NPM
in PA: Reforming Human Resources
by Marlon F. Tagorda
Public
administration has always been a dynamic element of the government which
incessantly responds to the continuous demands of time. For the economy to grow, the government must
able to comply with the requirements of its people. This entails various applications of relative
techniques to prevent the government and its citizens from suffering its
consequent distress.
The public often equate public
administration with corrupt leaders, provides inadequate information, poor
quality services, an extended arm of central powers and violation with existing
laws. Though public administration
existed long before the turn of the 19th century with Max Weber’s
bureaucracy, the perfection of its application was observed to be of bearish
trend. Think tanks have conceptualized a
new approach to better off the general welfare of the people by employing the
market-driven mechanisms.
To maximize efficiency and
effectiveness in governance, one technique that emerged was the New Public
Management (NPM). The Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development in a survey conducted concluded that new
management techniques and practices involving market-type mechanisms associated
with the private sector are being used to bring about changes in the management
of public services in countries that have widely varying governance, economic
and institutional environments (Larbi, 1999).
The
central feature of NPM is the attempt to introduce or simulate, within those
sections of the public service that are not privatized, the performance
incentives and the disciplines that exist in a market environment. According to Metcalfe and Richards as cited
by Larbi (Ibid.), “the assumption is that there are benefits in terms of
efficiency and effectiveness in exposing public sector activities to market
pressures and in using markets to serve public purposes, and that government
can learn from the private sector despite contextual differences.” In addition, Larbi quoted Bienefeld and
Mukandala (Ibid.) that “a noticeable trend in public sector reforms, in the
context of economic crisis and structural adjustment, is that a wider range of
administrative functions and the delivery of public services are being
subjected to the approach.”
The state
may have become leaner and the control of its affairs may be more
manageable. With the NPM, the criticisms
of the stereotyped public administration may be offset. Correspondingly, this innovative approach may
appear to be defenseless and may not be the prime methodology of the state if
the leaders still remain to be off-tangent with its general objectives. Vulnerability of tactics depends largely with
the values of the leaders of the organization.
Government, particularly the
political-administrative leaders, must possess essential values to ensure the
people with equitable benefits.
Twenty-first century leaders must formulate courses of actions to
mobilize resources down to the grassroots level and must have profound respect
for human rights.
In the Philippine setting, lots of
different flagship of every national administration have been introduced and
were cut-off after every turn of new administration. This is one of the reasons why the country
seems not to achieve development. Cutting
shorts every national goals and objectives relative to the foremost leader
brought unsound and wobbly administration.
With the
present administration, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has instituted her
10-point agenda that encompasses vision to promote livelihood, infrastructure,
decentralization and peace process. In
her most recent State of the Nation Address (SONA), PGMA enumerated several
achievements that confer her agenda. Particularly,
she stressed that her administration has invested three times that of three
previous administrations combined in technical and skills training. She even presented one student (Jennifer
Silbor) who has acquired medical transcription skills that paved way to her
significant income. On the contrary,
similar students as Silbor have reported that one institution which implemented
this government training seems to be deflective. Though PGMA has confidently emphasized the
achievement, there were problems encountered.
This may be traced back on the management of this undertaking. Should there have been efficient
implementation and monitoring of every program, there may be no drawbacks. This may be asserted with the manpower that
directly holds the program.
Hence, reform must not at all be
within the system but more importantly and of the greatest essence, within the
human resources of the system. Economist
Toby Monsod presented her research on the Philippine bureaucracy at the
Philippine Economic Society 2008 Conference.
The study discussed inequities, position overlapping and the 2004 personnel
size of the government that accounted to almost 1.5 million employees. These data is the main concern of the New
Public Management – to make the state lean.
In conclusion, reform, primarily in
the system, may have a lesser bearing as it tackles only the institutional
framework of the government. Reform
within the human resources may be more liberally affective as it fundamentally
deals with humans. As the government desires
for a leaner state, the government must take a liberal move to possibly trim
down its size. The government must forgo
some of the inequities and position overlapping by reforming the organization
of each department and/or agency.
Consequently, the government will be easier to manage, programs will be
effectively carried and the expenses relative to the defunct positions can be
utilized for other demands of its citizenry.
Sources:
1.
Arroyo, Gloria. 2009. State of the Nation
Address (SONA). PIA, Manila, Philippines
2.
Larbi, George. 1999. Discussion Paper No. 112
The New Public Management Approach and Crisis States. United Nations Research
Institute for Social Development, Switzerland
3.
Monsod, Toby. 2008. The Philippine
Bureaucracy: Incentive Structures and Implications for Performance. Philippine
Economic Society (PES), Philippines
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