Public Sector Innovation And National Highway Development Project Economics Essay

Table of contents

India had its rendezvous with fate on 15 August 1947 when it got independency after about 200 old ages under British regulation. India started its procedure to construct up the state so by following the policies of socialism, be aftering committees. However it was marked by ruddy tapes, controls, bureaucratism hurdlings, and authorities intercession. For about 40 old ages India grew at a slow gait of 3.5 % which is now called Hindu rate of growing. In 1993 India dwelled into a new way to growing. The markets were opened ; liberalization and globalisation were the words of the twenty-four hours. However India could ne’er go the success narrative which it became without revamping its decennaries old transit substructure. India was now turning at a modest gait and to do certain that the growing degrees are increased and maintained it became imperative that the logistic substructure be improved.

Acknowledging these endangering jobs India under the regulation of NDA ( National Democratic Alliance with the BJP as biggest party in the confederation ) with the auspices of the so premier curate Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced a monolithic undertaking to revamp its substructure. It was called “ National Highway Development Project ” which paved the way for a new epoch of growing.

Introduction

National Highway Development Project was implemented in 1998. It planned to widen, reconstruct the national main roads of the state which accounted for less than 2 % of the entire route web in India but carried about 40 % of the route traffic. Road denseness in India is among the lowest at 2.75km per 1000 people and 770 kilometers per 1000 sq kilometer compared to 6.7 and 841 resp. ( TCA Anant, 2008 )

The stage I of the undertaking was called the Golden Quadrilateral ( GQ ) Project. Subsequently seven more stages have been launched and the undertaking has been extended to cover all the of import hubs, ports to this national main road grid.

The Undertaking

The bureau responsible for execution of NHDP was National Highway Authority of India ( NHAI ) . It is a nodal bureau under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India. The stage I and phase II of the undertaking aimed at building and up step of 13,146 kilometers of national main roads into 4 to 6 lanes. The aureate quadrangle undertaking and the north South and east West corridors were portion of these stages. Golden four-sided undertaking aimed at bettering route connectivity between the four metropolitan metropoliss of India viz. , New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Other major towns like Ahmedabad, Surat, Vishakhapatnam, Pune, Bangaluru were besides supposed to be a portion of these national main roads. East west corridor connected Silchar in E to Porbandar in West. North south corridor connected Srinagar in north to Kanyakumari in South. Phase III plans to incorporate the province capital and major economic hubs with the NHDP I and II and entire 12,109 kilometer of main roads will be upgraded in this stage. In stage IV around 20,000 kilometer of national main roads will be constructed and upgraded. These are majorly the main roads that were non a portion of stage I, II and III. Phase V envisages to upgrade 5000 kilometer of 4 lane roads into 6 lane roads. The authorities still has to make up one’s mind which subdivisions of the main roads will be upgraded in this stage. Phase VI plans to build freewaies in India on BOT footing. These freewaies will link major industrial towns of India. Phase VII plans to construct beltwaies, overpasss, pealing roads to increase route web in metropoliss to national main roads.

Economic Impact

As the assorted undertakings were launched there was a rapid rise in the creative activity of occupations. There was besides a immense employment coevals in both skilled and unskilled sectors. During the stage I about 250000 individuals per twenty-four hours were required or around 40 individuals per km per twenty-four hours. ( www.nhdp.org ) . Assorted sectors like steel, cement industry and equipment makers saw high growing rates during the period. As per figures from imperativeness information agency, Government of India growing rate in cement, steel and commercial vehicles were 8.1 % , 6.8 % and 55 % severally. ( www.nhdp.org )

There was a direct correlativity in the advancement of the undertaking and the GDP growing. By the clip the stage one was approaching completion India was timing a GDP growing of more than 8 % systematically. Harmonizing to World Bank the one-year benefits the one-year benefits were about Rs 8000 crore on the GQ undertaking itself.

There were a batch of indirect benefits which were to be realized with the undertaking. These were chiefly a decrease in clip for transit of cargo and riders. There will besides be a decrease in vehicle operating costs, fuel costs, and care costs. As the roads will be made the connectivity of rural parts with the nearby major towns will better thereby impacting the development of the country. It would take to faster motion of the green goods and will profit trade. Most significantly there would be a great decrease in accidents.

During the clip another strategy “ Pradhan Manti Grameen Sadak Yojana ” was besides envisaged and implemented by the authorities. The strategy vowed to better route substructure in the rural countries. It was decided to construct roads in the small towns and link them to the national main roads. Thus the thought on the portion of the authorities to better basic substructure was truly applaudable.

In January 2012 when the authorities announced that the aureate undertaking is complete it was the 5th longest main road in the universe. The undertaking was completed in Rs 32000 crores and was under budget as the authorities had estimated that the undertaking cost would be Rs 60000 crore ( at 1999 monetary values ) . The undertaking was besides a first of its sort when it was completed before agenda which is new for a undertaking of this graduated table.

The authorities was really dedicated to finish the undertaking and because of this allowed 100 % FDI in the sector. This was one of the earliest sectors where 100 % FDI was allowed. However, recognizing that it would still non be able to bring forth adequate funding for the undertaking assorted funding theoretical accounts was adopted. Cess on gasoline and Diesel along with external and market adoptions were adopted to raise capital for the undertaking. Private partnership was introduced to raise finance and joint ventures with international contractors were made.

Financing of Highway Projects

History

Until the creative activity of National Highway Authority of India ( NHAI ) , roads were treated as public goods. The funding for developing and keep these roads came chiefly from revenue enhancements. There was no or really small connexion between cost of developing the roads and the income from the revenue enhancements. There was really small effort at direct route pricing.

The Problems

Limited Support: Highway development requires big investings but the authorities was already under big financial shortage.

Inefficiencies: There were big inefficiencies that led to project over tallies thereby intensifying the undertaking budgets exponentially.

Hazard: With full development with authorities, all hazard was concentrated at one point. This strained the funding capableness of the

Creation of NHAI

NHAI started its operation in 1995, the major motive for an independent organic structure under authorities of India was to increase the rate at which national main roads were been developed. One of the major hinderances in increasing this gait was the limited capital available with the authorities. NHAI realized that to full make full its vision it has to look outside authorities for capital to develop its national main roads.

The Financial Innovations

To understand the fiscal inventions at NHAI, foremost we have to understand the assorted hazards associated with building of National main roads

Pre-development: Environmental clearance, land acquisition and other such demands before the building of roads can be done. Delaies in acquiring clearances cause holds and dearly-won undertaking over tallies.

Construction: Changes in designs, conditions and geological conditions, financess inaccessibility, incorrect planning of material handiness and unanticipated labor deficits may take to project over tallies

Use: Less than expected route use, users unwillingness to pay higher toll rate, may significantly impact the grosss from the route.

Foreign exchange rate: Fluctuations in exchange rate may take to important cost over tallies for abroad developer

Act of God: Natural catastrophes like temblor, inundations may take to holds and rework. These will take to important cost impact on the undertaking.

Political Hazards: Change of authorities, expiration of the undertaking, undue infliction of high revenue enhancements, may set considerable fiscal hazard on the undertaking.

The assorted funding theoretical account implemented by NHAI are

EPC ( Engineering procurance and building ) contract: The undertaking is wholly finance by the public financess ( E.g. World bank/ADB ) . Except for building hazard all hazards are borne by NHAI. The advantages that NHAI has achieved through this manner are rapid execution of undertakings, improved quality of roads, foreign investings organize big multinationals. The inefficiencies involved in development of big substructure undertakings like national main roads have been minimized. Foreign multinationals have set up joint ventures with Indian companies driving up inventions and successful execution of undertakings

Annuity Contract: Financing of undertaking is done from the contracted rente. Undertaking is financed through these rente receivables. But the fiscal hazard is borne by NHAI. Here NHAI is responsible merely for financing the undertakings. Advantage for NHAI in this manner of funding is that, it has to pay the contractor every twelvemonth specific sum to construct the route.

