Abstract
We have selected four articles to be published in this Special Issue as Part II of the symposium. These articles are selected from the unpublished work presented at The International Symposium on Humanistic Management and Development of New Cities and Towns (ISHMD; 2014), which was held from October 31 to November 2, 2014, at Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, China. The co-organizer of this symposium included seven participating universities from China and the United States. All of these articles are written by Chinese college professors and PhD candidates. These research articles explore solutions to many complex issues and problems encountered by public personnel administrators that often contribute to the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the administration. Here are brief summaries of the select articles included in the Special Issue Part II of the symposium.
“Assessment of Innovative Performance Management in Chinese Police System—A Case Study of Zhejiang Province.” The authors of this study developed an assessment questionnaire to measure the perceived stress of police officers caused by their performance management system. The discussion of results includes an interesting commentary on the possibility of introducing several useful performance management strategies that have been tested valuable for police system in other countries. The concept is that reducing perceived stress and about a performance management system, and introducing a performance management system that does not put the officers on spot (instead, facilitate their collaboration to improve the overall performance of the department), may help improve the innovative performance of the workforce.
“Governability of Synergy Innovation—A Case of the Collaboration Between Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.” The authors of this study explored structures for governability of synergy innovation among cross-regional organizations. The authors developed a structural equation model with 3-tiered hypothetical factors that could promote synergy innovation. The authors further tested their model by conducting a case study of three cities that are collaboratively emerging as a science and technology hub by adapting a synergistic approach. Results show that synergy innovation can be facilitated by providing governance in developing uniform systems, investing in public R&D, and allocating resources optimally.
“Entrepreneurship and Intervention Strategies of Land-Lost Farmers in Urbanization of Zhejiang Province.” The authors of this study explored factors that can support urbanizing farmers who are moving away from their traditional trade. Based on grounded theory, this study develops a consciousness-situation-behavior model to explain the entrepreneurship mechanism of land-lost farmers. Empirical studies demonstrate that entrepreneurial awareness motivates entrepreneurial behavior through the perceptions of desirability and feasibility. Land acquisition has a mediating role in the relationship between entrepreneurial consciousness and behavior. Factors such as land location and entrepreneurship policy significantly mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial consciousness and behavior, whereas the settlement given to land-lost farmers produces an insignificant effect on such relationship. A higher compensation may also lower the possibility of entrepreneurship. Based on these findings, practical policies for improving the management performance of the Chinese government and for encouraging entrepreneurship among land-lost farmers are proposed. The findings from this study may apply to international communities going through the process of urbanization.
“Span and Scale of the Government: Analysis of the Public Personnel Reform in Environmental Regulation Sectors.” The authors of this study presented a simple but innovative approach to quantify the span and scale of governmental influence on an industry. The approach focuses on analyzing available historical data to develop a trend of government’s expenditure on developing regulatory reforms and placing civil servants (as agents of implementing regulations) within an industry. This approach can be utilized to quantify the extent of empowerment extended by the government to local bodies and organizations. This article consists of a case study that analyzed 9 years of data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, and the State Commission Office of Public Sectors Reform to demonstrate the application of this approach. The authors have suggested few more data points that can be included to make the assessment more comprehensive. The approach suggested by the authors of this study can be used to monitor the extent to which public and personnel reforms are actually implemented in any industry.
ISHMD (2014) was a successful event that engaged enthusiastic discussions in session. While assessing the changes and social transformation and institutional transition and reformation of Chinese Public Personnel Management in the fast emerging China, scholars have developed understanding and responsibilities in terms of Chinese public personnel management. The restructure of the China can be simply categorized into three related reforms: economic system reform, administrative system rand political system reforms with the administrative reform is in the conjunction of the economic and political reform. China is undergoing transformation with three related reforms: economic system reform, adminstrative system reform and political system reforms. The administrative reforms focus on more structural reforms and is in the conjunction of the economic and Political reforms . Reform movements in the public sector, codified as the “New Public Management,” influence the position of the public personnel management.
All the participants recognized the environment of public administration changes along with the changes in surrounding socio-political, economic, and technological environment. According to Wu (2013), “The Public today demands higher standards of ethics, transparency and accountability in the public sector” (p. 27). Chinese academia is making its fair contribution in paving the desired path.