Module 2

Public Administration Skills in the

21st Century

PRESENTER

A “New Public Sector Norm” emerging for our Survey

2

Relative to the nine core questions, fiscal constraints and rising stakeholder expectations are

the “new norm”, and public sector executives need to respond by:

1. Human resource priorities are on Building leadership capacity and Driving change

management

2. Driving human resource capacity is being impeded by short term focus and lack of HR

tools

3. Policy and program priorities focus on Innovative Service delivery (citizen self-service

and engagement of third parties)

4. There appears to be a growing divide between academic and practitioner

communities

5. Advanced analytics and mobile communications are two powerful forces impacting

government in the coming years

6. Focusing on stakeholder engagement around programs / services and building trust

in public institutions are key priorities

7. More effective inter-jurisdictional collaboration is required, with enhanced roles for

municipalities and central government

8. Performance management frameworks are generally in place, but not effective enough

for management

9. Government needs to find better ways to function effectively despite fiscal constraints

A thought about organizations

Open data resides mostly within organizations.

We can think of organizations as structures that have

been created to handle recurrent problems in acceptable

ways.

Organizations modify individual behaviour.

Organizations create pathways, cultures and roadblocks

both internally and externally to achieve this result.

3

Old and New Organizations

The structure and rules of an organization

are dependent on the reasons for its

creation, its history, its resources, and so

forth.

They can tell us a lot about the

relationships of power and aptitude for

change that these organizations have.

4

What Affects Innovation in

Organizations?

Structure

Goals

Incentives

History

Resource availability

Culture

Leadership

Environment

Research and

Development capacity

Human Resources

Economic cycles

5

Traditional Bureaucracy

Hierarchical/Central Command

Role-governed and Upward accountability

Static

Standardized Citizen’s Right to Public Services

Tayloristic Operations

Process-Driven Organization

Fordist Production System

NPM Bureaucracy

Flattened and decentralized

Results-Centered

Change-Driven

Client-Focused

Empowering Employees

Learning Organization

Flexible Workplace

Less Innovative More Innovative

The Theory

The practice

Government are often still

designed structurally on

the Weberian model.

Organizations are based

on hierarchy.

Hierarchy is based on

authority.

Roles are bound by the

office (job description).

7

Challenges

Overcoming top-down

messaging

Overcoming challenges

to horizontal cooperation

Overcoming challenges

to knowledge sharing

Overcoming hierarchical

patterns

Overcoming path

dependency

8

HERE MODERN PA MODEL

Often open information and technology are

complements to institutional change not

substitutes.

Open data and technology are interesting

because they are (relatively) very cheap

and straightforward.

Open data and technology are not a

substitute for change management

planning. 10

Implementing Change

Rejection

Lack of Response

Compliance with rules

Focus on strategic data

Full commitment

11

Four outcomes are key to create lasting

change:

Examples (I see it): Provide an image of

success

Assessment (I need it): how will change

improve the problem

Practice (I do it): begin change

Support (I live it): build a community

supportive of the change 12

Policy Roles for Public Managers

Decentralization and devolution: increased responsibility of Public Managers

Emergence of network/collaborative government practices built on participatory and consultative processes: governance is often bottom-up

Increased customer-orientation in public sector governance: strengthen the agencies delivering the services (hence the Public Managers overseeing delivery)

Policy Functions

Not all

managers take

up all policy

functions

Policy functions

do not occur in

a sequence, but

are discrete and

interrelated.

14

Policy Formulation

Decision Making

Policy Implementation

Policy Evaluation

Agenda Setting

Policy Perspectives

These perspectives must

be taken into account

simultaneously by Public

Managers.

These perspectives guide

the managers’ activity.

The relative significance of

the dimensions differs

across levels of

government and policy

sectors.

15

Policy Competencies

Competencies

accumulated

over time by

the managers

round out the

framework

Potential Roles of Public Managers

Agenda Setting “Gatekeeper”

Sustaining attention to a given policy issue

Identifying emerging issues from programs they

manage

Attention to less visible issues

Policy

Formulation

Preemptive and proactive as supposed to reactive

Further development of issues passing through

policy agenda

Decision Making Decision-makers themselves

Conducting policy analysis

Making policy recommendation

Policy

Implementation

Responsible for Implementation strategies and

measures

Securing resources for successful implementation

Policy Evaluation Evaluators themselves

Collection of information/data for evaluation

Assisting external evaluators

Tempered Radicals

Tempered radicals are people who work

and seek advancement within mainstream

organizations and professions, but also

want to change them.

Tempered because:

Dislike the incongruities between their values

and those of the organizations;

Are forced to tone down their action.

Institutional Entrepreneurs

To qualify as institutional entrepreneurs,

individuals must break with existing rules

and practices associated with the

dominant institutional logic(s) and

institutionalize the alternative rules,

practices or logics they are championing

(Battilana 2006; Garud and Karnøe 2001).

Tempered radicals and institutional

entrepreneurs are not reproducing the

rules and behaviors of existing structures.

They are in fact rewriting rules while

generating new resources to develop the

innovation ecology to further assist them in

this change process.

Internal Forces Driving Change

The devolution of responsibilities, client-centered approaches, and strong focus on satisfaction- and result-based assessments typical of the most recent phase of New Public Management increasingly make public managers answerable for crafting rather than just implementing policy choices

ANSWERING THE CALL

The most efficient way to answer the seemingly conflicting demands of better client-centred approaches and shrinking budgets is to foster innovative problem-solving within the public administration by triggering untapped capabilities through innovation ecologies and the spread of institutional entrepreneurship.

Role of institutional entrepreneurs in innovation

Basins of Attraction (Olsson et al. 2004, Folke et al. 2009)

Showcase and reward intraprene

urial thinking

Encourage

organizational-

wide involvement

by insisting on

truth and honesty

about what’s

working, what’s

not, why?

Focus on network

BUILDING

Empower, Enable

Encourage

Catalyze creativity &

demand new ways to do business

TH

E R

IGH

T T

IMIN

G

WIN

DO

WS

OF

OP

PO

RT

UN

ITY

CREATING AN INTRAPRENEURIAL CULTURE?