Ricardo Corrêa Gomes

Current State of Public Sector Performance Management in Seven Selected Countries

Purpose – This paper seeks to extend the analysis of performance management regimes by Bouckaert and Halligan to other countries in order to contribute to the developing theory of forms and challenges in public sector performance management.Design/methodology/approach – The state of performance management and the context in which it has evolved is assessed in seven different countries using dimensions drawn from Bouckaert and Halligans work along with elements from earlier work by Pollitt and Bouckaert. These are summarized in a table and comparisons made to generate additional insights into the factors that influence the shape and speed of public management evolution.Findings – The paper finds that the Bouckaert and Halligan framework for analyzing public sector performance management is useful, albeit with some modifications. Specifically, it finds that administrative culture is a key factor influencing the speed of reform and that the attitude of elites (politicians and civil servants, in most cases) ...

A Five-Sided Model Of Stakeholder Influence

Abstract This article aims to contribute to stakeholder theory by comparing the arena in which public managers make decisions. The description is based on a cross-national investigation carried out in England (2002) and in Brazil (2006). It offers descriptive and normative contributions about how Brazilian and English public sector managers perceive stakeholder influence. The analysis is depicted into a model that helps to evaluate the effect of stakeholder influences on decision making. According to this model, managers make decisions regulated, collaborated, oriented, legitimized and inspected by some influential stakeholders that need to be taken into account in their performance management.

Public Executive Leadership in East and West: An Examination of HRM Factors in Eight Countries

The Asia-Pacific region is known for examples of public managers taking initiative for addressing large challenges and opportunities, but recent concerns are that public leadership is greatly reduced in the new democratic and media-conscious era. Comparative data from South Korea, Mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia, the United States, India, Brazil, and Chile show that perceptions of strong public executive leadership in Asia-Pacific are similar to those in the United States (respectively 40% and 35%). Perceived leadership is greater in stable, one-party regimes (Malaysia, Mainland China), than in those that have party turnover (Taiwan, South Korea). This article also argues that HRM factors affect the calculus of leaders’ initiative-taking, and finds that in both the East and West public executive leadership is associated with HR factors affecting recruitment, selection, compensation, appraisal, rewards, and satisfaction with civil service systems. This article calls for further research and strategic HRM actions that strengthen public executive leadership in democracies.

Saúde, democracia e organização do trabalho no contexto do Programa de Saúde da Família: desafios estratégicos

Democracy should work towards satisfying diverse interests (for the common good), which is indispensable for establishing consensuses between the various stakeholders whenever possible. Since the mid-1970s, Brazil has undergone important political and democratic changes, making this a period of fundamental transformation in the countrys health paradigms. With the 1988 Constitution and the creation of the Unified National Health System (SUS), health system administrators, workers, and patients are dealing with a new way of conceiving, organizing, developing, and producing healthcare services, namely the social healthcare production model. However, to promote a real break with the previous Flexnerian health model, labor relations must overcome the flexibilization (casualization) of health work through such measures as consistent investments in human resources management, with the creation of means for discussing democratic administration. The current article aims to rethink the relations between democracy and health, reflecting analytically on the work management practices in the Family Health Program (FHP) in the context of policy reforms. Consolidation of the FHP as the key element for reorganizing primary healthcare in Brazil will allow shaping new institutional arrangements, capable of impacting the countrys sociopolitical culture, thereby contributing to fairer and more effective policies with solidarity, as proposed under the National Health System.

Depicting the arena in which Brazilian local government authorities make decisions

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to describe the arena in which managers of small size Brazilian municipalities make decisions as constrained by stakeholder influence.Design/methodology/approach – Four case studies were carried out with municipalities in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The investigation was carried out using grounded theory. Data were gathered through in‐depth interviews with managers and with the main stakeholders. Data were analysed using content analysis, supported by QSR N6 software.Findings – The contribution of this paper to theory is based on a description of the arena in which Brazilian municipal districts make decisions. In so doing, it endeavours to model this arena as comprised of five clusters of stakeholder concerns: limitation, collaboration, orientation, legitimacy, and inspection. The paper raises some issues that are helpful in explaining the relationship between stakeholder influences and public organisations. In other words, it helps to label stakeholder influences...

