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The purpose of this paper is to identify unique values and competencies linked to private and public sector environments.

This study is based on critical incident interviews with a sample of senior leaders who had experience in both the public and private sectors.

The findings illustrate distinct public and private sector relevant competencies that reflect the unique values of their organizations and the character of the organization’s environments. This paper suggests a range of distinct public sector competencies including: managing competing interests, managing the political environment, communicating in a political environment, interpersonal motivational skills, adding value for clients, and impact assessment in decision-making. These were very different than those identified as critical for the private sector environment: business acumen, visionary leadership, marketing communication, market acumen, interpersonal communication, client service, and timely and opportunistic decision-making. Private sector competencies reflect private sector environments where goals need to be specifically defined and implemented in a timely manner related to making a profit and surviving in a competitive environment. Public sector competencies are driven by environments exhibiting more complex and unresolvable problems and the need to respond to conflicting publics and serving the public good while surviving in a political environment.

A key message of this study is that competency frameworks need to be connected to the organization’s unique environments and the values that managers are seeking to achieve. This is particularly important for public organizations that have more complex and changing environments.

Ask a manager what she/he does. She/he will probably tell you about functions or processes such as planning, organising, budgeting, and controlling (Fayol 1949).

The purpose of this paper is to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

This review is based on “Implementing change in public sector organizations,” by J. Barton Cunningham and James S. Kempling. Some points made here about the principles behind organizational change might seem to be spelled out excessively, but there some useful observations about the public sector, its dependency on other agencies, and how obstacles to change can be surmounted.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

Planning approaches have long been of interest in identifying opportunities and co‐ordinating decisions. An “action” planning perspective is offered which seeks to assist managers in gaining membership commitment in the planning process.

Provides a perspective for creating a more formalized mentoring programme and for developing a culture of mentoring within an organization. Describes certain principles which are applicable to all such programmes, derived from interviews with those who have been mentors and proteges. Identifies two steps in the process of developing a mentoring programme: defining the organization′s need for mentoring; and designing and implementing the mentoring programme. Elaborates on the components of these two steps. Concludes that a healthy mentoring programme should involve people when they are needed, and use them appropriately in assisting personnel development.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of the types of career models that different managerial and union employees view influencing their career development.

In this study, the authors gathered interview data from 74 public sector employees in management and union positions illustrating examples of the career models they experienced.

The study explains how unique career models are often defined by gatekeepers who act in setting out the procedures, incentives, and norms for the careers of others. The results, based on interviews in a Canadian government organization, suggest that employees perceive that different gate keepers are central in shaping careers of management and union employees in a more traditional career hierarchy, even though other perspectives or orientations of career progression exist in encouraging people to take more responsibility for career development. Management participants were more likely to be guided by upper level managers who acted as gatekeepers within a ‘perception of organizational politics’ model where “the system has a procedural merit rather than real merit….and systemic biases are not even realized by the people doing the hiring.” Key gatekeepers for union employees were those in human resource departments and the union who defined the fairness of the procedures within a human capital model which generally managed career development as a reward for higher levels of experience, education, and training. The findings illustrate unique ways that each set of gatekeepers shape the way that selection and promotion processes are carried out.

The authors are mindful that our results are, at best, exploratory. The qualitative interviews were from a sample of 74 government workers in the Canadian public service and should be verified with further research. Although the authors felt that interviews illustrated saturation and might only be a reliable reflection of a specific sample, other research should examine these findings in other contexts. Further examination of these findings might help us understand the challenges of developing systems and procedures which illustrate a distributive rather than merely a procedural fairness.

The process of socialization for a career in management and union positions is demonstrated by the boundaries through which a person moves from being an outsider to an insider to the organization. Unique career models are often defined by gatekeepers who act in setting out the procedures, incentives, and norms for the careers of others. The research and practical implications point to: (i) designing supplemental behavioral interview questions and tools in selection and promotion as a way to respond to systemic biases, (ii) building awareness of how to respond to biases of the powerful role of referrals and networks in shaping careers of managerial employees, and (iii) taking steps to develop a climate which might be supportive of merit processes.

