Strategic management and Public Administration MPA 509 1.

Strategic management and Public Administration

MPA 509

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Strategic Management is “a philosophy

of management that links strategic

planning with day-to-day decision

making. Strategic management seeks a

fit between an organization’s external

and internal environment.”

What is strategy

STRATEGY CONSISTS OF LONG TERM VISION OF WHAT WE SEEKS TO DO AND WHAT KIND OF SOCIETY WE INTEND TO BE

WHAT WE WANT

Strategic objectives– specify the desired

performance of public administration

WHAT TO DO

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StrategyStrategy means an effort to articulate guidelines

for the identification of actual problems in

public administration as well as a framework for

taking decisions that answer the question “what

do we want to do and what do we

want to achieve”.

It is the employment and management of overall

resources to gain an objective.

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Predict forecast envisage percievecalculate

A strategy means understanding the directions of change in the economic, political and social system within which the Public Administration functions, understanding the new problems and possibilities it is faced with, understanding the potential and dangers that await us in the foreseeable future.

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Transforming Government We can begin a transformation through

asking the following questions:

What is our vision of the future?

What kind of transformation do we want?

What behaviors will we expect from ourselves?

How will we know when we arrive at our goal?

How Do We Plan How Do We Plan to Get There?to Get There?

– Move from the current paradigm/condition • Designed for the 20th century

– Reasons for a new paradigm• Globalization – downward pressure to localities • Technology – electronic information• Demographic changes

© Henrik P. Minassians

Paradigm AParadigm A

• Our problems grow. We continue trying to address them in the same ways we always have.

• The problems of today cannot be solved with the same thinking that gave us the problems in the first place.

Albert Einstein

© Henrik P. Minassians

Where Do We Want to Go?Where Do We Want to Go?

Condition A Condition B

Personal Power Model Collaboration

Silo Thinking Systems Thinking

Reactive Proactive

Needs-Based Strengths-Based

Logical Creative

Past-Referenced Future-Oriented

Independent Interdependent

Inputs/Outputs Results/Outcomes

Mechanistic Learning Organization

Condition B: Operationalized

Condition B Operationalization

Collaboration Joint effort, co-ownership

Systems Thinking Mental frame and mapping

Proactive Acting beforehand, thoughtful analysis prior acting

Strengths-Based Internal/external needs vs. assets

Creative Combine ideas, synthesis, synergy

Future-Oriented Foresee challenges with every decision

Interdependent Components affecting each other, points of relationship

Results/Outcomes Inputs, processes, outputs, outcomes measures

Learning Organization Encourages seeing one’s work as part of whole

© Henrik P. Minassians

Moving Towards Moving Towards Condition B Condition B

Considerations:• How does “Condition B” fit into your

organizational/community development plan?• Who are the organizational entrepreneurs or

organizational policy stakeholders? • What components should be adopted and

extracted? Which ones should be deleted?

© Henrik P. Minassians

Talent + knowledge + effort = sucess

strategy provides the basis for establishing performance criteria and criteria for the recruitment of people who will know how to cope with future problems, the basis for a collective assessment and professional interaction among all those involved and finally, as regards the practical aspect, most importantly, the strategy is the basis which will ensure that unforeseen and practical objectives be perceived in the framework of long-term results to be attained.

in the course of time and the elements of chance or

politically opportunity or otherwise, calculations will be substituted by strategic guidance.

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The future is not in hands of faith but in ours

The Public Administration reform strategy does not refer to the forms of administration, the number of ministries, the form of employment agreements or the manner in which it is financed, neither does it refer to the number of employees. The strategy is not a definite action plan clearly exposed in a given document or an overall understanding of a sequence of actions necessary in order to attain a goal or instructions as how to mobilize all those activities aimed at achieving such a goal.

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Politicians think about the next elections while true statesmen think about the next generation.

Reforms should not be reduced to political decision-making where the effect of the popularity of measures to be taken is crucial.

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A strategy may not rely on a method based on taking the easiest decision, in the long run such a decision might be expensive or detrimental.

A strategic task, therefore, is not to set a rule for new laws or other pieces of legislation but an understanding of the question what kind of reforms we want and more importantly what are the means to achieve this!

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What to do!?

Ignorance, superstition, idleness and costly

indulgence are the privileges of the leaders of

society…from the point of view of morality, the

most moral men have the responsibility of leading

citizens towards virtue;

from the point of view of distributive justice, the

most guilty men are appointed to punish minor

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Essential

Reform is not an aim in itself. The success of reform depends on the social ability to administer relations with economy, politics and society. The success is not to change only the institutional skeleton and laws, but to support dynamic energetic economic change and sustain democratic stabilization.

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how can that be

The question is not what but The question is not what but primarily primarily HOWHOW

not destruction but preparation• resources• emergency plans• ignore political change

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Discovering common ground

Implementation

. Difficulties do not lie in the formulation of acts but in their implementation. In other words this means that measures apparently acceptable and justifiable will not yield any effect if not coordinated and concerted in a time frame in line with general strategic objectives. While errors may over time yield good results, the best ideas may in the long run be spoilt.

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Nothing must be destroyed, nor institutions cancelled or people substituted without a very good reason and awareness of the manner in which the activity is to be continued. What we want is of little importance if we do not know how to achieve it.

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. A “merit principle” regarding recruitment, status, promotion, remuneration should be strictly respected, and de-politicization of positions and function as well as ongoing lifelong training enhanced.

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Evaluating strategic opportunities

• Will it show?

• Can it grow?

• Does it flow?

Show the passion!

Quote of the Day

• Don’t judge the day by the harvest you reap…..but the seeds you plant.

Robert Stevenson