This might come off as a rant, so I should probably write a short introduction about myself. I've been working in the public sector since 2008 with digital services and all the good and bad parts that entail. It's perhaps only natural that my journey with analysing and developing digital services has led me down the path of design thinking and service logic. I truly do believe that there is an enormous potential for the public sector if it would embrace these two concepts not only in words but in action. With that said, it's time to move on to the rant.
Production logic and public services
Even though technology and information management can be complex issues, they are nothing compared to the founding principle of all major public institutions: the functional structure of the organisation and the related budgets. Both serve as a major mental model through which every decision made within different departements are made. Most, if not all, public institutions (and I include all levels from national to municipal in that definition, as well as units within a specific municipality) focus soley on what services they deliver with little or no regard for the citizens, clients och customers needs and service journey. A journey that probably involves many different institutions on both the national, regional and municipal level as well as cross channel communication.This is of course not due to an active choice, but rather a consequence of how budgeting and economic control works. Using a strong over-simplification, you could view budgeting in the public sector as follows:
- Taxes, i e money, are collected into a big common purse.
- The money is divided to different functional units (departements etc) using a yearly budgeting cycle.
- Each functional unit is responsible for due dilligence and control over its own expenses. If the numbers are red at the end of the year, you have to make cuts or hope for a larger budget next year.
In practice this means that a complex issue such as opening a café is divided between several different departements, such as
- the Environment and Health Protection Unit
- the Unit for Licenses and Alchohol
- the Unit for Urban Planning
And each unit have their own budgets to follow, which makes the case for cross functional services, such as a (in part) digital service that helps you through the whole process of opening a café, a hard sell to say the least. This boils down to quite a simple question: who pays for the maintenace and improvement of the service? The Environment and Health Protection Unit? The Unit for Urban Planning? Some other unit? Due to how the budgets work, some functional unit has to own it. And owning implies responsibility for the service as a whole and everything that entails such as coordination, personel and further development. The consequence is that no one is willing to own the process and service, and we deliver poor value as a result. Even though it's painfully obvious that we, as the public sector, do own the process.
Fortunatley there is movement within the public sector toward a more service dominant logic but even then most ideas are based on the old functional organisation. Unit "A" might "own" the process of opening a café, but the ownership mostly implies a coordinating responsibility with no budget or power to implement change. Production logic is still very much alive.
Innovate, how?
Short answer, I don't know. What I do know is that there is a need for change within the public sector that enables the transformation towards a service oriented organisation. Perhaps studying this course could be the start such a transformation?
Recommended reading
Tjänstelogik för offentlig förvaltning: en bok för förnyelsebyråkrater by Martin Fransson och Johan Quist
Competing in a Service Economy: How to Create a Competitive Advantage Through Service Development and Innovation by Michel D. Johnson and Anders GustafssonFörvaltning och medborgarskap i förändring by Katarina Lindblad-Gidlund, Annelie Ekelin, Sara Eriksén and Agneta Ranerup
I reckon we both agree that there is a new movement of public sector (administration) and this movement can be seen as an evolution of public administration thinking and practice and a response to the challenges public administration faces today (like you addresses). I think the core are the values beyond efficiency and effectiveness, maybe your question of how to innovate can be answered by this perspective?
SvaraRaderaHi, there are interesting web-seminars here http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/3209 They try to put a perspective on the issues the public sector has to deal with. I think it should be very interesting to find out what would happen when an organization dare to empower both customers/citizens and the front-line personnel
SvaraRaderaDen här kommentaren har tagits bort av skribenten.
SvaraRaderaVery interesting points. The logic in different public sector is sometimes not rational. There is a need to change the mind of people in public sector to be more open and more creative. In order for that to happen we need strong leadership that allow us to try, get out there on the week ice. I also think we need to work with innovation with a system like design thinking.
SvaraRaderaGood argumentation regarding production and service innovation in public sector.
SvaraRadera/Naveed Anwar
I also worked in the public sector for some years and think it would be really great if the services could focus on citizens, clients och customers needs. Efficiency and effectiveness should be considered and taken into account. I see that other European countries have good examples of how and that we are a little bit behind in the development.
SvaraRadera