Free Essay About Public Organizations

Differences in organizations of different sectors and contradictory expectations of managers and leaders in organizations

Organizations deal in different sectors that may include public, private sectors. Different type of sectors has its own set of different features. The main difference among organizations operation in different sectors are as follows:
First and foremost difference is that private sector organizations are not owned by state or government as the case may be with public sector organizations, which are owned by government and their sole motive is to serve the citizens. Public sector organizations keep in view that each individual has a separate set of rights that must not be violated and each person must be getting their rights without any loss to the rights of any other person. The examples of private sector organization include retail stores or any home businesses that may be profit-oriented or not-for-profit. Not-for-profit organizations include charitable organizations. Secondly, the size of public sector organizations is bigger than private organizations and their structures are more complex. Public organizations exhibit lesser chances of making progress and success whereas private organizations have profit as a measure of performance. Therefore, it is easier to bring betterment in private sector organizations’ performance. In private sector market competition is the priority whereas public sector has autonomous bodies having monopoly. Despite of these and many other differences there has been seen the influence of business-like practices on the governmental organizations such as increased influence of business administration. There is an increased market appeal in public sector organizations. Due to this overlapping of two sectors various ethical issues have emerged so far. However, a major difference exists that is the most preferred task is the accountability of different people for the performance of different tasks, whereas in private sector profitability is the major concern.
A manger is a decision making authority that is concerned with bringing in rationality in organizational decisions. Manager is someone who aids the employees to bring the best output and ensure their efficiency. Leaders is also focused upon managing other people. But the major difference is that the manger’s apprehension is solely related to the organization of which it is a part. Whereas, leader has a sense like an artist and is deeply concerned by the feelings and matters that people actually come across in order to make people feel at relief. So, the manger’s actions are influenced by the organization whereas the actions of a leader are influenced by the sense to maintain the welfare of people in general. Hence to conclude the manager will expect his/her employees to be goal oriented and put in the best effort to achieve organizational goals. Contrary to this, the leaders expect to maintain employee well-being and happiness through their decisions. Managers tend to work with a large number of people and show minimal involvement with those people. But leaders are expected to be more involved with people in their sub-ordination.

Ethical theory, ethical challenges and commitment to obligations

The importance of ethics cannot be negated in the field of public organization. The public organizations are very much focused on the profitability solely are not very likely to succeed in long run if they do not show consideration towards business ethics. Public organization ethics is not a new term and has many theories linked with the practical implication and urging need of ethics in the field of business. For that purpose, three normative business ethics theories are stakeholder, stockholder and social contract theory. Among all the stockholder theory of ethics is the oldest one that explains the stockholders are on one end providing capital to the organization on the other end. Therefore, managers of the organization to which capital has been provided will act for the conservation of rights of stockholders. Stockholders and mangers are in direct agency contract where managers are bound to invest the capital in profitable public organization activities and show no sign of deception. This stockholder theory provides the basis of utilitarianism (an ethical approach) in which the welfare of every party is taken into consideration. The stakeholder theory indicates that the organization must give equal importance to the right of all stakeholders not only stockholders. Hence, any conflict between the parties must be dealt in a way to maintain a balance among all stakeholders (the parties to be affected by the decisions of organization). The social contract theory explains the existence of an implicit contract between the society and a public organization entity. According to this theory, no such decision must be taken by the organization that violates the sustainability of the society.
The moral and ethical issues faced by the organizations have become a routine in daily functioning of the organizations. Some examples of ethical challenges are discrimination among employees, leaking out the personal details of employees to the outside party, harassment, lower morale of the employees, fraud, concealment or misrepresentation of facts, deception etc. If the organizations are not involved in public organization practices that are morally right then it will be harmful for the company itself. The conflict arises due to the fact that the public organization objectives may differ from the moral objectives. However, with the disadvantages of not following the public organization ethics, there are advantages linked with those leaders that show commitment with the ethical obligations. Cultivating an ethical culture in an organization is a lengthy procedure however if any organization succeed in getting ethical staff and appropriate implementation of ethical rules then they achieve superior performance in the long run. Any unethical organization can make progress in the short run but they fail in their public organizations in long run. In addition to this showing commitment to ethical obligations help the organization to earn various competitive advantages such as high level of commitment and sense of loyalty among employees. In this way company earn goodwill in the community that helps in attracting and retaining good employees, suppliers and customers. The commitments to ethical obligation include the presence of open communication among all possible stakeholders of the organization. If any matter related to any stakeholder arises, any organizational party must be held responsible for dealing with that issue in full confidentiality. It is the obligation of organization to provide on the job training to staff regarding ethics and dealing with ethical dilemmas. Above all, the elimination of discrimination within the organization is required. All these points relate to better organizational performance and better reputation in the community.

