Abstract
- Purpose Public Administration complexity derives from the dual character of the public sector, that is to be a means of delivery and an element of societal self-governance. The bureaucratic framework is a way to address this tension, while simultaneously public administration needs to focus on a more processual view of the organization to improve service quality. Training could be a key point to sustain such a transition, by focusing on Customer Orientation. The aim of the study is to explore whether a training device focused on Customer Orientation could develop employees’ theory on organization as being process-oriented, i.e. ‘organizing’. - Design The longitudinal study is on a training case study in Italy. Participating in the training course were 34 employees belonging to 16 Public Administrations. Data on participants’ organization representations were collected at the beginning and at the end of the course through the SWOT matrix. Data analysis used a quali-quantitative approach. - Findings Findings show a shift to viewing the service organization as a process implicated in uncertainties and unpredictable events rather than the realization of an ideal model. - Originality The study contributes to highlight the need for a practical focus on the conceptualization of organization in training, since the term ‘organization’ is often underdescribed or treated as an end in itself.
Conclusion, practical implications and limitations
The study contributes to highlight the need for a practical focus on the conceptualizations of organizations in training. Within organization studies, the term ‘organization’ is often underdescribed or treated as an end in itself rather than a ‘dispensable means’ (Du Gay and Vikkelsø, 2014, p. 749). Representing the organization as a process of organizing allows participants to distinguish between the prescribed and discretionary parts of task performance (Jaques, 1976). In this direction, our proposal is to use the construct of customer orientation as an artefact that supports the pragmatic call to experience proposed by an approach to organization studies as a practical science of organizing (O’Connor, 2012). The reference to this construct appears as a tool which favours a conceptualization of the organization as a process of actions and decisions. Following Du Gay and Vikkelsø’s call to a practical science of organizing, in our proposal this tool shares with other conceptual devices the need to be used as “heuristic concepts that exactly because of their ‘empirical character’, i.e. their immediate recognizability by the participants of the field which they seek to describe, have the potential to instigate an investigation of or conversation about the situation as a whole” (2014, p. 750).
Several are the practical implications of the study, in relation to training and public policy. First, if public administration wants to increase service quality by focusing on a more processual view of the organization, training could be a key point. Second, a specific training tool may favour such transition, i.e. the concept of Customer Orientation and the use of Norman’s grid (1984). Focusing on client-centeredness means developing participants’ organizational competencies, enhancing both employees’ sense of authorship and responsibility, and service production in an effective, efficient and meaningful way.
