Question 1:- Critically examine the nature and scope of public systems management.

You are requested to use suitable examples to justify your answer [20 Marks] [1000
Words]

NATURE OF PUBLIC SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

Over the years, different forms of political and administrative systems and methods of
governance have been focusing on the ways to reconcile the interests of the citizens
with that of the role of the State. The emergence of the concept of public systems
management in public administration has added a new dimension to the whole issue
of governance. Public systems management has been considered by many as
administration and management of both direct and indirect institutions engaged in
the public policy making exercise and in delivery of public services. It is a style of
management, which emphasises output targets, limited term contracts, monetary
incentives and freedom to manage. The focus of the PSM is on results, efficiency and
measurement. It brings the following changes in the functioning of public
organisations viz.
i)

There is a greater flexibility in tailoring the organisation to circumstance,

instead of necessarily following a rigid Weberian model

ii)

The focus is on results

iii)

Greater attention is paid to strategic planning

iv)

Private sector personnel practices have been adopted such as paying more for
good performance or less for poor performance.

PSM propagates managerial pursuits in governance, with a focus upon the following:

Steering role of the government instead of direct provision

Concern on results and outcomes

Orientation to the needs of customers, and

Use of market mechanisms in those activities of public sector which cannot be

privatised.

In public systems management, the unique aspect is the public domain or the
publicness. Ranson and Stewart (1994), insist on the uniqueness of public domain,
which, they do not doubt, cannot be reduced to the principles of private
administration. As they observe in the public domain any notion of management
which cannot encompass the recognition of politics and conflict as constitutive of a
public organisation rather than as an obstacle to it is barren.
PSM offers a more pragmatic approach to achieve the goals of public organisation.
Public system managers are to become entrepreneurs and develop innovative ways of
supplying government provision through the bureaucracy and providing services
through other means involving the private sector. This could be more creative and
dynamic. Modern governments are giving importance to managerialism to provide
efficient services to people at the lowest administrative costs. Managerialism does
not mean usurping of government by technocrats, a reduction in accountability or a
diminution of democracy. Instead, managerialism allows the government to provide
public services in a more efficient and cost-effective way. It also provides more
information to the managers to take better policy decisions. PSM attempts to be
people-sensitive, efficient and cost effective in delivering public services. It has both
ethical consistency and organisational flexibility to remain faithful to the achievement
of the goals of public service.

SCOPE OF PUBLIC SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT.

Contemporary governments are attempting to be performance-oriented. Therefore,
management of government needs to be deregulated. The nature of public agencies must
be entrepreneurial, mission-driven, and service-oriented. Public systems managers
are to be risk-takers who invite participation of other kindred organisations for partnering
and reward performance. In this scenario, the scope of public systems management is
confined to following areas of governance:

Focusing on achieving results rather than primarily conforming with processes

Introducing market principles such as competition, contracting out in the

provision of goods and services

Making public administration customer-driven to enhance service ethic and

efficiency

Assigning the role of steering activities to the government rather than rowing,
relying on third parties such as non-profit organisations, other levels of
government in implementation of policies

Deregulating the government activities to make it result-oriented

Empowering the employees to serve the customers as it promotes teamwork

Changing the overall public administrative culture towards flexibility,

innovation, entrepreneurialism, as opposed to rule-bound, process orientation and
focusing on inputs rather than results; and

A new entrepreneurial, user-oriented culture is being created in public systems,

with emphasis on performance measurement, autonomy to organisation and
freedom to individuals.

Kettle (2002), points out certain basic concerns that the New Public Management
initiatives address. These include:
Productivity
How can governments produce more services with less tax money?
Marketisation
How can governments use market - style incentives to root out the pathologies of
government bureaucracy?
Service orientation
How can governments better connect with citizens to make programmes more
responsive to the needs of the citizen?
Decentralisation
How can governments make programmes more responsive and effective by shifting
programmes to lower levels of government or shifting responsibility within public
agencies to give front line managers greater incentive and ability to respond to the needs
of citizens?
Policy
How can governments improve capacity to devise and track policy?

Accountability for results

How can governments improve their ability to deliver what they promise?
PSM is intended to realise the above concerns in practice. Its scope is to project
customer choice as the public choice through enhancing the effectiveness of public
services based on many of the private sector principles and practices. The focus is
more towards achieving managerial decentralisation of governance, performance and
results orientation, and citizens/consumers satisfaction.

Question 3:- Explain the concept of governance and briefly examine its various
forms. [1000 Words] [20 Marks]
Governance is defined as the use of power and authority by those in government to
provide goods and services to the people to uphold the common good and fulfill the
aspirations and needs of the common man. Governance, therefore, is concerned with
power, strategies, policies, plans and projects that aim at improving the substance or
quality of life. It relates to "the processes of interaction and decision-making among the
actors involved in a collective problem that lead to the creation, reinforcement, or
reproduction of social norms and institutions.
Governance is the concept of recent exposure to designate the efficiency, quality and
good guidance of the intervention of the State. It defines a new form of government in
the globalization. Some of the important types of governance are as below.

