The theme of the re-aggregation of public organisations has been embraced in the recent public sector reforms of some developed countries such as the UK. The re-aggregation of public organisations may benefit the government in terms of focusing its interests on policy coordination. This is an alternative way of reforming the public sector in order to increase greater outcomes and the performance of public organisations with regard to the achievement of particular policy goals. The reform inevitably affects the targeted public organisations in both tangible and intangible ways. Since organisational culture is an important issue that can affect organisational outcomes and performance, including the achievement of policy goals, the research aims to analyse how organisational cultures have been changed following the integration of Thai public organisations. In this respect, the researchers used an integrated model of Competing Values Framework and human paradox theory to assess cultural changes of integrated public organisations.The research was based on quantitative and qualitative data gathered in field research conducted in Thailand’s four integrated public organisations. It was found that, overall, organisational cultures were altered following the organisational integration. Public employees perceived that the hierarchy culture hardly changed following a reform. However, the clan value has largely reduced, while market and adhocracy values have increased rather significantly within the new organisations. In terms of clan value, the research found that the reduction was a result of power struggles between groups of people who came from different organisational backgrounds. Power-struggling between clans could lead to lower team cooperation, a lack of trust and diminished loyalty to organisations. Public officials also perceived that a significant development of market and adhocracy cultures in organisations could be a result of external forces, as well as the integration reform. With regard to these changes, the development of market values was inimical to human relations within integrated organisations. Together with the existence of a patronage system in the Thai public organisations, leadership also contributed to a paradox of competition and cooperation where members of a dominant clan could be favoured over the others. People who came from minor cultures might feel a disadvantage from being part of the minority and then give minimal cooperation to the integrated organisation. In this respect, teamwork and organisational cohesion could be difficult to build if the tension is unbalanced. It can be concluded that the cultural model of the organisations studied changed and seemed to be more balanced than was previously found. The integration of organisations also has a great influence on cultures and paradoxes in organisations. The dissertation hopes to contribute to the existing literature, with regard to the application of a Competing Values Framework and human paradox theory to the underexplored context of integration reform in the public sector. Findings from the use of this instrument can offer a fresh point of view towards the reality of organisational integration reforms, especially for academics, Thai reformers and public employees themselves.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / Public service motivation refers to individuals’ with a predisposition to perform public service for largely altruistic motives in public institutions. The purpose of this study was to investigate what public service motivation (PSM) meant to state-employed social workers in the South African context. In gaining insight into PSM amongst social workers in the public sector, my objectives were to explore the value social workers place on intrinsic rewards, the reasons why participants entered the profession, and what social workers’ self-perceptions of their role was as public servants and what public service meant for their own identities. This qualitative study was conducted in the Western Cape with state-employed social workers. The social workers were selected using snowball sampling. Participants varied in age, years of experience as social workers, gender, and race. Data for this study was based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews. With public service motivation being an under-researched subject in the South African context, an open-ended inquiry into the important variables that influence PSM in the local context was followed. This approach will inform ways in which PSM could be measured in the future in the South African context. The results of my study indicate that social workers were attracted to public sector employment because it offered the greatest extrinsic incentives – higher salaries, medical aid benefits, and a housing subsidy, compared to NGO’s in the private sector. This finding challenges the widely accepted notion in PSM literature that social workers place more value on intrinsic reward than extrinsic rewards. Extrinsic reward refers to financial or other tangible incentives. The data further revealed that participants were willing to leave the social work profession and exit public service for employment opportunities that offered them greater support from superiors, and remuneration that acknowledged their academic qualifications. Poor remuneration adversely affected participants’ feeling of job satisfaction and motivation to perform their duties. Politics has played a seminal role in shaping the quality, and the denying of public service to certain categories of citizens.

Occupational therapists form part of the vocational rehabilitation multidisciplinary team, in returning patients back to work after any form of injury or illness. Among the services that they provide is work intervention procedures, which is comprised of different components that are implemented to rehabilitate patients’ work occupation, in order to ensure entry into, and/or return to the open labour market. The right of South African citizens’ opportunity to work is protected by specific legislation. When this right is affected by illness, injury or disability, the National Health Insurance system intervenes and ensures adequate healthcare services that are delivered equitably. The public healthcare services are delivered to over 84% of the South African population, of which a majority is dependent on public healthcare for medical intervention, including rehabilitation from different professions such as occupational therapists. To rehabilitate patients’ work occupation, occupational therapists follow different procedures as part of intervention. When researched, however, it was found that when this intervention was executed, it occurred haphazardly. The aim of the study was to explore the occupational therapy work intervention procedures that should be implemented by occupational therapists in the Gauteng public healthcare sector. A qualitative, explorative and descriptive research design was used. Data was collected through a workshop, working from an appreciative stance. Purposive sampling was used. Seventeen occupational therapists who practised in vocational rehabilitation and implemented work intervention procedures in the Gauteng public healthcare sector attended the workshop. Data was analysed using the creative hermeneutic data analysis method. The work intervention procedures for occupational therapists were generated. Client-centredness was identified to be at the heart of work intervention procedures, which entail different components, such as legislation, empowerment, assessment, planning, prevocational and vocational skills, work visit, job analysis, work hardening and conditioning, placement and follow-up. Occupational Therapy work intervention procedures for the public healthcare sector in the Gauteng province, were successfully explored and generated. The results showed that although there are procedures that can be followed in work intervention, the implementation process is not linear, and the procedures should be customised to individual patients. / Dissertation (MOccTher)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Occupational Therapy / MOccTher / Unrestricted

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / The emergence of collective bargaining in the public sector is viewed as a product of economic, political, technological and social dynamics regulating the economic relationship between the government as employer and public sector employees. Although public sector employees have been denied the right to organize themselves and to bargain collectively with their respective governments, especially in many African countries, the profound changes during the recent years has dramatically changed labour relations in the public sector. In many African countries, particularly English speaking countries, the process of collective bargaining between the government and public sector employees has gained prominence as the struggle to reconcile the broad interest of the government and its employees has been waged in order to deal effectively with public employment issues. Namibia is one of the many English speaking African countries which is making tremendous efforts to harmonize the employment relationship between the government and the public servants. But these efforts are being hampered by the structural handicaps emanating from the historical legacy of apartheid and its adjunt- authoritarianism (which has found firm roots in the country even after five years of independence).

