The Norwegian public sector, in particular local Councils as the principal supplier of welfare services, face great challenges in the coming years. Expectations and demands upon public services are increasing in proportion with the increase in private wealth. Among the consequences are higher demands on the distribution of welfare services, and the need for a more effective use of resources. Inspired by New Public Management theories, Norwegian local Councils have made considerable changes in management over the last 10-20 years. To meet the demands for increased activity, public sector has undergone a transition towards a less hierarchal organisational structure, their delegation to appropriate performance units has increased, and systems to monitor aims and results have been introduced. With respect to the latter, it has become crucial that data concerning resource utilisation and economy are made easily available and can be related to management issues. In 2001 the national government introduced the so-called KOSTRA public reporting system (Kommune-ST-at-Rapportering) The overall aim of KOSTRA is to produce relevant, reliable, current and comparable management information. In addition, the KOSTRA reporting system will provide an improved database as an aid to service provision, as well as providing a foundation for improved Council management. Our aim with this assignment has been to take a closer look at KOSTRA as a suitable tool for resource management within local Councils, and to see whether Councils do in fact use it actively in their own administrational priorities and activities. We have illustrated this by taking a closer look at possible connections between active use of KOSTRA and the Councils` economic situation, priorities and effectiveness. We have found no grounds in our studies to indicate that there is any difference in the allocation of priorities between those local Councils using KOSTRA in management-related activities and those who do not. On the other hand, we have discovered links between active use of KOSTRA and the Councils`economic situation. This connection is very interesting. It is the Councils under financial stress which appear to be using KOSTRA actively. Our major conclusion is that KOSTRA alone does not produce all necessary and relevant management information. KOSTRA is more applicable when seen in context with the complexity of public sector, and with a firm knowledge of the system's underlying indicators.

The current study analyzes the impact of ethical work climates (caring, law and code, rules, instrumental and independence climates) and perceptions of organizational justice (distributive, procedural and interactional justice) on workplace deviance (organizational and interpersonal deviance) which is associated with huge financial, social and psychological costs for the organizations and organizational members. The findings of the research are based on a quantitative survey conducted among 219 employees in a public organization. The results obtained after controlling the significant effect of demographic variables revealed that it was only the perceptions of procedural justice that had a significant negative impact on organizational deviance. Distributive and interactional justice predicted neither interpersonal nor organizational deviance. Among the ethical work climates, caring climate was found to be the only ethical climate type that predicted organizational deviance. The remaining types of ethical work climates had significant relationships with neither one of the interpersonal or organizational deviance. Results also showed that ethical work climate was a better predictor of organizational deviance than interpersonal deviance.

Bakgrund Under de senaste 30 åren har företag inom det privata näringslivet alltmer fokuserat på att skapa nära relationer till sina leverantörer. I motsats till utvecklingen inom det privata näringslivet, har utvecklingen inom offentliga verksamheter alltmer kommit att präglas av att inköpen skall konkurrensutsättas. Lagen om offentlig upphandling (LOU) reglerar i hög grad offentliga organisationers relationer till sina leverantörer. Emellanåt väcks frågan om inte offentliga organisationer skulle ha nytta av närmare leverantörsrelationer, liknande de som finns inom det privata näringslivet, där båda parter känner varandra och varandras behov väl. Syfte Syftet med undersökningen har varit att klarlägga huruvida den offentliga sektorn skulle kunna dra nytta av närmare leverantörsrelationer när det gäller inköp av vissa tjänster, samt att utreda i vilken utsträckning LOU tillåter ett nära samarbete mellan den offentliga sektorn och dess privata leverantörer. Genomförande Undersökningen har genomförts i form av en fallstudie, då vi har undersökt relationerna mellan Linköpings kommun och dess leverantörer. Fallstudien har genomförts dels genom en kvantitativ enkätundersökning bland Linköpings kommuns leverantörer, dels genom kvalitativa intervjuer med upphandlare och andra ämneskunniga personer. Resultat Undersökningen har visat att offentlig sektor skulle kunna dra nytta av närmare leverantörsrelationer för att tillfredsställa tre olika typer av behov. Dessa behov gäller utveckling och effektivisering av verksamheten, leverantörernas medverkan i utformningen av tjänsterna samt längre avtalstider inom vissa verksamheter. Undersökningen har även visat att offentliga organisationer idag har möjlighet att samarbeta med sina leverantörer under flera olika former. Dessa samarbetsformer tillfredsställer till viss del de behov av närmare leverantörsrelationer som idag finns inom offentlig sektor. / Background During the past 30 years, companies within the trade and industry have more and more focused on creating closer relationships with thier suppliers. In contrast to the development in the trade and industry, purchases within the public sector is nowadays caracterized by keen competition. The relationship between public organisations and their suppliers is regulated to a great extent by The Law of Public Purchases (LOU). Occasionally, the question is raised whether public organisations would benefit from closer relationships with their suppliers, relationships similar to those that can be observed in the trade and industry, where both parties know each other and each others interests well. Purpose The aim of this paper is to find out whether the public sector would benefit from closer supplier relations when it comes to certain services, as well as to investigate to what extent LOU allows a closer collaboration between the public sector and ther private suppliers. Implementation The investigation has been implemented in the form of a case study, since we have studied the relations between the municipality of Linköping and its suppliers. The case study has been implemented partly though a quantitative survey among the suppliers of the municipality of Linköping, partly through qualitative interviews with purchasers and other people that have a lot of knowledge and experience of this matter. Results The investigation has shown that the public sector would benefit from closer relationships in order to satisfy three different types of needs. These needs concern development and effectivisation of the activity, the suppliers participation of the design of the services and longer time limits for contracts. The investigation has also shown that there are possibilities for public organisations to collaborate with their suppliers in different ways. These ways of collaboration partly satisfy the needs of closer supplier relations that we can find today within the public sector.

