MANAGING WITH LESS

Managers everywhere are faced always with problems of scarcity, with setting priorities, making trade-offs and allocating short resources. One part of the administrative task is necessarily about getting the most done for the least cost. But is Australian government administration now entering a particularly severe period of restraint, which will place even sharper challenges upon managers in the public service? I think the answer to this question is yes, and that there is general agreement about this within the public service itself. Problems of managing with less are therefore contemporary and pressing; and this paper is a summary of ways in which those problems are being approached. One way issues in calls for improved efficiency in government. This is not, however, a straightforward matter at all. Improvements or so called improvements to efficiency will always meet some resistance for a mixture of reasons. Some managers think that the need for change is not as great as critics maintain, so giving them no cause to do more than continue their normal practices of good management. Others see a renewed emphasis on efficiency as cutting into the resources properly available to the public service, so harming the community which the administration is supposed to serve. Managing with less is not then merely a technical issue. It involves questions about the meaning of efficiency and the role of management, and also judgments about the nature of the period in which we live and about who gains and who loses when we do indeed have to manage with less: that is, political and even moral considerations are mixed up with considerations of good management and efficiency. These matters of value, choice and conflict cannot be avoided.     

MANAGING IN NETWORK SETTINGS

The focus of this article is on managing networks. A network knowledge base is developed from the authors' studies of city government involvement in economic development, management within rural enterprises and the evaluation of a rural strategic planning project. Other public management network analyses are also incorporated. Management in network settings is not based on central authority and cannot be guided by a single organizational goal as is the case in the classical management approach. Management involves managing flexible structures toward collective efficiency. The ability to manage is related to the internal condition of the manager's primary organization. It involves technical, legal, political and cost dimensions. It requires different capacities, skills and knowledge from that of single organization management. The next steps in the research would include the development of the skills needed, an analysis of the role of organizational power and the operational variables of networks, the issue of network cohesion, and the question of loss of control or difficulty in assessing network accountability.     

MANAGING TRANSPORT INTEGRATION IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Abstract: By 1970 the transport portfolio in South Australia consisted of over a dozen government departments and statutory authorities of differing sizes and varying degrees of independence from the State Government. Each organization, by inclination or statutory requirement, tended to carry out its modal responsibilities without reference to the others, with the result that matters which did not fall clearly into the jurisdiction of one or another remained undone and transport problems remained unresolved. The development of area-wide land use planning in the 1960s and integrated economic planning in recent years were hindered by the inability of the transport portfolio to respond to such plans, or to enunciate a single transport policy for a given planning or developmental scenario. Since 1970 successive South Australian governments have pursued a policy of gradual integration of the transport portfolio. This paper reports on the progress achieved after ten years, problems confronted during this period, and prospects for further integration. Comparisons are made with other Australian States and the Commonwealth Government's transport administration.     

MANAGING WITH LESS: DIMENSIONS AND ISSUES

Thank you for inviting me to open the Institute's National Conference this year. Your program looks most interesting and relevant to modern public sector administration. I accepted your invitation on the basis that I would make personal observations – comments of a manager turned Minister. Nothing that I say should necessarily be identified with my Department or fellow Ministers. Rather, I speak as a person in government who is interested in and concerned with change, increased efficiency and improved national productivity.     

MANAGING MUNICIPAL SERVICES IN AN ERA OF DECUNING FEDERAL ASSISTANCE

Federal aid to local governments was cutback throughout the Reagan administration. In dealing with these revenue cutbacks, ex-recipients have a variety of options, to find new sources of revenue or reduce expenditures. Based on the perspectives of local government budget officials and environmental data, this study attempts to determine which governments will be most successful in minimizing service cutbacks in this environment. Using a cross-sectional analysis and data concerning federal revenue sharing, we find both support and differences for many predictors found in previous case-studies of fiscal stress. The differences likely stem from the new cutback environment. This study illustrates that management strategies under fiscal decentralization are strategic and not haphazard.     

AN ASBESTOS HAZARD INDEX FOR MANAGING FRIABLE ASBESTOS INSULATING MATERIAL1

This paper describes the development of an index to evaluate the potential hazard associated with the presence of asbestos in friable insulating material in a building and to recommend the appropriate action to take based on this assessment. The hazard index is determined by the number of persons exposed to asbestos fibers and by the level of their exposure. The level of the exposure is estimated from subjective assessments of several characteristics of the facility and its operations. The logic of this approach and several illustrations of its use are provided.     

MANAGING AUSTRALIA'S POLICE: THE CHALLENGE TO IDENTIFY WHO SHOULD BE IN CHARGE—POLITICIANS OR POLICE?

Abstract: The management of police by government in Australia is a controversial but neglected topic, with little research or theoretical work having been undertaken. What is clear from the limited information available is that governments tend to adopt an arms-length policy and allow police to act with a greater degree of independence than they do with many other government agencies. What underpins this approach is the traditional British model for managing police. This model is considered in this paper, along with other matters such as local police statutes, discretion, statutory authority status and accountability. These aspects of the arms-length approach are discussed in the light of current policy-making and accountability systems. Consideration is also given to the question of whether this approach by government is still appropriate.     

DIFFERING OPINIONS DO NOT SPOIL FRIENDSHIPS: MANAGING PUBLIC–PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP (PPP) INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS IN JORDAN

This research investigates the approaches, strategies and challenges facing the management of the implementation phase of public–private partnership (PPP) projects in Jordan. Jordan is a newer but common user of PPPs in the Middle Eastern region, where PPPs not only are of economic strategic importance but also entail significant investment risk given resource scarcity. This research involves semi‐structured interviews with senior managers representing different partnering organisations in two case study organisations in Jordan. The research finds that, despite the management difficulties confronting PPP managers, strategies adopted by them limit the impact of these challenges. The research makes an important theoretical contribution in providing a detailed analysis of effective PPP management approaches in response to difficulties at the implementation phase, which had not been systematically explored in extant PPP research, and broadens PPP research to the Jordanian context. Moreover, the research contributes greater understanding of how partnerships should be effectively managed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.