Developing leadership skills

Leaders are inherently different and tend to consider them separate from the environment. They may not be having exceptional academic record but something different that distinguishes them from others. However, according to researches on the development of leadership skills in individuals, it has been found that the most important source for a person to learn and adapt skills is by means of his peer group (close relatives, friends etc). But organizations can also cultivate leadership skills among their employees by taking certain measures. As it has been a myth mentioned before as well that the leadership skills are learnt best through peers, therefore the organization can constitute peer group consisting of members from different backgrounds such as sales, marketing, human resource management etc, and put them together in a group. When these people will interact with one another, they are likely to be exposed to criticism, communication and interpersonal interactions and thus their skills are supposed to enhance. Other approaches of training individuals to become efficient leaders include conceptual development, personal growth, skill building and feedback. Mostly schools and colleges offering the course of leadership development make use of existing theories and concept and hence use conceptual development approach whereas personal growth approach includes the polishing of personal skills by arranging a set of adventurous activities. In skills development approach specific related skills are given importance and individual feedback taken from the subject, trainer or peer is necessary for the self-analysis to become a leader.
Communication plays an important role in achieving the objectives. The organization should be focused on developing interpersonal as well as cross cultural communication strengths at the stage of developing affective leaders. Interpersonal communication skills can be polished by observing the gestures of trainer by non-verbal means, listening to what other has to say also aids in betterment of interpersonal skills. Moreover, after properly listening, responding appropriately is the next step. The suitability of response should be judged by the amount of satisfaction that other party feels. Effective communication means communicating in a way that is easily understandable by the other party. The cross-cultural communication is a part and parcel of multinational and global organizations, where employees have to communicate the message clearly to the employees of other offices (in other countries). In order to bridge this gap, organizations have to train the employees in a way that their message is conveyed without any discrepancy to the receiving party. The trick to succeed in cross-cultural communication is by using the suitable use of facial expression. Such as, an employee should be courteous both by words and by facial expressions when reaching the outside person.
While communicating, global leaders must ASK, SEEK and KNOCK which as an acronym as defined by Matthew. The full forms of these acronyms are given below:
ASK means starting off with acquiring the basic knowledge about the culture in which leader is looking forward to deal. After getting understanding of national cultures, the leader should know about the customs of communication and decision making that is very much specific to any particular culture. The knowledge about the language of people living in that particular culture is necessary for the leader’s effective cross-cultural communication. SEEK comprises of the factors such as after giving the idea to the team of sub-ordinates, they must be taught about efficient listening prior to speaking. Then it is necessary to be friendly while communicating with others, it will bring people closer. Lastly, having knowledge of language of time is also necessary. Language of time means understanding the non-verbal gestures or symbols and comprehends them. KNOCK comprises of activities such as language of space should be understood which understands the other person by observing their offices or workplaces. Next local perspective is considered and accepting the cultural differences by being open to the new ideas that are unique to the particular cultural context. Lastly, educating and training other team members and being patient with them are the key to success.
Some ways by means of which leaders can improve their interpersonal communication are smiling when speaking, being appreciative, paying attention to what others have to say, being an active listener and bringing people together. Moreover, by resolving conflicts, communicating clearly and adding an appropriate amount of humor is always beneficial. Apart of that a leader should take a situation from others’ perspective and never complaining about others deviant behaviors.

