Effective Public Sector Management - Assignment Example

Management Name Institution Course Tutor Date Q2: The task is to propose improvements by identifying how theory on public administration and public management can help you in responding to the case. During the emergency situations, effective communication is very essential to enhance acquisition of the most efficient solution. The problem in the case In this case, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government is in a dilemma associated with continued exploration and usage of the new communication system to assist in the emergencies. Additional the ACT Government supports the re-examination of the usage of communication through the text to make emergency calls whereby the public texts are received by a national contact centre and then directed to the appropriate jurisdiction where the text messages are needed. The population in Canberra supports the provision of emergency services since there is the availability of the police ambulance and fire services, which respond at reasonable times and even during the Friday and Saturday nights. Ultimately, the demand for new forms of response continues increasing in collaboration with the expansion of the ambulance service. The ACT Government would wish to improve the access to the emergency response and response time and remain using the current communication system in the emergency management. However, the issue of the hats that are supposed to be won by the city’s governor puts the public sector management in Canberra in a dilemma. The issue of the nation’s capital and how it should be managed puts the city’s governor in a situation; whereby he cannot fully make the required decisions since they are partly made by the Commonwealth Parliament. There is also the local and the regional hats. The ACT Government’s budget is faced with the global financial crisis to the local business. For the achievement of the improved emergency management and efficient civil preparedness in the human and natural disaster, the diverse groups in the community are engaged in the communications. Possible alternative solutions For effective public sector management in relation to emergency management, different strategies should be applied. The possible options comprise of; Making of proper plans for the actual and potential risks and following the appropriate procedures for the emergency management. The ACT Government should ensure that there is the application of an intuitive and simple emergency communication system. During the emergency, the communication system should allow multiple or public usage of the system. However, this should be managed on permissions basis (Cook, Woodall, Harper, and Benger, 2011, 633). Only reliable people from the local areas should be allowed to issue the warnings for improved trust of the information source. The public should have the opportunity of sending an emergency message without facing difficulties all the time. In the case of some potential risks, the government needs to set the emergency communication system in a manner that it accommodates public management. The emergency message that is issued should have a clear focus on the immediate needs. In addition, proper planning for a disaster helps in the building of the capacity and identification of the most efficient resources that should be applied in the disaster situations. The ACT Government would be required to conduct the most efficient mitigation activities to lessen the severity of the emergency (Yin, Lampert, Cameron, Robinson, and Power, 2012, 54). Collaboration between different entities and their linkages for the achievement of the requirements associated with the emergency management conduct (Di Mauro, Bouchon, and Torretta, 2012, 26). The emergency organisations such as hospitals and fire service providers need to work in association with the other public sector organisations for there to be a broader response to the emergency. Working in the partnership would lead to success in the establishment of a reliable emergency communication system. The local civil organisations also need to make themselves as part of the public hold during the disasters. The public, the public sector, the private sector, and the entire governmental levels should have a shared mission of emergency communications. Involvement of different groups of the public in the emergency communications would improve the approach of usage of the available resource and handling of different incidents, as well as the identification of the most appropriate crisis notification plan. The linkage among different groups and parties enables the efficient usage of the emergency response resources and the ongoing relationships assist in the acquisition of the appropriate solutions (Neuhauser, Ivey, Huang, Engelman, Tseng, Dahrouge, Gurung, and Kealey, 2013, 615). Participation of the ACT Government in the emergency exercise in collaboration with the local populations aid in the timely preparedness towards the potential risks. The local, regional, and national sectors should have diverse emergency management approaches prepared with consideration of their sizes and plans made as per the available resources. It is evident that most of the emergency situations are supposed to be coordinated at different levels. The ACT emergency management needs to be based on the achievement of the organizational and community resilience. There is the need for a local, regional, and national cooperative and coordinated effort. According to the argument put forth by Lurie, Manolio, Patterson, Collins, and Frieden, (2013, 1252), integration of sectors in fighting for a disaster makes the response to the emergency quick and cheaper. The ACT Government would establish a new emergency management system, which would work towards bringing together the views of the public. On the other hand, the local populations have the role to play concerning being prepared to recover from the disasters despite the increased ageing and demand for disaster response among the local communities (Lovejoy, and Saxton, 2012, 341). It is evident that the public is quick at recognizing the emergence of a disaster in their local areas and given the opportunities to engage in the emergency communications helps the population to make significant contributions in the emergency response. In this case, allowing the Capital Region and Canberra people to be among the emergency communications groups would empower them to raise alarms when necessary. Information sharing and communication between the ACT Government and the commonwealth is essential to avoid conflict between them. Because of the financial budgets, it is essential for the ACT Government, which is directly involved in the emergencies to help the Canberra population to have an effective emergency communication system. As articulated by Boulos, Resch, Crowley, Breslin, Sohn, Burtner, Pike, Jezierski, and Chuang, (2011, 2), it would be necessary to continue having a common communication centre; whereby the emergency communications are evaluated for their clarity and content before being forwarded to the appropriate jurisdiction. To access critical information would be more effective if the local broadcast media is involved in communicating local messages to the public, thus encouraging sharing