Challenge of Effective Public Management

Challenge of Effective Public Management By Chandra-nuj Mahakanjana, Ph.D. GSPA, NIDA

9/11 • Weakness in the way agencies were organized and managed • Organization and managerial problem  inadequate communication and handling crucial info

Understanding management of public organizations • Skepticism about government • Public-private continuum • Body of management knowledge has paid too little attention to the public sector  managing bureaucracy • Legitimate skepticism about public org VS. recognition of their indispensable roles in society

Need to improve their effectiveness (efficiency-effectiveness) • Government context (envi) influences public organization and management  constraining performance • Gov organization and managers perform better than perceived

More authority & responsibility to Dept. of homeland security • Go against the trend of anti gov. movement • Resentment of taxes and ineffective government performance • Politicians attack Bureaucracy • Red tape

Public org (in the U.S.)  great achievement • Small proportion of the GDP • Low taxes • Strong anti-gov role == demand for a strong and active government have continued

Both government & private activities have strengths and weaknesses • Both are still very crucial for its existence • Challenge  designing the mix and balance of the two while attaining effective management of both

Organization Behavior • Psychology • Individual behavior • Group behavior • Organization Theory • Sociology • Org as a whole • Org envi • Goals • Effectiveness • Strategy • Decision making • Change management

Public Management • Ineffective public management • Effective operation • Control over by democratic processes • Need to be balanced

Dilemmas of improving public management • Improving  Reform • Negative, control-oriented • Damage public service at the end

Defining Effective Public Management • Perception of government incompetence  crisis in public management • Confusion between reinventing government & government cutback

Image of incompetence • Why? • People in private sector are smarter? • Government employees are lazy and corrupt? • Government cannot get any work done?

Lots of successful government programs, but no attention given • Negative image remains • Media  Public sector failures are more difficult to hide than failures in private sector • Fishbowl atmosphere

Rules and regulations in public sector • Not designed for rapid and effective operation • But to combat fraud and improper political influences • If rules and regulations are ignored  media & public will suspect fraud or corruption

Fishbowl atmosphere  always negative image of public manager

Image problem • Bumbling bureaucrat (stereotype by media & politicians) • Inept bureaucrat  national economy • Too simple  ignore the benefit of government programs in economic growth (ex. infrastructure) • Social security program  more opportunity for young generation (not having to take care of their parents)

causes • 1) Bureaucrat bashing by the media & politicians  easy to do and draw more attention than trying to explain how complex their situation is • Public policy process is so complicated and involve trade-off (usually not notice by the media)

2) Bureaucrat avoiding choices • Using vague language to avoid choices • Making choices  draw criticism (both from internal & public in general) • 3) Extreme Formality (red tape) • Rely on written communication • Focus on accountability • Habit • Leads to in effective and costly management practices  negative image

4) Public managers  lack of control over goal setting (unlike those in private sector) • Private sector  BOD is controlled or related to org managers • Public sector  BOD = elected legislators and executives )who are more focusing on their political popularity more than organizational performance • Political interests always change without much warning • Successful public managers = 1) adjust programs rapidly, 2) foresee changes in policy direction, 3) build org capacity for change

สูตรแห่งความล้มเหลว • 1) Negative image  Bureaucrats’ self perception • negative thinking • psychology of failure • Ex. Roper family (p.5) • self-defeated = define ‘success’ as ‘the absence of failure’ • Low expectations • Ignore sense of vision • Make fun of those who are ambitious • Same manager in private sector  fired • In public sector  impossible to fire  hard to measure performance objectively • Hard to measure ‘success’ (unlike balance sheet in private sector

2) Letting the constraint constrain you • Accept problems and obstacles (instead of searching for solutions)  explanation for nonperformance • Give up easily • Due to the love-hate relationship with government (need government to do things ‘for’ them but not ‘to’ them)

3) Allowing caution to become inertia • Caution paralysis • New projects are abandon once tentative negative signals are received (ex. some other powerful public orgs do not favor the project proposal • Ex. Internet & USPS (p. 10) • Emphasize ‘process’ over ‘product’ • Standard operation procedures (SOP)

4) Hiding behind ambiguity • Use of unclear language • Ex. disturbed man • Hide their actions behind unclear phases, passive voice, refuse to agree to logical conclusions • To prevent outsiders from understanding who is doing what to whom!! • To hide poor or nonexistent performance (using vague statement of goals, unclear assignments of responsibility) • Create impression that they are achieving goals while actually achieving very little • Focus on image more than actual performance • Ex. preventive-retaliatory = invasion • Ex. revenue enhancements = tax increases

5) Forgetting that people matter • Forgetting that org = people  people count • Effective Management = art of getting people to do the right things  obtain resources to create incentives to achieve org goals • Org as organic entities (living, breathing, being) = organism  need nourishment from envi • Public managers usually ignore this essential concept forgetting to interact and communicate with people who work for them  deal with staff as abstractions  productivity impaired  org lost ability to attract resources from its envi

Ex. of ‘empowering people’ (p.13) • Goodwill Industries of Tulsa  shifting people from welfare to work  (Nonprofit, receiving grants from Oklahoma state) • In 2000  Okl. Started to give grants based on outcome rather than output • Output = placing most people from welfare to work • Outcome = meaningful welfare-to-work =number of people who keep their new jobs)  staff need to spend more time with their clients to make sure they suit the job • Allowing people to do their best • Focusing on goal • Giving staff to feel they are in control of what they are doing

