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This thesis considers the problems associated with the Australian Public Sector moving sometimes erratically towards strategic public management following substantial and wide ranging reforms over the last 20 years. In particular, this study examines public organizational planning and evaluates the extent to which private sector planning philosophies and methodologies have already and could be applied more relevantly to the public sector. The major proposition is that commercial planning methods and techniques can be used selectively to enhance agency planning and management effectiveness and efficiency. A specific application at Centrelink is considered for public service providers delivering high quality government services as part of a purchaser/provider relationship. Strategic planning and management theory and models are reviewed and a progressivestages model is developed for the APS. A range of private sector planning techniques and tools is evaluated and brief but classified case studies on major APS organizations are also presented. The thesis concludes that a dynamics capabilities approach would enable public organizations to maximize strategic management and operational effectiveness.

During the last three decades, financial reporting, performance measurement and accountability for the use of resources by the public sector have received a great deal of attention in numerous countries, especially in the developed world. This study is concerned with exploring these issues in the public sector of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and, specifically, its central government. Following an initial introductory chapter a detailed analysis of the literature relating to financial reporting and performance measurement in the public sector is undertaken. This is then developed through a detailed study of the financial reporting and auditing requirements specified under UAE law. This analysis reveals a number of weaknesses in the system of governmental reporting adopted in the UAE. As a result of the literature survey and the findings relating to the system of financial reporting by central government practiced in the UAE two key areas are then developed through the research methodology outlined in the text. Firstly, issues relating to government financial reports are examined. These include the: importance of financial reports, frequency and purposes of using financial reports, quality of financial reports, potential ways of improving financial reports, external potential users of financial reports and, finally in this section, reasons that prevent the users from reading or using governmental financial reports in the UAE. Secondly, various issues relating to performance measurement in the public sector are also discussed. These concern: the importance of non-financial information, methods of comparison, reasons for conducting performance measurement, users of performance measurement reports, reasons that prevent government units from carrying out performance measurement, procedures undertaken by the external audit for measuring performance, the quality of audit reports, ways of improving audit reports, the external potential users of government audit reports, and the reasons that prevent the external auditor carrying out performance auditing in governmental units in the UAE. Finally appropriate conclusion on the basis of the analysis is presented.

Literature on entrepreneurship has been criticised on several grounds including a strong bias to examine masculine traits, being deeply rooted in the private sector, limited to economics, conceptualised as a specialist skill pertinent only to non-public entities, overly positivist, single causal and with a tendency to downplay the relevance of both the social and human sciences. The relatively few studies of female entrepreneurs in the public sector have been criticised on the grounds of privileging structure over agency and for ignoring new research perspectives. The literature calls for the generation of alternative viewpoints on entrepreneurship and specifically towards those that pay greater attention to the level of the individual within an institutional setting and that embraces like interaction with multiple sociological variables. To generate research outside these biases, a dynamic relational model consisting of four interactive variables (structure, agency, networks and context) was developed and then used to guide a case study on women entrepreneurs within a male dominated institution - the United Kingdom’s (UK) Armed Forces. A critical realist research methodology was used. Interviews were conducted with a stratified sample of 52 female, uniformed officers drawn from all three services (Navy, Army, Airforce). The findings revealed how women use structure, agency, networks and context to create the necessary leverage to bring about entrepreneurial institutional change based on individual goal realisation strategies. The originality of this research is threefold. Firstly, it examines female entrepreneurs in a male dominated public sector institution. Secondly, it uses a critical realist research methodology. Finally, the research develops a dynamic relational model that has wider utility. The overall net result of this research approach is to provide a richer understanding of the complex, multi-causal nature of public sector entrepreneurship that has the potential for far broader application. / © Cranfield University 2015

No / Creating an integrated social innovation concept requires connecting, engaging, and applying theories and practices into an encapsulating framework. Therefore, the exploitation of various methodologies becomes inevitable and a force in underpinning positive change. This study examines a coherent methodological framework that can be utilized toward examining social innovation in the public sector. The proposed framework provides foundations for examining social innovation leading toward empowering citizens and influence societal changes toward smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth.

No / Innovation is growing in significance for business leaders, communities, governments, and nations due to its essential role in ensuring survival, competitiveness, growth, and marketplace dominance. Despite its growing prominence, innovation often falls short of delivering better efficiency and improved services. Therefore, this article aims to identify innovation in the public sector, and highlights the barriers to organizational innovation, leadership qualities, and organizational climates that foster innovation cultures. While interpretations of innovation vary, a recurring theme in the literature is that innovation primarily hinges on creativity (Houtgraaf, Kruyen & Van Thiel, 2023) and leadership, including competence rather than solely the effort and experimentation that creativity or invention demands (Chapman 2006). Given the ambiguity surrounding public sector innovation and the lack of managerial tools to navigate it, this article provides insights to understanding the dynamics of innovation in governmental settings.

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.

