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156 Public administration Resources
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‘Managing for Outcomes’: Accountability and Thrust
Library Database
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“This article: (1)argues that the hard edge of accountability for deliverables must be dulled… (2)shows how managers can use evaluation tools… (3)proposes preliminary performance criteria for outcomes-focused management (4)attempts to sketch a new ‘managing for outcomes’ accountability bargain.”
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In the Wake of ‘A Certain Maritime Incident’: Ministerial Advisers, Departments and Accountability
Library Database
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“This article considers the accountability of ministerial advisers and their relationship with departments in the light of ‘the children overboard’ incident. It argues that if ministers [won’t] accept responsibility for… their advisers… then the advisers should be separately accountable….”
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Privatisation: A History and Survey of Changes in Organisation Structures, Cultural and Environmental Profiles
Library Database
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“This paper provides a brief history of changes after privatisation to organisational structures and cultural profiles of affected entities. It assesses the experience of change in the electricity industry… and examines results of a survey of… executives of organisations privatised in Australia.”
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Interaction between States and Citizens in the Age of the Internet: "e-Government" in the United States, Britain, and the European Union
Library Database
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“We examine the origins of the recent shift towards “e-government” in three cases: the United States, Britain, and the European Union.”
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Bureaucrats and Politicians in Britain
Library Database
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British “Conservative and Labour governments have displayed dissatisfaction with … and made important changes [to] “Whitehall model.” Some of these changes have reduced the degree to which politicians have been dependent on a career bureaucracy insulated from partisan politics.”
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Ethnographic Studies Can Inform Agencies’ Actions
gao.gov— — “…federal agencies…can benefit from knowing the full range of social science methods that can help them improve the programs they oversee… this study not only provides examples of how the federal government uses ethnography but also suggests some means of expanding and improving its use…”
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Bureaucracy - Paul C. Light
brookings.edu— — ‘[Bureaucracy] was once a wonderful term that meant efficient and disciplined and the economies of scale—that people knew their jobs, knew where they worked; specialization and expertise.’
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The End of the Line? Accountable Governance in the Age of Networks, Partnerships, and Joined-Up Services - Mark Considine
blackwell-synergy.com— — “In the standard works, accountability is defined as the legal obligation to respect the legitimate interests of others affected by decisions, programs . . . However, the simplicity of this doctrine is often contradicted by the demands of contracting-out and output-based performance.”
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Leadership Metaphors
web.hks.harvard.edu— — Harvard School of Government article discussing the significance of leadership metaphors in appreciating people’s underlying/hidden attitudes and approaches towards different styles of leadership
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The New Accountability? Devolution and Expenditure Politics in Scotland
Library Database
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“Devolution is seen to be a means for enhancing democratic control and accountability in the British political system)…This article focuses on expenditure politics in the budget and audit processes of the Scottish Parliament.”
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Models of Political Accountability and Concepts of Australian Government
blackwell-synergy.com— — “One immediate task for those interested in accountability is to map the basic features of the Australian system (best understood as ‘executive federalism’) in order to provide foundations for new accountability models”
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Democracy and bureaucracy - Judith Gruber
informaworld.com— — “This paper calls for greater control resources for elected officials whereby they can overcome the abundant power resources of bureaucrats. A process of exchange as against a process of authority is suggested as a strategic means of democratic control over bureaucracy.”
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The Secret Life of the Office
exploratorium.edu— — “Today, over 50% of jobs are in offices, but 160 years ago the figure was only 1%, and the only office workers were ‘Dickensian’ clerks. They had considerable status and freedom to organise their work, and kept financial ledgers, but there were no forms, memos, reports, etc.”
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Gender and Bureaucracies —A Critique of Ferguson's ‘The Feminist Case Against Bureaucracy’ - Yvonne Due Billing
blackwell-synergy.com— — “In feminist analysis, salient in Kathy Ferguson’s ‘The Feminist Case Against Bureaucracy’, there is a tendency to have a one-sided view on bureaucracies and to regard these merely as products of ‘maleness’ and as incompatible with (radical) feminism.”
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Public Choice Theory and Public Choices: Bureaucrats and State Reorganization in Australia Denmark, New Zealand, and Sweden in the 1980s
people.virginia.edu— — “Reorganizers of the state in Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, and Sweden during the 1980s tried to separate policy making from the production of welfare and other services by introducing market disciplines and competition”
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Designing Evaluations
gao.gov— — “This methodology transfer paper addresses the logic of program evaluation designs. It provides a systematic approach to designing evaluations that takes into account the questions guiding a study, the constraints evaluators face in conducting it, and the information needs of its intended user.”