Diskussionen om den svenska vården är ständigt aktuell, särskilt den som rör de tio till tolv procent som utgör privat verksamhet. De ekonomiska drivkrafter som finns i ett företag med vinstintresse kan anses vara oförenliga med vård av god kvalitet. Det är viktigt att kunna balansera incitamenten kvalitet och vinstintresse för att undvika att patienter eller brukare blir missgynnade. Den privata vården och omsorgen tampas med dagens rådande organisationskultur som säger att det är fult att tjäna pengar på vård. Den offentliga sektorn i sin tur arbetar mot kvalitetsmål vare sig de är företagsekonomiskt effektiva eller ej, samtidigt som de brottas med svårigheter gällande krav på ökad ekonomisk effektivitet, åtstramningar och problem med att mäta graden av framgång baserat på prestationer. Det komplexa i att kunna balansera vinstintresse och kvalitet och på bästa sätt möta omvärldens krav på styrning och mål har lett fram till denna undersöknings forskningsfråga som lyder: Vilka likheter och skillnader förekommer i mellanchefers målarbete beroende på vinstintresse? I en kvalitativ studie har sex stycken mellanchefer inom vård- och omsorgssektorn intervjuats med avsikt att skapa förståelse kring hur deras målarbete bedrivs. Vidare syftar studien till att försöka urskilja om och i så fall på vilket eller vilka sätt incitamentet vinstintresse påverkar detta målarbete. Utifrån studien har flera slutsatser dragits. Det finns skillnader i målarbete på grund av incitamentet vinstintresse. Exempel på dessa är konkretisering av mål och förtydligande av övergripande syfte. Samtidigt kan detta incitament inte betraktas som angörande för hur målarbetet utförs. Nyckelord: Incitament, offentlig sektor, privat sektor, vinstintresse, mål.

One of the major advancements in the IT industry during the 1990s was the development of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Beyond the high costs and significant amount of effort needed to implement such a system, the possible benefits for the organization in achieving more efficient operations and improving its competitive stance in the competitive business environment have been undoubted. The high failure rates of ERP systems implementations (Soh et al., 2000; Willis and Willis-Brown; 2002) have paved the way for a chase from both academicians and practitioners to understand and pinpoint the critical success factors that positively impact this type of projects’ success. Research has been done for ERP implementations in numerous environments but there is a serious gap in the literature regarding implementations in the Cypriot context. Furthermore, after the island’s accession to the European Union (EU) in 2004, the need for the governmental sector to harmonize its systems and processes according to EU directives and to provide efficient services through transparent processes to citizens of Cyprus urged public organizations to proceed with the adoption of ERP systems to serve these purposes from both technological and business aspects. This thesis aims to investigate the critical success factors that foster the successful rollout of ERP implementation projects in Cypriot public sector organizations. From the literature review a research proposition is devised through the development of a theoretical framework consisting of 10 critical success factors. These factors are examined in the specific project environment and their applicability and impact in successful implementations is determined. A qualitative approach has been followed, through a multiple-case study in three Cypriot public sector organizations, by conducting a set of 9 semi-structured interviews and analyzing the results to determine the theoretical framework’s fit in the particular context and furthermore to determine the criteria which are used to determine ERP implementation success in the specific projects. The results of the study indicate that project success is evaluated solely based on three criteria; time, cost and quality. In addition, 9 out of the 10 factors of the theoretical framework appear to be critical for implementation success.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka om det förelåg några skillnader i upplevelsen av arbetsmotivation och arbetstillfredsställelse bland lärare avseende organisationsform och kön samt om det fanns en interaktion mellan organisationsform och kön avseende arbetsmotivation och arbetstillfredsställelse. Totalt deltog 84 respondenter i undersökningen. Mätinstrumenten som användes var Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire och Basic Need Satisfaction at work scale. Resultatet visade att det inte förelåg några signifikanta skillnader i arbetsmotivation beroende på organisationsform och kön. Vidare visade resultatet att det fanns signifikanta skillnader i yttre, inre och generell arbetstillfredsställelse beroende på organisationsform, där privatanställda var mer tillfredsställda i jämförelse med offentligt anställda. Resultatet visade också att det förelåg signifikanta skillnader i yttre, inre och generell arbetstillfredsställelse beroende på kön, där män var mer tillfredsställda än kvinnor. Ytterligare visades ingen interaktion mellan organisationsform och kön avseende arbetsmotivation och arbetstillfredsställelse. / The purpose of the study was to examine whether there were any differences in teachers' work motivation and job satisfaction depending on sector and gender and whether there was an interaction between sector and gender regarding work motivation and job satisfaction. A total of 84 respondents participated in the study. The instruments used were the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire and Basic Need Satisfaction at work scale. The results showed that there were no significant differences in work motivation depending on sector and gender. Further the results showed that there were significant differences in extrinsic, intrinsic and general job satisfaction due to sector, where private sector employees were more satisfied compared to public sector employees. The results also showed that there were differences in extrinsic, intrinsic and general job satisfaction depending on gender, where men were more satisfied than women. Finally there was no interaction between sector and gender regarding work motivation and job satisfaction.

