Government Policy: Do citizen’s benefits matters?
Do people like conflicts? The answer to this simple question probably must be “do not like”. Ironically, we face different types of conflicts in our everyday lives. We may not avoid the happening of conflicts, but at least we could find diverse ways to deal with conflicts. In this final blog, we choose the historical conflicts between the HKSAR government and the residents as our topic. It is obvious that we always disagree with the policies in past several years, especially after the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China
Comics
What do you think of Article 23?
Is heritage revitalized a good idea?
Who should take responsibility of this case?
Do you think $28 as minimum wage is reasonable?
Knowledge Management
“Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; an argument is an exchange of ignorance.” by Robert Quillen
Knowledge Management is an important process to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Regions (HKSAR) government. The provisional estimate of the Hong Kong Population was 7,103,700 at end of 2011. HKSAR Government needs to consider deeply and thoroughly for implementing the policies, especially relate to the people’s livelihood and citizen’s welfare. Every policy requires the needs of consultation and every policy could not fulfill all demands of citizens. This leads to the conflict between the HKSAR government and the habitants. We will consider the Government Perspectives in the Knowledge Management section to present how the HKSAR government exercises the current knowledge management system to create, capture, share and use the knowledge to advance the prospects of Hong Kong .
I. What is Knowledge Management
“Knowledge management is getting the right information to the right people at the right time, and helping people create knowledge and share and act upon information in ways” by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
We believe that an effective knowledge management system could be a competitive advantage to the organization. Knowledge Management draws from people’s creative thinking. In today’s Information Age, people need to digest a bundle of information/data in order to understand the vision and mission of the organization. Knowledge Management is not a “technology thing”. It could help to adapt the high-speed changing business environment. This is not only important in business environment, but also critical in the political area, especially in our HKSAR government. To provide proper information to the right people at the correct time could win the support from citizens. This move could let people know that the government care about their needs and feel being a part of the city.
II. Strategy for Managing Knowledge
A. Codification
A. Codification
Codification is one of the defined approaches in the Knowledge Management Strategy. It means the information or data is stored in the computer system. Knowledge is codified and stored in the databases. The inner meaning is to standardize the organization’s knowledge so that everyone could share the knowledge through reuse of the existing knowledge.
GovHK is the one-stop portal of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Regions (HKSAR) government which provides the useful information to residents. In the website, citizens could know the up-to-date knowledge of the government, for example, the current hot issues, the weather and the future plan of 
Information Services Department
The Information Services Department works as another important channel to communicate with residents. It links the gaps between the HKSAR government and the people through diverse channels. In the department’s website, we could find the latest publications and press releases of current affairs. If people have enquiries on certain media matters, we could contact the department for assisting us.
Radio Television Hong Kong
As the only public broadcaster of the HKSAR government, RTHK plays a significant role. It connects residents and the government together by providing timely, impartial coverage of local events and issues. Besides, it also educates and entertains Hong Kong residents through multi-media programming. RTHK is one of the most effective knowledge management systems in HKSAR government to provide the useful and valuable knowledge to our residents.
B. Personalization
The other defined approaches of the Knowledge Management is the personalization strategy. It stresses on connecting people rather than provides a database for people to assess. It mainly involves the direct person-to-person interactions which could help people communication and use knowledge. It seeks to maximize the generalization of innovate solutions/opinions on complicated issues. Sometimes it is more workable to use personalization strategy than the codification strategy, since direct communication is better on solving the difficult and political issues.
The other defined approaches of the Knowledge Management is the personalization strategy. It stresses on connecting people rather than provides a database for people to assess. It mainly involves the direct person-to-person interactions which could help people communication and use knowledge. It seeks to maximize the generalization of innovate solutions/opinions on complicated issues. Sometimes it is more workable to use personalization strategy than the codification strategy, since direct communication is better on solving the difficult and political issues.
Act now is the slogan of the HKSAR government to promote the Package of Proposals for the Methods for Selecting the Chief Executive and for Forming the Legislative Council in 2012. On 29 May 2010, our Chief Executive Donald Tsang first spoke this slogan to the public on the theme of the proposals. During the promotion campaign of the proposals, all Hong Kong senior officials participated on publicizing the proposals. They came to the public and communicated directly with residents. One of the reasons was to let the public knew what had been improved in the proposals and let the residents had the opportunities to communicate with the senior Hong Kong officials. Another aim was to gain the support from the public on approval of the proposals. The campaign then finally had raised the attention of the public.
“The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government, or theft of state secrets, to prohibit foreign political organizations or bodies from conducting political activities in the Region, and to prohibit political organizations or bodies of the Region from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies.” On 24 September 2002, HKSAR government started to promote the proposals for the anti-subversion law. The Secretary for Security Regina Ip, on behalf of the HKSAR government, came to the public to transmit the message of the implementation of the Article 23. She attended the seminars which organized by different universities for the consultation. She spoke to the students on the view of the government and the necessity of enacting the laws. This is the most direct way to communicate with the public and let people could assess the required knowledge.
III. Conflicts
To have an effective Knowledge Management, we think that there are four primary success factors for the Knowledge Management. The four primary factors are Resources Availability, Knowledge Architecture, Supporting Services and the Culture. Every factor is important to contribute the Knowledge Management. Absent on any factors may cause the conflicts between both parties. We are now going to discuss the flaws of some factors which cause the ineffective transmission of messages.
A. Resources Availability
Combining the above events which cause conflicts between the public and the government, we could summarize that the resources for the residents to get more deeply on the specific issues are inadequate. For example, residents could only find the positive opinions of Act now campaign from the government websites. The aim of the HKSAR government is to agglomerate the public awareness, so as to pass the controversial policies. The information which residents could assess was under percolated and only the supporting sounds could be heard.
