The purpose of this paper is to explore how the public sector entity within New Zealand's public health system, the Pharmaceutical Management Agency (PHARMAC), continues to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how the public sector entity within New Zealand's public health system, the Pharmaceutical Management Agency (PHARMAC), continues to operate unfettered, with minimal government interference, in the face of ongoing public challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
The literature focuses on the philosophical paradigms of Willcocks and Mitchell et al. Willcocks explores multiple layers of organisational effectiveness, and Mitchell et al. introduce the notion of saliency. The concepts are then explored with respect to PHARMAC, with information regarding PHARMAC gathered from both publicly available documents and semi‐structured interviews. The application of the paradigms to the organisation is described.
Findings
PHARMAC's ongoing success and operations are due to a combination of factors. A lack of conflict between the organisation and theoretical constructs plus factors unique to the New Zealand situation provide a multi‐faceted explanation. There is danger in complacency, however; the current set of compatible factors may not be sustainable.
Social implications
A more informed debate should enable the development of better performance and effectiveness measures. This may reduce the inherent tensions between administrators and clinicians in the public health sector of New Zealand, and potentially elsewhere.
Originality/value
The author is unaware of any other conceptual piece that draws together these paradigms at multiple levels in public sector organisations, especially within New Zealand.
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Madjid Tavana, Brian S. Bourgeois and Mariya A. Sodenkamp
The US Government adopted the base realignment and closure (BRAC) to resolve the military, economic and political issue of excess base capacity. There have been five rounds of…
Abstract
Purpose
The US Government adopted the base realignment and closure (BRAC) to resolve the military, economic and political issue of excess base capacity. There have been five rounds of BRAC since 1988, and more are expected to come in the years ahead. The complexity of the closure and realignment decisions and the plethora of factors that are often involved necessitate the need for a sound theoretical framework to structure and model the decision‐making process. This paper aims to address the issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a multiple criteria benchmarking system that integrates the employment, environmental, financial, strategic, and tactical impacts of the closure and realignment decisions into a weighted‐sum measure called the “survivability index.” The proposed index is used to determine whether the returns generated by each military base on the Department of Defense (DoD) hit list meet a sufficient target benchmark.
Findings
There is a significant amount of evidence that intuitive decision making is far from optimal and it deteriorates exponentially with problem complexity. The benchmarking system presented in this study helps decision makers (DMs) crystallize their thoughts and reduce the environmental complexities inherent in the BRAC decisions. The presented model is intended to create an even playing field for benchmarking and pursuing consensus not to imply a deterministic approach to BRAC decisions.
Originality/value
An iterative process is used to consistently analyze the objective and subjective judgments of multiple DMs within a structured framework based on the analytic network process and fuzzy logic. This iterative and interactive preference modeling procedure is the basic distinguishing feature of the presented model as opposed to statistical and optimization decision‐making approaches.
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Public sector organisations have to respond to calls for accountability from both funders and recipients of the services, as well as report on operations within constrained…
Abstract
Purpose
Public sector organisations have to respond to calls for accountability from both funders and recipients of the services, as well as report on operations within constrained financial resources. Given the absence of profit motives and the difficulties of performance assessment in public sector organisations, the purpose of this paper is to consider the role of benchmarking as a tool to help overcome some of the problems of performance assessment in the public sector.
Design/methodology/approach
A review and discussion of current and recent trends and approaches in public sector benchmarking in New Zealand. The difficulties of establishing meaningful benchmarking exercises are discussed in relation to management accounting's approach to management control systems.
Findings
In New Zealand, the pharmaceutical management agency (PHARMAC) is responsible for obtaining the best health outcomes that are reasonably achievable through the use of pharmaceuticals for eligible people, within the funding provided. The concepts discussed in the paper are applied to PHARMAC as an illustration. Proposes that a combination of internal benchmarking, process benchmarking and increased public documentation will enhance reporting systems in any public sector organisation.
Practical implications
The methodology should facilitate organisations' responses to calls for accountability, from a diversity of interested parties.
Originality/value
Highlights the role of benchmarking as a tool to help overcome some of the problems of performance assessment in the public sector.
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Rateb J Sweis, Hala Jamal Al-Ghawi, Noor Abdel-Aziz AlSaleh, Zu'bi M.F Al-Zu'bi and Bader Y Obeidat
The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of internal benchmarking through the evaluation of quality management in two quality departments (Quality Assurance…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of internal benchmarking through the evaluation of quality management in two quality departments (Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC)) in a pharmaceutical company by utilizing total quality index (TQI).
Design/methodology/approach
In order to achieve the above-mentioned purpose a structured questionnaire was used to assess the gap between the ideal and current status of the quality management system. The mean differences between the current and ideal states for the eight critical factors were compared for the two departments using t-test.
