CORPORATE MANAGEMENT
IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
THE NEED FOR A CHANGE IN MINDSET TO MEET THE COST CHALLENGES 2010 –2020
Since the 20th Century – particularly in the Business Schools era of the past 50 years, the general mindset of Corporate Management and Organisational thinking has been that despite a flattening of Organisational Structures – making a large chunk of Middle Managements redundant – Organisations in the Public Sector still needed to have Pyrimidal Hierarchical structure to perform satisfactory.
If you examine the balance sheets and accounts of many Quangos, Government Departments and Local Government Departments, you will find escalating costs for Chairmen, Chief Executives, Deputy Chairmen & the like, Deputy Chief Executives, Assistants to Chief Executives with their accompanying staffs and high cost office accomodation. If you add in the costs of pensions and expenses, the overall costs of these singular positions are enormous. Perhaps more enormous is the inflated egos of these post holders who think that they are needed and irreplaceable. Surely every Public Body needs us !
Another feature of the past 25 years has been the growth of the concept – mainly preached by the large Management Connsultancy firms – that you must pay Public Senior Management the equivalent salaries to simular post holders in the Private Sector – or else you will not be able to recruit the right people into the Public Sector and as a result, levels of competence and performance will seriously decline.
A third feature of mindset thinking of the past 50 years has been the Box Fitting Mentality in Human Resource Recruitment strategies, although there has been some progress in this area. The kind of mindset I refer to is twofold. First, the traditional CV has been used as the prime method of assessing a candidate’s ability to perform in the new role. Secondly, candidates who do not fit the box – that is, the candidate must have had experience in the same field as the job advertised - are rejected and do not even get a first interview.
The time has come to change all these old fashioned mindsets and to adopt some new 21st Century thinking.
So, what should be the new parameters ? As a basis for discussion, here are some suggestions.
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES
There is no need for a Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Chief Executive, Deputy Chief Executive any more in the organisational structures of Public Bodies – or their equivalent titles in the Civil Service.
These functions should be replaced by a new Board Structure which includes an Executive Management Team who need to have a broader training in Management Skills than they do at present. Management functions should be more integrated and a rotational system of Chairing meetings should be adopted. This will save £millions of current wasteful expenditure. A collective consensus approach is needed. Quality Top Management do not need Chairmen and Chief Executives to tell them what to do !
REMUNERATION PACKAGES
Stop relating Public Remuneration Packages to the Private Sector. Start realising that it is myth that Public Bodies will not be able to recruit good people unless they match Private Sector remuneration packages.
There are many many good people who are waiting in the wings to join the Public Sector Top Management teams – if given a chance in the recruitment process. Just check out who gets the Top Jobs in the Public Sector. You will find the Chief Executive of one local authority leaves his post to go to another local authority in another area. They recruit like for like. The recruitment agencies have a blinkered mindset – they cannot think outside the box.
RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Have you ever wondered why it is that we have so many bad, incompetent, poor managers at the head of so many of our Public Bodies?
Have you ever considered why they slip through the recruitment process that is supposed to be so rigerous and thorough ? I have.
Here are some suggestions to improve the recuitment process.
q Stop the mindset that a PhD is better than a BA .
q Stop the mindset that a University Degree holder is better than a student who did not go to University but had A Grades at Advanced Level or has a Vocational Qualification.
q Start examining more Emotional Intelligence rather than Academic or IQ intelligence. I am sure that the candidate with Emotional Intelligence – with good interpersonal skills, will often prove to be the better Manager.
q Stop sifting candidates in the first round by age. I know it goes on because I have seen it at first hand.
q Stop ticking the boxes – meaning – stop eliminating candidates who have not had experience in the exact job industry. We need a change in mindset within Public Bodies and a candidate from outside of the box can bring a breath of fresh air into the position.
EVOLUTION OR REVOLUTION
These radical suggestions in management thinking need to evolve over the next few years. Why not try an experiement ? Identify a few Public Bodies where these radical changes can be experimented with. Think of it like testing a new drug. You need trials to be certain the new drug works. I think that it will work and Britain and maybe the World will be a better place.
Nothing will ever change for the better unless we have the creative spirit to at least try and experiment.
Perhaps the World Financial Crisis has given us the chance to make radical changes. Will the Government – whoever wins the General Election 2010 – be brave enough to try ? If they do, Britain will be a better place and the reduction in the costs of our Public Bodies will make a major contribution to the early reduction on our debt.
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