PUBLIC MANAGEMENT. CHALLENGES OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM REFORM Solomia ANDRE Ş Assistant Professor, Phd Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Eftimie Murgu University Re şiŃa Romania ABSTRACT This paper presents some arguments, contributions and theoretical and practical conclusions regarding the stimulation of a managerial conception development characteristic to a modern public administration, which we considered not only necessary, but also indispensable in the continually important changing conditions to which the Romanian public administration has been confronted in the last years in order to be aligned to the European standards. In order to underline the necessity of a professionalized management and the growth of the adaptability degree of the management style to the conditions appeared during the continuous change, we used the directed discussions method, the questionnaires regarding the attitude and the behavior of the public managers of four different public institutions from four different districts, followed by the dissemination of the results and of the proposals during the seminars hold as vice-director of the General Direction of Public Finances Caras-Severin. These contributions had a direct effect on the perfecting of the management style in the subordinated public institution, on the adaptation of the managerial behavior in the exercise of the basic functions and on the growth of the managerial performances. In conclusions, the methods and the instruments used for the research regarding the public managers were compatibles with the managerial practice, reflected the reality of the attributions, the responsibilities, the abilities, the specific knowledge, the managerial competence domain and the relational sphere, being received by the subjects and being considered practices which determine to introspection. For this reason, I believe that these must constitute a priority in the managerial practice of the public institutions – a source of improvement for the future law frame and for the effectiveness insurance, of the administrative reform surviving and of the successful integration in the European Union structures. KEY WORDS: management, initiative, flexibility, professionalism, performances JEL: H83 1. INTRODUCTION The Romanian public administration has been confronting, during the last years, with important changes regarding the functioning frame – the politics and the citizens’ expectations, the attributions and the responsibilities. The inclusion of the public administration, at least orally, in the general reforms processes has lead to a confrontation with a set of familiar dilemmas for the Romanian society. The idea of a reform, so frequently used, is too often related to general formulations, to declarations without content, to the appeal to infrastructure and to formal solutions; unfortunately the management and the organization processes are too little taken into consideration in the equation of the administrative system reform, seen as being exclusively independent from the judicial solutions. The ignoring of the ignoring of a strategic perspective, the lack of consistent preoccupations referring to the managerial preparing of the administrative responsible have put their hand on the 9 administrative institutions that are less based on initiative and flexibility. Saying that the administrative reform can not be made by the elaboration of laws and prescripts (which many times lack of coherence and time continuity), but only with the help and by considering people who work in this domain, seems puerile; observing the reality of the last two years we may consider that the accent was put on the support of these professionals, who have to face greater responsibilities, with fewer resources and confronted with great expectations from the citizens, was minimum. The solution to these problems of the Romanian public administration depends on and can not be conceived outside their actions; miraculous global solutions do not exist, and neither a positive evolution based only on statistics and declarations on television. Those who do not have objectives never risk touching them; the over passing of this phase and the stimulation of a managerial conception development characteristic to a modern public administration is not just necessary but also indispensable. The management is situates along the traditional preoccupations of the organization science, perceived as science of a good management, of an efficient management; it establishes an essential useful finality and clearly operable. Its ambition is to clearly define the rules, the laws and more over, the norms which allow the organizations to attain the proposed objectives, with the maximum of efficiency. The management is different from the empirical practices and from the first formulations of the organization science through a more powerful formalization: the theoretic and the conceptual dimensions are essential for the management, which has the tendency to combine practice to “a representation of the reality which will become scientific”. In this case we speak of “an ensemble of practices…where the pragmatism and the scientific knowledge combine” (J. P. Nioche). At the private firms level, the management has known an accentuated tendency to overcome the “operational management” frames, founded on the optimization logic along the daily activities, in order to implicate the ambition to attain a “strategic management”, which integrates into a global strategy an ensemble of variables: the management projecting, the economic environment, the enterprise possibilities and resources, the obligations and the social internal and external pressures. This management is finalized by an ensemble of strategic decisions that are used during the application procedure. But the private firm is not the only managerial model possible; the non-profit area is also cited as an example of a successful management. This vision will become more complex through the assimilation of “organizational contexts” – the management is not actually an ensemble of very general rules that are susceptible to follow different options, according to the obligation received. The “contingence” theory tries to identify the specific forms of the management, which vary according to the environment configuration, to the nature of the organization and to the strategies followed. Thus, a “mechanical” management system, characterized by formal rules and by a powerful centralization will be (Burns and Stalker) better adapted to a stabile environment, while and “organic” system, in which the formal rules have a smaller importance and the decentralizations is more accentuated, corresponds better to an instable environment. The management is the occupation that is defined by being able to lead, in a given context, a group of people with the purpose to attain common objectives of the organization finalities they belong to. The public service was built, for a long time, on the basis of a bureaucratic logic that proposes a clear distinction between those who conceive/decide and those who 10 execute a decision; a lack of initiative from the executants and a strict respect of the procedures; an extremely powerful separation vertically (between the hierarchic levels) and horizontally (Between offices and services). This type of organization has proved to be performing at the time it was conceived, for the private firms and for the public administration, responding very well to the existing situation (the necessity of ensuring standardization of mass services in the context of and existent majority population with a lower educational level). 2. PUBLIC MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONALIZING The needs and the expectations of the public administration “clients” nowadays are greatly different and based on a role inversion: the expectations do not come directly from the administration, which in the past was concentrating on the respecting of rules by the “administrated”, but from the “consumers – citizens”, who have great claims towards the public services and towards the way these are being treated. The main elements that sit at the basis of the needs/expectations are: - personalized answers from the administration; - the neatness of the demarche and of the administrative procedures; - the rapidity in solving the problems. Obviously these principles are too little compatible with the classic bureaucratic organization and functioning. Equally, we may consider that the citizens have the right to seek an intelligent public service, which uses managerial and informational techniques that were not present in the past. The necessity of the existence of a performing public service results from this explanation, capable of responding to the demands of the society. In order to answer to the expectations of personalized treatment of the demands, of procedures simplicity and rapidity, the classic bureaucratic logic modification and the instauration of a responsible management are needed. This one is characterized by four simple elements: - the consulting of the people who should apply a decision, before this one might be taken. The apparent time lost in order to realize this thing will be completely compensated at the moment the decision is applied, because of an executant’s adhesion and developed understanding; - the responsibility of attaining of purposes (and not on the fulfilling of tasks); - the delegation of operational decisions to the first level of competency existent (the principle of subsidiary). - the encouragement