Service Operations Management: The total experience SECOND EDITION

1. Service Operations Management: The total experienceSECOND EDITION Chapter Ten Not For Profit and Public Service Operations Management

2. Non-Commercial Organizations Not-for-profit organizations (NFPs), -government agencies (NGOs) and the public sector (PS) all seek to deliver on their mission while endeavouring to financially break-even or make a surplus. They are also keen to emulate what they see as the private sector’s profit-driven good practice in service operations management. Until the early 1980s, public and private sectors were seen as two extremes of an economic spectrum.

3. Table 10.1 Private versus public service sectors

4. Historical Perspective • Historically, it was recognized that some public sector bodies, such as health services, utilities and transport, had ‘clients’ and ‘customers.’ However, their monopoly positions often allow them to behave as if customers were supplicants for service rather than customers with rights. • Meanwhile, in the private sector, standards of service operations have often been poor, so the public sector has not put under pressure to emulate the private sector. • More recently public sector organizations, from federal and state government departments and local authorities, through to the many not-for-profit agencies are now keen to emulate the private sector's good practice in service operations management .

5. Citizens have responded to: • Propaganda (eg, from the Citizens' Charter Initiative) encouraging them to demand more from the public sector • Consumerist research and pressure groups • Media pressure • Publication of customer charters by a large number of private sector companies (not least the privatized utilities) • A blurring of the line between private and public service expectations

6. Customers of the public sector - are they different? • Many public sector customers find it hard, for a variety of reasons, to manage their relationship with large organizations of any kind. Examples include: • language difficulties • cultural antipathy to complaining or dependence • lack of knowledge and skills required to manage the relationship • lack of permanent address • inability to pay transport costs to the point of delivery of public service • lack of awareness of the consequences of actions • lack of will or ability to control actions to within social norms or to terms agreed with a public sector organization (this could be even as simple as failure to get up in time to queue to obtain benefit).

7. No Such Thing as a Free Service Time - The common time cost is time spent in a queue; either physically queuing, waiting for the telephone or the slowness of a web-based contact. Queues are often not for obtaining service but for getting information about the service. Queues also impose stress caused by uncertainty. Information - The more a citizen knows about how to deal with a public sector organization, the more successful that citizen is likely to be in obtaining the service. Information is acquired by spending time learning how the service system of the public sector works.

8. Public service and not-for-profit dilemma Total quality management (TQM) is well established in the private sector. Its application in public administration is more problematic:- • staff culture and lack of individual ownership, responsibility, client care and staff empowerment • bureaucratic and non-responsive systems • lack of clarity about the multiple customers and stakeholders involved • political, as opposed to market-determined, levels and extent of service; especially for subsidized and zero-priced services • problems of scale and complexity associated with the large centralized organizations, sometimes with a large-scale technological basis

9. Bridging the divide between public and private service operations There is still a clear difference in perception of customers’ needs displayed in the public sector compared with the private commercial sector. There are many reasons for this; one of the foremost being cultural based. A key orientation of most TQM models and interventions to gain continuous improvement, is the predominance of the customeras the focus the organization and its infrastructure. More recently public service organizations have attempted to solve this difficulty using the introduction of the stakeholderconcept.

10. Service operations strategies for the public sector • The Australian Local Government Association Strategic Plan 2017-2020 achieves its objectives through: • high quality policy and research • development and presentation of realistic, intellectually robust and implementable policies, able to withstand searching scrutiny; • credible, persuasive and authoritative advocacy; • effective public affairs and communications strategies; and • development and maintenance of partnerships and other relationships across governments.

11. The power of rhetoric The National Collaboration Framework (NCF) is a series of reusable ‘Agreements’ between Federal, State and Local jurisdictions that facilitate collaboration between jurisdictions for service delivery within Australia. • Benefits include: • Reduce duplication of effort across jurisdictions in the negotiation and maintenance of multi-agency agreements • Offer shorter timeframes for agencies developing collaborative service arrangements • Improve consistency of customer experience across jurisdictions • Reduce the risk of failure in politically sensitive areas such as privacy and security • Increase focus on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the overall delivery of government services.

12. Role, Purpose and Overview of NCF • Government is continuously striving to improve and provide seamless service delivery to citizens. • The NCF aims to facilitate projects requiring collaboration within and between governments at all levels. • The NCF website provides a knowledge base that will assist Local, State/Territory and Australian government departments and agencies in the effective implementation of cross-jurisdictional projects. • The key objectives of the National Collaboration Framework are: • Increasing citizen satisfaction in dealing with Government; • To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of Government; and • Building the capacity for cross-jurisdictional collaboration.

13. Focus on Queensland Police Service • The Queensland Police Service (QPS) is the primary law enforcement agency for the State of Queensland; it fulfills this role throughout the State, 24 hours a day, upholding the law and providing assistance to the community when necessary and in times of emergency, disaster and crisis. The QPS is responsible for: • preserving peace and good order in all areas of Queensland • protecting the Queensland community • preventing and detecting crime • upholding the law • administering the law fairly and efficiently • bringing offenders to justice.

14. Vision and Operational Values of the Queensland Police Service • Vision • Queensland is a safe and secure place to live, visit and do business. • Mission • To deliver high quality, innovative, progressive and responsive policing services. • Values • Professionalism – providing quality policing services with integrity and accountability for outcomes. • Performance – providing efficient and effective services and pursuing continuous improvement. • People - developing and supporting our workforce and responding to the needs of our clients, recognising diversity and culture. • Partnerships - engaging communities and working collaboratively to provide policing services.

15. Fig 10.1 Relationship between Qld Police and Government ambitions

16. Toward Q2: Tomorrow’s Queensland • Government services are to be delivered. • Strong Creating a diverse economy powered by bright ideas • Green Protecting our lifestyle and environment • Smart Delivering world-class education and training • Healthy Making Queenslanders Australia’s healthiest people • Fair Supporting safe and caring communities The Queensland Police Service is committed to providing a safe and secure environment that supports the Government’s ambitions, including Fair - Supporting safe and caring communities.

17. Confronting Issues for Queensland Police Service • Demographic change - Population ageing and growth, especially in South East Queensland. • Economic volatility - Global economic volatility and potential increases in property crime. • Expectations - Rising government and community expectations. • Vulnerable people - Continuing over- representation of vulnerable persons in the criminal justice system. • Technological advances - Advancements in technology-facilitated crime and growth in transnational crime. • Environmental issues - Climate change and the risk of more natural disasters and human and animal contagions. • Transport - Higher use of an expanding Queensland road network and the risk of more road crashes.

18. Challenges of improving service operations in a regulated utility Challenges facing regulated utilities eg electricity, include the pressure of energy costs, the impact of future technologies, changing customer and community expectations, and the responsibility to act in a sustainable manner. A key initiative it is undertaking is to balance the pricing impacts with the community’s increasing expectation for an excellent electricity supply to meet modern-day needs.

19. Service recovery in a regulated utility “Which following reasons are solely applicable to private, commercial organizations and which are typical issues found in public utilities and not-for-profit?” • Quality suffers when organizations get busy. It takes longer to respond and staff get tired and potentially less courteous. • You may have the right level of resources when measured against average demand, but short term surges in demand (the coping zone) may catch us out. • Service delivery processes and systems may not be robust. • A personality clash may give rise to a complaint even though the fundamental service was not at fault. • The mood of those involved will have a bearing on the success of the service encounter.

20. Fig 10.2 Public service recovery