** “Effective public manager must understand the psychological, economic, and social needs that motivate their workforce” ** • BUT, normally, public managers are not trained to manage • Rudeness  dealing with subordinates as they were not valuable human beings • Have one personality for their staff/another personality for their boss • Example p. 15

Innovative, Effective Public Manager • Effective management • active, aggressive, and innovative effort to overcome constraints and obstacles • Positive with “Can-do” attitude • Make things happen • Pursue goals by thinking and acting strategically • Understand why things are happening and how things can be changes • Touch with informal network (SC?)  information, ideas, initiatives • Learning, teaching, experimenting, changing • Understand org envi • Able to Project the effect of the envi • Understand constrain and influence of the envi • Entrepreneurship

Risk taking • Bigger numbers of government employees • Professionalization of government service (MPA, MBA) • Public management  more on private contractors to provide services • Privatization, competition, contracting • Innovative public-private partnership (ex.)

Need for effective and innovative public management • Economic reason (free market) • Modern industrial life • Labor moved from direct production of food, clothing, and shelter  manage info, provide services, profession • Econ downturn, disease, terrorists, fear of flying, homeless  government intervention • Trend  reduce government role  threat to liberty • Reality  economic interdependence is a far great constraint than power of government • Growth of government = reflection of economic reality (material consumption)

Government (Traditional value) • Liberty, family, spirituality, envi preservation • Plastic bags – toxic-free envi • Fresh fruit – safe pesticides • Material wealth – spiritual fulfillment • ** Free market DOES NOT designed to protect traditional value**

What Makes Public Organizations Distinctive • Experts on management & Org  treatdifferences bt public & private orgs as unimportant issue • Generic theory of organization • Broadly apply to all types of organizations • Standard principles to govern administrative structures of all organization

Public Organizations • If public and private organizations are the same  questions are… • Can we nationalize all industrial firms? • Can we privatize all government agencies?

If no, this means there are some important differences in the administration of public and private organization

Purpose of public organizations • Public organization = “inevitable components of free-market economies” (Downs, 1967) • Thomas Hobbes  State of Nature

Politics & Market • Political Hierarchy  “Polyarchy”  Political authority  social control • People willing to stop at red light vs. paying them to do so • Can be clumsy, ineffective, poorly adapted to local circumstances, resistance to change

Market  voluntary exchanges • Producers •  induce customers to engage willingly in exchanges with them •  incentive to produce what consumers want, as efficiently as possible • Freedom & flexibility • Efficiently use of resources • However, have limited capacity in handling certain problems (ex.?) that require government action

Public goods & Free riders • tragedy of the common • Services that benefit to everyone in society • Free-riders  get common benefit, let others pay • Individual incompetence • People lack sufficient edu or info to make wise individual choices in some areas ex. medicines, food safety  need government regulations

Externalities/Spillovers • Costs that spill over to other people who are not part of a market exchange (air pollution, water contamination  Government intervention (EPA – Environmental Protection Agency)

Government  correct problems that economic market creates or unable to address • Monopolies • Income redistribution • Provide services that are too risky/too expensive for private competitors to provide (facility for handicaps) • Conservative economists •  think that market will eventually solves all these problems •  Government makes these problems worse

Political Rationales for Government • Maintain law, justice, social organization • Maintain individual rights & freedom • Provide national security and stability • Promote general prosperity • Provide direction for the nation & communities • Provide services that are not exchanged on economic markets (but based on general social values, public interest, politically imposed demands of groups (politics)

Meaning and Nature of Public Organizations & Public Management Public (Latin)  people Private (Latin)  set apart from government as a personal matter

Three major factors • Interests affected • benefits or losses are communal or individuals • Access to facilities, resources, information • Agency • A person/org acts as individual or for the community as a whole

Agencies & Enterprises Continuum • Agencies ------------------- Enterprises (Public)(Private)

Ownership & Funding Public Ownership Private Ownership Public Funding (taxes, gov contract) Private Funding (sales, private donations)

Distinctive Characteristics of public Management • Environmental Factors • Organization-Environment Transactions • Organizational Roles, Structures, and Processes

Environmental Factors • No economic markets for outputs • Depend on governmental funding • No incentives for cost reduction, efficiency, effective performance • Low efficiency allocating resources • Weak reflection of consumer preferences • Weak supply-demand relations • Less clear on market indicators and info that lead to managerial decisions

Heavy formal legal constraints • Oversight by legislative branch, executive branch, courts • Constraints on operation procedures • Managers have less autonomy in making choices • Leading to more and more formal administrative controls • External formal authorities involved • Intensive external political influences • Bargaining, negotiating, lobbying, public opinion, interest groups, constituent pressure • Need political support

Organization-Environment Transactions • Production of public goods • Handle externalities • Outputs are not transferable to economic market at a market price • Gov activities are coercive, monopolistic, unavoidable, unique sanctioning power • Financing of activities are mandatory • Activities have broader impact and greater symbolic significance • Involve public interest • Pressure on public managers • Expectation of fairness, responsiveness, honesty, transparency, and accountability

Org roles, structures, and processes • Unclear goals • Vagueness, intangibility, hard to measure goals and performance criteria • Debatable & value-laden goal (clean envi, public safety, better living standards for the poor, etc) • Multi goals • Efficiency, accountability, transparency, responsiveness • Fairness, equality, distribution, moral correctness

Conflicting goals • Involve trade-off (due to limited resources) • Value conflicting • Efficiency vs. transparency • Efficiency vs. social equality • Efficiency vs. accountability

Challenge of Effective Public Management