Lectures and chapters 1.2 Organisation & Management 2023-2024
Table of Contents
Lecture 1 - Defining organizations and course outline.........................................................2
Chapter 1 Understanding public management and governance...................................................3
Chapter 2 The changing context of public policy...........................................................................5
Lecture 2 - Organizations....................................................................................................8
Lecture 3 - Organizations and organizational theory.........................................................14
Chapter 6 Behavioural approaches to public management and governance...............................17
Lecture 4 - Why is there a public sector?...........................................................................20
Chapter 16 Partnership working across public and private sectors.............................................25
Chapter 17 Manegement at arm’s length: Executive agencies and public bodies.......................28
Chapter 27 Ethical considerations in the public sector. What is acceptable behaviour?.............32
Lecture 5 - Public management reform and administrative traditions...............................36
Chapter 4 Public sector reforms across OECD countries..............................................................39
Chapter 5 Public management and governance trends in non-OECD countries..........................41
Lecture 6 - Internal management 1...................................................................................42
Chapter 11 Public services and management in the digital age...................................................48
Chapter 12 Performance measurement and management in public sector organizations..........51
Chapter 13 Process and quality management in public service organisations.............................54
Chapter 20 E-governance: Concept, practice and ethics..............................................................57
Lecture 7 - Guest lecture...................................................................................................59
Lecture 8 - Internal management 2...................................................................................62
Chapter 10 Human resource management in public service organizations.................................66
Chapter 21 Understanding public leadership.............................................................................70
Lecture 9 - External management.....................................................................................72
Lecture 10 External management 2...................................................................................78
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,Lecture 1 - Defining organizations and course outline
Organization: Organisation: a group of people with some sort of ’social structure’ (informal
expectations, authority structure), shared goals and technology (i.e., means and/or
machinery to transform inputs into outputs).
Achieving a goal
Types of organizations: Highly formalized, social organization
Private sector organizations: private ownership, make money, not under control of
government
Public organizations:
International organizations: no private ownership, doesn’t make money
Civil society organizations: try to receive a better society
Institutions: are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain
individual behaviour
Management: getting things done through command and (also) persuasion
Internal management: things within the organization, how do we make people
within the organization to do certain things. running the organization: strategy,
performance, personnel, finances, ICT, etc.
External management: the organization in relation to its context, enganging with
people or stakeholders
Public management: Public management addresses questions that arise in organizing and
carrying out managerial responsibilities in government and public organizations.
What makes public management / organizations special?
Is there a difference between public and private sector organizations?
How to create public value?
Creating public value: make society better
Studying organizations:
• Functional perspective: how organisations are used to achieve goals and objectives
(instrumental)
• Institutional perspective: organisations are viewed as a purposeful structures within
(an in interaction with) a social context
• Process perspective: organizations are viewed as entities being
(re-)organized, and the focus is on the organization as a set of
tasks or actions. (how organizations change)
• Behavioural perspective: how organisations affect and influence
behaviour of individuals
SWOT-analysis: Examine the current position of an organization and
assess how to identify the strategic alternatives that are most likely to
generate (public) value in the future.
• Internal side of the organization: strengths & weaknesses
• External side of the organization: opportunities & threats
• Potential strengths & weaknesses
(Underdeveloped) core (Inadequate) pay structure
competences
(Lack of) comparative (Sub)optimal control-system
advantages
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, (Limited) cost-efficiency (In)efficient information systems
(incompetent) management (Outdated) ICT infrastructure
(Lack of) financial reserves (Poor) quality products
(Limited) innovation (Unresponsive) service delivery
(Poor) reputation (In)efficient internal
communications
(In)adequate decision-making (Shortage of) sufficient staff
processes
Potential opportunities and threats
Absence of) strategic maneuverability
Volatile/stable political environment
Volatile/stable economic environment
Demographic and social change
Technological evolution
The SWOT-Quadrant
Chapter 1 Understanding public management and governance
The public domain is the arena in which public choice is exercised in order to achieve a
collective purpose. Another common usage of “public” is to distinguish between the “public
sector” and the “private sector”, which essentially revolves around differences of ownership
(collective ownership, in the name of all citizens, versus individual ownership) and motive
(social purpose versus profit). We take public governance to mean “how an organisation
works with its partners, stakeholders and networks to influence the outcomes of public
policies.
Characteristics of public services:
focus on democratic accountability, fairness and public interest
restricted by regulation/legal frameworks
need to respond to socio-political demands, political pressure and public discourse
exposure to (expert and non-expert!) public/political/media scrutiny
need for rationing, not maximising ‘sales’
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, monopolistic, not responding to customers
‘non-excludable’ (i.e. automatically available to everyone)
successes and failures have ‘externalities’ (knock-on benefits or costs)
performance not defined by simple bottom line or shareholder value
multiple, complex, long-term outcomes, affected by external factors
An alternative approach to defining the scope of “public services” comes from politics. It
suggests that “public services” are those which are so important for the re-election of
politicians or, more realistically, of political parties, that they are given a public subsidy.
A third approach, which similarly sounds like common sense, focuses on all those goods
where providers are placed under a “public service obligation” when they are given the right
to supply the service. This approach defines as a public service all those services in which
Parliament has decreed a need for regulation.
Whereas in public management a lot of attention is usually paid to the measurement of results
(both individual and organisational) in terms of outputs, public governance pays a lot of
attention to how different organisations interact in order to achieve a higher level of desired
results – the quality-of-life outcomes for citizens and stakeholders. Moreover, in public
governance, the ways in which decisions are reached – the processes by which different
stakeholders interact – are also seen to have major importance in themselves, whatever the
outputs or outcomes achieved. In other words, the current public governance debate places a
new emphasis on the old truths that “what matters is not what we do, but how people feel
about what we do” and that “processes matter” or, put differently, “the ends do not justify the
means”.
Whereas in public management a lot of attention is usually paid to the measurement of results
(both individual and organisational) in terms of outputs, public governance pays a lot of
attention to how different organisations interact in order to achieve a higher level of desired
results – the quality-of-life outcomes for citizens and stakeholders. Moreover, in public
governance, the ways in which decisions are reached – the processes by which different
stakeholders interact – are also seen to have major importance in themselves, whatever the
outputs or outcomes achieved. In other words, the current public governance debate places a
new emphasis on the old truths that “what matters is not what we do, but how people feel
about what we do” and that “processes matter” or, put differently, “the ends do not justify the
means”.
Corporate governance refers to issues of control and decision-making powers within
organisations (not just private companies).
Another longstanding governance debate surrounds the issue of global governance from the
field of international relations, focusing on how to cope with problems that transcend the
borders of nation states (such as climate change migration, sex tourism and trafficking or the
exploitation of child workers), given the lack of a world government.
Good governance” raises issues such as:
stakeholder engagement
the equalities agenda (gender, ethnic groups, age, religion, etc.)
due process and fair treatment
ethical and honest behaviour
transparency
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