Contract Governance and the Canadian Public Sector

This essay examines the changing character of public sector work in the Canadian federal public service context. It is based on an empirical examination of various forms of contractual relations currently operative within the Canadian state and on a comparative approach of other western liberal state reform initiatives. We argue that contract governance is an ongoing process involving distinct interrelations between the public and private sectors. In this context, we identify various forms of contract governance and flexibility schemes that have been enfolded and refolded into the conventional structures of governance, and unfolded into a liminal space between the state and civil society through the establishment of nonstandard work and the creation of alternative service delivery programmes

Changing Conceptions of Public ‘Management’ and Public Sector Reform in South Africa

South Africa’s political transition to democratic rule was the catalyst for ambitious public sector reform efforts, which sought to restructure the organisational and personnel profile of the state. A key aim of this process was to enhance the state’s management capacity to steer a far-reaching socio-economic policy agenda, which drew on the principles and tools of comparative public management practice as it had evolved globally and intellectually. This article examines how South Africa’s policy commitment to management reform can be characterised in comparative terms, and twenty years on, assess if and how this commitment has materialised in practice. I will argue that the South African case exhibits a confusing and directionless mix of traditional management control and unconsummated NPM advocacy. Although this is generally consistent with NPM practice in developing countries, I will propose that there are at least three specific elements that lend texture to the South African case, namely, capacity, commitment and capture

What\u27s Up Newsletter, March 1981

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Milwaukee, W

Towards Excellence in Public Administration Education and Training: an African and South African Experience

Not only did globalization bring about profound changes to public administration worldwide, but it also challenged the implementation of the New Public Management (NPM) paradigm in terms of service delivery, posing the question whether public administration must reinvent itself to address these challenges more effectively. Many changes that have been implemented in the public sector have not been based on evidence that change would benefit those using the services, those working in them and the community as a whole. Taking cognizance of especially the current African and South African higher education environment, it became clear that in order to move towards excellence in public administration education and training, the curricula must be amended and should the focus be on particular skills to be transferred to learners to address the above- mentioned situation. The question arises whether the nature of these developments would be relevant to the needs of both the learner as well as public institutions

A South African developmental state: the significance of state capacity

This study uses secondary literature and primary sources to explore the significance of state capacity in proposals to build a South African developmental state. Its main aim is to get a deeper understanding of state capacity as a significant ingredient in building a successful developmental state. The analysis is based on the postulation that no country can successfully build a developmental state without the necessary state capacity. The study surveys the literature on developmental states, explores the key attributes/institutional benchmarks of a developmental state and draws out findings about what accounts for a successful developmental state. One of the key conclusions drawn from the literature is that in order for a state to be a successful developmental state, it needs to be institutionally configured in such a way that it possesses the capacity to formulate and implement policies successfully. Using theoretical benchmarks propounded by scholars as a point of reference, the study establishes how we should understand state capacity and shows that such state capacity is a necessary precondition for a successful developmental state. Following from this analysis, it explores how the South African government has to come into grips with the issue of state capacity in its quest to build a South African developmental state. The failure of post-1994 macro and micro economic reform strategies to address the principal challenges of poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment indicates that successful implementation of any policy is dependent on state capacity

The role of ethnicity in Kenya's transition from single party rule to political pluralism (1992-2007)

Ph.D. University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2012The thesis attempts to explain the salience of ethnicity in political party formation and the cyclic ethnic violence during elections in Kenya’s multiparty democracy. It accords special focus on how ethnicity was deployed in the management and even disorganisation of politics in Kenya’s multiparty era. The thesis examines two significant questions. Why and how ethnicity was salient in Kenya’s transition from one-party rule to political pluralism? What was the relationship between ethnic conflict and political liberalization in Kenya? The thesis contributes to our understanding of Kenya’s attempt at transition from authoritarianism to more democratic forms of politics and its impact on multiparty politics in Kenya’s multiethnic society. It also illuminates the trajectories that Kenya's politics has taken since the advent of multiparty politics in the early 1990s. The thesis considers the significance of the concept of democratic transition in the context of Kenya, a country emerging from single party rule characterised by authoritarianism and patron-client politics. It locates the protracted transition process in the immediate post-independence exclusionary politics along ethnic lines and the resultant fall out among the political elite. The thesis presents ethnicity as a lived experience that had politicised Kenya’s multiethnic society. The centrality of ethnicity in Kenyans’ lives is testified to by the views by respondents from a mosaic of ethnic, social economic and political strata

