Organisations are constantly striving to maximise shareholder wealth by improving effectiveness and efficiency of operations. There has been an emerging trend since the early 1980‟s to outsource functions which were considered non-core. These trends have now moved into the internal audit sphere, a function which was previously maintained in-house. With the outsourcing of Internal Audit Functions issues such as independence and the value adding approach of internal audit are brought into question. This paper explores similarities and differences between public sector internal auditing and its counterpart in the private sector in South Africa. Using survey data collected from a purposive mix of 72 organisations in the South African private and public sector, the degree of internal audit outsourcing, the rationales behind their outsourcing decisions, the types of internal audit services providers, the perceived status of in-house and the perception of Independence of outsourced Internal Audit Functions were investigated. Results from statistical analysis suggest that there was no significant difference in the consideration of outsourcing of Internal Audit Function by sector. The private sector was significantly more likely to consider internal audit a core activity when compared to the public sector while the public sector were more uncertain. No significant differences were observed between sectors with regards to interaction with external auditors in terms of coordination of areas of audit coverage and work schedule. Private companies were significantly more likely to have longer hours provided by interval service providers relative to outside providers when compared to the public sector. The biggest difference appears to be that private companies chose a big 4 accounting firm more often than in the government sector. Conversely the government sector had a higher frequency of choosing smaller accounting firms and specialised internal audit providers when compared to the private sector. The value of this research study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by means of bridging the gap between the theory and practice from a developing economy xvi and emerging market perspective, by highlighting the different perspectives of Internal Audit practice. Challenges that face this developing economy that are of particular interest when considering the sourcing arrangements of the Internal Audit Function, are events (political, social and economical) that have occurred in South Africa during the past 15 years. The public sector element is unique to other studies that were undertaken in South Africa.

The thesis explores narratives constructed by participants about an organization’s identities. I examine how identity-relevant statements were deployed as exercises in power, serving to legitimize and promote their authors. Framed within an interpretive paradigm, the research adopts reflexive approaches to consider participants’ understandings. I draw on organizational identity theory and empirical studies to explore the multiplicity and conflicting nature of identity in organizations. Literatures on organizational narratives, storytelling and power are also considered. The ethnography is set in a public sector organization in which I worked: the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA). Its role was to deliver the Government’s reforms to private pension provision in the UK; the reforms came into force in October 2012. The narrative data constructing the research were collected through semi-structured interviews with 60 members of the organization, transcripts of organizational events and a diary I recorded for a year. These data are augmented by a series of vignettes that weave in accounts of my experiences while working for and researching PADA. The analysis of narrative data is constructed in three chapters, each of which explores identity-relevant narratives from different perspectives. The first analysis chapter examines narrative data through five concepts: reflexivity, voice, plurivocity, temporality and fictionality. The second analyses identity narratives in two organizational events and the third explores my understandings of the organization’s identities from an autoethnographic perspective. The discussion chapter provides three readings that interpret the data through different lenses: narrative and storytelling, organizational identity and autoethnographic erspectives. I then make concluding remarks, including ideas for future research and the contribution of my research to the study of organizational identity. The primary contribution of the ethnography is to scholarship at the intersection of identity and power in organizations and specifically how identity-relevant narratives are deployed as exercises in power by participants. There are also contributions to narrative research methods, including the value of researching identity ethnographically. Additionally, I suggest practical contributions to literature on understanding issues of culture and sense-making in public bodies and how employees from different sector backgrounds (public and private) interact within a public sector context to deliver government reforms.

Over the past 20 years, governments in many countries around the world have sought to implement governance mechanisms to measure and assess the performance of public service organisations. As a consequence, public service organisations, especially those considered as poorly-performing organisations, have been subjected to unprecedented pressure to improve their performance and sustain performance improvement as a continuous process. However, efforts of public managers to improve the performance of their organisations have been undertaken without “comprehensive theories and rigorous evidence on this issue” (Boyne, 2006: 366). This thesis takes up the challenge of providing robust evidence on the factors associated with the performance improvement of public organisations. We propose that the notion of organisational capabilities offers a promising way to meet this challenge. From this standpoint, this research sought to identify the organisational capabilities whose development and use explain a public service organisation’s ability to improve its performance and sustain good performance in the long run. The empirical analysis was conducted in a population of hospital trusts in England. We firstly applied longitudinal and comparative case studies method into two acute hospitals trusts: one case of a successful performance improvement and one case of less-successful performance improvement. The purpose was to examine how the development (or lack of) a set of capabilities over time accounted for the differences in the performance outcome and trajectory of the two cases. Our findings identified the following capabilities as advantageous for achieving a sustained performance: collective leadership; action-oriented culture; effective clinical-managerial relationship; supportive external context; performance / finance control capability; coordination capability of the key delivery process; sensing capability and learning capability. We then employed quantitative method over the population of acute hospital trusts in England to explore the relationship between complementarities of capabilities and performance. The results demonstrated that only when in combination does the presence of the capabilities yield positive and significant association with performance. In other words, the presence of the whole system of the capabilities increases the trusts’ performance, while partial presence of a set of capabilities is either not significantly associated with, or even detrimental to, the trusts’ performance.