Abstract Employer branding is an approach to recruit potential employees, it can be significant for organizations to have the most appropriate human capital in order to increase the effectiveness and build competitive advantage. It is important for all types of organizations, equally for the private and public sector, to understand what effect advertising has on potential employees. Recruitment advertising has been ranked second in terms of its reliability when finding jobs, and nowadays happens mainly through online media, as it is cost effective and it is possible for organizations to reach a wider audience. The public sector in Sweden is responsible for about 30% of the labour market. Despite this, young professionals have negative perceptions about working in the public sector and young professionals also have a lack of presence in the public sector. However, young professionals are essential in organizations as they bring knowledge, new ideas and have a diversity of perspective and experience. Therefore, this paper aims to discover employer branding advertising strategies in attracting young professionals to the public sector. This study is done through an online media content analysis of the 10 biggest regions and municipalities in Sweden, the study also consists of three in depth interviews with employees working with recruitment in three municipalities in Sweden. The research has concluded that public organizations are aware of what young professionals value and that the advertisements are eligible for young professional. However, some shortcomings in the advertisements have been found with room of improvements, with the main focus on creating a positive image in the mindset of young professionals and therefore loose the negative perceptions.

This study aimed to explore the experiences of middle managers in the implementation of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) at a public organisation in Botswana. The BSC is regarded as the most widely used tool in measuring organisational performance globally. The public organisation in Botswana has followed global best practice and implemented the BSC to measure organisational performance; however, the organisation is repeatedly unable to meet its set objectives. To gain an improved understanding of managers’ experiences of using the BSC, face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight middle managers at the public organization. Interview data were thematically analysed yielding five key themes: inconsistencies in training, the culture of the organisation, lack of communication, use of information technology and the disparity between individual and organisational performance. Based on the study findings, recommendations are offered to conduct needs analyses prior to introducing new systems, to assess the viability of such a system, and automating the balanced scorecard to reduce fatigue.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the Portuguese public sector organizations' familiarity with, and willingness to utilize, project management tools, as these organizations attempt to enhance their operational performance through carefully crafted organizational change. Design/methodology/approach – Using a sample of 102 public officials, 30 project managers' characteristics, 23 project management variables, and information availability on these variables are studied and classified. Findings – In general, the results clearly showed the familiarity of the participants with the important characteristics and variables of effective project management practices. Some exceptions were attributed to the specific nature of public sector operational systems. Research limitations/implications – The sample used in this study is specific in nature. It consisted of Portuguese public sector officials at the middle-level rank in the managerial hierarchy. Thus, the results should be interpreted accordingly. Practical implications – Based on the results of this study, some important organizational implications regarding training and systems development were advanced. Originality/value – This study empirically examines the public sector officials' knowledge and attitude regarding project management practices. It offers significant implications to public sector organizations, as they pursue a more open system operational orientation to meet growing environmental pressures and citizens' demands.

The objective of this empirical investigation is to gain insights into the operational strategies, practices and characteristics of 130 manufacturing, 61 services and 86 public sector organizations. Based on this survey-based research conducted in the USA, it is concluded that operational lessons learned from the manufacturing experience may improve the operations of service and public sector organizations. In this context, benchmarking manufacturing organizations' operational know-how may prove to be a worthy investment for service and public sector organizations.

The effective implementation of just-in-time (JIT) in the US public sector is examined in this empirical study. Specifically, the relationships between organizational modification efforts prior to JIT implementation, problems encountered during implementation and JIT success are investigated using a sample of 86 public sector organizations. The results of this research seem to support the notion that JIT, as a form of "managerialism", has the potential to increase the operational efficiency, service quality and organizational effectiveness of public sector organizations. However, for this potential to be achieved, public sector organizations, like their private sector counterparts, must be willing to modify their procedures and operations. The potential benefits of JIT to public sector organizations are not in doubt. However, the art of designing the right JIT implementation strategy for such organizations is debatable. Therefore, issues related to these concerns are worthy of future research. This study is a modest contribution toward that end.

The overall aim of this study is to examine what roles newly graduated communicators are ascribed in the workplace, and what expectation the workplace places on newly graduated communicators. The theoretical framework is based on Anthony Giddens’ thesis on modernity, as well as a revised version of Erving Goffman’s thesis on roles, adapted to the roles of communicators. The study uses the qualitative method of interviews to examine the experiences and feelings of four newly graduated communicators working in the public sector in Sweden. Through interviews, the results show that not one specific role can be applied to a single communicator, and that the roles within the profession are flexible and constantly changing. The interviews also shows that the newly graduated communicators don’t necessarily experience any expectations of them and their skills inthe workplace, and that the newly graduated communicators believe it’s more important to be active and to try out things at every given opportunity.