Combining the above events which cause conflicts between the public and the government, we could summarize that the resources for the residents to get more deeply on the specific issues are inadequate. For example, residents could only find the positive opinions of Act now campaign from the government websites. The aim of the HKSAR government is to agglomerate the public awareness, so as to pass the controversial policies. The information which residents could assess was under percolated and only the supporting sounds could be heard.
B. IT Infrastructure
This could be the best thing done by our HKSAR government in managing the knowledge. The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) plays a critical role in the development and enhancing of information technology within and outside the HKSAR government. With this information technology body, the useful information could be easily accessed from the government websites.
This could be the best thing done by our HKSAR government in managing the knowledge. The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) plays a critical role in the development and enhancing of information technology within and outside the HKSAR government. With this information technology body, the useful information could be easily accessed from the government websites.
C. Supporting Services
Current HKSAR government will be expired in this year; therefore, the topHong Kong officials may just send the instruction on performing the consultation without any details. This may cause the misunderstanding of the original information. In the promotion of Act now campaign, Financial Secretary, John Tsang could not provide the details of the advancement of the proposal. He just responded with appreciation for the “large voice” of enquirers. Executive Support is important in Knowledge Management as they play a pivotal role in creation of foundation.
Current HKSAR government will be expired in this year; therefore, the top
D. Culture
It is obvious that HKSAR government has not thoroughly considered the culture area. The culture in the government is doing the thing right, not doing the right thing. The principle of the underneath is to avoid mistakes. Thus, the knowledge may be filtered before communicate with the public or the public could assess. From the promotion of Article 23, our government officials only provided the knowledge that could benefit to the public, but did not mention what the other side of the law. Knowledge has diluted and supporting voices would be the majority. This culture could not conducive to knowledge sharing which may affect the efficiency of Knowledge Management.
It is obvious that HKSAR government has not thoroughly considered the culture area. The culture in the government is doing the thing right, not doing the right thing. The principle of the underneath is to avoid mistakes. Thus, the knowledge may be filtered before communicate with the public or the public could assess. From the promotion of Article 23, our government officials only provided the knowledge that could benefit to the public, but did not mention what the other side of the law. Knowledge has diluted and supporting voices would be the majority. This culture could not conducive to knowledge sharing which may affect the efficiency of Knowledge Management.
IV. Outcomes
Conflict Resolution
According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, “Conflict” is: (1) a situation in which people, groups or countries are involved in a serious disagreement or argument; (2) a violent situation or period of fighting between two countries; (3) a situation in which there are opposing ideas, opinions, feelings or wishes; a situation in which it is difficult to choose.
There are always conflicts between the land development and heritage conservation. When HK Government wants to change the land use on a place, where heritage sited on it, the environmental concern groups and citizens always oppose the decision because they have difference view of interest among the Government.
However, conflict is not a necessarily a bad thing. If it’s resolved effectively, the outcome will be good and involved parties can gain group cohesion, understand each other’s interests and it help each party understand what are important to them.
Conflict resolution is one of the important duties of HK Government in order to gain support from citizens, arise the governance prestige, smooth the policy implementation, eliminate the public anxiety and even resolve the deeply seated conflicts.
In fact, the methods that it applies for conflict resolution changes in recent years, especially after the unsuccessful attempt to save the Star Ferry Pier and the preservation campaign of Queen’s Pier in 2007 initialed by the Environmental Concern Groups.
In this section, we will see how the Government manages the conflict on heritage conservation and revitalization issues with citizens and Environmental Concern Groups recent years, from the Government’s perspective, to understand its response to the public.
Issue
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2007 - Dismantle Star Ferry Pier (天星碼頭)
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Cause
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As the Central Reclamation Project was covered by Central District (Extension) Outline Zoning Plan (中區(擴展部分)分區計劃), Star Ferry Pier was planned to relocate in 1999, impact assessment of the relocation was done in 2001 and approved by Antiquities Advisory Board in 2002.
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Conservationists
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HK Government
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Conflict in the view of party
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- opposed the further destruction of the harbor
- opposed the further loss of historical buildings
- destruct the citizens’ collective memory.
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- needed extended land use of the tunnels and roads, open space in the crowded district and integrate with development of existing area
- The Pier is not a heritage
- postpone the reclamation project will lead to economic loss by inflation
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Government’s response mode
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Competition
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Methods that Government applied
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Structured problem solving
- gather the heritage evaluation from Antiquities Advisory Board (古物諮詢委員會)
- persuade councilors
- suggest various solutions
Passive conflict resolution
- ignore the conflict and forced to dismantle the Pier
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Functional outcomes
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- Raised the citizens’ sense to open space and urban plan
- Request for evaluation of heritage before confirming disassemble the historical building
- Self-examine the concentration of economic development but ignorance of local culture, collective memory and heritage conservation
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- Review the policy of heritage conservation
- Research to include collective memory and social value in the heritage evaluation
- Softer attitude on disassembly of Queen’s Pier that allow to conserve some parts and then rebuild them in the new Pier.
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Dysfunctional outcome
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- Demonstrants protest rationally in this issue but vigorously in the disassembly of Queen’s Pier later
- Citizens dissatisfy the Government’s policy on heritage conservation.
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- Governance prestige declines
- The policy implementation could not gain support from the public easily
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Issue
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2007 – Dismantle Queen’s Pier (皇后碼頭)
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Cause
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As the Central Reclamation Project was covered by Central District (Extension) Outline Zoning Plan, Queen’s Pier was planned to relocate in 1999, and implemented after dismantling Star Ferry Pier
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Conservationists
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HK Government
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Conflict in the view of party
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- Opposed the further destruction of the harbor, opposed the further loss of historical buildings and destruct the citizens’ collective memory.
- Keep the Pier
- Refuse piece-by-piece relocation.
- Request to deny the disassembly.
