| Public and Private Service at Loggerheads: Modeling Credibility Gaps in the Expectations of Customers |
| | Vuori, Jari | Georgia Institute of Technology | jy36@prism.gatech.edu | 404-894-0454 |
| | Kingsley, Gordon | Georgia Institute of Technology | gordon.kingsley@pubpolicy.gatech.edu | 404-894-0454 |
| | Research comparing public and private organizations rarely focus upon the
cultural myths, rhetoric and values that shape public opinion. We
introduce a conceptual model for understanding credibility gaps in citizen
expectations of public and private service quality. A constructionist
paradigm is used in developing the model that specifically explores the
relationship between myths, values, customer expectations, customer
experiences and credibility gaps in different policy domains. The model
suggests that credibility gaps are quite fluid across policy domains and
continuously in the making in the minds of citizens. The model also
suggests that where public services are valued less than their than their
private counterparts it is because they contradict basic values, myths and
images of western culture: privacy, ownership, intimacy. Within such policy
domains individuals are likely to think of private services as being
better than public services even if a technical evaluation of service
quality finds no evidence of superiority. |
| | Keywords: Public-Private Comparisons; Credibility Gap; Customer Expectations |
| Public Administration or Public Management? Organizational Culture in the Public Sector |
| | Bradley, Lisa Marie | Queensland U. of Technology | lm.bradley@qut.edu.au | 61 7 3864 1248 |
| | Parker, Rachel Louise | Queensland U. of Technology | r.parker@qut.edu.au | 61 7 3864 2522 |
| | Public choice and management theory have contributed to the development of a model of new public management, which would suggest that public sector organizations would have shifted away from traditional models of public administration. A range of theoretical perspectives of effective management, derived from the experience of private sector organisations, have influenced this model for change. The current research therefore hypothesizes that the nature of organizational culture in the public sector will be aligned with the theoretical prescription of ideal public sector culture.
The competing values perspective on organizational culture is utilized to examine public sector culture. Managers’ perceptions of the current culture, as well as their perceptions of the ideal culture were measured. A mail-out survey was conducted of public sector managers in the Queensland (a state of Australia) Public Service. Responses to a competing values culture inventory were received from 191 managers. Results indicated that a reliance on the internal process model persists, while managers had a desire for the alternative cultural models. Results are discussed in relation to the model of new public management.
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| | Keywords: public management; organizational culture |
| The Role of Public Sector Image and Personal Characteristics in Determining Tendency to Work in the Public Sector |
| | Cohen, Aaron | U. of Haifa | acohen@poli.haifa.ac.il | (972) 48240019 |
| | Zalmanovitch, Yair | U. of Haifa | RSPC753@UVM.HAIFA.AC.IL | (972) 48249098 |
| | Davidesko, Hani | U. of Haifa | RSPC972@UVM.HAIFA.AC.IL | (972) 48240019 |
| | Very little research has examined tendency to work in the public sector. This study of Israeli students in their
last year before graduation examined three research questions on this issue. First, what are the determinants
of public sector image; second, what are the determinants of the tendency to work in the public sector;
third, do the determinants of tendency to work in the public sector relate to it directly, or indirectly through the
mediating effect of the public sector image. The research model consisted of three groups of independent
variables: demographic variables, background and experience variables, and personal-psychological
variables. Questionnaires were distributed by mail to 1640 students. 660 usable questionnaires were
returned, a response rate of 40%. The findings showed that tendency to work in the public sector and public
sector image were related, and that image of the public sector mediated the relationship between the
proposed determinants and tendency to work in the public sector. The findings showed that the issues
examined here offer a promising and challenging future research area.
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| | Keywords: public sector image; public sector; tendency to work |