Ian Thynne

Public management and organizational autonomy: the continuing relevance of significant earlier knowledge:

A key theme of recent reforms in public management in various countries is the perceived need for many organizations in government to have a degree of legal and operational autonomy. In studying this and other aspects of the reforms, there is considerable merit in examining how the underlying ideas have been explored in earlier works. In this article, we argue that this is particularly relevant to the current interest in organizational autonomy. Pertinent ideas, issues and concerns were addressed several decades ago by scholars such as Macmahon, Seidman, Selznick and Follett. The contributions of these scholars have continuing analytical value and deserve to be revisited.

Making Sense of Organizations in Public Management: A Back-to-Basics Approach

This article addresses some basic facts and ideas about organizations as a way of concluding the symposium. It identifies different types of organizations in terms of their legal-structural characteristics, and considers aspects of their legal power, ownership, financing, staffing, and outsourcing. It ends with some suggestions for further related research on organizations.

Government companies as instruments of state action

This article serves to introduce the symposium. It does this by explaining the bases of the research and outlining the main dimensions of government companies which are the central focus of most of the country studies. The dimensions covered include the legal characteristics of companies, their management and financial arrangements, and the means by which they are controlled and called to account. These dimensions are considered in various ways in the country studies, and some of them are revisited in the concluding contribution to the symposium which addresses a number of ongoing issues as well as indicating possible lines of future research.

Ownership as an instrument of policy and understanding in the public sphere: trends and research agenda

Ownership in the public sphere has policy and analytical significance in the exercise of public power. The last 30 years have witnessed several notable trends involving ownership and regulation, public and private law, financial outlays and returns, shareholders and stakeholders, and principals and agents. The trends are identified and addressed, leading to suggested lines of ownership-based research on power, leadership and organisational maturity in and beyond government.

Ownership and Management in the Public Sphere: Governance Issues and Concerns

This article identifies a number of ways in which governance thinking has raised issues of ownership and management in organisations with public-serving roles. It tracks backwards to consider how such issues have been handled in the past: notably in the theory and practice of socialisation and nationalisation, in the adoption of cooperative and mutual forms of organisation, and in the use of enterprises mixing public and private ownership, with some fairly novel recent developments being noted. It then explores how these arrangements are affected by various rights to own and manage organisations and by the ways in which such rights can be exercised to protect and promote significant interests. The questions and issues considered suggest useful lines of future organisational inquiry.

Dynamics of public ownership and regulation

This editorial addresses the origins of our interest in the dynamics of public ownership and regulation. Issues of ownership and regulation remain firmly on the public agenda, with key themes involving distinctive patterns and trends over time, ongoing state involvement in significant areas of activity, and particular concerns in the provision of hospital and water services. These and related themes are addressed in the following articles.

PUBLIC ENTERPRISES: MANY FACES, MUCH QUESTIONING, NEW CHALLENGES

This article serves to introduce the symposium. It does so by providing relevant historical perspectives and raising some contemporary issues and concerns about the use of public enterprises. It recognizes that public enterprises continue to make a significant contribution to economic and social development throughout the world. Accordingly, they need to be acknowledged and studied as being an integral part of modern governance.

Government companies: ongoing issues and future research

This brief concluding article highlights some of the key issues which are inherent in the country studies and of which reformers ought to be especially conscious when they seek to establish companies or similar types of corporations in government. The identification of these issues is followed by an overview of some operational arrangements on which future research could usefully focus. The issues concern the publicness, performance and suitability of companies, while the research targets are the command, exchange and associational relationships in which companies are involved.

Institutional maturity and challenges for integrity bodies

Integrity bodies, as monitoring and review authorities, are dualistic institutions acutely subject to the forces of integration and autonomy. They are usefully embraced by governance perspectives that suggest ascending levels of maturity through which all institutions can potentially progress. The perspectives and levels have distinctive features with inherent challenges ideally requiring the involvement of particular types of institutional leaders.

In celebration of public administration: the sustaining significance of power - introductory perspectives

The symposium is introduced here as heralding the beginning of a new era for the journal. Significant aspects of public administration are addressed concerning power as its lifeblood and basis of its institutional-organisational configurations, roles, responsibilities, control and legitimacy. The discussion of these matters sets the scene for the analyses in the following articles.