Nada Korac-Kakabadse

Benchmarking and performance measurement in public sectors

Given the prevailing emphasis on agency performance, customer focus, stakeholder’s interests and other methods of assessment under new public administration and prevailing managerialism in many public sectors around the world, administrative practitioners have taken to benchmarking as an instrument for assessing organizational performance and for facilitating management transfer and learning from other benchmarked organizations. The introduction of benchmarking into the public sector is still in its early stages. Technical problems, scepticism about usefulness and the appropriateness of transferring putative private sector competencies into public administration and the resistance in accepting organizational change as a necessary consequence of benchmarking exercises in the public sector, prevent the widespread acceptance and use of benchmarking in public sectors, arguably “punch‐drunk” with systemic change. Nevertheless, there are some encouraging examples of benchmarking within the public sector. This paper critically analyzes these examples in order to establish the vulnerability points of such measurement instruments which, possibly, need more research in order to establish the specific learning dimensions to benchmarking and to illustrate the importance of such benchmarking and learning within the highly risky, information technology (IT)‐driven experiences of systems development and failure.

Spirituality and leadership praxis

Spirituality is a long‐neglected dimension in the leadership issue as it is in the psychological contract implicit in work organizations. Traditionally rooted in religion, there are wider spiritualities that the organizational actor can draw upon and a burgeoning literature on personal meaning and transformative leadership. This paper reviews leadership praxis from the frames of wider spiritualities, links spirituality search with contemporary managerialist practices and surveys the breadth of, and commonalities within, varied philosophic positions with regard to the spiritual search.

IS/IT governance: need for an integrated model

With ever greater needs to account for the demands and desires of multiple stakeholders, it is proposed that governance considerations need, as much, to apply to the application of IS/IT challenges as to the whole corporation. The arguments for greater governance attention in the IS/IT arena are presented. Two key models of governance are highlighted, the control and stakeholder models. It is concluded that the stakeholder philosophy to governance will become pre‐eminent in the future.

Managerialism ‐ something old, something borrowed, little new

Of many managerialist panaceas, the most prevalent one today is the assertion that private sector practices will solve the public sector’s “self‐evident” inadequate performance. This managerialist view assumes hegemonic proportions in Anglo‐Saxon public sectors and largely goes unchallenged, notwithstanding serious reservations about the superiority of private managerial prerogatives one would draw from organization theory or, even, mainstream liberal economics, which is largely silent about the role of management and control in economic behaviour. It is a particular brand of economics that underscores the linking of public agency efficiency to managerial ability and performance. In neo‐institutional economics, “rent‐seeking” behaviour is attributed to civil servants, rather than corporate entrepreneurs, and from that ideological perspective of bureaucratic pathology flows a whole series of untested propositions culminating in the commercializing, corporatizing and privatizing rationales, now uncritically accepted by most bureaucrats themselves to be axiomatically true. The economistic underpinning of managerialism and its “New Functionalism” in organizational design hardly addresses the significant structural, cultural and behavioural changes necessary to bring about the rhetorical benefits said to flow from the application of managerialist solutions. Managerialism expects public managers to improve efficiency, reduce burdensome costs and enhance organizational performance in a competitive stakeholding situation. Managerialism largely ignores the administrative‐political environment which rewards risk‐averse behaviour which, in turn, militates against the very behavioural and organizational reforms managerialists putatively seek for the public sector.

Demographics and Leadership Philosophy: Exploring Gender Differences.

Leadership philosophy is explored through gender and other demographic characteristics in the Australian Public Service (APS), at the federal government level. Leadership philosophy is conceptualised as the leader’s attitudes, values and behaviour. Gender differences in characteristics of leaders (executives and middle managers) are examined in terms of strategic behaviour, management style, work‐related values, adoption of information technology, perceived organisational morale, family/work conflict and personal, work and family satisfaction. The gender differences are investigated using questionnaire responses from a sample of 750 respondents, of which 569 were male and 145 female. The APS findings are compared with a Cranfield study conducted in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), where gender differences are explored in terms of management and strategic orientation. A sample of 515 chief executives, medical, clinical, HR and financial directors, chairpersons and other non‐executive directors, consists of 406 male and 108 female respondents. The APS study reveals that there are no significant gender differences in the majority of measured characteristics. Similarly in the NHS Trusts study, no significant gender differences are found in terms of management and strategic orientation. The conclusion reached is that other demographic characteristics are influential in forming leadership philosophies, namely job and organisational tenure and experience of senior management responsibilities, thus highlighting the importance of organisational demographics and their impact on leadership attitudes and practice.