BOT contract: Build operate and transportation as the name suggest, the company to wins the contract has to construct the roads, maintain it and bring forth grosss so as to acquire back all the money invested and so reassign the main road back to authorities after specific period of clip. These contracts are project fundss, with all the capital coming from the private participants. A particular purpose company is created and all the hazard except for political hazard is borne by it.

EPC and Annuity presently dominate majority of the undertakings. Therefore most of the hazard is still with NHAI.

For undertaking funding as in instance of BOT contract, the certainty of use of main roads and thereby the toll aggregation is really less. This puts a batch of hazard on the investor and hence really few BOT contracts have been materialized.

Is Securitization the solution?

National main roads have long gestation periods, with hard currency flows coming really tardily in the entire undertaking continuance. This puts considerable fiscal hazards on the private company to take is such undertakings. To minimise this hazard securitization mechanism can be put in topographic point.

Securitization is a manner of finance in which assorted hard currency flows are pooled together and sold to particular purpose vehicle created to implement this undertaking. SPV so issues debt securities which are backed by the hard currency flows.

Is the feasible solution to hike main road development in India, should NHAI implement this theoretical account?

Challenges

Land Acquisition Act, 1984

When railroad web was being expanded in India in the nineteenth century the British Government so swayers of India faced jobs related to the private land acquisitions. They so enacted and passed the jurisprudence whose first ordinance was passed every bit early as 1824. India adopted the jurisprudence in 1947 to chiefly take attention of land acquisition for public usage. However this was merely a land acquisition jurisprudence and did non had commissariats for rehabilitation. Presently the authorities has to cover with this act along with 16 other Acts of the Apostless for commanding private land acquisitions by the authorities and its organic structures.

Harmonizing to the jurisprudence the land has to be valued at monetary values on the day of the month of presentment and the compensation has to be paid consequently. However, this had led to broad spread unfavorable judgment and protests from land proprietors. The authorities has been dragged into a figure of differences refering to set down acquisitions. Presently over 80 NHDP undertakings are acquiring delayed due to differences in land acquisition. It is argued by a subdivision of society that the regulations under the act are Draconian. The compensation paid by the land acquisition officer to the land proprietors is besides less than the market value due to money being siphoned off at many phases due to corrupt functionaries. There are charges that the land is under evaluated by the functionaries and when the compensation is being paid at below market monetary values to the land proprietors there is non much public-service corporation for them. Besides, non much attention is taken about rehabilitation of the people who are displaced by the undertakings.

The authorities had appointed commission to see into all these issues and to come up with new recommendations to better the act. The authorities is be aftering to postpone a new jurisprudence in the parliament nevertheless the bill of exchange has led to fresh concerns by the industries and societal militants likewise. The new jurisprudence will do cost of land acquisitions up to four times the market rate in rural countries and twice the market rate in urban countries. Still the societal militants argue it to be pro-market and one which will increase land differences. The investors and houses argue it to be one which will do investings in undertakings dearly-won. President of Confederation of Indian Industries ( CII ) Adi Godrej said after reading the commission ‘s recommendations “ Rather than turn toing concerns of the industry over the commissariats of compensation and consent required for land acquisition, the recommendations of the commission do non look to be taking into history the demand of the industry, thereby, go forthing it to fend for itself, ”

Coordination among ministries

In India acquiring blessings for substructure undertakings requires a close coordination between assorted cardinal, province and local municipal degrees. It involves coordination amongst all these parties and leads to detain in acquiring undertaking approved. This finally makes the fiscal viability of the undertaking questionable. ( Wang et al, 2000 ) . Despite authorities confidence of a individual window and fast clearance of substructure undertaking they are still acquiring delayed due clearances involved.

Change of authorities and its precedences

The undertaking was envisioned during the government of NDA in 1999. However, when the elections were held in 2004 UPA ( United Progressive Alliance ) came in to power and has been in power for the last 8 old ages. There focal point has shifted to other public assistance strategies like MGNREGA ( Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act ) , farm loan release among others. This has shifted the precedences of the authorities to raise fundss for its public assistance strategies and non the NHDP undertakings. Subsequently, the undertakings have been running on holds and many undertakings have delayed because the contracts have still non been handed over.

Roadmap

Given the challenges being faced will the authorities now take steps to convey in fresh reforms in the sector so that the marks of NHDP are met? This might affect taking in some tough steps which might be opposed by subdivisions of society. However, will a better sense prevail and a greater good of the society, GDP growing ends be achieved.

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Cyber Security Policies in the Private and Public Sector

Cyber Security Policies in the Private and Public Sector Cyber Security Vulnerabilities and Associated Threats of Cloud-Computing 16-03-2013  Cloud computing is a technology through which the information services are provided on demand basis. It is like service oriented architecture. End-users access the services through the cloud as per the requirement. The cloud term basically refers internet, so services are provided through Internet. Cloud computing reduces the total cost of accessing the application.

The applications are developed by the third party and the users pay per service to the third party for accessing the service. But there are lots of security risks associated with the cloud-computing. These relates to the data privacy, other vulnerabilities and associated threats. These vulnerabilities and the associated threats will be discussed in this paper. Effective Policies and procedures will also be defined in this paper which will help in managing the estimated risk of the threats. Cyber Security Vulnerabilities and Associated Threats of Cloud-Computing Cloud-Computing

The information technology is growing these days and the managers are trying to reduce the total cost of development of the services using various means due to a number of business reasons. Cloud-computing is a technique which helps the management in reducing the total cost of development. The required resources are configured in a cloud and the users access these services through the cloud. In case of in-house development, the complete process is done inside the company premises and using the resources of the organization. So the organization has to pay for the complete resource to the vendor even if full service is not required.

The license to use the product is also very costly. The organization has to pay for the complete product even if a part of the service is required. In the case of cloud computing, the users need not to pay for the entire service or product, he will pay only for the part of the service. For example, a service is created for user-id creation and as most of the organization needs this policy, so this policy is created and configured in the shared pool of resources. Now the different organizations can access the service as per their use. This helps in overall reduction of the total cost of accessing the service.

These resources are configured in a shared pool of resources. These shared resources include the servers, storage, networks, services, etc. Cloud computing has many forms and these forms are mainly as described here: “Software as a Service”, “Platform as a Service”, and “Infrastructure as a service”. This technology has many advantages but it has some disadvantages too. As discussed above, that the services are provided by a third party vendor, so the responsibility to provide support and maintenance is also taken care by the third party service provider.

When a company access the service using cloud-computing, the crucial business data resides in remote servers provided by the third party so there are lot of risk related to data privacy and confidentiality. The research related to analyzing the vulnerabilities and associated threats is going on and suitable actions are being taken to control the risk level. Cyber Security Vulnerabilities, Threats and Actions Vulnerabilities refer to the loop holes in the system or the flaws in the system. When an organization has decided to move on the cloud, then it should also consider the associated vulnerabilities and the threats.

Some of the major vulnerabilities are discussed below: Session Hijacking It means that the cloud or the required service is hacked by the hackers using a valid session key. This key is used to gain the unauthorized access on the critical resources of the organization. Once hacked, the hackers can have the complete access on the systems, and they can perform any malicious activity they want to do, to hit the company resources. If proper and effective security measures are not followed in the infrastructure then it may cause a heavy business loss in terms of financial terms as well as the reputation of the organization.

