The Challenges a Public Service Manager May Face - Assignment Example

From time immemorial, the success or failure of an organization or any other human activity depends on the role, the leader plays. The leader is the one who can lead humans under him/her to ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’. And, if the leader follows a set of traits he/ she can ‘sprinkle’ success on many lives. The same applies to the common people dependent public services as well with the public service manager playing the leadership role. This paper will analyze the public service manager’s role with the exploration of how the management of established, high prestige professional groups in public services will form a significant challenge for them. So, this paper will analyze the challenges of the public service managers when the manage the two important public service of Civil Administration and Policing in India, which has the second oldest public service system in the world. Public Management Our world since its origination has been a ‘hotbed’ of activity. Activity in the sense, the central component of globe, we humans have been showing activeness both mentally and physically, which have transformed our globe from a primitive one to an advanced one. Advancement, which is visible in all spheres of our life, as well as in the ‘sphere’, we live. In the midst of all the activity, humans needs to be overseen, sometimes controlled, taken care, guided, or even punished to continue the activity in the positive direction. So, in total, the humans who exist as part of public should be managed. “The whole purpose of public service is not to make money but to collectively provide protection, help, restraint, education, recreation and care outside market relationship” (Flynn 2002). So, the need for the management of the public only lead to the formation of Public services in various parts of the world. Public service, which had their origination as a formalized structure in Britain, spread to other countries with the spread of British imperialistic policies. That is, the British Government spread its rule over many countries and implemented many things, which are British in those countries starting from English language, railways, public services etc, etc. These vestiges of British survived all these years, even after their exit benefitting the country in one hand and affecting the country on the other hand. Among these British introductions, the Indian Public Service or The Indian Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym ICS or IAS, was established as an elite administrative structure in the 19th century. They only provided the backup to the British rule, which lasted until 1947; the year British left India. The Public service was set up with British officers at the helm and homegrown officers and workers as their subordinates. The concept of contract system was in place while recruiting or absorbing British officers into the service. That is, the officers in higher hierarchy were recruited into the public services through a contract system and where known by the term “covenants”, while the lower level staffs were recruited from the Britishers as well as loyal Indians through examinations and through direct recruitment. This British established administrative setup actually changed a lot with the changing times and according to the changed situation in India. Even though, Indian Public services had some remnants of British setup, it had undergone transformation. But, it is still categorized into different services as in the past like the civil Administrative service, Police services, Forest services, foreign services, Railway services etc. Among these entire range of services, which are having its presence and proliferation, the services of Civil administration and Police administration are only having a major presence or role in India. These two public services or civil services only forms the backbone of the Indian administrative structure complimenting the government in every possible way. These two administrations only runs the country of India and if one of them breaks down, it will lead to major crisis and chaos. So, with both the administration having an omnipresence existence, throughout India, the public service managers or leaders who head these administrations have to play a crucial role in tough and challenging situations. In those situations only leadership potential of the public service managers will come to the fore. The public service managers who head these two services of civil administration and Police administration will occupy various posts hierarchally. In the both the administration, the hierarchy will be separated into two, the central government administration, which will be in charge of the whole country and into state government administration, who will be in charge of a particular state. In the central government public services, the public managers will be stationed in the country’s capital of New Delhi and work in various central government ministries as secretaries and their subordinates, and also as chiefs and their subordinates in security and law enforcement agencies. In the state government public services, the public service managers constitute the chief secretary, department secretaries and District collectors in the civil administration side and as Inspector General of Police, Commissioners etc in the police administration side. So, these key public managers who occupy key positions will face significant challenges in the work environment. Imposition of public manager’s assumptions The first real challenge the public manager will face is the imposition of his/hers assumption in the work environment among his/hers coworkers, subordinates and importantly civilians and thereby create a effective work culture. As public managers are the man in lead, they usually have a major impact on how the group under them initially defines and sets into a team. Typically, the public managers as leaders have strong assumptions or views about the nature of the world. They will, therefore, be quite comfortable in imposing those views and personal cultures, on their coworkers and employees to form a work culture that will give maximum benefits. In the case of civil administration in India, this imposition creates a big challenge because the existing coworkers in most cases will be experienced hands. These experienced workers who will be slugging out in the same job in the same environment, importantly in the same mindset for years and changing them to accept the new effective assumptions and work culture will be difficult. In the Indian public service particularly in the civil administration, most workers will work until their retirement age with a lot of job safety, so when a new public manager enters and ask them to change, it will not elicit favorable response because there be will no need for them to change. In the case of police administration in India, most police officers will exhibit a superior attitude with little subordination to their superior officers or public service manager. This superior attitude is prevalent in the police departments of many states and with the politicians also backing them, these police officers will be a challenge for the public service manager to impose their assumptions. So, this process of great working culture and its implementation will always be a challenge to the public service manager in both the important public services in India. Awarding individuals purely on merit Another challenge that public managers will face is the difficulty in ‘awarding’ individuals under him/her purely on merit, not on any other considerations. In both the civil and police administration in India, the public manager may notice exceptional workers who is performing at topmost quality and may decide to give him/her promotions and incentives. But, this good intention of the public managers will be nullified by ministers and politicians superior to them by awarding individuals, who may not be deserving at all. That is, the ministers and politician due to various considerations like money, influence from family members, friends, and persons with negative influence on the leader etc may give important posts and promotions to undeserving individuals instead of the ones picked by the public manager. In India, Ministers and politicians especially the ruling party politicians will exercise undue influence over the public services. They will treat the public