As the public sector continues to face competitive challenges from the general public, the need for better service delivery and increased productivity has become extremely important. The increased need for optimum service delivery in public sector institutions like the Ministry for Home Affairs has had significant impact on its operations. However, little is known about the challenges faced by the Ministry for Home Affairs regarding the causes of the inefficiency. A range of organizational factors can affect the nature, effectiveness, excellence and novelty of service provision to members of the public.

In recent years in Australia, accounting reforms have been developed which have resulted in the application of commercial systems of accounting to diverse public sector organisations. The reforms, which include the requirement to recognise infrastructure and heritage resources as assets in financial reports, endorse financial notions of accountability and performance that have been traditionally applied within private sector, profit-seeking organisations. Such notions are applied to a range of public sector organisations for the first time, even though the primary missions or objectives of many of these organisations are social, rather than financial in orientation. This critical, interpretative case study, set within the context of not-for-profit public museums, seeks to enhance an understanding of public sector accounting change based on these unique social organisations. The study examines three aspects of the reforms, namely, their development, their promotion and their defence. This examination is undertaken using the ideas contained in Mary Douglas’ (1986) How Institutions Think as the key theoretical construct. The supplementary perspectives of problematisation and epistemic communities are used to assist in applying the primary theoretical construct by explaining how, and by whom, these reforms were advocated and implemented in this specific instance. The study shows how the interpretation and application of the statements comprising the conceptual framework have shaped the development, promotion and defence of detailed standards developed for specific public sector organisations. In doing so, the study addresses two key research questions: (1) How were financial notions of accountability and performance of Australian public sector organisations constructed during the period 1976-2001 and articulated in the CF, once its development began, within this reform period? (2) How were these notions and other concepts of financial reporting outlined in the CF interpreted and applied in the (i) development; (ii) promotion; and (iii) defence of detailed accounting standards for not-for-profit public museums in Australia during the period under investigation? The study demonstrates that the concepts of financial reporting outlined in the conceptual framework were used by a relatively small group of technical experts located in influential positions in accounting regulation and in other fields to justify the application of accrual accounting within diverse public sector organisations. During the period examined, only certain questions were posed and certain issues considered and many problems associated with the implementation of the reforms were not considered. Accordingly, a key finding of the study is that each aspect of the reform period was guided and constrained by institutional thinking. In addition, the study shows how the framework's content can be used to permit equally well-argued, but conflicting, accounting policies to be adopted and defended for the same items, indicating the framework to be of only limited value as a technical tool. This leads to another key finding of the study, namely, that the framework is best understood as a political tool, serving a crucial role in enabling accrual accounting reforms to be developed, promoted and defended within the public sector. Thus, the study seeks to offer an enhanced understanding of the nature and determinants of accounting change, and accordingly, it broadens an understanding of the use of the conceptual framework, as an institution, in developing, promoting and defending changes to accounting practice.

This study approaches the study of organisational communication in the Australian public sector by focussing on the gendered nature of the organisation, and presenting results from the grass roots or 'native' level (Gregory, 1983). The theoretical framework of this study draws on a diverse range of philosophical viewpoints, ranging from organisational communication and culture approaches, sociological perspectives, public sector research, and uniquely Australian conceptualisations of gender within the public sphere. This study introduces a new way of conceiving feminist bureaucrats (femocrats), in terms of their relationships with 'natives' within public sector organisations. Difficulties in identifying a distinctly Australian organisational communication arena result from both the paucity of organisational communication, grass roots, and public sector research, and because of the problematic task of assimilating 'bits' of divergent theories, with often incompatible views to inform one comprehensive theoretical framework. The results of focus group and individual interviews suggest that a 'managerial' culture exists both within and externally to public sector organisations. This managerialism originates from within patriarchal and masculine organisational structures, and from a shift of workplace practices where a public service model has been replaced by a more private sector, bottom line, results orientation. While the 'natives' in this study are not representative of all public sector employees, their discourse provides a glimpse into the concerns of grass roots members of organisations, a view that is significant in its absence from organisational communication research, particularly in the Australian context.

