The Influence of Public Service Motivation on Ethical Behaviour and Organizational Performance in Public Administration Sector: Evidence from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (HKJ) faces internal and external challenges and hazards that pose significant encounters for HKJ. Such challenges cast a heavy shadow on several public sectors, the most important of which is the public health sector. However, this dissertation aimed to investigate the influence of Public Service Motivation on Ethical behavior and Organizational Performance in Jordanian public hospitals. This dissertation had been divided into two folds that filled numerous flagrant gaps in the arena of PSM. In the first fold, we investigated the influence of PSM on Ethical Behavior using three-level models via SEM. In the second fold, we contribute to the methodological linking between PSM and Organizational Performance using econometrics techniques

Information Content and Interrelationships of Multiple Performance Measures

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

An efficiency indicator tool for managing resource expenditure in public central hospitals

Citizens generally assume that government has unlimited resources, but public health care services are always limited and constrained. Public hospitals are generally in dire need of opportunities to allocate resources efficiently in light of limited financial resources whilst in the private sector, affordability guarantees access (Alaba and McIntyre, 2012). Efficient hospital management should include harmonised health care activities and provision, based on application of knowledge and managerial skills, including problem-solving to achieve outcomes using resources in the most economical, efficient and effective way (Usman et al, 2015). This research investigated cause and effect relationships between the hospital efficiency indicators and some dimensions and sub dimensions of hospital performance, mainly costs and volume of health care activities. Vector-Auto regression (VAR) system of models were applied to efficiency-indicator data for the four public central hospitals in Gauteng provided from District Health Information System (DHIS) over 28 time points which are quarterly intervals over 7 years (from 1st quarter 2008/09 to 4th quarter 2014/15). The rate of increment per quarter for each efficiency indicator was determined to be R44.02 for Expenditure per Patient Day Equivalent (ExPDE); 0.17% for Caesarean Section rates (C-Section); 0.31% for Bed Utilisation Rate (BUR) and 0.07 days for Average Length Of Stay (ALOS). The above estimates are generated in a predictive modelling context with smaller standard errors in comparison to those generated by traditional or conventional approaches and are therefore more precise. Linear Mixed Modelling also showed that correlating expenditure to efficiency would require hospital specific interventions due to significant ‘hospital specific characteristics or random effect’ (intra-class correlation) for each efficiency indicator. It was inferred that, whereas there might be common fixed costs associated with the operation of central hospitals, the cost pressure of providing for services is affected differently at each central hospital. Inferences of managers’ subjective responses on their understanding and utilisation of efficiency-indicator information showed that a manager with a medical background or within patient care is 1.14 times more likely to comprehend efficiency information compared to one with a business or management background. Interaction with efficiency data in current role is 1.10 times more likely for managers in patient care than those in administration / support. After controlling for hospital specific effects, changes are recommended for determination of targets for Caesarean section rates, as well as for the current set of efficiency indicators to be expanded. An Efficiency Indicator Management Tool (EIMT), where predictive modelling capability is a major output of the research study, is presented as a strategic implementational tool to promote evidence-based data decision-making in public hospitals. This research is significant in that it realised how efficiency indicators can be adopted to guide hospital expenditure in a cost-effective way.Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL

Stochastic non-parametric frontier analysis in measuring technical efficiency : a case study of the North American dairy industry

Regulatory institutions governing many industries in Canada are similar to those of the United States. Some differences in regulations and institutions can be found in those industries for which the two countries compete in export markets, and many agricultural products fall into the latter category. With respect to the production and export of dairy products, Canada has recently implemented policies that are substantially different from those found in the U.S. Differences in dairy policy have been the source of several recent trade disputes between the two countries. Despite efforts to the contrary by participants in the major policy agreements governing agricultural trade (i.e., CUSTA; NAFTA, and WTOA), the regulated structure of the Canadian dairy industry has been maintained. The U.S. and New Zealand have challenged the marketing practices of the supply managed by Canadian dairy sector. These policies have a direct impact on the productive efficiency of dairy farms. In this regard, the dairy industry in Canada and the U.S. provides a natural context for an experiment allowing us to compare the relative performance of otherwise almost identical producers under different agricultural policies. The objective of this thesis is to estimate and compare the technical efficiency of a large set of dairy producers in Canada (Ontario and Quebec), with their counterparts in the U.S. (New York and Wisconsin) by using a stochastic nonparametric frontier regression analysis. Our motivation for using stochastic nonparametric frontier estimates comes from the fact that there are problems inherent in the structure of stochastic parametric frontier models. Specifically in the latter models, the literature has shown that the efficiency scores are sensitive to the choice of both functional forms and the distribution assumptions made about the one-sided random component of the composed error term. To solve this econometric model, an iterative procedure called a smoothing process is used to estimate the mean response function and its parameters constructed in a generalized additive model. Using the method of locally scoring smoothing, the parameters of the regression function are estimated by employing two separate nonparametric techniques: locally weighted scatterplot smoothing (LOWESS), and spline smoothing. After estimating the response function and its parameters, the technical efficiency scores are computed. These efficiency indices are also compared with the one obtained from conducting a stochastic parametric (translog) frontier function. The results show that the overall mean technical efficiency obtained from translog function for all regions is higher than that of the corresponding values obtained from the nonparametric approaches. Both parametric and nonparametric methodologies indicated evidence of differences between the mean technical efficiency of dairy farms in all regions. This means various policies implemented in the two countries significantly impacted the performance of dairy producers. The direction of these differences was in the favor of U.S. dairy farmers, who produced milk more efficiently than their Canadian counterparts. This implies that the regulated dairy industry in Canada has led to lower technical efficiency of Canadian dairy farmers. Canadian farmers surely benefited financially from the implementation of supply management over the duration of this study, but from an efficiency perspective, policymakers might to realize that the current support policy is only sustainable at a cost. Furthermore, Canada's commitments to international agreements such as the WTO may no longer readily allow the federal government and the provinces to pursue some elements of the current supply management policy

