Question:
Discuss About The Challenges Of Public Sector Organizations?
Change in the modern world in all aspects of life has been described as inevitable. Change can bring either positive element or a negative element depending on how it is handled or viewed. The necessity to understand the process of change and its underpinning emergent dynamics is important for all organization’s as it leads to sustainable organizational development as well as successful management of the organizations. Many people, as well as organizations, strive to have a change however very few people know how to manage these changes whenever they occur. The public sector has been seeing as the backbone of the general provision of public services to the citizens of a nation and therefore for a very critical component of the growth and development of the economy.
Together with the private sector, they form the backbone of the economy of a nation in which the public sector forms the greater part. The sector is comprised of various players including government parastatals, ministries, and other agencies working under the control of a certain government. Sometimes if a change happens in one department, ministry or organ then it also affects the functioning of the others. Effective management and implementation of strategies that will counter the impact of the organizational change is therefore important in the modern world where rent less change has become a fact of organizational life. This briefing document, therefore, seeks to provide an understanding of organizations in the public sector have positioned themselves to respond to the challenges of change.
The public sector as discussed plays a vital role in the development of a nation and future positioning of the economy. Any failure from the sectors bears a significant impact on the other sectors of the economy. Organizations in these sectors play a very important role in the provision of goods and services which meet the increasing demand of the population (Cummings & Worley 2014, p. 3). Many organizations have therefore adopted different strategies to implement different policies to counter the effects of change. However, most change initiatives in the past have been found to fail in delivering the expected organizational benefits. How organizations in the public sector react to the changing environments determines how well the organizations are able to adapt to the new environments. Change in an organization is triggered by certain forces which usually emerge with little or no warning from both sides of the organizations (Anderson 2016, p. 2). These forces can be internal forces or even external forces of change. The external forces can be controlled to a lesser extent by the managers as the organizations have little or no control over them while the internal forces of change can be controlled as they act through the changes in the organizations.
Change as discussed above is said to be inevitable and therefore affects the operations of the organizations in the public sector and hinder their service delivery to the public. Some of the trending issues of change or forces of change that have had a great impact on the development and management or public sector organizations include; economic downturn, increased political instability, increasing globalization as well as the changing client or stakeholder expectations (Bebbington 2014, p. 2). These are considered to be external forces of change while the internal forces of change to these organizations include; the transformation programs in the organization including the use of new technology which implies that the organization structure has to change in order to accommodate the new technology, the staff changes as well as the efforts to evolve culture and expectations (Aarons et al. 2015, p. 11). These are the major challenges in the public sector and the management of these organizations has a great responsibility of ensuring that everyone in the organization adapts to these new changes which may even affect the structure of the organization.
The changing political climates in the world are likely to continue affecting the success of public sectors in achieving their goals of effective service delivery to the public. Government being the controller of the activities of the public sectors as it is nearly over 90 percent involved in every aspect of the sector may affect the smooth running of the organizations if the political climate is unstable (Kuipers et al. 2014, p. 8). It paralyzes the operations of most public sectors including government parastatals as well as the bear great impact on investors’ confidence in the public sector. With political instability comes periods of economic downturns which are also influenced by other factors such as drought and famine. It is also important to note that the briefing document can act as the strategic plan for the organizations since it highlights the possible future of the organization if the right strategies and mechanisms to counter the response to change are made. The public sector organizations play a vital role in the growth of the economy of different nations and in the provision of essential goods and services.
In a bid to raise revenue governments have turned to increasing taxes to businesses operations which affect the growth of public sector organizations and affect their service delivery in which the sectors may not provide adequate and quality services in events of tax avoidance or evasion (Van der Voort 2014, p. 328). During times of economic booms, the organizations seem to enjoy the increased business growth and profits however during the times of economic recessions the businesses or organizations face great challenges and losses. It is therefore appropriate that effective strategies are developed to counter the effects of economic downfalls.
