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

Challenge of Effective
Public Management
By
Chandra-nuj Mahakanjana, Ph.D.
GSPA, NIDA
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Public org (in the U.S.)  great
achievement
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Small proportion of the GDP
Low taxes
Strong anti-gov role == demand for
a strong and active government have
continued
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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
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Organization Behavior
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Psychology
Individual behavior
Group behavior
Organization Theory
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Sociology
Org as a whole
Org envi
Goals
Effectiveness
Strategy
Decision making
Change management
Public Management
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Ineffective public management
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Effective operation
Control over by democratic processes
Need to be balanced
Dilemmas of improving public
management
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Improving  Reform
Negative, control-oriented
Damage public service at the end
Defining Effective Public
Management
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Perception of government
incompetence  crisis in public
management
Confusion between reinventing
government & government cutback
Image of incompetence
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Why?
People in private sector are smarter?
Government employees are lazy and
corrupt?
Government cannot get any work
done?
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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
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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
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Fishbowl atmosphere  always
negative image of public manager
Image problem
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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)
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causes
• 1) Bureaucrat bashing by the media &
politicians  easy to do and draw more
attention than trying to explain how
complex their situation is
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Public policy process is so complicated and
involve trade-off (usually not notice by the
media)
• 2) Bureaucrat avoiding choices
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Using vague language to avoid choices
Making choices  draw criticism (both from
internal & public in general)
• 3) Extreme Formality (red tape)
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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
สู ตรแห่งความล้มเหลว
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1) Negative image  Bureaucrats’ self perception
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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
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2) Letting the constraint constrain
you
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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)
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3) Allowing caution to become inertia
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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)
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4) Hiding behind ambiguity
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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
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5) Forgetting that people matter
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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
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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
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** “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
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Example p. 15
Innovative, Effective Public
Manager
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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
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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
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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)
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Government (Traditional value)
• Liberty, family, spirituality, envi
preservation
• Plastic bags – toxic-free envi
• Fresh fruit – safe pesticides
• Material wealth – spiritual fulfillment
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** Free market DOES NOT designed
to protect traditional value **
What Makes Public Organizations
Distinctive
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Experts on management & Org  treat
differences 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
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If public and private organizations
are the same  questions are…
Can we nationalize all industrial
firms?
Can we privatize all government
agencies?
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If no, this means there are some
important differences in the
administration of public and private
organization
Purpose of public organizations
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Public organization = “inevitable
components of free-market
economies” (Downs, 1967)
Thomas Hobbes  State of Nature
Politics & Market
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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
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Market  voluntary exchanges
Producers
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 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
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Public goods & Free riders
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tragedy of the common
Services that benefit to everyone in society
Free-riders  get common benefit, let
others pay
Individual incompetence
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People lack sufficient edu or info to make
wise individual choices in some areas ex.
medicines, food safety  need government
regulations
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Externalities/Spillovers
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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)
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Government  correct problems that
economic market creates or unable
to address
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Monopolies
Income redistribution
Provide services that are too risky/too
expensive for private competitors to provide
(facility for handicaps)
Conservative economists
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 think that market will eventually solves
all these problems
 Government makes these problems worse
Political Rationales for Government
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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
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Interests affected
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benefits or losses are communal or
individuals
Access to facilities, resources,
information
Agency
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A person/org acts as individual or for the
community as a whole
Agencies & Enterprises Continuum
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Agencies ------------------- Enterprises
(Public)
(Private)
trouble integrating cost reduction into
their goals
Pricing system links revenues to
products & services sold
Stronger incentive for cost reduction
Ownership & Funding
Public Ownership
Public
Funding
(taxes,
gov
contract)
Private
Funding
(sales,
private
donation
s)
Private Ownership
Ministries
Departments
Defense
contractors
Rand
corporation
Postal service
IBM
Grocery stores
Distinctive Characteristics of public
Management
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Environmental Factors
Organization-Environment
Transactions
Organizational Roles, Structures, and
Processes
Environmental Factors
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No economic markets for outputs
Depend on governmental funding
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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
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Heavy formal legal constraints
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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
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Bargaining, negotiating, lobbying, public opinion,
interest groups, constituent pressure
Need political support
Organization-Environment
Transactions
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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
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Unclear goals
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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
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Efficiency, accountability, transparency,
responsiveness
Fairness, equality, distribution, moral correctness
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Conflicting goals
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Involve trade-off (due to limited resources)
Value conflicting
• Efficiency vs. transparency
• Efficiency vs. social equality
• Efficiency vs. accountability
• 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
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Structure
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More red-tape, elaborate bureaucratic
structure
More constraints on administration
Environment of Public
Organizations
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“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
General Environmental Conditions
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Technological conditions  knowledge and
capability in sciences, etc
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Legal conditions  law, regulations, legal
procedures, court decisions
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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
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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
Examples of Political and
Institutional Environments of Public
Organizations
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General values
• Political & economic traditions
• Constitution provisions (ex. democratic
elections and representation/ unitary
state/ fused power, etc.)
