Public Services in Contemporary Society: An Analysis of the BBC

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

PUBLIC SERVICES IN CONTEMPORARY
SOCIETY
1

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................3
LO1........................................................................................................................................... 4
P1 & M1 PUBLIC SERVICE DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORICAL PRACTICE...............................4
P2 DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE ORGANIZATION......................................................6
LO2........................................................................................................................................... 7
P3 OPERATIONAL STRUCTURE OF PUBLIC SERVICES ORGANIZATION..................................7
P4 & M2 ACCOUNTABILITY OF STRUCTURE OF PUBLIC SECTOR FOR ITS DIRECTION AND
ACTIONS BOTH STRATEGICALLY AND OPERATIONALLY........................................................9
LO3......................................................................................................................................... 12
P5 TYPES OF FUNDING FOR PUBLIC SECTOR......................................................................12
P6 ALLOCATION OF FUNDING IN DIFFERENT PUBLIC SECTOR............................................14
M3 IMPACT OF FUNDING FROM SOURCES AND ALLOCATION IN PUBLIC SECTOR.............16
LO4......................................................................................................................................... 18
P7 DEFINING STRATEGY, ROLE AND STRUCTURE OF PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS....18
M4 ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF CHANGES UPON SOCIETY WHERE PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS
SERVES................................................................................................................................20
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 21
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 22
2

INTRODUCTION
Public service is the services which are provided to the general public by the government
within its jurisdiction, either directly by the public sector or by financing services provisions
and the public sectors are associated by the fundamental rights of human.
This assignment will debate on public services and their developments. This assignment will
lay emphasis on the public service organization which is the BBC. The company was founded
by John Reith on 18 October 1922 and headquartered in Westminster, London, UK. This is a
public service corporation named British Broadcasting Corporation. The company serves
Radio, Broadcasting and Web portals to the general public (BBC, 2019).
This will investigate the contemporary and historical practices of public services and will
describe its operational structure. This assignment shows the accountability and
responsibility of the public service organization both strategically and operationally. This will
include the issues in public services and the types of funding which are available to the
public sectors with their allocation. This assignment will also explain the strategy, role and
structure of the organizations and the impact of changes, funding, strategy and structure on
the sector.
3

LO1
P1 & M1 PUBLIC SERVICE DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORICAL PRACTICE
Public service is the services which are provided to the general public by the government
within its jurisdiction, either directly by the public sector or by financing services provisions
and the public sectors are associated by the fundamental rights of human. The demand for
public services in the UK is growing very fast than the whole economy (Kearney, 2018). The
public services are get developed by:
1. Changing structure of the government of the UK which includes the assessing the
practical and legal separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers of the
executive (Lock and Seele, 2016)
2. The local and central government has provided opportunities through public services
in order to provide employment and in the year 2018 approx. 2.05 million and 3.14
million people get employment in the public services (Lock and Seele, 2016)
3. The public sector has developed more by giving many facilities to people like
healthcare, social care, education and teacher training, security and law
enforcement (Kearney, 2018)
4. Increasing trend investments in infrastructure and providing modern services for
meeting the demands of the users of the public services
5. Economic growth and accounting GDP to 6% and employing 1.2 million has become
one of the biggest reason for the growth and development of public services
6. In the year 2007-8 the development of public services in the UK has gained the 2 nd
position in the developed world by its revenue £79bn and generating £45bn in
adding value as well as by employing more than 1.2 million individuals
7. Increase in environmental protection till 7.9%, education till 8.1%, health till 7.0%
etc. in the UK which has helped in the development of the public services
8. According to the employment policy TUPE under the conditions of employment, it
has facilitated the workers' transfers from public to private sectors which have
increased the development of public services (Kearney, 2018)
4

HISTORICAL PRACTICE
The public services are provided by the government to the public which began in the late
19th century often with the development of water and gas services. After that, the
government of the UK also began to provide other services like healthcare and electricity.
The government has done a lot for developing countries like China and India in order to
make them developed as it has provided many services to the middle and lower classes as
well (Bason, 2018). The public services are at the large size position in the world which helps
the people in providing many services and employment opportunities as well. Historically,
the public services get provided by the employees of government and in the UK, the public
services have created the value of the private and third sectors. The main motive of the
public service sector in mixing the private and third sector was to provide the best services
in the market of the UK as different organizations have their different strengths and
weaknesses for delivering diverse types of services (Bason, 2018).
5