Globalization has reduced trade or business barriers leading to more organizations penetrating into the market and increasing competition. Globalization has increased the demand for production of quality goods and services across the international markets. Therefore it has come along with great changes especially resulting from technological changes (Lin & Atkin 2014, p. 2). The demand for quality goods and services has also changed as it is usually influenced by the tastes and preferences for the goods by customers or clients. With the changing client and stakeholders expectations, organizations should therefore shift their attention to service development and delivery. The future holds that these services should be provided in relation to the interests of their clients. Internally organizations in the public sector have sought to bring about transformative programs in the sector since most of them hold to the traditional ideas (Sjostrand 2016, p. 3). The need for new transformative programs is inevitable and organizations need to develop an effective strategy that will help the organization adapt to the new demands. Staff changes are likely to increase as staff move from one industry to the other or from one sector to the other in a bid to obtain attractive salary packages as well as flexible working schedules (Burke & Noumair 2015, p. 4). Many organizations are also striving to change or to evolve the organizational culture and behavior towards achieving the modern and current demands.
There is also an increased likelihood that the rapid and continued innovation in technology will continue driving for changes to organizational systems as well as their operational processes. The growth of the startling internet has also provided and enabled a much faster and easier access to knowledge and therefore most of the public sector organizations use the traditional technology and may need the develop systems which are compatible with the modern technology (Bartunek & Woodman 2015, p. 6). In this respect, different managers in the public sector will need to change or improve the technology being used to modern technology. With a change in technology, many operations of the sector will be made easy and production will also change as the goods and services provided would be of great quality. Secondly, the success of a business or organizations is dependent on how the organization or business relates to its clients and stakeholders. Therefore, it is important that the organizations seek to produce and deliver goods and services which meet their client’s expectations otherwise they will lose their clients to some private sector organizations (Hayes 2014, p. 2). Lastly due to the fear of uncertainty caused by the fear of economic downturns and a change in political climate, the managers need to develop effective strategies by having a plan B to every project they seek to undertake.
The success of incorporating changes in the public sector is dependent on whether the change process reaches its full effect and this can only be achieved if the change is made permanent. Managers and business leaders in the public sector organizations need therefore to utilize the theoretical concepts and ideas as well as knowledge in understanding the effective strategies they should put in place in response to organizational changes (Cummings et al. 2016, p.40). In this case, the ideas and theoretical perspective of Kurt Lewin provides an insightful three-step model or theory. The theory or model of organizational change provides managers of the public sector organizations with an effective framework to implement the change efforts in an organization. The model has been very effective and reliable in the modern world just as it was in the past.
In this case whenever the public sector managers are faced with a dilemma in decision-making about certain changes they can rely on this model or theory to make radical changes to the organization which may be relating to employees, to technology or in relation to service delivery as per client or stakeholder expectations (Cameron & Green, 2015, p. 4). The managers and other leaders also can also use the model to minimize the disruptions in the organization structure operations especially through the transforming organizational programs which bring change as well as facilitate a permanent adoption of a change in the organization.
Kurt Lewin argues that change in the organizations and in this case the public sector organizations would only be effective if the people involved embrace the change and put it into practice. The first stage of the model or theory is the unfreezing stage where the managers should concentrate on removing the old existing ideologies among the stakeholders and employees of the organization in preparation for change or new ideas. Unfreezing in this model means getting people to gain perspective on their day to day activities. This may be through unlearning the bad habits and becoming open to new ways of reaching their objectives as an organization (Cornelissen & Cornelissen, 2017, p. 3). Therefore the manager has to reassess the current practices in order for the wheels of change to get set for the motion.
The second useful step of the model or theory is the change stage and occurs once the members of an organization have opened up their minds. In order to gain efficiency in responding to changes in the organization, it is notable that people will have to take a new task and responsibility (Benn et al. 2014, p. 2). Lewin argues that in this case, the change process has to be viewed as an investment both in terms of time and resources. When this is achieved then the organization is already on a journey of responding to changes. Lastly, the model or theory includes the stage of freezing or make it stick, whereby it is argued that change will only reach its full effect if it is made permanent. And therefore the managers and other leaders in the organization have to put or develop further changes which have to be made down the line as the implementation of the change occurs. Refreezing gives people an opportunity to thrive in the new organization and take full advantage of the charges (Crain 2015, p. 2).
