where productive / manufacturing competencies exist. Deliberate investment in education, human resource development and social heath programs drives country’ s productive capacities. Legal and regulatory frameworks play a key role in creating enabling environments, especially for trade.
From overall management function, the leadership of a country exercises planning, directing, staffing( human resource management), organising and controlling as they deploy and develop resources for the nation. This is the backbone of strategic operations, though it manifests itself more in execution and result realisation. It is at this point that we can start interrogating customer experience and then levels of satisfaction from the services consumed. Just as reminder, it is true that customer experience is the real test of effective execution of strategic operations management in the public sector.
Let us move on to the execution of the public services. On average, customer( the public) experience may not be great. First, we have stated that some of the services are“ forced” on to the public, with minimum regard of the consumption experience. Customer input in the service delivery process or opportunity for feedback, targeting continuous quality improvement may be non existent. The conversion of the policy( strategic plans) into tactical actions which are deliberate and citizen centric would be a strong foundation for effectiveness of service quality and operational excellence. Governments tend to be strong in design of frameworks, but slow on benefit realisation and measurement. It is a no brainer that they chase after the events with non-ending audit queries and stage-managed grilling at the oversight bodies. Meanwhile, the resources would have been misaligned, misused, and the customer left to look for alternative private solutions to public goods and services.
Lack of enabling environment and tools for the staff to deliver services pushes mores responsibilities to the citizens. It is critical that public service staff are empowered, with tools and operating resources( e. g office supplies and technology support), at the points of executing service delivery. This is just a first step in the fight of corruption and conflict of interest, perceived or otherwise. This will deliver operational efficiencies, quality and responsiveness to service consumers.
The service centres( e. g Huduma Centres) can then effectively execute the cascaded public sector vision and mission and short-term service delivery targets. Sometimes corruption may just be contingent and driven by circumstances prevailing at the point of consumption of public services. The customer as usual, desire quality, efficiency, speed and of course an experience that clearly demonstrates value creation, value addition and preservation of the same in their lives. This can sum up the customer experience in consuming public services and goods.
According to Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis( KIPPRA- 2024), the execution of government services through Huduma Centres has experienced several challenges. These include inaccessibility, reliability of internet connection, poor infrastructure and unavailability. It is critical to note that the set up of Huduma Centres as one-stop access to government services has been revolutionary and timely. This is where citizens experience the government first hand, and with continuous improvement and deployment of resources, the citizen experience can be improved in leaps. The concept relies heavily on strategic operations management frameworks for eliminating wastages, duplication, and optimising allocation of scarce resources effectively.
In setting the strategic directions, countries must dovetail into their competitiveness. Country competitiveness is defined as the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine a nation ' s productivity, enabling sustainable economic growth, high investment, and improved standards of living. Key drivers include infrastructure, education, health, and market efficiency.
This is buttressed on the premise that operations management is strategic, especially in designing service delivery and allocation of limited and scarce resources. This is the process by which the vision of the country is transformed into actions and results. The framework of service delivery should be customer centric. However, since the customers( public) have limited alternatives( substitutes), this undermines choice, flexibility and the drive for quality and continuous improvement.
Can the public sector then create a compelling competitive edge to keep the customer footprint growing in consumption of services which sometimes are just mandatory? This is where the customer voice must get louder in engaging with government for better service delivery. It is all about accountability and commitment towards improving welfare( the results of government service) and improving quality of life.
Can a country be competitive internationally and at the same time be ineffective and inefficient in serving the citizenry? Internal effectiveness is a core building block for international competitiveness. The sum-total of individuals’ and corporates’ experience with government delivery of services and goods determines how the international world( international market), evaluates the competitiveness( attractiveness) of the country say for business or for other international engagements.
Operations management theories deal with every aspect of creating competitive advantage. Market positioning of country service delivery must still be based on quality, speed, responsiveness towards all customers( internal and external). Service delivery processes can always be optimised and guided by quality improvement and control procedures.
The government gets resources from the citizens and firms in form of taxes and allocates these resources back through provision of enabling infrastructure( for utilities), education, health, security and social welfare. Quality control and continuous process improvement assures the government of effective conversion of input resources to create and add value.
Limited resources must never be subjected to waste. And it is at this point that the citizens must get agitated- value for money for all government procurement must be achieved. The blue prints are clear about the end results, but how often do we hear of procurement that delivers higher than expected open market prices? How many projects stall due to cost over runs? It is not for lack of procedures and processes to transform inputs to excellent results. It is
90 MAL71 / 26 ISSUE