Papers
PUBLIC MANAGEMENT IN SOUTH AMERICA What happened in the last ten years?
Public Management Review Vol. 10 Issue 4 2008 493–504
There has been a global movement that has changed the nature of the state and its administration. Reforms have been implemented in Brazil, as they have in many other countries. This article aims to examine some profound changes in Brazilian public administration that have taken place during the last
century, focusing on the modifications introduced since 1990. The analysis will be extended and illustrated in greater depth,
using the example of the reforms that are currently being implemented in the State of Minas Gerais, and in the City of Porto Alegre. The analysis focuses on the Brazilian case,
but examples of reforms in other countries from South America are also provided. The paper concludes arguing that a number of
efforts have been made to improve the performance of public administration, but it is not at all clear that these attempts are
bringing a better quality of life to society.
LikeStakeholder Management in the Local Government Decision-Making Area: Evidences from a Triangulation Study with the English Local Government
RAC, Edição Especial 2006: 77-98
The stakeholder theory has been in the management agenda for about thirty years and reservations about its acceptance as a comprehensive theory still remains. It was introduced as a managerial issue by the Labour Party in 1997 aiming to make public management more inclusive. This article aims to
contribute to the stakeholder theory adding descriptive issues to its theoretical basis. The findings are derived from an inductive investigation carried out with English Local Authorities, which will most likely be reproduced in other contexts. Data collection and analysis is based on a data triangulation method that involves case-studies, interviews of validation and analysis of documents. The investigation proposes a model for representing the nature of the relationships between stakeholders and the decision-making process of such organizations. The decision-making of local government organizations is in fact a stakeholder-based process in which stakeholders are empowered to exert influences due to
power over and interest in the organization’s operations and outcomes.
Who Are the Relevant Stakeholders to the Local Government Context? Empirical Evidences on Environmental Influences in the Decision-Making Process of English Local Authorities
Brazilian Administration Review – BAR, v. 1, n. 1, July – December, 2004
This article presents empirical evidence of stakeholding in the local government context. It is the result of a survey carried out with English Local Authorities in 2001. It outlines the arena in which local government make decisions by pinpointing the relevant stakeholders in the process as well as the amount of power they are perceived to represent by chief executives. The investigation has its theoretical basis in resource dependence and institutional theories, which are commonly used for explaining an organization’s behaviour and performance as influenced by its environment. As an empirical contribution, the article proposes a stakeholder map for any kind of local government organizations that will help in identifying strategies for managing stakeholders.
Depicting the arena in which Brazilian local government authorities make decisions What is the role of stakeholders?
International Journal of Public Sector Management Vol. 22 No. 2, 2009 pp. 76-90 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0951-3558
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to describe the arena in which managers of small size Brazilian municipalities make decisions as constrained by stakeholder influence.
Design/methodology/approach – Four case studies were carried out with municipalities in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The investigation was carried out using grounded theory. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews with managers and with the main stakeholders. Data were
analysed using content analysis, supported by QSR N6 software.
Findings – The contribution of this paper to theory is based on a description of the arena in which Brazilian municipal districts make decisions. In so doing, it endeavours to model this arena as comprised of five clusters of stakeholder concerns: limitation, collaboration, orientation, legitimacy,
and inspection. The paper raises some issues that are helpful in explaining the relationship between stakeholder influences and public organisations. In other words, it helps to label stakeholder influences and to make stakeholder influence more manageable by public organisations at the local government level. In practical terms, the paper concludes that the number of stakeholders is less important than the sort of influence they are supposed to exert upon organisations.
Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this investigation relate to the features of the case study methods employed. The results show the particular situation of the State of Minas Gerais (at the southeast of Brazil) and represent the situation of small municipalities.
Originality/value – There has been very little prior analysis of stakeholder influence focusing on local government. This investigation is the first with a specific focus on identifying the arena in which Brazilian municipalities make decisions and the relationship of those municipalities with stakeholders.
Who is supposed to be regarded as a stakeholder for public organizations in developing countries? Evidence from an empirical investigation in Brazilian municipalities
Public Management Review, Volume 10, Issue 2 2008 , pages 263 - 275
This paper presents the results of an ongoing investigation, whose main aim is to analyze the network in which public organizations make decisions. The findings presented here resulted from a cross-sectional survey carried out with Municipal Districts from the State of Minas Gerais. Data was analyzed through statistical techniques, employing the SPSS software program. The investigation pointed out some stakeholders who are regarded as strongly influential and able to demand decision-makers' attention, and they are: the City Council, Local Population, the Accountancy Tribunal and the Management Team. The limitation of the ideas presented here are related to the fact that it is an ongoing investigation and other steps are being taken in order to fulfil the picture of stakeholder's influences at the local level in developing countries. In terms of innovation, this is one of the first empirical investigations carried out with Brazilian Municipal Districts published in Europe.
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