Theories of Organization and Canadian Public Administration

1. Theories of Organization and Canadian Public Administration Week 4

2. Overview • Introduction • Classic Theories • Structuralist Theories • Humanist Theories • Other Theoretical Approaches • Canadian Public Administration: • Weberian model • Public Sector Reforms

3. Intro: Bureaucracy and Management • “No government can exist without bureaucracy, and equally, no bureaucracy can function without management.” • Johnson, David. 2006. Thinking Government: Public Sector Management in Canada. Peterborough: Broadview Press. Page 244.

4. Intro: Organization Theory • “Most organization theory originated from studies about how to improve the management of private sector organizations, particularly large corporations. Hence, academically, organization theory is often associated with schools of business management” (Inwood, 2012: 62).

5. Intro: Organization Theory • “in a sense, the development of the theory and practice of public administration has been the story of struggling to adapt and extend aspects of private sector management into the public sector, and blend those with theory and practice unique to the problems and opportunities of governing” (Inwood, 2012: 62).

6. Classic Theories: Marx • Marxist critique of the capitalist state: • “the executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie” Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto, 1848. • “Bureaucracy serves as an instrument of rule from above, institutionally detached from the mass of the people it is ostensibly designed to serve” (Inwood, 2012: 63).

7. Classic Theories: Weber • “Weber argued that bureaucracy was essentially a system of administration carried out on a continuous basis by trained professionals, according to prescribed rules” (Inwood, 2012: 66). • Four main features of bureaucracy: • hierarchy • continuity • impersonality • expertise

8. Structuralist Theories: Taylor • Frederick Winslow Taylor • Taylorism, Scientific Management • Focused on efficiency in industrial production • Time and motion studies to devise standards for the quickest and most efficient methods for completing a task.

9. Structuralist Theories • The Scientific Theory of Organization: • Theorists such as Gulick and Urwick attempted to devise the ideal structures for any large organization. • Key issues included the span of control: the number of subordinates who report to one supervisor. • Gulick devised the acronym POSDCORB to describe the functions of managers.

10. Human Relations School • Mary Parker Follett, “The Giving of Orders” 1926 • Criticized the emphasis on coercive control in the workplace as futile and counterproductive. • Managers should exercise leadership rather than wield power, using rational appeals rather than fear or threats.

11. Human Relations School • Hawthorne experiments, 1920s • They recognized that informal groups and social norms within the workplace were powerful forces. • “workers are more responsive to peer pressure than to management controls” (Inwood, 2012: 83-84). • Theorists came to conclusion that workers who had been singled out for inclusion in their studies experienced an increase in morale, which led, in itself, to greater productivity • Emphasis on the human side of the process

12. Human Relations School • Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs • Self-actualization • Esteem • Belongingness and Love • Safety and Security • Physiological

13. Participatory Management • Management by Objectives (MBO) • Organization Development (OD) • Total Quality Management (TQM)

14. New Public Management • “New public management is a complex brew of political, economic and managerial claims. It asserts that to be effective democratic civil services require radical restructuring, new priorities and much greater attention to efficient service delivery” (Tupper, 2001: 143).

15. Osbourne and Gaebler: Reinventing Government • American authors David Osbourne and Ted Gaebler popularized the ideas of the new public management, especially the notion of states “steering, not rowing.” • Osbourne, David and Ted Gaebler. 1992. Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector.

16. Tupper (2001) identifies five major principles of the new public management. 1. Governments should steer not row 2. Managing for Results 3. Measuring for Results 4. Citizen Responsiveness 5. Employee Empowerment

17. NPM and Neoliberalism • Critics of new public management argue that it offers “a technocratic veneer to a political agenda” of restructuring the state, reducing public services and attacking public sector workers. • Shields, John and B. Mitchell Evans.1998. Shrinking the State: Globalization and Public Administration ‘Reform.’ Halifax: Fernwood.

18. Organization Theory and Canadian Public Administration • Civil Service Amendment Act, 1908 • Created the Civil Service Commission, later the Public Service Commission • Civil Service Act, 1918 • “reforms introduced the concept of merit into the public service and entrenched hierarchy, a job classification system, professionalism, and competitive exams” (Inwood, 2012: 100-101).

19. Public Sector Reform • In the mid-1960s, the Glassco Commission (Royal Commission on Government Organization) called for increased managerial competence and the introduction of modern managerial techniques in the public sector with the goal of increased efficiency. • 1970s, Lambert Commission (Royal Commission on Financial Management) and the D’Avignon Report (the Special Committee on the Review of Personal Management and the Merit Principle)

20. Mulroney Government • The Ministerial Task Force on Program Review – 1984 • Increased Ministerial Authority and Accountability - 1986 • PS2000 - 1989

21. Chrétien: Program Review 1994-1995

22. Source: (Shields and Evans, 1999: 48).

23. Chrétien: Program Review 1994-1995 • The Liberal government’s Program Review set the stage for the spending cuts and changes to federal transfers announced in the 1995 budget.

24. Chrétien government • Policy Research Initiative – 1996 • La Relève – 1997, Leadership Network - 1998 • Task Force on Modernizing Human Resources Management - 2001 • Public Service Modernization Act - 2003