Probability of Occurrence The probability of occurrence of these types of attack is generally high. The reason being is that the attackers keep on continuously scan the system to find out the vulnerabilities in it. Once they gain the access, they just execute their jobs. Effective Policies & Procedures To mitigate this kind of risk, firewalls should be implemented in the system at the right places. Firewalls prevent unauthorized access of data. Rules and policies should be configured to protect the session keys. To increase the awareness among employees, a proper training should be given to them.

For example, session monitoring should be done to keep a check on the malicious activities. Virtual Machine Access In this technology, the servers uses same resources like operating system, business applications, etc which are used by the virtual machines & other servers. If the attacker is successful in to gaining the unauthorized access to any of these system resources, then the whole system can be compromised easily. If other virtual machines are also located in the same configuration zone then there is a high risk of compromising other virtual machines too.

This may directly hit the operating system and the host server and hence all the services hosted by the server. Probability of Occurrence The probability of occurrence of these types of attack is also high. As the flaws in the software or hardware becomes the root cause of these types of attacks. The bugs or flaws in the software are identified at a later stage and regular updates or patches needs to be applied on the software. Effective Policies & Procedures The software should be regularly updated and patches should be applied on it.

Hardware flaws should be filled up using various tools. An effective network configuration is very important to mitigate this type of attacks. Service Availability This is a major weakness in cloud computing technology. No company can afford the unavailability of the required service. The company has to suffer from a huge business loss in case of downtime. The services offered by the cloud are not much reliable, any outage in the system may cause the services to stop working and hence the services will not be accessible. And this would be again responsible for a major loss to the company.

Service Level Agreements (SLA) must be well defined and signed by both the involved parties and the above mentioned issues should be discussed and taken care using the SLAs. Backup plans should be carefully designed and implemented so that the risk level can be controlled. In case of any outage, let’s say electricity outage, can be taken care by switching to electricity generators or other back-up devices. Probability of Occurrence The probability of occurrence of these types of attack is generally low. This types of issues rarely occur in any organization.

Service providers mostly keep the backup resources so that the system working remains continuous. And in case of some issues, switches to the ready back-up resources can be easily done. Effective Policies & Procedures To mitigate this kind of risk, firewalls should be implemented in the system at the right places. Firewalls prevent unauthorized access of data. Rules and policies should be configured to protect the session keys. To increase the awareness among employees, a Cryptography Flaws This flaw refers to the weakness in the cryptography techniques implemented in the cloud based system.

Hackers can easily decode the encoding mechanism used in the system if there are some security gaps, for example if the key used in the encryption mechanism is not secure and strong enough then the attacker can easily gain the access to the key and hence they can easily decode the encrypted message to the original text form. Probability of Occurrence The probability of occurrence of these types of attack is generally medium. The reason being is that most of the times, attackers could not find out the key used to encrypt the data or it is difficult to decode the encoded data.

Effective Policies & Procedures To mitigate this kind of risk, strong cryptography techniques should be used. Ethical hacking can be done intentionally just to test the security level of the complete system. This test will help in analyzing the security gaps in the system and then these loop holes can be filled with effective security procedures. Data Privacy When the data resides in third party servers, then this risk of data privacy always persists. As the crucial data is handled and managed by the third party, so there are high chances of risks to data privacy and confidentiality.

Basically an agreement is signed-off between the parties for accessing the services. It should also include the issues related to maintaining privacy of data. Suppose the contract gets completed, now what would happen to the data which is stored in the third part servers? Probability of Occurrence The probability of occurrence of these types of attack is generally high. The reason being is that the data is always accessible to the service provider. Service providers take care of the support and maintenance of the data too. This risk is generally high.

Research is going on so that this issue can be sort out. Effective Policies & Procedures These kinds of issues should be openly discussed with the service provider before signing any agreement. Vendor’s Technique As the technology is growing, there are lots of vendors coming up in this industry. Sometimes these vendors are immature and they follow the platform specific techniques which cause trouble in migrating to the new service or integrating with other services. The developed technology will be of no use if it cannot be updated or integrated with other services as per the requirement.

Probability of Occurrence The probability of occurrence of these types of attack is generally medium, as it varies with the knowledge and experience of the service provider. Effective Policies & Procedures Proper research should be done before finalizing the right vendor. The initial requirements should be crystal clear so that both the parties should understand what actually needs to be done. There should not be any communication gap between both the parties so that in case of some issues, the right action can be taken immediately to fill the gaps.

Dependency on Internet As discussed above, the services are accessed through a cloud of shared resources. This cloud refers to internet. So in other word we can say that the services are accessed through the internet which means that the services are highly dependent on internet. Suppose internet goes down then the client will not be able to access the required services. Probability of Occurrence The probability of occurrence of these types of attack is generally low. The reason is that backup plans are ready for the service in case of some emergency.

As the service provider also realizes the importance of internet so enough resources are used so that the system does not suffer from any kind of outages. Effective Policies & Procedures To mitigate this kind of risk, backup plans should be ready and available all the time so that if at any time, the system disrupts, the backup plans can be used so that the functioning of the system does not affect in any way. There are other important security threats too which are associated with cyber-security. These are discussed below: Denial of Service (DOS) Attack Denial of Service attacks are also known as DOS attacks.

Due to these attacks, the legitimate requests of the end users are not completed due to heavy loading of the host server caused by the fake calls. Attackers may hit the routers or over flood the host server using the fake calls and this prevents the legitimate calls to execute. This may cause the complete disruption in the system. Appropriate rules and filters should be configured in the firewall to mitigate the risk associated with these attacks. Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction increases with the implementation of the above mentioned policies and procedures.

The implementation basically helps in the availability of the service in a secure environment. And customers would be happy to gain access to the required service whenever they need and as per their requirement and that too in a secure environment. Hence we can say that the implementation of the above mentioned policies and procedures helps in increasing the customer’s satisfaction level. Conclusion In this research paper, various security vulnerabilities and the associated threats related to cloud computing are discussed.

Cloud computing really helps in reducing the overall cost of accessing a service. But the security risk associated with this technology cannot be ignored. Proper security measures should be implemented in the system. Secure protocols should be designed and configured so that a balance can be achieved between the cost and the security level. References 1. Blaisdell, R. (2011, February 24). How Much Can You Save On Your Cloud Computing Implementation? Retrieved from Ezinearticles. com: http://ezinearticles. com/? How-Much-Can-You-Save-On-Your-Cloud-Computing-Implementation? amp;id=5989672 2. European Network and Information Security Agency. (2009). Cloud Computing – Benefits, risks and recommendations for information assurance. Heraklion: European Network and Information Security Agency. 3. Mell, P. , & Grance, T. (2011, September). The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing. Retrieved from US Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology, Special Publication 800-145: http://csrc. nist. gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145. pdf 4. Meiko Jensen ,Jorg Sehwenk et al. , “On Technical Security, Issues in cloud

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The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations

The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations JOHN H HANNAH III UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations This paper will examine the particular issues associated with the impact of outsourcing on public sector organization’s performance and employee commitment. As the move to outsourcing is part of a wider phenonom for flexibility in the organizational, structure, development and change paradigms of public sector organizations.

This paper begins by examining the problems associated with an outsourcing strategy in public sector organization. Many counties within the US, have chosen to outsource the investment and operation of non-competitive public services, such as water and waste management, public transports, mail services, information and communication technology services, facilities management and road infrastructures. Outsourcing today has become an essential revenue and growth strategy for almost every existing corporation.

It creates flexibility in the company, ensuring the maximum utilization of available resources within the company. It also offers corporations cost advantages and help free up their management resources. Orange county government-anywhere USA, requested the services of a Home Land Security Specialist to assist in the collaborative, assessment, development and strategic enhancement of it municipality’s Information Technology (IT) and Critical Facilities’ (CF) upgrades and security.

