Suchergebnisse

This executive order by Governor Mark Sanford declares Monday, December 24, 2007, as the Christmas Eve holiday for state government employees.

Insufficient attention towards the topic of public service motivation among Lithuanian scholars encouragedthe author to choose the object for the paper. The paper starts with the analysis of various theories of motivation(starting with A.Maslow theory of needs hierarchy and analyzing more complex theories of F.Herzberg,K.Alderfer, D.McCleland, V.Vroom, J.Adams, E.Lawler, W.Porter ). Similar theories can serve as the basis forfuture research in Lithuanian public sphere. Author states, that universal theory on motivation does not exist.This fact complicates applicability of various theories in practice as raises the question, which theory is the bestone (qualitative dimension). After choosing the theory, another question is what we have to measure. Attitudes(satisfaction), behavior (involvement) or both these elements should be used trying to measure motivation. Awish to participate in public policy implementation, serving public, loyalty to government; commitment andbenevolence are several specific motivators, which influence public servant's activity. It is shown that workingconditions, work content, salary, work safety, challenges, and possibilities for a career in private and publicsector lead to distinguish certain similarities and differences.

This article seeks to lay a theoretical foundation of the internal decentralization (decentralization in the localmunicipality): its essence and content are defined, the main forms as well as the kinds of forms are identified. Thisis performed by using theoretical propositions of decentralization in the state (at the state level) following differentresearchers' works and verifying whether they are suitable for local municipalities of Lithuania and other countries.In the article the set goal is being sought by these actions:1) the origin and the meaning of the word "decentralization" are explained;2) the essence and the content of decentralization in the state (at the state level) are defined;3) the essence and the content of decentralization in the local municipality are defined, its main forms andkinds of forms are named;4) currently the most frequently applied forms of internal decentralization in local municipalities of othercountries are submitted.In the opinion of the author of the article, decentralization in the local municipality (or internal decentralizationin the local municipality) means the transfer of the powers assigned to municipal bodies, which belong to ahigher hierarchical level, to a subordinate or non-subordinate bodies, which belong to a lower hierarchical level, ordivision of powers to a bigger number of bodies of the same hierarchical level. The bodies that have received thesepowers are guaranteed some discretion to make decisions and operate. Moreover, a certain interaction (relations,responsibilities) between the bodies that have transferred the powers and the ones that have received those powersis foreseen.From the author's of the article point of view, the internal decentralization in the local municipality isperformed by these forms:1) deconcentration;2) transfer of powers (delegation);3) fiscal decentralization;4) economic decentralization.The author thinks that at present the most frequently applied forms of internal decentralization in municipalitiesof different countries are the ...

The author has carried out a study in regard to aspects of gender equality in politics and publicadministration in Latvia. The author has questioned 85 women, leaders of local governments, interviewed20 respondents in Latvia, asked men, leaders of local governments, for their opinion, as wellas conducted expert interviews in Finland. Results of the study show that the women, leaders of localgovernments, acknowledge themselves as leaders and they are such indeed. Majority of them have notencountered gender discrimination. Women leaders have positive attitude towards women organizations.A half of the respondents suggest other women should participate in politics, work in local governmentswhich gives them satisfaction regardless of the fact that the participation in politics affectstheir family lives, and stereotypes existing in the society about a woman in politics. Results gainedfrom the survey examining men's opinion revealed stereotypical thinking about women holding managerialpositions by emphasizing feminine qualities of the women and the role the woman plays in thefamily. Although it cannot be affirmed that gender discrimination has been ended completely inFinland, interviews with experts in Finland have shown that women's participation in politics, cultureand trust in political power are greater in Finland than in Latvia.