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Values & performance criteria for government
orgs
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Efficiency
Effectiveness
Timeliness
Reliability
Reasonableness
Accountability
Legality
Responsiveness to rule of law
Responsiveness to public demands
Ethical standards
Fairness, equal treatment
Openness to criticism
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Institutions & actors with political
authority & influence
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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
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Conflicting values  Challenges to
public managers
Leadership, Managerial Roles &
Organizational Culture
Dispute
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Inborn (Trait Theories)
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Identify traits of effective leaders, ex.
height, intelligence, enthusiasm, persistence
Learned trait
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Definition of leadership
• Executive
• Managerial
• Supervisory
• Informal leadership
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General definition (Lundstedt 1965)
 ‘leadership involves influencing the
behavior of others in any group or
organization, setting goals,
formulating paths to those goals, and
creating social norms in the group’
Three levels of leadership in
Bureaus
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Executives
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 establish bureau’s structure (including positions
filled by managers and supervisors
 maintain general view of the bureau and its place
within political envi
 Interpret political statements of intentions (unclear
& contradictory) into rational goals & policies
 Create environment that encourage goal
achievement
 close attention to org environment (take
advantage of opportunity & protect org from threats
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manager
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 depend on rules & regulations that define
their power over others
 interpret org goals (set by executives) in
concrete manner (into structure, procedure,
tasks
 often pulled by superiors & subordinates
 focus on how org can be best organized
to achieve the overall goals established by
executives
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Supervisor
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 focus on motivation, productivity,
interpersonal relations
 work directly with production process
 protect subordinates from political
pressure
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Informal leadership
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 have no official leadership positions
 need to understand informal leadership
phenomenon along with formal one
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Definition of leadership  two
common elements
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Group phenomenon  2 or more people
must be involved
Influence process
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Influence
 flow from leaders to followers
 Followers grant the leadership
role to leader
 leaders rallying people together
and motivating them to achieve
some common goals
Influence Tactics (Yukl 1994)
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Rational Persuasion
Inspirational Appeals
Consultation
Ingratiation
Personal Appeals
Exchange
Coalition Tactics
Legitimating Tactics
Pressure
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Authority  rational basis of power
Rational side of org  what an org
should do according to the official,
formal dictates of org
Political side of organization  what
organizations actually do
Authority
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**the rationally based formal right to
make decisions and influence
behavior to implement decisions
based on formal organizational
relationships**
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Authority = a right determined by an
obligation
‘Authority is solely associated with
formal org, with formal sanction or
approval from society’
Forms of authority
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Managerial authority
Staff authority
Situational authority
Operative authority
Managerial Authority
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Managers are responsible for acquiring,
deploying, & controlling resources needed
to accomplish objectives
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Rights to choose among alternatives
The right to enforce those choices based on official
position
Principle of parity of authority and
responsibility  Balance between
responsibility & authority
Staff Authority
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Suggestions & recommendations about
the solutions to problems, procedure, or
improvements
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Right to recommend
Right to suggest
Right to advise
Right to attempt to exert influence to gain
acceptance for ideas
Ex. TQM, suggestion boxes, employee
empowerment, decentralizing org.
Situational Authority
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Hybrid authority
Contains both managerial and staff
authority
Delegated by managers to a staff
expert
Operative Authority
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All members have this authority
 make certain decisions about how,
in what order, which tools they carry
out their tasks
 right to work without undue
supervision
Power
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“the ability to impose one’s will on
others’
“ the ability of one person to affect
the behavior of someone else in a
desired way”
Based on factors such as knowledge,
authority, information, personality,
resource control
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Authority  simple power associated
with formal organization
Power  influence that does not
necessarily depend on formal
organizational recognition
Example
Two Perspectives on Power
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The French and Raven Power
Typology  individual bases of power
Dependency, Critical Contingencies,
and Power  how individuals,
groups, or departments gain power
through dependency relationships
French & Raven Power Typology
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Sources & potency of power in org
• Rational/legal power
• Reward Power
• Coercive power
• Referent power
• Charismatic power
• Expert power
Dependency, Critical
Contingencies, and Power
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Power through control of resources
Power through solving critical or
strategic contingencies
Level of substitutability
Power and location in the org
Power and position in the org
How to assess power ?
