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.

This study has three major purposes: to describe systematically the practice of librarianship in Australian Commonwealth Government departments and agencies from the perspective of librarians employed in that environment; to relate the characteristics of government librarianship to librarians' perceptions of and attitudes to their work; and to assess the extent to which the work of Commonwealth Government librarians needs to be redesigned to improve the level of job satisfaction they experience. A subsidiary purpose is to test the job characteristics theory of work motivation on a population of librarians. Information was gathered by a survey questionnaire on a range of variables relating to librarians and their perceptions of different aspects of their jobs. The primary instrument for gathering data on perceptions was the complete form of the Job Diagnostic Survey. The population under investigation comprised those Commonwealth Government department and agency librarians employed on a full-time, permanent basis under the Public Service Act 1922. and located in Canberra. Because the population was small but diverse, it was decided to survey the total population rather than a random or stratified sample. One hundred and eight usable responses were received which represented a response rate of 83 percent. The results of the survey were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Frequency distributions and Pearson's Product-Moment Correlations were calculated to determine the percentage of respondents who selected each option and the strength of relationships between pairs of variables. The study found that Commonwealth Government department and agency librarians in Australia are highly satisfied with their work generally, and with the environment in which it is performed. None of the null hypotheses relating to Commonwealth Government librarians and job satisfaction were rejected. All but one of the null hypotheses retating to the application of the job characteristics model to Commonwealth Government librarians are rejected. The study concludes by identifying issues and areas for further research in public sector librarianship.

This study explored employees' perceptions of organisational change as a stressor within a public sector work place undergoing significant change. A number of major stress-producing factors in that environment were examined and data collected of employees' perceptions of the nature of stress, changes in health status and data gathered of stress-related compensation claims. Data was also collected of employees' perceptions of effective strategies for coping with change from an individual and organisational perspective. The research design was a case study with embedded units of analysis incorporating elements of quantitative analysis. The method was chosen to flesh out the limited choices offered by many standard questionnaires. A case study approach and various categories of stress-related factors were selected measures to evaluate the perceived effects of work place change on stress levels. The eight females and three males, aged 27�50 were each interviewed for an hour for their perceptions of stress and reports of stress related illness, relationship changes and other reported changes�diet, sleep, heart disease, asthma, anxiety and headaches. Workplace changes to the Division were analysed, Departmental claims officers were interviewed and Comcare data analysed. Results show participants appeared to feel or experience "stress" in a way which they distinguished as different from feelings or experiences which were nonstressful states and they appeared able to separate these states and ascribe to each particular qualities. They also seemed able to identify that the stressful state occurred in response to some form of demands. Some subjects (36%) reported developing strategies for managing their stress. The majority of subjects (82%) believed work place change was inevitable and a number of subjects (45%) reported they believed implementation of change to be poorly managed, while some subjects (36%) perceived change impacting negatively on the work place. On the basis of the results, it would appear that a human resource management framework may enable more successful implementation of change in public sector organisations.