Culture plays an integral role in shaping Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and policies within any organisation. This role is manifested through determining the norms and accepted behaviours in any given society. However, the extent of this societal cultural influence has been deemed to be greatly unexplored among researchers. Societal culture has been defined by Prasad and Babbar (2000) as the compilation of values and ideologies that are shared among an assembly of individuals in a certain country or region. Researchers have been concerned by the relationship between societal culture and HRM practices in developing countries; HRM practices are defined by Armstrong (2006) as all aspects associated with the management of people within the organisation. Therefore, this research represents an investigation of the link between Saudi Arabian societal culture and existing HRM practices within the public and private sectors. Taking into consideration elements affecting Saudi societal culture, such as changing economy and globalisation, these elements impact organisations in Saudi Arabia on two levels. First, the local level, where public organisations are gradually transforming into private organisations with a focus on profitability. Second, the global level, represented through multinational organisations adapting to societal culture elements in order to achieve success. As a result of both levels, HRM practices are changing in order to be effective. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore this particular development and discover how Saudi societal culture impacts five specific HRM practices – highlighted following a comprehensive review of literature – and the role they play in shaping those practices. These practices are: job desirability, recruitment sources, performance appraisal, compensation and rewards, and training programmes. For the purposes of this research, a case study has been conducted in order to provide an in-depth examination. This benefits from a unique opportunity to investigate an ongoing privatisation process within a leading organisation in the Middle East. Saudi Arabian Airlines (SAA) represents an ideal candidate for this study, as the technical services section of the company, SAEI, is going through a privatisation process; this started in 2009 with expected completion in 2015. As the research data collection took place over seven weeks in 2013, this timeline allowed the examination of the transition from public to private sector within one organisation with the same workplace environment. Furthermore, having both sectors within the same organisation creates the possibility of making comparisons between them, as it would have been impossible to find two organisations from each sector possessing the same organisational structure, financial level and operational levels. Moreover, this study involved adopting a mixed-methods approach to incorporate qualitative and quantitative methods. This approach included semi-structured type interviews with eight senior HR managers as well as non-HR managers, and disseminating questionnaires among 200 engineers within the SAEI department. The findings and results of this case study have shown the extent to which each HRM practice interacts with Saudi societal culture. There have been HRM themes greatly influenced by the societal element, while other themes remained neutral and did not reflect any cultural influence. Furthermore, the findings produced mixed results when compared to those in the existing literature. As for the HRM practices affected by societal culture, three were affected based on the collected data: compensation and rewards, job desirability, and training programmes. These practices show clear indication they were influenced by Saudi Arabian societal culture. As for the HRM practices that remained neutral – performance appraisal and recruitment sources – they remained independent of any societal influence. However, after concluding the study and its discussion, this research provides several contributions to the field of HRM practices in Saudi Arabia on two main levels. On the theoretical level, the outcomes confirm a link between Saudi Arabian societal culture and compensation and rewards, training programmes, and job desirability practices. On the other hand, recruitment sources and performance appraisal practices are not greatly influenced. A further contribution is the up-to-date investigation of the impact that Saudi Arabian societal culture has on HRM practices, which helps to address well-known and documented gaps in the literature. As for practical contributions, one contribution is providing a first-hand review of the ongoing transition using primary and secondary research methods for SAA. This is 00considered beneficial for practitioners and multi-national corporations, as this study provides an action guide and insight into preferred HRM practices in Saudi Arabia. Further practical contribution is associated with the developed framework utilised in this research, where this particular framework can be used in the future to accommodate similar privatisation processes or make comparisons with international organisations.

The Diploma thesis is dealing with the usage of the private-public partnerships in the form of PPP projects. The main aim of this work is an evaluation of the PPP method whilst providing the public good as one of the main tools of financial projects from the public sectors. The thesis is briefly introducing the principles of public sector, its role and functions along with securing public good and their financing. The first part discusses the history of PPP projects, its characteristics and typology, as well as various advantages and disadvantages compared to traditional public contract model. The analytical part is dedicated to the implementation of the private projects and to public partnership in Czech Republic. The pilot projects are the D3 motorway and judicial complex in Usti nad Labem. Foreign projects are represented by M1/M15 motorway in Hungary and its comparison with the D3 motorway. The main section of the analytical part then focuses onto the analysis of the PPP projects, in terms of their effectiveness, financial aspects and the overall merits. In particular, a critical stance on the subject guarantees its objective evaluation. The conclusion of the thesis is evaluated whether it has indeed an effective method as it's sometimes called.

