Leadership and Public Sector Reform in Asia

Evan Berman, Eko Prasojo

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781787434448
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Social Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Present day knowledge about public sector reforms in Asia is quite scattered and seldom focuses on the challenges of leadership. This edited collection seeks to address this issue by presenting country cases that reflect the great diversity of the region.
Home to roughly one-third of the world's population, Asia-Pacific governments typically play leading roles in social and economic development, yet by measures of expenditures or civil servants per capita, most are among the smaller ones in the world. These regimes include democracies, one-party states and unstable systems; there is a broad range of cultural legacies including Confucian, Buddhist, and Western, and vastly different levels of economic development; the region includes some of the very least corrupt countries and those with high corruption levels; it includes the world's most populous country, as well as some of the smallest.
Public sector reforms are very relevant to these countries and their leaders. In Asia, a strong government is invaluable and public sector reforms are relevant to helping modern states meet their goals and performance. This collection explores what is known about these reforms with an eye towards helping leaders responsible for reforms. Clearly, there is very large variation; some Asia-Pacific countries are leading in public sector reforms, while others are not, and this book also seeks to further our understanding what leaders might need to do to be successful.

CHAPTER 1

LEADERSHIP AND PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS IN ASIA: AN OVERVIEW

Evan Berman

ABSTRACT

This introductory chapter explains why public sector reforms matter and why a focus on Asia and leadership is needed. It also provides an overview of highlights, lessons and conclusions in this book. Cases of successful public sector reforms usually show leadership by central agencies, with support of the office of President or Prime Minister. While laws and rules are commonly used to further reform, cases show that more is needed to ensure success and sustainability. A range of strategies include heightened accountability, personnel changes, supporting change leaders in departments, reform through capacity development, and learning from innovations other jurisdictions. Conclusions include suggestions for further research.

This book examines public sector reforms with a focus on Asia and leadership. This introductory chapter explains why public sector reforms matter for meeting many public policy challenges, and why a focus on Asia and leadership is needed at this time. This chapter provides an overview of highlights, lessons and conclusions from the chapters that follow and summarises the highlights and arguments of each. We also offer thoughts for further research.

WHAT ARE PUBLIC REFORMS? WHY DO THEY MATTER?

Public sector reforms are changes in government processes or structures that help to better achieve key public policy challenges. Some processes are directly linked to citizens, such as when they use new digital processes to obtain government services quickly and which are free of corruption. Other reforms are less visible to citizens but are no less salient to those working ‘on the inside’ of government. For example, when cross-border pollution is noted as an issue, countries may increase their cooperation and collaboration by sharing information, sometimes in real-time, and by setting up trans-national working groups to address specific concerns. In short, public sector reforms are ‘deliberate changes to (the structures and processes of) public sector organizations with the objective of getting them (in some sense) to run better’ (Pollitt & Bouckeart, 2011; United Nations Economic and Social Council, 2006).

The case for public sector reforms is that they provide public managers with the opportunity to improve processes and produce better public sector results. The issue in question is not necessarily that the machinery of government is broken and needs fixing, though improvements often are needed. Rather, public sector reforms usually involve system-wide changes that touch the many thousands of programs which make up government. Public sector reforms open up new opportunities for thousands of public managers to improve how their programs work and what targets for performance and impact can be set, thus providing leverage across manifold programs.

There are many examples of public sector reforms. The following list shows some of the many ways in which governments have improved how they work in the last 20 years or so. Jurisdictions vary on how fast and deep they take to public sector reforms but few may ignore what their neighbours are doing. Hopefully, some of the following examples readily come to mind for many readers:

• Decentralization reforms that build up local government and central government programmes in local areas (e.g., improvement in local health care services, school, roads and agricultural support services).
• ‘Joined up’ efforts in decision-making or programme delivery that cut across departments (e.g., coordinated approaches to crime, welfare or business development).
• Reorganization that aligns priorities with efforts and capability (e.g., building new pollution control departments).
• Strengthening anti-corruption oversight and implementation (e.g., new laws and increased independence and capacity in investigations).
• Public–private partnerships (e.g., delivery of welfare service, rocket launches and highways).
• Digital government (e.g., one-stop shopping and integrated/real-time data).
• Transferring functions to new semi-autonomous agencies (including corporatization of higher education).
• New performance management frameworks (e.g., increasing accountability and performance through new reporting standards, also for leadership development).
• New procurement processes (e.g., increased transparency or access by minority vendors).
• New structures or programmes for transnational cooperation (e.g., Association of Southeast Asian Nations, migration and regional pollution).

