Proceedings

Fryer et al. (2007) completes the picture of the public sector characteristics with their
regional and temporal fluctuations, which they support through arguments. The
authors think that temporal fluctuations are due to the fact that public sector is subject
to “the whims and fancies of government”. Regional fluctuations is generated by
changes in administration, which lead to changes in the organization of at least one
area of the public sector, since each administration has its own approach, ideas,
interests and visions. The overly dependence on administration change results in
uncertainty, requires time for the acceptance and assimilation of the new visions and
reduces the quality of services, by increased time of response to public inquiries and
by the reduction of service offer. Although due to its nature, the private sector does
not face such challenges, this characteristic is important for it, too, since it is
indirectly impacted by the decisions of the administration.
An interesting approach of the public sector belongs to Talbot (2003). He postulated
that public services are three-dimensional: there is the policy, the managerial and the
professional domain. According to this approach, the employees of the public sector
are challenged to frequently switch between these often conflicting domains. For
instance, in a single day, it may happen that the manager of a public organization must
switch from the role as manager to the role of professional or policy-maker. Each of
these three domains differs through its own patterns and values, which are almost
always contradictory with each other. Thus, by comparison with the private sector,
where managers are almost exclusively dedicated to the managerial field, in the public
sector, employees in governing positions are challenged to accept the inherent
contradictions between these three domains, to get over the resulting conflicts and
uncertainties and to find a satisfactory balance.
A fundamental characteristic of public service is identified by Marobela (2008). In his
opinion, the boundary between the public sector and the private sector is drawn not
only by the objectives pursued but also by the manner in which the service is
delivered. Moreover, Parasuraman et al. (1985) quoted by Fryer et al. (2007)
approaches the characteristics of the public sector from the perspective of the quality
of the services in the public sector, namely intangibility, heterogeneity, and
inseparability, which he defines as following: intangibility means that no precise
definition and measurement of the services is possible; heterogeneity means that
services suffer from lack of consistency, since they depend on the interaction between
the individual service provider and the customer; inseparability refers to the
simultaneous occurrence of the delivery and the “consumption” of the service and the
potential influence of the customer on the outcome of the service provided
Fryer et al. (2007) identify the features of the public sector from the perspective of the
demand, by comparison with the private sector. Through the bidimensional analysis
(public sector – private sector) of the number of customers, authors conclude that
unlike the public sector where in the absence of the profitability objective the increase
of the customers’ number means an increase of the efforts, in the private sector the
increased demand leads to profit maximization and therefore it is a major objective.
We think that in present times, characterized by the limitation of public resources and
the increase of the demand for services, this feature means that the public sector
should identify and adopt alternative measures in order to fulfil public expectations.
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