Upon the completion of plan, expectations and deliverables, a series of introductions with Directors, Managers and Supervisors, it was apparent the federal dollars associated with the project was indeed the motive for the invitation. In my initial general assessment and development of a strategy, the organization handbook was the first critical reading which uncovered a mission statement, values, ethical guidelines and the organizational cultural premise. “The Mayor’s outline the vision, values and mission as simple – to serve. You have an important job to do as we work to meet the needs of our citizens.

We ensure that roads are built and maintained; we protect environmental resources; we respond to crisis and emergency situations; we staff facilities that care for people; and we ensure that the quality of life of our citizens is protected our challenge is to build on the strengths of our diverse community so that everyone can enjoy the very best Orange County has to offer. We are committed to maintaining an organization where citizens are engaged in civic affairs, take ownership in their government and have input in the decision making process”.

The following core values serve as our foundation: 1. FAIRNESS, 2. WORK ETHIC 3. INTEGRITY AND CHARACTER 4. EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION: 5. PROFESSIONALISM AND ACCOUNTABILITY (Orange County Government, 2012) . The role of the Security Specialist in this public sector organization is to examine the particular issues associated with the impact of outsourcing on public sector organization’s performance and employee commitment and develop a strategy to move this organization toward outsourcing initially in the areas of IT and CF.

Provide an assessment and evaluation of the organizational readiness for change in the area of outsourcing. This paper begins by examining the problems associated with an outsourcing strategy in public sector organization in the form of an assessment. As public sector moves to outsourcing as part of a wider strategy to increase flexibility in the organizational, structure, development and change paradigms of public sector organization. Outsourcing helps organizations to be focused.

Since the most valuable resource within management is time, once a process is successfully outsourced, the management gets more and effective time to explore new revenue streams, time to accelerate other projects and time to focus on customers. Traditionally executives spend 80 percent of their time managing details, and only 20 percent on planning and customer relations, in other words, a successful outsourcing process can help reverse this ratio.

Outsourcing can also help companies to have access to new technologies that might not be used in their company. This is mainly because the outsourcers use the latest state-of-the art technologies to serve their private sector clients. And this might also increase the change paradigm shift and rapid migration of these companies to new technology. Outsourcing also helps multi functional areas and department of a public sector providing the benefit of 24-hour operational cycles and providing necessary services to their customer.

The ever- growing pressure for increased productivity and profitability of city, county and state governments thus, the pressures to reduce costs and improve productivity are the main factors that influenced the beginning of offshore outsourcing. For example, the main advantages to move production to private contracting of products and services to reduce in-house human resources management cost. Hence, today outsourcing has become an attractive and powerful strategy for companies to reduce cost and improve performance.

These models provide theoretical guidelines upon which valid and reliable organizational assessments should be based. All of these models provide value to management and human resource organizational leaders performing organizational assessments based on a internal aspects or a system theory evaluation approach (Erwin & Garman, 2010). The McKinsey 7S Framework model is used as a tool to assess and monitor changes in the internal situation of an organization closed system assessment. The model is based on the theory that, for an organization to perform well, these seven elements need to be aligned and mutually reinforcing.

So, the model can be used to help identify what needs to be realigned to improve performance, or to maintain alignment (and performance) during other types of change. The basic premise of the model is that there are seven internal aspects of an organization that need to be aligned if it is to be successful evaluation and assessment tool. The Seven Interdependent Elements of the 7s model are Hard elements (strategy, structure and systems) and the Soft Elements (shared values, skills, style and staff) (Waterman, Peters, & Phillips, 1980)

Burke & Litwin Model (The Casual Model of Organizational Performance & Change) – The Burke & Litwin Model, suggests linkages that hypothesize how performance is affected by internal and external factors. It provides a framework to assess organizational and environmental dimensions that are keys to successful change and it demonstrates how these dimensions should be linked causally to achieve a change in performance. According to Burke-Litwin’s model, an organization may conduct a change intervention in stages as they relate to a specific focus in two stages “First order and Second order” changes.

If an OD intervention is directed toward structure, systems, and management practice result, it can be considered a first order change, if interventions are directed toward mission, strategy, leadership, and organizational culture then result in second order change (Burke & Litwin, 1992). The Marvin Weisbord-Six-Box Model (Weisbord’s Model) is designed to assess the functioning of organizations based mainly on the techniques and assumptions of the field of organizational development. The model represents a particular way of looking at organizational structure and design.

It gives attention to issues such as planning, incentives and rewards, the role of support functions such as personnel, internal competitions among organizational units, standards for remuneration, partnerships, hierarchies and the delegation of authority, organizational control, accountability and performance assessment. The model also follows the basic ‘systems’ approach to organizational functioning including the well-known inputs and ‘outputs’ categories. The six-box model is comprised of the following components (boxes): (1). Purposes, (2). Structure, (3) relationships; (4). Rewards, (5). Leadership, (6).

Coordinating technologies. The only disadvantage to this model is it s design to only address internal environments (Weisbord, 1978). An open system organizational development theory and (Burke & Litwin) model will be utilized to conduct a diagnosis analysis planned change assessment to the organization. These changes are usually designed to address an organization problem or to help an organization prepare for future. It is the one method of quickly bringing change, which focus on human and social aspects of the organization as a way to improve organization’s ability to adapt and solve problems.

The best theory is developed from practice; the best practice should be grounded in theory (Seeger, 2006; Brown, 2011). The Burke & Litwin Model hypothesizes’ how performance is affected by internal and external factors. Public sector management occurs within a complex, dynamic system involving stakeholders, coupled with informational and resource material flows and behaviour that is characterized by interactions related to internal and external environments. According to Burke-Litwin’s model, an organization may conduct a change intervention in stages as they relate to a specific focus in two stages “First order and Second order” changes.

If an OD intervention is directed toward structure, systems, and management practice result, it can be considered a first order change, if interventions are directed toward mission, strategy, leadership, and organizational culture then result in second order change (Burke & Litwin, 1992). The theory of Organizational readiness for change is considered a multi-level, multi-faceted construct. From and organization-level construct, readiness for change refers to organizational members’ shared resolve to implement a change (change commitment) and shared belief in their collective capability to do so (change efficacy).

Organizational readiness for change varies as a function of how much organizational member’s value the change and how favorably they appraise three key determinants of implementation capability: task demands, resource availability, and situational factors. When organizational readiness for change is high, organizational members are more likely to initiate change, exert greater effort, exhibit greater persistence, and display more cooperative behavior (Weiner, 2009). References Bateman, T. S. , & Snell, S. A. (2007). Management: Leading & collaboratiing in a competitive world (7th ed. . New York, NY: McGraw Hill – Irwin. Boland, T. , & Fowler, A. (2000). A systems perspective of performance management in public sector management. The International Journal of Public Sector organizations, 13(5), 417-446. doi:10. 1108/09513550010350832 Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed. ). Boston, MA: Prentice Hall. Burke, W. W. , & Litwin, G. H. (1992). Causal model of organization performance and change’. Journal Management, 18(3), 523-545. doi:10. 1177/014920639201800306 Erwin, D. G. , & Garman, A. N. (2010).

