Comparative Public Sector Management - Essay Example

Comparative Public Sector Management Comparative Public Sector Management Introduction In the current century and with the challenges that the world faces in the economic, social and political domains, there are issues related to public sector management and the efficiency of activities aimed at directing and implementing projects that target the public. The current approach to public sector management is underpinned by a variety of elements that are meant to enhance the effectiveness of each and every activity in the process. Public management refers to the resemblance that exist between the non-profit administration and private sector in the service delivery to the public (Diefenbach 2009, pp 892-909). The elements of public management are tools that maximise efficiency of public management and are applicable to the private and public domains. There are many theories that provide a framework for public policy, and their application is varied depending on the context (Khaleghian & Gupta 2005, pp 1083-1099). Theoretical Framework in Public Sector Management Public policy is often characterised by dynamic, complex and interactive systems. It is through these systems that the problems affecting the public are identified and solved. The most basic solutions in this line are usually the formulation of new policies that reform the existing ways of doing things and as such increase the connectedness of the government and other players to the public. Using a theoretic approach to formulation and implementation of public policy prevents the use of fantasy, unreal and phantasm approaches to service to the public (Kapucu 2009, pp 1187-1190). Phallocentric vs. Feministic in public policies Phallocentric perspective refers to the concept that directs perceptive as predominantly male-oriented of favouring. Some of the public policies in education especially in areas where inequalities in education have been an issue have been seen as inclined towards favouring men. A feministic approach in the opposite of this, it refers to the recognition of women as an important and independent entity in the development. Free primary education in Australia is a public sector policy that has been effective in ensuring a boost to the females who missed education opportunities in the past due to cultural and economic barriers (Kapucu 2009). Public policy and politics In is very necessary that public policies are set aside from politics. This is because most of the political activities are designed to provide administrative powers, and rule over people, the public policy, on the other hand, are meant to provide public service and management in a non-profit approach from the government and other stakeholders in the selected issue. The psychology of politics identified by Lasswell as the most effective for the new generation only helps to integrate important policies into a legal and sustainable system (Muno 2007, pp 222-225). Lasswell identified that a new generation politics must be fitted into a sustainable and common theoretic framework and through this be able to accommodate one another for the success of sensible policies (Dunleavy & Hood 1994, pp 9-16). Elements of Public Management Six elements underpin new public management. They include decentralisation, privatisation, and orientation of management results to the market requirements, private sector management and participation. These elements are the tools that direct the success in the public management and implementation of public policies (Terry 1998, pp 194-200). They can be used in the implementation of the public management projects in communities such as the indigenous societies living in the remote parts of Australia, the Aboriginal Australian populations in NSW. Public Management in Improving Delivery of Free Primary Education Despite the attention that appears to be given to indigenous society education by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in their annual reports, there are issues that politics cannot handle appropriately. The problem of overcoming the indigenous disadvantage through free education is better handled through public management (Ward 2007, pp. 1-12). The elements of public management that can be implemented in this case are decentralisation, results orientation to market and participation. In the decentralisation, the public policy should focus on having all the power and decisions related to improvement of the educational status of the communities within the community itself. Having such an initiative increases the speed of operations and hence quick results (English 2007, pp. 313-336). The reason behind this is that when authority, as well as responsibilities, are decentralised there will be a quick decision-making in matters affecting the education of the people as well as the progress of the project. To decentralise requires the willingness and commitment of the federal and local governments. Project are monitored to ensure that there are quick and desirable results. When the results are reached, it is expected that these results will give a positive and long term impact. For this to happen, the project on public management, must be engineered to ensure that the results of this management are oriented to the market. This requires that there are adequate market study and research prior to the commencement of the project. In the education sector, market study will involve research on the requirements of the job market. This will direct the delivery of quality education to all people with the aim of having them secure jobs and be relevant in the community. Participation is also an important element in public management. In the participation, a project must ensure that there is involvement of all the stakeholders and players in the education