Example Of Lean Approach In Public Management Report

Introduction

The lean approach is developed in Toyota production plants which aims at eliminating wastes in the production according to the needs of the final consumer. This way production can be less costly by using less resources. This Japanese way of production attracts many institutions and they would like to employ this approach to their business. Furthermore, even the public institutions are interested in the Lean Approach.

A manager follows lean approach which brings the followings basically into organizations:

– Determining the value desired by the beneficiaries of a public service,
– Identifying the value line for each public good and service,
– Guaranteing a continuous flow of public goods and services,
– Creating solutions in case of failures,
– Perfecting public goods and services provided.
The lean approach developed to business management in public institutions are distinctively different from private companies and more inefficient comparatively. Because public institutions are not elastic enough to change their processes or even it can be questioned that public institutions might create a soul to apply this approach to their business.
There are many reasons behind inefficient management in public institutions, however, the most essential one is that a business run by a public institution is regulated according to some legal documents and these legislations are mostly very much determining the business environment. Public institution responsibles, in general, care more about doing business compatible with legislations. This motivation leads them into a thinking of not taking major risks. The risk averse approach causes inefficiencies in business. As we know, to be able to get higher efficience or higher profits in any business, one should be able take higher risks under control. In another words, managing higher risks gives higher profits. On the other hand, the lean approach provides a certain way of management which might guarantee some benefits in public management.
In this essay, I will explain how legislations influence business management, how risk averse approach causes inefficiency, and how lean approach might cause some failures. There are some mechanisms which might cause inefficiency at public workplace due to some problems stemming from approach to business: risk averse approach of managers, defining vision and mission, defining work processes, improving processes, taking responsibility behavior, recruiting process, and motivating workers.

Risk Averse Approach of Managers

Defining Vision

Defining Processes

Improvement of Processes

Taking responsibility

The tasks are probably are determined by the management according to the relevant legislations and in case of any failure, none of the managers or the workers will be taken as responsible, instead the legislations will be questioned. Especially in the developed countries, people sue public officers even for little issues, the public officers become more alert about completing what is given (Hines and Lethbridge, 2008).
The most astonishing example of this is the universities in the developing countries. The professors in these countries prefer staying away from the industries, and they prefer teaching for long hours. Because when a professor involves with a company, many people and public managers might blame him for corruption. In this case teaching long hours is less risky. Even we see that the academic promotion system forces professors to stay away from industries. Writing a few article on theoretical issues and publishing them in international journals collects more points for professors more than advising a company. However, this kind of university system creates inefficient universities which cannot compete against international universities (Alp, 2001).

Recruitment Processes

In public business, recruitment process are done according to the legislations. Even a public manager wants to develop business, he might not be able to hire the workers he needs for the development. Instead, he has to work with the people hired out of his control. Another important problem with recruitments in public, even in some developed countries, is the recruitment policies not depending on workers’ competencies. For instance, a diploma or a few certificate can be decision rule in a hiring process and many very well experienced workers might not be hired. In a private company, the manager can decide to hire a person with experience without any diploma and any certificate.
Another problem in recruitment process is a psychological one. Mostly managers in public does not want a possible manager candidate, and because of this, they might refuse hiring very high quality workers. Actually this problem has a reflection on workers’ side: a high quality worker probably will not be willing to work under a manager like that, so he will not be a candidate for public jobs.
Considering risk averse public managers, recruitment processes, in general, does follow the legislations, instead of taking responsibility and hiring more competent people to develop the business.

Motivation at Workplace

References