Resistance to organizational change: Linking research and practice,. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 31(1), 39-56. doi:10. 1108/01437731011010371 Harrison, M. I. , & Shirom, A. (1999). Organizational diagnosis and assessment: Bridging theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Kotter, J. (1995). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, 59-67. Retrieved from http://89. 248. 0. 102/upload/Topplederprogrammet/Kotter. pdf Lewin, K. (1951). Field Theory in Social Science. London, England: Harper Row. Orange County Government. 2012, April). Employee Handbook. Fl. Retrieved from http://www. ocfl. net/Portals/0/resourcelibrary/employment-employehandbook. pdf Waterman, R. , Peters, T. J. , & Phillips, J. R. (1980). Structure is not organization. Mckinsey Quarterly, 2-20. Retrieved from http://www. tompeters. com/docs/Structure_Is_Not_Organization. pdf Weisbord, M. (1978). Organizational Diagnosis: A Workbook of Theory and Practice. Addison-wesley. Wiener, B. J. (2009). A theory of organizational readiness for change. Implementation Science, 4, 67. doi:10. 1186/1748-5908-4-67

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Collective Bargaining in the Public Sector

Collective Bargaining in the Public Sector Linda Howerton PHI 103 Informal Logic Instructor: Ms. Tanya Martin October 22, 2012 ? Collective Bargaining in the Public Sector Union membership is today at an all time low. It has been steadily declining since the 1980’s. Private sector union membership has been affected the most, while that of […]

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Public Sector In India

The country was facing problems like inequalities in income and low levels of employment, regional imbalances in economic development and lack of trained manpower. India at that time was predominantly an agrarian economy with a weak industrial base, low level of savings, inadequate investments and infrastructure facilities. In view of this type of socio-economic set up, our visionary leaders drew up a roadmap for the development of Public Sector as an instrument for self-reliant economic growth.This guiding factor led to the passage of Industrial Policy Resolution of 1948 and followed by Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956.

The 1948 Resolution envisaged development of core sectors through the public enterprises. Public Sector would correct the regional imbalances and create employment. Industrial Policy Resolution of 1948 laid emphasis on the expansion of production, both agricultural and industrial; and in particular on the production of capital equipment and goods satisfying the basic needs of the people, and of commodities the export of which would increase earnings of foreign exchange. . 1. 3 In early years of independence, capital was scarce and the base of entrepreneurship was also not strong enough.Hence, the 1956 Industrial Policy Resolution gave primacy to the role of the State which was directly responsible for industrial development.

Consequently the planning process (5 year Plans) was initiated taking into account the needs of the country. The new strategies for the public sector were later outlined in the policy statements in the years 1973, 1977, 1980 and 1991. The year 1991 can be termed as the watershed year, heralding liberalisation of the Indian economy. 2- 1. 1. 4 The public sector provided the required thrust to the economy and developed and nurtured the human resources, the vital ingredient for success of any enterprise; public or private. 1.

2 GLOBAL TREND industrial revolution in Europe. With the advent of globalization, the public sector faced new challenges in the developed economies. No longer the public sector had the privilege of operating in a sellers market and had to face competition both from domestic and international competitors.Further, in the second half of the 20th century in the developed economies, the political opinion started swinging towards the views that the intervention as well as investment by Government in commercial activities should be reduced to the extent possible. 1. 2. 1 The Public Sector emerged as the driver of economic growth consequent to the 1.

2. 2 Many eminent economists argued that Government must not venture into those areas, where the private sector could undertake job efficiently.Lot of emphasis was laid on market driven economies, rather than State controlled and administered economies. The collapse of socialist economy of the Soviet block convinced the policy planners, around the world, that role of the State should be that of a facilitator and regulator rather than the producer and manager. It may be worth mentioning that, in various countries, the turn towards liberalism including deregulation and decontrol also led to discontent amongst some sections of population as its benefit did not flow down to the weaker and disadvantaged sections of society. . 2.

3 Today, both Public Sector & Private Sector have become an integral part of the economy. There may not be much difference in working of these sectors in advanced countries, but in developing countries, the performance of Public Sector has considerable scope for improvement. It is also observed that Pay packages are almost similar in both sectors in developed countries, but large differences exist in remuneration in the two sectors in developing countries, like ours. -3- 1.3 Economic Scenario and Role of Public Sector in India – General perspective 1. . 1 Government of India, as part of its national agenda to promote growth, increase in efficiency and international competitiveness, has been continuously framing policies for industrial growth, fiscal, trade and foreign investment to achieve overall socio-economic development of the country.

As a result of exceptionally severe balance of payments and fiscal crisis in the year 1991, the government decided to shift to a liberalized economy with greater reliance upon market forces, a larger role for the private sector including foreign direct investment. 1. 3. The Government realized that a strong and growth oriented nation could be built if India grows as part of the world economy and not in isolation. Thus, liberalising and deregulatory steps were initiated from the year 1991 onwards, which aimed at supporting growth and integration with the global economy.Since then, the thrust of New Economic Policy has been on progressive reforms such as reduction in the scope of industrial licensing, reforms in the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act, reduction of areas reserved exclusively for public sector, disinvestment of quity of selected public sector enterprises (PSEs), enhancing limits of foreign equity participation in domestic industrial undertakings, liberalization of trade and exchange rate policies, rationalization and reduction of customs and excise duties and personal and corporate income taxes, promoting FDI, investments from NRIs (Non-Resident Indians), extension of the scope of CENVAT, implementing the VAT regime in States, taking steps to switch over to goods & services tax system w. e.

f. 01. 04. 010, e-governance and simplification of various procedures, rules and regulations etc. 1. 3. 3 Since the setting up of World Trade Organization (WTO) in the year 1995, as an apex body at the international level, to which India is a signatory, the world trade has definitely grown thereby giving indications that international trade reforms do play an important role in boosting economic development of various countries.

1. 3. 4 Industrial policy has seen a sea change with most Central Government industrial controls being liquidated.The Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) were classified into ‘strategic’ and ‘non-strategic’. Strategic CPSEs were identified in -4- the areas of (a) Arms & Ammunition and the allied items of defence equipments, Defence air-crafts and warships; (b) Atomic Energy (except in the areas related to the operation of nuclear power and applications of radiation and radio-isotopes to agriculture, medicine and non-strategic industries); and (c) Railway transport. All other CPSEs were considered as non-strategic.Further, Industrial licensing by the Central Government has been almost abolished except for a few hazardous and environmentally sensitive industries.

1. 3. 5 The main elements of the present Government policy towards Public Sector enterprises as contained in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) are reproduced below: i) To devolve full managerial and commercial autonomy to successful, profit making companies operating in a competitive environment ii) Generally , profit-making companies will not be privatized ii) Every effort will be made to modernize and restructure sick public sector companies and revive sick industry iv) Chronically loss making companies will either be sold off, or closed, after all workers have got their legitimate dues and compensationv) Private industry will be inducted to turn-around companies that have potential for revival vi) Privatization revenues will be used for designated social sector schemes vii) Public sector companies and nationalized banks will be encouraged to enter the capital market to raise resources and offer new investment avenues to retail investors. . 3. 6 The Government has made a clear commitment to empowering the CPSEs and their managements. It was recognised that public enterprises could not compete effectively with private entrepreneurs without freedom to function and operate -5- commercially.

Thus, the concept of Navratna and Mini-Ratna was introduced with greater delegated authority, both financial and managerial. Government has realized that ‘Navratnas’, ‘Mini-ratnas’ and other CPSEs are required to grow and deliver on the promises they have made to their stakeholders.Other reforms have also been announced, such as professionalisation of the Boards of Directors of public sector enterprises and evaluation of performance of CPSEs through Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). 1. 4 Performance Status wide range of activities in the manufacturing, engineering, steel, heavy machinery, machine tools, fertilizers, drugs, textiles, pharmaceuticals, petro-chemicals, extraction and refining of crude oil and services such as telecommunication, trading, tourism, warehousing, etc. and a range of consultancy services.