sector. To ensure there is participation, the project managers should first make assessments of the felt needs of the community. This will ensure that the project objectives are designed to meet the people’s needs. It is only when this is effective that the people will feel included and recognised and hence be willing to take part. Further, the project should use the social systems and units in the community such as the non-governmental organisations and religious institutions that are established in this community (Tummers 2011, pp. 555-581). This will not only ensure participation but also enhance the sustainability of the programme once the initial change agents leave the scenes. Delivery of free public education to the Aboriginal Australian populations in NSW is our project in this case. All the authority and responsibility has been decentralised and the curriculum used is oriented to the requirements of the market. Therefore, of the three elements discussed, participation will serve to increase the effectiveness of the project. Under the circumstances of adequate government support, the inclusion of the community and the realisation that they are part of the project will make it effectiveness. The other stakeholders in the community should also be encouraged to participate fully in the project (Gale 1990, pp. 40-80). The implication of their participation is that even with the exit of the initiators of the project, the community will still have experts with whom they can consult and depend on for the sustainability of the projects. Communities’ strategy in NSW Overview The Connected Communities strategy recognises the existence of schools as the hubs in the community from where development can take place. The strategy recognises that for adequate development in education should involve the broad influence community and school leadership. This influence is aimed at enhancing service delivery and providing support to children and young people from birth, through their school years and past school into training and employment. The strategy has been the result of the concerted efforts of the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group and key stakeholders through research and service delivery. The success of the strategy is based on the research on the issues surrounding the community as well as ensuring that there is input from the community. This will be helpful in identifying the available community strengths and visions on the basis of which the projects in education will be established and managed. Further, the strategy proposes a number of reforms in the education sector especially in these regions. The first reform strategy is the recognition of the people in the education strategies by having the local schools adopt local decisions. This encourages greater authority and flexibility in the administrators’ decision making. The importance of this is that the use of the available resources has the decisions made by the schools and the community and does not depend on external influence (Beresford 2006). The other reform proposed in the strategy is the recognition of the importance of quick and early decision making as a measure to approach issues. When decisions are made from the local level, they are quick to be implemented. Besides, Early Action for Success strategy emphasizes on high-level instructional management in the local schools to help improve literacy and numeracy results in schools The strategy is a complement of the ministerial and governmental efforts to improve the conditions of the Aboriginal communities. It makes easier for the accomplishment of the federal government objectives to engage the Aboriginal communities more in the schools and to help them to own the results of the education. It of also through the strategy that the community can enjoy the Aboriginal culture in education and hence the effectiveness and acceptability of the projects. The Strategy and the Elements of Public Management The Connected Communities strategy is a public management strategy that is in line with the basic elements of public management. In this regard, the strategy can we evaluated using the three elements of public management aforementioned in this paper, decentralisation, orientation of results to market and participation (Oliver et al. 2011, pp. 60-74). In the decentralisation, one of the basic reforms in this strategy is the increased flexibility of the school administrator. The local decision are meant to increase the speed with which important and the most basic decisions regarding the people and their education are made. In this case, the strategy has decentralised decision making as well as ensuring that the community has the ability and authority to remain independent of the government in the use of the local resources. The importance of this is that it builds a culture of local management, responsibility and sustainability of projects. When a project is fully managed from the local level, there is a high likelihood that more projects will be easily managed in the same way and with increased efficiency. The education system that has been established in line with this strategy enhances a long-term involvement and engagement of the young people in the program. From the birth, the children are progressively introduced to the education system that is focused on having them develop to be important people in the society. The strategy ensures that all the people in the community are educated and that the influence of the strategy reforms does not fade in their lives. This is to mean that the strategy aims at making contact with the community and the people throughout their school age and in training for different jobs and even in their employment. This is an important step in ensuring that the quality of education being delivered to the people is