Forming conditions for effective governance decision making by public leaders

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Харківського національного університету міського господарства імені О.М. Бекетова

Формування умов для прийняття ефективних управлінських рішень лідерами державної влади

Х.І. Калашнікова, к. е. н., доцент, доцент кафедри менеджменту і публічного адміністрування,

Ю.В. Наливайко, аспірант кафедри менеджменту і публічного адміністрування

Abstract

Kh. Kalashnikova,

PhD in Economics, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of the Department of Management and Public Administration, O.M. Beketov National University of Urban

Economy in Kharkiv

Yu. Nalyvaiko,

Postgraduate student of the Department Management and Public Administration; O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv

FORMING CONDITIONS FOR EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE DECISION- MAKING BY PUBLIC LEADERS

The article systematizes the approaches to the issues of local public executive authorities related to the quality of leadership decisions. In particular, the author establishes the connection between philanthropy and the direct responsibilities of public leaders in developing management decisions. Three components of the management process are identified, the weakness of one of which reduces the quality of the management process of the Ukrainian state. The authors emphasize that the criteria of a state leader's activity, which help to improve the quality of management decisions, are also emphasized. Focusing in detail on the factors that affect the quality of leadership decisions. Subjective factors indicate that the quality of a leadership decision depends not on the civil servant, but on certain external circumstances. It is established that as a public leader gains personal work experience, the negative impact on the quality of decisions of these factors, which are directly or indirectly related to the decision-making process, gradually decreases. The article shows that as a public leader gains personal work experience, the negative impact of these factors, which are directly or indirectly, related to the decision-making process, on the quality of decisions gradually decreases. It has been established that an important factor in improving the quality of a leadership decision is the study of someone else's positive and ”unsuccessful ” experience. The factor of ”real world constraints ” that affects the quality of a leadership decision is considered. In practice, such a positive factor as action orientation can be taken into account, for example, by creating temporary creative groups of volunteers. Another equally important factor is the ability to ”listen to the customers ”, which is critical for developing a quality leadership solution, for example, to obtain a sufficiently accurate understanding of their needs. It is proved that the work with a leadership decision should be iterative, i.e., it is fundamentally acceptable to return from any stage of the process of preparation, adoption and implementation of a decision to the previous stages. Other ways to ensure high efficiency of work by improving the quality of the leadership decision-making process (favorable atmosphere in the team, amount of information) are presented.

Keywords: leadership, public administration, information state, management, public managerial decisions, quality, democratization, European integration.

Анотація

У статті систематизовано підходи щодо проблематики місцевих органів державної виконавчої влади, яка пов'язана з якістю лідерського рішення. Зокрема, встановлено зв'язок між філантропією та прямими обов'язками державних лідерів розробляти управлінські рішення. Виділено три складові процесу управління, слабкість одного з яких знижує якість управлінського процесу української держави. Підкреслено, що критерії діяльності державного лідера, за допомогою яких зростає якість управлінських рішень. Зосереджуючи детально увагу на чинниках, що впливають на якість лідерського рішення. Суб'єктивні чинники свідчать про те, що якість лідерського рішення залежить не від державного службовця, а від певних зовнішніх обставин. Встановлено, що з набуттям державним лідером особистого досвіду роботи, негативний вплив на якість рішень прямо чи опосередковано пов'язані з процесом прийняття рішень, поступово зменшується. Дії, якими користуються державні лідери при прийнятті рішень, є частиною їх свідомого чи підсвідомого розуміння ситуації. Частково вони закладаються на ранніх етапах розвитку особистості, а частково є результатом певної послідовності ситуацій, з якими стикається людина. Встановлено, що важливим чинником підвищення якості лідерського рішення є вивчення чужого позитивного та «невдалого» досвіду. Розглянуто фактор «обмеження реального світу», який вливає на якість лідерського рішення. На практиці такий позитивний фактор, як орієнтація на дію, може бути врахований, наприклад, шляхом створення тимчасових творчих груп волонтерів. Ще один не менш важливий фактор, як вміння «слухати споживача», є критичним для розробки якісного лідерського рішення, наприклад, для отримання достатньо точного розуміння його потреб. Доведено, що робота з лідерським рішенням має бути ітеративною, тобто принципово допустимим є повернення з будь-якого етапу процесу підготовки, прийняття та реалізації рішення до попередніх етапів. Наведено інші способи забезпечити високу ефективність роботи за рахунок підвищення якості процесу прийняття лідерського рішення (сприятлива атмосфера в колективі, кількості інформації).