Having identified technology as one of the challenges that has brought change in the public sector it is important to understand that managers, as well as other leaders in the management of public sector organizations, have the responsibility of ensuring that certain technology works for the organization. This means that for them to remain competitive in the market there is need to make innovations. Innovations in an organization bring about changes in the structure as well as the operations of an organization (Manchester et al. 2015, p. 85). Therefore, effective decision-making has to be made by the managers when adopting an innovation to be used in the organization. The application of the stage theory, in this case, would prove valuable to the managers in making innovation decisions and evaluating the changes it brings about. The theory provides four stages in which when implementing an innovation-decision managers have to develop an effective strategy that works for each stage and are contingent on the organization stage of adopting an innovation and implementing as well as sustaining new approaches as well as socio-environmental factors (Clegg et al. 2015, p. 2).
These stages include creating awareness of a problem and the possible solution to different stakeholders in the company. Such will act like the unfreezing stage which sets the minds or individuals towards a new direction. Secondly, decisions to adopt the innovation are made while the third stage would involve the implementation of the plan of innovation into the organization and includes the implementation of the innovation as well as the modification of the organization structure to accommodate the innovation (Worley & Mohrman 2014, p. 218). The last stage would be institutionalization or making the innovation part of the organization ongoing activities. The theory is therefore based on the idea that organizations pass through a series of steps as they experience change. Therefore the managers need to understand that the strategies to employ in this case will depend on the stage of change they are experiencing and whether the nature of the social environment surrounding the innovation is supported or not (DeVellis 2016, p. 3). If the innovation is supported then the process of change would be much easier for the organization to adapt as compared to when the structures have to be put in place first.
Conclusion
Therefore the development of briefing document serves a greater purpose in informing the management on an organizational of the possible future threats to the success of the business either from within the business or from external forces so that effective strategies can be deployed to remedy the situation. It is also important to note that the briefing document can act as the strategic plan for the organizations since it highlights the possible future of the organization if the right strategies and mechanisms to counter the response to change are made. The public sector organizations play a vital role in the growth of the economy of different nations and in the provision of essential goods and services. The sector is, however, experiencing great change and different strategies have to be laid down in response to those changes. The development of knowledge base through the study of different theories of change and development in different organizations is very important in understanding how different sectors or groups in the economy respond to the challenge of change in their businesses.
Organizations in public sector are complex in some way while on the other understanding change brings about complexity in operations of a business. It is therefore important that the managers and leaders of different organizations in the public sector should adopt strategies of responding to change which is supported by the current business environment. However change should be treated as an investment, sometimes it may bear fruits in the short run period of the organization whereas at other times it has to take a take the long-term period to materialize. Individuals working in the organizations should be given time to adapt to the change since it’s a process as well as be trained in case of new innovations. Effective decision-making has to be made by the managers when adopting an innovation to be used in the organization. The application of the discussed theory, in this case, would prove valuable to the managers in making innovation decisions and evaluating the changes it brings about. This briefing document can, therefore, be used by the public sector to highlight some of the possible problems they might be facing and even the possible solutions to some of them in preparation for future growth and development.
List of References
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Anderson, D.L., 2016. Organization development: The process of leading organizational change. Sage Publications.
Bartunek, J.M. and Woodman, R.W., 2015. Beyond Lewin: Toward a temporal approximation of organization development and change.
Bebbington, J., Unerman, J. and O’Dwyer, B. eds., 2014. Sustainability accounting and accountability. Routledge.
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Benn, S., Dunphy, D. and Griffiths, A., 2014. Organizational change for corporate sustainability. Routledge.
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Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015.Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change.Kogan Page Publishers.
Clegg, S.R., Kornberger, M. and Pitsis, T., 2015. Managing and organizations: An introduction to theory and practice. Sage.
Cornelissen, J. and Cornelissen, J.P., 2017. Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice. Sage.
Crain, W., 2015. Theories of development: Concepts and applications. Psychology Press.
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Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2014. Organization development and change.Cengage learning.
DeVellis, R.F., 2016. Scale development: Theory and applications (Vol. 26). Sage publications.
Hayes, J., 2014. The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan.
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