International Review of Administrative Sciences, Ahead of Print.
New Zealand is frequently cited as the archetypical example of New Public Management (NPM), having gone ‘further and faster’ than other jurisdictions in radically reforming their public service in the late 1980s. These reforms have been credited with significant gains in efficiency and responsiveness, while introducing new challenges. Successive reforms over the past 30 years tinkered with the model without fundamentally altering the underlying paradigm, such that authors refer to the ‘myth of post-NPM in New Zealand’. In 2020, New Zealand repealed and replaced its main public service legislation. By textually analysing government documents, this article explores the different theoretical roots of New Zealand's ongoing administrative reforms and debates the extent of their theoretical coherence. The Act directly dialogues with and draws inspiration from recent academic debates, drawing from a range of sources (such as New Public Governance, Digital Era Governance, and the New Public Service).Points for practitionersNew Zealand has long been regarded as the purest example of New Public Management (NPM).Legislation passed in 2020 saw New Zealand adopt a range of reforms described in the literature as ‘post-NPM’, while also reaffirming features associated with Traditional Public Administration (TPA).While New Zealand has moved away from a pure NPM model and adopted features associated with Post-NPM, Post-NPM is not a coherent doctrine and it may only be possible to identify administrative doctrines retrospectively.We may be entering a period of ‘New Public Complexity’, where administrative doctrines are blended and layered.

International Review of Administrative Sciences, Ahead of Print.
Ministerial cabinets hold a central place in the Belgian politico-administrative system, carrying out the bulk of policy formulation. However, they do not operate in isolation and rely on other actors of the policy advisory system for information supply and advice. They request, receive and use various advisory inputs. This article investigates how ministerial advisers utilize policy advice when they formulate policies. Based on a unique survey targeting ministerial cabinet members, it shows that policy advice utilization varies according to the source and its location in the policy advisory system. The sample consists of ministerial advisers from 11 ministerial cabinets in the two Belgian federated entities’ governments of Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Ministerial advisers still predominantly use advice from the civil service, which points to the continued importance of advice provision from internal, in-house sources. However, advice from external actors – such as trade unions, civil society or consulting firms – have been observed to have rather high repercussions on policy formulation activities too. Advisory bodies appear to be very much active in supplying advice, but this same advice does not yield comparatively higher utilization scores.Points for practitionersThis study focuses on policy advice utilization by members of ministerial cabinets in Belgium, especially when they formulate policies. It shows that internal, in-house sources remain important advice-providers and their advisory inputs still abundantly feed into the policy work carried out at the level of government. However, this article provides evidence that external sources might also supply advice that directly finds its way to decision-makers working in ministerial cabinets and that have considerable repercussions at that level too. This is the case for advice from trade unions, (organized) civil society or consulting firms, among others. Quite importantly for practitioners, our results suggest that ministerial advisers sometimes prefer controlling advisory exchanges and running separate consultations with one stakeholder at a time, instead of having to deal with collective, internal institutions that represent multiple interests, like advisory bodies. We did not observe striking differences in the degree of utilization between solicited and unsolicited advice, which means that for civil servants or stakeholders, sending policy advice previously unrequested by ministerial cabinets is not necessarily a fruitless strategy to follow.

International Review of Administrative Sciences, Ahead of Print.
This randomized study explores the causal mechanisms linking contingent pay to individual performance on a series of tasks mimicking real public management activities. Employing a parallel encouragement design in a laboratory setting, we disentangle the overall, direct, and indirect performance effects of perceived fairness as well as a pay scheme that reproduces the merit system provisions adopted by the Italian government. The overall performance effect of that contingent pay scheme turned out to be insignificant when averaged across the four experimental tasks. However, a significant pay-for-performance effect was detected for the most routine task. Moreover, we observed heterogeneity in the treatment effect depending on the participants’ relative positioning in the performance ranking. Overall, the data do not provide support for a mediation model linking contingent pay-for-performance through perceived fairness.Points for practitionersWorkers tend to perceive pay-for-performance as fairer than equal pay.The effectiveness of pay-for-performance seems to be greater for more routine tasks.Public organizations and their managers should be aware that the effects of pay-for-performance may be unpredictable because they depend on a multitude of factors.

