Voluntary Sector Organisation Public Partnerships (IOPs) are a new form of collaboration for voluntary and public organisations, which aim to give financial support ta a welfare service provided by the voluntary actor. The aim of this study is to examine the importance of voluntary organisations in the modern welfare state. The importance they have as welfare producers. In this study i have chosen to look at how Karlstad municipality works with IOP cooperation. My theoretical starting point of this study have been the concept of social capital and how IOP collaboration works from a trust perspective. I have used both document study and interviews to answer my purpose. I have interviewed both officials in Karlstad municipality and representatives of the voluntary organisations that have IOP cooperation with the municipality in Karlstad. The conclusion I have found here is that Karlstad municipality and the three voluntary organisations I met, have a good collaboration with a high level of trust between them. But there is also some dissatisfaction that it is the municipality that benefits most from the cooperation. Another conclusion is that IOP collaboration has a great impact on the individuals who get help through the voluntary organisations. The study shows that many of these individuals would be completely helpeless unless the voluntary organisations improve their work.

The Department of Defense's (DoD's) budgetary and personnel challenges are affecting readiness, thus encouraging the use of effective teams to improve efficiency. This qualitative, descriptive case study examined how public sector DoD members experienced characteristics of high-performing teams (HPTs), defined by their members' shared sense of purpose, interdependent commitment, and exceptional team effectiveness. The documentation of these experiences may aid other DoD teams seeking to improve performance. Lewin and Sherif's theories on group dynamics, Johnson and Johnson's theory on groups, Katzenbach and Smith's theory of HPTs, and Edmondson's work on teams comprised the theoretical framework. Thirty-nine public sector DoD members provided responses to semistructured questions that were developed to seek insights into DoD members' team experiences and practices. Data were analyzed and categorized based on codes derived from the literature. Emergent themes from participant responses confirmed that public sector DoD team members experienced some characteristics of HPTs. Study participants perceived that these teams made positive organizational impacts, but transferring knowledge about these teams' best practices was inconsistent. These findings may contribute to positive social change by improving awareness among DoD practitioners about related HPT benefits and practices; informing public policy makers and practitioners about the value of HPTs in increasing financial and operational efficiencies; improving managerial quality and team experiences; encouraging innovation, openness, and action; and fostering an high-quality DoD workforce exemplifying long-term commitment to excellence and continuous improvement.

There is an abundance of scholarly literature examining the Millennial generation's characteristics and their uniqueness in the workforce, but few studies have examined the lived experiences of Millennials and what motivates them in the public sector workplace. Given the size of the Millennial cohort, the largest and most educated in history, this generation of public servants merits more research. This phenomenological study sought to determine what factors motivate Millennial public sector workers through a criterion sample of 20 District of Columbia government employees. Data obtained from interviews were analyzed through use of NVivo10 allowing for the identification of themes, findings and recommendations for further studies. Findings revealed that these 20 workers were motivated by the same factors that impact other generations, as Herzberg delineated in his 2-factor theory. Despite these similarities, participants felt they were unique and not understood by the generations of workers that precede them. The themes obtained from this study can inform public administrators seeking to increase workforce collaboration and productivity and underscores the need for further scholarly attention. Millennial public servants need to feel engaged through increased responsibility, recognition, and the nature of work, as they will soon comprise 1/3rd of the workforce. These findings have implications for social change by educating public administrators and Millennials' coworkers to capitalize on the younger workers' ability to contribute to the overall productivity and competitiveness of government.

Worker motivation is relevant to public sector leaders because motivated workers are more efficient and productive, demonstrate positive behaviors, and are happier. Scholars have focused on differing approaches on how to incentivise public service employees using extrinsic or intrinsic incentives. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the value and effectiveness of mission valence and other intrinsic means used to influence employee motivation and productivity. Using Festinger'€™s cognitive dissonance theory as a guide, a homogeneous group of key participants was interviewed with the intent of answering research questions. The research questions focused on mission valence deployment and on the incentive preferences of 11 purposely selected members of a public sector executive management team. The study incorporated the Giorgi method of data analysis. Following inductive coding procedures, the findings were synthesised into five themes. Findings suggested that mission valence has theoretical appeal to public service leaders, but the antecedent conditions, such as current mission statements have not been implemented. Thus, mission valence within PSGD is a conceptual intrinsic incentive at this point in time. Public service leaders prefer fluidity in crafting blended extrinsic and intrinsic incentive models that are unique to each employee. Consequently, opportunities exist for development of targeted skills development training to supplement existing leadership skills. This aligns with the implications for positive social change because the findings of this study yielded information concerning social, psychological, and motivational nuances and learning that may shape the next generation of public service leaders.