Dorothy Eck explains the events that guided her interests in politics, her eventual membership and presidency of the Montana League of Women Voters, and discusses issues backed by that organization. She discusses her experience in the Montana Senate, 1980-2000, and describes former political leaders such as Mike Mansfield, Lee Metcalf, Arnold Olsen, and various influential legislators. At the end of the interview, she gives a detailed account of her participation in the Montana Constitutional Convention of 1972. ; https://scholarworks.umt.edu/brown/1010/thumbnail.jpg

The article examines the size and growth of governments in the United States. The three different measures areused to define the size of government: the number or government units, their expenditures, and the number ofpeople they employ. The number of different government units changes over time. The number of townships hasbeen shrinking while the number of municipalities has been growing, an indication of increasing urbanization andthe incorporation of previously unincorporated areas. The number of special districts shoes rapid growth, a reflectionof the continuous creation of intergovernmental arrangements to perform various functions in metropolitanareas. As a result, and reversing a prolonged decline that resulted from the consolidation of school districts, thetotal number of government units is growing again.While the total number of governments has been growing slowly in recent decades, their expenditures havebeen growing rapidly. Total spending by all levels of government in the United States in 1996 was $2.993 trillion.This does not include "off-budget spending," that is, outstanding federal loans, guaranteed loans, and borrowing byfederally sponsored enterprises. In less than 40 years, measured in constant dollars, expenditures have more thanquadrupled, almost tripled on a per capita basis, and grown by more than half as a fraction of gross domesticproduct (GDP), to 32.2 percent.

The purpose of the paper is to analyze both positive and negative aspects of corruption education in Lithuania.Although anticorruption education in Lithuania is a new phenomenon, but it is making a good progress:anticorruption institutions are established, various anticorruption education researches and projects with localand foreign partners are being implemented, anticorruption education system of public servants is formed, methodicaltraining tools for higher schools and universities are prepared. It demonstrates the seriousness of theproblem of corruption in the country and a real desire to overcome it. However, insufficient financing of anticorruptioneducation, usually only a formal implementation of anticorruption measures in public institutions,the lack of ethical motivation in civil service, poor wittiness of the society hinder the efficiency of anticorruptioneducation. The projects of anticorruption education are too theoretical and difficult to realize in practice.Anticorruption training in civil service is practically based on codes of ethics, which do not guarantee moralityand clearness of their work. The role of mass media in forming anticorruption attitudes of the society is doublefaced.Sometimes non-transparent mass media discourages the fight against corruption, distorts real facts anddiminishes the activity of the society. There are no methods to measure the efficiency of anticorruption education.Its influence on reducing the corruption will be visible only after some time.

The aim of the EU regional policy is to increase the level of social and economic cohesion of the Community. The effectiveness of this policy is not unanimously agreed upon. There are regions in Europe which took maximum advantage of the Structural Funds and considerably decreased the gap between them and the average EU level (Lisboa e Vale Do Tejo), or even went beyond it (Ireland). However, there are also regions that, despite huge transfers from the EU budget, are stagnant (southern Italy) The negative examples are exploited by the opponents of the current policy. According to them, the policy's achievement in its current shape is too expensive for the entire Union (too high opportunity cost). The same transfers used to support innovativeness in the well-developed regions would lead to an increased innovativeness and modernization of the Member States' economies in general. The article's aim is an attempt to answer the question about the policy's future shape. It will depend on many factors (social and economic situation in the entire Europe, catch-up processes, political situation, etc). A different shape of regional policy could, however, mean a return to the idea of two-speed Europe, which would not be advantageous to the new Member States.

This paper seeks to conceptualise ethics leadership in English local government. It will demonstratethat there are a number of stakeholders within the ethical framework for English local government, all ofwhom have a potential leadership role to play. It will further argue that traditional models of ethical leadershipdo not fully encompass this diversity of leadership sources, which can be better addressed througha framework of collective decision making and collaborative action. In so doing, the paper will draw togetherethical leadership with other strands of public management leadership theory. After defining theconcept of ethical leadership, the paper will map out the ethics network in local government and will categorisestakeholders into different groups. The ethics map will then be discussed in terms of relational leadershipand communities of practice. It concludes by offering strategies for future research

The concept of state capture, which is widely used when speaking about corruption in transitional democracies,defines illegitimate and non-transparent influence on state policy development. Though widely-spread inLithuania, this phenomenon still has not been studied thoroughly by Lithuanian scholars. The phenomenon ofstate capture in Lithuania is analyzed in this article emphasizing three main aspects: its' prevalence, forms andreasons. After the short introduction on state capture the authors analyze this phenomenon using the Lithuaniancase study, which is based on the analyses of legal acts, other surveys, scientific papers, and the interview withrepresentatives of the Transparency International Lithuanian Chapter. The analysis showed that level of statecapture in Lithuania decreased during the period of 1999 – 2002 but increased in 2005; however, there are notenough data to confirm the latter conclusion. Institutions mostly affected by state capture are legislative (Seimas),executive (Government), judicial and political parties. Business enterprises, separate individuals and foreigncountries (especially Russia) sought to influence the formation of public policy in corrupt ways in Lithuania.