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- Needed extended land use of the tunnels and roads, open space in the crowded district and integrate with development of existing area
- Confirmed in 2002 District Board meeting that just the Pier’s board would be kept but not the whole building
- Postpone the reclamation project will lead to economic loss by inflation
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Government’s response mode
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Little compromising
- Piece-by-piece relocation
- Added collective memory and social value to the and mainly Competition
Mainly competition
- Ignore the heritage rating from Antiquities and Monuments Office (古物古蹟辦事處)
- Forced to disassemble the Pier
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Methods that Government applied
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Structured problem solving
- Mediation with professionals and councilors
- Suggest various solutions
- Favor to professionals’ advice
Passive conflict resolution
- Still ignore the conflict and forced to dismantle the Pier
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Functional outcomes
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- Further raised the citizens’ sense to open space and urban plan
- Request for evaluation of heritage before confirming disassemble the historical building self-examine the concentration of economic development but ignorance of local culture
- Collective memory and heritage conservation
- Citizens are allowed to join the conservation development
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- Review the policy of heritage conservation
- Research to include collective memory and social value in the heritage evaluation
- Setup of the Commissioner for Heritage’s Office (文物保育專員辦事處) in 2008 to support and implement the Government’s conservation policy
- Allow citizens to take part in conservation development
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Dysfunctional outcome
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- Demonstrants protest vigorously citizens dissatisfy the Government’s policy on heritage conservation
- Expose the deep-seated conflict between citizens and Government
- Expose the conflict between groups of citizens with different ideas in development, conservation, politics and culture.
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- Expose the weak power of Antiquities and Monuments Office
- Expose the deep-seated conflict between citizens and Government
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Issue
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2007 - The Central Police Station (CPS) Compound (中區警署建築群)
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Cause
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Policy address in October 2007 announced that the Jockey Club revitalized the Central Police Station Compound in non-profit-making mode. But the Club suggested construct of a 160-meter-high giant bamboo scaffolding in the building and largely change the inner structure. Conservationists and the Mid-Levels residents together opposed the suggestions.
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Conservationists
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HK Government
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Conflict in the view of party
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Great changes to the structure and reconstruction would damage the historical meaning of the Compound
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- The Club’s proposal met the concept of the revitalization
- It can make the project financially self-sufficient
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Government’s response mode
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Mainly Compromising
- re-initialize the project
- avoid large change on the strucutre
- re-consult
Try collaboration
- discuss the public parties to maximize the function of heritage
- satisfy both side’s need
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Methods that Government applied
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Confronting conflict
- listen the conservationists and the residents and help set the maximum structure changes for the Club to re-propose.
Structured problem solving
- Gather more information from different groups
- Ask the Club to bring the new proposal to meet the public’s expectation
Try Win-Win
- Make the proposal to meet the Government’s objective and public’s expectation.
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Functional outcomes
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- Thought that the Government was willing to listen their voice and accept their thinking.
- More freedom to join the upcoming revitalization projects
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- Change to the image that the Government reserve the freedom for public to join the heritage revitalization project
- In 2010, the Government and the Club revised the proposal that the Compound would be revitalized as modern art center and construct a wing with public accepted height for exhibition.
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Dysfunctional outcome
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The groups would monitor every heritage revitalization projects in the future
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The Government would spend longer time for the future revitalization projects
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Issue
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2007 – Confirmation of King Yin Lei (景賢里) as grade 1 monument
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Cause
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King Yin Lei is a 75-year-old big house with rich Renaissance style that was constructed with red brick and green tiles and antique buildings.
The land values over $500 million and owner wanted to rebuild a new house for sale but the Government had not rate the heritage. In September 2007, the owner suddenly started to clear the roofs. Under the pressure of public, the Government immediately announced the old building as a proposed monument. | |
Conservationists
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HK Government
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Conflict in the view of party
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The Government did nothing to the demolition of the valuable old building by the owner
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The Government was doing rating and it’s time consuming.
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Government’s response mode
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Compromising
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Methods that Government applied
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Confronting conflict
- Listen to environment concern groups and their suggestions
Structured problem solving
- Immediately announced the building as proposed monument and stop the destruction by the owner.
- Further investigation of the proposed monument.
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Functional outcomes
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Public thought that the Government changed their mind from ignore their suggestions to accept their thinking.
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- At the beginning of 2008, King Yin Lei was declared as monument.
- A milestone for the Government’s conservation policy because of its quick action that was never seen before
- A reference for the future conservation and revitalization projects
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Dysfunctional outcome
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- Criticize the Government didn’t review its heritage conservation policies and cannot protect the heritage effectively
- Criticize the Government that it had no long term policy to protect the private-owned heritage
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The Government had to provide a piece of land with same value to the owner as exchange of King Yin Lei
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Issue
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2012 – Wo Cheong Pawn shop’s (和昌大押) root top as private open space
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Cause
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On 25/3/2012, few citizens had their meal at the root top of Wo Cheong Pawn shop that was conserved and revitalized as high class restaurant.
The private management company (Jones Lang LaSalle仲量行) staff stopped their action and finally they alarmed. Police’s Emergency Unit dealed with the case and the citizens left at the end.
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Conservationists
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HK Government
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Conflict in the view of party
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As the old pawn shop was conserved and revitalized and the root top was treated as open space but citizens were not allowed to eat at there with their own food
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The Urban Renewal Authority (市區重建局) stated that the root top belongs to “Private Open Space” so citizens are only allowed to visit with the agreement under the private management company
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Government’s response mode
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Seems avoiding
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Methods that Government applied
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Passive conflict resolution (did nothing and just stated the decided purpose when the heritage was revitalized at 2007
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Functional outcomes
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Draw the public’s attention that current heritage conservation and revitalization policies suits their expectation or not
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May let the policy making body fine tune the direction that completely suit the citizens’ expectation
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Dysfunctional outcome
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- Criticize the heritage conservation and revitalization policies had many unreasonable and unfair constraints and the policy favour to business parties.