Findings
There is difference in the actual and ideal scores on three out of eight critical factors between the QA and QC departments.
Practical implications
The internal benchmarking process which was applied in this case study can be applied in other pharmaceutical companies in order to improve the status of the quality management system and achieve competitive advantage.
Originality/value
Benchmarking of total quality management (TQM) can improve the performance of organizations. The benchmarking tool used in this study TQI is an information technology-supported tool that helps managers assess a TQM program by enabling the cost-effective measurement of key organizational processes. TQI measures the ideal and actual quality management along eight critical factors synthesized by Saraph et al. (1989).
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Emidia Vagnoni and Laura Maran
The paper seeks to suggest an application of the benchmarking technique on the content evaluation of the health district activity plans (HDAPs).
Abstract
Purpose
The paper seeks to suggest an application of the benchmarking technique on the content evaluation of the health district activity plans (HDAPs).
Design/methodology/approach
A literature review on benchmarking leads to the definition of a benchmarking process, which is utilized to evaluate and compare the contents of the HDAPs. These documents link the planning activity of the health districts of a region to the objectives comprehensively established at higher levels. Consequently, to define a common level of comparison of the HDAPs, the contents of the texts are evaluated through an in‐depth study of the specific law prescriptions and the adoption of an hermeneutic point of view. The HDAPs collected among the health districts of a single Italian Region represent the empirical data set and their specific benchmarking involves the definition of benchmark scales and placement of “best practices”.
Findings
Benchmarking can improve planning capabilities of the health districts pointing out their most positive differences. Its specific application on the HDAPs highlights its flexibility and usefulness; whilst at the same time, it opens new insights on the recent evolution of the health care systems towards accountability, cost consciousness and efficiency.
Practical implications
The results of the benchmarking comparison will lead to the design of an empirical blueprint for framing health district planning data and improve the understanding of the region.
Originality/value
The paper highlights the role of benchmarking both in providing a comprehensive lecture key of the reality of district planning and suggesting cues from the best practices observed.
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Sajeev Abraham George and Narayan Rangaraj
The paper aims to carry out a performance benchmarking study of the zones of Indian Railways (IR) to develop an alternate approach for measurement of aggregate operational…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to carry out a performance benchmarking study of the zones of Indian Railways (IR) to develop an alternate approach for measurement of aggregate operational performance of the railway zones and to envisage its operations in a supply chain perspective, so as to gain academic and practical insights.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study research employing data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology has been used, with the help of data obtained from the IR annual statistical statements published by the Ministry of Railways, Government of India.
Findings
Within the set of inputs and outputs considered, the exercise identified the best performing railway zones over the years and the efficiency trends. Some weaknesses of the conventional DEA were addressed by including the concept of cross‐efficiencies along with self‐efficiencies, by analyzing longitudinal data spread over four years and also by comparing the efficiencies with the operating ratios. To an extent, this study has also helped to understand the impact of the recent restructuring of the zones on their performance.
Originality/value
The study enables the reader to gain some valuable insights from a managerial perspective for IR so as to formulate strategies of its zones to foster better performance.
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Vilma L. Luoma-aho and Mirja E. Makikangas
The public sector worldwide is under pressure to downsize, which has led to mergers of public sector organisations. This paper seeks to bridge the unstudied gap of what happens to…
Abstract
Purpose
The public sector worldwide is under pressure to downsize, which has led to mergers of public sector organisations. This paper seeks to bridge the unstudied gap of what happens to organisational reputation after a merger. The paper discusses change and reputation in the public sector, and reports findings of a longitudinal study on stakeholder assessments of four public sector organisations undergoing mergers recently.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a theory-driven content analysis, this longitudinal study compares stakeholder assessments of four public sector organisations' reputations a year before an organisational merger with assessments of the two resulting organisations' reputations two years after the merger.
Findings
The paper finds that the mergers did not really re-shape reputation, but the once established reputation persevered. Although the organisations faced greater expectations after the merger, only minor changes in reputation were detected post-merger: the reputation for expertise, heavy bureaucracy and trustworthiness remained strong after the merger, but certain traits, such as being international and esteemed, were lost. In both cases, one organisation's prior reputation slightly dominated the new reputation.
Research limitations/implications
The findings may be limited to Finland and other Nordic countries, as well as those countries where trust in the public sector is high.
Practical implications
Mergers may not change once-established reputations, and hence the improvements desired by mergers may go unnoticed by the different stakeholders. Organisations merging must prepare for increased stakeholder expectations, as the new organisations arise questions. Previous organisational traits may remain in stakeholders' assessments despite any achieved improvements.