International Review of Administrative Sciences, Ahead of Print.
The study of street-level bureaucracy has been dominated by research from the Global North. Mainstream conceptualizations are, therefore, based on observations from institutional contexts that may vary significantly from the working conditions of frontline workers elsewhere. This article takes stock of the growing body of literature on street-level bureaucracy in weak institutional contexts and brings together relevant insights from comparative political science and public administration into a coherent analytical framework. We identify four institutional factors that shape frontline working conditions and three behavioral patterns in frontline worker agency. These patterns in frontline agency – ranging from policy improvisation to informal privatization – can be understood as an institutional waterbed effect caused by institutional deficiencies, such as resource scarcity and accountability gaps: if the complexity of public service provision is not tackled at the institutional level, it is pushed towards the street-level where frontline workers cope with it in highly diverse ways. Points for practitioners Frontline workers in weak state institutions are commonly faced with highly precarious working conditions.If the structural preconditions for policy implementation and rule enforcement are unresolved, these complexities are pushed towards frontline workers that cope with them through informal privatization, policy improvisation, or alienative commitment focused on mere job survival.Frontline agency is an indispensable factor for understanding the selective and often distributive nature of service delivery and rule enforcement in the Global South.

International Review of Administrative Sciences, Ahead of Print.
Government agencies are embracing the rhetoric of public value, but what does the empirical evidence tell us about drivers of its creation? One critical source of insight are the practitioners who turn public investment into public value through complex forms of labour. This article identifies how public value is interpreted and created by forensics scientists in the Criminal Justice System using Q Methodological interviews. The results indicate that two very similar types of forensic scientist exist The study finds that while the decisions of scientists are grounded in their expertise, their public value motivations are to ‘add value’ to the public through their science. They serve the citizen through their science. They do not serve the consumer, client or victim directly. The findings also indicate that there is a need to recognise hidden forms of value-added activity that take place upstream in public-value chains, ensuring that there are systems in place to maximise their impact downstream.Points for practitionersForensic scientists are motivated to serve the public, not the consumer or customer.In order to build capacity within Criminal Justice Systems, agency leaders need to build a relationship based on mutual professional respect rather than a supplier–consumer relationship.If administrative reform is to be guided by academic research, practitioners should use the language of public value rather than the language of new public management.Public value is often created through inter-institutional value chains that can conceal the contribution of upstream value-added activity to desirable public outcomes. It is critical that the value-added process is traced on an inter-institutional basis, and maximised through effective forms of inter-institutional collaboration.

International Review of Administrative Sciences, Volume 89, Issue 3, Page 842-863, September 2023.
Trust in government and its antecedents and development remain leading policy and research concerns. Drawing on a broadly representative online survey of 3100 respondents in Japan, we examine measures of trust in three local government actors. We find political participation is not associated with trust in local government, contrary to our expectations. Civic participation is associated with trust in the mayor, but not councillors or administrators. Satisfaction with services provided by local government, and positive perceptions of policy process, are associated with trust, with interactions suggesting process is the stronger antecedent. To develop greater trust in local government, it is important that public sector actors exhibit respect for rights and follow procedure, laws, and regulations, as well as deliver positive outcomes.Points for practitionersBuilding trust in government remains a key concern for policy makers, as it is related to successful adoption of policies.Trust in local government in Japan is related to perceived performance and citizen satisfaction.Civic participation is also related to some forms of trust in government.However, possibly more important are citizen perceptions that policy processes respect rights, procedures, and laws.To increase trust in government, practitioners need to practice, and show that they practice, good processes in developing and delivering policy, and show that policy leads to better perceived outcomes.

International Review of Administrative Sciences, Volume 89, Issue 3, Page 825-841, September 2023.
The literature on intergovernmental relationships discusses the tension between centralization and local autonomy. However, few studies question local authorities’ response when dissatisfied with central government policies. Using Hirschman's model of exit, voice and loyalty, we explore local government's response to such dissatisfaction. Specifically, we suggest that local authorities may adopt a “do-it-yourself” approach, unilaterally engaging in semi-legal strategies to improve outcomes. This solves immediate local organizational problems, without waiting for approval. Using the Israeli case, we show how a pervasive culture of “do-it-yourself” affects local governments’ responses. We also discuss implications for the relationship between the two bodies.Points for practitionersOur findings shed light on local–central government relations, emphasizing the do-it-yourself approach. While this approach could strengthen political participation, increasing local government's involvement in public policy, it also enables local players to use semi-legal behaviors. Central government decision-makers might prevent these behaviors, strengthening administrative institutions’ enforce, regulatory enforcement and enhancing local autonomous political culture, transparency and integrity. By contrast, continuing to maintain weak formal institutions encourages the appearance of strong informal institutions.

