Search results for "Accountability"
showing 10 items of 146 documents
External Inspection or School Self‐evaluation? A Comparative Analysis of Policy and Practice in Primary Schools in England and Finland
1998
The findings reported in this article form part of a wider comparative research project investigating the processes of curriculum change in primary schools in England and Finland during the period 1994-97. The two countries' policies on inspection and monitoring were moving in opposite directions. Finland has abandoned its national inspection system and is promoting school self-evaluation, whilst in England external accountability has been imposed on schools through Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) inspections. Using data from case studies of six schools in each country, it is argued that each country has something to learn from the practice of the other. In England, the impact of…
Collegial or Managerial? Academics' Conceptions of Quality in English and Finnish Universities
2009
Two specific forms of quality are identified: Type I, which has a managerial focus and stresses fitness for purpose and accountability, and Type II, which is collegial and concerned with enhancement. Through an analysis of the literature on quality in higher education and small-scale empirical research with a sample of academic staff, this article compares conceptions of quality assurance in the English and Finnish higher education systems. The authors highlight the similarities and differences in the two countries and possible reasons for them. Over time the blend of managerial and collegial approaches to quality has come to favour the former but much more so in England than in Finland, wh…
Disclosure Alignment and Transparency Signaling in CSR Reports
2014
This chapter investigates companies' disclosure alignment and transparency signaling within the 2011 CSR annual reports of 36 U.S. firms in the Global Forbes 2000. DICTION 6.0 was used for the text analysis. The study found that CSR reports are fairly similar to corporate financial annual reports but can be classified more accurately as a hybrid discourse with normative elements matching genres emanating from science, business, government, religion, and social movements. Despite the relatively short time that CSR reports have been in existence, this chapter provides evidence that CSR reporting has become institutionalized quickly. The measures of transparency signaling and disclosure alignm…
Applying system dynamics to foster organizational change, accountability and performance in the public sector: A case-based Italian perspective
2010
The goal of this paper is to discuss the role System Dynamics (SD) can play to enhance performance improvement in the public sector. It is remarked how SD can help decision makers to properly perceive the boundaries of the relevant system underlying observed phenomena. To this end, three real cases are analysed to show how SD can facilitate a better understanding of the relationships between the political and the organisational system in the public sector, and how to promptly attain efficiency and improve outcome, given the constraints that the institutional and political systems constitute. The goal of this paper is to discuss the role System Dynamics (SD) can play to enhance performance i…
Diverging approaches to benefits realization from public ICT investments
2013
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore practical methods for benefits realisation, with the intention of investigating if they are variance of a theme or rather can be classified as different approaches.Design/methodology/approachBased on a document study of Norwegian methods‐in‐use, this study uses an analytical comparison following an assimilation‐accommodation procedure to categorize the chosen methods as instances of approaches to benefits realisation.FindingsThis study documents the emergence of several methods from practice in the last half decade. This analysis suggests the existence of three distinct approaches to benefits realisation and defines these according to their cen…
Improving performance and fostering accountability in the public sector through system dynamics modelling: From an ‘external’ to an ‘internal’ perspe…
2010
This paper aims to outline the benefits justifying a tailored approach to System Dynamics (SD) modelling in the public sector, to improve performance and foster decision makers' accountability. The need of combining an ‘internal’ with an ‘external’ perspective (in respect to decision makers) in developing SD models is claimed. Different levels of intervention (i.e. macro, micro and meso) are discussed. Two case studies are analysed. The first one demonstrates how a dynamic resource-based view (DRBV) can support an analysis of the impact of back and front office units on a public sector organization's performance drivers. The second case shows how SD modelling based on a DRBV can also be app…
A feedback view of behavioural distortions from perceived public service gaps at ‘street‐level’ policy implementation: The case of unintended outcome…
2020
This paper discusses the limitations and risks associated with the use of output-oriented measures to assess public school performance. In particular, it questions the capability of the performance measures set by external institutions, with respect to schools, to support sustainable educational outcomes. To this end, the ‘street-level bureaucracy’ theory is used in the paper as a basis to analyse the behavioural distortions generated by perceived public service gaps at school level policy implementation. Such unintended behavioural effects are often a major cause of disappointing outcomes when test-based accountability systems are adopted. In the second part of the paper, an insight model …
Agencification of the European Union Administration: Connecting the Dots
2016
This review paper, with a clear political science and public administration bias, takes stock of the existing literature on EU agencies and suggests a future research agenda in this area. We review studies on EU agencies’ organization, tasks, proliferation and location in the political-administrative space. Whether the advent of EU agencies tends to underpin a basically intergovernmental, transnational or supranational order is a major topic with potentially huge consequences for the distribution of power across levels of government, for the degree of policy uniformity and pooling of administrative resources across countries, for the role of genuinely European perspectives in the policy pro…
La selezione dei giudici della Corte di giustizia. Poteri e limiti del comitato ex. art. 255 TFUE
2013
Abstract The appointment of judges to supranational and international courts has long been an unstudied area of sovereign activity. However, the growing role and significance of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), by now one of the most significant players within the European political and constitutional space, demands reforms which also affect its architecture. The creation of the advisory panel under article 255 TFUE, is a way to improve judicial independence and proficiency but also a mean to achieve an adequate level of judicial accountability. Indeed, the existing national nomination processes, missing both transparency and public involvement, risk to shape courts which are far away t…
Institutional Research in the Future: Challenges Within Higher Education and the Need for Excellence in Professional Practice
2013
The upcoming challenge for higher education institutions (HEIs) globally is how to respond to an increasing variety of societal needs but with fewer public resources and increased accountability demands. In this chapter we draw attention to the central role institutional research (IR) professionals play in positioning HEIs in a competitive and globalized environment, and the need for them to have a well-developed set of skills (both generic and specialized) to provide and inform the decision-making process. We conclude by posing some questions to consider for the practice of IR into the future.