Table 3 summarizes the results of the content analysis, reporting the frequency of items for each perspective and each managerial model.
The content analysis refers to: (i) Documents and planning laws; (ii) the Policy maker’s experience and expectations and (iii) Top management’s experience and expectations.
The Strategic Orientation of the Region: The Perspective of Regional Acts and Laws
As shown in Table 4, regional programming laws and acts appear to be strongly focused on PG logics: 73 % of them (46 out 63) express concepts on aspects of the PG model. The remaining (17 out 63) refer to NPM, and none refer to OPA.
Table 4 The strategic orientation of the region: results of our analysis of regional acts and laws
Concepts related to the leading logic of PG are found in 11 cases out of 19.
This trend is especially highlighted in many parts of the programmatic speeches of the president and in the government program, which underlines the importance of the coordination role of the regional authority over the many different public and private subjects considered as a network, and it is a key element of post-NPM trends (Christensen 2012):
«Tuscany is a “network city” of about 3.7 million inhabitants. While its history and territorial characteristics would encourage us to protect the specificity and diversity of each town municipality, the development and the new concepts of networking and integration encourage us to overcome localism and local peculiarities (…)» (Programmatic speech of the Regional President).
The pursuit of efficiency at a systemic level and of effectiveness in terms of policy-making outcomes seems clear:
«For example, the various regional councilors (the equivalent of ministers in a national government, Ed.) can no longer limit themselves to forming policies; they must also take responsibility for the effectiveness of their interventions, to the extent of their competence». (Government program).
Several references to NPM logics and tools can be found in the same documents as well and they are considered essential for a smooth-running regional machine, such as a “mission budget”, a “modern system of analytical controls”, and a “system of performance appraisal”. They are regarded in PM literature as “efficiency artifacts”, i.e. a wide range of instruments employed by managers to solve current problems in public organizations (Vakkuri 2010).
All items regarding system dimensions, perspectives, contents, decision-making contents, accountability and external relations are attributable to the PG model. An open-system approach, characterized by integration and coordination logics, emerges in many of the regional laws examined, starting with Regional Law n. 26 of 1992, which regulates, for the first time ever, the regional planning process, focusing, inter alia, on the principles of participation and transparency. The underlying perspective is clearly of the multi-level type, and it integrates the micro, meso and macro dimensions.
Another important dimension that often recurs in the documents on planning is that of the economic and environmental sustainability of policies. It affects the orientation of the planning and control systems towards the PG model. The focus on obtaining results - seen through their impact on citizens - appears clear. Indeed, the Regional Development Program (RDP) includes a set of context indicators and comparisons between Italian regions, in addition to some result indicators on the action plans of the legislature.
The Perspective of the Policy Maker
The experience and the expectations perceived by the regional vice-president reveal a high prevalence of logics which are consistent with the PG model. As shown in Table 5, this happens in 7 out of 15 concepts and almost all of them (5) are related to the internal relations dimension.
Table 5 The policy maker’s perspective
The regional vice-president’s interview shows how she aims to overcome the politician-manager dichotomy (Pollitt and Bouckaert 2011), and how she balances interests at the administration level through trust, collaboration and flexible relationships.
NPM-related elements stand out in the orientation of the planning and control systems (2 concepts out of 3 for the NPM model, and 1 out of 3 for the OPA model) which are mainly based on output indicators to measure targets and activities. However, according to the vice-president, they do not express the whole truth about target achievement:
This year, many indicators were related to output measures. The problem is to understand if these types of measures are sufficient or if, for some of the cross-functional issues, such as the management efficiency of the administration machine, it is possible to use a “true” indicator, not in terms of output but in terms of outcome, the equivalent of sales.
OPA-related concepts highlight critical issues due to lasting and typically bureaucratic logics, in particular, the lack of cross-functional thinking and flexibility. The vice president underlines the so-called problem of “siloization” (or “pillarization”, Christensen 2012):
They still work too much in silos here and this is a serious problem in a public administration where knowledge, even a little knowledge, is power. In this way, you completely lose any cross-functional way of thinking, and managers should work hard to overcome this.
Concerning the expectations of the vice-president, we should consider that, in this case, concepts are rather few (only five). They all belong to NPM and PG, although PG is prevalent for concepts related to planning and control systems orientation (2 out of 2).
