Lack of Good Communication and Lack of Managerial Skills - Essay Example

Public Management Public Management Public management can be described as ensuring that governmental as well as nonprofit administrations resemble the private sector in various management related ways with respect to efficiency. This is achieved by application of certain tools in not only improving efficiency but also improving effectiveness when it comes to public related utilities and practices. The main function of public management is to ensure that the public policies are developed and that they are implemented in the most effective ways so as to deliver the anticipated services to the public (University of York, 2013). While the main aim of policymaking is to ensure that individuals shape the activities that people seek to achieve, public management, which requires managerial skills, ensures that the policies are put into work and results realized. Future policy making usually depends heavily on the experience that is gained when practicing certain policies as mistakes are realized and resolved in the future. However, in the contemporary world, public management has been suffering because of certain challenges that make it difficult for the public management to undertake their activities with increased efficiency. This has led to certain ideas such as devolution, downsizing, dispersion, and empowerment. These processes are projected towards the attempt of improving the quality of public management (University of York, 2013). Many agencies and individuals working in the public sector have been facing constant pressure to not only find ways and ideas that can help in downsizing, dispersing, and empowering of the employees. This is because most of the public organizations are failing mostly due to the size of the organizations which then call for downsizing so as to have a smaller organization that can be managed more easily (Ott & Dicke, 2001). In addition, empowering of employees allows them to communicate with their employers more easily and enables them to practice ideas that they can develop on their own, which is one of the reasons that lead to innovations. These innovations then lead to provision of better ways to solve common problems that are facing the public sector. Dispersing is the idea behind separating some of the integrated public organizations to allow practicing of different ideas in managing them. Dispersing also eliminates the complexity of organizations since it reduces the size of the organization to be managed. The pressures facing the public sector to improve their managerial practices can provide a myriad of performance advantages, although it may be said that collectively, they threaten the historical notions of achieving economy. Although technological advancement and the development of performance measurement practices were expected to improve the management of public sector, they have not yet been able to ensure responsible administration and management of public sector due to poor application and lack of relevant skills (Menzel, 1998). Since the public sector is one of the most central parts of any country’s economy, if the problems facing this sector are not resolved, public debt will continue to increase leading to increase in cost of living. Some of the specific problems facing public management include poor communication between the government and the citizens as well as between the governmental organizations. This has mostly resulted from the lack of reliable communication channels between the involved organizations although there is technology that can make communication easier. The ambiguity that is present in the public sector has been the reason why communication is in constant jeopardy. In addition, the managerial individuals in the public sector lack the required capabilities to ensure that they practice the most appropriate ideologies that mostly encourage communication. Moreover, the public sector has also suffered due to the lack of systematic approach that could be used in setting and achieving outcome priorities and outcome goals (Current Problems in Public Management, 2002). There should be a predetermined protocol that the public officials can use in setting priorities to what matters most to the public sector and the overall goals that are expected. Lack of a systematic approach implies that the sector is working towards a blind direction because most of the goals have not been properly set and the relevant individuals might not know what is expected of them. This then implies that the organizations do not have a reliable direction that should be followed. If the direction has been determined, the managerial individuals do not have adequate skills that are important in managing public organizations and resources. This could then lead to wastage of resources and time providing a direct reason why the public organizations are troubled. Furthermore, the idea that the public sector is fragmented makes it very complex and difficult to manage. Additionally, the complexity that is present in these organizations is also to blame for the lack of effectiveness in achievement of cross cutting objectives (Current Problems in Public Management, 2002). Fragmentation makes it increasingly challenging to coordinate activities so as to achieve a common goal. This also leads to communication issues, even with the present technological advancements, making it increasingly difficult to achieve the pre-determined goals. On the other hand, the public system is considerably weak in the development of management capacity. This can be explained from the perspective of people, common system, and culture. These are important assets in the efficiency and development of the public organizations in the interest of the overall public sector. Development with regard to training the officials occurs rarely or with significantly reduced frequency in the public sector as compared to the private sector. While the private sector trains its employees for improved efficiency, the public sector relies on out of date managerial skills presenting the reason why the private sector is doing better than the public sector both with regard to efficiency and with regard to profitability. The public sector has, if any, poorly developed organizational cultures that are not even adequately understood and communicated to the individuals involved. These cultures are usually intended to form a reputation for an organization since they determine how the employees of the subject organization behave. If it is not adequately understood by all parties, it becomes very difficult to follow it and thus the confusion in the public sector. In addition, the opportunities in the contemporary world also present unique challenges for the public sector. Digital technology has reshaped relationships between governments and their populations. Since the modern population has advanced, it expects the government to adapt to similar measures that include application technologically advanced practices in the provision of public services. However, this is not easily achieved for the public