Cette thèse examine la question de la santé au travail des agents publics en abattoir dans sa multi-dimensionnalité. Elle livre une analyse du travail dans le secteur public non seulement à partir de son cadre institutionnel, mais aussi des multiples interactions, souvent interdépendantes, entre l’activité, les organisations et la trajectoire de la politique du contrôle en abattoir. Elle bat en brèche à la fois la présomption de qualité au travail dans le secteur public et la forte étanchéité de ce secteur. Elle montre comment les douleurs sont négociées, entre activité quotidienne et dispositifs de déclaration en maladie professionnelle et de reclassement. A partir des années 2000, une part croissante des agents de l’Etat en abattoir souffrent de troubles musculo-squelettiques. Les TMS sont l’occasion pour l’encadrement intermédiaire de négocier avec les abattoirs mais aussi d’énoncer le « vrai travail » des agents en abattoir. La mise sur l'agenda de la santé au travail des agents affectés dans les abattoirs surgit dans le contexte de redéfinition des missions de l'Etat et les évolutions de la politique du contrôle en abattoir contribuent tantôt à faire émerger la santé au travail, tantôt à l’occulter en laissant de côté la question du devenir des agents dont les missions évoluent et dont le métier est susceptible de disparaître. Au croisement de la sociologie des groupes professionnels, de la santé au travail et de la sociologie de l’action publique, le cadre d’analyse propose d’articuler les régulations liées à la santé et aux conditions de travail à celles de l’activité et du métier d’inspecteur lui-même. / This thesis considers the occupational health of public officials in slaughterhouses in its multi-dimensionality. It provides an analysis of work in the public sector, not only from its institutional framework, but also from the many interactions, often interdependent, between the activity, the organizations and the trajectory of food safety policy. It undermines both the presumption of quality at work in the public sector and the strong tightness of this sector. It shows how pain is negotiated, between daily activity and occupational disease reporting and reclassification schemes. From the 2000s, a growing proportion of officials in slaughterhouses suffered from musculoskeletal disorders. MSDs are an opportunity for middle management to negotiate with slaughterhouses, but also to state the "real work" of slaughterhouse agents. The agenda setting of the occupational health of the agents affected in the slaughterhouses arises in the context of redefining the missions of the State and the evolutions of the food safety policy contribute sometimes to make emerge health at work, to overshadow it by leaving aside the question of the future of those officials whose missions evolve and whose profession is liable to disappear. At the crossroads between the sociology of professions, occupational health and the sociology of public action, the analysis framework proposes to articulate the regulations related to health and working conditions to those of the activity and the profession of inspector himself.

This thesis uses a cultural perspective to explore the working life of employees in a government office during the 1980s. During that period three significant changes took place - in the promotion system, in management recruitment and policies, and in the introduction of computer technology. In comparing and contrasting these changes with past practices, we gain an understanding of the relationship between organisational culture and organisational change.

This thesis provides an attempt to better understand the design and operation of accounting control systems as part of an interrelated control package in an Australian higher education institution subject to an increasingly competitive environment. The study was designed: (1) to understand how and why the accounting control systems changed; (2) to understand how accounting shapes and can be shaped by other institutional processes; and (3) to understand the roles accounting control systems play in higher education institutions. The research aims and objectives lend to a longitudinal case study approach. The data collection consisted of two phases: (1) a pilot study to determine issues for the intensive study and to identify or develop a suitable theoretical framework; and (2) an intensive field study of the subject organisation to develop and explain the observations. Data collection involved a triangulation approach that mixes three sources: interview, observation, and document evidence over a two-year period between 2000 and 2002. The interviewees were selected from different hierarchical levels: Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Deans, Heads of School, general staff, and Education Queensland. This thesis draws on multiple theoretical perspectives to understand the complexities of accounting control systems change. These perspectives are: institutional theory, leadership theories, political and power theories, and resistance theories. Such an emergent research strategy was deemed pertinent to build a more holistic analysis and to offer alternative explanations of the phenomena under scrutiny. The case highlights a number of findings. First, despite the suggestion that universities operate as autonomous institutions, the University studied still succumbed to external pressures, especially from the Federal Government, for a more managerialist approach. In this study Federal Government pressures were the primary source of change identified. Second, the design and operation of the accounting control systems was found to be contingent on the related control systems and vice versa. Third, the accounting control systems played several roles in the organisation. In particular, they provided visibility to external constituents giving the impression that rational techniques had been employed consistent with Government prescriptions. This was the case for both the budget system and the performance management system. In addition to this, from an internal perspective, the budget was used to promote a sense of equity and fairness, at the same time reducing conflict in the organisation. Finally, the budget system was found to be a source of power in the organisation; it determined the level of control used to direct organisational activity. Implications for future research are presented in the concluding section.