Ключові слова: лідерство, державна влада, інформаційна держава, управління, державно-управлінські рішення, якість, демократизація, євро інтеграція.

The problem statement

The current conditions of Ukraine's development, which are characterized by deepening democratization, a course towards European integration and informatization of all spheres of human activity, require efficient and effective mechanisms for public leadership. In any management system, the main component is a management decision that determines the structure, functions and performance of the leadership system. The peculiarity of the public administration system is the scale and significance of decisions affecting the general population. They are made under conditions of limited time and financial resources, uncertainty and information asymmetry. Making unreasonable leadership decisions in public administration can lead to negative consequences. In Ukraine, the problem of improving the quality of public administration decisions is particularly relevant. This is due to the processes of forming an open civil society, which are accompanied by profound transformations and require an effective analytical and organizational mechanism for making and implementing scientifically sound leadership public management decisions. The main components of this mechanism are its information, analytical and organizational support, the quality of which determines the effectiveness of not only leadership decisions, but also public administration in general, since this type of activity is a permanent process of making strategic, operational and tactical decisions.

Overview of recent research and publications

The problem of managerial decision-making has always been the focus of attention of representatives of various fields of knowledge. They can be grouped according to the subject scientific orientation: psychological, managerial, sociological, philosophical, information and cybernetic, etc. In this context, it is worth noting the well-known domestic works of A. Degtyar [1], M. Lesechko [2], I. Nizhnyk [3], V. Tertychka [4], V. Tsvetkov [5] and other researchers who consider the problem from the standpoint of management theory and taking into account its psychological aspects. In the works of well-known foreign authors I. Ansoff, G. Simon, M. Mescon, M. Albert and F. Hedourie, it is considered from the viewpoint of management theory.

The scientific support of this process involves the synthesis of interdisciplinary sciences, the methodological basis of which is a comprehensive scientific approach to building an effective system of analytical and organizational support for the adoption and implementation of public administration decisions. This approach involves a wide range of research, primarily the introduction of mathematical methods into the theory and practice of public administration. Their purposeful use in the systematic study of social processes has more than half a century of history. During this time, numerous methods of modeling the functioning of various components of social systems have been developed and proposed. However, often the research of applied leadership tasks using mathematical modeling methods ends only with the development of a verbal model or its mathematical formalization, rather than conclusions on making an appropriate management decision and the results of systematic research of multifaceted processes of social development are not linked to specific public administration decisions.

The purpose of the study (task statement)

The purpose of the article is to explore the process of searching for modern directions of forming the conditions for making effective leadership decisions by public authorities in the context of European integration and democratization of society by improving the organizational support for the quality of public administrative decisions.

Research results

The participation of public leaders in these processes in any form is fundamental to the development of a quality management solution [6]. Public leaders have their own interests and are able to express them. Therefore, it is unlikely that any activity can be represented in the form of a chain, where it is necessary to find a decisive link that can pull the entire chain. If we turn to visual images, it is better to compare any activity with a multidimensional web, where the nodes are connected not by threads but by rubber bands. This can lead to unexpected effects at first glance. Nevertheless, this situation is not hopeless. The theory and practice of public administration have accumulated many useful recommendations that contribute to high-quality leadership decisions [7]. First, the quality of a leadership decision is closely related to the right choice of approach to the problems of local state executive authorities. Scientific sources provide advice on how to successfully solve them. Among them are the following:

timely awareness and analysis of the problem in order to find out the reasons for their occurrence; executive power leadership

reduction of working time spent on unnecessary decisions that do not affect the efficiency of the local public administration unit;

avoidance of several consecutive decisions on the same issue;

continuous evaluation of the effectiveness of the decision-making process and subsequently the implementation of the decision;

training of public leaders and incentives for success;

involvement of relevant employees at the initial stages of the decisionmaking process, taking into account their qualifications and the complexity of the problem.

The last recommendation requires further explanation. Participation of a wide range of public leaders affected by a decision in its preparation (and possibly in its adoption) allows not only to obtain additional information, but also to share responsibility for its implementation and consequences. The delegation of certain rights to executors and the rational delegation of certain functions to them favorably affects the implementation of decisions, the realization of the potential abilities of public leaders, creates an atmosphere of mutual trust in the local state executive unit, and relieves the head of the local executive unit of the burden.

Involvement of public leaders whose direct responsibilities are not directly related to decision-making is not philanthropy, not increasing the responsibility of managers, and not simply increasing their motivation. The essence of such cooperation between a leader and his or her subordinates is that the direct executor often has the information and data necessary to develop and make a quality decision. Of course, the delegation of functions is associated with certain dangers (blurring of responsibility, inconsistency in the performance of duties, spontaneity in actions), but awareness, timely anticipation and counteraction to their occurrence, and even more so to their development, allows avoiding many possible troubles. A public leader must be able to see at least one-step ahead, and then he will be armed, in particular, with a wider distribution of decision-making rights among his subordinates.

The administration process can be presented in the form of three component blocks: determining the direction of action, developing and making a decision, and organizing its implementation [8]. The weakness of at least one of them usually reduces the quality of the management process. The quality of management decisions increases if the activities of the public leader meet the following criteria:

high scientific and technical level of administration, i.e. the use of modem methods, algorithms and technical means at all stages of administration;

high technological culture of management, which implies the presence of a common culture;

availability of the necessary information support for the management process, which requires the use of appropriate technical means of collecting, transmitting, processing, storing and searching for the necessary information, a developed communication system and appropriate infrastructure to streamline information flows;

a sufficient level of systematization, formalization and standardization of the management process to avoid "reinventing the wheel";

availability of organizational forms of management adequate to its tasks, rational combination of centralization and decentralization of administration;

intensification of the administration process, reduction of the duration of the administration cycle;

reduction of the duration of transitional processes in the implementation of decisions, prevention of "dilution" of the essence of the decision when it is brought to the direct executors;

development of management decisions in a complex, taking into account the functioning of the entire management chain;

ability to separate the main and most important from the general array.

If a leadership decision is aimed at improving the performance of only one link and not the entire system, a negative result can be obtained. This situation arises, for example, if the management chain involves the installation of new equipment in only one of the sections without changing anything in the others. As a result, the modernized section cannot operate at full capacity due to the low throughput of other links. In general, it turns out that the improvements made and the costs incurred do not yield the expected return. It can be argued that a number of factors (Table 1) influences the quality of leadership management decisions.

Table 1 - Factors that influence the quality of a leadership decision

Subjective factors indicate that the quality of a leadership decision depends not on the civil servant, but on certain external circumstances. However, it should be borne in mind that as a public leader gains personal work experience, the negative impact on the quality of decisions of these factors, which are directly or indirectly related to the decision-making process, gradually decreases (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Factors influencing the process of developing and making a leadership decision

In general, the factors that largely determine the quality of a leadership decision also include the reliability of information, the speed of its processing, the organization of communication networks, counteracting possible interference with communication channels, protecting confidential information, etc. One of the main conditions for increasing the efficiency of information support is to maintain regular, complete and high-quality information accounting [9]. For this reason, it is necessary to organize a clear accounting of the implementation of all plans, programs, and tasks by such parameters as quantity, quality, costs, performers and time. It is advisable to organize accounting of resource consumption for all types of resources.

