2 • Continued from Page 1 Post Bureaucracy Models Public Sector organisations by their very structure and nature reflect Weber’s bureaucratic legal-rational framework with structured hierarchies; formalisation of decision-making; centralisation of authority; rational systems based on rules and regulations and advancement based, still to a large extent, on seniority and ‘know who’. There has been, however, a steady movement towards transformation in public sector organisations throughout the Caribbean region as they struggle to stay afloat in the midst of social, economic and technological advancements. In this new context of the post-industrial public sector organisation with a keen focus on services and resilience, new management techniques are being adopted in an attempt to reform and transform. There is now the post-bureaucratic public sector, characterized by collaboration, trust, negotiation, teamwork and decentralisation of authority. The new model of public service operations, based on New Public Management (NPM) as a philosophy, advocates a shift in emphasis from rule enforcement and administration to the attainment of results through mission statements, performance management, performance-based rewards, greater client focus, decentralised structures and an output orientation. Indeed, the challenges of the changing times and effects of devastating events in our Caribbean region have recently given rise to touting of the concept of ‘Organisational Resilience’. Public Sector organisations are seeing the need to become more resilient in the face of adversity and committing themselves to becoming more agile, adaptable, flexible and responsive to the needs of citizens. This rethinking is driven by the realities that traditional bureaucracy may be inadequate to cope with the myriad global changes and therefore public sector organisations have no choice but to move beyond basic survival, reinvent the wheel to stay relevant, and press on in these threatening environments. Only flexible, agile and adaptable organisations will survive. 21st Century Public Sector These rolling trends of reinventing the public sector have significant implications not only for transforming the nature of public administration and its relationship with the citizenry, but also for role, structure, systems and the management of human resources. In a climate of budget cuts and an inflated workforce where competency-based job-fit is still a challenge, a 21st Century Public Sector implies a further radical shakeup to the status quo. The following schema therefore focuses on public sector transformation in general and exemplifies the characteristics of the 21st Century Public Sector, which are necessary in order to achieve high resilience status and desired results. • Continues on next page
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