The Impact of Societal Culture on the Use of Performance Strategies in East Asia: Evidence from a comparative survey

Abstract The role of societal culture affecting bureaucratic processes is often suspected and asserted, but seldom researched in comparative ways. This article provides a general framework and systematic, comparative evidence showing societal values permeating organizational practices relating to performance. This study examines effects of work ethic, group belonging, and followership in a survey of public managers in South Korea, Mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia, India, and the United States. Results show (i) culture having foremost indirect effects on performance strategy and (ii) culture being as relevant an explanatory factor as HRM or leadership, when both direct and indirect effects of culture are considered. A key study implication is that researchers should not ignore societal culture in decisions surrounding the selection and implementation of management efforts and conditions that shape performance practice in organizations. This study contributes by providing a framework and evidence showing how culture’s effects on performance occur.

Administração pública no Brasil: reflexões sobre o campo de saber a partir da Divisão Acadêmica da Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração (2009-2013)

Este articulo nacio de una reflexion de los miembros del Comite Cientifico de la Division Academica de Administracion Publica de la Asociacion Nacional de Post-Grado e Investigacion en Administracion (ANPAD) - a partir de su proprio trabajo en el periodo de 2009 a 2012 - sobre el desarrollo de este campo del saber em Brasil. El texto describe y analiza los factores que influencian la produccion academica en administracion publica en el pais, destacando su significacion como area en el ambito de la ANPAD; el sistema de ensenanza, tanto a nivel de grado como de post-grado, asi como las escuelas de gobierno; y, finalmente, la organizacion de los grupos de investigacion y de publicacion cientifica (eventos y periodicos) que sustentan la investigacion. Como resultado, el trabajo: (i) presenta la trayectoria de la area de administracion publica en la ANPAD desde 1985 y la agenda de investigacion para el campo en los ultimos anos; (ii) actualiza el panorama de la ensenanza superior de la administracion publica en el pais, sobre todo de los programas de post-grado; y (iii) mapea los congresos y revistas de la area. De este modo, el trabajo constituye per se un balance sobre los avanzes, las lagunas y los desafios del campo del saber de la administracion publica a nivel nacional.

Analyzing Local Government Financial Performance: Evidence from Brazilian Municipalities 2005-2008

Municipality size has become an issue since the New Public Management doctrine of disaggregating structures into manageable units. In some countries, this doctrine led to the creation of small-scale agencies relying heavily upon transfers from upper-level governments. This paper aims to contribute to performance management literature by providing empirical evidence about some determinant factors that are likely to endow local governments with superior financial performance. Data came from a sample of Brazilian municipalities and refers to the period 2005-2008. The main conclusion of this investigation is that larger cities are more likely to manage revenue and expenditure better than are smaller cities, which aligns with the discussion of amalgamation versus fragmentation. This conclusion stems from the findings that in small municipalities mayors have fewer conditions to improve financial performance due to the difficulty of raising and collecting taxes and of reducing expenditures, which makes their administrations far more dependent upon external sources of money. Therefore, this dependent relationship can be seen as the cause of poor financial performance to the extent that it lowers mayoral discretion when making decisions. Another contribution this paper proposes to theory and practice relates to the fact that in the strong-mayor form of local government, mayoral qualification is likely to have little effect upon performance.

The Institutional Settings for the Development of Public Services through State-Owned Enterprises in Brazil

ABSTRACT The findings of this study make a timely contribution to the development of public services. Based on the institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework, this study analyzes under which institutional settings state-owned enterprises (SOEs) can be social and financial options for public service provision in Brazil. Applying a multi-case research design, this study’s findings show that SOEs can be a suitable option for Brazilian social and financial development when: markets are weak or noncompetitive; if few decisional players act; if political interference is minimized regarding operational decisions; and if corporate control is effective to avoid mismanagement and corruption. Brazilian SOEs are effective economic and social tools, but they need to peroxide value improve their corporate control (in the case of Petrobras) and strategic centralization decisions (in the case of Eletrobrás) .

Public Management in South America

Abstract There has been a global movement that has changed the nature of the state and its administration. Reforms have been implemented in Brazil, as they have in many other countries. This article aims to examine some profound changes in Brazilian public administration that have taken place during the last century, focusing on the modifications introduced since 1990. The analysis will be extended and illustrated in greater depth, using the example of the reforms that are currently being implemented in the State of Minas Gerais, and in the City of Porto Alegre. The analysis focuses on the Brazilian case, but examples of reforms in other countries from South America are also provided. The paper concludes arguing that a number of efforts have been made to improve the performance of public administration, but it is not at all clear that these attempts are bringing a better quality of life to society.