This dissertation seeks to investigate the relationship between public sector employment and fiscal decentralization. We develop a theoretical model that helps us understand the interaction of the central executive's and subnational governor's decisions on the level of public employees at the central and subnational levels. Our empirical work shows that fiscal decentralization policy shifts central government employees to the subnational government level and that the increase in public employees at the subnational government level overwhelms the decrease in public employees at the central level. As a result, the level of total public sector employees increases with the degree of fiscal decentralization of a country. We also find that the levels of total public sector employees as a percentage of population are higher in unitary country systems than those in federal countries. The level of public employment also increases with the degree of urbanization and with the exposure to risk of a country. This is a somewhat surprising result. Typically, more public employment is associated with an excessive number of public sector employees, and, therefore, with unproductive spending. On the other hand, fiscal decentralization policy has been generally thought to result in an increase in allocative efficiency, since a decision on public expenditures made by a level of government that is closer and more responsive to a local constituency is more likely to reflect the demand for local services than a decision made by a remote central government. In addition, decentralization has been thought of as having the potential of improving competition among governments and of facilitating technical innovations. Therefore, one might expect that fiscal decentralization should help to retrench the public sector employment. However, from our empirical result, we find that subnational governors without taking full responsibility for subnational public finance tend to bloat the levels of subnational government employees and ask the central government to pay the bill. As a result, the level of total public sector employees increases with fiscal decentralization policy. These findings are much in line with Oates' and Wallis' anticipated results, but they are based on different explanations. Employing the two most commonly used spatial dependency tests, Moran's I and Getis and Ord's G statistics, we also find evidence of spatial dependency in terms of the level of public sector employees as a percentage of population among the countries in our dataset. This finding suggests that while using a country's own domestic variables to explain the level of public sector employment, we should not ignore that the neighboring countries' policies also play an important role in determining it.

Högskolan Kristianstad har gamla anor med utbildningar från mitten av 1800-talet men grundades först 1977 i sin nuvarande form. De sista 4-5 åren har högskolan haft planer på att göra en omstrukturering. Förändringsarbetet tog fart förra året och vi blev intresserade av att skriva om de förändringar som pågick. Syftet med uppsatsen var att analysera förändringsprocessen vid Högskolan Kristianstad, samt undersöka hur de anställda påverkades av den. Vi valde att göra intervjuer med de anställda för att få inblick om hur de upplever sin situation. Våra frågeställningar var: Vad var de anställdas syn på omorganisationen? Vad har de anställdas förväntningar varit under processens gång?  Vad har de anställdas farhågor varit under processens gång och vilka motstånd har uppkommit från de anställda under processens gång? Våra slutsatser är bland annat att en förändring är nödvändig på Högskolan Kristianstad, att skolan behöver en stark och tydlig ledning, att det hade varit bra om ledningen hade ett bredare underlag om förändringar i en akademisk miljö. Eftersom det redan finns en färdig plan för hur Högskolan Kristianstad ska se ut år 2012 så är det extra viktigt att ledningen drar lärdom av det förändringsarbete som nu pågår.

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to use a dynamic view of systems of innovations in order to explore the roles of a public sector in identifying innovative opportunities introduced by new technologies and new high tech products and shaping the competitive advantages of Sweden. This thesis is limited as to the field of good products in the mobile communication industry. Basing that if a country can specialize, put and allocate all of its efforts in the mobile telecommunication industry, the country could possibly enjoy better economic growth and competitive advantages comparing with other countries specialized in other less promising industries. While deducing contemporary innovation theories, the conflicts and contradictions are notified between the proactive roles assumed by the government sector in creating innovations and traditional views concerning the appearing of radical innovations. According to those theories, the public agencies are proposed to assume more responsibilities in creating innovations, while the sources of innovations are merely considered as a result of ¡§chance¡¨ or ¡§serendipity¡¨. A proactive view in articulating the roles of the government agencies is illustrated in this thesis in the respects of the intentions of technical developments. Using NMT and GSM standard development process as empirical cases, it is concluded that circumstances are favorable for radical innovations where a competent public sector agency with visions places procurement orders based on transparent competition and open standards or technical specifications, coupled with a competitive producer market. In the meanwhile, while working closely together with international standardization institutions and taking part in R&D projects, the pubic sector plays a different role, namely, as an entrepreneur, a catalyst, and a competent user, in the innovation process of the mobile telecommunication development. Key Words: Innovation, Sweden, Mobile Telecommunication, Public Sector, Ericsson, NMT, GSM

In recent years it has become way more important for organizations to use their brand to market themselves as an employer. In a market where organizations are competing for labor it has been known that the brand can make it possible for organizations to differentiate themselves as unique and attractive place of work. The concept is called Employer Branding and if an organization wants to suceed they have to have a clear and defined structure. The concept is well known among private organizations and not as common with the public sector. The purpose of this study was to examine how a small municipality in northern Sweden is working to be an attractive employer. The following questions were aimed to be answered: How do the municipality get their staff to work towards common goals and values? How is the municipality working to create a good management that promotes a friendly workforce? How is the municipality working to enhance their image? Semi-structured interviews were conducted to get the purpose of the study answered. Six employees were interviewed. The results showed what the municipality needs to focus on if they want to become an attractive employer. Evidence in the results showed that weak goals and values exists, there is a need for a clearer management, and that competence is neglected because of the municipality economy. The results are discussed and analyzed in relation to previous research and finally proposals is conducted for the studied municipality.