- Some may think that the Government still concerns the revitalization on economic value but not the historical value.
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- The Government will spend longer time to discuss with the public and then implement if there are heritage revitalization projects
- The decision made in 2007 that the heritage was revitalized as high class restaurant and give the space managed by the private business parties may not be a good proposal.
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From the above issues, we see that the Government changed the mode of conflict response, especially during 2007 and 2008, from competition to compromising and some collaboration. After experiencing the resistance of dismantling Star Ferry Pier and Queen’s Pier, it thought that forcing to implement its closed heritage conservation and revitalization policies did not gain support from the public. In some aspects, it would weaken the it governance prestige on other fields such as social welfare, medical and economic policies
As its response mode changes, the methods it applies for resolving conflict also change gradually. In the issue of Star Ferry Pier, it applied structured problem solving (although not likely accepted by the public) and passive conflict resolution. However in the issue of Queen’s Pier, The Central Police Station (CPS) Compound and King Yin Lei, the Government applies structured problem solving, Confronting conflict and even Win-Win method.
Revitalizing Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme (活化歷史建築伙伴計劃)
In 2008, the Revitalizing Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme was then introduced and it aims at aspiring the citizens for richness in life through links to the past and building a sense of identity through conservation of the heritage buildings.
It also stated development and conservation are not opposing forces and balance of them would have maximum functions of the heritage while retaining its historical value and memory of the building.
Some environmental concern groups treat the scheme as the reaction of the Government to the request from the public to improve its policies on the heritage conservation and revitalization. Below is the example of the first batch of the revitalization scheme.
Some environmental concern groups treat the scheme as the reaction of the Government to the request from the public to improve its policies on the heritage conservation and revitalization. Below is the example of the first batch of the revitalization scheme.
Revitalization of Lui Seng Chun雷生春 (The batch 1 of Revitalizing Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme)
It is a 4-floors old building constructed at 1930s. The building combines the modern streamline design with the classic Italian style front plane. It was owned by Lui’s family as medical Center and pharmacy and their medicines were popular. After WW II, the shops closed and were replaced by tailor shops and other different kind of shops.
Because of it special design in Hong Kong
and the original purpose of the building, it is rated as grade 1
monument. The Government cooperated with non-profit-making organizations
and finally Baptist University
got the project and revitalize Lui Seng Chun as Chinese Medicine clinic
and exhibition center. The project was generally accepted by the
public.
Conclusion
These show that the Government does not always set a wall to refuse the involvement of the public to the heritage conservation and revitalization project, it would change to the attitude that citizens should involve to the project and even contribute the policy revision.
Organizational Culture
Organizational culture consists of the values and assumption shared within an organization (A.W., P.D. & M.W., 1989). There are seven dimensions of organizational culture, i.e.: Innovation & Risk Taking, Attention to Detail, Outcome Orientation, People Orientation, Team Orientation, Aggressiveness, Stability.
Since the structure of HK Government is a matrix organizational structure, each department combines both of functional structure and product structure. Under this structure, a peculiar organizational culture is created in HK Government. In following parts, we would analysis organizational culture of HK Government from those seven dimensions and discuss why the organizational culture causes conflicts between government and citizens.
I. Innovation & Risk Taking
In government departments, when a staff is being selected to promote, his/her supervisors will not consider his/her working experience, ability or accomplishment firstly. They will only check if the staff has any fault record. If a fault record is found, no matter it is critical or minor, the staff would not have any chance to promote. For innovation, it must be safe for everyone to offer ideas (Ed C., 2008). Therefore, this system obstructs to create innovative idea seriously. When we launch a new system, as we do not have enough experience to handle, some un-predictable things may occur. We may get a good or expected result if luckily, otherwise, we may get a big terrible or failure. Thus, people do not want to have any mistakes, they will not give any innovative or new idea.
Conflict: Although there are so many new policies such as “My Home Purchase Plan” and “Community Care Fund” established in Hong Kong within these years, only few policies are innovative. Hong Kong citizens complain that Hong Kong policies are outdated. These policies could not match with existing environment. Compare with China development of Hong Kong is slow. Hong Kong needs more innovative policies to maintain and enhance existing position. Obviously, Hong Kong government’s style and technique could not meet with citizens’ requirements.
II. Attention to Detail
In government departments, since staffs would touch many confidential documents, they are required to handle their documents and applications follow their rules and guideline strictly. The immigration department, for instance, handle all working visa application. They would check if the person has been hired by a company and the person has criminal record etc. Actually, their responsibilities not only follow up their works, but also protect Hong Kong people’s interests. Thus, Precision and Analysis are necessary in their works.
Conflict: Since government departments investigate each application in detail, applicants spend very long time to wait for the result. Moreover, many supporting documents need to be submitted. To apply Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme, for instance, applicants need to complete the application form and then they will have income test and asset test. For HK government, they want to prevent someone misuse the assistance scheme and thus they would conduct detailed investigation. However, Hong Kong citizens comment that these heavy and complicated processes are annoying.
III. Outcome Orientation
High levels of hierarchy of civil service, such as Secretary, are very concern outcome of each policy. Not only those policies would affect living environment and economic of Hong Kong directly, but also there is Principal Officials Accountability System. i.e. if a official member make serious mistake, he/she could be fired. It is different with other civil servants. Furthermore, Hong Kong government concerns outcome more than meaning because they want to get support form different level and have high reputation.
Conflict: The slogan of civil service is “To serve the community with loyalty and dedication”.
Although
IV. People Orientation
Since Hong Kong Government serve for all Hong Kong citizens, all their planning and tasks are based on
Conflict: In July 2006, Hong Kong Government implemented five-day work mode. It aims to reduce work pressure of their staff and improve their family life quality. After implemented this work mode, Hong Kong Government received more than ten thousand complaints about inconvenience caused by the new mode. From this case, we can find that the government should make balance of interest of civil servants and public carefully. Otherwise, Hong Kong citizen may feel that the government ignore them and only make benefit to Civil servants.
