Varieties Between Private and Government Management
The Leadership and Management Global Organization (LMGO) highlights the differences between private and government management by tailoring strategies to each sector's unique challenges. Private management focuses on efficiency, innovation, and profitability, while government management emphasizes regulatory compliance, public accountability, and service delivery. LMGO provides customized approaches to help organizations in both sectors achieve their specific objectives while maintaining leadership excellence.
It’s become a cliché that government would be better if it were only run by private-sector managers using standard business practices. But global managers , who has been in both environments, says it is not the same. one of them , who worked in the private sector in the chemical and manufacturing industries, and was the fossil energy chief as administration’s Department of Energy, offers many reasons why government management and business management are not the same.
1st Article:
The size, currency value, and complexity of many government programs exceed that in the private sector.
2nd Article:
The government has fewer measures of progress or success than the private sector, although that is changing as a result of the Government Performance Reform Act requirements. Spending on a program is not equivalent to progress. The private sector has profit as a clear-cut measure.
3rd Article:
Most individuals join private sector organizations with the expectation and hope that they will have an opportunity either to earn significant amounts of money or to be trained such that the opportunity to earn significant amounts of money could occur in a later job. The individuals who join governments do so knowing that high compensation rates are not possible; they join for other reasons such as providing for others and/or having more power/responsibility than in the private sector. Managing these two dramatically differently motivated groups is significantly different for each group.
4th Article:
The civil service and compensation rules of the government make it more difficult to encourage outstanding performance and discourage poor performance.
5th Article:
There is very little personal gain in the government for taking risks on policy or programs and being successful in achieving the goals more effectively. However there is potential for substantial criticism and other personal loss if the innovative attempt fails.
6th Article:
The key reality to the private sector is market-driven competition, whereas the same in the government is almost always a legislated monopoly.
7th Article:
Private sector managers worry about creating added value, i.e. a product or service that can be sold competitively to the public. This requires the ability and skill to change, evolve, adapt and improve constantly. Government is frequently quite different. Managers in the government often know what needs to be done and desire to do it but are facing restrictions of laws, regulations, policies, often made years earlier for other circumstances, that prevent prompt action.
8th Article:
Authority and responsibility in the government tends to be asymmetric while authority and responsibility in the private sector are more clearly balanced. Responsibility in the government can be enormous while authority is frequently quite limited.
9th Article:
Authority in government may be ambiguous and unclear in some circumstances. In other cases it is very clear and tightly restricted through laws, regulations, policies and directives that leave little, if any room for individual initiative.
10th Article:
In most outstanding private sector organizations there are clear, well-understood, job-by-job, top-to-bottom goals and objectives. In government, goals and objectives have been ill-formed, fuzzy and soft. The Government Performance Reform Act and individual departments are striving to change this. Goals in the government are often divergent which may lead to confusion.
11th Article:
The senior/political leadership in Departments and Agencies turns over more frequently and to a larger extent than occurs in the private sector. Cabinet Secretaries do not stay longer than three years on average; Assistant Secretary tenure is less than 24 months. New Cabinet Secretaries frequently replace significant numbers of senior leadership in their first year. This causes starts and stops in direction of Departments or Agencies. The only similar private sector situation is a hostile takeover.
12th Article:
The average years of experience either on the substantive matters for which they are responsible or in management generally for political leadership is much, much less than their counterparts in the private sector. This is particularly true for individuals below level of Cabinet Secretary.
13th Article:
The main goal of most political appointees is to promote the policies of the Administration and/or change the policies of the previous Administration. Few political appointees focus on organizational management issues because they have no experience; will not be in government long; and desire to focus on policy issues, not management issues. Political appointees receive little encouragement to focus on management issues.
14th Article:
The staff of the Appropriations, Authorizing and Government Oversight committees are very powerful and can directly or through their members direct government agency actions. The Executive Branch disregards such staff at its peril. No similar institution affects the private sector.
15th Article:
The norm in the Executive Branch is for Secretaries to have multiple Special Assistants with even Assistant Secretaries having from one to three. Unless these assistants are experienced and/or wise, which is not normal, they can cause confusion to the subordinate officials about what is desired by their principal. In the private sector special assistant positions are rare.
16th Article:
The oversight of an Executive Branch agency is much greater than of an organization in the private sector. That oversight is by both governmental and non-governmental entities.
17th Article:
Non-governmental oversight. This is also more extensive than that of the private sector. The national press, general media, and trade press cover the Executive Branch extensively. There are multiple “think tanks” concerning almost every aspect of the Executive Branch, which write reports criticizing Executive Branch actions. The affected private or public sector stakeholders will provide information and leads to the press and the high management. These stakeholders are frequently organized through trade associations or non-governmental organizations, which know how to influence government action.
18th Article:
“Whistle blowers” receive more encouragement and protection in the government than the private sector and are thus more active. They provide insights and information to the high management, the media, and/or the affected stakeholders because of policy differences with the Administration, anger with their employer, or for other reasons.