Board governance and company performance: any correlations?

There persists the belief that a firm’s only responsibility to society is to maximize profits without breaking the law, hence the role of corporate governance is to provide appropriate corporate control. Research suggests that there is a growing perception that corporations are social entities overall, answerable to social constituencies and that the role of corporate governance is to understand and adequately address the interest of such social and political constituents. A review of research studies in the area of corporate governance’s contribution to corporate performance reveals that there is no conclusive evidence of contribution. Moreover, it illuminates the need for a boarder criteria of performance and for the adoption of a political model of corporate governance in order to facilitate a corporation’s external accountabilities.

Low‐ and high‐context communication patterns: towards mapping cross‐cultural encounters

States that the major reasons for difficulties in cross‐cultural communication stem from the fact that actors from different cultures have different understandings regarding the interaction process and different styles of dialogue. Suggests that better understanding of communication within other cultures is the key to success. Uses past literature to suggest a number of cultural variability constructs concerning preferred interaction behaviours and the common themes they share. Presents three case studies to illustrate this.

Ethics, values and behaviours: comparison of three case studies examining the paucity of leadership in government

Three societies with similar initiatives for public service re-configuration and reform – the UK, Canada and Australia – are examined to highlight the many-faceted issues of public service ethics and the different approaches these governments have taken to re-building public trust and enhancing public service ethics in times of rapid change. These efforts for re-building an ethical public service are scrutinized according to four criteria for effectively leading change. Changes of public service values are also analysed as well as their implications for public servants. Effectively, applied leadership is identified as the pillar of ethical practice – emphasizing the need for quality leadership development through on-the-job experience. Although legislation and codification are seen as necessary for building an ethical infrastructure that can help employees out of encountered dilemmas, the way forward is seen as nurturing an environment of trust and vigilance in which ethics are promoted through exemplary behaviour of leaders and employees alike.

Leadership Renewal: Towards the Philosophy of Wisdom

Introduction Leadership belongs more to moral philosophy than to scientific theory. If one analyses Plato’s central problems of the character of a well-governed city; the formation of its leaders; the pedagogy of their sensibility and vision; and the disposition of Callicles and Thrasymachus, it becomes evident that moral values are the central theme. Burns’ (1978) comprehensive study of leadership establishes that there is a difference in kind between the exercise of power and the exercise of leadership and that the difference is a moral one. Burns (1978: 46) concludes that ‘the ultimate test of moral leadership is its capacity to transcend the claims of the multiplicity of everyday needs and expectations, to respond to the higher levels of moral development and to relate leadership behaviour — its roles, choices, style and commitments, to a set of reasoned, relatively explicit, conscious values’. As early as 386 bc, Plato initiated one of the first leadership training centres in the world, an institute he called the Academy, in an attempt to create a new type of statesman, a person who would be able to withstand the unwieldy pressures of office. In the Apology, Plato (1956b) details the origins of Socrates’ humility in defence against the charge of impiety and corruption of the youth of Athens at his trial in 399 bc. In response to this puzzle, at the declaration of the Delphi oracle that none is wiser than he, Socrates replies that he visited a wise man and that after conversing with him, he went away thinking ‘I am wiser than this man: neither of us knows anything that is really worth knowing, but he thinks that he has knowledge when he has not, while I have no knowledge and do not think that I have’ (Plato, 1956b: 36). The Socratic ‘ignorance’ paradox serves as the basis for an understanding of philosophy as the search for wisdom. As a living absolute, the Socratic message is a continual movement of a freeing

Leading the Pack: Future Role of IS/IT Professionals.

To meet the information processing needs of the new global organisation, IS/IT managers and their IS/IT staff need to develop new skills, so that they may be more focused on the business rather than on technical processes. In exploring the theme of the changing role and contribution of the IS/IT professional, this monograph provides a literature analysis of the changing skills of IS/IT professionals and identifies the new skills and competencies required for successful IS/IT development and utilisation. The monograph also presents capability‐related models that have been tested in two global corporations. The results of the two case studies suggest that there is a need for improvement in the area of IS/IT leadership for effective IS/IT development and utilisation. Strategies for developing IS/IT leadership capabilities are discussed at the end of the monograph.