The most basic distinction between public and private organizations is that the political community own public agencies whereas ownership of private organizations belongs to entrepreneurs or shareholders. However, there are many other differences between public and private organizations. The funding for public agencies derives mostly from taxation, which contrasts with private agencies receiving funds predominately from consumers in the form of fees. In the public sector, organizations are largely controlled by political forces, which also results in the imposition of constraints by the political system. Subjection to constraint results in frequent changes in policies within public organizations. The owners and shareholders of private organizations have a direct incentive to monitor the behavior of managers to promote better performance and financial gain. The managers would also benefit if they own company shares. In contrast, managers in the public sector typically do not financially benefit from a higher degree of organizational efficiency. Public organizations are more easily influenced by external events because they function as an open system and must be responsive to the needs of the public. Moreover, public agencies are subjected to few competitive pressures. Public agencies generally have few rivals and hold a dominant position within the market.
Distinctive goals, like equity and accountability, convey public agencies want to control behaviors and achieve a collective purpose for the organization. The use of such goals is said to be absent in private organizations. In order to successfully profit, private organizations pursue a single goal whereas public agencies are confronted with numerous goals. In the...
... middle of paper ...
... private management: What's the difference? Journal of Management Studies, 39(1), 97-123.
Cohen, S., Eimicke, W., & Heikkila, T. (2008). The effective public manager: Achieving success in a changing government (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (Wiley).
DMV's AutoRenew. (2011). Retrieved March 15, 2012, from State of Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles: http://www.ct.gov/dmv/cwp/view.asp?a=3065&q=385170&dmvPNavCtr=|#46938
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008).Organizational Management and Leadership. Baltimore: Author. "Foundations of Management," with Matthew Joseph and David Osborne
Ocampo, R. B. (2000). Models of public administration reform: "New Public Management (NPM)." Asian Review of Public Administration, 12(1), 248-255. Retrieved March 15, 2012 from: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/EROPA/UNPAN001431.pdf
The main aim of public service is to deliver services that are of need to its people. How fast a public manager can address its people’s problem and concerns indicates its effectiveness. Responsiveness of the manager develops trust between him, the government, and the people. According to (Rainey, p106) bureaucratic responsiveness implies two things; responsiveness to the people’s wishes or responsiveness to the interest of the government.
Wilson described public administration as “the most obvious part of the government; it is government in action; it is the executive, the operative, the most visible side of government, and is of course as old as government itself.” Furthermore, public administration is efficient and detailed implementation of public law. Every particular application of general law is a demonstration of administration.
Segal. (2002, February). Providing public sector services in a time of change: The total rewards perspective. [Electronic version]. Public Sector Letter. 2-4.
Privatization of governmental functions has a direct relationship with the number of contract employees in government and an inverse relationship with the number of civil servants. As privatization has become more acceptable, contract employees are being hired to do the jobs, thus, replacing civil servants.
Public administration is something that the general public does not think about. In fact, many do not even probably know what it is. But what the public does not know is administration effects there every day lives. Karl Marx described administration when he said “Administration is determined action taken in pursuit of a conscious purpose. It is the systematic ordering of affairs and the calculated use of resources aimed at making those happen which one wants to happen.”("What is Public Administration? - Meaning and its Definition") But how does public administration apply to our country and what did our leaders say about it?
Large organizations are complex with the conglomeration of varying goals, values, and beliefs. Although appreciated, the diverse views do present challenges and conflicts while attaining organizational goals. The challenge presents itself when organizational goal, the rationale for resource allocation (Shafritz, 2013, p. 54), shifts depending on influence by either authoritative personnel or a change in the cultural structure, i.e. values. Changes of authoritative power or cultural values can diminish, make obsolete, or create new goals. Furthermore, if the changes are not communicated, it adversely affects the vision and mission of the organization. Consequently, if the transparency of guidance, goals, or vision is deficient it presents an environment of cultural fog because the ambiguity or inadequate resource allocation devalues the expected performance outcomes of organizational goals.
The study of public administration only continued to grow over the course of the next two decades. As the study of public administration expanded, so did the development of s...
Kaboolian, L (1998) ‘the New Public Management: Challenging the Boundaries of the Management vs. Administration Debate.’ Public Administration Review 58(3): 189–93.
Public sector reforms adopted in a number of countries such as USA, UK and New Zealand in the last fifteen years and characterised by efficiency units, performance management, contracting out, market type mechanisms, and agency status have come to be known as the New Public Management or NPM. Appearance of the NPM as shifting the paradigm from the old traditional model of administration has been promoted by a remarkable degree of consensus among the political leadership of various countries and is presented today as the major tool for public sector management reforms.
Pfiffner, J. P. (2004). Traditional Public Administration versus The New Public Management:Accountability versus Efficiency. Unied States: George Mason University.
This essay discusses the radical transformation of the principles and foundations of public administration from traditional to New Public Management. Firstly the essay will attempt to define the key terms of traditional public administration and the doctrine of New Public Management. Rabin J. (2003) explains that New Public Management embodies “a process in public administration that uses information and experiences obtained in business management and other disciplines to improve efficiency, usefulness and general operation of public services in contemporary bureaucracies.“Traditional Public Administration progresses from governmental contributions, with services perceived by the bureaucracy.
Public Administration involves the development, implementation and management of policies for the attainment of set goals and objectives that will be to the benefit of the general public. Since Public Administration involves taking decisions that affect the use of public resources there is often the question of how to utilize public resources for maximum public good. The National Association of Public Administration has identified four pillars of public administration: economy, efficiency, effectiveness and social equity. These pillars are equally important in the practice of public administration and to its success. This paper seeks to explain the role of each of the pillars in the practice of public administration.
Ohemeng, Frank, L.K. and Leone, Robert P. “Should Public Sector be RUN like a Business.” Approaching Public Administration. Edmond Montgomery Publications Limited, (2011), P. 1-362.
Public personnel administration consists of three general systems. The first one I’ll talk about is civil service. The civil service helps to protect employee rights and safeguard efficiency. Historically, personnel administration shifted from emphasizing the value of responsiveness to emphasizing political neutral competence among public employees. Before they would use the spoils system and the patronage system, which selected employees and awarded government contracts based on loyalty or party affiliation. In this present day, we are using more of the civil service system, which is a method of choosing employees based on certain formal qualifications such as competitive exams instead of political patronage. It all start...