How Public Administration Restructuring Can Contribute to Greek Educational Reform - Information and Communication Technologies in Public Administration - page 309

14.5 Putting things together

The main developmental choice in the area of improving the managerial capacity
of PA can be summarized in the creation of a citizen-centered effective, open, and
flexible government. This will affect all the subsidiary areas, including education,
molding upper- and lower-level policies. The initiatives aiming at PA restructuring
actually involve the strengthening of “back-office” (which is the old structure) to
“front-office” (the modern open, professional perspective) relationship, as we can
see in Figure 14.2.
The preconditions of effective restructuring can rely upon the following pillars
(Hargreaves, 2003):

◾ Accountability: Authorities are willing to show the extent to which decisions

are consistent with clearly formulated objectives.

◾ Transparency: Actions, decisions, and decision-making processes of the gov-

ernment are subject to appropriate control of other parts (auditors), the civil
society, and in some cases, by external bodies and governments.

◾ Efficiency and effectiveness: The master plan aims at producing quality pub-

lic services for citizens at the lowest cost, ensuring that the results meet the
original intention of the policy makers.

◾ Responsiveness: Upper hierarchies have the ability and flexibility to respond

quickly to social changes, taking into account the expectations of civil society
when it determines the general public interest and is willing to review criti-
cally the role.

◾ Insight: Authorities anticipate future problems based on current data and

trends (forward vision) and formulate policies that take into account the future
costs and expected changes (e.g., demographic, economic, environmental).

MBO

CAF

Restructured
front-oce

Old structure
back-oce

ISO

eGov

Figure 14.2 Putting things together. CAF = Common Assessment Framework;
eGov = e-government; iSo = international organization for Standardization;
MBo = Management by objectives.