Challenge of Effective Public Management

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

2. 9/11 • Weakness in the way agencies were organized and managed • Organization and managerial problem  inadequate communication and handling crucial info

3. 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

4. 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

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

6. 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)

7. 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)

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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)

12. 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)

13. 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

14. 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

15. ** “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

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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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)

21. 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

22. 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)

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

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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. Fishbowl atmosphere  always negative image of public manager

29. 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

30. 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

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

32. More political roles • More meetings with external interest groups and political authorities • More skill on balancing external political relations with internal management functions • Weaker authority over subordinates (due to institutional constraints, ex. civil service personnel system, purchasing & procurement systems • Turnover of top executive leaders (elections, political appointments

33. Structure • More red-tape, elaborate bureaucratic structure • More constraints on administration

34. Environment of Public Organizations • “public organizations tend to be subject to more directions and interventions from political actors and authorities who seek to direct and control them” • Public manager  ability to analyze and monitor their environment

35. General Environmental Conditions • Technological conditions knowledge and capability in sciences, etc • Legal conditions law, regulations, legal procedures, court decisions • Political conditions political process, institution, and forms of government in a given society  capitalism, socialism, communism, electoral outcomes, political party system • Economic conditions prosperity, inflation, interest rates, tax rates, labor, capital, economic market

36. Demographic conditions age, gender, race, religion, ethnic • Ecological conditions physical envi, climate, pollution, natural resources • Cultural Conditions  predominant values, attitudes, beliefs, social customs, socialization process, family structure, work orientation

37. Examples of Political and Institutional Environments of Public Organizations • General values • Political & economic traditions • Constitution provisions (ex. democratic elections and representation/ unitary state/ fused power, etc.)

38. Values & performance criteria for government orgs • Efficiency • Effectiveness • Timeliness • Reliability • Reasonableness • Accountability • Legality • Responsiveness to rule of law • Responsiveness to public demands • Ethical standards • Fairness, equal treatment • Openness to criticism

39. Institutions & actors with political authority & influence • Chief Executive • Legislatures • Courts • Other governmental agencies • Other levels of government • Interest groups (client groups, constituency groups • Professional associations • News/media • Public opinion • Individual citizens with requests for services

40. Conflicting values  Challenges to public managers