The diploma thesis deals with the topic of the Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) projects, as a tool for mutual financing of the public projects by private sector. Its main goal is to confirm or disprove the hypothesis, that the PPP projects are more effective form of the financing of the public projects and solve the problem of the debt trap into which countries entered in last decades. The thesis also defines the problem of the PPP project, their advantages and disadvantages and possible risks, analyses their usage in the Czech Republic and compares the experiences from the Great Britain in first two decades of the 21st century. The theoretical part of the thesis copes with the topic of financing of the projects of public sector and PPP projects. The descriptive and comparative methods will be used. In the practical part of the thesis will be performed the comparison of the chosen projects by synthetic analysis and the recommendation for the Czech Republic will be formulated based on the findings.

This thesis is dedicated to a partnership of public and private sectors and to its usage at the sphere of providing public goods. Introductory chapter is oriented on characteristics, classification and possible backup of public goods. Next chapter is focused on PPP method - history of PPP projects, their characteristics, pros and cons. Legal aspect of PPP projects, their institutional backup and their comparison with public tenders are also included in the thesis. Analytical part shows various ways of implementation of PPP projects in the Czech Republic -- e.g. Accomodation capacities and parking of The Central Military Hospital in Prague and Aquapark in Olomouc, as representatives of local autonomies. Questionnaire research of locally autonomous units with the objective of finding out the level of knowledge and access to PPP projects, is another important part of this thesis. The objective of the thesis is the evaluation of a partnership of public and private sectors, as one of possible solutions of providing public goods.

abstract: One of the theoretical cores and values of good governance is the accountability of public employees, where the citizens expect the public employees to maintain professional standards, avoid conflicts of interest, respect the principles of fair and impartial treatment, and use public money wisely. However, are these unique moral standards to which only public employees are held? The dissertation seeks to examine how the public evaluates the unethical behaviors of public and private leaders differently to better understand the sources of public and private sector differences in the public’s normative evaluations. Based on a randomized online vignette experiment with 1,569 respondents residing in the United States collected in Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform, the dissertation confirms that public authorities face different levels of public tolerance relative to business managers. More specifically, the unethical behaviors of a public manager are less likely to be tolerated than the same misconduct of a business manager, while ethical offenses of elected officials are least likely to be tolerated by the public. However, the public is relatively much less tolerant of public managers’ and elected officials’ petty violations relative to business managers than they do for more egregious violations of public authorities. The dissertation further finds that public evaluations are contingent upon the respondents’ work experience in different sectors. Individuals working in government are more likely to be tolerant of petty unethical behaviors, regardless of whom they evaluate, but they become much less tolerant of public managers’ and elected officials’ grand ethical violations. The longer individuals work in for-profit organizations, the less likely they are to tolerate public authorities’ petty violations of organizational rules while consistently being more accepting of the unethical behaviors of business managers. Using an experimental design, the dissertation finds the importance of a fair and legitimate use of tax money in the public’s moral evaluations of public leadership and further discusses the potential sources of public skepticism of the public sector. Furthermore, the public and private sector comparison provides theoretical and practical implications for ethics reform in the era of collaborative governance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Public Administration and Policy 2020

Since the end of the Cold War, the Department of Defense (DoD) has been challenged to formulate and make strategic decisions, especially in areas related to the Department's "business operations." Strategic decisions are those that focus on setting long-term organizational direction. This has proven difficult because a rather simplistic (and somewhat comforting) DoD organizational orientation toward an "either/or" or "us versus them" decision-making mindset that was once ubiquitous and appropriate, given the nature of political and military threats, has been hard to shake. This study reviews a particular manifestation of this dilemma: the decision-making arrangements associated with the provision of military depot maintenance services. An historical review of this topic shows a mixture of problems, progress, and promise. A strategic decision-making approach that draws upon Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith's Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) is proposed to improve the situation. It addresses key problems identified in the analysis and rests upon an approach to strategic decision making that is politically rational in nature. This approach, called a Strategic Improvement Agenda, is offered as a potential foil to the "us versus them" orientation. / Ph. D.

Thesis is focused on the analysis of the application Public Private Partnership within the financing of public infrastructures projects. Public infrastructure financing has traditionally lain in the domain of public sector. A tightening of many countries' budgets recently has led to an exploration of alternative resources for financing transport infrastructure as e.g. PPP. The aim of the thesis is to compare or evaluate which form of financing (PPP or using only public finance esp. issue of public bonds) is more effective. The thesis is separate into 2 important parts, theoretical and practical. The theoretical part of the thesis provides the general description of PPP projects, international experiences and about the legal and institutional framework within the EU and Czech Republic. Practical part of the thesis is focused on the main advantages and disadvantages of PPP projects. Here is also part devoted to the financial models using for the comparison which form of financing (PPP or traditional public procurement) is more efficient. Conclusion of the thesis summarizes the gained findings and also assesses which form of financing is more efficient.

