Requirements:1.One page, single spaced, Times New Roman font, size 12. (approximately 500-600 words)2.This is a critical summary, meaning you must use your own words for the majority of the assignment. Maximum 1 quotation.3.Use course material, such as slides, newspaper articles, and videos. You are not to conduct extra research or use other sources
What to include in the summary:1.Introduce the topic. For instance, if you choose the Digital Governance week, define what is meant by digital governance and why it is important to government.2.Summarize some of the issues related to the topic. Using Digital Governance, for instance, what are some of the challenges of governing using technology and why governments make some of the decisions that they do.
Topic of Summary is HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Public Sector Reforms Public Sector Reforms Changing the Bureaucracy New Public Management (NPM) 1980s Governments: bloated, wasteful, ineffective Too big from rapid expansion during post-war welfare state boom Wasteful because of overlapping/competing positions More people doing tasks than needed Ineffective: slow to modernize, many levels of accountability “red tape” Compared to modernizing business sector: rapid technological advancements, information/knowledge exchanges Led to an increased demand to make government “catch up” to the business sector, or have business function more like a business Many different ideas, but academics Osborne and Gaebler wrote an award winning, best selling book that highlighted ten ways government could be improved 1) competitive government 2) community-owned 3) results-oriented 4) mission driven 5) customer-driven 6) anticipatory 7) enterprising 8) decentralized 9) market oriented 10) catalytic 1. Competitive Government There should be competition between service providers in order to inject competition into service delivery. This is often found at the municipal level, such as in garbage pick-up 2. Community Owned About empowering citizens by pushing control from bureaucracy to communities. In the US, this is often seen in social housing initiatives and heritage conservation. Cooperative Housing Communities have more commitment to their members, and are more flexible and cheaper. In developing areas, devolving government to community levels has been viewed as a form of participatory governance, whereby locals can improve service delivery through their knowledge 3. Results Oriented A results-oriented government is one that measures performance by focusing and funding on outcomes, not inputs. The argument here is that if you do not measure results, then you cannot tell success from failure. From a political standpoint, there is the idea that you if you can demonstrate results, you can win public support Seen in quality management programs in government, and use of management consultants 4. Mission Driven A government that is driven by goals, not by rules and regulations. It is viewed as more innovative, because rules and bureaucratic red tape are stifling and rigid. An enemy of innovation is static governmental structures 5. Customer Driven Being customer driven requires that governments redefine clients/citizens as customers, and offer choices. This shifts the purpose from meeting the needs of the bureaucracy to meeting the needs of the customer. In some ways, this depoliticizes choice, because rather than imposing certain choices upon citizens (ie, the school that their children must attend), the citizens choose them themselves. It is also argues that this will waste-less overall, making service provision more efficient, because supply will equal demand 6. Anticipatory Focuses on preventing problems before they emerge, rather than only offering services afterwards. This is a focus on prevention rather than cure. Examples outside of government: Vaccines Examples of public service anticipatory practices: fire codes and sprinklers being required, rather than funding more firefighters 7. Enterprising Government putting energy into earning money, not simply spending it. For certain services, this means charging user fees so that those who want the service pay for it. Example: passport fees 8. Decentralized One of the most popular actions under NPM Decentralization can take on numerous forms. First, there is the decentralization of authority moves for a movement away from hierarchy to participation and teamwork. More flexible than centralized government, because it can respond quickly to changing circumstances and needs. More effective because it is closer to the public More innovative and creative, because people work harder and invest more of their creativity when they control their work 8. Decentralized (Con’t) Second, decentralization of decision-making Street-level bureaucrats being given more discretion Those that work closely with the public Bureaucratic discretion is the ability of bureaucrats to determine the nature, amount, and quality of benefits and sanctions provided by their agencies 9. Market Oriented A market oriented approach prefers market mechanisms to bureaucratic mechanisms Create a market instead of a service by government Example: bottle bills, Prior to having a tax/fee on plastic and glass bottles, they littered streets and playgrounds, and took up substantial space in landfills, causing governments a lot of money in cleanup and disposal. By creating a market for plastic and glass bottles through levying fees, governments reduced costs of cleanup, because people were returning the cans themselves, and it reduced the amount of garbage in landfills. 