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This paper aims to analyse extant literature on open data, distinguish and categorize the strands of public accountability research and use the results to provide better clarity in the concept of open data-driven public accountability.

Systematic review of 135 open data articles and 155 accountability articles from the e-government reference library. A multi-stage analysis results in 12 articles which are categorized using Bovens’ (2007) accountability theory of information, discussion and consequences. Conceptual development, using the literature analysis, forms the final section of the paper.

Research demonstrates that a range of open data topics has been advanced. However, just 12 articles exist that simultaneously address open data and accountability theory. Of the total 155 public accountability articles, the preponderant focus is on the information (N = 25) and discussion (N = 7) stages of the accountability process. Just one article focuses on the complete accountability process. To address this problem, the characterization of open (government) data-driven public accountability establishes conceptual crispness and clarity.

Public accountability theory on open government has become overshadowed by social and economic value perspectives. This paper clarifies and advances the open data-driven public accountability perspective. It takes stock of public accountability research, delimits the key issues and questions and highlights the next steps needed for developing scholarship.

Many governments are working toward a vision of government-wide transformation that strives to achieve an open, transparent and accountable government while providing responsive services. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of transparency-by-design to advance open government.

The opening of data, the deployment of tools and instruments to engage the public, collaboration among public organizations and between governments and the public are important drivers for open government. The authors review transparency-by-design concepts.

To successfully achieve open government, fundamental changes in practice and new research on governments as open systems are needed. In particular, the creation of “transparency-by-design” is a key aspect in which transparency is a key system development requirement, and the systems ensure that data are disclosed to the public for creating transparency.

Although transparency-by-design is an intuitive concept, more research is needed in what constitutes information and communication technology-mediated transparency and how it can be realized.

Governments should embrace transparency-by-design to open more data sets and come closer to achieving open government.

Transparency-by-design is a new concept that has not given any attention yet in the literature.

This paper reports on the findings of qualitative fieldwork aimed at exploring the motives, financial implications and the perceived benefits of achieving the Investors In People Standard. It examines perceptions of IIP at three different organisational levels. The research found differences between the motivation for, and perceptions of, IIP at all three levels as well as differences in the perceived benefits of the Standard. The views of senior management regarding the benefits of IIP were not generally shared at the other levels of the organisation. Indeed front‐line staff felt that IIP made little difference to them personally, the way they performed their jobs, or to the levels of satisfaction of their customers. This presents a major problem for senior management of local authority services if they are to achieve all the benefits attributed to IIP and so get beyond the “plaque on the wall”.

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.

The purpose of this study is to investigate nurses’ perception towards the current application of talent management practices in Malawian public hospitals. It further explores whether significant differences exist between the registered nurses’ perceptions of the current application of talent management practices based on their demographic factors.

The study employed a quantitative research approach, using a cross-sectional survey strategy. An adapted version of Human Capital Index (HCI) questionnaire with 45-items was administered amongst 947 registered nurses in four public hospitals. Eventually, 580 responses, representing 61.2 per cent were found to be acceptable for analysis. Stata version-16 software programme was used to analyse the data.

Findings of the study demonstrated that talent management practices are currently poorly applied amongst the nurses. Substantial gaps existed between the current applications versus the importance of talent management practices. Significant differences exist between the nurses perceptions of talent management practices based on their marital status.

The study only focused on a single perspective (registered nurses) and a single area (Malawian public hospitals) – an issue that disregarded different views (e.g. doctors, hospital administrators, hospital directors and other hospital staff). Furthermore, the results of this study cannot be generalised to other public and private hospitals settings because the data were collected from central hospitals only.

Practically, this study highlights the problematic areas of talent management practices hence the need for effective talent management for nurses.

The study has huge social implications in that the results will inform best practices for public hospitals thereby improving welfare of the patients and society at large.

The study contributes to new knowledge on nurses’ perception towards the application of talent management practices within the Malawian health sector and presents a valid and reliable measure to assess their perception.

Increasing minority representation in law enforcement has long been viewed as a primary means to improve police-citizen relations. The recommendation to diversify police departments was endorsed by the Kerner Commission and, most recently, the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. While these recommendations make intuitive sense, little scholarly attention has examined whether greater levels of minority representation translate into positive police-community relations. The purpose of this paper is to use the representative bureaucracy and minority threat frameworks to assess the impact of the racial/ethnic composition of both police departments and municipalities on disparities in traffic stops.

A series of ordinary least squares regression analyses are tested using a sample of more than 150 local police agencies from Illinois and Missouri.

Higher levels of departmental representativeness are not associated with fewer racial/ethnic disparities in stops. Instead, the racial/ethnic composition of municipalities is more predictive of racial patterns of traffic stops.

This study provides one of the few investigations of representative bureaucracy in law enforcement using individual departments as the unit of analysis. It examines Hispanic as well as black disparities in traffic stops, employing a more representative sample of different size agencies.

This article seeks to introduce the concept of spiritual learning by exploring the value of human characteristics spiritual in nature with respect to their relationship to learning.

In developing this theme, the authors engage a systematic approach: defining terms; identifying representative human characteristics that are spiritual in nature; surfacing assumptions; and identifying emerging themes among the representative spiritual characteristics with respect to learning.

There appears to be a positive correlation between the representative spiritual characteristics and human learning. For better or worse, the material universe and non‐material universe are married in the conscious and unconscious learning of the human mind.

This work provides a new frame of reference for understanding the relationship between spirituality and learning.