sector because of misappropriation of resources, fragmentation, and increased public debt. In addition, most public organizations are not willing to change in that they do not embrace flexibility, which is central to development. However, the problems associated with the public sector can be addressed from a three dimensional perspective that involves the structure’s role, the role of public managers, and the role-played by organizational culture. The structure of public organizations should be changed to eliminate fragmentation. This would be effective in improving efficiency, as organizations would become smaller and easily manageable. Additionally, downsizing can be very important in this quest because it would ensure that manageable organizations are established. Moreover, dispersion can also be effective since it is also geared towards the establishment of better organizations with regard to being manageable. If organizations are downsized and fragmentation reduced, the public sector would be more efficient and it would be easier to develop the organization through application of technology (Ott & Dicke, 2001). In addition, the public sector structure would also be changed to encourage communication between various organizations, which would be beneficial in the passage of important organization related information. On the other hand, the managers working in the public sector would also play a critical role in the improvement of this sector. This would be achieved if the managers have the required skills, which could be achieved through training. Although most organizations are straining to continue functioning, investing in developing the leaders could go a long way in prevention of wastage of resources as well as wastage of time. Development of managerial skills can be accomplished through on-the-job training which would ensure that the skills are not only learnt but also tested at the same time. If the managers were trained, they would acquire relevant skills to ensure that their efforts are geared toward management of outcomes, which is the main reason behind improvement of results (Current Problems in Public Management, 2002). These individuals would also acquire relevant skills that they would apply in the management of the organization such as through establishment of practices that encourage communication. This would imply both upward and downward organizational communication. Such organizations should also welcome the public’s opinion in their implementation practices so as to ensure that they provide the most appropriate practices. This would also ensure that the managers have the skills to develop systematic approaches that would be very effective in setting as well as achievement of goals. This would make use of extensive communication that would also be favored by development. In addition, if the managers have adequate skills, they can ensure that the employees are well aware of what is expected of them, which would eliminate ambiguousness and complexity in the public sector. The organization’s culture should also be checked as a main area of improvement. This would be effective in insuring that the organizations acquire a direction that is projected towards values, ethics and standards. This would be achieved if the organizations themselves were willing to change and embrace flexibility. Although this could take some time to realize results since culture are not easy to alter, they would ensure long-term efficiency as the cultures would be willing to achieve the highest standards. The culture would also play a crucial role in empowering the employees. This would be central in ensuring development because the employees would have the most appropriate power that would allow them to exercise their ideas. This would in turn lead to increased efficiency because the employees would develop ideas that would resolve common problems easily, which would lead to innovation and creativity. Moreover, establishment of organizational cultures that have the characteristic of being both citizen and community centered would build networks that encourage coordination. Integration of technological advancements in the organizational culture would also go a long way in improving efficiency and enabling the culture to function more effectively. There are several implications that could result from the application of ideas to resolve challenges facing public organizations. First, the public organizations would be inclined to invest more resources into the process and apply effectiveness-measuring practices to assess the probable outcomes. This implies that more finances would be required in this quest. Second, the public sector would experience transformation in that changes in the way that business is done by the public sector would be experienced in every sector. Additionally, there would be increased integration of the public organizations and the overall public and passage of information between both parties would improve. When information passage improves, efficiency would come automatically. One of the theoretical implications would include the exhibition of better managerial practices in the public sector. In addition, leadership programs would become more effective when all measures are put into action. There would also be greater engagement by the managers in the setting of organizational goals as well as priorities. The sector would also experience more focus on results. A stringer culture and a better sense of leadership would be accomplished while the public sector becomes more community centered and allows the integration of better processes in management. In conclusion, the public sector has been suffering due to lack of good communication and lack of managerial skills among other reasons. While this sector has many problems mostly resulting from fragmentation, structural, and organization culture problems, there are possible ways of resolving these problems. These include improving the managers, establishing better cultures in the organization, and changing the structure of most of the public organizations. When these areas are improved, organizations would experience improved efficiency since ways that are more effective would have been devised in resolving common problems. Specifically, improving communication, organizational culture, and empowering employees would go a long way in eliminating most of the problems facing the management of public sector. References Bovaird, T. & Loffler, E. (2009). Public Management and Governance. London: Taylor & Francis. Current Problems in Public Management. (2002). Retrieved from http://www.ssc.govt.nz/current-problems-public-management Menzel, D. C. (1998). Issues and Challenges facing Public Managers. Public Administration Review. 58(5), 445-480. Ott, J. S. & Dicke, L. A. (2001). Challenges Facing Public Sector Management in an Era of Downsizing, Devolution, Dispersion and Empowerment—and Accountability?. Public Organization Review. 1(3), 321-339. University of York. (2013). What is Public Management? Retrieved from http://www.york.ac.uk/spsw/about/what-is-public-management/ Read More