service managers in both these administrations as their competitors and enemies, fearing that they may garner the public support in their constituencies and may twist the people’s opinion against them. This fear had only leads to this kind of situation, where the ministers and politicians try to keep the public managers under theirs leash by not accepting all their decisions. In some cases, the challenge for public managers will come when the same politicians award plum government posts for his/hers family members and shielding them when they commit mistakes. So, this problem of awarding the apt individuals under them will be a challenge for the public managers due to the machinations of the politicians and ministers. Utilizing the services of the experts Normally in any work setup, including the public services, if the public service manager feels he/she and also his/hers coworkers and subordinates are lacking in any particular field mainly knowledge wise, he/she should bring in the experts and try to fill in the pieces. This is one of the important plan that public service manager could implement because; experts will bring their wealth of experience in to the new avenue and will try to utilize the experience to the benefit of the whole service. But, the challenge for the manager will come, when the coworkers oppose these plans due to the fear of losing their authority. Also, the coworkers may oppose these plans as a sign of superiority complex as if they knew everything. This challenge is clearly visible in the public services in India especially in the civil administration. That is, due to the under performance or even inefficiency of the workers in civil administration, the public manager may try to bring in the experts or skilled staff, but that will be blocked by the workers. There have been many instances of this kind of opposition happening in India with the workers thinking this introduction as a form of privatization. Privatization is a kind of ‘danger word’ for the government employees every where in the world including India, so it will surely be a challenge for public manager to fully implement the plan of bringing in outside workers. The workers due to these steps of public services manager may feel insecure and would oppose the move outright. So, the public manager will have no choice in this case and have to work with an inefficient staff ready to face any graver consequences because of their inability. Providing a perfect and comfortable working environment Another challenge, a public manager could face in the public services is providing a perfect and comfortable working environment for his workers. That is, a good working environment with all the basic amenities and comforts will stimulate the workers to give their best; the same is applicable in the public service as well. Also, the public service manager may want minimization of the use of status symbols such as private offices, special dining rooms for executives, and personal parking spaces. This is, one of the important needs because it will give even the lower staff, the feeling that all are treated equal, irrespective of the salary, experience etc. The challenge for the public service manager in providing a good working environment will come in the form of non-allocation of funds by the higher authorities. This happens often in India, where many public service buildings are in a worse state and the buildings and offices apart from providing an unfavorable working environment may endanger the lives of workers as well. Any initiatives by the public service managers to renovate the British period buildings will not aided by higher authorities. In the case of police administration, the policemen cannot expect favorable working environment all the time. That too, in India, where the conditions are tough, the public service manager in the police administration could only play a limited role. The minimization of status symbols could also be a challenge for the public service managers because the experienced staff in India will always view themselves in exalted status and demand those symbols. It will be really difficult for the public manager in both the administration to break this hold of experienced staffs. So, the public service manager’s wish to make the worker’s stay, at office, an enjoyable experience at the same time encouraging experience will be a insurmountable challenge. Discipline should be maintained The challenge of maintaining discipline will also be a difficult one because of the collage of workers working in both the public service administrations. That is, for both the service, the employees are selected through a system of common examination conducted all over India. Because of its extensive nature, employees who get into these services will be from different parts of the country. These candidates from all over India will have different culture, language, customs etc. So, when the public service manager handles these workers, it will be a difficult challenge to maintain discipline among them. That is, all the workers from different background will have different mindsets and there could be bias based on region, language etc. These two reasons will make the workers a bit difficult to control and discipline would be the casualty. The lack of discipline will be a bane to the service and the public service manager would try to do his/her best to maintain that discipline. Because, in some situations and in some sectors, discipline is essential to getting things, done. So the challenge to the public service manager is to play the role of a brilliant, demanding, but supportive and charismatic father figure. That is, the workers should be given the space and freedom to think and act in a way that could benefit the service but at the same time should be controlled and disciplined if that thought process and action is detrimental to the service. Consistency Another important challenge a public service manager may face is showing consistency in all aspects of management. That is, if the manager wavers from his/ hers set principles or rules and act according to the situations negatively, that too, in front of his/ hers subordinates, it will result in a disgrace for the manager in the mind of the workers. So, leaders should be consistent in all his decisions, activities, commitments, communication etc. Because, consistency can only be considered as a complete victory for the leader in every sense of the term. In addition, it will be big challenge for the public service manager in India in both the services to be consistent because of the rampant corruption that is found in the administration. That is, even if the manager holds on to his/hers set principles, the element of money can entice him/her leading to wavering on the manager’s part. In India, every work from small ones to big time contracts are opportunities for the public service managers to gain illegal money. With the industrialist and other parties willing to spend big money to get what they want, the public service manager may not be able maintain their consistency in the amount of good work. So, the challenge for the public service managers in civil as well as in police administration is to escape the negative web of corruption and maintain a lot of consistency without any diversion. Finally, public service and the public service manager should not stagnate and saturate in one situation repeating the past. This attitude should be cultivated as soon as possible because leader of the future, with the inclusion of public service managers must be a perpetual learner. Perpetual learner in the sense, learning new levels of perception and acquiring lot of insights about the public service. Then as an ongoing process should develop a work culture for others to follow. At the same time, getting involved in all the process of the organization. Then, motivating oneself to learn new things, attaining emotional strength to absorb any anxieties caused by crisis. So, Unison of humans with an urge to usher an organization into a leading ‘utopia’ will be a successful endeavor, if the leader of the organization show undaunted, unabated and unabashed conduct. And, if the leader in the form of public service manager overcomes all the challenges mentioned here and many others, the organization would have a ubiquitous presence all over the world. Reference: Flynn, Norman. (2002). Public Sector Management (4th edition). London, United Kingdom: FT Prentice Hall. Read More