International Review of Administrative Sciences, Ahead of Print.
Equity concerns the distribution of resources and is inevitably linked with concepts of fairness and social justice. What are the decision-making processes for fair allocation of infrastructure resources and its effect on social justice in Ethiopia? The article uses structural equation modeling-partial least square software for analysis. Therefore, the article finds that there is infrastructure inequity and social injustice owing to a lack of democratic decision-making and accountability in Ethiopia. Moreover, the Ethiopian government lacks the tools and institutions that provide the foundation for good decision-making processes and democratic accountability. There also exists a low level of social cohesion in Ethiopia today. Hence, the government needs a democratic decision-making process that would bring diverse interests together and solve the lack of intergovernmental relations (IGRs) as well as the lack of democratic accountability to improve citizens’ justice in the infrastructure sector in Ethiopia. As a result, it requires a focus on regional governments’ needs, reacting to their concerns, and keeping them justified on the equitable distribution of infrastructure across regional states in the country. This will also help to save Ethiopia from bloody conflicts.Points for practitionersIn practice, the drive for public management is to increase the quality and efficiency of government-provided services. Professions in government agencies, public enterprises, and trusts that deal with policies and strategies that govern the equitable allocation and administration of public resources make up the public management and administration pathway. As a result, the most important takeaway for professionals is that creating a learning organization is a significant management strategy that public organizations must pursue in exercises.

International Review of Administrative Sciences, Ahead of Print.
Collaborative innovation is increasingly put forward as a way of addressing the many wicked problems our society faces today. This article focuses on how politicians indirectly affect projects of collaborative innovation and whether stakeholders experience them as helpful or hindering to the project. The impact of politicians on projects of collaborative innovation are compared across four cases and throughout three project phases (set-up, implementation and sustainment). The results show six ways in which politicians can help projects of collaborative innovation: by providing funding, by making a project a political priority, by connecting stakeholders, by resolving stakeholder conflicts, by unblocking red tape barriers and by extending a collaborative network legitimacy. Furthermore, stakeholders perceived politicians as potentially hindering collaborative innovation projects in three ways: through the adjustment of the project goals, through the loss of a project’s ‘neutral’ status and through blocking or obstructing a project.Points for practitionersOne important point to take away for practitioners is that there appears to be a strong focus among stakeholders on the potentially hindering effects of politicians on collaborative innovation projects (CIPs). Yet, across the four cases, the positive impact of political support played a bigger role. While some of these findings can be case specific, it shows that public servants may benefit from being more open-minded about the potentially positive impact of politicians on CIPs.

International Review of Administrative Sciences, Volume 89, Issue 3, Page 685-702, September 2023.
The emergence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has put emphasis on the open government approach (OG), provoking a cultural change in both the citizenry (demanding new ways of collaborating with public administration and more openness in government), and in the public administrations (adapting their structures and processes to support civic participation). This article analyzes both the strategies followed by local governments in implementing OG initiatives and the level of alignment of the objectives included in the municipal OG strategies with those settled by the regional government to which they belong. Empirical research on the OG objectives included in the strategic planning of large-size Andalusian municipalities has been performed. Findings reveal that most local governments are implementing a push strategy based only on more openness in government (mainly owing to normative requirements). Additionally, the objectives included in both the economic and governance dimensions are those included in the OG initiatives in municipalities, although each one has a particular way of adopting digital and OG strategies consistent with their municipal priorities and circumstances.Points for practitionersThis study brings a novel insight to public managers and politicians concerning OG initiative adoption. It highlights both the limitations of current OG initiatives developed by public administration and the importance of citizens’ involvement in them in order to acquire trust in government. The current economic situation favors and increases mistrust in the citizen, who feels great disappointment in governments and political leaders. This could be minimized with the creation of spaces for municipal collaboration, where public managers and politicians may capture the voice of citizens directly and the strategic alignment in the OG strategies for efficiently reaching economic and social outcomes for the citizenry. Also, OG implementation experiences should be shared, so that more reticent local governments could be made aware of the potential.