This thesis is an exploratory study that measured the alignment of corporate risk management practices in six organizations in the Government of Canada with best practices described in the 2009 ISO 31000, as well as five independent variables believed to influence risk management practices in an organization. The objective was to determine if risk management practices vary from one organization to another in a single government, and if so why, as well as building a number of testable hypotheses for future research. The thesis found that risk management practices do vary significantly from one organization to another. It also found that there is a strong correlation between an organization’s budget, total workforce and the policy instruments it uses, and the alignment of its corporate risk management practices with ISO 31000:2009. This study furthers our understanding of how risk management is implemented in public sector organizations.

Government of Canada communications professionals work in an increasingly challenging environment, characterized by an intrusive 24/7 media cycle, a frenetic pace of evolving communication technologies, layered accountability requirements, political tension, and waning public trust. Scholars call on professional communicators to help rebuild public trust, which is intrinsic to a healthy democratic government. The Three-dimensional Model for Transparency in Government Communication developed by Fairbanks, Plowman and Rawlins (2007) serves as the theoretical framework for investigating the Government of Canada’s approach to transparent citizen-focused communications from the perspective of communications professionals. The model’s adaptability to the Government of Canada context is tested through 23 qualitative semi-structured interviews with Government of Canada senior communications advisors, managers and executives. The data is analysed using constant comparative thematic analysis. The findings demonstrate that Government of Canada communicators strongly value transparency. Furthermore, the key components of the transparency model – communications practices, organizational support and provision of resources – encapsulate the factors that influence the practice of transparent citizen-focused communications by the Government of Canada. The study concludes by offering recommendations for future research and practical applications.

Das Konzept der dynamischen Fähigkeiten, das der Forschung zur Privatwirtschaft entspringt, stellt die Frage wie Unternehmen um ihre Ressourcen optimal nutzen zu können, Fähigkeiten entwickeln, durch die sie in der Lage sind, sich stetig zu verbessern. Da sich auch im öffentlichen Sektor die Frage nach einer verbesserten Nutzung und Einsetzung der zur Verfügung stehenden Potentiale stellt, ist es Ziel dieser Arbeit das Konzept der dynamischen Fähigkeiten auf den öffentlichen Sektor und hierein den Untersuchungsgegenstand Museum anzuwenden. Somit werden mithilfe der Durchführung einer explorativen Fallstudie dynamische Fähigkeiten und deren Parameter untersucht und identifiziert. Hierzu wird zuerst das der Arbeit zugrundeliegende theoretische Verständnis des Konzepts dargelegt um darauf aufbauend anhand narrativer Interviews mit Mitarbeitern des Jüdischen Museums Berlin im empirischen Teil der Arbeit das Konstrukt auf den Untersuchungsgegenstand anzuwenden. Durch den somit erlangten detaillierten Einblick können dynamische Fähigkeiten und Faktoren, die sich auf diese auswirken, identifiziert werden. / The dynamic capabilities perspective based on private sector research poses the question how firms can develop capabilities to use and apply their resources in an optimal way to improve business steadily. In the public sector the question concerning the resource configuration of a firm is also enquired about the improvement in usage of internal potential. Therefore the aim of this paper is to transfer the concept of dynamic capabilities to the public sector, in that case with museums as the object of investigation. Hence dynamic capabilities and their parameters are analysed and identified by the use of an explorative case study. Due to that the theoretical background is defined in order to analyse interviews with stuff members of the Jewish Museum Berlin. This gains detailed insights and makes an identification of dynamic capabilities and their parameters possible.

This thesis is an exploratory study that measured the alignment of corporate risk management practices in six organizations in the Government of Canada with best practices described in the 2009 ISO 31000, as well as five independent variables believed to influence risk management practices in an organization. The objective was to determine if risk management practices vary from one organization to another in a single government, and if so why, as well as building a number of testable hypotheses for future research. The thesis found that risk management practices do vary significantly from one organization to another. It also found that there is a strong correlation between an organization’s budget, total workforce and the policy instruments it uses, and the alignment of its corporate risk management practices with ISO 31000:2009. This study furthers our understanding of how risk management is implemented in public sector organizations.