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Determine by sources or origin of power 
judgment about how much of particular power a
person/department possesses
Determine by consequences of decisions made by
various actors
Determine by power symbols  larger office,
luxurious furniture, more expensive company
cars
Representational indicators of power 
memberships on influential boards or committees
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The use of power in organization
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Effort  energy & ingenuity to fill power
vacuums
Control of information flows
Dominant coalitions  “group holding
extensive power & authority that may be
separate from formal power”
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Organizational politics (Pfeffer)
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‘those activities taken within organizations
to acquire, develop, and use power and
other resources to obtain one’s preferred
outcomes in a situation in which there is
uncertainty or a lack of consensus about
choice”
Executive leadership
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Most important  influence  skillful
playing of political game  power
“Administrative conservators”
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Preserve institution
Improve institution
“what is political climate?”
“what is the resource base?”
“what is the potential for mobilizing
support for the program?”
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Four functions for executive
leadership (Selznick)
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The creative task of setting goals
The capacity to build policy into an
organization’s social structure
Maintaining values and institutional identity
Reconciling the struggle among competing
interests
The Managers
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“in the middle”
Traits (Stogdill 1981)
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Capacity intelligence, alertness, verbal facility,
originality, judgment
Achievement  scholarship, knowledge
Responsibility dependability, initiative, persistence,
aggressiveness, self-confidence
Participation  activity, sociability, cooperation,
adaptability, humor
Status  Socioeconomic position, popularity
Situation  mental level, status, skills, needs and
interests of followers, objectives to be achieved
Values held by successful
managers
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Support  understanding, kindness, considerate
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Conformity  follow regulation, doing what is accepted,
proper, socially correct
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Recognition  attracting favorable attention; being
admired, looked up to
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Independence  free to make decision
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Benevolence  generous, helping and sharing with those
who are less fortunate
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Leadership  have authority over people
Managerial roles
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Figurehead role (also executives)
Leader ole
Liaison role  web, network of relations
Monitor role  problem, opportunity
Disseminator role  interpret info & passing on
to sub
Spokesperson role
Entrepreneur role
Disturbance-handler role
Resource-allocator role
Negotiator role
Managerial characteristic
(Mintzberg)
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Work pace  no break, grueling pace,
long hours
Activity duration & variation  engage in
wide variety of activities
Action rather than reflection  gravitate
toward active aspects of their jobs
Communication media usage  written
messages, scheduled meetings,
unscheduled meetings, observational
tours, telephone messages
The Supervisors
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“getting the work done”
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Three major focuses
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Production
Maintenance of individual morale
Maintenance of group cohesiveness
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Supervisory behavior (Bass 1990)
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Consideration  “extent to which a leader
shows concern for the welfare of the other
members of the group, appreciation of good
work, stress importance of job satisfaction”
Initiation of structure  “extent to which a
leader initiates activities in the group,
organizes it, & defines the way work is to be
done”
Path-Goal Theory of Leadership
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‘Effective leaders increase motivation
and satisfaction among subordinates
when they help them pursue
important goals’
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Leaders help subordinates to see the goals
The paths to achieve those goals
How to follow those paths effectively
Show the values of outcomes
Using appropriate coaching and directing
Removing barriers and frustrations to those
paths
House & Mitchell’s 4 leadership
styles
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Directive  Leaders give specific directions and
expectations
Supportive  stress on encouraging, sympathetic
relations with subordinates
Achievement-oriented  leaders set high goals
and high expectations for subordinates’
performance and responsibility
Participative  leaders encourage subordinates to
suggest opinions and suggestions
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Directive leadership
•  good for ambiguous task
•  bad when task is well structured and clear
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Supportive leadership
•  good when tasks are frustrating and stressful
•  bad when groups or other parts of org already provide
plenty of encouragement
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Achievement-oriented leadership
•  good for tasks toward ambitious goals
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Participative leadership
•  good for ambiguous task & that subordinates feel
their self-esteem is at stake
•  participation allows them to influence decisions and
work out solutions
Leader-Member Exchange Theory
(LMX)
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Dyadic relationships
• between a leader and individual subordinates
• On development of low-exchange and hi-exchange
relationships
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Low-exchange relationships
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 little mutual influence between the leader and subordinate
 subordinate follows formal role requirements
 receive standard benefit (salary)
High exchange relationships
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 leader establishes with a set of trusted subordinates
 mutual influence relations
 subordinates receive benefits in the form of more interesting
assignments and participation in important decisions
 leader’s expectation of hard work, loyalty, more responsibility
Transformational Leadership