Performance Measurement Challenges in Switzerland: Lessons from Implementation

This article assesses recent reforms to implement performance budgeting at the national level in Switzerland with emphasis on the necessity for integrating the political dimension. The political context is Switzerland is described as a regulation-driven with fairly liberal but still detailed private and public law, and where the legal basis is the major subject of political influence. In practice, the law is the result of long-term politics while the budget reflects the short-term, actual value of tasks is determined by the legislators. Thereby, a systematic link between legal obligations and financial resources – such as is the case in U.S. programs – does not exist in the traditional form of political steering. In times of financial pressure, this can lead to laws that are not enacted due to a lack of resources. The article analyzes traditional budgeting and contrasts it with results-oriented public management and performance budgeting as manifest in the Swiss model

3. Bericht zum Stand von E-Government in der Schweiz

Mit diesem Bericht wird eine erste Phase des E-Government Barometers abgeschlossen. Erstmals wurde in der Schweiz flächendeckend, d.h. über alle Verwaltungseinheiten aller Staatsebenen hinweg, ein Modernisierungsansatz über mehrere Jahre beobachtet. Dank der finanziellen Unterstützung des Bundes, dreier Kantone und dreier Unternehmen liegen nun nicht nur unschätzbare Datengrundlagen für die Forschung, sondern vor allem Erkenntnisse über die Entwicklung des E-Government in der Praxis vor. Dies ist umso wichtiger, als die Schweiz im internationalen Vergleich eine eher zurückhaltende Entwicklung auszuweisen hat. Wie sieht das Bild nun aus der Sicht der Verwaltungen aus

Digitales Aktenmanagement : Konzeptionelle Grundlagen, Entwicklungsstand auf kantonaler Verwaltungsebene in der Schweiz und internationale Initiativen

Die Verbreitung des digitalen Aktenmanagements ist in der Schweizer öffentlichen Verwaltung noch nicht sehr weit fortgeschritten. Etliche Kantone haben zwar Projekte am Laufen, verfügen aber nicht über konkrete Vorstellungen, wie das DAM zu lösen ist. Viel bleibt noch zu tun. Letztlich liegt die Verantwortung bei den Führungskräften in der Verwaltung

Managing Crowd Innovation in Public Administration

Governments all over the world have discovered the world of social media, for better or for worse. Whereas some of them are making every effort to prevent the unhierarchical and therefore uncontrollable (dissident) opinion-forming process in Web 2.0, others are looking for ways of putting the potentialities of this new opening-up of communication to use. One approach that is increasingly being tried out is opening up innovation processes in government. However, this opening-up of innovation processes is anything but trivial. It requires a thoroughly thought-out strategy and thus confronts government systems with extensive challenges if it is not to suffer the same fate as other unsuccessful attempts at reform in the past. In our essay, we reflect on the consequences of these challenges for public managers

Managing the E-Government Organization

This article examines the internal and external administrative factors conducive and inhibitive of the development of e-government. It develops a conceptual framework on the basis of existing experiences drawn from administrative reforms. Using data from a large survey of public managers in the German federal government to test guidelines and prescriptions provided in the article, this study indicates that the elements and guidelines developed in our research have had a direct or indirect influence on the development of e-government. Finally, the article indicates further research requirements, as well as consequences for practical project design

Comment from the Editors

This is the first issue of the third volume of the International Public Management Network e-publication The International Public Management Review (IPMR). IPMR is published twice per year on the IPMR website at www.ipmr.net. Volume 1, Number 1 appeared in December 2000 as a double issue to inaugurate the series. Volume 2, Issues 1 was published in March 2001 and Issues 2 appeared in November 2001. Back issues are available at www.ipmr.net

Managerial Challenges and Tasks in Multirational Public Organizations

This paper explores multirationality of public organizations from the perspective of systems theory. In the tradition of this theoretical approach, it focuses on how communication may be used in explaining and understanding the hybridity of these organizations. It argues that faced with a variety of different rationalities of function systems in their environment, public organizations are responding, inter alia, by becoming more complex internally. In other words, they import different rationalities from their environment into their own house. Classifying public organizations as being comprised of highly autonomous subsystems, where each subsystem uses a specific type of specialized communication to process a subsystem specific rationality, this paper sheds light on associated tensions and conflicts within public organizations. It discusses managerial challenges and tasks deriving from multirationality within public organizations. The paper finally concludes that proper communication requires greater theoretical and practical consideration when explaining and dealing with conflicts stemming from the hybridity of public organizations

Multirationales Management: Ansätze eines relativistischen Umgangs mit Rationalitäten in Organisationen

Als Reaktion auf die steigende Komplexität der Umwelt entwickeln sich in öffentlichen Organisationen multiple Rationalitäten. Das heisst, dass innerhalb derselben Organisation gleichzeitig und auf Dauer unterschiedliche Handlungslogiken bestehen, die eine Kommunikation in der Organisation erschweren und latent Konflikte verursachen. Dieser Beitrag beleuchtet das Konzept der (multiplen) Rationalitäten und stellt dar, wie die Organisationstheorie sie erfasst. Wir zeigen, dass die multirationale Organisation als Tatsache aufgenommen wurde, allerdings fehlt eine vertiefte Auseinandersetzung mit den Herausforderungen, die sich dadurch für das Management ergeben. Erste mögliche Ansätze werden aufgezeigt.Public organizations develop multiple rationalities as a reaction to an increase in complexity of their environment. This is, within one single organization there exist different logics simultaneously and in perpetuity, which hampers communication within the organization and causes latent conflicts. This paper highlights the concept of (multiple) rationalities and demonstrates how organization theory deals with them. We argue that the multirational organization has been accepted by theory, while an in-depth examination with the challenges for the management of public organizations is still missing. Early potential approaches to a theory of multirational management are developed