STUDENT COPY

C6: Public Systems Management

Student Assessment Booklet

Copyright
© Commonwealth of Learning, 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this course may be reproduced in any form by any means
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 2 Copyright

Commonwealth of Learning
1055 West Hastings Street
Suite 1200
Vancouver, BC V6E 2E9
CANADA

Email: info@col.org

Acknowledgements
The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) wishes to thank those below for their contribution to the
development of this course:

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 Sugath Ranugge
Open University of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka

Abuzar Wajidi, PhD

University of Karachi, Pakistan

Educational designers Symbiont Ltd.

Otaki, New Zealand

Course editor Symbiont Ltd.

Otaki, New Zealand

COL would also like to thank the many other people who have contributed to the writing of this
course.

Contents
Course outline and schedule 2

Case studies 3
Cases presented in the course............................................................................................3
Case study requirements....................................................................................................3

Assignment 1 4
Case study #1.....................................................................................................................5

Assignment 2 8
Case study #2.....................................................................................................................9
 Assignment 2

Course outline and schedule

WEEK ACTIVITY

1 Module One – Introduction to public administration

2 Module Two – Public administration and organisational theories

3 Assignment 1: Case study #1 (15 per cent)

4 Module Three – Management approach to public administration

5 Module Four – Ethics and public administration

6 Module Five – Managing human resources

7 Module Six – Public finance and budgeting

8 Assignment 2: Case study #2 (15 per cent)

9 Module Seven – Inter-governmental administration

10 Module Eight – Development administration

11 Review of Examination Questions

12 Final Examination Part 1– Case study #3 (20 per cent)

13 Final Examination Part 2 (50 per cent)

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Case studies

Cases presented in the course

Case study #1: Department of Commerce, by Robert Dibie, 2010.

Case study #2: Ethical Dilemma in Local Government, prepared by

Robert Dibie, 2009.

Case study requirements

The case studies in this booklet include all the cases that are required to
complete the required assignments and examination. There are mini case
studies and activities for the student to complete within the modules as
reflective self-paced assessments and the answers to these are provided at
the end of each module

Cases should be no longer than 10 pages typed in length. Students may

use course materials and/or additional resources. Questions and marking
schemes are provided for each case study assignment to help guide the
student in completing the case analysis. Cases are graded on a 100-point
scale. Each case will constitute 15 per cent of the course grade. The third
case is part of the final examination and will constitute 20 per cent.

The final exam will consist of short-answer questions and a case study.
There is no page length limitation for the case study on the final exam.
The exam is worth 70 per cent of the total course grade.

Assignment 2
Course code: C6

Course title: Public system management

Assignment Coverage: Modules 3–6 (Other modules may also be used)

Students are expected to read the case study and provide a detailed

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 Assignment 2

analysis. Your completed assignment should be sent to the co-ordinator

of the study centre you are attached to.

Section A (90 marks)

As the new director of the code of ethics or conducts for the local
government, evaluate the ethical issues.

1. Who are the main actors in the case and what are their interests
and responsibilities in the city? (25 points)

2. What were the circumstances and factors that led to the unethical
crisis in the city? What type of issue is it? (20 points)

3. Provide a detailed analysis of the nature of the ethical problems

facing the city. (20 points)

4. Provide a detailed recommendation plan of action on how to solve

the city’s ethical problems, as well as the type of punishment that
could be imposed on those officers found guilty of unethical
behavior. (25 points)

Section B (10 marks)

1. Define very briefly what Human Resource Management is in
public organizations.
2. List and describe ten responsibilities that Senior HR Managers
in public organizations have and must execute for excellent
organizational performances.

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Case study #2

Ethical Dilemma in Local Government, prepared by

Robert Dibie, 2009.
Case study

As the new director of the code of ethics or conducts for the local
government, evaluate the ethical issues in the following case study:
Mr Karo sat in his office at the city of Ozoro in Isoko North Local
Government area, and pondered his ethical dilemma. During his 35 years
of service to the city Mr Karo had worked in different capacities. He had
served as assistant manager, manager and acting director respectively in
the budgeting, transportation, tax, auditing, mayor’s office, payroll,
accounting and planning departments. Mr Karo has a brother called Mr
Ajiri who he trained in college. Mr Ajiri graduated from college with a
master of business administration and a master of public administration
degrees, and became a successful businessman in the city of Ozoro.
Three months after Mr Karo had made a presentation to the city council
the new mayor hit it off and became friends with him. Over lunch two
weeks after they became close friends, the mayor mentioned to Mr Karo
that his brother Mr Ajiri had a good chance of getting a $5 million-a-year
contract from the city. The contract was a five-year deal to build a new
school, as well as install pumps for the city of Ozoro’s Town Hall. The
mayor also informed Mr Karo that his brother’s (Mr Ajiri’s) bid was
somewhat higher than the rest, and that he should lower it. Mr Karo
thanked the mayor for the information and asked his brother, Mr Ajiri, to
resubmit a bid slightly lower than the previous one.
A week later, the mayor called Mr Karo and told him that there was the
probability that Mr Ajiri would get the contract for the new school and
the replacement pumps. The mayor, however, requested a small gift of
$50,000 for the contract — in essence a bribe. At first Mr Karo told the
mayor that he would think about it. Mr Karo called his brother, Mr Ajiri,
and delivered the mayor’s message. Mr Karo told Mr Ajiri that it was
against Trinidad and Tobago law to offer a bribe to anyone in order to
secure privileged information or contracts. Mr Ajiri was, however, more
concerned with how he could get the contract than in obeying the law. Mr
Ajiri told his older brother, Mr Karo, to do whatever it took to secure the
contract for him. This seems to be a black-and-white decision, but Mr
Karo knew differently. After 35 years with the local government civil
service, Mr Karo recognised that if he was caught giving the mayor a
bribe, he could probably be fired. With retirement only a few years away,
he needed his pension. Mr Karo, however, had to succumb to the pressure
from his brother and they went ahead and fulfilled the demands of the
mayor.

