Public governance tensions: a managerial artefacts-based view
| Author | Khouloud Senda Bennani,Anissa Ben Hassine,Bachir Mazouz |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0020852320988155 |
| Published date | 01 December 2022 |
| Date | 01 December 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Public governance
tensions: a managerial
artefacts-based view
Khouloud Senda Bennani
University of Tunis Carthage, Tunisia
Anissa Ben Hassine
University of Tunis Carthage, Tunisia
Bachir Mazouz
Universit
eduQu
ebec, Canada
Abstract
The aim of this article is to categorise the factors of tension in public organisational
settings. The context of the administrative reforms undertaken in Tunisia has been
chosen as an empirical illustration of the public governance tensions associated with
managerial artefacts. The study focuses on three types of factors. An analysis of these
factors confirms the theories on the appropriation of management tools and helps raise
the existing level of knowledge in relation to the processes to mitigate public gover-
nance tensions within public organisations.
Points for practitioners
Today, the modernisation of public governance goes hand in hand with the introduction
of new public management tools in administrative settings. On a practical level, the
appropriation of these tools generates a tense relationship between political decision-
makers and public managers. Often perceived from the perspective of paradoxical
demands and antagonistic relationships that disrupt the daily life of state organisations,
public governance tensions can be managed as long as they are identified and categor-
ised in the light of the factors of tension associated with the reforms undertaken.
Corresponding author:
Khouloud Senda Bennani, Universit
e Tunis Carthage, Avenue Fattouma Bourguiba La Soukra, Tunisia 20036,
Tunisia.
Email: senda.bennani@gmail.com
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
!The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852320988155
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2022, Vol. 88(4) 1050–1067
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Keywords
administrative reforms, appropriation, management tools, results-based management,
tension
Introduction
It has been demonstrated that bureaucracies within the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) are seeing a questioning of the ‘new’
benchmark values and management practices hinged on the results of public
policy. Public managers (PMs) and public policy stakeholders are concerned, in
particular, about the purpose of public action, the preservation and future of the
common good, the priority given to the public interest, and the improvement of
services to citizens (Emery and Giauque, 2012; Kristiansen, 2016). These concerns
result from (potentially) confrontational relationships, attesting to the existence of
public governance tensions (PGTs).
By definition, PGTs arise in relations between public leaders and managers of
state organisations when governments decide to transform their national public
governance systems (NPGS).
1
They come about when reformers appear to: (1)
depart from existing public values; (2) want to reorganise public service delivery
structures; (3) implement administrative frameworks that focus on public policy
outcomes (Thomas and Davies, 2005); and/or (4) force administrators to use man-
agerial artefacts
2
from the private sector (Hudon and Mazouz, 2014).
In the case of public administrations in OECD countries, it has been shown that
there are logical links between the introduction of new managerial artefacts and
the emergence of tensions within organisations (Bartoli et al., 2011). We can refer
to these as artefactual PGTs (A-PGTs) (see later). These are caused by factors such
as the ideological prescriptions of the management tools (MTs) and the complexity
of the appropriation processes (De Vaujany, 2006; Eynaud et al., 2016; M
eriade,
2017). In the case of countries undergoing a democratic transition, and facing
pressure from international financial and non-financial organisations, reformers
invoke the imperatives of a managerial instrumentation applied to public
administration.
MTs are imposed on governments in the throes of crises and socio-political
tensions to cope with budgetary emergencies (Comeau and Mazouz, 2009).
Studies on the tensions generated by this managerial instrumentation (Ben
Hassine et al., 2012; Chaker, 1997; Dahmani, 2015; Laroussi, 2009; Noomane-
Bejaoui, 2014) have not made it possible to categorise these factors. It is therefore
important to ask and attempt to find answers to the following question: what are
the main attributes of the PGT factors associated with managerial artefacts
(A-PGTs)? In public management, this question also links up with a research
programme on the rates and processes of propagation or mitigation of PGTs
within NPGS.
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Bennani et al.
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