of the appropriate messages to the public without limitations (Merchant, Elmer, and Lurie, 2011, 290). The sharing of emergency information among the necessary bodies would help in setting and following of more efficient communication policies and make it possible for the ACT Government to meet the emergency needs. Improved communication technologies require being developed. For efficient information sharing, new technologies should be established, such as the social media, internet devices, and modernized networks, which would efficiently support the emergency notifications. Even if the ACT Government does not wish to add some additional pressure on the current communication system, it is essential to improve the nature of the technologies used in the communications. This involves the improvement of the data, video, and voice and ensuring that there is an improved security towards the information and data that is shared by the public concerning a certain emergency issue. The new technology would help in increasing the efficiency, effectiveness, and speed of the emergency notification sharing and protection to the involved communities (Beneito-Montagut, Anson, Shaw, and Brewster, 2013, 4). The manner through which the warnings and alerts of the emergency communications would be conducted in the form of self-protection and curfews would enhance the improvement of the response status only if the applied technologies assist in having efficient delivery of the emergency notifications. In the contemporary world, the social media and internet are widely applied compared to the broadcast media and the print media. The selected media should be efficient to the target audience and it should be reliable during the times of emergency (Sacuta, Gauvreau, and Greenberg, 2013, 7390). In the case of the sensitivity of the message when being used via a certain media, it should be changed and for the concentration on the audience geographic location, a public meeting should be considered. In-person events are among the effective emergency communication tools and comprises of public address and briefings. The in-person events help in the acquisition of a direct response from the target audience. The ACT Government should consider the communication tools to be applied to different emergency situations for their effective solution (Gelenbe, and Wu, 2013, 340). Communication via text should be made automatic for the texts to be displayed in the specific computers and to the necessary receivers on time and contain the intended information. The approach of emergencies through the emergency calls would be more efficient if the call is accompanied by a text. It is also important to apply mobile vans or ambulances, as well as fire-fighting machines when engaging in an emergency in order to have access to the location where the incident is said to have occurred (Luiijf, and Klaver, 2011, 7). With the internet devices and social media, it would help the elderly people and the disabled to communicate effectively during the emergency because of the widespread of the internet connections in many locations and the accessibility of the internet application gadgets even in the remote areas. Proper maintenance of operational and financial stability would be essential between the ACT Government and the Commonwealth in order to enhance efficient response to the emergency calls. All the finances put aside to be used in the matters associate with public administration and public emergency management should be properly budgeted for and properly planned for, an approach, which would lead to an increased quality of the response given (Lindsay, 2011, 3). Despite the fact that the Commonwealth is involved in the provision of funding to the ACT, the commonwealth should leave the entire mandate to the ACT to make all the appropriate decisions concerning the health care issues that are coordinated by the Commonwealth Parliament. The most appropriate option The best option for the ACT is the application of the new technologies, which would make the emergency alerts more efficient and sending and reception of the emergency voice messages to the more advanced communication devices such as smartphones. From the fact that every message is prepared with an audience in mind, keeping the message simple and flexible would be vital. Reasons for choosing the particular solution The reason for the selection of this particular solution is that the conduct of redundant communications is quick, quality, and characterized with the acquisition of a quick response. In addition, making the acquisition of the text messages and emergency calls automatic would improve the provision of the emergency response towards a particular disaster. The new technologies such as the advanced communication devices that are used with the internet connections would make the diversity of information sources possible. With the application of the social media and the internet, it would be possible to update the media for improved quality and efficiency of the received message. Moreover, it would be possible to incorporate different media and would enhance the provision of direct message dissemination through some varied formats (Engelman, Ivey, Tseng, Dahrouge, Brune, and Neuhauser, 2013, 1). The ACT population is digital and with the capacity to use the social media, thus making it possible to engage many Australians in the region in the emergency communications. During the natural disasters that are commonly faced by the Australians, it would be possible for the Canberra and Capital region people to send quick and short messages to the appropriate bodies. On the other hand, the ACT government would be able to send emergency warnings to the populations for their enhanced preparedness during the disasters. The advanced technologies also enable in the sending of messages through different multiple channels to be certain that the target recipients have access to the emergency alerts (Hiltz, Kushma, and Plotnick, 2014, 3). Because of the special needs, the general public is trained on how to receive the emergency notifications and how to send the emergency warnings to the appropriate bodies for their response. Management of the digital communications is easy and characterized with its effectiveness in the emergency response. It also becomes possible to involve different government organisations in the public administration and public management because of the increased diversity of the internet and social media. References Beneito-Montagut, R., Anson, S., Shaw, D. and Brewster, C., 2013. Governmental social media use for emergency communication. In proceedings of the 10th international conference on information systems for crisis response and management, Baden-Baden, Germany. http://www.cbrewster.com/papers/Beneito-Montagut_ISCRAM13.pdf Boulos, M.N.K., Resch, B., Crowley, D.N., Breslin, J.G., Sohn, G., Burtner, R., Pike, W.A., Jezierski, E. and Chuang, K.Y.S., 2011. Crowdsourcing, citizen sensing and sensor web technologies for public and environmental health surveillance and crisis management: trends, OGC standards and application examples. 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IEEE Intelligent Systems, 27(6), pp.52-59. https://delvalle.bphc.org/pluginfile.php/13922/mod_resource/content/2/YIN-IS2012.pdf Read More