Public sector managers as dissatisfied with their services as their customers

Posted on February 5, 2008
Filed Under Business

Derision of public sector management practices is common in the private sector and the media, but last week, a survey by research firm Roffey Park, showed that public sector managers are beginning to chime in. The Management Agenda 2008 survey, compiling information from nearly 500 managers across all fields of industry, found those working in the public sector rated their organisations lower than the private sector in just about every category.

For example, 22% of private sector managers responded that under-performance was tackled “very well” in their organisations, compared to only 4% of public sector managers. Likewise, 33% of managers working in non-profit organisations responded that morale was high in their workplace, compared to only 6% of public sector managers. Other areas of discontent included public sector managers’ ability to adapt to change, staff cynicism about values, the importance of office politics, levels of bullying and bureaucracy. They also reported the lowest collective sense of purpose. The only consolation appeared to be that the public sector offers a more flexible working environment.

So why do public sector managers fare so much worse than their private sector counterparts? For one thing, public sector pay could be a source of ongoing anger. Thousands of off-duty police offers, for example, marched on Westminster last week in protest of their recent sub-inflation pay rise. Also, public sector managers are more likely to face over-regulation, over-complication and over-inspection.

Perhaps the findings of the Roffey Park survey reflect recent emphasis on public sector performance and target setting, increasing awareness of such issues, leading to self-critical responses. For example, there have been impressive examples of public sector innovation in recent times, such as London’s congestion charge, child trust funds and direct payments for social care users. But these changes have happened with relatively little systematic promotion of innovation by public agencies or the government.

So what can public sector firms do to become more innovative and manage change? The ramifications of failure to innovate is obviously greater for private sector firms, so public service providers need more practical, hands-on knowledge about how a service, when confronted with a stubborn problem, can go about developing and testing new ways of addressing it, including what sort of forums it has at its disposal, what sort of techniques have a proven track record of originating and testing new ideas and what support or expertise they can draw on from the private and public sector.

Various British organisations are experimenting with different approaches to innovation, such as the Design Council, the Young Foundation and the Innovation Unit. The Design Council has, for example, tried adapting established design techniques to reconfigure public services. In a proactive move towards innovation Kent County Council has developed the Social Innovation Lab in order to have forums supporting council and community services in researching options and developing pilot schemes.

In short, these recent developments show that public sector management need to realise that commercial solutions can work just as well in the public sector as long as it’s backed up with good external relationships and customer service.