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Performance Measurement In the Public Sector

Table of contents

1. Introduction

During the last twenty years, the challenges of performance measurement in both the public and private sectors have been widely discussed (Behn, 2003; Carter et al., 1992; Hood, 2006; Kaplan and Norton, 2004; Micheli and Neely, 2010; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2004; Smith, 1995). Financial measures based on numbers generated by the traditional financial accounting system, such as profits, have been found to be not sufficient and out of date in measuring organizations’ performance (Curtis, 1985).

For example, at that time because of no enough funding, NHS (Sehested, 2002) could not perform normally; people felt more dissatisfied with public services provided and government spending on these services were planned to be cut. Consequently, organizations have developed a number of non-financial measures to improve this situation (Kidwell et al., 2002). Also the information performance evaluation process produces has become more comprehensive (Dwight et al., 2009).

Nowadays, governments are expressing high interest in the performance evaluation (Micheli, 2008) with the increasing pressures caused by higher level demand for the accountability in the public sector, such as how do the public revenues (e.g. taxation) spend and report. However, it is not easy and problematic to effectively and efficiently evaluate the performance in the public sector.

The first two parts of this essay will briefly illustrate the background of performance measurement in both private and public sectors. Then in the third part, it aims to discuss the problems and challenges of performance evaluation in the public sector when non-financial measures are mainly used. And finally, a summary and recommendation for further research will be given.

2. Performance measurement in private sector

For the private sector, such as the profit-oriented organization, the primary measure of performance is profit and the majority of performance measurement activities are still based on the financial statements. From these statements which mainly include income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements, we can easily know what resources were purchased, how they were used and the cost of them in each business organization. The reason to use profit as an indicator to evaluate how well a company performs is probably because within a competitive market, the prices of goods and services can be easily and relevantly valued.

However, some companies actually are not operating within a competitive market, so the profit itself is not sufficient to evaluate the organizations’ performance. In addition, such financial measures are not that useful in helping a company to achieve its strategic objectives (Kaplan and Norton, 1992). In response, Balanced Scorecard (BSC) was developed by Kaplan and Norton (1992) to overcome this limitation which links performance to strategy using both financial and non-financial performance measures to guide future success.

3. Performance measurement in public sector

Like the private sector, public sector organizations around the world also face pressures to improve their service quality, lower the costs and become more responsible for stakeholders’ needs. Some scholars argue that in the public sector performance evaluation processes can be improved by using some specific techniques normally adopted in private sector (Broadbent and Guthrie, 1992; Hoque and Moll, 2001), such as cost-volume-profit analysis, standard cost accounting, and return on capital employed.

However, since most of public sector organizations aim to provide a service for the service users rather than earn a profit, and services are provided free at the point of delivery and financed by taxation, the revenue cannot be used as a ideal measure to evaluate how well each service be received by its customers (Sorensen and Grove, 1977). Therefore, the amount of profit traditionally used as a performance measure in profit-oriented organizations is not suitable for the public sector. Instead, this type of organizations typically publishes non-financial output measures. Nevertheless, the values of goods and services in public sector are more difficult to identify and measure than the one in private sector, how to efficiently and effectively evaluate the performance in the public sector becomes problematic.

3.1 Elements of performance measurement in public sector

Measures of performance used in the public sector performance evaluation process include three basic elements: inputs (the resources consumed and primarily be measured by using costs and non-financial measures), outputs (direct results of services and can be measured by using non-financial measures), and outcomes (ultimate results of services and can be evaluated mainly by qualitative assessments such as interviews). Within the evaluation process, inputs, outputs and outcomes are hierarchical; the lowest-level measures (inputs) are easier to measure but of limited relevance to the goal, while the highest-level measures (outputs) are more relevant but difficult to measure, so less reliable (Jones and Pendlebury, 2010). For example, as for a secondary school, number of teachers as the input which is easier to measure but is not directly relevant to the goal of school; while the quality of school as the outcome is difficult to measure but is more relevant to the school’s objective.

Since public sector organizations generally lack clear objectives, which makes them become problematic to link the inputs to the outputs and outcomes (Johnsen, 2000). In addition, those organizations will have some difficulties when quantifying the main performance measures such as customer satisfaction and quality of service (Jackson, 1990) during the process of performance evaluation. Hence, it is hard to avoid involving large amounts of discretion made by human resources.

3.2 Economy, Effectiveness and Efficiency

Audit Commission (1986) emphasized two key measures of performance: efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency was defined as providing specified volume and quality of goods and services with the lowest level of resources. It is traditionally measured by the output/ input ratio and used to link inputs with non-financial output. The greater the ratio, the more efficient the organization is. Effectiveness refers to the provision of right services and goods which enables the organizations to meet their objectives. However, it is only concerned with outputs and outcomes, and says nothing about how much an organization spend to achieve a certain objective. Hence, effectiveness contributes little or nothing in improving the performance of organizations, mainly because when there is no restriction on the budgets and no control on the costs of inputs, almost all objectives can be satisfied. There is also a third element-economy which is emphasized in the context of purchases from outside and defined as providing specified quality and quantity with the lowest possible costs. It only concerns inputs but no consideration about the organization’s final objectives.

From the above discussion, we can clearly know that it is meaningless if these three measures operate separately. For example, sometimes a program could be very efficient but not effective and also you could do a wrong thing very well. Therefore, it is necessary to judge these three elements together because you don’t want to spend public money on the cheapest inputs but not achieve the goals after all.

3.3 Challenges of performance measurement in public sector

There are various challenges public sector organizations must face when they evaluate their performance (Jones and Pendlebury, 2010). Even though there are some exceptions, most public sector organizations are generally hard to provide stakeholders with credible and relevant information, let alone to use this information in the decision making process of budget.

The first issue is about the measurement of costs, such as when the full costs are not relevant within the organization, how to evaluate the performance. Additionally, a big part of costs are not directly linked with outputs and outcomes, so it must involve some other factors that affect the costs. Secondly, the non-financial output measures are less reliable than the financial ones mainly because just limited non-financial information can be controlled by organizations. Thirdly, although non-financial measures may be easy to count and should be reliably measured, it is very difficult to establish the causal relationships between inputs, outputs and outcomes due to that most of the performance is being measured only once, such as students normally do not wish to be educated twice for the same thing, and also the ultimate objective is not clear at all. Hence, it is so common that there will have some unintended outcomes which involve the interaction of many factors, planned and unplanned.

Fourthly, non-financial output measures are not comparable between services and just focus on very specific characteristics. However, as we all know, the more specific the focus, the more useful the measurement is. In addition, it is hard to trade-off between the demand of complex and simple performance measures by various levels of people, such as politicians and citizens. Each type of measures has its own advantages and disadvantages. Last but not least, non-financial measures just focus on what the organizations can control, and concern nothing about the links to inputs and the ability to be audited which required by accounting.

3.4 Problems with establishing the performance measurement techniques

In order establish performance evaluation techniques in the public sector, social indicators, program-planning-budgeting systems (PPBS) and cost-benefit (C/B) analyses are mainly used (Sorensen and Grove, 1977). However, there exist many problems with them. For the social indicators, the meaning of statistics may be questioned because of the method of data collection and also these indicators are too general to be applied in specific areas. The main problem with the remaining two techniques is the measurement of outcome. For PPBS, it cannot convert the organization’s objectives into measurable outcomes, while for C/B analyses, non-monetary outcomes are almost impossible to transform into monetary ones. Therefore, these three techniques are not that useful in the real world.

3.5 Methods for improving performance evaluation techniques

The problems with performance evaluation techniques including social indicators, PPBS and C/B analyses mentioned above place emphasis on the usefulness of outcome measurements. To solve those problems, financial inputs should be related to non-financial outcomes for specific activities from a cost analytic perspective. Techniques such as cost accounting and cost-finding for programs are used to link resource consumed to non-monetary outcomes (Sorensen and Grove, 1977).

