Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyse the factors influencing the relative success and failure of new public management (NPM) initiatives in the developing world, with particular reference to Singapore and Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach – Secondary materials have been extensively used, interpreted and reinterpreted to substantiate the arguments. The analysis has been confined to two countries. However, the experiences of NPM initiatives of other countries have also been analysed to strengthen the arguments. Findings – There are some critical factors such as the advanced level of economic development, the existence of a formal market economy, the rule of law, the advanced level of administrative infrastructure and state efficiency for the success of NPM-oriented reforms. To a large extent, Singapore fulfills these conditions. Bangladesh is lagging behind these conditions, and has achieved very little in NPM initiatives. The findings also indicate that there is still a greater role of the state in socio-economic transformation in general and implementation of market-oriented reforms in particular. Practical implications – The Singapore case offers ample lessons for low-income developing countries such as Bangladesh who are struggling with their administrative reforms. Originality/value – The value of the paper lies in clearly delineating the factors of success and failure and relating these to concrete cases on a comparative basis. More importantly, analyses of the Bangladesh case could be of immense value to state decision makers of Bangladesh and countries with similar socio-economic and political standings.

Local government is being widely recognized in all developing countries as a vital institutional form for ensuring grass-root level democracy and participatory development. Bangladesh is no exception. This article reviews various experiments in local government reforms in Bangladesh and analyzes the relevant issues from a political economy perspective. Despite considerable efforts made over the years no effective and viable local government system has emerged in Bangladesh. Central control through local bureaucracy and the politicization of the management of local government affairs have been systematic phenomena.

Currently, good governance is a major concern of all politicians, administrators, academics, the international donor agencies and even common people. It is now increasingly being realized that without good governance, developing countries have little chance to progress. While its importance cannot be over-emphasized, many developing countries are facing difficulties in implementing the good governance agenda. Therefore, the factors constraining the good governance initiatives have to be carefully identified and analyzed. This paper identifies patron-client politics as a critical factor in the analysis of good governance initiatives in Bangladesh. In this paper, it is argued that patron-client politics is very much entrenched in Bangladesh and it has had a constraining effect on the institutionalization of good governance initiatives.

Existing public sector management literature requires an empirical examination of the relationship between change readiness, organizational agility, and public value-driven innovation performance. Moreover, how organizational structure moderates these relationships in the public sector context is still being determined. This study aims to address this gap by collecting data from 421 top management respondents working in public services in the United Arab Emirates. The hypotheses are tested using a structural equation model. The study's findings confirm that change readiness positively influences organizational agility and reveals the positive effects of organizational agility on public value-driven innovation performance in public service organizations. Additionally, this study highlights that change readiness directly affects public value-driven innovation performance. Simultaneously, organizational structure (formalization and centralization) affects the relationships between change readiness and public value-driven innovation performance, and organizational agility and public value-driven innovation performance. Finally, this study shows that organizational structure (centralized and formalized) impacts the relationship between change readiness and organizational agility. This study contributes substantially to the existing knowledge on the relationships between change readiness, organizational agility, organizational structure, and public value-driven innovation performance.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the rationale for using social engineering as a tool to impact the nationalization of workforce in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).Design/methodology/approach: Interpretative and exploratory approaches have been employed for this research. Accordingly, the study has extensively reviewed government documents, reports of international organizations and relevant academic literature, including journal articles, conference papers and unpublished dissertations.Findings: The findings show that the UAE Government has initiated multiple policies and programs to enhance participation of indigenous Emiratis in the burgeoning labor market which has been hitherto dominated by the expatriates. However, while the Emiratization programs are on the verge of fulfilling the targets in the public sector job market, significant gaps exist between the targets and accomplishments in the private sector, causing policy concern.Originality/value: This paper links theoretical insights from the social engineering model used in the social sciences research to analyze the dynamics of workforce nationalization. The study will be helpful to inform further empirical research in this area.