V. Team Orientation
Hong Kong Government is team oriented and no individualism could be found in the civil service. However, each department of civil service does not seem a whole civil service as a team and they only seem their own department as a team. The civil service is fragmentation and causes factionalism(山頭主義). Each department only concerns their services and identify their service area clearly. They won’t involve other departments’ services and also do not want other departments influence their operations. Therefore, if they receive a case which should be handled by other department, they would not refer the case to the responsible department and citizens need to contact the responsible department by themselves. Thus, there are less collaboration and communication among departments.
Conflict: Since there is less communication among different departments, it would reduce efficiency of civil service. In Dec 2008, for example, a man was heart attack and his son sent him to Caritas Medical Centre. When they arrived outside of Caritas Medical Centre, the man was swoon. His son asked a staff of medical Centre to call anyone of doctor who was on duty at accident & emergency center providing treatment to his father. However, the staff said it was not their service and asked the son to call 999. Finally, the man died because of without having emergency treatment.
VI. Aggressiveness
In Hong Kong government, all civil servants only follow guideline issued by their supervisors to complete their works. If no further instruction, they would not do other jobs aggressively. They explain that it is discipline. The civil service would not encourage any servants to do anything to show off their abilities, it is because they think this behaviors causing individualism. Furthermore, some servants may think that as increment of salary would not be based on their performance and no bonus could be received, they won’t get new or additional jobs aggressively.
Conflict: Since aggressiveness of civil service is low, they would not improve their services and create more new services actively. As a result, when Hong Kong people compare the government with other country governments, they would grumble about our government could not provide comprehensive services. They also appraise that the government has low motivation to get better.
VII. Stability
Hong Kong Government commits to develop a good business and living environment for Hong Kong people. As Hong Kong is under a mature environment, the government target to maintain this advantage. Therefore, most of policies are focus on how to maintenance or improve exist environment. Internally, as jobs of civil service are very secure (no layoff would be in civil service), most of people who want to have a stable working environment would be servant. That’s why most civil servants are pursuers of stabilization.
Conflict: However, when people stay in a stable environment too long, they will loss awareness of crisis easily. In Nov 2008, there were violence in
Accountability
Amidst a period of economic growth and development in Hong Kong , poverty not only remains, but is on the increase. Amidst the prosperity, the gap between rich and poor people is widening. Amidst talk in our nation of building a harmonious society, and talk in Hong Kong of compassion and of civic values, the facts show that trends are heading in the opposite direction: more and more people are facing marginalization and discrimination. Everyone needs to get involved in making Hong Kong the society it wants to be. All of us need to consider what responsibilities we accept as individuals, and as a community. Who should take the accountabilities in solving these kinds of social problems? In the view of citizen, government needed to take accountabilities.
I. Background
After economic downturn in 1997, economic recovery in the last few years, the number of working poor non-stopped, but continued to grow. In 2006, 13.1 per cent of the working population (near around 418,600 workers) earned incomes that were less than half of the median income of the working population. Also, the phenomena of employed part time worker were rapidly growing. Poverty has increased among all low-income groups between 1997 and 2003. In 2006, the poverty rate stood at 18.0 per cent, with about one out of every five to six persons living in poverty.
A. Unemployment increased
The unemployment rate in Hong Kong was only 1.3 per cent in 1991. After relocation of factories to Mainland China China
Accountability action taken:
Employees Retraining Scheme: The Employees Retraining Scheme is a large-scale Hong Kong programme providing retraining every year to tens of thousands of unemployed. It offers a wide range of placements and part-time courses mainly for employees who are 30 or older. However, despite the Employees Retraining Board’s claim that 80 per cent of the trainees retained their jobs after their placements, studies have found no evidence of positive effects on participants’ performance in the labor market in terms of earnings, duration of employment, or employment status (Chan and Suen, 2000; Policy 21 Ltd., 2001).
B. More Poor families
Unemployment not only affects the unemployed but also their families. This obvious but no less important fact is demonstrated by the drastic increase in the number of poor families between 1997 and 2006. What is particularly noteworthy is that even when the economy picked up again, the number of poor families did not decline but continued to grow.
Accountability action taken:
Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA): Hong Kong ’s escalating poverty over the last ten years has led to a rapid rise in the number of CSSA recipients. In 1996, there were 159,837 CSSA recipients. By November 2006, the number had nearly doubled to 295,802. Government spending on CSSA also rose from HK$4.8 billion in 1995-1996 to HK$17.8 billion in 2005-2006. As a percentage of government recurrent expenditure, CSSA spending rose from 4.0 per cent to 9.4 per cent.
C. Larger Income Gap
A widening income gap has characterized Hong Kong ’s economic development in the last two decades. The general phenomenon in Hong Kong is the incomes of the poorest families keep decreased, while the income of richest keep increased.
Accountability action taken:
Statutory Minimum Wage: The purpose of a minimum wage is to eliminate exceptionally low wages, particularly in low-paying sectors or for selected workers who are vulnerable to low wages, such as home-based workers, women, children, and youth. Though a minimum wage may serve economic objectives by, for example, encouraging the unemployed or welfare recipients to join the labor force, a minimum wage’s primary objective is to guarantee economic justice insofar as the wage should ensure that workers receive just compensation and that their income covers at least their basic necessities
D. Poverty among different Groups
Unemployment and poverty are often attributed to a lack of marketable skills, old age, chronic illness, and physical or mental handicaps. But the reality is that many poor people have none of the above. In fact, many poor people are women, ethnic minorities, or new immigrants from Mainland China
Real Case1
Mr. Hui was born in 1926 in
In the 1980s, the employer of Mr. Hui decided to move the factory to Mainland
Mr. Hui never thought of applying for CSSA. He found a job in a small restaurant that offered him a basic salary of HK$2,000. He supplemented this salary with tips from customers when he delivered take-out food. He did not mind the low salary. He only wanted to earn his living.
