SECTION I 7.21.1.14 Policy
2.3 PUBLIC MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENT
On the other hand, management technology has however, been devised to suit any particular setting inspired by the urge to rationalise public decisions. The Industrial Revolution introduced new forms of technology and organisation where people were replaced by machines and mass production systems where established. In this era, the emphasis is on technological development and the trend towards work specialisation acted as obstacles to the formulation of an integrated and systematic study of production Fox et. al. (1991:275). Until the end of the 19th century the decision making relied
on
the cumulative experience of the managers and the mental patterns of that time.2.3.1 VALUES
According to Klingner (1980: 20), a system of shared beliefs or values underpins any institution. In a democratic public administration system, important values influence both the systems and the attendant resource management discussions and actions. In a very real sense, these values provide the basis for the norms that should govern the conduct of the public sector resource managers (Schwella et. al. 1996: 15).
2.3.l.1 Constitutionalism
Constitutionalism requires that all actions by public resource managers should be according to their country's constitution. In a democratic society the Constitution provides a framework for the rights and obligations of citizens, the state and its officials.
It attempts to protect human rights, entrench democratic governance and ensure proper practice in public organisations. The constitution is a country's supreme authority and the action for special courts in which citizens can enforce their right against the state and its administrative institutions.
In this way, citizens have protection against arbitrary, unconstitutional actions of the state authority and public officials (Schwella et. al. 1996:15).
2.3.l.2 Democratic Values
Democratic values underpin the ideas of popularly elected representatives systems of governance and public administration. Democratic values include amongst others:
- representativity;
legitimacy;
transparency;
responsiveness; and accountability.
All these values have important implications for public resource management.
2.3.1.3 Economic Values
Public organisations, fulfilling a vital role and providing essential services, use scarce societal resources. The nature and size of the public sector relative to the country's economic resources enhance the importance of these roles. The extent to which public organisations can use their economic clout to influence the use of scarce resources depends on national economic policy and the country's level of development. Even in the developed market oriented countries, public sector organisations, adhering to standard economic values and principles, playa significant part in the economy. The extent of their participation underlines the need for public sector adherence to universally accepted economic practices (Schwella et. al. 1996: 16).
Important economic values are effectiveness, efficiency and productivity. Measuring effectiveness, efficiency and productivity is often more complicated in the public sector.
There are many reasons for this, including the complexity of goals and objectives aimed at improving the quality of life and the often-conflicting assessments made because of public sector management's highly politicised context. It is however, still very important to strive towards improved performance (Schwella et. al. 1996:16-17).
2.3.1.4 Other values
There is no finite, final or exhaustive list of values public resource managers must consider when making decisions or taking actions. This is due to the dynamic and changing societal and public sector contexts within which public resource managers must make their decisions. It is also difficult to provide a logistical classification scheme for values as they change continuously, and are also subject to, being classified under different categories.
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The following values are therefore, classified as "other values:
societal equity;
rule of law;
professionalism; and entrepreneurship.
Values provide guidelines for public resource managers' decision and action. They are one part of the context of public resource management. The general and specific component of the environment and laws are other parts (Schwella et. aI. 1996:18).
A brief discussion of the general environment follows:
2.3.2 THE GENERAL ENVIRONMENT
The general environment refers to all those factors external to an organisation that influences the management of an organisation. According to Schwella (1996:18) the components of the general environment can be identified as follows, viz:
2.3.2.1 Political Component
The political component impacts on the political system to deal with fundamental political demands of the people:
public managers need to be aware of the impact that the political system has on organisations;
political ideas, philosophy and political ideology form the basis of the political environment; and
public organisations are influenced by national power and process structures such as political parties, pressure and interest groups, political policy, governmental laws, acts and regulations as well as political and executive authorities.
2.3.2.2 Economic Component
The economic component comprises key issues such as national income, reducing poverty and unemployment, equitable distribution of wealth and job creation:
the economic system of a society is the way in which society creates and distributes wealth;
economIC ideas, philosophy and ideology provide a basis for international and national economic structures and processes;
national economic factors include the structure of the economic growth, inflation trends, rates of exchange, trends, balance of payment trends and saving and investment trends and
climatic conditions to be taken into account since they influence the availability if land, water, mineral and energy resources, as well as the international competitiveness of the national economy.