Originality/value
This paper addresses the gap in studying organisational reputation after public sector mergers, and contributes to both theory and practice by providing insight into the stability of once-established reputations.
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Patrizia Garengo and Alberto Sardi
Since the 1980s, performance measurement and management (PMM) has been described as an essential element of new public management (NPM) reforms. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Since the 1980s, performance measurement and management (PMM) has been described as an essential element of new public management (NPM) reforms. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the current state of the art and future research opportunities for PMM in public sector management.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper carried out a bibliometric literature review using two main techniques named (1) performance analysis and (2) science mapping techniques. It investigated the academic research area describing the main publications' trend, the conceptual structure and its evolution from 1996 to 2019.
Findings
The results highlighted the growing relevance of PMM research in public organisations and confirmed a great interest of the business, management and accounting literature on PMM in public sector management. Furthermore, the results also described a conceptual structure of the public PMM literature analysed and its evolution being too generic to answer public organisations' needs. The results identified five main research gaps and research opportunities.
Originality/value
Although the adoption of rigorous bibliometric techniques was recognised as being useful for assessing the academic research study, the paper describes the business, management and accounting literature contributing to new theoretical and practical future opportunities.
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Elsa Pedroso, Carlos F. Gomes and Mahmoud M. Yasin
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of the characteristics and roles of management accounting systems (MAS) on today’s business organizations and their management…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of the characteristics and roles of management accounting systems (MAS) on today’s business organizations and their management, systems, procedures, people, performance and competitive environments.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey-based methodology was utilized in this research to gather organizational information relevant to the different facets of the MAS and their operational and strategic practices impact on organizations operating under increasingly uncertain and competitive environments. A structural equation modeling approach was utilized to uncover relevant relationships and associations among relevant variables.
Findings
The findings of this exploratory research revealed a direct influence of MAS on the managerial and organizational performance through the managers’ performance. The results also suggest that MAS is directly influenced by users’ training, and satisfaction, task uncertainty and decentralization of decisions. It was also indirectly influenced by top management support. In addition, the findings also revealed a direct influence of the decentralization of decisions on the managers’ and on organizational performance.
Research limitations/implications
While this study addressed important issues that have practical management value, it is limited to a sample from one country. Future studies in different businesses and cultural settings are needed to enhance the theoretical and practical contributions of the findings and conclusions of this study.
Practical implications
The issues explored in this study are very much relevant to the utilization and design of MAS and their increasing tactical and strategic roles in the management of today’s business organizations. The findings of this study have relevant practical value for managers as they attempt to cope with increasingly competitive environments through the deployment of their existing capabilities and best practices. In this context, the accounting management system has practical utilities that facilitate the control and management of the operations and strategies of the organization.
Originality/value
This research offers practicing management an integrated approach, as they aspire to utilize their organizational MAS to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their organizations. Integrating the different aspects of management accounting information systems, given their impact on the different aspects of the organization, is needed for the establishment of theoretical research models aiming at the enhancement of the competitive performance of today’s organizations. This study also offers to executives of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) a new multidimensional instrument for assessing the effectiveness of their management information systems, which can help to improve their benchmarking processes.
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Thomas E. Lambert, Hokey Min and Arun K. Srinivasan
The purpose of this paper is to benchmark and measure the comparative efficiency of emergency medical services (EMS) in major US cities (populations greater than 100,000). In so…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to benchmark and measure the comparative efficiency of emergency medical services (EMS) in major US cities (populations greater than 100,000). In so doing, this paper aims to develop a benchmark that can be emulated by cities lagging in EMS efficiency. Also, it seeks to develop a profile of cities that are successful in providing highly efficient EMS as benchmarks.
Design/methodology/approach
Data envelopment analysis is used to measure the EMS efficiency of 127 selected large cities in the USA under the premise of a constant‐return to scales method of service delivery. In addition, to identify factors influencing the US cities' EMS efficiency and then to predict their efficiency scores, a Tobit regression analysis is employed, which tended to result in a smaller standard error, a smaller bias, and a smaller mean squared error than ordinary least squares.
Findings
This paper examines whether more densely settled and populated areas have greater efficiency in delivering EMS. After controlling variables such as weather and climate, income, population growth, the age of a residential home, and geographic size of a city in land area, It is found that more densely settled, geographically large, and high income cities show more efficient provision of EMS.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to develop in a comprehensive way EMS benchmark performance standards for municipal governments and elaborate on a host of factors which are associated with the success of EMS deliveries. By setting such standards and identifying factors affecting EMS efficiency, this paper helps municipal governments to continuously improve their EMS and develop more efficient public policy.