Reforming the Public Sector

(MGMT 242) – Fall 2020

Session 2: Conceptual Foundation
(Singapore City Video Guide, 5.27)

Tariq Mahmud
Singapore City Video Guide (5.27)

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Attendance

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House Rules

• Each session is divided into sections

• Each section will have a interactive discussion time before the next section starts

• Each session will have an overall interactive session at end

• Interactive session is meant to be a healthy debate – respect each other views, and give space to other to talk

• Once the lecturer is speaking, rest all to mute their audio

• Everyone to keep the videos on throughout the session

• Everyone to sit at a quite place with no distractions

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Play Back

• Learnt course objectives

• Grading Criteria

• Knew about each other

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Questions ?
Agenda: Session 2

1. Governance & Government

2. Institutions & institutional culture

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Governance

What is Governance ?
• Governance deals with the processes and systems by which a society makes decisions
regarding key policy issues
• The world bank defines it as “the traditions and the institutions by which authority in a
country is exercised. It includes
– Processes by which governments are selected, monitored and replaced

– Capacity of the government to effectively formulate and implement sound policies

– Respect of citizens and the state for the institutions that govern economic and social
interactions”

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Governance

Six Dimensions of Governance

1. Voice and Accountability

2. Political stability & absence of violence

3. Government effectiveness

4. Regulatory quality

5. Rule of law

6. Control of crime

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Government

What is Government

• Government relates to how a society organizes itself and how governance systems are setup

to achieve goals

• All large complex organizations are governed by hierarchical structures, formal rules and

detailed procedures to carry out sable routine tasks in order to achieve organizational

objectives

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Government

Actors of Government
• Political leadership
– Elected, ultimately accountable to the citizens

– Sets the policy direction and environment

• Public Sector
– Runs public institutions to implement policies
– Enable human interaction and exchange
– Created through legislation, required to stay politically neutral but sensitive to social
issues

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Government

• General perception is that government is slow, inflexible, impersonal, energy sapping and
unable to change

– To stay relevant, the government structures need to dynamic, fast flexible, responsive
and constantly changing

– The fundamental roles of government have not changed: promoting economic growth,
maintaining social stability and security.

– Governments have been under pressure to be more entrepreneurial and less cohesive.

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Case-Let of Education Reforms
• Manpower requirement for the economy were forecast and educational intake was adjusted
accordingly. Knowledge based economy required mental flexibility and creativity in the education
system requiring over hauling.
• New ideas were introduced into educational to maximise the potential of every child in the
changed global environment. This led to comprehensive reforms in education management
systems paving the way for changes in the education policies.
Systematic changes in the processes included as follow:
• School management was given more autonomy and authority to organise schools in clusters and
structured development for school principals, flexible sabbaticals, broader based for the school
rankings.
• School infra structure major investment in IT and upgrading of school buildings and provision of
allied facilities.

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Case-Let of Education Reforms
• Career structures and development for the teachers, developing professional capabilities, external
work attachments, more comprehensive salaries, faster promotions for higher performing teachers,
and more support for them.
• Curriculum and assessment: broader and more integrated curriculum requirements, more emphasis
on thinking creativity, reducing over emphasis on examination, second language teaching, focus on
conversation skills.
• Educational structures: more flexibility and diversity, giving more choices to the students,
including integrated programmes that by passed GCE and O level examinations, new subjects,
specialised schools in sports, arts and mathematics and sciences, and private schools, setting of
new polytechnics and universities.
• These set of measures drove the process of education reforms in the country. These changes had to
wade through the Cultural environment that was prevalent and set in motion in the country.

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Culture, a foundation of Dynamic Governance

• Culture denotes certain group beliefs and values, held in common as accumulated shared
learning of a community. It is based on history of shared experience.
• These are scaffolds of human erect, shape the nature of institutional choices for the
survival and advancement of society. It affects Governance in three ways, i.e. Constrains
the agenda and policy making process , issues contrary to cultural values will find least
acceptance.
• Cultural norms are often used to confront the consideration of innovative policy options
that contradict them.
• The third cultural values and norms Catalyse decision makers to actively for alternative
ideas. The effect of these values and beliefs are significant and are achieved through a
process of socialisation. Common social and cultural perceptions are transferred to the
coming generation.
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Dynamic Governance Choices
• Five principles set the tone for dynamic governance choices.
• First of all it is the principle of anti corruption based on the settled belief of integrity and service to
society.
• Secondly, the principle of meritocracy, economic and social development depends on the value of
people’s knowledge and skills rather than on the family background and social status.
• Third is the principle of rationality on strong value of performance and focus on results.
• Fourthly the principle of market prices as the best means of efficiency and allocation of resources
with government intervening to provide safety nets for those who were needy and couldn’t afford
to pay.
• Fifth, the principle of multi racialism, achieving domestic stability through harmonious
relationship between different groups of the people of various races and faiths.
• These values and principles influence the choice of policies, how they are designed implemented
and evaluated. They provide the criteria for decision making.
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Questions ?
Institutions

What are the institutions

• The Government functions through its institutions based on social rules and legal
framework within which the activities takes place

• They provide constraints and incentives for certain set of actions

• Economic and social transactions move from personal to impersonal exchange based on
division of labor, specialization of knowledge and economies of scale

• May have formally constituted rules, laws or informal constraints and self imposed codes

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Institutional Culture

• Usage of knowledge and resources to perform a coordinated task to achieve specific results

– Knowledge is conceived as know how embedded in organization’s activities

– Resources are tangible assets such as specialized equipment, and in-tangible assets such
as knowledge, skills, expertise that enables an organization to execute strategies for the
desired outcome

• Underline combining routines

– Routines are regular ways of doing repetitive tasks of daily business activities, executed
semi automatically in response to input flows

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Questions ?
Play Back

• The concept of Governance and Government

• Institutions and Institutional capabilities

• Shit from slow moving bureaucracy to entrepreneurial and responsive setup

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Questions ?
Thanks