Performance Improvement and Customer Satisfaction as A Focus of Public Service Reform: Trends and Challenges in Africa

Abstract

As a reaction to the inherent weaknesses of over-arching approaches to public service reform, attention is gradually shifting to the construction of low- to medium-range models depicting conditions under which otherwise rule-bound, change-resisting, and slow-moving bureaucratic organizations might be transformed into entrepreneurial and customer-oriented entities. This rests on the assumption that the contemporary global shift toward liberalisation would do for the evaluation of public goods what the interplay of supply and demand forces in a free market does for the price of tradable goods.

Yet, the assumption of a free market for public goods is being increasingly questioned. The “ustomer” concept, in particular, is perceived by some scholars as either inapplicable to the government setting or downright subversive of the democratic norm of accountability. This article also identifies a number of factors that combine to stand the market on its head and, by so doing, to frustrate the best laid out customer service plans in government. Among these factors are the prevailing “market culture,” the devaluation and/or distortion of basic management information, and the asymmetrical relationship between “supply” and “demand.”

At the same time, however, this article argues that, in the context of Africa where democracy is still at a nascent stage, the “ustomer” focus presents a credible response to concerns about political and public accountability. Besides providing a few case studies in the performance of service delivery systems and assessing efforts at launching customer service initiatives as part of public-sector reform programmes, this article examines some of the preconditions for the inauguration and successful implementation of customer service programmes in the African pubic service.