International Public Management Review

Inter-municipal cooperation performance measurement: a critical literature review and research agenda

Virginia Angius — 2024-02-28

Inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) is a popular policy lacking appropriate performance measurement. This paper critically examines academic literature on the performance measurement of inter-municipal cooperation. It suggests a starting point for new evaluation research specific to IMC. Relevant papers are analysed to identify and explore potential research paths and formulate an agenda. The main criticality tackled by this review regards the "measurement for the sake of measurement" mindset, which leads to unbalance towards quantitative data, which is insufficient to reflect the complexities of public administration. Starting from the results, we posit a research agenda for further investigation of the performance of local shared services.

A Bayesian citation indicator of individual scientific performance combining impact factor and citation rate

Afschin Gandjour — 2024-02-28

Purpose: The rise of New Public Management has led to growing demand for indicators to measure scientific performance. This paper presents a novel measure of individual scientific output that combines impact factor and citation rate in one metric.

Design/methodology/approach: The underlying methodology is a Bayesian shrinkage estimation.

Findings: This Bayesian citation indicator of individual scientific performance combines impact factor and citation rate in one metric. It calculates the weighted-average scientific impact over the remaining life of a published article. The estimator is able to account for the uncertainty associated with the future citation rate of an article.

Conclusions: This paper presents a novel measure of individual scientific output. By considering information from different metrics, it limits the disadvantages and assumptions imposed by a single metric.

Increasing motivation and performance. Evidence from the misleading use of rewards in the public sector

Alessandro Spano — 2024-02-28

Purpose

This paper investigates the use of monetary and non-monetary rewards in the public sector and explores their relationship with managers' performance and motivation.

Design methodology approach

A questionnaire had been administered to a sample of public sector managers of all Italian municipalities with over 50,000 inhabitants. We randomly selected 30% of the population and we received 240 usable questionnaires (response rate of about 40%). Motivation has been measured on the framework of SDT with 3 items for each dimension (intrinsic and extrinsic) tested on a five-point Likert scale. We measured performance with 3 items tested on a five-point Likert scale. To test the relationships among the variables, a confirmatory factor analysis has been performed.

Findings

Existing monetary rewards seem not to be associated with job quality, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation. Job quality is positively related to verbal recognition for performance.

Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation are both positively related to being given more autonomy/power, and extrinsic motivation also to being involved in the definition of objectives for the following year, as non-monetary rewards.

Originality/value

Reward systems are widely considered one of the cornerstones of the managerialized public sector. Though, robust studies investigating the actual rewarding practices and the effectiveness of monetary and non-monetary incentives are still limited.

Funding criteria for health services research in Germany: an economic perspective

Afschin Gandjour — 2024-02-28

The aim of this article was to analyze to what degree funding criteria for health services research (HSR) and integrated care (IC) research used by central authorities in Germany (i.e., the German Innovation Committee) have been in agreement with economic principles. To this end, a minimal consensus between mainstream and heterodox economics was defined. Consented economic principles include the consideration of opportunity costs, the use of financial incentives in changing behavior, and, with some reservations, a role for markets in health care. Scrutinizing funded projects with respect to these principles suggests that the principles have been insufficiently taken into consideration. The lack of consideration of opportunity costs leads to an underestimation of the total cost of HSR/IC from a societal perspective. Funding of narrowly targeted interventions as the mainstay of HSR/IC insufficiently addresses the ‘local knowledge problem’ of central HSR/IC planning. In contrast, financial incentives, which allow for a broader and more systematic approach of improving the quality of care, have been neglected. In conclusion, drawing on a minimal economic consensus, this article identifies areas for potential revision of funding criteria for HSR/IC research in Germany.

Fostering collaborative innovation: the effects of red tape and organizational culture

Charlotte Van Dijck — 2024-02-28

While red tape and organizational culture are key conditions for public sector innovation, their effects remain largely untested in the collaborative innovation context. This research examines the effects of four types of organizational culture on collaborative innovation, compares the effects of red tape at the organizational level and red tape related to projects, and explores the interrelationship between these variables. A survey among top managers of the Belgian federal and Flemish administrations (n=920), shows that project red tape and organizational red tape have different effects on collaborative innovation, while both a developmental and a rational culture positively affect collaborative innovation.