P2 DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE ORGANIZATION
The company British Broadcasting Corporation has intended for providing benefit to the
public rather than purely serve to on the government or commercial interest. The company
serves Radio, Broadcasting and Web portals to the general public as it a public focused and
funded the organization (BBC, 2019). The company first has launched commercial
broadcaster in the year 1955 where the government wanted that the local franchise fulfilled
their similar obligation and religious programming. In the year 1981, the government has
provided different forms to BBC for public broadcasting. It has developed many channels
and, at last, it has launched channel 5 in the year 1997 based on the requirement of the
public which was originated for European. Change in structure of the government of the UK
which includes the assessing the practical and legal separation of legislative, executive and
judicial powers of the executive which has become the important reason for the
development of public service organization (BBC, 2019).
Over the past years, the radio and television have been accompanied by the internet which
has become an essential platform for communication and this is a great opportunity for the
BBC to provide its services to the public via radio and television. The internet has helped the
company in creating different programs and dynamic tool for publishing their channels or
news which has helped in reaching towards many audiences. The BBC development has
reflected towards economic, cultural and political perspectives of companies, people,
communities and government who influence, control and uses the services of the company
(BBC, 2019.
Through the history of BBC, it has wanted to cherish public society and deliver the benefits
to the public like technology and mass communication. The BBC has a wide history of
innovation and dynamic contribution in the public range and by research and development,
the company contribute beyond content production and broadcast (BBC, 2019. Economic
growth and accounting GDP to 6% and employing 1.2 million has become one of the biggest
reason for the growth and development of public services which has helped BBC in
promoting for the unemployed people. The company aims to work with the internet source
based on the public interest by which they can serve better to the public society in the UK
6

and worldwide. Increasing trend investments in infrastructure and providing modern
services for meeting the demands of the users of the public services (BBC, 2019.
LO2
P3 OPERATIONAL STRUCTURE OF PUBLIC SERVICES ORGANIZATION
The operational structure of any organization describes the organizational and chronological
structure of operations. It defines the division of tasks and responsibilities according to the
designation. And it also describes the responsibilities and accountability of various
stakeholders of the organization and the order in that they fulfil their responsibility (Kearney,
2018).
The operational structure of the BBC is illustrated as follows:
BBC is the UK based one of the largest and oldest public sector organizations. And the
manner in that its structure is designed to perform the business activities is the creation of
different departments for different functions and operations, and that is followed by the
team leads, and at the bottom level supporting staff manages the business tasks (Fuglsang
and Sundbo, 2016).
7

1. Finance: finance department manages the operations and functions related to the
day to day business transactions of the organization and allocation of funds for
specific tasks. This department in the BBC is also responsible for the preparation of
the budget for different departments’ also (BBC, 2019).
2. Marketing: marketing and campaigning is an important part of business activities
and it promotes the product and services of the organization in the market in order
to promote the growth and profitability of the business.
3. HRM: human resource department of BBC is responsible to handle the recruitment,
selection of the workforce. It also implements the employee-centric polices and
redresses their grievances in a timely manner. The HRM has also measured the
performance of the individuals based on certain parameters (Kearney, 2018).
4. Operations: the operational department of BBC manages the operations of all
departments. And they also implement the policies and procedures related to the
relevant department. In the BBC, the operational department is managed by
operation managers, team leaders and staff.
5. Managers: managers are responsible to manage the employees, departments and
acts as an interface between the leadership and employees. In the BBC the managers
also manage the risk and crisis, also provides a suitable solution to them (BBC, 2019).
6. Team supervisors: they act as an interface between the managers and supporting
staff, team leaders. They supervise the quality of the products and work
performance of the employees.
7. Team leaders: BBC being one of the largest public sector organizations are organized
into departments and they are further divided into teams as per the skills,
qualification and need of the business environments. They are responsible to
subordinate the managers.
8. Subordinate staff: it is the bottom layer of organizational management. And they
are headed by the team leaders. In the BBC they are executives, engineers, resource
managers etc.
8

P4 & M2 ACCOUNTABILITY OF STRUCTURE OF PUBLIC SECTOR FOR ITS
DIRECTION AND ACTIONS BOTH STRATEGICALLY AND OPERATIONALLY
The public sector can be defined as the organizations that are owned, managed and
operated by the government or any public entity. They are funded by using a variety of
methods. Their secondary aim is to generate profit and the primary aim is to offer the
services in the public domain and ease the life of common man and address the societal
problems (Kearney, 2018). Following is the accountability of the public sector for the tactical
and strategic management of the operations.
Accountability of the public sector:
1. Statutory accountability: the public bodies are responsible to comply with the laws
of the land, states, legal obligations, rules and regulations related to the business
operations and functions. For instance, the organization should abide by the
employee health and safety related laws. They also abide by the trade laws, tax laws
and many national and international standards (British Columbia, 2019).
2. Accountability for public money: the organization needs to manage public money
for their welfare. And there should not be any corrupt practises in the management
of the money. Public money is the money earned in the form of tax, fees, penalties
and other regulatory charges. And the appropriation bill should also be prepared
with the consent of all stakeholders (World Bank, 2019).
3. Communication with the stakeholders: the accountability of the public bodies is to
communicate well with all stakeholder of the business. And they need to augment
openness and transparency in their business activities. They are responsible to
deliver the desired information to the information-seeker in the time bound manner
and according to the federal statutes.
4. Integrity and transparency: the public sector entities are responsible to perform
their business operations in a transparent manner. And they are also responsible to
maintain the integrity of the activities. And their main aim is to conduct the business
with an effective framework and to fulfil social obligations. BBC being the media
house should maintain its operation carefully and meticulously. And the business
9