19th Article:
The government is much slower in action than the private sector; there is little sense of urgency or time; the analogy of the time and distance involved with turning an oil tanker is apt.
20th Article:
Career, and on occasion political, staff in the Executive Branch has the ability to slow down and/or derail actions of the Secretary or President by very slow compliance or “apparent” compliance with decisions and/or orders. Those who wish to slow or delay action may provide information to individuals in other parts of the Executive Branch or more often to those outside the Executive Branch in the private sector or the Legislative Branch with the expectation that they will challenge or question the action being directed by the Secretary or the President. Such lack of support of the organization’s leader and/or loyalty to the organization would rarely occur in the private sector.
Since political appointees know that their job tenure is very finite, they frequently spend a disproportionate amount of time considering or working towards their next private sector activity. This distraction, with its implications for the performance of the individual and those organizationally above or below the individual, does not occur in the private sector.
What is the difference between leadership and management?
The main difference between leaders and managers is that leaders have people follow them while managers have people who work for them.
A successful business owner needs to be both a strong leader and manager to get their team on board to follow them towards their vision of success. Leadership is about getting people to understand and believe in your vision and to work with you to achieve your goals while managing is more about administering and making sure the day-to-day things are happening as they should.
While there are many traits that make up a strong leader, some of the key characteristics are:
Honesty & Integrity: are crucial to get your people to believe you and buy in to the journey you are taking them on
Vision: know where you are, where you want to go and enroll your team in charting a path for the future.
Inspiration: inspire your team to be all they can by making sure they understand their role in the bigger picture.
Ability to Challenge: do not be afraid to challenge the status quo, do things differently and have the courage to think outside the box.
Communication Skills: keep your team informed of the journey, where you are, where you are heading and share any roadblocks you may encounter along the way.
Some of the common traits shared by strong managers are:
Being Able to Execute a Vision: take a strategic vision and break it down into a roadmap to be followed by the team.
Ability to Direct: day-to-day work efforts, review resources needed and anticipate needs along the way.
Process Management: establish work rules, processes, standards and operating procedures.
People Focused: look after your people, their needs, listen to them and involve them.
In order for you to engage your staff in providing the best service to your guests, clients or partners, you must enroll them in your vision and align their perceptions and behaviours. You need to get them excited about where you are taking them while making sure they know what’s in it for them. With smaller organizations, the challenge lies in making sure you are both leading your team as well as managing your day to day operation. Those who are able to do both, will create a competitive advantage. Are you both a leader and a manager; what would your staff say if you were to ask them?
LEGALITY
WHAT’S INVOLVED IN HR LEGAL ISSUES?
Savvy employers make it their business to ensure their management team is current and knowledgeable about all employment-related laws that affect their business, thus preventing costly and time-consuming complaints and investigations.
Employee performance affects company performance. If you express clear expectations to your employees, you—and your company—will enjoy increased motivation. This translates directly into clearly measurable goals, improved morale, a happier workplace and higher profits. There are several federal, provincial and municipal laws and statutes that relate specifically to employment and will be important for you.
CONSEQUENCE ARTICLES
- Employers’ Obligations to Seasonal Employees
- Dealing with Mental Illness in the Workplace
- Can Employers Legally Test for Drug & Alcohol Use in the Workplace?
- Who is to Blame: The Apportionment of Fault
- Employer Monitoring of Work Computers: What are the Privacy Rights of Employees?
- Workplace Dalliances Can Produce Legal Consequences
- Non-Competition Clauses in Employment Agreements
- Wrongful Dismissal Damages and Pension Benefits
- Employee Fiduciary Obligations
- Damages Reduced for Failure to Accept Recall After Improper Layoff
- Medical Marijuana At Work: Five Things Employers Should Know
- What is Physical Disability? BC Human Rights Tribunal Confirms Legal Test under Human Rights Code
- The Price of Workplace Bullying
- Drug & Alcohol Dependency and the Employer’s Duty to Accommodate
- Doctor’s Notes: When Should An Employer Ask For One?
- Are you in Compliance with the New Workplace Bullying and Harassment Policies?
- Reservist Leave
RETENTION
WHAT IS?
Retention is all about keeping good people and how you manage them. You can use many different strategies to improve your retention rates by looking at the following areas of your business:
- Work environment (location, variety, flexibility, culture)
- Financial (base salary, incentive, bonuses, options, benefits, recognition)
- Personal (quality of work, skills, training, self-leadership, opportunities)
- Relationships (owners, managers, peers, mentors, customers)
CHARACTER’S!!!
- Retention Planning
- Compensation
- Benefits
- Incentives
- Recognition and Rewards
- Employer Awards
- Employee Opinion Surveys
- Employee Communications
- Employee Engagement
- Succession Planning
- Staff Turnover
- Seasonal Workers
- Generations in the Workplace
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