Participatory budgeting has been advocated as an advanced tool of civic participation and a travelling innovation for more than three decades. This paper provides a bibliometric review of the concurrent body of knowledge on participatory budgeting (PB), explaining how this democratic innovation ‘travelled’ through time and over different scientific fields. This study was based on a dataset of 396 papers on PB published from 1989 to January 2023. The study finds that research in PB has reached its peak of scholarly attention in pre-COVID-19 pandemic years. The study also finds that the research on PB has migrated from the field of political science to other fields, such as economics, management science, law, urban planning, environmental science, and technology.

This paper focuses on measuring the alignment of organizational elements. Although several authors have analyzed this topic, there are few papers in which they propose a concept for measuring the alignment of key elements of the organization. In previous research, the concept of alignment is usually defined through categorical variables and different organizational configurations are suggested. Thus, this paper aims to propose a new approach to measuring organizational elements and their alignment. Based on the literature review we determined the organizational model for conducting the research in companies listed on the top 300 companies in Serbia. On the sample of 57 respondents theresults confirmed the defined hypothesis by which the alignment of the organizational elements has the positive correlation with the organizational performance. In order to measure the organizational elements we defined the 7-level scale which enables measuring the alignment of organizational elements. The research results confirm that it is necessary to look at the solutions based on some organizational elements simultaneously. However, in order to confirm the validity and reliability of the results, it is necessary to conduct a research on a larger sampling frame, since the sample from this research is relatively small in comparison to the total population. The defined scale can be used as a control tool for checking the proposed organizational design solutions in practice. Also, the rules of alignment of organizational elements can be applied at different hierarchical levels in the organization, which will be the subject of future research of the authors.

This paper suggests a new approach to measuring the alignment of authority and accountability of different positions within an organization. According to the controllability principle, accountability and authority should be aligned for achieving better organizational results. Nevertheless, there is still a research gap in the quantification of this alignment. Thus, this paper aims to improve the method of measuring authority and accountability. It proposes a new approach to measuring authority and accountability, as well as the rules for defining their alignment. The suggested model is tested through the research conducted in 241 organizations. Top managers from the organizations answered the structured questionnaire. The results show statistically significant dependence between the alignment of authority and accountability and organizational performance. In order to overcome the identified limitations of the conducted research, it is necessary to do some additional research to verify general applicability of the proposed approach.

Many countries have made an approach to harmonization and design of the organizational and legal framework that encourages private sector participation in the co-ownership of public sector enterprises. This is why the aim of the paper was to draw attention to the potentials that are available to the public sector in Serbia in the improvement of business operations, taking into account the current Law on public-private partnerships and concessions which has been present in practice for less than two years. The paper’s contribution is reflected in the presented model of the organizational, financial and developmental benefits of a public enterprise, through the application of the public-private partnership concept while bearing in mind the circumstances that are specific to the Serbian market.

Different authors agree that designing the organizational structure in accordance with the business processes can bring numerous advantages, which improve business performance of the organizational system. This article aims to show how cost-effective restructuring, through modification of organizational structure according to business processes that exist in the organization, can bring numerous benefits. Successful implementation of process organizational model does not necessarily demand large investments, but only adequate structural changes and internal reorganization. The data used in this paper were gathered during the project of restructuring one transportation company from Belgrade, which consulting team from Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, performed in year 2012.

The aim of this paper has two directions. The first one is our attempt to define new method and procedure for estimating surplus of employees in the public sector, as one of the tools for public sector control. The second direction is the analysis of the public sector at the local level in Serbia, where overstaffing in public utility companies, founded and owned by Local Self-Government Units in Serbia, was analyzed using specific methods. The conclusions have been made on the basis of the restructuring projects carried out in over 20 public utility companies, which included over 20,000 employees.