operations should involve raising the awareness about social welfare and for the
eradication of the problems of the society (Sanderson et al., 2018).
Roles and responsibility
1. Balance of power: the roles and responsibility of the public sector are many and
their primary duty is decentralising the power to the subordinate level and manages
the power structure well. There should not be any concentration of power as it may
lead to corrupt practices within the organization.
2. Executive management and Remuneration policy: the members of the public sector
entities should get clear guidance and division of powers. There should be effective
policies for the effective management of the employees. These bodies need to make
an explicit commitment to the effective management of employees. There is CEO,
senior CEO responsible to share the information with the governing body (British
Columbia, 2019).
3. Risk management: risk management is a crucial part of the responsibilities of the
PSUs. And there are crisis managers in the BBC to assess and manage the risk. In the
PSUs, risks are also assessed as a part of an internal audit mechanism and control
mechanism. And in this part, the quality of the products and services are managed
effectively and errors are rectified to improve the productivity of the operations
(Sanderson et al., 2018).
4. External reporting: the public sector entities are responsible to prepare annual
reports of financial information, aims and objectives, operations and functions of the
business. And they need to publish these annual reports in the public domain as a
part of their commitment to openness.
5. Appropriate accounting: the PSUs are responsible to manage the public money well
and for that, they need to follow a specific method for the formulation of the budget
and allocation of funds (World Bank, 2019).
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES WITHIN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICES
There are some issues faced by the public sectors in the development of their services
where the leaders have to make the decisions for effective development of the services
(Valero and Tipton, 2017).
10

1. Fragmentation: in many companies, the time of people is fragmented for the
provision of service. It is an issue that there are many people engage in many
different things as well as in the same works which result in failing to reduce
expected results (Valero and Tipton, 2017).
2. Scarce capabilities: in public organizations, the employees have work pressure and
fragmentation rather than having a clear responsibility of an individual. These
organizations are structured for delivering specific professional service by focusing
on providing value to the public in their boundaries (Valero and Tipton, 2017).
3. Organizational efficiency: the public organisations face issues of losing their focus on
the efficiency as they allow spans of control as well as reduce headcount and
extreme layers in the structure of the organization (Valero and Tipton, 2017).
Challenges faced by the leaders are:
1. Optimizing the use of scarce capabilities by analysing high and low-level work which
has impacted on fragmentation (Valero and Tipton, 2017)
2. For creating more effective and efficient structures of the organization
3. To prioritise the capability of a building by spending money (Valero and Tipton,
2017)
11

LO3
P5 TYPES OF FUNDING FOR PUBLIC SECTOR
Funding is an action for providing monetary sources, usually in money form or other value
like time and effort, program, financial need, a project by any company or organization.
Funding could include venture capital, savings, taxes, government, loan, raising money from
public etc. (Andersen et al., 2019). Public sector funding includes pre-paid and compulsory
funding which involves taxes and financing from external sources. Governments are
habitually are the main funders for the public sectors either directly or indirectly (Andersen
et al., 2019).
SOME OF THE TYPES OF FUNDING:
1. Local government funding: this funding makes grants the public sectors by
organizing administration, budget and support differently agreeing to government
conditions and resources. Historically, the departments within the local authorities
like social and educational services have their own tubs of money for allocating to
the public sectors. The local government of the UK has changed the funding style like
they have a shift in traditional grant arrangements towards service-level agreements
and contracts (Lock and Seele, 2016).
2. Loan funding: in the year 2002, there has been a reliable growth in funding loan
largely from the office for civil society and the future builders aimed to increase the
participation of the public sectors for delivering public services through loans and
other grants. In the UK OCS has funded in the public builders' programs and loan for
modernizing fund (Dietsch and Rixen, 2017).
3. Direct taxes: this includes the taxes paid by the companies and households to the
government of the UK or other agencies of the public. The direct taxes include
payroll tax, income tax, profit tax or corporate tax. The mandatory taxes for the
public sectors are the contribution to social health insurance (Dietsch and Rixen,
2017).
4. Indirect taxes: these are paid taxes to the government or other agency of public
through the third party which may be a supplier or a retailer. Indirect taxes are
12