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 Assignment 2

It will be recalled that as soon as the mayor was elected, he redesigned

the structure of the city administration without consulting the city council.
The new structure of the city administration has fallen into disfavor,
however, because he was insensitive to human needs and not worried
about the impact on the changing political environment. The mayor tends
to use double standards in the implementation of city policies. While the
human resources and public works department directors’ functions were
centralized, the mayor allowed the five directors whom he hired himself
to perform decentralized functions.
The fact that the mayor redesigned the organization without consulting
with the city council, deputy mayor, and the some directors created
tension in the city. This act made the city council, deputy mayor, and
some directors lose a sense of ownership as well as preventing them from
doing their job effectively.
On the one hand, the mayor wanted to improve performance in the city,
however, he ignored the importance of economic effectiveness and
employee satisfaction. Employees’ satisfaction should have been one of
the goals of the city. He fired 200 employees and discriminated against
older people and women in the city’s administration. On the other hand,
the mayor’s domination of city management blocked the basic human
needs of staff being able to express themselves and to accomplish tasks
successfully. Such dissatisfaction had led to a high employee turnover
rate and poor performance. The city’s workforce performance would have
been enhanced if the mayor had promoted people’s feelings of self-worth.
Thus, the mayor systematically promoted the old boy network and
underplayed the importance of dedicated employees who had been with
the city administration for more than five years. The mayor rigidly
controlled employees' activities in the city’s administration.
In another development Mr Karo’s boss, Dr Oyigbo, the chief accountant
of the local government, denied Mr Karo promotion to become senior
accountant. Six weeks after the incident, Ms Bola — an accountant with
the local government — noticed Mr Karo behaving in an odd manner. He
left early and came to work late. One Sunday morning, Ms Bola went into
the office to complete the job she had started on Friday afternoon. She
found Mr Karo in the office that morning copying some of the software
the local government uses in auditing and consulting. A few weeks later
at a dinner party Ms Bola overheard a conversation about Mr Karo doing
consulting work for some small firms. At work the next Monday
morning, she asked Mr Karo if what she heard was true. It was the policy
of the city for senior employees not to do business with any of their
clients’ organizations. This is because such an act could constitute a
breach of the ethics or the code of conduct of the city government. The
city is strongly committed to implementing its policies and regulatory
programs.
Mr Karo responded, “Yes it is true. I have a few clients that I do work for
on occasions, but they are located outside the city.” “Don’t you think
there is a conflict of interest between you and the local government?” Mr.
Karo replied: “I was counting on that promotion to help pay some extra
bills. My oldest son decided to go to a private university, which cost an
extra $20,000. In addition, our medical plan at the local government does

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 C6: Public Systems Management

not cover some problems my wife has. In addition, you do not want to
know the cost. The only way I can afford to pay for all these things is to
do some extra work on the side.”
Apart from this incident, Ms Bola knew that Mr Karo, one of her valued
employees, was stealing from the local government office — not much,
and in a way that no one but Ms Bola would ever know. Ms Bola also
knew that without Mr Karo, her unit could never complete a newly
assigned task on time. She decided to do nothing about bringing the
stealing incident to a stop and secretly hoped that success in the new
assignment would bring about a long-desired promotion and get her out
of the awkward situation.
After the new project ended, Ms Bola was promoted to be the city senior
accountant. Ms Bola arrived at work one morning and found an envelope
delivered by the mayor filled with receipts from a recent trip he took to an
economic development conference. Included were receipts from a four-
day vacation the mayor and his wife took at a Caribbean Island resort. It
was clear that the mayor wanted the city to reimburse him for everything
included in the envelope.
Six months into her new position as the city senior accountant, Ms Bola
conducted a random check on long-distance telephone calls at the city
mayor’s office. She found that 30 per cent of long distance calls were
personal (though charged to the city government). The cost of the calls
was estimated at $43,000 for three months and, by extrapolation, almost
$200,000 a year for the whole city. Many calls were placed to homes of
employees or their relatives, while others were calls to pre-recorded
messages, such as time and temperature, horoscope and financial
information. Penalties for unauthorised use of city telephone lines include
fines, suspension and dismissal. Ms Bola was very reluctant to fire
several of the guilty staff at the local government so she decided to cover
up her findings about the wrongful use of telephones.