The mediating effect of innovative behavior and entrepreneurial passion on the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational effectiveness in Islamic Banks

In recent years, there has been growing body of knowledge on the aspect of Islamic banking effectiveness worldwide. Nevertheless, there are a limited number of studies on the efficiency and effectiveness of Islamic banking in Malaysia. Accordingly, this study attempts to fill the gap in the current analysis on the effectiveness of Islamic banking in Malaysia. If Islamic banks measure their effectiveness based on their customers‘ perception, they can achieve superior results. Transformational leadership motivates staffs who work with customers which can lead to the improvement of organizational effectiveness. In this regard, this thesis develops a model in order to investigate the impact of transformational leadership on organizational effectiveness of Islamic banking through the mediating effects of innovative behaviour and entrepreneurial passion. A quantitative research approach was used to conduct this study in which 418 customers of Malaysian Islamic banks were surveyed through purposive sampling procedure. Structural Equation Modelling was used to analyse the data. The structural model demonstrated satisfactory reliability and validity measures. The measurement model also showed satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity. Furthermore, all paths in the research model were found to be significant. Particularly, the results revealed that transformational leadership strongly affects the organizational effectiveness. This study contributes to theoretical and practical knowledge by providing the evidence on the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational effectiveness. In general, findings of the study respond to the needs of the transformational leadership to consider innovative behaviour of employees and to bring about entrepreneurial passion which subsequently can result in increased effectiveness of Malaysian Islamic banks. This study is based on cross-sectional research design and future research is recommended to undertake longitudinal analysis in order to explore changes over time as changes unfold

The nexus between mobile phones diffusion, financial inclusion and economic growth: evidence on African countries.

Doctor of Philosophy in Finance. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2018.The following thesis comprises three discrete empirical essays on the interplay among mobile phones diffusion, financial inclusion and economic growth in Africa. The first essay examines the condition of financial inclusion and its determinants in Africa. Using the World Development Indicators and the Principal Component Analysis to compute the financial inclusion index for 49 African countries over the period 2004 to 2016, the study finds low levels of financial inclusion in Africa compared to other regions. The region is also characterised by large financial inclusion gaps as shown by the minimum and maximum financial inclusion levels of 0 percent and 82 percent respectively. Since policymakers have over the past decade embraced both financial inclusion and economic growth as key policy initiatives, the second essay examines the interplay between financial inclusion and economic growth in terms of the transmission effect and nature of causality. To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, this is the first study to explore the transmission effect between financial inclusion and economic growth using a unique and robust Cointegrated Panel Structural Vector Autoregressive model. The study finds the existence of a cointegrating relationship between financial inclusion and economic growth. It also provides evidence that the relationship between financial inclusion and economic growth in Africa is growth-led supporting the demand following hypothesis. The increased internet-enabled phones adoption in Africa has also caused much optimism and speculation regarding its effects on financial inclusion. Policymakers, various studies and the media have all vaunted the potentials of mobile phones for financial inclusion. Therefore, this study examines the interplay between mobile phones and financial inclusion in Africa for the 2004-2016 period using pairwise Granger causality test and found that mobile phones Granger cause financial inclusion. The literature on financial inclusion has identified high-quality institutions and governance as the determinants of financial inclusion. Lack of deeper understanding of these issues results in ill-informed policy designs. Despite the cascading literature on issues impacting financial inclusion, the empirical literature on the impact of institutional quality and governance on financial inclusion are rare. Therefore, the third essay evaluates the impacts of institutional quality and governance on financial inclusion in Africa. Applying the two-step system generalised method of moments model, the study finds a positive relationship between institutional quality, governance and financial inclusion, indicating that good governance and economic freedom can lead to increases in financial inclusion. The study concluded that African countries have low levels of financial inclusion with a strong relationship between financial inclusion and other variables such as mobile phones diffusion, bank competition, financial stability, institutional quality and governance. The study recommended institutions to make the most out of the high concentration of the rural population to rollout high-volume transactions, rather than clustering in areas with the high-value transaction and to craft policies that remove restrictions to entrance in the banking sector thereby enhancing bank competition. Policymakers should also not just focus on enhancing financial inclusion, without corresponding improvements in institutional quality, governance, financial sector size, financial stability and financial sector development as they positively contribute to financial inclusion. The study also recommended the implementation of pro-growth policies and a review of existing banking sector policies to eradicate unnecessary barriers to financial inclusion

