The importance of public policy

1. CHAPTER 3
PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANISATION

2. Aims
Understand and explain the concept of public sector
organisation. Understand the nature of public sector
organisation.
Learn about the organisation concepts in the public service.
Discuss the various types of public sector organisations.
Understand organisational structure.
Comment on the importance of the regional concept of the
public sector.
Discuss the importance of the flexitime organisation in the
public sector.

3. Introduction
The public service operates according to a well-defined
organizational and fairly rigid hierarchy. As explained earlier,
it has a tall, formalized structure owing to many employees
and departments.
Permanent Secretaries and top executives in the public sector
have to see how effective they should organise their activities
so that they take place without major problem.

4. Organizational Concepts
Bannock Consulting (1999) provides a useful summary of the
functions that public sector bodies undertake
Policy functions: such as strategic planning, legal drafting,
development of performance contracts, minimum standards, norms,
policy analysis and evaluation, forecasting.
Co-ordination, supervision and performance monitoring
functions: such as coordinating relationships between different
bodies, monitoring the performance of subsidiary bodies, facilitating
and enabling subsidiary bodies to reach their performance targets.

5. Service delivery functions: such as the provision of products or
services to internal (other public bodies) or external (farmers,
foresters, fishermen) customers.
Support functions: such as financial management, human
resources management, information systems, infrastructure, staff
training, efficiency review and management audit; and secretarial
services.
Regulatory functions: such as licensing, certification, permissions,
accreditation, inspection, compliance, and financial audit.

6. Formal and informal organization
• A formal organisation means the intentional structure of roles in
a formally organised enterprise.
Formal organisations must be flexible. There should be room for
discretion for taking advantage of creative talents, and for the
recognition of individual capacities.
• informal organisation as any joint personal activity without
conscious joint purpose, even though contributing to joint results.
Informal organisation improves communication, enhances
cohesiveness within formal organisation, and protects people’s
integrity.

7. Types of Organisational Structure in the Public Sector
• Vertical Structure
Vertical organisational structures are characterised by few people at the
top and increasing numbers of people in middle management and
lower-level positions.
Few people make policy decisions, and many people enact them.
Governments often lean toward them because they create defined job
scopes and powers – each person has a clear role to play.
Vertical structure is the classic bureaucracy and is epitomised and
originated in one of the oldest government functions: military command.

8. Horizontal Structures
• Are characterised by a few positions at top and then many
positions on the next row down.
The structure is most common in professional organisations
such as law and architecture firms or medical practices.

9. Divisional Structures
Divide function and responsibility based on speciality or
geography – such as a market territory.
For example, federal courts are divided into regional circuits

10. Degree of formalisation through the organisational
structure
• Administrative Secretaries have to execute tasks as advised by the
Permanent Secretary.
• Clerical Officers have to execute tasks as assigned by Executive Officers.
• Orders come from the top.
• Communication is essentially top-down.
• Rules and regulations are devised by senior executives and should be
abided by junior staff.
• Activities are devised according to procedures established in the Ministry.
• Any important matter is agreed by senior staff.
• There is an established mechanism for complaints or grievances.

11. Organisation structure and design
An organisation structure describes the organisation framework
expressed by its degree of complexity, formalisation and
centralization
Complexity
Complexity considers the amount of differentiation in an
organisation. The more differentiated and tall an organisation is, the
more complex it becomes.
The public sector is affected by complexity since there are several
departments and hierarchies. Also, there are many employees
working in the ministries.

12. • Formalisation
Formalisation refers to the degree to which an organisation
relies on rules and procedures to direct the behaviour of
employees.
Formalisation characterises the public service through
procedures, policies and abidance to rules.
Formalisation can be said to create inflexibility.