9. Market Oriented (Con’t) Another form of marketization is privatization. In Canada this occurred in a number of ways, such as the privatization of Petro-Canada and Air Canada This is also referred to as the “hollowing out of the state” Essentially, the market government approach sees the public sector as inherently flawed whenever it departs from the private sector’s defining virtues of choice and competition 10. Catalytic Catalytic government means focusing not simply on providing public services, but on catalyzing all sectors, public, private, and voluntary, to solve community problems. This is referred to as “steering” rather than rowing A key example of this is the use of NGOs to implement international development aid NPM Summary New Public Management is the injection of private sector ideals into the public sector in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Although it gained popularity in the 1980s, and some of its ideas have been widely implemented (ie, anticipatory governance), it has received its share of criticism While it is acknowledged that governments can make improvements to become more economical, efficient, effective, socially responsive, and accountable, reforms cannot and should not come at the expense of the core traditions and duties of the public service Criticisms of NPM However, NPM is argued to be too simplistic While there are some proven benefits of some ideas of NPM, it cannot be fully adopted into the public sector Is at odds with government policies and programs, as these exist with political and legal constraints. These include: service standards established practices like accountability citizen equality due process rights to public services Further, it has been argued that NPM will weaken governments, make them small and less significant in the life of society Governments do need a connection to the public they serve in order to function properly and efficiently The conundrum of absenteeism in the Canadian public service: A wicked problem perspective Jocelyn McGrandle Frank L. K. Ohemeng The conundrum of absenteeism in the Canadian public service: A wicked problem perspective Abstract: Absenteeism has received increasing attention in public sectors across the world. In Canada’s federal public service, absenteeism cost the government approximately $871 million in lost wages in 2013 alone (Barkel 2014a). Current and previous Canadian governments have attempted to reform sick-leave policy to reduce absenteeism, but simple solutions to a complex problem will likely result in negative and unforeseen consequences. This article conceptualizes absenteeism as a “wicked problem” to explore its complexity. Addressing absenteeism requires a deeper understanding of issues and factors by government representatives, unions, NGOs, and policy experts, which can lead to multifaceted solutions. Sommaire : L’absent�eisme a fait l’objet d’une attention croissante dans les secteurs publics du monde entier. Dans la fonction publique f�ed�erale canadienne, l’absent�eisme a coût�e au gouvernement environ 871 millions $ en salaires perdus en 2013 seulement (Barkel 2014a). Les gouvernements canadiens actuels et pr�ec�edents ont tent�e de r�eformer la politique des cong�es de maladie pour r�eduire l’absent�eisme, mais de simples solutions pour faire face �a un problème complexe auront vraisemblablement des cons�equences n�egatives et impr�evues. Cet article conçoit l’absent�eisme comme un « problème pernicieux » pour �etudier sa complexit�e. Pour s’attaquer �a l’absent�eisme, il faut que les repr�esentants gouvernementaux, les syndicats, les ONG et les experts en politique aient une compr�ehension plus approfondie des questions et des facteurs en jeu, et cela pourra conduire �a des solutions multiformes. Introduction As governments worldwide seek to reduce spending, one area that is cur- rently receiving a lot of attention is public sector absenteeism, which many argue costs governments millions of dollars each year (Barreix 2012; De Paola, Scoppa and Pupo 2014). For instance, in the Australian public ser- vice, employees were absent approximately 11.6 days per year in 2014- 2015, costing millions of dollars (Australian Public Service Commission 2014, 2015: 22). This is no different in Canada, where absenteeism in the federal public service is said to have cost the government approximately $871 million in lost wages in 2013 alone1 (Barkel 2014a). Jocelyn McGrandle is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec. Frank L. K. Ohemeng is Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration & Health Services Management, University of Ghana Business School, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra. CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION / ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE DU CANADA VOLUME 60, NO. 2 (JUNE/JUIN 2017), PP. 215–240 VC The Institute of Public Administration of Canada/L’Institut d’administration publique du Canada 2017 In Canada, the former Conservative federal government under Stephen Harper (2006-2015) made absenteeism reforms one of its major economic reform commitments in 2014. The government believed that reducing what it described as a generous sick-leave package, particularly, employees’ abil- ity to “bank” sick days and roll them over into accumulated sick days over the years and use them particularly prior to retirement, would help resolve the problem and save the government a significant amount of money (Jay 2015; Kennedy 2015). This approach has, however, been described as a nar- row and unsustainable approach for dealing with a difficult problem both public service unions and experts (Wells 2014; May 2015a). To many, sim- ply reducing sick-leave and dismantling “banked days” and aligning with private sector practice can have disastrous consequences to the overall per- formance of the public service. They contend that the proposed approach would lead to increased presenteeism, where sick employees come to work but are impaired, costing organizations up to three times more in the long run (Stewart et al. 2003; Hemp 2004; May 2015b). Simply reducing sick-leave and dismantling “banked days” and aligning with private sector practice can have disastrous consequences to the overall perfor- mance of the public service. As will be discussed below, absenteeism is a complex issue, touching all departments and aspects of the lives of public servants. A minor change in one area of absenteeism policy could have unintended consequences throughout the public service, such as employees working impaired (pre- senteeism), an increase in severe, long-term illnesses, increased stress levels, and decreased productivity, as well as potential other unknown and unforeseen circumstances. With a change in government after the October 2015 federal election from the Conservative Party to the Liberal Party, the current government has already indicated its willingness to abandon some, if not all of the previous government’s plans to overhaul absentee and disability policies of the previous government (May 2016a). In fact, the government reached a tentative agreement with many union members in late 2016 to keep existing sick-leave policies in place, including banked sick leave, until the issue can