Bayesian Saltwater Intrusion Prediction and Remediation Design under Uncertainty

Groundwater resources are vital for sustainable economic and demographic developments. Reliable prediction of groundwater head and contaminant transport is necessary for sustainable management of the groundwater resources. However, the groundwater simulation models are subjected to uncertainty in their predictions. The goals of this research are to: (1) quantify the uncertainty in the groundwater model predictions and (2) investigate the impact of the quantified uncertainty on the aquifer remediation designs. To pursue the first goal, this study generalizes the Bayesian model averaging (BMA) method and introduces the hierarchical Bayesian model averaging (HBMA) method that segregates and prioritizes sources of uncertainty in a hierarchical structure and conduct BMA for saltwater intrusion prediction. A BMA tree of models is developed to understand the impact of individual sources of uncertainty and uncertainty propagation on model predictions. The uncertainty analysis using HBMA leads to finding the best modeling proposition and to calculating the relative and absolute model weights. To pursue the second goal of the study, the chance-constrained (CC) programming is proposed to deal with the uncertainty in the remediation design. Prior studies of CC programming for the groundwater remediation designs are limited to considering parameter estimation uncertainty. This study combines the CC programming with the BMA and HBMA methods and proposes the BMA-CC framework and the HBMA-CC framework to also include the model structure uncertainty in the CC programming. The results show that the prediction variances from the parameter estimation uncertainty are much smaller than those from the model structure uncertainty. Ignoring the model structure uncertainty in the remediation design may lead to overestimating the design reliability, which can cause design failure

The Utility of Employee Flows as a Driver of Marketing Productivity

The movement or flow of employees into, around and out of organisations (‘employee flow’) has long been a central issue in human resource management and industrial psychology. This is especially so for the specific element of employee turnover, but also applies to staffing and internal talent development. Employee flow is especially salient in a South African context characterised by scarce skills. The voluminous literature on employee flow has tended to view each element such as recruitment or turnover separately, and has generally focused on internal outcomes (e.g. commitment or satisfaction). This thesis attempts to add two crucial features, namely EF as a whole system (i.e. inflows, intraorganisation flows and outflows of staff in conjunction), and customer-based outcomes. Something of a synthesis is thus sought between EF and ideas of marketing productivity. Marketing productivity has been proposed as one of the most important foci of the marketing discipline (Rust, Ambler, Carpenter, Kumar, & Srivastava, 2004; Sheth & Sisodia, 2002). It refers to links between marketing and organisational performance or value. Models such as the ‘service profit chain’ (Heskett, Sasser & Schlesinger, 1997) identify the antecedents of marketing productivity to be internal organisation characteristics such as staff satisfaction or loyalty. This thesis seeks to expand such models in the context of a system of EFs. Advanced decision theoretic utility theories of EF (e.g. Boudreau & Berger, 1985) allow for the complete, integrated value of employee movements over time to be modelled. Such a model is constructed and links to marketing metrics, notably service perceptions, investigated. Organisational value arising via the outcomes for customers are further iii investigated. Thus increased value of employee movements is proposed to generate organisational value, mediated by improved customer equity (e.g. Gelade & Young, 2005). An empirical, survey-based study was conducted to assess the model. EF was assessed in business-to-business relationships from the perspective of the customer using conceptions of decision theoretic utility analysis, and both intermediate and outcome-based customer perceptions of service quality used as dependent variables. Moderation effects from frequency of interaction and integration of the customer into the supply chain were also tested, as well as controls for characteristics of the transaction, organisation and industry. Results suggest that EF does significantly affect various stages of service quality provision, notably ‘potential quality’, which it appears mediates links to other aspects of service provision, especially final service outcomes. In addition, EF was also found to affect outcomes through the intermediate relational element of 'soft process quality', possibly highlighting the importance of relationship management and soft skills in B2B relationships. Employee outflows in particular showed evidence of relatively strong effects, possibly highlighting the ongoing salience of turnover, in particular effective identification and management of functional versus dysfunctional turnover instead of a sole focus on retention. Results were significantly stronger for service industries than others (presumably as service is the outcome), and when there were relatively few supplier contact staff (perhaps due to social networking, bonding, exchange or emotional contagion). This thesis adds substantially to the methodologies underlying service profit chain models. It explicitly included new constructs (EF utility). Contextually, it was the first proper test of this model in South Africa. Theoretical iv contributions arose from new inter-disciplinary syntheses of utility models, finally linking employee and customer utilities to the organisation. Ultimately, practical significance may arise for managerial models, estimating and justifying human resource interventions. Key words: Service-profit chain, marketing metrics, decision theoretic utility analysis, employee movement, employee flow, employee turnover, employee acquisition, employee separation, customer equity, customer satisfaction, customer retention, organisational performance, organisational value