PROFESSOR AND Chair of Public Administration at Rutgers University in the United States, Dr. Marc Holzer, has commended the Government on its efforts to modernise the public sector but emphasised that Government needs to adopt an integrated approach if it is to achieve significant and comprehensive improvement in productivity in the sector.
He says that significant improvement in productivity will only be achieved when there is integration between the internal capacities of the public sector and the services it is expected to deliver.
He was speaking last Thursday at a two-day symposium held at the Mona Visitors' Lodge and Conference Centre at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus with the theme 'Productivity Improvement: Managing for Quality Outcomes'.
The symposium was organised by the Department of Government, Mona, in conjunction with the Public Sector Reform Unit, Cabinet Office. It brought together public sector managers, members of the academic community and the private sector to discuss productivity enhancement experiences, strategies that have worked, and challenges to improving productivity. It also aimed to develop policies and strategies for productivity improvement within an appropriate 'change timeframe'.
Professor Holzer, who specialises in public sector productivity improvement and is the Founder and Executive Director of the National Centre for Public Productivity, made his comments against the background of the Government's documented reform agenda and vision as set out in its Summary Document of the relevant Ministry Paper, 'Government at your Service: Public Sector Modernisation Vision and Strategy 2002-2012.'
He identified five factors critical to improving productivity in the public sector. These were managing for quality, developing human resources, adapting technologies, building partnerships and measuring for performance.
He argued that any attempt to improve productivity had to have the full support of top management in order to succeed. The public sector needed to be customer focused and there also had to be long-term strategic planning to ensure that goals and objectives were met. Critical to this approach, he said, was employee training and recognition. Employees should be involved in finding solutions to problems, as this would empower them and encourage team work. At the same time he noted that efforts had to be made to continually improve quality so that performance standards would be met.