2.3.2.3 Cultural Component
The cultural component is intertwined with cultural beliefs, practices and customs.
the cultural system of a society includes the basic beliefs, attitudes, role definitions, and interactions of that society; and
the family, religious institutions and educational institutions transmit cultural patterns from one generation to the next, they also redefine and build upon cultural values.
2.3.2.4 Technological Component
The technological component impacts on efficiency, effectiveness, speed, accuracy and precision:
the technological environment refers to the use of machinery and processes to produce and distribute goods and services; and
public managers need to consider the importance of the technological environment which influences their functioning in public organisations.
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2.3.2.5 Social Component
The social environment necessitates the provision of basic services in order to improve the quality of life of the community.
For management and organisational purposes, the social environment includes trends regarding demographic characteristics of the population, trends affecting urbanisation, human development and improvement in the social being of the people.
2.3.3 THE SPECIFIC ENVIRONMENT
The general environment of public resource management in the specific environment is influenced by various trends. The influence of the general environment on the resource management system is constant but they are not easily observable. The specific environment comprises of regulators, suppliers, consumers and competitors. They act as focus mechanism throwing the more general trends into stark relief for the organisation and its managerial system. This provides the means for an organisation to experience its environment.
Schwella in Fox et al (1991:21-23) presented the following as components of the specific environment namely:
• regulators;
• suppliers;
• consumers and competitors.
2.3.3.1 Regulators
Regulators mediate control or regulate the relationship between the organisation and its suppliers, consumers and competitors. Regulators are vested with the authority to determine enforceable rules with which the organisation falling under their authority has to abide. These regulators also have powers to sanction deviant organisations or the deviant behaviour of the organisation functionaries. Within the public sector and governmental contexts the authority, coercive powers and sanctioning capacity are
usually formally defined and described by statutory provision. These regulating authorities are sometimes mandated by citizens to serve as their controlling agents in an organisation, or they derive their power from being suppliers of resources to the organisation (Schwella et. al. 1996:21).
2.3.3.2 Suppliers
Suppliers produce, mobilise and allocate various resources to particular organisations. In public organisations, financial resources are mobilised by taxes, levies or service and are allocated to public organisations according to political and policy priorities. Political support for initiating and implementing action programmes is one of the important resources required by public organisations.
Suppliers of resources gain power over the organisations or individuals they supply. One of the consequences is that these suppliers also gain authority and power to act as regulators over their customers, (Schwella et. al. 1996:22).
2.3.3.3 Consumers
Consumers make voluntary use of services or they may be compelled to consume the services provided. Consumers of products or services supplied by public organisations in a democracy are often empowered to act for them, (Schwella et. al. 1996:22).
Consumers of products or services supplied by public organisations in a democracy are often empowered to act as regulators or to elect or appoint regulators to act for them. As taxpayers and voters consumers are also suppliers of economic or political resources, for this reason their preference and views may have important consequences for the functioning of public organisations (Schwella et. al. 1996:22).
2.3.3.4 Competitors
Competitors comprise of those societal institutions competing for scarce resources with the public organisation concerned.
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It is important to note the fact that the study takes into account two other approaches which in this regard would be fused together. This is the Cloete and Public management model. These processes relate specifically to the following, Cloete (1998:86-87).
2.3.4 LAWS
/ Law profoundly influences and affects public resource management. The legally become binding authoritative norm with which people have to comply. In this sense, they have a wider authority than they do as acts of legislative bodies, for example, parliaments, provincial legislatures and or local councils. They encompass, for example, the rule of common and customary law. Also included are the enforceable regulators passed by executive and administrative authorities, Acts, ordinances, bylaws and regulations passed by competent and authoritative rule making institutions in the legislative, executive, administrative and judicial branches of government, constituting the body of statutory law. Laws also directly affect the policies of public resource management. Some of the influences and implications are as follows (Schwella et. al .1996:23):
• Policy and planning influences;
• System design influences;
• Implementation influence; and
• Evaluation influence.
2.4 NORMATIVE FACTORS THAT IMPACT ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT