Public Sector & Admin.Trad

Question 1

What are the different levels of culture (BEA)

Answer 1

1. Artifacts: tangible/observable aspects of the organisation (language)
2. Espoused Values: beliefs of how the organisation should act
3. Basic Assumptions: taking for granted (how orgs. respond to issues)

Question 2

Public Sector’s economic (3) and political (1) implications

Answer 2

Economic:
- manages externalities
- manages market failures
- acts rationally
Political:
- public value
- protects & provides civil rights

Question 3

Public Goods (2)

Answer 3

These are collective and free
1. Non-Excludability: people cannot be excluded (roads)
2. Non-Rivalrous: the consumption of one person doesn’t limit others to consume it as well (clean air)

Question 4

Quasi-Public Goods (2)

Answer 4

These are provided by the public sector but need to be paid
1. Non-Excludability: people cannot be excluded + need to pay for them (train)
2. Limited Rivalrous: consumption by one limits others’ consumption

Question 5

What are externalities? When do these happen?

Answer 5

Externalities are consequences. These happen because an organisation influences/affects a third party that isn’t involved resulting in a direct/indirect benefit for the main organisation (pollution).

Question 6

(solutions to externalities)
Property Rights Theory

Answer 6

aims to establish a market to pay/compensate for the externality (EX: carbon credits)

Question 7

(solutions to externalities)
What are regulations?

Answer 7

These impose requirements to compensate and ensure compliance by independent regulations.

Question 8

What is Transaction Cost Economics (TCE)?
Depending on what the government carries out TCE? (3)

Answer 8

alternative ways that the public sector looks to organise transactions by minimising the costs

1. Directly contact the private sector
2. Create hybrid organisations
3. Whether is worth it to produce it in house

Question 9

What are Arm’s Length Organisations?

Answer 9

Organisations that the government has control over these but that don’t form part of the governmental structure.
Thus, the government telling WHAT but not HOW to produce it.
* Remains publicly accountable*

Question 10

Benefits of Arm’s Length Organisations (6)

Issues (1)

Answer 10

Provides autonomy
Ministerial Responsibility
Easier to control
Closer to citizens
Reduces political interference
Innovative
- coordination & control

Question 11

What is publicness?

Answer 11

To what extent an organisation depend on public goods/services.

Question 12

What is the publicness puzzle?

Answer 12

How does publicness affect organisational performance

Question 13

Dimensional Publicness

Answer 13

Ownership
Political Authority
Funding

Question 14

Normative Publicness

Answer 14

Public Value

Question 15

What is NPM?
(5premises)

Answer 15

The government running/operating like a business.
highly focused on quantification
1. Focus on unit costs
2. Focus on performance management
3. Competition to produce public goods
4. Customer interaction
5. Implementation of private sector practices

Question 16

Disadvantages to NPM (4)

Answer 16

1. Too much focus on quantification & performance
2. Little coordination
3. Technical challenges
4. Based on ideological preferences without taking into account the real world

Question 17

What is Post-NPM?
(4premises)

Answer 17

Focus on the interaction and interconnection of citizens, government and private sector to provide goods and services.
1. Horizontal collaboration
2. Public value
3. Citizenship
4. Democratic Governance

Question 18

What is the Strategic Triangle?

Answer 18

Interconnection between
1. Public Value
2. Decision Making
3. Operational capacity

Question 19

What are Public Value Institutions?

Answer 19

those focusing on the creation of public value rather than profit generation/maximisation

Question 20

Types of Public Value Institutions (3)

Answer 20

1. Regulative Institutions: focus on rules and regulations
2. Social Institutions: focus on the creation of communities and social networks
3. Cultural-Cognitive: focus on the meaning and perceptions of social life

Question 21

European

Answer 21

AngloSaxon: privatisation, weak separation of powers
Scandinavian: transparent, strong powers
Germanic: weak separation of powers, strong local governments
Napoleonic: strong separation of powers, centralisation, weak local governments

Question 22

East Asia

Answer 22

hybrid traditions based on meritocracy

Question 23

Africa

Answer 23

influenced by French and Anglosaxon tradition
dependent on their traditions
culture shocks after decolonisation

Question 24

Latin America

Answer 24

influenced by Napoleonic traditions
authoritarian and unitary systems