Training Course

Effective Service Delivery

Thematic focus - The issue of good governance has in the recent times emerged at the forefront of the development debate. To promote good governance India has recognized the urgent need for administrative reforms to enhance the capacity and capability of the administrative systems in carrying out goals for economic and social development. It has been realized that the deficiencies in the administrative machinery constitute a major obstacle to the effective implementation of development plans and priorities. The growing complexity of modern life in an age of rapid technological, social and economic changes has increased the role of the government, particularly in the provision of service delivery.  Inspite of liberalization and privatization the government still continues to be the largest service provider with the largest resource base and catering to the largest section of the population. Experience has shown that the main purpose or objective in administrative reforms is to institute changes in the structures, policies and functions of the systems of delivery and in the behaviour and attitude of the personnel. This is intended to achieve maximum efficiency, organizational effectiveness and responsiveness in the delivery of services to the people. The citizen’s perception of the state and its functioning is primarily based on its role as a service provider, law enforcer and regulator. Improving the quality of administration and providing a responsive interface between the citizens and the public services requires a number of new initiatives.

Citizens of today are more aware, demanding, more informed and more knowledgeable. Service has become very critical.  Excellence can simply be defined as the quality or state of being outstanding or superior. Good organizational culture and developing a relationship of trust with the citizens will enable the set ups to move closer to the concept of excellence. In the realm of service delivery we are still aiming for a ‘satisfied customer’ where as worldwide organizations are moving towards a ‘delighted customer’. Total organizational excellence involves comprehensibly improving competitiveness, effectiveness and flexibility through planning, organizing and understanding each activity, and involving each individual at each level.

 Today’s public management combines well with quality management, insistence on a systems approach, customer focus, elimination of errors that fail to add value to services, problem prevention, long term strategic planning, team work and employee involvement. Leaders must be willing to empower subordinates and employees must be willing to accept additional responsibilities for meeting and exceeding tax payers expectations in the delivery of public goods and services. With the introduction of Citizens Charter in all the government departments more so at the district level and also with the operationalisation of the Right to Information Act, the changes are apparent. There can be a number of options and ways of enhancing the quality of the service delivery mechanism and one of the options is to adopt TQM methods and techniques, even though business process re-engineering is the new buss word.

TQM is a business management approach that has gained popularity within the public sector organizations in India in the recent past. During the past decade public managers in agencies at all levels of government have adopted various quality approaches across the country. The Department of Administrative reforms, Government of India has been the nodal agency promoting TQM in government. A number of Administrative training institutions have been selected to implement   and impart training to civil servants in TQM. Today TQM has become an important organizational trend in the context of change management in the public sector. Modern TQM has emerged as a management approach based on a set of fundamental quality principles, techniques and procedures that provides guidance and structure in the practical affairs of running an organization. However achieving organizational excellence often requires a mind – set change to break down the existing barriers, but it must start at the top where the serious obsessional commitment and leadership must be demonstrated.  This applies to both the political leadership and the leadership of the district collector.

E -governance is another fast emerging tool for achieving good governance especially with regard to improving efficiency, transparency and making interface with government user friendly. E-governance denotes the application of IT to the processes of government functioning in order to bring about better governance, which has been termed as SMART.  Use of ICT in government facilitates efficient, speedy and transparent process for dissemination of information to the citizens. At all stages in the service delivery process the key components of service quality and procedures need to be taken care of that are citizens and employee focused, responsive, flexible and reliable. The irony is that the personnel do not know the rewards that a good service can bring. The strategy should be to make best use of technology in service delivery, systems improvement and improvement in the work environment so as to ensure speed, accuracy and efficiency. Attention has to be focused on potential failure points and service recovery procedures, which amounts to empowering employees to exercise responsibility, judgment and creativity in responding to citizen’s problems. An important point to be taken care is that IT in itself, does not offer all the answers, automation frequently does not produce the expected gains. Many public sector organizations putting in major new computer systems have achieved only the automation of the existing processes. But there is no doubt that the pace of change has been enormous and I T systems in a short period have enabled sweeping changes in the working of the organizations.

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