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86 | Challenges and Obstacles of Local Public Management
In order to speak about challenges and obstacles concerning “Local public
management”, we should, firstly, define this expression.
Naturally, if public management is local, it is because it is not national. This
means that the public management, which we are going to discuss within this
paper, concerns local authorities and their organisms and not the State.
Therefore, whether it concerns the State or local authorities, the definition of
public management is, from our point of view, the same.
Indeed, public management is the organizational, functional, material and
evaluative management of public action.
This means that managing a public service implies thinking, strategically and
operationally, on both a long and a short term, about the management of a
public service, as public activity.
Therefore, the public management has four different aspects: an organiza-
tional aspect, a functional aspect, a material aspect; and, at last, an evaluative
aspect.
In what concerns the organizational aspect, an administrative organization
is well managed, and thus effective both from the outside and from the in-
side, on two conditions.
Firstly, it must be based on a “good” territorial division, i.e. on an “appropri-
ate territorial division”. At the local level in particular, a good administrative
organisation requires a territorial division adapted to user needs and to the
specific tasks assigned to each level of local authorities. The European policy
of territorial cohesion should also overcome the economic and territorial
imbalances in Europe.
Secondly, this effectiveness supposes a simplification of structures and pro-
cedures in order to economize and increase the speed for the implementation
of public action. That requires to group together services, offices, and, at the
same time, to revalorize teamwork. Concerning the simplification of proce-
dures, it is a challenge of both (if not more) organisational and functioning
nature, because a long and complicated procedure needs often a plethoric
organisation and mobilizes a lot of human resources and energies.
Implicitly, an effective organisation implies a dynamic and rewarding “pub-
lic human resources management” (PHRM), remote from the absurd clichés
of some economists, who are exclusively favourable to reducing the number
of civil servants and their remuneration. It would be almost as if, in principle,
a civil servant were a useless cost in social terms, as if he/she cost systemati-
cally too much money for what he/she does, and, moreover, he/she must be
punished for the bad economic choices made by others than he/she, i.e. the
politicians!
RIMD – n o 3 – 2012
In order to speak about challenges and obstacles concerning “Local public
management”, we should, firstly, define this expression.
Naturally, if public management is local, it is because it is not national. This
means that the public management, which we are going to discuss within this
paper, concerns local authorities and their organisms and not the State.
Therefore, whether it concerns the State or local authorities, the definition of
public management is, from our point of view, the same.
Indeed, public management is the organizational, functional, material and
evaluative management of public action.
This means that managing a public service implies thinking, strategically and
operationally, on both a long and a short term, about the management of a
public service, as public activity.
Therefore, the public management has four different aspects: an organiza-
tional aspect, a functional aspect, a material aspect; and, at last, an evaluative
aspect.
In what concerns the organizational aspect, an administrative organization
is well managed, and thus effective both from the outside and from the in-
side, on two conditions.
Firstly, it must be based on a “good” territorial division, i.e. on an “appropri-
ate territorial division”. At the local level in particular, a good administrative
organisation requires a territorial division adapted to user needs and to the
specific tasks assigned to each level of local authorities. The European policy
of territorial cohesion should also overcome the economic and territorial
imbalances in Europe.
Secondly, this effectiveness supposes a simplification of structures and pro-
cedures in order to economize and increase the speed for the implementation
of public action. That requires to group together services, offices, and, at the
same time, to revalorize teamwork. Concerning the simplification of proce-
dures, it is a challenge of both (if not more) organisational and functioning
nature, because a long and complicated procedure needs often a plethoric
organisation and mobilizes a lot of human resources and energies.
Implicitly, an effective organisation implies a dynamic and rewarding “pub-
lic human resources management” (PHRM), remote from the absurd clichés
of some economists, who are exclusively favourable to reducing the number
of civil servants and their remuneration. It would be almost as if, in principle,
a civil servant were a useless cost in social terms, as if he/she cost systemati-
cally too much money for what he/she does, and, moreover, he/she must be
punished for the bad economic choices made by others than he/she, i.e. the
politicians!
RIMD – n o 3 – 2012
