Editorial: Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), electronic public service, government and organization performance, pandemic management and more

Citation

(2024), "Editorial: Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), electronic public service, government and organization performance, pandemic management and more", Public Administration and Policy: An Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 2-5. https://doi.org/10.1108/PAP-06-2024-149

The PAP journal was first published in 1992 and has been published online in open access on the Emerald Insight Platform since 2018. This year marks the 32nd anniversary of its first launch and 7th anniversary of its online publication with Emerald. It now publishes three issues with at least one special issue and around twenty-five articles per year.

PAP attracted over 140 paper submissions from authors from 42 countries in 2023. Its articles were widely read and cited all over the world as the monthly download was over 15,000. PAP has obtained the 2023 Journal Impact Factor (JIF) of 1.4 as released by Clarivate, being abstracted and indexed by Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). The Scopus/WoS Citations were 198 and 106 respectively in 2023 (increased from 152 and 83 in 2022) while the Scopus CiteScore index is of 2.5 (increased from 2.1).

Under SJR (SCImago Journal Rank) Citations 2022, PAP is in Q2 under the categories of (1) Geography, Planning and Development; and (2) Sociology and Political Science. It is in Q3 of (3) Health (social science); and (4) Public Administration.

In summary, PAP is abstracted and indexed by: Scopus, Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), CrossRef, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), EBSCO Discovery Service, Google Scholar, Health Research Premium Collection (ProQuest), Healthcare Administration Database (ProQuest), ProQuest Central, ProQuest Central Basic (Korea), ProQuest Central Essentials, ProQuest Central Student, Publicly Available Content Database (ProQuest), Summons (ProQuest), WorldCat and The British Library.

Academics and practitioners in public administration, management, public policy, and related fields are welcome to contribute papers to this journal.

Summary of articles

This first issue of 2024 consists of eight articles, including a new CEPAR® model to tackle corporate ESG challenges, electronic public service delivery in Bangladesh, budgeting process in Malaysia, political party affiliation and gender equality in Kazakhstan, three papers on Covid in Bangladesh, Peru and Thailand, and local government organizations in Indonesia.

A brief introduction of these articles is given below.

The first article on “The new CEPAR® model: a five-step methodology to tackle corporate ESG challenges” by Paulina P.Y. Wong, Mike S.F. Hui and Angus W.H. Yip proposes the Challenge-Evaluation-Planning-Action-Review model developed by the International Chamber of Sustainable Development (ICSD). The method and guidelines are outlined for easier appreciation by stakeholders of corporations to analyze ESG-related challenges and dilemmas, then able to make principled decisions, take actions, and review the outcomes. Each phase of the new model adheres to the theoretical and practical frameworks for problem-solving and decision-making, emphasizing the iterate process of addressing challenges, evaluating materiality, planning actions, taking actions, and reviewing the outcomes. Two cases studies on topics related to environment and social responsibilities are used to demonstrate the practical implementation of the model. It is applicable for business corporations and organizations seeking to gain insight and tackle crucial ESG issues, ultimately improving their short-and long-term decision-making and business opportunities.

The second article on “Electronic public service delivery: progress and challenges in Bangladesh” by Ahmed Shafiqul Huque and Jannatul Ferdous aims to examine the state of electronic service delivery in Bangladesh. It reviews the structure and operation of the “e-service” centers at the district, sub-district (upazila), and union levels by taking an inventory and assessing their contributions. Based on analysis of the functions and operations of the service delivery agencies with reference to the claims made by the government, academic research, government documents, relevant websites, and media reports, the findings reveal that electronic delivery of public services in Bangladesh has not been effective as planned. There are issues regarding channels of communication, the competence of public officials, human and financial resources, and political will to support the agencies delivering public services. The paper also proposes the strategy for public service delivery by using digital technology in the country.

The third article on “An evaluation of the influence of budgeting process on budget performance in Malaysia” by Su Voon Khoo, Nur Hairani A. Rahman and Nurul Liyana M. Kamil evaluates the influence of budgeting process elements (budget participation, preparation, implementation and evaluation) on budget performance of government. A cross-sectional survey was administered among budget officers from government agencies, departments, and units in Malaysia. Based on descriptive and regression analyses, the findings revealed the significant influence of two predictors: (1) budget participation and (2) budget implementation and evaluation, on budget performance. Both have positive and significant impacts on budget performance. However, budget preparation appeared to have no significant relationship with budget performance, although there is positive effect. This paper hopefully is of interest to government officials, especially frontline bureaucrats, who seek to ensure that budget performance meets expectations in Malaysia and other countries.

The fourth article is “A study of political party affiliation as a means to enhance gender equality and women’s political participation in Kazakhstan” by Zhaslan Yesseyevich Nurbayev, Gulmira Zholmagambetovna Sultangazy and Bauyrzhan Serikovich Serikbayev. Biographies of eighteen women deputies / candidates on party lists who were elected to the legislative body in 2023 were scrutinized. Moreover, based on content analysis of the pre-election programs of the political parties, it has identified that political party is the main resource for promoting gender equality and involving women in the decision-making process. All 18 women deputies of the lower house of parliament, are members of political parties. Women candidates without party affiliation were unable to get into representative body. The results of the election campaign of 2023 provided evidence for determining the gender order in the Kazakhstani political space. The party has become an effective channel for promoting women participations in the parliament of the country.