well-articulated to the market requirement and that evaluation of these strategies is possible through the maintained contact (Monaghan 2010). The inclusion of the community and the various stakeholders within the Aboriginal society is a significant and evident factor in this strategy. First, the decentralisation has recognised the ability of the social systems in the community to meet the expectation of the strategy. The strategy thus encourages the use of locally available resources in terms of material, intellectual and human resources in all matters of education. Through this, the community is recognised as abled and in a position to handle their own project. With a little guidance from experts, the community can participate fully in projects they regarded as own and focused on solving their own problem. Secondly, the continued connectedness of the people to the education sector even after employment makes the people feel needed by the community. Their participation in the sustainability of the strategy is, therefore, based on the felt benefits of the program. Further, when the program focuses on improvement of the education status in the community, the Aboriginal communities identify this as an urgent need and therefore seek to ensure that the strategy succeeds. Based on these elements, the strategy is meant to work. First, for any public management strategy to be effective, it must be addressing the felt needs of the community it aims at helping. To come up with real felt needs, community participation is necessary. This strategy qualifies in the involvement of the community. Secondly, the felt needs must be technically aligned to objectives of the strategy. The importance of this is that when the needs and objectives be aligned, the results of the strategy will be oriented to what experts have identified as the requirements of the market (Middleton et al. 2004, pp. 21). The Connected Communities strategy is fully committed to having a continuous connectedness to the people who go through the education from these communities to ensure that they are continually moulded to fit in the job market without the disadvantages of a poor background. Further, when the community is involved, there is hope for sustainability of the project. Lastly, it is the expectation of the community that all the authority for the use of their resources will be on them or the people they can identify with. This makes it clear that the strategy or the projects are not meant to exploit them but based on the need to assist them. Decentralisation serves to ensure there is this perception and that the people can own not only the responsibility but also the authority and the results. It is also through this feeling of ownership that the people can protect their projects as their own assets (Jones et al. 2010). The strategy is, therefore, consistent with the literature concerning the public policy and public management. It is even important to note that in the strategy, the public administration and politics are left out of the education improvement projects to ensure that the projects are not interfered with by political ideologies in the region. References Beresford, Q., 2006. Models of policy development in Aboriginal education : Issues and discourse. Australian Journal of Education, 50, pp.265–280. Diefenbach, T., 2009. New public management in public sector organizations: The dark sides of managerialistic “enlightenment.” Public Administration, 87, pp.892–909. Dunleavy, P. & Hood, C., 1994. From old public administration to new public management. Public Money & Management, 14, pp.9–16. English, L.M., 2007. Performance Audit Of Australian Public Private Partnerships: Legitimising Government Policies Or Providing Independent Oversight? Financial Accountability & Management, 23, pp.313–336. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=25916489&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Gale, M.-A., 1990. A Review of Bilingual Education in Aboriginal Australia. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 13, pp.40–80. Jones, A., Rowson, J. & Broome, S., 2010. Connected Communities: How social networks power and sustain the Big Society. Royal Society for the Arts, pp.1–83. Available at: https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/dspace/handle/2299/8523. Kapucu, N., 2009. New Public Management and Governance Perspectives in Understanding Public Management. Public Administration Review, 69, pp.1187–1190. Khaleghian, P. & Gupta, M. Das, 2005. Public management and the essential public health functions. World Development, 33, pp.1083–1099. Middleton, S. et al., 2004. Improving stroke outcomes in NSW: A study of GP perspectives. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 10, p.21. Monaghan, C.H., 2010. Communities of Practice: A Learning Strategy for Management Education. Journal of Management Education, 35, pp.428–453. Available at: http://jme.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/3/428. Muno, W., 2007. Harold D. Lasswell, Politics: Who Gets What, When, How, Cleveland/New York 1936. In Schlüsselwerke der Politikwissenschaft. pp. 222–225. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90400-9_60. Oliver, R. et al., 2011. Teacher awareness and understandings about aboriginal english in Western Australia. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 34, pp.60–74. Terry, L.D., 1998. Administrative Leadership, Neo-Managerialism, and the Public Management Movement. Public Administration, 58, pp.194–200. Tummers, L., 2011. Explaining the willingness of public professionals to implement new policies: a policy alienation framework. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 77, pp.555–581. Ward, D., 2007. Academic Values, Institutional Management and Public Policies. 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