Irrespective of sector or type of organisation, management generally involves the effective utilisation of an organisation’s resources to achieve desired goals and objectives, be it through planning, organising, leading, staffing and various other managerial aspects.
However, while some believe that standard business practices in private organisations can help enhance the performance and service delivery of the public sector, there are actually differences between managing a public organisation and a private entity.
One fundamental distinction lies in the customers they serve. While private management focuses on the needs of a more targeted group of people, public management aims to “serve the people” by addressing the needs and interests of the general public; for example, citizens of a country for federal government agencies and departments.
This establishes values within the public and private sectors that are exceedingly different from each other.
Specifically, management in the public sector need to take account of the public needs and interests as well as potential political influence to ensure the overall well-being of their customer citizens, and to balance the demands of various stakeholders, such as individuals, businesses and civil society groups.
In contrast, management in the private sector prioritise the economic performance and success of their organisation to guarantee business profit.
These values then determine the divergent goals and objectives of public and private sector organisations.
For public management professionals, their organisation’s goals and objectives tend to be largely comprehensive and abstract, which makes it challenging when evaluating their success. Given the vast scope of the people they serve, they need to consider the effectiveness of multiple programmes and projects they implement to assess whether they have achieved their aims in meeting the people’s needs.
Meanwhile, private managers are able to set goals and objectives, and measure performance easily, because the organisation’s goals are more defined and are determined based on profit and/or loss, without having to necessarily consider the wider implications of their customers, suppliers and competitors.
Another key factor that differentiates public management from private management is accountability. Unlike their private sector counterparts, public managers are most often, if not always, under the scrutiny of the people in the governed areas.
This is because they are required to meet the people’s expectation and be highly responsible for the work they are tasked to do, given that their salary and benefits usually comefrom taxes paid by the people.
Such public scrutiny is particularly prevalent in times of crisis, in which public managers must perform to ensure that the people are not negatively affected by the resulting socio-economic impact.
Meanwhile, private managers concentrate mainly on keeping the business running, even if it means being questioned by interest groups, unions, governments or even customers for their actions that can involve cutting costs or laying off employees.