An important factor in improving the quality of a leadership decision is the exploration of other people's positive and "unsuccessful" experience [10]. In particular, other people's experience shows that excessive enthusiasm for quantitative data, the collection of any quantitative information can lead to the manager getting confused in the flow of numbers. Moreover, the introduction of modem technologies can even complicate the situation: the leader loses insight into both the content of the information set and the process of its transformation.

In practice, such a well-known condition for improving the quality of a leadership decision as the competence of the leader, business and personal qualities, role positions (official, functional, group, civic, family) is often underestimated. Nevertheless, even the highest competence does not guarantee knowledge of all the nuances of the organization's activities, especially if this organization is a local government institution [11]. The main task of the leader is to organize the process of developing and making management decisions in such a way that they are made with a high degree of reliability. Therefore, a leader who "knows everything himself" may simply find himself in a dangerous situation of arrogance, self-confidence, and the appearance of omniscience, which may prevent him from making the right decision. The quality of a decision is also affected by the so-called "real world constraints":

the public leader may simply be unaware of the existence of the problem (either he is overworked or the problem is deeply hidden);

inability to collect the necessary information (due to time, technical or financial constraints);

inability to extract the full information from the data set for its effective use (mainly due to lack of time);

difficult to compile a complete list of alternative options [12].

In practice, such a positive factor as action orientation can be taken into account, for example, by creating temporary creative groups of volunteers. As a rule, such groups are small (5-10 people) and do not always fit into the structural scheme of the local government. However, to move forward, it is not necessary to have permanent research groups and strict formalization of the innovation development process. Of course, this way of organizing work has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, a number of organizational issues need to be addressed: how government leaders will return to their departments, how best to coordinate the work of departments in the temporary absence of an employee, etc. But in general, as one of the options for organizing work, this method is worth considering because it is based on a positive principle: instead of overcoming people's resistance to what they are not ready for, they are given the opportunity to do what they are capable of doing.

Ultimately, the ability to "listen to the consumer" is important for developing a quality leadership decision, for example, to obtain a sufficiently accurate understanding of their needs [13]. It is known that a leadership decision is always aimed at improving the efficiency of a local public authority, and the measure of the usefulness of decisions made should not be reporting, but the effectiveness of its work.

The key to ensuring the quality of the decision is the cycle of formulating the problem, selecting and clarifying the ultimate goal, determining ways to achieve the goals, evaluating their effectiveness, experimental testing and developing alternative options [14]. In other words, it is fundamentally permissible to return from any stage of the process of preparation, adoption and implementation of a decision to the previous stages, i.e., work with a leadership decision should be iterative.

Naturally, real-life activities, the specifics of the current situation, and objective external factors may not allow for the necessary iterations. However, the main guideline should be the following: in the course of work, it is necessary to be flexible, reassess the results obtained when new situations arise, and in some cases change the ideas underlying the decision. Of course, it is unacceptable to constantly change the goals, ways and means of achieving them, as this prevents a clear orientation of the local government. However, no less dangerous is a formal attitude to the task and an attempt to solve it with the help of previously chosen means, contrary to the real course of events.

The issue of improving the structure of the local public executive administration is directly related to the effectiveness of the solutions developed. It is quite typical for the administrative apparatus to grow gradually, which, at first glance, simplifies the work of the manager, who uses the results of the team's work, but often makes the functioning of the unit extremely difficult. The apparatus starts demanding additional information and reports, sends out requests, instructions, orders, etc. A successfully operating local self-government body does not allow the administrative apparatus to grow either in number or in structure.