There are two types of cost-analytic techniques, cost-outcome and cost-effectiveness (Sorensen and Grove, 1977). Cost-outcome can be defined as using specified resources consumed to reach a change in the ultimate objective compared with previous measure of performance, in order to improve the health symptoms or social performance, while cost-effectiveness can be defined as comparing cost-outcomes results to identify the best outcome with consideration of the costs. Also, this technique can be carried out on the basis of cost-outcomes information.

In profit-oriented organizations, decision making focuses mainly on the profit figures, while in public sector organizations, especially the non-profit organizations, there is no such comprehensive measure of output and outcome evaluations are generally affected by factors such as time patterns, multiple outcomes, effects among different populations and research design issues (Sorensen and Grove, 1977). In addition, it is difficult to find accurate measures of specific activities and then to estimate whether the change in inputs will influence the outputs. The reason for this is mainly because non-financial outcome measurements are typically adopted in non-profit performance measurement process. As long as the organization’s objective becomes clearer, the internal and external accountability demands in non-profit organizations will be met and the quality of services will be improved through using the cost-outcome and cost-effectiveness techniques.

4. Conclusion

While performance measurement in private sector is almost wholly limited to financial measures, public sector mainly uses non-financial measures to evaluate. However, there exist some problems when using this type of measures. The basic one is the non-monetary outputs measurement. How to efficiently and effectively establish the causal relationships between financial inputs and non-financial outputs and outcomes has been widely argued. Three types of performance evaluation techniques, which are social indicators, PPBS and C/B analyses, are found to have some problems in outcome measurements. Cost-analytic techniques are developed by using cost-outcome and cost-effectiveness methods, to solve these problems and link the monetary inputs to non-monetary outputs and outcomes. However, the difficulties in interpreting cost-effectiveness measures should not be ignored. Because of this, it is still not easy to use them in the real world and there is a need for further research on this field.

5. References

  1. Audit Commission (1986), ‘Making a Reality of Community Care’,London: HMSO.
  2. Broadbent, J. and Guthrie (1992), ‘Changes in the Public Sector: A Review of Recent Alternative Accounting Research’, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 5(2).
  3. Behn, R. D. (2003), ‘Why measure performanceDifferent purposes require different indicators’, Public Administration Review, 63: 586-606.
  4. Carter, N., Klein, R. and Day, P. (1992), How organisations measure success – The use of performance indicators in government.London: Routledge.
  5. Curtis, Donald A. (1985), ‘The Modern Accounting System”, Financial Executive, January – February, pp. 81-93.
  6. Dwight R., Phusavat K., Anussornnitisarn P., Helo P. (2009), ‘Performance measurement: roles and challenges’, Industrial Management & Data Systems, 109 (5): 646 – 664.
  7. Fryer K., Antony J., OgdenS. (2009), ‘Performance management in the public sector’, International Journal of Public Sector Management, 22 (6): 478-498.
  8. Greiling, D. (2005), ‘Performance measurement in the public sector: the German experience’, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 54 (7): 551-567.
  9. Hood, C. (2006), ‘Gaming in Target world: The targets approach to managing British public services’, Public Administration Review, 66(4): 515-521.
  10. Hoque, Z. (2008), ‘Measuring and reporting public sector outputs/outcomes. Exploratory evidence from Australia’, International Journal of Public Sector Management, 21(5):468-493.
  11. Hoque, Z and Moll, J (2001), ‘Public sector reform: Implications for accounting, accountability and performance of state-owned entities – an Australian perspective’, International Journal of Public Sector Management, 14(4): 304–26.
  12. Jackson, P. (1990), ‘Measuring Performance in the Public sector”, Collected Papers from The Second Public Sector Conference of the Federation des Experts Comptables Europeens (FEE), pp. 11-22.
  13. Jones, R. and Pendlebury, M. (2010), Public Sector Accounting (6th edition).UK: Prentice-Hall.
  14. Johnsen, A. (2000), Public sector performance measurement uncertainty, ambiguity and epistemic communities (9th edition), Department of Accounting and Business Method, The University of Edinburgh, pp. 1-40.
  15. Kaplan, R. S. and Norton, D. P. (1992), ‘The balanced scorecard – Measures that drive Performance’, Harvard Business Review, January-February, pp.71-79.
  16. Kaplan, R. S. and Norton, D. P. (2004), ‘Strategy maps: Converting intangible assets into tangible outcomes’,Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
  17. Kidwell, Linda A. et al. (2002), ‘New Management Techniques: An International Comparison’, The CPA Journal,New York: February, 72(2): 63.
  18. Micheli, P. (2008), ‘Public sector performance: do we want to know more?’, KPMG’s Public Governance Institute magazine.
  19. Micheli, P. and Neely, A. (2010), ‘Performance Measurement in the Public Sector in England: Searching for the Golden Thread’, Public Administration Review, 70: 591–600.
  20. Propper C. and Wilson D. (2003), ‘The Use and Usefulness of Performance Measures in the Public Sector’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, 19(2): 250-267.
  21. Pollitt C. and Bouckaert, G. (2004), Public Management Reform: A Comparative Analysis (2nd edition).Oxford:OxfordUniversity Press.
  22. Sehested, K. (2002), ‘How new public management reforms challenge the roles of professionals’, International Journal of Public Administration, 25(12): 1513-37.
  23. Smith, P. (1995), ‘Performance indicators and outcome in the public-sector’, Public Money and Management, 15(4): 13-16.
  24. Sorensen, I. E. and Grove, H. D. (1977), ‘Cost outcome and cost-effectiveness analysis: emerging nonprofit performance evaluation techniques’, The Accounting Review, 52(3): 658-675.

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Occupational Stress and Work-Life Balance in the Public Sector in Saudi Arabia

Table of contents

Introduction

The context of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia presents a unique set of challenges to female academic employees, because of a modern conundrum stressing the importance of globalization and therefore an increased support for the place of the female in non-traditional work environments. Simultaneously however, there is a stable support for conservative values underpinned by societal norms and traditions based on Saudi religion and culture. Therefore there is increased support for improved job performance in sectors that are not traditionally considered the realm of the female employee, because of the longevity required in order to develop a successful career path, such as academic jobs. At the same time however, women are empowered to follow these career paths whilst still maintaining traditional values perpetuated by religion and culture that hold dear family values and the moral ethos of the female as the matriarchal centre of the family nucleus.

There exists therefore a stress on female academic employees in Saudi Arabia which is multifaceted. Traditional values find the place of women in the workplace as a resisted ideal where conservative members of public organizations do not respect the authority and standing of female employees as highly as their male counterparts. This ingrained gender discrimination not only causes an emotional stress on female employees, but also prevents the commensurate career progression that is due to these employees, which is known as a ‘glass ceiling’ (Yamani, 1996). Whilst the private sector may be more persuasive to globalization and increased female quotas in these organizations, the public sector of Saudi Arabia represents a more traditional set of values which are deeply rooted in religion and culture which historically do not recognize the role of females in these organizations. Arguably therefore female academic employees in the public sector will feel these burdens in a more pronounced manner than their private sector counterparts.

The culture of Saudi Arabia adds a further pressure on these female employees to perform the matriarchal functions in their homes in addition to their employment commitments which adds another dimension to the occupational stress suffered by these women as they are now committed to perfecting a work-life balance. The central hypothesis of this research therefore seeks to investigate the relationship between the occupational stress and work-life balance of female academic employees in the public sector in Saudi Arabia.

