Has the Hong Kong civil service improved its service-culture as a result of the public sector reform? Give examples.

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Q: Has the Hong Kong civil service improved its service-culture as a result of the public sector reform? Give examples.

Introduction

The Public Sector Reform in Hong Kong has launched since 1989. The objectives of economy, efficiency and effectiveness guided the reforms that aimed at improving the productivity of the public organizations. In order to further develop a performance and service-oriented culture, the Government announced its commitment to a major reform program in 1995 named “Serving the Community”. After a decade, nevertheless, the reform has only been partially successful in cultivating the customer-oriented culture. Although the public is now being better served as “clients” instead of “supplicants” (Scott, 2000), the extent of success is more depending on the quality of the service and, most importantly, the customer (public) satisfaction.

In this essay, I will first outline the Public Sector Reform in Hong Kong briefly. With reference to three examples, I will then discuss and evaluate the quality of some public services under the reforms. Finally, I will illustrate the change of culture in the public service provision after the Public Sector Reform.

Objectives of the Public Sector Reform

Tsang (1995) suggested that the Public Sector Reform in Hong Kong has two main objectives. The first objective is to examine the structure and relationships within the Hong Kong Government with a way to improve efficiency, making the best use of resources available, and providing the best service for the community and bring the best job satisfaction to the civil service. The second objective is to examine the Government’s relationship with other bodies which provide many essential public services in Hong Kong and outside the main Government organization.

Content of the Public Sector Reform

The Public Sector Reform booklet set out a framework to stimulate changes in financial and management practices across the public sector so as to improve both productivity and accountability (Sankey, 1993). In the following, I will illustrate three types of programs with examples under the Public Sector Reform.

(i) Trading Funds

The main aim of the establishment of trading funds was to provide an efficient operation that meets an appropriate standard of service. Sankey (1993) suggested that they are accounting frameworks established by law for departments providing services on a quasi-commercial basis with the objective of recovering cost. Under the Trading Fund Ordinance, trading fund departments are required to deliver commercially oriented services to the service receivers. However, the trading fund departments are still government department and their staffs are remained part of the civil servants subject to its terms and conditions (Legislative Council Brief, 1992).

According to Sankey (1993), a genuine customer-supplier relationship is an important condition for a particular department or agency to qualify as a trading fund. If someone consumes the post service, for instance, he or she would be regarded as customer and genuine market exchange relationship involved. As such, customer orientation is another standing for quality service or quality enhancement.

The Hong Kong Post Office (HKPO), for example, has been changed its operation into trading fund in 1995 and it seemed to be the most successful department in trading fund. For the HKPO, there are numerous of improvement after it changed into trading fund. First, the HKPO has undertaken “100 Projects for Better Service” and launched “Care from the Heart” week in 1997 and 1998 respectively. They aim to fulfill the increasing customers’ demand for more efficient and reliable postal service. Secondly, 98.8% of the locally posted letters could successfully delivered to addresses by the following day. Thirdly, 99% of the customers could be served within 10 minutes after they have arrived the Post Office (HKPO, 1999). Fourthly, the HKPO introduced the first Personal Greeting Stamps and Embossed Stamps in 1998 in order to cope with public demand.

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However, there is insufficient mechanism to hold the HKPO accountable to the public. The customers can neither involved in the decisions relating to service planning nor the management issues. As such, the customers could not call the HKPO accountable if the services failed to meet their needs. Worse still, the HKPO enjoy the monopoly and face no competition in issuing the postage stamps. In this sense, customers have no choice in consuming such product or service and no comparison of quality could be made. In short, the improvement in the quality of service is not as much as the ...

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