Public sector reforms are not always at the centre of heated public policy debate but they do matter. Many semi-autonomous agencies work quietly but successfully on health care promotion and infrastructure development, for example. At times, public sector reforms do make headlines, such as on matters of privatization or anti-corruption, or when they are launched by leading elected officials. However, many public sector reforms fly a bit under the radar of public consciousness, and hence the media, certainly beyond any initial launch. They often are driven by senior public leaders and involve specific concerns or opportunities. This not to say that citizens are not grateful for them or that they don’t make a difference or lack accountability – many of today’s governments work vastly more effectively and efficiently than they ever did.

Yet, even the most casual observer may note very large differences in the use of these reforms across countries and jurisdictions within them. Some agencies and cities are clearly on the cutting edge of adopting reforms, whereas others are locked into the ways of yesteryear. This is not to say that tried and true bureaucratic routine and rules are necessarily bad – predictability and accountability are important values for government – and many public sector reforms are built on well-established processes because they work. However, a need also exists for responding to changing citizen needs, incorporating changing global expectations and taking advantage of increased capability. As the following chapters will show, leadership is needed at many levels to help bring public sector reforms into reality.

WHY THIS BOOK?

This book acknowledges that present day knowledge about public sector reforms in Asia is quite scattered and seldom focusses on the challenges of leadership. Given the current state of global knowledge on public sector reforms, as well as the needs of scholars and public managers working on reforms, more knowledge is needed about reforms in Asia and the leadership that is required.

Asia is a fascinating region for focussing on public leadership, including reforms. Specifically, this book focusses on the Asia-Pacific region, defined as roughly East and Southeast Asia in which about one-third of the world’s population, about 2.3 billion people, live. This area is hugely diverse. Governments include democracies (e.g., Australia or Japan), one-party states (e.g., China and Vietnam) and unstable systems (e.g., Thailand). They have a broad range of cultural legacies such as Confucian (Japan and Vietnam), Buddhist (Thailand) and Western (e.g., Australia) and vastly different levels of economic development (e.g., Singapore and Indonesia). The region includes countries with the least corruption (e.g., Singapore) and those with high corruption levels (e.g., Vietnam). The region includes the world’s most populous country (China) as well as some of the smallest states (e.g., New Zealand). In the Asia-Pacific states, governments typically play leading roles in social and economic development (e.g., Malaysia and China), yet by measures of expenditures or civil servants per capita, most are among the smaller ones in the world. The country cases, identified above, reflect this great diversity.

Public sector reforms are very relevant to these countries and their leaders. Matters of food supply, housing, education, public health and national security are key priorities. In Asia, strong governments are needed and valued to ensure these; weak governments are associated with public suffering and a lack of governability. The quality of government planning and execution is important to economic development and political stability. Public sector reforms to increase government effectiveness, assist leaders to achieve their policy aims and are often picked up in government agendas and as executive priorities.

Our interest in this book is to explore what is known about these reforms with an eye towards helping leaders responsible for such reforms. Clearly, there is a very large variation; some Asia-Pacific countries are leading in public sector reforms, while others are surely not. This is not only a matter of understanding as to which factors are associated with success and failure, as many scholarly studies are apt to do, but it is also to further our understanding about what leaders might need to do to be successful. If a strong (or at least effective) government is sought, then leaders are needed who know how to realize the effective use of public sector reform, as well.

The global literature on public sector reforms, which is fairly extensive, has not been particularly focussed on this leadership matter, to which this book adds. Generally speaking, studies of public sector reforms often discuss broad paradigms of reforms and their content, such as New Public Management, New Public Governance and Neo-Weberian State, which are reflected in the above examples (e.g., Brinkerhoff & Brinkerhoff, 2015; Laegrid & Christensen, 2013; Wong, 2015). Other reform studies describe specific reforms, such as public–private partnerships, e-government or personnel reforms, focussed on specific countries and programmes or policy settings (e.g., Berman, 2015; Phua, Ling, & Phua, 2014; Wu, Ramesh, & Yu, 2017). Some studies assess reform outcomes, although often qualitatively as quantification is not easy and often limited to narrow measures of specific reforms in specific settings.

Of most relevance to the theme of leadership are past studies that describe how reforms emerge. While some focus on broad trends of, say, technology (e.g., e-government and energy trends) or social change (social media and transparency) as driving factors (e.g., de Vries, Bekkers, & Tummers, 2016; Pollitt & Bouckeart, 2011), almost all studies also note the role of political elites and bureaucratic actors in leading or picking up reforms and realizing them (e.g., Choi, 2010; Sobis, Berg, & Vries, 2012). This book builds on the latter, focussing on the leadership of political executives and bureaucratic actors.

The chapters that follow examine the strategies and contexts of reform leadership. Authors were instructed to focus on the following matters in their chapters; identifying the locus and drivers of reforms, the extent and manner that leadership is seen to further reform efforts, how leaders address resisting actors inside organizations, overcome public distrust, address relations with the authorizing environment; and how leaders build operational capacity to succeed reform implementation and making reform efforts sustainable. Authors were also instructed to provide one or more cases illustrating the above practices of leadership. The chapters are informed by cutting edge interests in theses areas.