Overview of research

The study of occupational stress centers on stress at work. Stress is defined in terms of physical and physiological effects on a employee whether this be mental, physical or emotional strain. It also encompasses tension, situations or factors that can cause stress in a work environment. Occupational stress occurs when there is a discrepancy between the demands of the workplace and the individual’s ability to meet these demands (Henry & Evans, 2008). The nature of academic work is in itself problematic for inducing occupational stress due to the ‘never-ending’ nature of the work, with guilt associated with constantly needing to improve the performance of students and contribute to the body of knowledge currently available.

Sociologists have expressed increasing interest in the study of work-family conflict since the 1970’s where the majority of adults need to work for a living-wage and the result is the need to balance this need to work with the need to raise a family, whilst still maintaining traditional values. Paid employment conflicts with the family environment in a number of ways, intruding significantly on the leisure aspect of family life, but also attempting to balance the commitments of work and the family leads to stress trying to balance different aspects of individual’s lives. To a certain extent therefore, work and family commitments are incompatible with one another as hours of work detract from time available for the family and vice versa.

Traditionally women have been concentrated in narrow fields of employment where the balancing of work and family is made significantly easier through fewer working hours and less workplace responsibility. With globalization and the gender equality movement becoming more prevalent, even in traditional society, these roles have begun to change. Despite the increased advent of women in non-traditional work environments such as academics, there is still the same pressure on women to maintain their traditional roles within the family nucleus. Particularly in conservative societies, such as Saudi Arabia, it is becoming increasingly important for the balance to be maintained for the broader societal good. In a sense, the care and maintenance of the family in society is the responsibility of the woman and therefore a careful balancing act is of vital importance.

Organizational responses to work-life issues vary according to the type of employer in the organization in which the employee works. A family-responsive employer would provide flexibility in work programs that afford employees greater control over their working hours and considerate responses to meeting their family or personal obligations. This is often translated in fiscal responses such as adequate insurance and pension funds that allow for family support over and above that which may be the immediate concern of an individual in an organization. These are transmitted through organizational culture formally in the form of organizational policy and informally through supervisors and coworkers. Essentially this gauges the value and support available for work-life integration with the objectives of the organization.

Positioning of research in current knowledge

The Saudi culture emphasizes the importance of family, and the first priority for women is to be a wife and a mother while paid work is a secondary issue. This research therefore aims to highlight the work-life considerations of Saudi women in the context of their cultural and religious values. Islam does not prohibit women from entering paid employment whenever there is a need for it, particularly in positions, that suit their feminine nature and in surrounding Gulf countries, the place of women in academics has been encouraged particularly in foundation phase education.

Previous research has indicated a number of unique and shared factors that help Saudi women maintain a balance between life and work (Bahkali, 2012). This research found that culture and religion, health insurance and transportation are considered unique factors to the female employees in Saudi Arabia. The women who worked in the education sector all recognized their work as being culturally acceptable. Part of this sector necessarily includes academic employees, however education generally refers to primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions, whereas the current study proposes examine the academic field as a whole rather than isolating this to traditional forms of academics in the form of teaching. In contrast, women who worked in the medical field stated they did not always feel comfortable because they do work in the same space as male colleagues. Arguably, when one moves towards more advanced levels of academic employ, this lack of comfort becomes more pronounced as the employment moves away from being matriarchal (lower levels of education dealing with children and adolescents have been noted to respond better to females). In Saudi Arabia, many in these fields do not have health insurance whereas most of them suffer from the issue of transportation.

In terms of family and personal lives, Saudi women workers do not consider childcare centers as important as entrusting their maids or nannies with their children and therefore, most Saudi women workers bring maids to care for their children whilst they are at work. In addition, some Saudi women are not satisfied with their work hours especially when work hours surpass lunch hours or work occurs at night. Finally, Saudi women workers can find help at home either from husband, mother or maid and this may reduce work family conflict that Saudi working women face.

Based on the findings of these previously conducted research papers, it is evident that this is a relevant gap in the current knowledge on occupational stress. The proposed research aims to further the current field of knowledge by conducting a specific inquiry into these factors as they relate to academic employment. If one considers the importance of education as a foundational pillar of society and development, adopting appropriate organizational behavior to mitigate organizational stress and therefore improve academic outcomes is an important and relevant study for sociological and corporate purposes.

This research therefore aims to use the underlying theoretical considerations of organizational stress and the difficulties of establishing and maintaining a work-life balance to study the effects of the unique Saudi experience on female academic employees in the public sector. To current knowledge, there have been no similar studies undertaken in this field and therefore the gap in knowledge is evident. By understanding the unique factors of this situation, helpful recommendations for the adjustment of organizational behavior of academic institutions can be made to mitigate these stresses and improve overall organizational efficiency.

Research design & methodology

The methodology proposed for the research is qualitative in nature, where the researcher aims to gain an understanding of the human behavior and the reasons that govern this behavior. The hypothesis of this research will be founded in academic literature sourced from a variety of secondary sources and thereafter supported by empirical evidence in the form of interviews conducted with relevant study participants. Thereafter this qualitative data will be analyzed in order to conclude recommendations and findings as to the nature of occupational stress and the work-life balance in the public sector for female academic employees.

Proposed structure

Conclusion

Modern challenges to traditional ideas of organizational structure, behavior and culture have an important place in modern academic literature. Through understanding the particular circumstances in a geographical region such as Saudi Arabia, as well as the challenges facing these employees, one can begin to develop a conceptual framework for streamlining organizational objectives and maximizing the performance of these employees. The current research therefore proposes to undertake a study which examines these factors through understanding of the relevant theoretical considerations, as well as the factors particular to this sector and geographical region.

References

Al-Dehailan, Salman Saleh (2007) The participation of women in Saudi Arabia’s economy: Obstacles and prospects.Doctoral thesis, Durham University

Alqahtani, S. (2006) The Education in Saudi Arabia critical view (1ed.). Riyadh, KSA.

Bahkali, W. (2012) The Issues of Work Life Balance for Saudi Women Workers: A dissertation. Masters Thesis, University of Waikato

Gurney, Sarah (2010) Gender, work-life balance and health amongst women and men in administrative, manual and technical jobs inhttp://theses.gla.ac.uk/1641/ a single organisation: a qualitative study. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Henry, O. & Evans, A. (2008) Occupational Stress in Organizations and Its Effects on Organizational Performance. Journal of Management Research, 8(3).

Lakshmipriya, & Neena, S. (2008) Work Life Balance of Women Employees. [online] Available on: http://www.indianmba.com/Occasional_Papers/OP183/op183.html [Accessed 8 November 2012]

Lowe, G. (2006) Under Pressure: Implications of Work-Life Balance and Job Stress, Human Solutions TM Report. [online] Available on: http://www.grahamlowe.ca/documents/182/Under%20Pressure%2010-06.pdf [Accessed 8 November 2012]

Strauss, E. (2007) The Glass Ceiling: Women and Barriers in the Workplace. [online] Available on: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/224822/the_glass_ceiling_women_and_ barriers_pg2.html?cat=3 [Accessed 8 November 2012]

Travers, C. (2001) ‘Stress in teaching: past, present and future’ In Dunham, J. (Ed) Stress in workplace: past. Present and future. London: Whurr Publishers

Tytherleigh, M., Webba, C., Cooper, C. & Ricketts, A. (2007) Occupational stress in UK higher education institutions: a comparative study of all staff categories. Higher Education Research & Development, 24(1), pp. 41 – 61

Valcour, P. & Batt, R. (2003) Worf-Life Integration: Challenges and Organisational Responses. Human Resource Studies, Faculty Publication, 1(1)

Yamani, M. (1996) ‘Some Observations on women in Saudi Arabia.’ In M. Yamani (ed) Feminism and Islam: Legal and Literary Perspectives. New York: New York University Press.

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