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MANAGERIAL PROGRAMME AGENDA – I

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Introduction To Public Administration­MGT111
VU
LESSON 44
MANAGERIAL PROGRAMME AGENDA ­ I
We finished the last lecture on the reforms that were introduced in the public service of developed
countries. We will now examine the reasons for reforms in developed countries and also examine the
managerial programme agenda. So at the end of the lectures you will:
-
Understand the reasons for reforms and
-
Understand the `managerial programme agenda
Reasons for Reforms
The Fulton Report in UK recommended result-based management in public service. In USA also
there was demand for improved management in public sector in 70's. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978
in USA aimed at giving greater responsibility for results. It included merit pay for middle management
and establishment of Senior Executive Services at the top. In Australia in 1982 the need to improve public
service capacity to meet challenges was also felt. All in all there were several reasons that reforms should be
introduced in developed countries and that public sector does not have capability to respond to market
changes.
The more particular reasons for reforms were:
1. Government in developed countries experienced severe resource constraints as tax revenues
declined. Politically it was felt the services need not be reduced but rather more services be
provided with lesser staff.
2. The reforms in public sector were brought by political leadership. This is because during late
70s and 80s there were more changes of government in Canada, Australia, new Zealand and
the idea of change came from political leadership rather than public service itself.
3. There was link between improving public sector management and re-structuring the national
economy. This is because during difficult economic time business community is asked to
improve management. In this process the government also has to improve its management.
4. The size of government was becoming large and inefficient. During this time it was felt and
expressed in developed countries that the size of government had become large due to which
there was need to reduce it.
Managerial Programme
There were several ideas about what is NPM. We have discussed the components and general
management functions that help manager to achieve goals. But there was a similar view like general
management function, but little more focused which was called managerialism. The countries that were
bringing reforms in the public sector were trying to make the public sector more managerial. The main
features of managerialism were:
(i)
To improve human resources, including performance, pay. Performance pay means that
while employees are paid basic pay, the pay should increase according to their
performance. Better the performance the pay should be given accordingly. Bad
performance means no increase.
(ii)
To involve staff in decision-making. Everybody in organization should be involved in
decision making.
(iii)
To relax controls, but impose performance targets. Here it is meant that unnecessary
controls should be relaxed, but employees must achieve targets.
(iv)
To use information technology. The use of IT in work should be encouraged.
(v)
Service to clients. The customer or user should be considered importance.
(vi)
User charges. Services should not be provided free, but the users should pay if they use
service.
(vii)
Contracting out. In order to reduce the size of government, the government instead of
providing the service directly should contract out these services.
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Introduction To Public Administration­MGT111
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Massey, one of the contributors to new managerialism said that the reforms have had several other
goals. These were:
1.
To reduce the role and extent of the 'state' in order to enhance the role of the private
sector.
2.
To facilitate the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills and activities in society in general.
3.
To prevent future expansion of the public sector, and welfare-demanding coalitions;
which have linked their interest to those of bureaucrats.
4.
To de-politicize many (mainly economic) policy decisions and these should be entrusted to
professional experts, rather than the whim of politicians and bureaucrats and
5.
To inculcate in public sector organisations the best techniques of private sector practice in
order to bring the discipline.
All in all it can be inferred from the above goals of managerialism is that to make public sector
efficient and reduce the size of public sector small.
7 Main Points
Another author by the name of Hood looks more at `new public management' and calls as
comprising seven main points. These points are discussed below:
1.
Hands­on professional management in public sector. The managers should be
allowed to actively participate in organizational goals and its implementation. It means that
accountability requires clear assignment of responsibility for action.
Public organisations do things: that governments now want to know what they do; how
well they do it; who is incharge and taking responsibility for results; The primary way of
achieving this is to `let the managers manage', meaning that senior managers should
achieve results.
The fate of a minister should depend more on the management performance of the
department, the choice of department head is obviously crucial. Political leaders
increasingly choose managers with good records and who are sympathetic to the minister's
goals. High-profile managers are often appointed to head departments or agencies.
2.
Explicit standards and measures of performance The main change in the managerial
programme is for the organization to focus on outputs or outcomes, instead of inputs.
Managerial reforms have stressed performance by individual and by agencies.
Performance measures can be developed in any public organisation, although here are
more difficulties in practice than usually experienced in the private sector. Performance of
staff is also to be measured more systematically than before. The performance appraisal
system should aim to measure the performance of individual staff.
3.
Greater emphasis on output controls The most important change in this area has been
performance and programme budgeting systems to replace the older line-item budget (we
have discussed programme budgeting). The focus was formerly on inputs rather than
outputs, or on what the agencies actually does.
The line-item system of budgeting was precise in a control sense but, in practice,
governments had little information on actual programme delivery.
Government has also aimed to develop better methods for long-term planning and
strategic management. This means deciding what is the organization's mission, looking
ahead to achievement of goals and objectives, and at the organization fits its environment.
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4.
