SAN JUAN, Jayson Edward B.

PA 11: Introduction to Public Administration

1998-14511 08 July 2010

Getting more bang for the buck: Appropriating private sector practices in public
organizations

1. The Price of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis.
By David Osborne and Peter Hutchinson. New York: Basic Books. 2004, 370 pp.

2. I believe that the thesis advanced by the authors are very much relevant in our present context,
where government resources are scarce, and the vociferous competing interests on how these
resources must be spent. The Philippine government has been continuously beset by problems on
how to deliver public services to the most number of people efficiently and effectively. Long
lines, inadequate services, and laborious processes have been hallmarks of Philippine public
service. While some may say that these are mere misconceptions. But for us who often transact
business with government agencies, these things are realities that we as consumers of public
services must contend with. Our administrators and executives must look into the strategies
propounded by the authors; they should be explored and, if necessary, retrofitted for our own
use.

3. The authors argue that the public sector can be made more efficient and responsive to the
needs of citizens by introducing private sector concepts of consolidating policy-making
functions, while decentralizing operations. In doing so, the authors believe that competition can
be introduced in the operations level, and policy-makers can then choose the best and most
inexpensive service provider, redounding to better services at the same price for taxpayers.

4. In general, the book challenges the existing thought that only government and its agencies can
provide public services. In particular, the chapter advances the idea of consolidating decision-
making, but decentralizing operations so that these functions can be competitively bidded out to
various service providers with the best know-how and best value for the limited resources of
government.

The authors' assertions and arguments fall under the premise that government continuously faces
a fiscal crisis, and thus it must operate in a way that it can still provide citizens with good service
without increasing the burden for taxpayers.

5. Osborne and Hutchinson studied various practices of different government agencies in the
United States by surveying their operations, interviewing past and present government officials
concerned, and other stakeholders in those government services. They then gathered various best
practices in the private sector and attempted to appropriate them to public sector services,
incorporating the best ones that will redound in better public services for taxpayers.
They used the education sector in the United States as their case study in proving that their theses
can be applied in the public sector to deliver better public education to children in the United
States.

6. Osborne and Hutchinson asserted that (1) it is not necessary that government itself should own
the service, instead competitively bidding out the services to various providers, (2) competition
can be introduced in the public sector for more efficient service delivery, and (3) private sector
practices of mergers and consolidations coupled with decentralization can be used by the public
sector to give taxpayers better services at the same price.

Their assertions contribute to the theory of public administration, especially in the long standing
debate of politics-administration dichotomy. The authors' assertions essentially support that
dichotomy. By insulating administration from politics and incorporating private sector best
practices in it, Osborne and Hutchinson support Wilson's (1886) arguments that “government is a
business”, and as a business, “make its business less unbusinesslike, to strengthen and purify its
organization, and it to crown its dutifulness”.

7. I agree with the authors insofar as their assertions on consolidation and decentralization are
concerned. I believe that government can be more efficient without necessarily destroying its
public nature, and one way of preserving that is by consolidating decision-making bodies with
similar tasks and objectives, and making operations more decentralized.

The proliferation and advancement of various information and communications technology

(ICT) tools and new practices brought by these advancements bring new perspectives in how
organizations – both private and public – operate. Friedman (2007) points out that the
convergence of different global forces, with the help of ICT, has prompted managers and
workers to revisit their organizations and practices, moving them to destroy vertical silos in
organizations, and bringing turf wars to an end. This trend now focuses on doing things more
efficiently with more value for our limited resources by integration and cooperation.

8. The book propounds on the idea of “re-engineering” the bureaucracy by rationalizing its
practices and processes. Re-engineering the bureaucracy means introducing more flexibilities,
innovations, and entrepreneurship in government, veering away from the Weberian notion of a
stiff and hierarchical bureaucracy with a set of rules and security of tenure for organizational
personnel, which unintentionally breeds inefficiencies and friction between the bureaucracy and
its stakeholders.

Osborne and Hutchinson show us that re-engineering the government is already taking place now
in various agencies of the United States federal government. They argue that their prescriptions
are no longer theoretical, but work in the real world.
9. Osborne and Hutchinson offer a new model for government in its delivery of public services.
They challenge the accepted practice that only government and its front-line agencies must own
and provide services to citizens. They shatter this idea by introducing private sector practices of
competition, innovation, and performance standards into the public sphere.

While they essentially support the politics-administration dichotomy, they bring this debate to a
higher plane by proposing that by decoupling program and project administration from the rigors
of political debates in the legislature, government can deliver service to citizens more efficiently
and effectively.

10. Osborne’s and Hutchinson’s argument goes against the grain of accepted practice that only
government and its agencies must provide services to the public. The chapter, focusing on
consolidation of policy bodies and decentralization of operations, advocates hybridization of
government functions and services by combining public service with private sector practices of
competition and performance-based standards.

While concepts like consolidation, decentralization, “steering”, and “rowing” are not exactly
new, the authors have appropriated them into the public sphere, creating a new mindset that these
practices are as equally valid in public organizations as in private corporations.

Everybody wants more efficient services from government. But most does not want to pay extra
for these services. Osborne and Hutchinson argue in The Price of Government that these two are
not mutually exclusive.

References:

Friedman, T. 2007. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. New York:
Picador/Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Wilson, Woodrow. 1886. The Study of Administration. In TeachingAmericanHistory.org

(http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=465). Accessed 08 July
2010