Purpose The Public Sector Scorecard (PSS) is an integrated performance management framework incorporating strategy mapping, service improvement, and measurement and evaluation. It adapts and extends the balanced scorecard to suit the culture and values of the public and voluntary sectors. The...

During the 1990s the contract has become a key feature in the restructuring of the UK public sector. Currently available literature demonstrates an awareness that the implementation of contracting must entail new forms of management control and organizational structure which involve new patterns...

There is an international trend to contestability and marketisation in the delivery of public services. The underlying foundation of these trends is that competition results in improved outcomes such as greater efficiency, higher quality of service, a clearer focus on customers and better value...

Competency management has become a new trend in the public sector. There is some doubt, however, if competency management is really something new or whether it is just old wine in new bottles. Academics seem to be more sceptical about its novelty than practitioners. This article attempts to...

Reports that there are increasing trends towards the commercialisation of public sector information. Explains the concepts of information trading and discusses the role of the public sector. Describes three case studies within the UK government. Identifies the lack of a uniform approach to...

Administrative counselling (AC) is a unique feature of Japan’s public sector. Comparable to a decentralised “shop front” ombudsman function, AC may serve to lift public confidence in administrative actions. This paper analyses AC as a contributor to program evaluation at a time when...

The new South Africa came into being in 1994. The new government inherited the national public service and those of a variety of former provinces and homelands that had to be amalgamated to form a national unified public service. Although this task was accomplished rapidly, the resulting public...

As a consequence of changes in the steering of the public sector in Norway during the 1990s, evaluation has, as in other European countries, become a standard element in the governing of the sector. However, evaluation procedures also seem to be an important instrument in the implementation of...

The objective of this paper is to show how Internet technologies have the potential to facilitate the achievement of transparency within public sector organisations. This change will also have a major impact on the way in which public sector organisations interact with their environment and in...