Guide on how to design, implement and maintain organisational structures in the public service

1

• Guide on how to design, implement and maintain
  organisational structures in the public service
• Part one
• Batho Pele Forum
• 19 April, 2007

2
Presentation Outline

• PART ONE
• Understanding organisational structures
• and design
• PART TWO
• Overview of organisational design phases

3
Presentation Outline

• What is organisational structure
• Why we need effective organisation structures
• Organisational design principles
• Trends in Organisational Design
• Towards a Philosophy

4
What is organisational structure

• Configuration of the organisation to achieve its
  goals
• Allocation and organising of work
• Defines positions and relationships between them
• Framework for order and co-ordination of all
  tasks
• Vehicle for planning, organising, controlling and
  directing of work
• End result of process of organisational design

5
Why we need effective organisation structures

• National Interest
• Public Organisations exist to provide a range of
  services to citizens, which ultimately contribute
  towards meeting the needs of the people
• Government
• Needs well-organised machinery to implement its
  strategic priorities
• Public Sector Organisations
• Need effective structures to deliver on their
  legislative mandates
• Employees
• Need efficient organisation structures to perform
  their jobs

6
Organisational design principles

• No prescribed principles for organisational
  design currently exist in South Africa
• However, principles can be derived from our
  understanding of why effective public sector
  organisations are needed
• The Guide identifies the following principles
  that can be utilised for public sector
  organisational design

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Organisational design principles

• Constitutional values
• The values and principles enshrined in Chapter 10
  of the Constitution
• Focus on strategic priorities
• Organisational design should be responsive to the
  strategic priorities of all three spheres of
  government
• Provincial Growth and Development Strategies and
  municipal Integrated Development Plans reflect
  local priorities
• Intergovernmental Relations and cooperative
  government
• Organisation structure should promote cooperative
  government
• Needs to take the spirit of the Intergovernmental
  Framework Act into account
• Organisational design needs to be aimed at
  facilitating integrated service delivery across
  all three spheres

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Organisational design principles

• Batho Pele
• Design organisation with users in mind to meet
  their different requirements
• Global Perspective
• Organisatioal structures should be responsive to
  the countrys economic, social and political
  responsibilities in international affairs
• Organisations should be able to interact with
• NEPAD
• AU
• SADC
• UN Obligations
• Multi-lateral institutions
• IBSA
• G77
• G20

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Organisational design principles

• Foster professionalism and public service ethos
• Organisation structures should assist in building
  a professional corps of civil servants to meet
  the objectives of a developmental state.
  Structure thus directs behaviour
• Should strengthen human capital in public sector
• Foster learning and innovation
• Organisation structures should enhance internal
  and external communication
• Encourage knowledge management and information
  sharing

10
Trends in Organisational Design

• Major shifts in organisational design over the
  last decade
• These had been incorporated into the public
  sectors in Australia and the United Kingdom
• Seven important shifts Fat to lean, vertical to
  horizontal, homogeneity to diversity, information
  hoarding to sharing, company to project, assets
  to intellectual property, stabilization to
  capacity to change
• The following table compares the old organisation
  structure model with current thinking

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Trends in Organisational Design

• New Model
• Team as basic unit
• Horizontal and vertical information flows
• Decisions made where information resides
• Flat (larger span of control, empowered staff)

• Old Model
• Individual position/ job basic unit of
  organisation
• Vertical Information flow
• Decisions comes down/ information flows up
• Hierarchy

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Trends in Organisational Design

• Old Model
• Emphasis on structure
• Control orientated
• Fixed hours
• Upward career path

• New Model
• Emphasis on process
• Self organising and outcomes orientated
• Flexibility (flexi-time)
• Flexible career paths

13
Towards a Philosophy

• Tendency to design structures without taking the
  organisations strategy into account
• Rationale for any restructuring intervention
  should be to address a strategic need or
  performance issue
• The guide suggest the following sequence for
  restructuring
• Review the strategy and identify the problem
• Understand the business process of the
  organisation
• Consider the structure as a possible solution to
  the strategy or process requirements