There are other ways to ensure high efficiency by improving the quality of leadership decision-making. For example, you can reduce the amount of paperwork by verbally communicating the core values of the local government to all employees. If this measure is successful, employees realize the importance and necessity of reducing paperwork. Paradoxically, stories, anecdotes, myths and legends passed down from generation to generation can be a tangible carrier of deeply rooted local government values. Therefore, such folk art should not be neglected, and it should be strongly supported as evidence of the positive aura of correct orientation of young employees. In some cases, the efficiency of a local government unit is enhanced by reasonable parallelism or duplication of work. Parallelism, duplication, and competition in work require additional human, resource, and time opportunities that should be sought and concentrated on one job, one direction, when the dispersion of forces does not allow generating new ideas and identifying potentially promising areas for future work [15]. Suppose that the chances of success of a new idea, i.e. the probability of achieving a positive result, is only 0.1. This means that the probability of failure is 0.9, i.e. the idea is considered insufficient. Nevertheless, if there are not one, but ten such ideas, the probability of success of at least one of them seems quite decent.

The desire for complete centralization of activities can have negative consequences if the government's activities stop at the planning stage. Such a scenario is possible, for example, when the scope of work planning becomes simply infinite and the complexity of its implementation is overwhelming. In such cases, hopes for modern computing technology always turn out to be excessive, and this point is of fundamental importance: the growth of complexity and volume of leadership work is faster than the growth of technical capabilities for information processing.

Since individual executives do not possess "absolute knowledge," every state leader must demonstrate flexibility in communicating with subordinates, foresight in discussing business issues, the ability to understand other people's opinions, and a willingness to learn from colleagues, including subordinates.

Another way to improve management efficiency is to find solutions that are close enough to optimal. Finally, we should not forget about another important source of performance improvement - the so-called "human factor". The effectiveness of a decision will increase if those who make it and those who are affected by it recognize it. Quite often, the effectiveness of the solutions being developed increases if those who will implement the plans carry out the planning of activities.

Undoubtedly, one of the important factors in the effectiveness of a local government is a favorable atmosphere in the team [12]. If there is a spirit of healthy competition, mutual support and involvement of each employee in the overall success, the results will be better. Conversely, an atmosphere of rivalry, constant competition, and struggle for a place in the sun creates nervousness in relationships and objective losses in productivity. The rivalry intensifies when there is no program that unites the team, when the fate of the team and the direction of its development is decided by the person holding the managerial position. If the local government has a clear program of action, if each public leader has a clearly defined place and role, then unhealthy rivalry is reduced to nothing.

Based on a simplified and reduced amount of information, a "limited" decision can be made that is likely to be satisfactory because it is not possible to consider all factors at once. Therefore, important factors and conditions can be assumed, which, if taken into account, may lead to a better decision. This has led to the construction of a modern configuration for the formation of a system for making optimal management decisions by local state executive authorities. The frameworks or schemes used by civil servants of local state executive authorities in decision-making are part of their conscious and subconscious understanding of the situation. They are partly laid down at the early stages of personal development, when individual approaches to problem solving begin to form, and partly the result of a certain sequence of situations that a person faces. There is also a widespread tendency for public administrators to use the same schemes in the same sequence.

Conclusions

Thus, to improve the quality of both the leadership decisions made and the entire process of their development, some general rules can be used to help activate thinking and focus on the result. Another important condition for making a quality leadership decision is proper information support for the entire decision-making process. The correctness and effectiveness of decision-making is largely determined by the quality of economic, organizational, social and other information, and the task of decision-making necessitates certain specific information. In practice, such a well- known condition for improving the quality of a leadership decision as the competence of the leader, business and personal qualities, and role positions (official, functional, group, civic, family) are often underestimated. Consequently, in order to make optimal leadership decisions, it is not enough to know what indicators to use to evaluate the effectiveness of a particular operation. In order to make a decision, it is necessary to use certain rules that allow you to choose the best or most acceptable course of action from a variety of possible options. One of these decisive rules is the efficiency criterion, which allows you to make a targeted choice from a variety of alternatives.

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