Democratic Governance
Democratic governance covers the social coordination mechanisms involved in political
action and therefore relies on two assumptions.
On the one hand, governance is not a set of rules or an activity but a process. It refers to
the decision making process within all groups in the social, political, economic or
private.
Governance aims, secondly, to facilitate participation in the definition of public policies,
their implementation by multiple players who have neither the same interests nor the
same modes of regulation: States, devolved administrations, enterprises, associations of
people.
Democratic governance is conceived as the art of government by articulating the
business at different spatial scales, from local to global, regulating relationships within
society and coordinating the involvement of multiple actors. It is not only helping to
reform states but also to help their companies to rethink their management practices and
to define themselves a model for regulating pro-active, best suited to their own
challenges.
This approach to democratic governance is a proposal to rebuild the state and its
relations with society.
Economic And Financial Governance
The economic and financial governance is an essential prerequisite for promoting
economic growth and reduce poverty.
The main objectives of economic and financial governance are:
Promote macroeconomic policies that contribute to sustainable development;
Implement economic policies are transparent, predictable and credible;
Promote sound financial management;
Fight against corruption and money laundering;
Accelerate regional integration by promoting the harmonization of monetary, trade and
investment between states.

E-Governance Services
The e-governance and e-governance services is a holistic concept that defines and
assesses the impact that information technology and communication have on
government practices and relations between government and society as a whole. The egovernance not only supports improved access to information and political processes but
also an approach called participatory fundamentally change the relationship between
government and society.
The concept of e-governance can be understood in a broad sense as a kind of
superstructure, which covers the use of electronic technologies in three key areas of
public action:
Relations between government and civil society;
The functioning of public authorities at all levels of planning;
The provision of public services.
E-governance has an indirect influence on relations between governments and their
citizens, strengthening the participation and involvement of citizens in political choices
so that their rights and duties are better understood and respected.
Corporate Governance
Corporate governance relates to moral principles, values and practices that facilitate the
balance between economic and social goals and between individual and common goals.
It aims to coordinate the interests of individuals, businesses and society as a governance
structure emphasizing the common interest as much as possible.
Corporate governance aims to:
Provide a regulatory framework and an environment conducive to effective economic
activities;
Ensure that businesses are citizens in human rights, social responsibility and
environmental protection;
Promote adoption of codes of ethics in business in achieving the objectives of
enterprises;
Ensure that corporations treat all their stakeholders (shareholders, employees, suppliers,
customers, ) in a fair and transparent;
Provide for the responsibility of management and directors.
Environmental Governance and Natural Resources
Environmental governance refers to all processes, rules, practices and institutions that
contribute to the protection, management, conservation and exploitation of biodiversity,
ecosystem and mineral resources in their various modalities in perspective reconciling
sustainable development and poverty reduction. It also refers to the mechanisms and
institutions, both formal and informal, encompassing the norms and values, behaviors
and conditions around which organizing citizens, organizations, social movements and
the various interest groups defending their differences and exercise their rights to access
and exploit natural resources.
The environmental initiative identifies five objectives (or domains) in
environmental governance and natural resources:
The fight against land degradation, drought and desertification;
Conservation of wetlands;
Prevention and control of invasive species;
The conservation and sustainable use of coastal and marine resources;
The fight against climate change;
Conservation and management of natural resources (freshwater, biodiversity, forests and
plant resources).
With these objectives, it is important to add management and ethical use of mineral
resources and mining.

GOVERNANCE AS A NORMATIVE CONCEPT

Good Governance
When discussing governance in particular organisations, the quality of governance within
the organisation is often compared to a standard of good governance. In the case of
a business or of a non-profit organization, for example, good governance relates to
consistent management, cohesive policies, guidance, processes and decision-rights for a
given area of responsibility, and proper oversight and accountability.
"Good governance" implies that mechanisms function in a way that allows the executives
(the "agents") to respect the rights and interests of the stakeholders (the "principals"), in a
spirit of democracy. Governance becomes good when the decisions and actions of the
government are based on peoples consent, legitimacy and accountability. Thus good
governance is concerned with high quality in governance. All sections of the society today
judge their government by their governance. Earlier, coercive state was considered to be
most effective instrument of good governance. In ancient and medieval India a king, though
authoritarian, was supposed to be conscientious and responsive to the needs of the subjects.
In modern times, good governance implies enlightened citizenship as well as accountable
and constitutional government. Good governance is also a key developmental concept today.
The debate only relates to the question of how to bring about development. It is a concept
that is inclusive and positive in nature. It is inclusive in so far as it aims at involvement of
people in the process of development. Thus development is not merely people-oriented but
people- centered. It is positive to the extent of building up new levels of skills, knowledge
and support for development.