Role of public organizations at municipal, country, state and federal levels

The organizations performing their duties on federal level are those that make policies to affect the whole country. The public organizations performing functions of municipal government are related to a specific area may be a town or a district and deal with libraries, parks, water, sanitation, local roads and parking. Municipal organizations perform functions under the supervision of provincial government whereas provincial government assists the federal government in their functions.
On federal level, public organizations can perform the function of printing money, for example the central bank is usually a public organization that performs the function of printing currency. Declaring of war can be another function performed by government owned army and it also includes the function of establishing armed forces. The task to enter into contracts with any other country is also a responsibility of public organizations at federal level. These organizations formulate the laws to implement constitutions developed by the state. On state level, the public organizations establishes local government, issue licenses such as driver license and regulate the interstate commerce as well. The organizations at this level are also involved in conducting elections. They are also responsible for public safety and health measures. These organizations are also responsible for designing state constitutions like constitution related to smoking or alcohol dealings and consumption etc. there are certain activities that are performed by organizations at state level and federal level as well. These activities include establishing courts, building highways, borrowing money, creating and collecting taxes and developing general transportation. The public organizations operating at municipal level performs functions related to a smaller region and it include functions like issues of sanitary, drainage, parks and recreation, pathways and streets, fire and emergency services, airport facility, public transit, economic development, agricultural development, libraries and museums and other legislative services for that particular area.

Internal and external environment of public organization

PESTLE Analysis
The pestle analysis is an analysis of external environment of an organization. It includes the analysis of political, economic, social, technological factors on an organization. For example, considering a public organization such as Air India, its PESTLE analysis is as follows:

Political Segment

A public organization operating in country-like India cannot go without taking strong notice of political and legal changes because it has a strong impact on locals as well. The state owned airline however has to take major measures while dealing with any political situation, which private companies do not have to do. Such as, selections of routes are even intervened by government, free seats for the ministers and other political personalities to travel conveniently are some of them. Apart of all these, they do suffer greatly due to any governmental regulations such as retirement age of hostess or airline staff, labor regulations, effects of unions, heavy control of government and the extent of governmental interference in the company’s matters. In this way the public owned companies suffer greatly due to legal regulations and they have issues with maintaining their quality standards in order to compete with privately owned enterprises.

Economic Segment

The world economy is suffering from recession on the whole. Due to this reason travelling by air has become a luxury in this specific area specially. Therefore, the price packages should be kept affordable for a large number of customers.

Socio-cultural Segment

The culture of India is rich where individuals from different religions, sects, language groups are found. Hence, the company has to keep notice of this as well. For example, the company must take it into consideration that a non vegetarian and a pure vegetarian do not sit together as it can create discomfort for the customers.

Technological Segment

It is an age of technology where Air India has made use of technology to expand its functions e.g. the facility of online booking of tickets or lodging complaints and feedback through the website.

Competitors

Jet Airways
British Airways
Kingfisher
Emirates
Internal Analysis
Strengths
Backed by the government
New airplanes
High budget for advertisements
More coverage of locations (destinations)
It has its presence in almost 19 countries
Weaknesses
Political intervention
Recession
Labor issues
Financial crunch (problems in making payments to the employees)
Opportunities
Easier to avail routes agreement now
Potential customers are having increased levels of income
Travelling for leisure is trending than ever before.
It will have better budget due to the increasing GDP of India.
Threats
Increased competition with airlines of other countries which are privately owned and providing better services.
The company is facing competition from its internal department of Railway as well which is making greater progress and its performance is increasing than ever before.

References

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