A Shift to Disaggregation. Disaggregation means splitting large departments into
different parts by setting up agencies to deliver services for a small policy. For example if a
large public organization is performing several functions like maintenance of parks,
provision of housing, provision of education and provision of health care. Then it should
split this into smaller organization, each performing this function separately.
A specific aim was to reduce the numbers of staff in the core civil service to a small group
engaged in functions of advising etc.
In some ways disaggregation could be seen as a reversion to the ideas of Woodrow Wilson
with an organisational split between policy and administration in the division of policy
departments and agencies.
A Shift to Greater Competition Cutting the scope of governments and bureaucracies is
5.
another part of the managerial programme. Competition is introduced for government
services with the idea of cutting costs. It is argued by proponents that if services are
`contestable' they should be put out to tender. Widespread privatization is part of this, but
is not the only means of reducing governmental role.
Conclusions
The reforms that were taking place in developed countries had some influence on developing
countries; through the organizations who were providing loans to developing countries. Thus there was
shift in the approach and goals of government in service provision.
There is now greater shift towards new public management. NPM involves more competition,
reduction in government role, and greater role of private sector. What one infers is that NPM is the
response to the changing economic philosophy of the present time.
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Table of Contents:
  1. INTRODUCTION:Institutions of State, Individualism
  2. EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:Classical School, The Shovelling Experiment
  3. CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS – I:Theory of Bureaucracy, Human Relation Approach
  4. CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS – II:Contributors of This Approach
  5. HUMAN RELATIONS SCHOOLS:Behavioural School, System Schools
  6. POWER AND POLITICS:Conflict- as Positive and Negative, Reactions of Managers, Three Dimensional Typology
  7. HISTORY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION – I:Moghul Period, British Period
  8. HISTORY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION – II
  9. CIVIL SERVICE:What are the Functions Performed by the Government?
  10. CIVIL SERVICE REFORMS:Implementation of the Reforms, Categories of the Civil Service
  11. 1973 CONSTITUTION OF PAKISTAN:The Republic of Pakistan, Definition of the State
  12. STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT:Rules of Business, Conclusion
  13. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION:The Public Interest, Ambiguity, Less Efficient
  14. ORGANIZATION:Formal Organizations, Departmentalization
  15. DEPARTMENTALIZATION:Departmentalization by Enterprise Function, Departments by Product
  16. POWER AND AUTHORITY:Nature of Relationship, Delegation of Functional Authority
  17. DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY:The Art of Delegation, Coordination
  18. PLANNING – I:Four Major Aspects of Planning, Types of Plans
  19. PLANNING – II:Planning ProcessThree principles of plans
  20. PLANNING COMMISSION AND PLANNING DEVELOPMENT:Functions, Approval Authority
  21. DECISION MAKING:Theories on Decision Making, Steps in Rational Decision Making
  22. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (HRM):Importance of Human Resource, Recruitment
  23. SELECTION PROCESS AND TRAINING:Levels at Which Selection takes Place, Training and Development
  24. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL:Formal Appraisals, Informal Appraisals
  25. SELECTION AND TRAINING AND PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS:Performance Evaluation,
  26. PUBLIC FINANCE:Background, Components of Public Finance, Dissimilarities
  27. BUDGET:Components of Public Income, Use of Taxes, Types of Taxation
  28. PUBLIC BUDGET:Incremental Budget, Annual Budget Statement, Budget Preparation
  29. NATIONAL FINANCE COMMISSION:Fiscal Federalism Defined, Multiple Criteria
  30. ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL:Types of Accountability, Internal Control, External Control
  31. AUDIT:Economy, Effectiveness, Objectives of Performance Audit, Concepts
  32. MOTIVATION:Assumptions about Motivation, Early ViewsThree Needs
  33. MOTIVATION AND LEADERSHIP:Reinforcement Theory, Leadership, The Trait Approach
  34. LEADERSHIP:Contingency Approaches, Personal Characteristics of Employees
  35. TEAM – I:Formal & Informal teams, Functions of Informal Groups, Characteristics of Teams
  36. TEAM – II:Team Cohesiveness, Four ways to Cohesiveness, Communication
  37. COMMUNICATION – I:Types of Communication, How to Improve Communication
  38. COMMUNICATION – II:Factors in Organizational Communication, Negotiating To Manage Conflicts
  39. DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION:The British Period, After Independence, The Issues
  40. DEVOLUTION PLAN – I:Country Information, Tiers or Level of Government
  41. DEVOLUTION PLAN – II:Aim of Devolution Plan, Administrative Reforms, Separation of powers
  42. POLITICAL REFORMS:District, Tehsil, Functions of Union Council, Fiscal Reforms
  43. NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT (NPM):Strategy, Beginning of Management Approach
  44. MANAGERIAL PROGRAMME AGENDA – I
  45. MANAGERIAL PROGRAMME AGENDA – II:Theoretical Bases of Management, Critique on Management