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Blame or Karma? The attribution of Blame in the Childcare Benefits Affair: The childcare benefits affair refers to a period between 2005 and 2019 in which an estimated 30,000 families were deliberately put into serious financial and personal harm by the tax administration because of often unjustified suspicions of fraudulent behaviour. Inquiries into the political and administrative causes and consequences led to a restructuring of the tax administration and the resignation of the cabinet at the beginning of 2021. By reconstructing the affair, we analyse what role politics and politicians played and how they attempted to avoid blame for the affair. Several strategies were used to avoid blame, including tasking a committee to write a report, restructuring the tax administration and promising swift compensation to the victims. The only party that seems to have avoided blame is parliament, despite multiple indications that members of parliament played an important role in the emergence of the affair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to validate a broader conceptualization of ethical leadership and a matching measurement scale (BELS) using survey data from 909 public servants in leadership positions in the Netherlands. Design/methodology/approach: The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (using AMOS) and exploratory factor analysis were carried out with repeated CFA. A social desirability scale was used to check for model fitness. Findings: Our findings support the notion that ethical leadership is broader in conceptualization and hence reject the theories that limit the role of ethical leaders within the confines of organizations. This study confirms that attributes like sustainability, leadership learning, ethical competency, diversity and resilience are part of ethical leadership. Such characteristics could not be measured with previous scales for ethical leadership. Also, ethical leadership is not separate from associated leadership styles. Research limitations/implications: A self-assessment scale for leaders was used for this study. Although there is no indication of social desirability bias, future research can also focus on follower assessments of their leaders. This study only focuses on the public sector context only. Practical implications: Our results suggest that ethical leadership contains more subvalues than in the seminal definition. This study has, therefore, corroborated a broader definition of ethical leadership. Originality/value: This study indicates the need for ethical leadership to be studied and assessed using a broader conceptualization and measurement scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trajectory of agencification in CEE countries is different from the trajectory in Western European countries in three respects: CEE countries have on average set up more agencies, with less variation in types of agencies, and in more recent times. However, there are also similarities, in particular with regard to the tasks that are being charged to agencies and the predominance of the type 1 agency (no legal independence). The main differences between CEE and Western European countries are therefore in the timing and variation, but not in the substance of agencification. Similarities between CEE countries appear to be related more to the timing of state reforms and EU accession requirements, than to the communist legacy of these countries. More in-depth research should be used to reveal differences between agencification patterns in individual CEE countries, and the consequences thereof. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remunicipalization literature posits that municipalities increasingly reject privatization in favor of in-house service delivery. A frequent interpretation is that remunicipalization therefore demonstrates a rejection of business-like service delivery in local public service delivery. We perform a systematic review of the literature on remunicipalization, to argue why this interpretation may be inaccurate. First, remunicipalization often involves corporatization, and these public corporations are very business-like. Second, cost savings are often at the root of remunicipalization rather than political ideology. We call for a more nuanced debate on remunicipalization in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer a review of the selected literature in ethical leadership synthesizing findings from 45 articles selected from journals on leadership, public administration, organizational behavior, psychology and ethics. Design/methodology/approach: Four themes are addressed: the conceptualization of ethical leadership theories, the existence of popular measurement instruments for ethical leadership, findings on ethical leadership in the public sector and outcomes of ethical leadership in terms of benefits and negative consequences. Findings: The definition by Brown et al. (2005) is the most frequently used definition, even though recent criticism states that this definition may be too narrow. Ethical leadership is usually measured by means of a survey; however, there are at least three different questionnaires in use. In the public sector, ethical leadership has been linked to both positive outcomes and negative consequences. Research limitations/implications: This paper only includes selected academic articles and does not include published books. Originality/value: Based on our findings, the authors present recommendations for future research, among others into a broader conceptualization of ethical leadership and the use of mixed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual study proposes that ethical leadership is studied through a processual lens. The study develops different models of ethical leadership as a process. Multiple constructs of ethical leadership from the literature are compared and used to develop these models, including a timeline of ethical leadership, a two-dimensional quadrant, and concentric circles of ethical leadership. The models provide a new perspective into the function and interdependency of the constituent parts to study ethical leadership as a process. The research agenda provides a roadmap for how these assumptions can be tested empirically, by looking into the external orientation of leaders— for example, through administering a broader ethical leadership measurement tool. This study calls for future research to test this assumption empirically, explore antecedent factors, and study various historically important leaders through their actions and decisions to test if they followed a leadership development path in accordance with the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Without definitional clarity the "quango debate" is inherently flawed and meaningful progress undermined. A possible solution to this problem is proposed in this article by way of a subsectional map which aims to clarify the quango topography. This accepts the diversity inherent in the quango debate while allowing for increased clarity and focused research. This, the authors believe, is the only way forward for practitioners, academics and policymakers working within the sphere of quasi-government. There is a need to address precise forms or subsections of the quango continuum as studies or reforms which focus on one type of quango would not necessarily work if applied to all quangos, or quangos in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]