Public Management and Administration - Owen E.hughes

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Strategic Management 139 including it as a separate item on the list. In the private sector the mandate is in a sense without limit, in that it is quite common for a company with expertise in one area, say steel, to diversify into the oil or food businesses. This is not the case in the public sector. Public organizations have mandates, specified in legislation, that limit the scope of their activity. Mandates are of fundamental importance in deciding on the strategic plan. It is often a useful lesson for public agencies to reexamine what they are meant to do under the legislation which set them up. The third step is to settle the organization mission, that is, the raison d’être of the organization; why it exists at all, and what it is trying to achieve. Public sector organizations find it notoriously difficult to decide exactly what they do. Often this goal uncertainty may have been deliberate, as although vague goals cannot be achieved, neither can anyone say they were not. This is one reason why governments now often insist that strategic plans be prepared. The lack of clarity of goals has become a major weakness in an age in which clear goals are demanded by governments, although the inherent difficulty of goal setting is complicated by the input from politicians. Missions or goals should be specified and analysed, as the very way they are characterized can have implications for how the organization acts. It is obviously not easy for many government agencies to decide what their mission actually is. For example, what is the precise aim of a social welfare department or a health department? Where strategic planning can assist is in making an organization or an agency specify what it is trying to achieve. In many cases this is something not done previously. Organization objectives are at a lower level and should derive from the strategic plan. If the mission is to improve the community’s health, then the objectives can be more specific targets in particular areas. As far as possible, although controversial in its implementation, such targets should be empirical. Fourthly, consideration of the external environment involves essentially the same process as in the private sector. General economic, social and political conditions, the three strategic dimensions of global, social and technological change and the ‘negotiated relationship among the various organizations in an environment – determine the level of complexity and uncertainty an organization confronts’ (Methé and Perry, 1989, p. 42). Public organizations exist in an environment that has both opportunities and threats. Public organizations in the administrative model were criticized for being overly insular, preoccupied with internal matters and not thinking about how or where their organization exists within government or society as a whole. A good strategic plan would discuss the opportunity or threats faced by the organization in the context of its external environment. The environmental scan should look at both the threats to continued organizational existence and to opportunities in other related areas. Public organizations exist in an environment in which threats are ever-present. A good plan would point to these and do so in detail. It should go beyond the obvious to be a clear, comprehensive picture of where the organization fits in its broader environment.
140 Public Management and Administration A public organization is essentially no different from one in the private sector when it comes to assessing its external environment, or in having a need to do so. There are differences of emphasis as Nutt and Backoff argue (1992, p. 180): The emphasis in the content of SWOTs varies markedly across sectors. First, firms have tight markets and weak political linkages. The reverse is true for public and third sector organizations; markets are loosely defined and authority systems impose constraints … Second, firms are pulled toward opportunities and public and third sector organizations tend to be driven by threats. This is a perceptive comment. Public organizations may be more reactive than pro-active and respond more to threats, which means an expectation of a differing result from strategic processes. Fifthly, the internal operations of the organization are also critical to its existence. If it has internal weaknesses it becomes harder to justify its continued operation in an atmosphere in which any excuse is used for making cuts. The internal environment assessment requires a thorough assessment of the capability of staff. This would include the quality and qualifications of staff, age, sex or other profiles in the hierarchy, departure rates, and less quantifiable measures including the state of morale. There should be an assessment of the extent of resources, particularly financial, but also the systems that are used, notably information systems, accounting systems and so on. Despite any good plan requiring thorough organizational self-examination, it is usually difficult for an organization to look at itself in a critical way, as this can be construed as a direct criticism of the current leadership. Being able to do so is necessary for a meaningful strategic plan. Any of these internal factors may impinge on the organization’s ability to fulfil its strategic mission and objectives, and so must be examined closely. Sixthly, strategic issues should surface as a result of the environmental scanning activity. This would deal with any weaknesses identified inside the organization, threats from outside, or opportunities for the future. It may be possible to offer new services or new approaches to service delivery. Strategic issues should be separated from day-to-day ones in some way and need to be listed as they would form the basis of strategies to be formulated and implemented. An example of a strategic issue could be a major staffing problem, say, in a tax office where senior, experienced accounting staff are leaving for the private sector at far higher salaries. Another might be that a particular good or service being provided is now being contracted out to the private sector in some other jurisdiction, so that privatization might be considered in future. A strategic issue is a major issue, one that affects the organization’s future or ability to function. Seventhly, formulating strategies – sometimes referred to as deriving an ‘action plan’ or ‘action programme’ (Hax and Majluf, 1996) – is where the strategic issues deriving from the previous steps are put into effect. In this step strategies ‘are formulated to achieve the selected targets’ and, in practice, they
Page 1 and 2:
Public Management and Administratio
Page 3 and 4:
Also by Owen E. Hughes AUSTRALIAN P
Page 5 and 6:
© Owen E. Hughes 1994, 1998, 2003
Page 7 and 8:
Preface Over the past 20 years the
Page 9 and 10:
viii Preface the Colorado link such
Page 11 and 12:
2 Public Management and Administrat
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
10 Public Management and Administra
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
3 Public Management Introduction Th
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98: 88 Public Management and Administra
Page 103 and 104: 5 Public Enterprise Introduction Pu
Page 109 and 110: 100 Public Management and Administr
Page 141 and 142: 7 Strategic Management Introduction
Page 147: 138 Public Management and Administr
Page 191 and 192: 10 E-government Introduction In the
Page 199 and 200:
190 Public Management and Administr
Page 201 and 202:
Page 203 and 204:
Page 205 and 206:
Page 207 and 208:
Page 209 and 210:
Page 211 and 212:
11 Managing External Constituencies
Page 213 and 214:
Page 215 and 216:
Page 217 and 218:
Page 219 and 220:
Page 221 and 222:
Page 223 and 224:
Page 225 and 226:
Page 227 and 228:
12 Public Management in Developing
Page 229 and 230:
Page 231 and 232:
Page 233 and 234:
Page 235 and 236:
Page 237 and 238:
Page 239 and 240:
Page 241 and 242:
Page 243 and 244:
Page 245 and 246:
13 Accountability Introduction The
Page 247 and 248:
Page 249 and 250:
Page 251 and 252:
Page 253 and 254:
Page 255 and 256:
Page 257 and 258:
Page 259 and 260:
Page 261 and 262:
Page 263 and 264:
Page 265 and 266:
14 Conclusion: A New Paradigm for P
Page 267 and 268:
Page 269 and 270:
Page 271 and 272:
Page 273 and 274:
Page 275 and 276:
Page 277 and 278:
Page 279 and 280:
Page 281 and 282:
Page 283 and 284:
Page 285 and 286:
Page 287 and 288:
Page 289 and 290:
Page 291 and 292:
Page 293 and 294:
284 References Borins, Sandford (19
Page 295 and 296:
286 References Glor, Eleanor D. (20
Page 297 and 298:
288 References Jordan, Grant (1997)
Page 299 and 300:
290 References Monroe, Kristen Renw
Page 301 and 302:
292 References Putt, Allen C. and S
Page 303 and 304:
294 References Wilson, Graham K. (1
Page 305 and 306:
296 Index bureaucracy 1-5, 9, 15-43
Page 307 and 308:
298 Index information and communica
Page 309 and 310:
300 Index ‘one best way’ thinki
Page 311 and 312:
302 Index Ritter, G. 85, 86 role of
show all

Public Management and Administration - Owen E.hughes

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?