Public Managers - the Issues and Challenges Facing Public Management - Essay Example

Public Managers: The issues and challenges facing Public Management It can be clearly observed that societies and economies become more interdependent in modern times. This increases the demand for governance in which government public managers need to be equipped with tools they needed in a more efficient and effective public management. Public managers are not isolated; they are subjected to public’s attention using media and other related communication-related aspects (Cohen and Eimicke, 2002, p.17). In my opinion this is another great challenge for public managers considering that they have to be consistent in creating the image they want the public to see who they are. In my opinion, what matters in public management is to clearly create an image consistently. Of course the image that must be created should be what the public viewed desirable. Desirable means what passes through the public standard and as set by the policy that the government has created. As mentioned earlier, societies and economies become more interdependent. However, at present time, politics is already integrated in public service. This becomes a challenge for public managers knowing that the work of public administrators should be viewed in a way objective, businesslike and separate from politics (Denhardt and Denhardt, 2007, p.121). It cannot be denied that the public or many people cannot help but sometimes think that public managers’ actions or decisions are politically motivated. Some people have negative impressions on politics. This somehow influences the way of thinking for some people not to fully trust on the sincerity of public administrator’s or manager’s service for the people. It cannot be denied after all that some may believe that politically motivated actions are down to the defeatist level of thinking on politically motivated governance. This is a great challenge for public managers especially to those who are strong in their commitment for public service. It is easy to say that in order to gain public acceptance and trust, a service-oriented for managers is the most important thing that matters. However, it cannot be totally eliminated from others’ level of mentality to doubt the intention of their leaders in leading and serving people. For as long as there is a continuous integration between the societies and politics, there will always be those who also continue to associate service-oriented actions with politically-motivated actions. For public managers, the challenge is to convince people and be consistent in their moves. This is not easy and as the classic idea of management puts it, “the end justifies the means”. Researchers found out few differences between managers in public and private organizations (Rainey, 2009, p.307). According to Rainey (2009), compared to mangers in private organizations, managers in public organizations face by greater multiciplicity, vagueness and conflict of goals and performance (p.307). This is clearly another challenge facing public managers. Juta and Toit (1997) listed some issues and challenges in public management as follows (p.396): 1. Challenges on administrative and management 2. Challenges on personal intellectual 3. Lack of management information 4. Lack of time 5. Lack of knowledge 6. Lack identification of issues 7. Lack of human resources 8. Insufficient legitimacy The IBM Center for the Business of Government (2010) was able to give ten challenges facing public managers such as, fiscal sanity, crisis of competence, information overload, governing without boundaries, E-government since it is only the beginning, government by contractors, results since it do really matter, green leadership, security and privacy in a flat world and surprises. As discussed in the article by IBM Center for the Business of Governance (2010), the reality is presented that the US is at risk of being overloaded in debt. The issue focuses on federal commitments supporting health care and retirement costs. As added in the discussion of the said article, health care costs are responsible for upward spiraling needs for local budgets and costs, which only worsen the case of the country’s financial crisis. It cannot be denied that the present social insurance programs for America are costly and old fashioned. Now the challenge of a public manager is to think deeply of this issue and try to consider economic and budgetary considerations while taking into account of solving the problem. Another issue challenging public managers as discussed in the article is the crisis of competence. This is the case of the new generation when the public servant in order to be legible in public service needs to have substantial experience and training since the said public works become more technical and service-oriented. The other way of saying this is that there is an intended competition and considerable amount of time needed in public management considering that those who are willing to serve the public needs to come up with substantial and standard credentials. The third challenge facing public managers discussed in the article is information overload. The problem with information overload is the difficulty to choose or decide which information needs to be focused as part of the decision-making process. The more information presented, the more it is difficult to choose which information can give enough information without giving uncertainty and thus, sound decision-making process. Information can be everywhere today and it can be recovered through surveillance cameras, weather climate information and update, census data and other real time news events and many others in which are improved at present through data capture, data standards, and data storage (IBM Center for the Business of Governance, 2010). The fourth challenge facing public managers is governing without boundaries. As stated in the article of IBM Center for the Business of Governance (2010), the present government structure is based on the presumption that the world is stable and predictable in which the government’s work originated on a large scale and repeatable routines, a hierarchical bureaucratic model adapted in the middle of 20th century. The problem is that this does not reflect today’s reality. As can be clearly observed, the government is momentarily changing the hierarchical way of public management. This is done so as to minimize the adverse effects of organizing and delivering services that are customized and unpredictable. The fifth challenge facing public manager according to IBM Center for the Business of Governance (2010) has something to do about the e-government. It is a fact that technology can help work easier to move and can manage and influence information around the globe. The challenge in the advent of technological development is that the government needs to work across agencies and in redesigning programs from the customers’ point of view. In this way, public managers as suggested by IBM Center for the Business of Governance (2010) need to adapt struggles in order to make their operations integrated and standard. In this way the service delivery to customers are ensured fast and efficient at some point. In order to effectively do this, according to the article, the public managers need to do everything in a way there is visibility on their actions and nature of work. The sixth challenge facing public manager according to IBM Center for the Business of Governance (2010) is due to the fact that the government is obviously depending currently on contractors. The problem with this is that highly efficient federal