The aspect of relationships has been underlined to be of substantial significant within B2B contexts, particularly within consultancy, all alongside the importance of trust within the clientsupplier interaction. An element that has been claimed to derive directly from the client-supplier experience and voiced to be of key in order to reach success. It has been stated that the behaviour of consultants can be generalized to the corporate brand, individual demeanours and actions declared to be of essential influence of affecting customer perception of the company and its brand. It has been remarked that, “employees are the public face of the organization, and their performance affects customers' interpretation of the brand”. Public procurement has been described as a process for the purchase of goods and services made by the public sector, procurements regulated by LOU, i.e. special laws and regulations. All member states of the European Union are subjective to procurement directives, injunctions regulating each procurement. In service marketing, traditionally, clients have relied on long-term relationships or been guided by recommendations from external parties when selecting supplier. Public procurement regulations have enclosed such use of informal selection bases, whereas instead requirements for supplier are obliged to be based on objective criteria and non-personal sources. The restriction of non personal-relationships between client and supplier derived the problem question of potential consequences the regulation might bear. Thereupon, the purpose of this study was to examine the corporate brand image of a knowledge- intensive service firm operating within the public sector. The empirical findings for this study were collected through semi-structured interviews with 5 Swedish customers of Ecenea Väst, a consultancy firm operating within the public sector. The role of the theory were of abductive view, were theory was developed, refined and adjusted throughout the process. The findings of the interviews where analysed using a content analysis approach. The empirical investigation of this study confirms previous studies arguing for the importance of relationship and trust within service marketing, particularly consultancy. It also concluded that it is the behavior of the consultants that influence the client's perception of the company’s image and brand.

Lean has during the past two decades grown to become a worldwide management concept. The purpose of lean is mainly to create value for customers and reduce the downtime for organizations. It origins from the automotive industry and was firstly introduced by Toyota. The concept eventually caught on and spread to other industries, service businesses and most recently to the public sector. A few years ago municipalities in Sweden introduced lean in their organizations and used it as a solution to many of their operational challenges. However, research suggests that the knowledge within the field of lean in the context of municipalities is limited. The study was designed as a single case study of the municipality Södertälje which was one of the first municipalities to adopt the concept of lean. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with key individuals in Södertälje municipality who had been a part of the introduction of lean or in some way influenced the process. In addition, interviews were held with middle managers who were currently working with lean. Furthermore, text documents such as decisions, objectives and budget documents provided by Södertälje municipality were also analyzed. To get a better understanding of how lean can be used in the context of municipalities the aim of this study was to examine how Södertälje municipality introduced lean, how it was applied and which forms the concept has taken. More specific the study has used institutional and translational theory to investigate how lean has been transferred and translated from the private- to the public context. The empirical data was analyzed through two phases. The first phase was decontextualization which was used to understand how lean was differentiated from the private context by the municipality. The second phase was contextualization which has been used to see how Södertälje municipality introduced lean in their organization and how they interpreted the concept. The findings suggest that the municipality had a problem-oriented approach where lean was considered a possible solution. To transfer lean, Södertälje municipality first recruited Robert Kusén, an executive from Scania, to “carry out” his knowledge and experience from working with lean. Second, the management of the municipality visited Scania and the social district in Copenhagen to “bring in” knowledge about the lean concept. Therefore, the municipality partly used organizational arenas in the same sector and partly organizational arenas in a different and more distant sector than the municipality. The study conclude that the contexts included in the transfer of a concept affects the translation. To translate the concept of lean, Södertälje municipality applied “the translation hierarchical chain” with few exceptions. Further, the municipality developed their lean philosophy and what they thought about lean by what they call “Växthuset”. By doing this and by interlocking lean with their existing vision and values, enrollment rules were used to establish lean in the local context. Using pilot projects also helped creating local references to the idea. Furthermore the municipality used specific rules for translating and reshaping lean. The mainly emphasized instrument was imitation, but there have also been indicators of addition and subtraction. This was expressed through the political context which narrowed the use of long-sightedness and instead resulted in a focus on democratic aspects. The municipality’s use of lean was from the beginning intended to include the entire organization but had instead mainly been practiced by the social welfare department. The poor adaption was largely caused by a lack of interest from the personnel and because key stakeholder had left the organization or had been replaced.

This thesis presents new data on the work motivation of Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) constables. It offers data from two surveys: a snap-shot of the attitudes and behaviours of constables with seven years' service; and a survey of new recruits over their first fifteen months of service. It is perhaps the most comprehensive study undertaken of motivation to work hard and remain in a UK police force and includes a critical review of the motivation literature with specific reference to its relevance to the job of police constable. A provisional model is proposed to explain variance in the dependent variables - motivation to work hard (effort) and motivation to remain in the organisation (intention to stay/leave). New construct variables operationalise effort, reality shock, career frustration, organisational citizenship behaviour, socialisation and performance. Pre-existing scales are used for organisational commitment, management support, intention to leave, self efficacy, higher order need strength, organisational identification, intrinsic motivation and job satisfaction. The model met with a reasonable level of success: up to 46 per cent of the variance in intention to leave and up to 26 per cent of the variance in effort were explained. The effect of the model in explaining the outcomes of two organisational changes on the work motivation of experienced constables is also examined. Following the data analysis, a revised model is proposed. Motivation theories were shown to have validity and contribute to our understanding of work motivation. Variables explaining the work motivation of MPS constables were found to be similar to those in empirical research on other workers. However, probationary constables as a group were shown to have very unrealistic career expectations. Self-reported levels of effort decreased and levels of intention to leave increased over the socialisation period.