Government Documents

Information about government documents as potential research sources

Singaporean teachers' voices on teacher and teaching quality

This thesis is the outcome of a doctoral research project that involved the interpretation of the perception of Singaporean primary school teachers, on quality teachers and quality teaching. The aim of the study is to draw on personal experience as well as the lived experiences of others on what they perceive quality teachers and teaching are, the influences for their beliefs and their experiences or factors that have influenced the quality of their teaching.Through the use of a qualitative research approach and employment of hermeneutic phenomenology in particular, the study lies within a view that knowledge is socially constructed and that learning is a socio-cognitive process where new knowledge is co-created through exploring understandings with others in a continual cycle of practice and reflection. Within this approach, the work of Van Manen has been drawn upon to reduce the multiple voices within the data down to the essence of the phenomenon in question, thus answering the over-arching research question: How do Singaporean teachers describe a quality teacher and quality teaching? The data from nine ex-teachers who have taught in Singapore primary schools for at least 10 years was analysed for the lived experiences that each participant had with quality teachers and teaching. The nine participants involved are varied in the sense that five of them had retired after more than 30 years in the teaching service and four of them have resigned from the service after teaching for at least 10 years. All participants and schools involved are identified by pseudonyms to protect their identities. Data were collected through in-depth one-on-one semi-structured interviews with the Singaporean ex-teachers. Participants were selected using a combination of purposeful and convenience sampling techniques. The findings of this research are substantial as they point the way to the authentic voices of the participants on what quality teachers and teaching really meant to them and not what is impressed upon them by the school or the Ministry of Education. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of how teachers can be supported by administrators and policy-makers to become quality teachers and practise quality teaching

Completing the Connection: Achieving Universal Service Through Municipal Wi-Fi

The federal universal service scheme is designed to ensure that everyone has affordable access to advanced telecommunications and information services. Despite the development of cost-effective technologies that drastically reduce the cost of telephone services vis-à-vis the Internet and Wi-Fi networks, federal regulations generally prevent municipalities or private companies from providing wireless Internet access with universal service funds. Federal regulations have replaced technology costs, lack of business incentives, and consumer affordability as the primary barrier to universal service. Competitive neutrality, the pro-competitive and technology-neutral approach to universal service funding, must be fully embraced in order to empower local communities with the choice of technologies that best suits their residents in providing universal and affordable access to advanced telecommunications and information services

Influence of growth need strength on the relationship between predictors and job satisfaction among state registered nurses at selected General Hospitals (Abstract and Table of Content)

The psychological well-being for State Registered Nurses [SRN] is determined to a large extent by that person’s satisfaction with the individual experience of job satisfaction. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the influence of Growth Need Strength [GNS] between predictor variables consists of individual attribute (self-esteem), job-related variables (job characteristics and career salience), non job-related variables (overall life satisfaction, family satisfaction and work-family conflict) and job satisfaction among 390 of SRN’s at selected General Hospitals. After stratified random sampling, descriptive statistical was used to describe the population in this study and analyses the respondent’s level of job satisfaction. Pearson correlation indicates there is significant relation between study variables except the components of self-esteem and work-family conflict with GNS. Based on six hypotheses, the major findings in this study indicate that for the result of linear regression showed that all predictor variables significantly influence job satisfaction. On hierarchy regression result, GNS does not play moderating roles between individual attribute variable and job satisfaction also job related-variables and job satisfaction. However, GNS moderates the relationship between non job-related variables and job satisfaction. The finding of the study contributes in the specific area of literature, theory and also in research design. The results of this study suggest that the GNS as moderator have played significant important role between predictor variables and job satisfaction. The implication of this study that the policy maker should not instead of merely focusing on individual attribute and job-related variables as the only factors for SRN’s to be concerned about, indeed they also must pay attention to other factors, such as the selected non – job related variables as potential sources of providing a much better conducive working environment and by incorporating policies that can improve job satisfaction. [ABSTRACT BY AUTHORS