workers are leaving in the workplace in a fast pace manner while new ones are coming on the way in the same pace. The problem now is that those employees who are left behind need to face work which is more toxic, under-resourced, under-supported and often under-trained. The challenge of the government now is to have more competitive contractors that will support those competitive government workers. The Center for the Business of Governance (2010) suggested that the government must align its roles and capabilities in order to come up with effective programs. In this way, it further stated that the government will be able to save billions and will be able to avoid future problems as contractors steps in to work with the government. The seventh challenge facing public manager according to IBM Center for the Business of Governance (2010) is due to being result-oriented in terms of management. Being result-oriented is a good thing. However, federal governments in the US for example are faced by substantial challenges to become more results-oriented. As suggested by IBM Center for the Business Governance (2010), the stated problem can be solved through performance-driven system that created a quick movement between sequences on connections between agencies, levels of government and the nonprofit and private sectors. The challenge now for public manager is to transform its working culture into something that will work with other governments and the non-profit and private sectors. IBM Center for the Business Governance (2010) added that in order for the government to address management challenges, the federal government for instance needs to increase strategic planning and use integrated approaches and enhance agencies’ results-orientation. Thus, one can say that it is essential to focus on the results and its contribution to national goals not only on the organization. As added, in order to form a culture which is result-oriented that can achieve its full potential, it was suggested that the leaders and the organization must carefully choose the best solution for the organization based on structure, systems and processes (IBM Center for the Business Governance, 2010). The eighth challenge facing public manger according to IBM Center for the Business of Governance (2010) is about “green” leadership. This is timely considering that the global warming issue is currently one of the global hottest issues. Some argued that the burning of fossil fuels over the past decades was the greatest contributing factor for global warming. In highly advanced countries, there is a direct relationship between energy usage and economic growth. The increasing economy implies increasing energy consumption and usage. The United States for instance without question is a country that needs more energy consumption in order to continue sustain its economic targets. It is in this reason that the country needs more supply of energy especially on fossil fuels. The United States is now on a dilemma considering that the world is asking for conservation and not only that, total alternatives that are sound and safe for the environment. In reality at present time, this can be so tough to achieve considering that each country needs to ensure economic growth in such a way how it started everything. Certainly, each government needs to come up with innovation and other related ways that will ensure continuing economic growth without compromising the state of the environment. The issue faced by public leader in this case is an environmental challenge. This is a complex issue which means it needs more serious approach as far as dealing with it is concerned. The ninth challenge facing public manger according to IBM Center for the Business of Governance (2010) talks about security and privacy. Wherever one goes; everyone most especially investors are considering security conditions and privacy. These are essential factors in the business. However, in contemporary trend, according to IBM Center for the Business of Governance (2010) security and privacy issues need to be explicitly factored into technology decision. To cite how technology contributed greatly to economic growth for many decades, one can cite the internet, cheap data storage, wireless capabilities and other related technologies. Sad to say, these technologies also carry potential risks. It is clear that since almost everyone depends on them, it can be clearly stated that it does really would matter to almost everyone also. As mentioned, there are corresponding risks on these technologies. If a certain place can be vulnerable to risk, then there is no way of saying it that the other places are fully exempted since such technologies are almost the same everywhere. Thus, risks need to be addressed and assessed accordingly. This remains another great challenge facing public leaders. As suggested by IBM Center for the Business of Governance (2010) policies need to be developed. The government must ensure that known and unknown risks are put into consideration. Unknown risks are very difficult to forecast and they tend to be unpredictable since there is no way at all to know them ahead of time. Thus, the government leaders must ensure that they watch over their people using technology. However, there are related good and bad connotations in the usage of technology. Now, the choice is to maximize even more the good implications of technology and as much as possible, minimize the bad ones. This is not easy to implement. It needs more careful planning so as to come up with effective implementations. The last challenge facing public manger according to IBM Center for the Business of Governance (2010) is highly related to surprises. It is a reality that life is full of surprises. What can be more surprising to having a typhoon many times in a year? This is a very stressful scenario in the Philippines for instance. For sure, the United States in particular cannot afford any mistakes in dealing such catastrophic events and non-routine management challenges. The term surprises here talk about non-routine challenges and catastrophic events and such can be so stressful and so challenging indeed. Public leaders are constantly dealing on them anywhere on earth. What a public leader must posses is a way of thinking that can survive amidst sudden adversity such as catastrophic events for instance. As suggested by IBM Center for Business of Governance (2010) is not to go respond challenges with traditional management. It added that government must consider the best design programs in effective management of the boundaries across the entire nation at present and in the future. Thus, policymakers will need to be quite advance in outlook to take steps ahead of time before threats. Not only that, the government together with its public leaders needs to formulate informed choices for effective government responses. Public management is certainly not an easy task to do. It certainly needs the right man for the job. References Cohen, S., & Eimicke, W. (2002). The Effective Public Manager: Achieving Success in a Changing Government. (3rd ed.). USA: Jossey-Bass. Denhardt, J.V., & Denhardt, R. B. (2007). The New Public Service: Serving, not seeing. USA: M.E. Sharpe Inc. IBM Center for the Business of Governance (2010) Ten Challenges Facing Public Managers. Retrieved March 31, 2010, from http://www.businessofgovernment.org/pdfs/10_Challenges.pdf Rainey, H. G. (2009). Understanding and Managing Public Organizations. (4th ed.). USA: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Waldt, G. V. D., & Toit, D.F.P. (1997). Managing for excellence in the public sector. South Africa: Juta & Co. Ltd. Read More