The process of socialization for a career in management and union positions is demonstrated by the boundaries through which a person moves from being an outsider to an insider to the organization. Unique career models are often defined by gatekeepers who act in setting out the procedures, incentives, and norms for the careers of others.

The study suggests that unique career models are often defined by gatekeepers who act in setting out the procedures, incentives, and norms for the careers of others.

Many managers have found popular and academic writings on job and organisational design most interesting and have committed a great deal of energy in trying to use them. Terms such as job enrichment, job enlargement, Japanese management, and socio‐technical design have become well known for their potential in responding to problems of job dissatisfaction, labour instability, and poor workmanship. Ways in which “popular paperback” theories, as well as other more systematic organisational theories of design might be customised to the particular needs of the organisation are illustrated.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the results from two public sector organizations to test a model of the organizational antecedents and health consequences of sickness presenteeism (SP) in the workplace.

The study reports on two surveys of public employees, one including 237 respondents and another of 391 employees. The combined sample allowed for the testing of a model of organizational antecedents and the health consequences of SP.

The results supported the model, indicating that increased leader support and goal clarity decrease SP indirectly through increased trust. Decreasing presenteeism is associated with decreased sickness absence and better health.

The key practical application is in encouraging managers and scholars to recognize that the costs of presenteeism are as higher or higher than the costs of absenteeism.

The social implications are clear in helping us recognize that when people come to work sick, they are not productive and are endangering the productivity of others.

This is the first time that research had defined and operationalized a causal model linking antecedents such as leader-member relations, goal clarity and trust with SP and absenteeism.

The purpose of this paper is to define different types of culturally commensurate experiences, events, activities and interventions which Indigenous people find relevant for improving cultural diversity.

Based on interviews and surveys with Indigenous Probations Officers, the authors define a framework of nine experiences and events relevant to the organization, team and cultural development.

The key finding lies in proposing a framework of what Indigenous Probation Officers finding lies view as commensurate experiences, activities or interventions which recognize their cultural context (American Psychological Association, 2003).

The key limitations to this study are the size of the sample and the inability to conclusively argue that the framework of experiences developed can claim to represent those important for improving recruitment and retentions of all Indigenous Probation Officers. Further exploratory research of this type is necessary to add to this research in guiding future research and practice.

The definition of a multicultural experiences offered here might be useful in encouraging Probation Officers and others in developing a deeper appreciation of cultures of Indigenous peoples and other groups.

The purpose is to better understand an Indigenous perspective on enhancing a connection to culture within the Corrections system.

Rather than using a list of competencies to shape behaviors and experiences that people practice, the underlying assumption is to encourage cultural multiculturalism framework competency development by focusing on experiences and events important to objectives related to improving diversity.

This study aims to investigate the factors that influence South African customers to potentially switch from one bank to another. Instead of using established models and survey techniques, the research measured social media sentiment to measure threats to switch.

The research involved a 12-month analysis of social media sentiment, specifically customer threats to switch banks (churn). These threats were then analysed for co-occurring themes to provide data on the reasons customers were making these threats. The study used over 1.7 million social media posts and focused on all five major South African retail banks (essentially the entire sector).

This study concluded that seven factors are most significant in understanding the underlying causes of churn. These are turnaround time, accusations of unethical behaviour, billing or payments, telephonic interactions, branches or stores, fraud or scams and unresponsiveness.

This study is unique in its measurement of unsolicited social media sentiment as opposed to most churn-related research that uses survey- or customer-data-based methods. In addition, this study observed the sentiment of customers from all major retail banks across 12 months. To date, no studies on retail bank churn theory have provided such an extensive perspective. The findings contribute to Susan Keaveney’s churn theory and provide a new measurement of switching threat through social media sentiment analysis.