting of a state sector and a non-state sector) and the financial sector is still under tight control by the government. Given the dual structure and financial repression, when inflation is a severe problem, the authors investigate whether it is possible for the government to bring inflation under control without hampering long-term economic growth performance. The investigation is conducted within the context of an endogenous growth model that incorporates the two major institutional features of the transforming Chinese economy. The paper evaluates the long-run effects of changes in government monetary and fiscal policies on the major macroeconomic aggregates. The analysis suggests that increasing in the interest rate on government bonds will reduce inflation without affecting the growth rate of output; while increasing the nominal interest rate on bank deposits will exert a stagflationary effect on the economy: raising the inflation rate but reducing the growth rate of output. [source]

Wage differentials and state-private sector employment choice in Yugoslavia*

THE ECONOMICS OF TRANSITION, Issue 3 2003
Michael M. Lokshin
Abstract In this study we use the newly available Yugoslavian Labor Force Survey data to investigate wage differentials and employment decisions in the state and private sectors in Yugoslavia. For the analysis we use three empirical models that rely on different statistical assumptions. We extend the standard switching regression model to allow non-normality in the joint distribution of the error terms. After correcting for the sector selection bias and controlling for workers' characteristics we find a private sector wage advantage. The wage premium is largest for workers with low education levels and declining for workers with higher educational levels. Given the regulatory and tax policies that pushed the private sector into the informal sphere of the economy during the period covered by our data, we argue that the state/private wage gap is likely to grow in the future. This will make it increasingly difficult for the state sector to attract and retain highly skilled employees. [source]

The hybrid economy and anthropological engagements with policy discourse: A brief reflection1

THE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2009
Jon Altman
This article advocates a crucial role for economic anthropology in the twenty-first century. The use of anthropological techniques for primary data collection is essential for understanding the complexity of diverse local economies. This is demonstrated with reference to a remote Aboriginal economy in Arnhem Land, Northern Australia, using a ,hybrid economy' model that includes the customary sector as well as market and state sectors. This empirically grounded model is contrasted with a very different theoretical construct: the ,real' economy that is dominating Indigenous affairs policy discourse. Although the hybrid economy model is currently subordinated, mainly for ideological reasons, examples are provided to demonstrate its policy and legal influences. [source]