This thesis consists of three independent essays, unified by the common theme of the distributional impacts of government. The first paper estimates the price elasticity of demand for pharmaceuticals amongst high-income older people in Australia. It exploits a natural experiment by which some people gained entitlement to a price reduction through the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC). The preferred model is a nonlinear Instrumental Variable (IV) difference-in-difference regression, estimated on repeated cross sectional survey data using the Generalised Method of Moments. No significant evidence is found for endogenous card take-up, and so cross-sectional estimates are also considered. Taking all of the results and possible sources of bias into account, the ??headline?? estimate is -0.1, implying that quantity demanded is not highly responsive to price. The elasticity estimate is a key input into the second paper which analyses the distributional impact of the CSHC. I consider the trade-off between moral hazard and risk pooling. There have been few previous attempts internationally to address this trade-off empirically for any health insurance scheme. The utility gain through risk-pooling is found to be negligible. However, the deadweight loss through moral hazard may be considerable. I also use an illustrative model to demonstrate the possible effects of the CSHC on inter-temporal savings behaviour. While the CSHC may induce some people to save, it may have the opposite effect on others. The net impact was not determined. The third paper estimates the Australian public sector wage premium. It includes a detailed critical review of the methods available to address this issue. The chosen approach is a quasi-differenced panel data model, estimated by nonlinear IV, which has many advantages over other methods and has not been used before for this topic. I find a positive average public sector wage premium for both sexes. The best estimates are 10.0% for men and 7.1% for women. The estimate for men is statistically significant (p < 0.04) and borders on significance for women (p < 0.07). No evidence is found to suggest that the public sector has an equalising effect on the wages of its workers.

The thesis looks at the macroeconomic impact of foreign aid. It is specially concerned with aid's impact on the public sector of less developed countries < LDCs> . Since the overwhelming majority of aid is directed to the public sector of LDCs, one can only understand the broader macroeconomic impact of aid if one first understands its impact on this sector. To this end, the thesis econometrically estimates " fiscal response" models of aid. These models, in essence, attempt to shed light on public sector fiscal behaviour in the presence of aid inflows, being specially concerned with the way aid is used to finance various categories of expenditures. The underlaying concern is to extent to which aid is " fungible" -that is, whether it finances consumption expenditure and reductions in taxation revenue in LDCs. A number of alternative models are derived from a utility maximisation framework. These alternatives reflect different assumptions regarding the behaviour of LDC public sectors and relate to the endogeniety <as opposed to exogeniety> of aid, whether or not recurrent expenditure is financed from domestic borrowing and the determination of domestic borrowing. The original frameworks of earlier studies are extended in a number of ways, including the use of a public sector utility function which is fully consistent with expected maximising behaviour. Estimates of these models' parameters are obtained using both time-series and cross-section data, dating from the 1960s, for Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Philippines. Both structural and reduced-form equations are estimated. Results suggest that foreign aid <defined as all foreign inflows to the official sector> is indeed fungible, albeit at different levels. Moreover, the overall impact of aid <both loans and grants> on public sector investment, consumption, domestic borrowing and taxation varies between countries. Generally speaking, aid leads to increases in investment and consumption expenditure, but reduces taxation and domestic borrowing. Comparative analysis does, however, show that these results are highly sensitive to alternative behavioural assumptions and, therefore, model specification.

This thesis establishes an empirically based dialogue between two theoretical approaches to management, one emphasing structure and the other process, by examining the question of whether management in private sector, profit oriented organizations is similar to, or different from, management in government departments. Subjects for the study were participants in the Australian Public Service (APS) Interchange Program, under which APS members work temporarily in other organizations, and managers from outside the Service spend some time in the APS. The measuring instruments used were a questionnaire designed to test empirically and to extend research by Fottler (1981), a standardised measure of personal values and two questionnaires to gather personal details and job related information pertinent to the parent and host organizations. The results of the study indicate that Interchange participants found significant differences between the Service and the private-for-profit organizations in which they worked. The differences within the major structural variable, organization type, can be expressed in terms of managerial processes. Evidence was found of interrelationships between organization type, job related process variables and personal values. The theoretical significance of these results is discussed in terms of a pluralistic approach to managerial process, the practical implications for the APS are noted, and suggestions for further research are proposed.