The results of these efforts are contained in the following pages. The following section brings together some of the main highlights.

TOWARDS A THEORY OF LEADERSHIP IN PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS

In what follows, we draw on the book chapters to highlight matters of leadership in public sector reforms. As the range of constitutional practices varies, we use the term ‘presidents’ to refer to prime ministers (e.g., New Zealand), presidents (e.g., Thailand) and party secretary generals (e.g., China), and the term ‘department head’ to refer to ministers, vice ministers, director-generals and chief executives who lead departments and agencies. We clarify instances where other meanings are used, such as ministers who are not also department heads (e.g., in Westminster systems).

WHO LEADS IN INITIATING PROPOSALS FOR PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS?

Public sector reforms, even when not government-wide, typically involve quite fundamental changes in structure and processes that require new policies at the highest levels, sometimes requiring legal or legislative actions as well. In all chapters, these involve the presidents and/or cabinet. Public sector reforms often include parts that are aligned with governance platforms of political parties and their presidents (e.g., privatization in Japan, one-stop shopping in Malaysia and anti-corruption in China), and chapters in this book clearly show that presidents often take a strong interest in leading certain reforms. While public sector reforms seldom arise from voter priorities, in recent years, key policy targets of education, crime, environment, welfare and job creation have led to ‘whole-of-government’ actions in each area and included direct involvement of the president and cabinet (e.g., Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore).

However, public sector reform does not always originate from political processes or platforms. Central agencies such as the treasury, national planning, budget, administration and civil service reform offices also lead the development of public sector reforms. Central offices have relevant mandates, led prior reform efforts, and are well-positioned to lead consultation processes with departments across government. Officials in central agencies often have broad relations with other departments and, in some countries, even come from them, too. The cases of Singapore and Japan show senior officials playing important roles, working together with ministers to formulate specific reform plans and initiatives. In such instances, ‘teamwork’ of high-level officials and ministers is described and is at play.

Thus, the source of initiative of public sector reforms is varied. The case of Thailand also shows societal actors working with bureaucrats over many years dealing with successive ministers (e.g., ‘jazz-based’ model). A concern is that leadership that builds successful support for reform initiatives does not also always generate pathways for success and address barriers that may need to be overcome. The chapters on Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Australia also show instances where reform leadership did not include strategies or conceptualizations for lower level leaders to be successful – which they were not. While this might be seen as implementation, it is also an issue of decision-making that does not thoroughly identify and provide pathways for success. The cases of Singapore and Japan show the use of fact-based analysis and input from senior public managers that may help identify success factors, which no doubt is furthered by involving those responsible for subsequent implementation of success. The use of rule-, law- or ideology-based analysis as frameworks may lead to blind spots about the realities that reform leaders face.

In short, some chapters in this book raise concern about insufficiently adequate (i.e., low quality) decision-making for reform. Also, the case of Malaysia shows the unwillingness of political leaders to address some core challenges, which no doubt is present in other countries too. We raise these matters as suggestions for further research.

HOW ARE PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS IMPLEMENTED?

The nature of the public sector involving high-level policy often leads to a high-level of involvement in implementation. Different practices are reported, usually involving presidents, cabinets or core agencies. The underlying logic is that implementation from the highest levels is needed to ensure (i) implementation across the entire government (all departments and quasi-autonomous agencies), (ii) overcome resistance at the very top layer of the departments and provide senior department managers with tools for implementation (e.g., mandates, budgets and interventions) and (iii) provide accountability and oversight so that reforms proceed and are achieved.

The cases report a range of organizational practices. In Japan, the administrative management agency was established in the president’s office, but various presidents also created advisory councils reporting to them when they wanted support from business and other societal leaders for reforms. In Indonesia, the Ministry of Administrative Reform was created, and the Office of the Public Sector Development Commission was created in Thailand. In New Zealand, the State Services Commission (SSC) was created that today leads many reforms. In Australia, the Treasury and...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Chapter 1. Leadership and Public Sector Reforms in Asia: An Overview
• Chapter 2. Leadership and Public Sector Reform in Japan
• Chapter 3. Leadership and Public Sector Reform in Indonesia
• Chapter 4. Leadership and Public Sector Reform in China
• Chapter 5. Leadership and Public Sector Reform in Thailand
• Chapter 6. Leadership and Public Sector Reform in Vietnam
• Chapter 7. Leadership and Public Sector Reform in the Philippines
• Chapter 8. Leadership and Public Sector Reform in Singapore
• Chapter 9. Leadership and Public Sector Reform in Malaysia
• Chapter 10. Leadership and Public Sector Reform in Australia
• Chapter 11. Leadership and Public Sector Reform in New Zealand
• Index