The dissertation examines the economic and behavioral factors influencing 'sector-switching' in Kazakhstan's health care industry. Sector-switching involves doctors moving from the national to the private system, which is not well established, thereby raising questions about why the switch occurs. It addresses the question: why health care professionals in Kazakhstan switch from the public sector to similar jobs in the private or nonprofit sectors? This study addresses a key issue in public management (sector switching) and also offers insights into the dynamics of the transition from a centralized economy to a market economy. As such, its findings have `real-world' applications beyond the particular case being studied i.e. Kazakhstan. This study is based on two simple claims. First, fundamental to the reforms that characterize transitional economies is effectively moving public sector employees to a nascent private sector. Second, such switches are unique because the risks related to transitioning to the private sector are different in transitional economies than in established market economies. Thus, the study considers: the degree to which economic and behavioral factors interact with different perceptions of sectoral risk, and subsequently shape the decision to move from the public sector to the private sector; in particular in Kazakhstan's health industry. The data supporting this study come from a survey covering approximately 1,000 health care professionals (practicing physicians working in both the public and private health care sectors) from nine regions of Kazakhstan. The data includes information about individual incentives physicians have for switching sections and their perceptions of perceived risks and uncertainties given the economic transition currently underway in Kazakhstan. The findings of the research suggest the strong support for the proposed hypotheses and have revealed some of the dynamics of sector switching behavior and the characteristics of "sector switchers" in Kazakhstan. The results demonstrate that physicians' overall job dissatisfaction, relative salary compared to physicians in a different sector, their risk-taking behavior, the national health care system's deterioration compared to previous years, as well as problems with providing medical services in the country affect physicians in making their decision to change their employment sector.

Public Private Partnership (PPP) is a well established methodology for procuring public works projects. By incorporating the private sector’s expertise, efficiency, innovation, business sense, risk sharing, financing etc. into public works projects, the quality of public services and facilities can be uplifted. Like many jurisdictions, Hong Kong is also keen to take aboard this methodology which is so familiar but yet so distant. Although they have been one of the first jurisdictions to utilise the private sector in public works projects, their comfortable financial reserves has meant that there has been no urge to push the movement until recently. PPP has become increasingly popular amongst governments. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government is no exception. Some of the more active works departments have commissioned studies to investigate the best ways to deliver these projects, others have even trialed the method themselves. The efficiency Unit of the HKSAR government has also become an active arm in conducting research in this area. Although so, the information that is currently available is still very broad. Building from their works there is a need to develop a best practice framework for implementing PPP projects in Hong Kong by incorporating international experiences. To develop a best practice framework will require thorough investigation into the benefits, difficulties and critical success factor of PPP. PPP should also be compared with other procurement methods. In order to do so it is important to clearly understand the local situation by an analysis of projects conducted to date. Lessons learnt can further be derived from other countries and incorporated to those derived locally. Finally the best conditions in terms of project nature, complexity, types, and scales for adopting PPP should be derived. The aim and objectives of this study were achieved via a comprehensive literature review, in-depth case analyses, interview survey with experts from both Hong Kong and overseas, and finally a large scale data collection was conducted via a questionnaire survey with PPP practitioners. These findings were further triangulated before they were used as the basis to form the best practice framework presented in this thesis. The framework was then further validated by PPP experts to ensure it is comprehensive, objective, reliable and practical. This study has presented a methodology that can be adopted for future studies. It has also updated our knowledge on the development trends of PPP as well as opened up the experiences of other jurisdictions. The findings have shown that the local industry is familiar with “what” should be done in PPP projects but they are unsure of “how” these goals can be achieved. This framework has allowed this further knowledge to be delivered to PPP practitioners. As a result, the development of this framework can help to resolve the current economic crisis by encouraging more developments and business opportunities for the private sector. In addition, the correct projects can be delivered by PPP, the advantages of PPP can be maximised, and the general public can benefit from the private sector’s participation.

This research examined the role of facilitating agencies in promoting public-private partnerships (PPP). Bangladesh's solid waste management sector was taken as a case study. As is the case in many developing countries, municipalities in Bangladesh could not cope with rapid urbanization resulting in a large proportion of solid waste remaining uncollected. The private sector took the opportunity to fill this gap in service. They started providing house-to-house garbage collection and charging citizens for this service. Therefore, two streams of service providers-public and private-became active in the sector. In some cities the two streams remained separate without coordination. In other cities the two sectors formed partnership with support from facilitating agencies. This research investigated the roles played by the facilitating agencies. Three broad aspects were investigated: (1) necessity of facilitating agencies, (2) the role of a facilitating agency in sustainability of partnership, and (3) the role of a facilitating agency in effectiveness of partnership. Four cities were included in the study with varying degree of PPP and facilitation. Primary data were collected from public and private sector staff, elected representatives, and citizens through interview, questionnaire survey and observation. PPP is a promising mechanism for urban service delivery. This study on the role of facilitating agencies may illustrate how to achieve and sustain PPPs in developing countries.