International Review of Administrative Sciences

Despite the fact that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are considered to be an important state modernization tool, resistance to change can sometimes be observed. The question is why? On the basis of intervention research mobilizing five different corpuses of material over eight years in the family branch of the French social security system, we have established that values can be an (accelerating or blocking) structuring element of an ambiguous e-administration development dynamic. In other words, in the process of enacting or activating technologies intended to modernize public services, sensemaking by managers faced with the conflicts of values generated or exacerbated by the introduction of these new management tools is fundamental to understanding the process of change. Based on this research result, recommendations for action have been drawn up for the managers, the aim being to elucidate these value conflicts within discussion forums, even if this implies a certain cost.

At a time when the reforms inspired by New Public Management are prompting a hybridization of values, there is growing reference to the notion of values in managerial discourses within public organizations. While some studies consider the statement of values as a direct lever of change, others show that they are more of an obstacle. The studies that make use of institutional logics or economies of worth suggest a dynamic of change involving values, without exploring it as such. Focusing on the context of public professional organizations, this article explores the link between values and change by focusing on the process of adoption of new practices in response to a reform. Our qualitative research among academics during the implementation of the reform of doctoral training in France confirms that professional autonomy is often against reform, but also reveals that ‘professional values’ do not form a coherent and fixed whole: they are plural and generate a series of tensions that are, in turn, reflected by practices. The reform has the effect of inflaming controversies, leading to a possible change brought about by the professionals themselves.

How compatible are the reform of New Public Management (NPM) reforms and the creation of public values in practice? This issue is addressed in the light of the reforms of two public water utilities. Building on Moore’s (1995) strategic triangle, we have analysed the process of value creation associated with measures inspired by NPM. These reforms were first intended to secure financial resources. Certain public values were subsequently created, either under the influence of a leader, or through formalized NPM management tools. Under certain conditions, the implementation of an NPM reform thus proves compatible with the introduction of processes that sustain public values. However, an undemocratic context necessarily limits these processes.

This article looks at public values as an alternative public management instrument to the traditional public instruments or those of New Public Management (NPM). China offers very explicit examples of public values deliberately built on the boundary between the public and the private. We examine this issue through the civil servant recruitment examinations in China and the point of view of the candidates. We propose a cultural approach to the ‘publicness’ of these examinations to understand the public/private articulation of the values they convey and their roles in the field of public management in China. We highlight a set of spiritual and moral values from the private sphere that are transmitted in the public values through the civil servant recruitment examinations, often to legitimize the government and its social control.

As issuers, local authorities have credit ratings that are used in the search for direct funding from the capital markets. However, some local officials also use their ratings as instruments of local public reporting. Does this function creep affect the public values of local authorities? In line with the theory of publicness (Bozeman, 2007), a measurement of this publicness and the detection of public values (Jorgensen and Bozeman, 2002, 2007) are proposed both for the authorities that expressly mention their rating and those that make no mention of it. A textual analysis of their respective discourses reveals a function creep that conveys a lesser degree of publicness and ‘market’-oriented public values, but also generates one public value: transparency.

The public brand is a relative newcomer to the public sphere. It is an expression of public marketing and an outcome of New Public Management (NPM). It is a lever that allows public organizations to get across their identity, assert their legitimacy and provide markers for the evaluation of their actions, but little research has been conducted into what it actually covers. The analytical framework of the social representation and, more specifically, that of the central core theory, makes it possible to identify, on the basis of a sample of 20 public brands, the values it carries, the influence of context on the configuration of the values and, more broadly, the use made of the public brand.

The article addresses a ‘wicked problem’: Organizing for internal security and societal safety. It examines the central emergency and crisis management under the terrorist attack in Norway in July 2011, with a special focus on the coordinating role of the Ministry of Justice (MJ). Our analysis is based on an in-depth qualitative analysis of relevant official documents and interviews with government officials, using a structural-instrumental and a cultural-institutional perspective to understand outcomes. There is a consensus when it comes to diagnosing the problems, identified as fragmentation, pulverization of accountability and weak coordination arrangements. The organizational changes have been cautious and incremental, however. A gradual upgrading of the MJ as an overarching coordinating ministry does not challenge the existing principles of ministerial responsibility. Suggested solutions are beset with ambiguity and conflicts, and there is a mismatch between problems and available solutions.

The aim of this article is to explore the opportunities for and constraints of the establishment of a central coordination instrument in a highly fragmented central government. The article is based on a case study which examines the creation of a development system for Estonian senior civil servants. It describes and explains shifts in the coordination mechanisms within this initiative over the last decade. The study concludes that networks may offer an alternative to hierarchy for the creation of new coordination practices in fragmented administrative systems. However, networks may prove to be insufficient and require further institutionalization and formalization through the inclusion of hierarchical elements once the coordination instrument matures. The study also shows that the funding arrangements may trigger a shift in basic coordination mechanisms. It is therefore suggested that future research should systematically examine funding practices as an integral part of coordination arrangements.

Coordinating organizations horizontally is a longstanding difficulty of public governance, often called departmentalism in central government systems. Several tools for horizontal coordination have previously been analysed but shared performance targets across departments have received relatively little attention. This article develops a control theory of shared performance target systems for horizontal coordination of departments consisting of ‘director’ (shared objective and target setting), ‘detector’ (shared monitoring of progress), and ‘effector’ (shared feedback to promote achievement of targets) components. The theory distinguishes between two kinds of shared targets: those promoting sequential coordination and simultaneous coordination among departments. The expectations of control theory are assessed for the Public Service Agreement (PSA) adopted in the United Kingdom. PSAs enabled a step change increase in discussion of shared policy objectives across departments. However, despite these benefits, the fundamentally separate broader ministerial and departmental accountability structures led to the setting of vague outcome targets, underdeveloped performance reporting, and fragmented delivery arrangements for shared targets.

This article reports on research on whether undergraduate Public Administration curricula at South African universities should provide for information and communication technology (ICT) competence and, if so, whether universities actually provide such competence. Both the context within which public servants work and their required vocational and professional characteristics have been shown to support the expectation that the learning of ICT competence be included in the undergraduate Public Administration curricula at South African universities. However, only those universities offering a National Diploma in Public Management include ICT competence as a separate module. The research findings confirm that ICT competence should indeed be included in undergraduate Public Administration curricula due to the need for contextual relevance, and the specific professional and vocational requirements of the public service. It is thus suggested that institutions of higher education, specifically in South Africa, assess their undergraduate Public Administration curricula by applying these curriculum requirements.