The Top-Level Management Perspective
The daily activities of top-level management are largely dominated by OPA logics, as presented in Table 6. Indeed, as many as 51 % (29 out of 57) of the concepts belong to OPA, 33 % (19 out of 57) to NPM and only 16 % (9 out of 57) to PG.
Table 6 Top management’s perspective
Instead, top-level management expectations tend to be oriented towards the NPM model (55 % of the concepts, 17 out of 31) and, to a lesser extent, to the PG model.
Experience
Almost half of OPA-related concepts (12 out of 29) apply to the leading logic which still appears to be bureaucratic in 12 out of the 16 concepts found.
NPM logics seem to have a problem establishing themselves, especially in the planning, reporting and evaluation mechanisms and operations; for example, delays are reported in planning documents, with a negative impact on management activities.
This kind of problem is also evident when there is a lack of differentiation. According to a manager’s evaluation:
«Tuscany’s regional managers are assessed with scores between 90 and 100 %. Now, even if I aspired to differentiate among them, I would not be able to.
The possibility of giving more realistic assessments, with scores at least between 50 and 100 %, also involves a discussion on the targets’ system» (GD 1).
Another manager agrees on this aspect:
«There is a problem in setting targets: you should not put year-on-year targets on things that need to be done. Those are not real goals, but fulfillments. The goal has to become the “how” or the overcoming of what I know I must do for competence» (GD 4).
This is confirmed by the experience reported concerning the orientation of the planning and control systems: 7 out of 9 concepts belong to OPA.
These systems and tools do not seem to improve managing activities; indeed, they appear to be partly self-referential and oriented towards the measurement of inputs and formal results. There are some indicators established by law, for example those on the mapping of legislative and administrative activities, but they are not regularly used.
«Mapping processes, considering their expiration and stressing the responsibility of the managers involved are not only elements of good administration, but they are also legal requirements. We are obliged to carry them out because we are responsible towards our citizens and every citizen should be able to know the deadlines for administrative procedures and the persons in charge of each procedure». (GD 2)
Of the nine PG-related concepts, most of them concern internal relationships (5). The relationship between top-level management and policy makers, which should aim to overcome the dichotomy between the two roles (as aforementioned by the vice-president), is confirmed by the managers interviewed. There is a relationship of trust between policy makers and top-level managers who often have to interact:
«Problems occur when there is a conflict between the area coordinators and the regional councilor or between the general director and the councilor, because it may impair the trust between them and compromise the performance of their activities». (GD 2)
Not a single concept emerged regarding external relationships, which confirm top management’s disregard for this issue.
Expectations
Most NPM-related concepts (6 out of 17) refer to the leading logic. The managerial innovations discussed in public sector research have not been completely implemented, as already pointed out above. A need to better define objectives and indicators to assess their achievements is strongly felt by top-level managers. Indicators should be better focused on actual priorities, budget management and allocation, and responsiveness to political inputs (including also informal ones):
«This is an important aspect, relating to priorities. In my opinion, the prevailing aspect is to ensure good budget management which is, by nature, a cross-functional activity. Even more important than budget management is the degree of compliance with political inputs that are not written in the stated objectives». (GD 2)
Most of the expectations of the managers moved to the PG are related to the decision-making contents (5 out of 14) and the orientation of the planning and control systems (4 out of 14). The managers expressed the need for greater system flexibility and instrument adaptability to enable the regional administration to face unexpected situations and new challenges posed by external environments, perceived as increasingly discontinuous:
«Another key element is flexibility. Nowadays, strictness, accompanied by a fair amount of flexibility, is essential, together with a strong willingness to change tasks and perspectives». (GD 3)
Adaptation to goals should suit political priorities and contingent activities as much as possible, and it should be carried out in a more timely and flexible way:
«The ability to understand where we stand is critical, so goal adjustment timeliness and achievement measurements are very important. They should also enable us, with the limitations I have represented, to be as close as possible to our political priorities». (GD 3)
As to planning systems, most expectations focused on the importance of setting targets in all the general directorates to improve the results of administrative action:
«Some targets should be cross-functional and they should involve all the general directorates, or at least, the most important ones. Let me add the ability to promote – I think this is an essential point – cross collaboration and cross-functionality». (GD 1)
The corporate model (NPM) dominates expectations about governance. This is clearly stated in two verbatim where respondents discussed the need to map all existing processes as a prerequisite to more virtuous organizational behavior:
«The other problem is networking: once we understand what our colleagues are doing, we can identify redundancies and interactions. This is the right way to improve in the future». (GD 3)