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PurposeThis paper has two purposes. The first is to help elected officials address the issue of public accountability for crises and improve productivity and risk management in the process by outsourcing some traditional government functions to civil society based organizations that can do a better job. The second is to mobilize researchers to explore the implications of the shift from "governing" to "governance" for risk management and the development of risk culture.Design/methodology/approachAfter exploring some case studies, the paper examines some leading resources on the shift from "governing" to "governance". The paper goes on to present an alternative approach for managing public risks.FindingsIn order to improve the management of public risks, and given the financial constraints faced by most governments, there is a need for a deliberate effort to entice civil society based organizations to help government identify and alert the public to possible risks. In other words, civil society based organizations that make claims for public resources in the name of good governance should, as necessary, play the role of a watchdog when it comes to public safety and guarding of the public interest in that regard.Practical implicationsUse of market forces and non‐governmental entities to replace government agencies and regulations that cannot assure the public safety because they are difficult to implement, expensive or likely to be compromised due to various forms of corruption and politics.Originality/valueThe paper advocates substitution of "management by exception" by a "management by risk" approach and the fostering of an administrative culture that is more mindful of the need to recognize and address possible risks. Such an approach, the paper claims, is a more promising approach than an increase in government regulation.

Soft power—the ability to achieve desired outcomes through attraction rather than coercion—has become an important part of scholarly thinking and policy practice with respect to world politics. And yet attraction, the core component of soft power, has been largely neglected in scholarly research. Research has been undertaken, policy suggestions offered, and ethical conclusions about soft power drawn all on the basis of implicit and often unacknowledged assumptions about attraction. As I argue here, this is problematic because neither of the most prominent assumptions— attraction as natural and attraction as constructed through persuasive argument—are feasible or logical in the context of world politics. In fact, as I argue, in the context of world politics it makes far more sense to model attraction as a relationship that is constructed through representational force—a nonphysical but nevertheless coercive form of power that is exercised through language. Insofar as attraction is sociolinguistically constructed through representational force, soft power should be not be understood in juxtaposition to hard power but as a continuation of it by different means. This analytic insight in turn demands some practical and normative reformulations about soft power. ————————————————————————

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of a major initiative (the National Competition Policy) and pieces of legislation (the Local Government Act and the Local Government Finance Standards) on the internal practices of a large Australian local authority.Design/methodology/approachA theoretical framework is developed using new public management (NPM) and neo‐institutional theory literatures to explain the findings. A case study approach was applied to collect the data for the research.FindingsThe findings reveal that the National Competition Policy 1993, the Local Government Act 1993 and the Local Government Finance Standards 1994 mainly have brought about significant changes to the organisation's internal management control processes, such as financial reporting, budgeting and performance appraisal. The changes brought in appeared to be coincidentally similar to NPM ideals. Furthermore, senior managers (such as the chief executive and divisional heads) played a major role in implementing new accounting technologies (activity‐based costing and the balanced scorecard type performance measurement system).Research limitations/implicationsFuture research on public sector financial management from the outset of organisational contexts could considerably further the stock of knowledge in this area, especially given the rapid changes occurring within the public sector throughout the world. Future research may wish to extend this study by assessing how external legitimating functions become internal reality, the perceptions of reality of the organisational members, and how these perceptions change over time.Practical implicationsThe findings reported provide evidence to further our understanding of how the introduction of private sector styles of organisational practices into large areas of the public sector brought about significant changes in the demand for "new" financial management practices.Originality/valueThe findings reported on in this paper will open a new path of research that may increase our understanding about the factors that play a role in the design of management and accounting systems in a public sector context. Further, they will help policy makers and public sector managers in their day‐to‐day decision‐making.

PurposeTo provide a critique of the strategies that the UK Government employed at that time of the closure of the countryside during the foot and mouth disease (FMD) and their subsequent effects upon leisure and tourism providers. The work evaluates the sector's responses to the FMD crisis and considers their significance and influence in relation to the strategies deployed. Possible alternative strategies are presented which both government and industries can consider.Design/methodology/approachThe complete sector of tourism and leisure providers within the market town of Keswick was surveyed twice over a two‐year period. The initial survey was undertaken in 2002 and the second survey occurred in 2004. Keswick is situated in the northern sector of the English Lake District National Park, which is situated within the county of Cumbria. This area was seen to be the most affected by the foot and mouth crisis both in terms of severity and duration of infection. In addition to the survey conducted, key personnel from government agencies and voluntary organisations were also interviewed using a semi‐structured approach. Additional information was accessed from a FMD discussion web site.FindingsThe impact of the foot and mouth crisis devastated the rural tourism and leisure industries. The governmental policy utilized was myopic in its outlook and ineffectual in that it concentrated mainly upon the consequences to, and the needs of, the farming industry. The current proposals acknowledge to some degree that the town's tourism and leisure industry are a valued part of the rural economy, but the authors question if these are effective enough.Originality/valueThe originality of the study has enabled the evaluation of the strategies put in place immediately after the FMD crisis. It not only critically appraises proposed policies (i.e. limited closure of the countryside in future) but uniquely proposes a number of alternatives.