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One of the main challenges in modern labour markets is to improve the mobility and employability of workers among workplaces, jobs and roles. This paper explores the factors that might influence people's beliefs about and attitudes towards the mechanisms for improving employability through training. We develop a research model and test it in Israel using surveys that were distributed at two points in time – before and during an acute crisis in the labour market – the Covid-19 pandemic. Perceptions about personal mobility and employability and prior educational experience play a major role in explaining citizens' attitudes towards training. Beliefs about the effectiveness of government training providers as well as employment security are relatively marginal in explaining the demand for training. Policy implications follow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional emergency management has become an integral part of public management practice and research. This paper investigates the factors related to people's willingness to contribute to institutional emergency preparedness. We explore the relationships between this willingness and people's perceptions about the likelihood of government handling emergencies effectively, the risks of emergencies, and their relationship with public sector organizations. Using a dataset collected in Israel at two points in time before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, we demonstrate that people's willingness to contribute to institutional emergency preparedness is strongly anchored in their evaluations of the public sector's responsiveness and fairness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When and why do citizens comply with government policies and restrictions during emergencies? We investigate possible answers to this question. We propose a mediation model where trust in government and emergency organizations as well as perceived government effectiveness mediate the relationships between participation in decision making and the willingness to comply. We also utilize the protective action decision‐making model where perceptions about protective actions and threats can add to the explanation. Using a national survey distributed to a representative sample of the Israeli population during the wake of a second wave of the spread of Covid‐19, we found that the willingness to comply during emergencies is related to these research variables. Participation in decision‐making appears to be the main variable, but it is negatively related to the willingness to comply. We conclude that the public sector should develop and improve communication and participatory mechanisms with citizens specifically for emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intensity and impact of emergencies on communities and societies are on the rise. They call for better preparedness, responses, and coping strategies by all those who are involved, especially citizens and the government. This paper introduces the concept of emergency-oriented civic engagement (EOCE), which includes citizens' attitudes and behaviors aimed at influencing the community and government during emergencies. A theoretical framework and model that explore these complex relationships are presented. The paper first explains the differences between emergency-oriented civic engagement and civic engagement during peaceful times. Next, an exploration of a set of variables such as interpersonal trust, feelings of threat, the cost–benefit ratio, and trust in government that may influence emergency-oriented civic engagement is introduced. Finally, the model is illustrated in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that underscored the importance of solidarity and wellbeing among citizens during emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present three studies that examine the relationship between perceptions about public personnel management and social resilience during a crisis among frontline public healthcare servants who battled the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on theories of public personnel management, crisis management, trust, and resilience, we suggest a model and hypotheses that may extend our knowledge about perceived social resilience, both internal (organizational) and external (communal and national). We tested our model with the results of an online survey conducted in early 2021 among 437 healthcare employees from the Ministry of Health (n 1 = 87), hospitals (n 2 = 200), and Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs; n 3 = 150) across Israel. The findings generally support direct and indirect relationships between perceptions of good public personnel management, defined as healthcare system resilience, participation in decision-making and information sharing, and group-level organizational citizenship behavior, and perceived national and community resilience, and trust. Implications, extensions, and recommendations for future theoretical and empirical studies are discussed along with practical proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problems of gaming behaviour as expressed in untruthful reporting, manipulation of data and performance measures, and distortion of information. We apply game-theoretical principal-agent reasoning that refers to the marginal costs and benefits of gaming and oversight, pointing to policy measures for ensuring more effort exerted in productive activity rather than in gaming activity. These measures are the regulatory monitoring of agents' activities rather than the control and supervision of them. We base our suggestions on behavioural economics and nudge research. Regulatory monitoring mechanisms are transparent and 'soft', so they moderate the adversarial nature of principal-agent relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses two versions of a signaling game to set minimal quality requirements for higher education applicants in Israel: one assumes low sensitivity to quality, the other high sensitivity. Concludes that indirect government influence on quality variations in applicant pool is more effective in controlling institutional quality then direct measures. (Contains 31 references.) (PKP)

Offers a quality-policy planning model for academic institutions, noting that rapidly growing higher education systems are often characterized by market failure in terms of program quality, because controlling bodies have incomplete information about program quality and low sensitivity to quality variations. Applies this framework to Israel, discussing policy implications for structural changes that would set minimal quality requirements. (DB)