However, no one was willing to employ him when he reached the age of seventy. Finally, he had to apply for CSSA.
Life on Welfare in
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Accountability action taken:
Wage Protection Movement (WPM): The HKSAR government’s campaign to promote the WPM is one of the biggest among recent government campaigns. However, by the end of June 2007, only 955 companies pledged to join the scheme. According to the information provided by 858 of the participating companies, they employed a total of 29,000 security guards and cleaners. Together with the 30,000 cleaners and security guards employed by government departments and subcontractors in the public sector, a total of 59,000 workers would be guaranteed that their monthly wages would not fall below the average wage level as stipulated in the Census and Statistics Department’s Quarterly Report of Manpower and Payroll. But these 59,000 workers account for only about 31 per cent of the total number of cleaners and security guards in Hong Kong , which is 190,000.
E. Low pay in HK
The relocation of Hong Kong’s manufacturing industry to Mainland China
Ms. Yuen is a 50-year-old woman. She lives with her two sons in public housing. Both of
her sons are working now; but they keep switching jobs and their incomes are low.
Ms. Yuen works as a custodian at the container port in Kwai Chung. Her employer is an out-sourcing cleaning company at the port. It is compulsory for the company to give her—and staff like her—four days of unpaid holiday leave per month. She earns approximately HK$4,600 per month.
She has to pay about HK$2,000 for monthly rent, which is the largest expense for the whole family.
from Neighborhood & Worker’s Service Centre (2007)
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Accountability action taken:
Low Earnings Allowance Programme in CSSA: While providing financial support to families that have no regular income, CSSA can also support employed persons whose earnings dip below a certain level, under the category of the Low-Earning. Official statistics show that in the last ten years, among the various categories of CSSA recipients, recipients receiving the Low Earnings (LE) allowance were the fastest growing category. From 1,656 cases in 1995, the number increased to 18,176 cases by 2006. Despite the drastic increase in the number of employed people receiving CSSA, when compared with the large number of working poor, one would have to admit that the government’s provision of direct assistance to the working poor has, in fact, been minimal.
II. Conflicts:
Economic growth may be desirable to help improve the wealth and welfare of the population at large, but too much economic growth may lead to inflation
Policies to boost employment may be seen as desirable, but could trigger economic growth that is too fast (leads to inflation)
There is a need to provide welfare support for those who cannot, through no fault of their own, help themselves, but the welfare ‘safety net’ can lead to people relying on it and not having the incentives to help themselves
No one doubts that there are social problems that need to be dealt with but will this lead to an over reliance on the state and can the state afford such a system. Actually, the policies which were released before were not satified what the Hong Kong Citizen needs. Social problems could not be sloved so far although new policies released. So that,
l Who should take the accountability to review the existing policies?
l Who should responsible for the policies if the policies fail to solve the problems?
That are the reasons the Accountability System should be set in Hong Kong .
III. Principal Official Accountability System in Hong Kong
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSARG) implemented the new accountability system with effect from 1 July 2002.
A new system of employment will be introduced into the highest level of Government under the Chief Executive, i.e. the Secretaries of Department and the Directors of Bureau, in order to:
l Ensure that the Government can better respond to the needs of the community
l Enhance coordination in policy formulation
l Strengthen the cooperation between the Executive and the Legislature
l Ensure effective implementation of policies and provide quality services to the public.
IV. Framework of the accountability system
(a) The new accountability system would be applicable to the principal official positions of Secretaries of Department and Directors of Bureau;
(b) The Chief Executive could nominate candidates both from inside and outside the civil service for appointment by the Central People’s Government to these principal official positions;
(c) The principal officials so appointed would be employed on other than civil service terms. They would not be civil servants. They would be accountable to the Chief Executive for the success or failure of matters falling within the portfolios assigned to them by the Chief Executive. They would accept total responsibility and they may have to step down for serious failures relating to their portfolios. These include serious failures in policy outcome or serious mishaps in policy implementation. They may also have to step down for grave personal misconduct.
V. How the systems work?
Example:
1. Management of SARS, 2002/3
Firstly, the former CE ordered the former Secretary of Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong to “investigate himself” after SARS, as a way to hold the secretary accountable, yet, absurdly, the government’s later report declared that no officials should step down for the outbreak of SARS. He resigned solely because of public pressure.
2. Harbour Fest, 2003
The Hong Kong Harbour Fest, held from 17 October to 11 November 2003, was part of a HK$1 billion program to revive the economy after SARS. The event was a Government underwritten, and organised by InvestHK, under the auspices of the Economic Relaunch Working Group, in collaboration with the American Chamber of Commerce. The event and its organisation, which resulted in massive cost overruns and $100 million in government underwriting, was heavily criticised in the media.
In June 2004, a Legislative Council Public Accounts Committee report criticised InvestHK for improper stewardship of taxpayers' money over the organisation of Harbour Fest music festival, a post-SARS event held in an attempt to restore business confidence in Hong Kong . Rowse was charged with five offences:
1. failure to introduce provisions to give the Government power of approval over program and budget changes
2. failure to provide refund in a sponsorship agreement with the American Chamber of Commerce for events not held, and for the Chamber to regularly report on progress, and to consult with Government on ticketing strategy
3. failure to review ticket pricing strategy and free ticket distribution
4. failure to establish a mechanism for InvestHK to scrutinise budget and expenditure of the event.
5. Rowse was held responsible only for the fifth charge of failing to ensure that InvestHK critically examine the HarbourFest budget, and fully and adequately advise the working group on the finances. Consequently, he was fined one month's salary when the government made a ruling in October 2005.
