Public sector management for the next century: towards a radical agenda

Abstract

Taking responsible wellbeing for all as objective and direction, this paper seeks a basis for a radical pro-poor agenda for public sector management. This follows the convention of standing normal bureaucracy, professionalism and behaviour on their heads. It seeks to achieve three Ds - decentralisation, democracy and diversity - through three Ps - changes which are procedural (or institutional), professional and personal. Procedurally, this inverts normal top-down control-oriented bureaucracy in favour of minimum rules for self-organismg local systems "on the edge of chaos", and replaces targets with trust. Professionally, it shifts values from things to people, from reductionist measurement to holistic judgement, and from the uniform and universal to the diverse and local. Personally, it changes the roles of "uppers" from teaching and controlling to facilitating and enabling. The personal dimension in development is neglected. For pro-poor public sector management, personal awareness, commitment and action are crucial. Participatory Poverty Assessments (PPAs) have revealed policy priorities of poor people, often at variance from those of professionals. Drawing on evidence and ideas from participatory methodologies such as participatory rural appraisal (PRA), the paper asks to what extent the incentives of fulfilment from personal disempowennent and generosity can outweigh losses. A pro-poor agenda is proposed for procedural, professional and personal change. A pedagogy for the non-oppressed stresses immersion learning, PPAs, and behaviour and attitudes training. The greatest methodological challenge for the 21 st century is how to tackle the personal dimension. "It is not that we should simply seek new and better ways for managing society, the economy and the world. The point is that we should fundamentally change how we behave" Vaclav Havel 1992