STRUCTURE

• Introduction – A short introduction to Responsive Administration ( 15 words)                     
• Body – Explain about Responsive Administration (220 words)
• Conclusion – Mention a short conclusion  (15 words)

ANSWER

Public Administration is the means by which Government executes or implements its policies, duties and functions entrusted to them by the citizens. Performing these duties must be done in such a way that it satisfies the needs of those it is intended to serve. To speak of responsive public administration, therefore, one needs to examine the extent to which administrators or public service providers’ responds to citizens’ requests, concerns and demands both in terms of speed and accuracy. This means that those responsible for providing public goods and services must respond to citizens’ needs in good time and the response must be consistent with the request. To be truly responsive, a bureaucrat must be reactive, sensitive, sympathetic, and able to relate to people’s needs and opinions.

It is not hard to see, then, that responsiveness in this sense is a far from straightforward construct. Every nation is made up of heterogeneous citizens, all with their own dynamic sets of needs, demands and opinions; and this can become overwhelming and sometimes even confusing or conflicting. To avoid this sort of confusion or conflicts regarding whose needs to prioritize and respond to, bureaucrats need a system or framework for understanding citizens needs and concerns. Whatever system is developed, it must be built on the premise that the needs of those being served must be a top priority to all public service providers.

The art of active listening, if developed and used by public officials can be instrumental in shaping the quality of services that they develop and deliver. Active listening means listening to understand rather than listening to just respond; the latter implying just passive or selective ‘hearing’ rather than actual listening. Active listening can promote relationship building as it requires both the service provider and the recipient to share their opinions, concerns and needs and, at the very least, form a shared understanding of the problem or situation. Any promises or commitments made here will be based on this mutual understanding and will thus be mutually binding.

Moreover, when citizens are confident that their policy makers are listening, and taking targeted actions to respond to their concerns and demands, it can be extremely empowering as citizens will know that they have a voice and it is being heard. The bureaucrat who listens is able to be responsive as he knows the priorities of those he is charged with serving and can therefore either respond to those priorities with an immediate solution or a commitment as to when one is likely.

The Old Public Administration with its hierarchical, pyramidal, centralized and inflexible structure is being reshaped into a more decentralized, de-concentrated, with more flexible and autonomous administrative units. This new public administration also advances that importance be placed on such virtues as team work, interpersonal communication skills and quick response to changes. In many ways, changes in the external environment demands that public administration undergoes this transformation that will entail reducing red-tape, simplifying procedures, and becoming more flexible and responsive.

Citizens are becoming more organized (through interest groups, social media, etc.) and increasingly vocal in making their concerns, demands, and expectations of their Government known. There is also increased civic participation and awareness, the result being that citizens are now more questioning of their officials, and officials have to be answerable for their actions, remove the barriers between themselves and citizens, and be more open and approachable in dealing with requests and concerns. Moreover, awareness of the need to maximize value for scarce public resources leads citizens to demand greater levels of efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency from public officials. In other words, people are now more concerned with what and how public services are provided.

It is therefore hard to speak of responsive public administration as separate from change. When public administration remains responsive in an environment of constant change then the resulting policies and public goods and services remain relevant to citizens’ needs and expectations.

To be responsive in public administration really means to view citizens as clients or customers and respond to their needs and demands as such. The major thrust here is to find out what needs and demands exist and respond accordingly. While this is an excellent starting ground for getting in touch with citizens’ priorities and demands, in today’s environment where teamwork is so important public administration needs to move beyond simply being responsive. In this sense, public administration needs to evolve to a place where citizens need not only be on the other side of the fence as customers or clients, but are on the same side as partners or important stakeholders in the process. It is necessary therefore for public administration to take on a more collaborative approach rather than a merely responsive one.

Public administration, therefore, needs to go beyond responsiveness to some degree of collaboration. Collaboration is a deliberate effort aimed at gaining participation from citizens, involving them in important decision making and seeing them as partners rather than clients that need to be served. Considering that citizens are the ones who delegate power to the governing bodies, it is not counterintuitive to believe that they ought to be a necessary partner in the administration of policies and legislations. Of course, the notion of collaboration seems to contradict the traditional design of the bureaucracy with its pyramidal, inflexible, internally driven structure. However, growing distrust and cynicism among citizens regarding the functioning of bureaucracies and administrators is really creating a ripe environment for public administration to invite more collaboration.

Collaboration can be approached in different ways and to varying degrees, since everyone doesn’t have to be involved in every scenario or to give input to every decision. To collaborate with citizens, governments can collaborate with the Non-Governmental Organizations that represent different interest groups or fight causes regarding pressing social issues.

 For issues regarding the economic and socio-economic environment, Government can collaborate with the private sector through its various bodies and work with them to create viable solutions and encourage innovation. For example involving the private sector on decisions such as updating the labor laws as it relates to maximum working hours per week, or changes in the tax structure, or public-private partnerships in areas such as sports and culture (The Digicel Schools Football Tournament or the National Drama Festival) that encourages corporate social responsibility and allows key cross-sections of the population to benefit from positive initiatives.

There is no denying the importance of being in touch with the needs and demands of citizens, if public administration is to be effective. In this sense a responsive approach is an important starting point and as the society matures they can then move towards a truly collaborative approach to public administration. Doing the research for this paper reinforces in my mind just how much more work is needed for any of this to be a reality in Guyana. For us, I think that responsive administration would be a feasible goal and the environment is ripe for such change. Now more than ever Guyanese are questioning their leaders and asking the hard questions, and while the responses have been anything but adequate and in some cases even misguided and misleading at least they’re getting the attention of the target audience. Someday, with training and much effort we may see more speedy and accurate responsiveness from our bureaucrats.