VI. Conclusion
To reduce the conflict, the government must ensure that economic development plans should be review from time to time, and go hand-in-hand with social development objectives. Policies should aim to create opportunities for full employment and a more equitable distribution of the benefits of economic growth, and a progressive narrowing of the income gap between the rich and the poor.
Appreciative inquiry
I. The Collaboration in the Hong Kong Government
Further to the previous discussion, we have discussed various conflicts in Hong Kong government in terms of knowledge management, conflict resolution, accountability and organizational culture. In this part, we are going to analyze the current problem solving style in Hong Kong Government and come up with suggestions how to improve the situation with an appreciative approach.
II. Problem Identification and Solving Style In the Government
The government is somehow being passive in the problem identification as their role in the society is like a middle man. They have to consolidate the information from various of society and consider the whole picture and balance the pros and cons of all aspects and come up with the final policy.
The HK government identifies problems in many different channels; these information channels can be categorized in three major area: 1) the society reflections; 2) the professional’s advocates; and 3) the economic & political concern. For examples, the citizens, the public/commercial institution and the political party could propose their finding directly; in case of any big issue, the media will report to the public and the issue is raised among the society.
Once a problem is raised from the public, it is discussed among the LegCo members and then the group comes up with different proposals. Though, we can see from the news everyday about the discussions in the legislative council are filled with scolding and cursing. The farce indicated that the negotiation in the LegCO was severely hindered by high level of interpersonal conflict. According to the conflict theory, team performance is the highest when there is optimum level of conflict. In the condition of high conflict would affect the trust building among the council member and prevent the team from communicating effectively. Besides, every party competing for their self benefit and do not make any recession resulted in low quality discussion and hence the low quality decision by voting in the court.
In this way of discussion, we can observe several problems. First, because of high relationship conflict, the communication among the LegCo members is hindered. Negotiation focus on people and not focus on problem. They are not work like a team so that the member could never build trust with each other. Second, the decision making is a groupthink, the final decision is not a mutual agreement among the LegCo member. The decisions are made in the price of decision quality. Third, even final solutions and corrective actions are decided but it may not be able to satisfy the needs of some of the segment in the society. Most constructive conflicts are neglected and not resolve. These obstacles prevent the situation to arrive a final win-win collaborative decision.
At this point, we can see that the government has a lot of fundamental problem in term of communication and decision making. Such a deficit thinking perspective on problem solving bounded the potential of the organization and hence the quality of the final decision.
III. An Appreciative Approach
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. We need to see the world anew” by Albert Einstein
We can observe there are lots of unreasonable issues in the conflict of interest. The problem solving approach identifies problems and come up with solutions to treat only where the pain is (頭痛醫頭). With the help of the 4D approach, we will try to view the government as a company and try to apply our knowledge of appreciative inquiry to discover the mystery in the organization. 4D stand for Discovery, Dreams, Design and Discovery. Our discussion is going to cover three major area as below.
i. Process & Communication;
ii. Chief executive and the Executive council.
iii. The LegCo community.
IV. Discovery - What give life?
First, the basic government structure are comprised with the basic law, the chief executive, Executive council, the administration, the Legislative council, the District council and the Judiciary. According to the previous blog exercise (ref: Synergy Blog#2, http://2012-6209-synergy.blogspot.com/), we identified that structure, rules and policy enhance the efficient of operation and execution. When a new policy is formulated, it is treated by the regular procedure which it can make sure it is passed to the right department, right person. By the way, the government with a well-developed structure and processes that could make sure the policies were executed in a proper manner.
Moreover, the entire government organization has up to 150,000 staffs, communication vertically and horizontally among the groups are crucial. Otherwise, miss-communication would result in failing to formulate policy that is beneficial to the real needs in the society and execute the policy smoothly to bring its deserved benefits to the society. Also, the large organization cannot rapidly response to changes in operation. In case of any changed in the current operation, the collaboration couldn't response to the changes quickly. It takes time for the team to norm again to return to its reasonable performance and collaborate with other departments.
Second, the Chief Officer is elected by the broadly representative Election committee in accordance with basic law. The candidates of the election committee are first assigned by the central government and then formed by an open election in different provinces in China China so that they could make their consideration in terms of the core benefit of Hong Kong and China
Once the Election is finished, the executive council is presided by the Chief Executive to form a new coherent team. Such procedure has several benefits. First, the Chief execute is able to rally the top management team. Second, the CEO can hire people from variety of people to ensure the member diversity. With such benefit, the central government can make sure Hong Kong ’s government could come up with the right policy in accordance to the main direction of the Central government.
Last but not least, as mentioned in the previous parts, we observed that the LegCo community is incapable to communication effectively among the members in the group. Despite of the bad communication, over viewing the LegCO group are comprise of diversity of member from different stratum and representing different voice from the society. The LegCO could act as a platform for the government consolidates different information and recommendation from the society to come up with a complete proposal.
Overall, we did identify the best in the HK government in terms of teams, communication, the management team and the LegCO community. We could observe that the structure, rules and regulation could make sure the communication and operation. The Election of the Chief Executive allows the chance to select the leader who is able to formulate policy that fits the needs of the society. The diversity member in the LegCO has provided a base to consolidate the knowledge from variety that helps us to recognize the real needs in the society and created constructive conflicts to improve the current operation and procedure.
V. Dream - What might be?
“People have more confidence going into the future when they Carry forwards parts of present” by Annis Hammond
We have identified what is the best in the past. Before we are going design the team idea system and structure, we should first “dream” about what could be the best regardless of the constraints. We have summarized the possibility in the table below.
Table 6.4 Dreams on the desired operation in the government
A) Process & Communication
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How to adjust the process to enhance the operating efficiency and the response to changes?
What is the ideal communication in the LegCO and the government?
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B) Role of Chief Executive and the management team
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What might be the best to select the chief executive and the executive council?
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C) The LegCO community
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How could we foster the communication and knowledge management in the LegCO?