13. • Centralisation
Centralisation is concerned with the concentration of decision
making authority in upper management.
Power and authority resided in the hands of leaders and top
executives.
In a centralised model, decisions about the work or common
tasks are undertaken by a ‘central’ division whose only role is to
perform these tasks

14. • Decentralisation
Organisations that develop and expand definitely need to
decentralise their operations for some reasons.
Government aims at decentralising its activities to better
attain the needs of local citizens.
government organisations work more closely with the public
and the State is relieved from excessive co-ordination of
tasks.

15. A case for decentralization
• Decentralisation helps government to have activities spread in
various regions of a country. It better reaches the local
community.
• It helps executives to take decisions on their own provided that
they are empowered to do so.
• It improves flexibility in the activities in that they reach the
community more rapidly.
• Better solutions can be implemented locally in line with the reality.
• Time can be saved by overcoming transport and disturbance.

16. Insight: Policy implications for decentralisation
Decentralisation holds much promise, but whether it improves public service
delivery depends on the institutional arrangements governing its
implementation.
Several conditions must be met before the full benefits of decentralisation
can be reaped.
First, local governments need to have the authority to respond to local
demand as well as adequate mechanisms for accountability.
Second, functions need to be devolved to a low enough level of government
for allocative efficiency to increase because of decentralization
Third, citizens should have channels to communicate their preferences and
get their voices heard in local governments.

17. Organisation design
The construction or changing of an organisation’s structure is
referred to as organisation design.
Organisational design is the art of dividing an organisation into
operational parts, then connecting those parts together through
structural arrangements and mechanisms for co-production,
direction and control.
The aim of organisational design is to ensure that the organisation
works well and that it can deliver the results expected of it using the
resources that are available to it.

18. Simplifying design of the public organisation
There is a political belief that more effective government can
best be achieved by simplifying the complex and confusing
landscape of public sector organisations.
This will make it easier for the public to access services and for
the organisations involved in developing and delivering them
to provide a better, more joined-up service.
Delivery structures need to develop a more integrated
approach to cut through and remove bureaucratic barriers.

19. Simplify organisational design should be
Simpler structures which support the achievement of the Government’s
national strategic aims and local government’s delivery of better outcomes
for local communities
transparent and clear public service decision-making
fewer, better structured arm’s length bodies at a national level
collaboration and joint-working between public services

20. Regional orientation
The main functions are kept at the headquarters. Some activities are decentralised on
a territorial basis.
• Advantages
• Regional orientation places responsibility at a lower level.
• It places emphasis on local markets and needs.
• There is better face-to-face communication with local interests.
• There is a possibility of creating a training ground for future managers.
•
• Disadvantages
• It requires persons with more general manager abilities.
• There can be a problem of top management control.

21. Government’s choice for regional orientation
• Traffic jam creates lots of problems and inconvenience to
people.
• Decentralisation ensures that all the people get better
access to governmental services.
• Expenditure can be minimised depending on situations.
• There may be more motivation for employees to provide
better service, given they do not face such transport
difficulty or disturbance.
• Public service becomes more responsive to the needs of the
community.

22. New organisational orientations in
public sector
Flexitime
Gives individual employees control over when to start and end their working day.
It is popular with employers as well as employees as it can combine set or ‘core’ times of common
agreement when all employees should be at work, with parts that can be individually adapted
Flexitime operates as follows:
• Employees may call at work either at 9 a.m. or at 10 a.m.
• There will be core hours where each employee meets.
• Flexitime allows room for flexibility at work.
• Absenteeism can be remedied.
• Employees may be more motivated to work.
• Flexitime can help to save in terms of costs and overheads.

23. Questions
• Identify the key organisation concepts in the public sector.
• What is the relevance of support functions in public sector organisation?
• Differentiate between formal and informal organisation of the public service.
• What are the three types of organisation structures in the public sector?
• Why is centralisation relevant to the public sector?
• What is organisation design?
• Why is there a need to simplify organisation in the public service?
• Explain the need for decentralisation in the public sector.
• What is the purpose of the regionalisation of public sector jobs?
• What is flexitime and how does it affect organisation of work in the public service?