The fifth article is “A study of the decentralised administrative arrangements between the central and local governments in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis” by Khandakar Al Farid Uddin, Abdur Rahman, Md. Robiul Islam and Mohashina Parvin. It applies qualitative content analysis and interviews to explore the local government’s role in Bangladesh’s COVID-19 management by interviews of government officials, experts, non-government organisations representatives, and the general public. The findings reveal that the Constitution of Bangladesh intensified the active participation of local government in each administrative unit through decentralised administrative management. However, the administrative arrangement during the pandemic was primarily a centrally led system. The local government was not sufficiently involved, nor had it integrated into the planning and coordination process.

The sixth article is “An analysis of the relationship between organisational resilience and Local Educational Management Units’ responses on education services delivery in Peru during the COVID-19 pandemic” by Guiselle M. Romero-Lora, Juan C. Rivero-Isla and Brenda E. Lopez-Chavez. Based on organisational resilience theory, 67 questions were grouped into 13 factors and 3 components: (1) leadership and organisational culture, (2) preparation for change, and (3) networks building on the Organisational Resilience Index (ORI). The findings indicated that of all ORI components, leadership and organisational culture ranked the highest. Moreover, the ORI is positively associated with the number of interventions and the perceived impact produced by those interventions. It was also found that women leading Units display a higher number of interventions than the men. It may help set priorities for institutional strengthening initiatives aimed at improving organisational resilience, which is particularly important in such uncertain and changing contexts.

The seventh article is “The impacts of workplace bullying, emotional exhaustion, and psychological distress on poor job performance of healthcare workers in Thailand during the COVID-19 pandemic” by Inzamam Ul Haq and Chunhui Huo. It seeks to explain the moderating influence of COVID-19 burnout on these variables. Based on 230 responses from healthcare workers during the pandemic, the reliability and correlations between constructs were assessed. The findings show that workplace bulling (WB) and psychological distress (PD) were found to positively predict poor job performance, except for emotional exhaustion (EE). The presence of WB elevated EE and PD among Thai hospital staff. PD and EE partially mediated the relationship between WB and PJP. The positive moderating role of CBO among hospital employees significantly buffered the relationship between WB and EE. Healthcare reforms are required to protect the mental health of Thai healthcare staff to prevent poor job performance following unprecedented circumstances.

The eighth article is “The relationships amongst career patterns, neutrality and organizational performance: the case of local government organizations in South Konawe District, Indonesia” by Abdul Kadir, La Husen Zuada and Muhammad Arsyad. Based on quantitative analysis, it investigated the relationships between variables through direct and indirect influence testing. The findings reveal that career patterns influence neutrality and organizational performance. Neutrality of the state civil apparatus in politics mediates career patterns and local government organizational performance. It indicates that, first, promotions most significantly influence the organization’s neutrality and performance. Second, demotions have the least influence on the organization’s robustness and performance. Recommendations are provided to improve neutrality and organizational performance, that is, the need to increase promotions and reduce demotions.

I wish to thank all the authors for contributing their papers to this issue and the reviewers for their critical but constructive comments in helping the authors to improve their papers. Finally, I thank Emerald and our editorial team as well as the members of both Asia Pacific Editorial Board and International Editorial Advisory Board for their contributions in making the successful publication of this issue possible. We hope these papers will enhance the understanding of various issues on ESG, electronic service delivery, government and organization performance, and pandemic management across the Asia and South American regions.

Peter K.W. Fong

Editor-in-Chief, PAP Journal

President, Hong Kong Public Administration Association

About the Editor-in-Chief

Professor Peter K.W. Fong, PhD (New York University), is President of Hong Kong Public Administration Association and Editor-in-Chief of PAP Journal. He teaches strategic management and supervises DBA students’ dissertations of University of Wales TSD. He also serves as Principal Consultant of the International Chamber of Sustainable Development and holds memberships of HK Institute of Planners & Planning Institute Australia. He was a Teaching Fellow of Judge Business School, University of Cambridge; Visiting Scholar, MIT; Director of EMBA programme, HKU Business School; Associate Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Urban Design, HKU; Executive Vice President of City University of Macau; Honorary Professor, China Training Centre for Senior Civil Servants in Beijing; Studies Director, Civil Service Training & Development Institute, HKSAR Government. He was appointed as Advisory/Visiting Professors by Tongji, Tsinghua, Renmin, and Tianjin universities in Mainland China, Chinese University of HK and HK Polytechnic University, and Consultants, the World Bank and Delta Asia Bank. Peter K.W. Fong can be contacted at: fongpeter@netvigator.com