Article methodically analyses external and internal obstacles for further development of civil service inLithuania.Most important challenges are identified as the need for change of existing governance paradigm from administrativeto management, and this need is coming from dynamic changes in XXI century and society' s growingdemand for democratic governance. Second challenge is identified as narrowing professional specialisation ofpoliticians that raises the need for specific competency in political decision making.Second half of article identifies and analyses following essential internal challenges for civil service in Lithuania:value system that doesnot match management practice; mismatch between raised strategic goals and existinghuman capital; too strong juridical regulation of civil service; lack of leadership and management skills; poorlyorganized system for competency development and retention; poorly specialised employment system; limitedmaterial and immaterial opportunities to motivate employees.

Paper explores role of the Europeanization of private law to economic growth in EU and especially in Eastern and Central Europe states. The purpose of the paper is two-fold. First, the paper seeks to bring out into the open various aspects of the Europeanization of private law – from process and outcome perspectives and analyses private law importance to economic growth especially to attract FDI. It focuses on selected aspects of EU private law and legal policies and other initiatives at European level. Second, and correlatively, the paper aims to introduce the theme of the Europeanization of private law into current debates concerning the effectiveness of Lisbon Agenda. Europeanization of private law both reinforces and strengthens the Lisbon agenda in order to create EU as a competitive in global market and by promoting entrepreneurship culture. On another hand importance of functional convergence of private law systems and competition of private law systems for economic growth can not be ignored because in CEECs foreign direct investment is one of the major sources of growth and those countries could not compete for capital using other means such as natural sources or size of their market as their competitive advantage.

The paper deals with the concepts of image and reputation and peculiarities of managing them in thecontext of politics and public institutions. Substantial stages of image and reputation management developmentare identified and characterized. The necessity for creating sustainable image and seeking a strongpositive reputation, as well as grounding reputation management on the base of holistic approach, is presented.Characteristics and factors driving ones' image and reputation, submitted in the paper, and proposedtheoretical issues and practical considerations of managing image and reputation should be consideredas guidelines for developing comprehensive image and reputation management system in both politicsand public institutions. Exploring such a system is extremely important both in politics, as image-intensive sector,and in public institutions as demand for transparency and power of communication grow increasingly.

The article reveals uniqueness of strategic management system in municipal governments. It determines thegap between theoretical interpretation of strategic planning and its practical understanding. In the analysis ofenvironment, it is suggested to analyse these additional areas: dynamism of environment, need of interest groups,and competitive advantage. The analysis of internal factors should be complemented by studies of characteristicsof executives, strategies (general, departamental, and functional strategies), operational indicators, and qualityrequirements.

Treatments of the concepts "team" and "team work" in human resources management are analysed in thearticle, distinguishing their links with organizational psychology and organizational sociology. This is a new viewto the team work as to the interdisciplinary research subject.There are no traditional methods to analyse organizational and individual activities, team-based modernorganization is rendered comprehensively. Team and team work concepts, structural borders are purified, workorganization activities research contents is provided taking into consideration the specific organizational context.It is concluded that team work as a phenomenon is subject of many social sciences (human resources management,organizational psychology, educology, organizational sociology etc.). Each of these sciences creates a peculiar(original) attitude towards the team work phenomenon.E. g., psychology explains the team work as interaction between individuals, educology deems it like competence,which can be trained and developed. In the organizational sociology context the team work is seen likeinteraction between groups and relations inside the organization. Neither of the mentioned social sciences takenseparately can create versatile and universal theoretical image (model) of the team work which would be suitableto execute interdisciplinary research and to develop human resources management practice.After having analysed the role of team work, the premises of efficient functioning as well as opportunities inthe contemporary work organizations, democratic reconstructing, qualitative role of team work is noted.