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VI. Design - What should be?
Based on the ideal situation we did desired, we would like to come up with recommendation on how to implement the collaboration in the real operation.
A) Process and communication
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Process
The government has a well-developed structure to make sure the execution of policy. Policy and regulation could offer a regular channel for communication in the price of flexibility It also constrained the potential of the department to learn and to improve their current operation. In long term, the operation could focus on efficiency instead of effectiveness because the officers do not have the position power to alter the rules and policies. (They would do things right instead of doing the right things.) Though, such regular process could ensure the policy is passed to the right department, and executed in right time and right place. Thus, we suggest to empower the department and to add contingency consideration in the current policy. Such discretionary allowance provided could enhance the flexibility of the operation. In addition, such special cases should be documented highlighted in order to monitor and avoid abuses on such exception offers.
Communication
Moreover, the HK government can be considered as a top down structure. The department has less chance to communicate horizontally with adjacent department. The officers do not require communicating with others in their daily administrative works. The facts that they do not have chance to understand the operation in the other department limited their vision on every problems. Also, lacking of horizontal communication prevented the department from communicating with others and avoided the formation of constructive conflict. This is why DHL spend a large budget on the internal staff even “Euro-Cup” every year. As the event could help building up relationship as well as trust between the key people in different branches. Also, according to the conflict theory, organizations with optimum level of conflict work the best. If there are too many conflicts, the communication is inhibited by high level of interpersonal conflict; If there is no conflict, the departments do not have the driving force to improve the current operation and hence they cannot come up with useful proposal that could improve the current operation.
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B) Role of Chief Executive and the management team
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The Election
The Chief Executive is elected by the Broadly Election committee in a public event every five years while the department heads in the executive council are presided over by the Chief executive. However, the executive is chosen only by “representative” but not by HK citizens in general, they may not know the real situation and operation in Hong Kong Government and hence they might not make the best decisions in the voting. In order to enhance the collaboration, the potion of “
The Executive Council
As discussed above, the executive council is presided by the chief executive, which implied that the top management of the government is actually a new team to the whole organization. In this way the management team is formed, there are several problems. Firstly, the department head is not familiar with the current department's operation in very detail. The instruction she/he gave shouldn't consider the history of the department or the current operation. Second, if the leader is changed, the managing style of the leader might change either. It could affect the daily operation because the team rules and norms are altered and may affect the team effectiveness of the team somehow. Thus, to balance the diversity with the operation, the Chief Executive should select part of the members from the operation departments to make sure the member diversity could include officers who have knowledge in the daily operation of the corresponding department. While the rest of the member is presided by the Chief Executive to ensure the board of member diversity.
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C) The LegCO community
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As we saw from the news everyday, the discussions in the LegCO are actually endless wars of words. The polarized standard points inhibited the communication between different subgroup in the community. Lacking of team trust prevented the communication to resolve the constructive conflicts. Indeed, it is difficult to ensure every council member’s personal conduct. However, the current electing process for the council member should be maintained to ensure the diversity. But they should follow the general guideline of negotiation.
(Quoted)
1) Brgain over interest, not predetermined positions;
2) De-personalize the problem;
3) Separate the problem definition from the search for solutions;
4) Try to generate alternative from search for solution;
5) Reflect on the negotiations; and learn from successes and mistakes.
Reference: B.H Liddell Hart, historian, Negotiation and Resolving conflicts
A team with diversified work force would help to refresh the team with knowledge in different aspect. However, if the team could not communicate well, such diversity could have its deserved benefits. Thus, rules and regulation should be set up to make sure the council member’s personal conducts. Fail to fulfill such rule of negotiation would loss the member identity.
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Overall, we have go though the government structure, communication, the election of the Chief executive, the formation of the executive council and the LegCO community and come up with recommendation build on the current’s best practice. However, in the changing society, the appreciative approach is a continuous effort. We need to keep our “Discovery” and think about the “Dreams” to maintain the up-to-date operation and collaboration.
VII. Summary
Finally, we have discussed the conflict between the government policy and the citizens’ benefits in terms of Knowledge management, conflict resolution, organizational culture, accountability and appreciative inquiry. Though, the government is a complicated organization with the whole society as its stakeholders. The best handling at this moment may not be the best in the future. We need to maintain our vision with an appreciative approach to refresh and challenge the stereotype so as to arrive the win/win outcome.
References
Hansen, M.; Nohria, N.; Tierney, T. (1999). What’s Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?, Harvard Business Review, 77(2)
Kasper, H. & Haltmeyer, B (2002) Knowledge management and organizational learning in multinational companies (MNC’s). In: WU Jahrestagung “Forschung fur Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft”, 5.-7. WU Wirtschaftsuniversitat Wien.Ed Catmull, 2008, How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity, Harvard Business Review
A. Williams, P. Dobson, and M. Walters, Changing Culture: New Organizational Approaches (London: Insitute of Personnel Management, 1989)
Based on information in C. A. O’Really III, J. Chatman, and D.F. Caldwell, “People and Organizational Culture: A Profile Comparison Approach to Assessing Person-Organization Fit” Academy of Management Journal 34, no. 3(1991), pp.487-518
B.H Liddell Hart, historian, Negotiation and Resolving conflicts
McShane/Von Glinow (2010), Organizational Behavior: Emerging Knowledge and 5) Practice for the Real World Fifth edition.
Paul Hemp (2003), The DHL EuroCup: Shots on Goal
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/07/14/china.hong.kong.minimum.wage/index.html
http://www.google.com.hk/search?hl=zh-CN&newwindow=1&safe=strict&biw=1200&bih=635&gbv=2&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=collaboration&oq=collaboration&aq=f&aqi=g3g-S7&aql=&gs_l=img.3..0l3j0i24l7.13537l16609l0l16945l13l12l0l3l3l0l114l146l1j1l2l0.frgbld.
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