The Decision-making Process (Introducing Private Sector Management Techniques)

This section examines the expression of the second set of change variables related to the managerial process; those concerned with managerial techniques and market values or internal decentralisation. It contains three elements: the development of strong organisational leadership and corporate management; strategic management issues (public organisations have a mission statement, business and corporate planning, etc.); and the determination of the control over decision-making closeness to the point of service delivery (leadership). The process focuses on public organisations’ adoption of business sector management techniques. The survey results can be seen in Tables 4.13, 4.14 and 4.15.

Table 4.13: Questionnaire survey results for the decision-making process (introducing private sector management techniques)

Process / Scale Strongly Agree/ Agree % Neither Agree nor Disagree % Disagree Strongly/ Disagree % Total % Result Status Q7: Leadership 42 16 42 100 Neutral Q8: Strategy 56 18 25 100 Yes Q9: Delegation 42 19 39 100 Yes

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Table 4.14: The process statements (ranked)

Mean and mode statistical frequency results

Statistics Q7 Q8 Q9

N 358 358 358

Mean 2.0 2.3 2.0

Mode 1 3 3

Table 4.15: Q7: Leadership; Q8: Strategy; and Q9: Delegation Mean, Std. Deviation and Mean Weight%*

Rank Statement Mean Std.

Deviation

Mean Weight%* 1

You are expected to manage strategically (for instance, your organisation has a mission statement, business plan, etc). Q8

3.455 1.3208 69.11

2

Your department/ministry/agency has had control over decision-making pushed down to the front line. Q9

3.020 1.2125 60.39

3

Your organisation encourages the

development of leadership and corporate management. Q7

3.011 1.2833 60.22

*Mean weight computed through dividing the mean of each factor on the maximum score (5) * 100

Figure 4.8: Histogram showing decision-making processes (introducing private sector management techniques) factors

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The histogram (Figure 4.8) above shows the overall perception of the existence of private sector management techniques in Bahrain public management practice. There was overall agreement that the public sector in Bahrain has been introducing private sector management techniques (internal decentralisation). The figure shows a good statistical distribution supporting the agreement position with a mean score of 3.16 (which exceeded the middle score of 3), while SD = 1.067.

4.3.2.1 Q7: Managerial Process Reform (Introduction of Private Sector

Management Techniques): Corporatisation/Strong Organisational Leadership According to Common (2001: 242), this application, refers to “the process of turning public organisations into businesses that are at arm’s-length to government”. He adds that the creation of more highly- and tightly-focused service delivery units is at a premium. Hence leadership is concentrated in top management, which wields considerable discretionary power whose members are often recruited from the commerical sector (ibid).

Table 4.12 above shows that respondent managers were equally divided between strongly agree/agree and strongly disagree/disagree on the statement that they are encouraged to develop leadership and corporate management, with a score of 42% in each case. This ambiguous result could be a reflection of the present government approach to the creation of single-purpose units and agencies (see 4.2.1.1 above where the results also disagreed), whereby they are more often included to recruit executives from the commercial sector. The result also shows that this question scores 60.22% on mean weight as the lowest score among the process factors, with a mean of 3.011 and SD = 1.2833, which reflects the similar results for agreement and disagreement (see Table 4.14 and Figure 4.9).

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Figure 4.9: Responses to (Q7): Managerial Process Reform (Introduction of Private Sector Management Techniques): Corporatisation/Strong Organisational Leadership

4.3.2.2 Q8: Managerial Process Reform: Strategic Management

Linked to 4.2.2.1: Q7 above, public organisations are expected to behave like their private sector counterparts in responding to changing market environments. In line with this expectation and to achieve the intended goals, public sector managers have to develop appropriate strategies. Business and corporate planning skills are required to keep public organisations at arm’s length. This change in process will provide greater strategic freedom for public managers (allowing managers to manage) and increased operational efficiency through the introduction of private sector managerial techniques and market values or “internal decentralisation” (Common, 2001).

Figure 4.10: Responses to (Q8): managerial process reform: strategic management

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Agree (Strongly

Agree) Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree (Strongly Disagree)

42%

16%

42%

Q7: In your view, does your organisation encourage the development of leadership and corporate management?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Agree (Strongly Agree) Neither Agree

nor Disagree (Strongly Disagree

Disagree) 56%

18% 25%

Q8: Are you expected to manage strategically (for instance, does your organisation have a mission

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The results shows a mean score of 3.455, which conforms with strong agreement, with a SD of 1.3208 and a mean weight of 69.11% as the highest weight among the process factors. This illustrates that 56% of managers strongly agreed/agreed that their organisation (ministry or agency) was managed strategically and had a mission statement and business plan, while 25% strongly disagreed/disagreed. In this regard, most governmental agencies and entities provide their businesses with a mission statement, vision and business plan, which are displayed on their premises and on the website. This majority of 56% confirmed that many Bahraini ministries and agencies practised strategic management. Having said that, governmental agencies in particular (as their business is rooted in the private and commercial sector), are more accountable for their strategic management and goal-oriented achievements. The latter orientation is linked to the performance and reward system which accelerates the general planned outcomes of those agencies.

4.3.2.3 Q9: Managerial Decentralisation: Decisions made close to/at the point of service delivery

As a consequence of the managerial discretion implicit in 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2 above, it is required that decisions must be made close to the point of service delivery (delegation) within the flatter structure hierarchy, aiming to sensitise services for users (Common, 2001). This application can be linked with the encouragement of government ministries/agencies to create single-purpose agencies (4.2.1.1 above) in a horizontal decentralisation approach, although the latter application met with disagreement from respondents. Increased delegation, leadership and organisational developments are linked with internal change. Delegation in this respect implies “the downwards movement of authority and responsibility within the organisation” (Common, et al. 1993: 127).

The collected data (see Table 4.12) show that 56% of managers strongly agreed/agreed that their organisation (ministry or agency) delegated decision making downwards, close to the point of service delivery on the front line, while 25% disagreed. This can be observed in new governmental agencies such as the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) and others.

To summarise this section, based on the above survey evidence the importation of private sector management techniques in decision-making was seen to exist at least

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partially in Bahrain practice. The item regarding strong organisational leadership has equal agreement and disagreement in its responses, which suggests there is insufficient organisational leadership and it only “partially exists”. However, the characteristics of strategic management and delegation by pushing down decision making closer to the point of service delivery (front line) were seen as strongly present in the public sector of Bahrain.