Public administration needs to step up its game in terms of adaptability and leadership

There are clear differences in the reputations of public sector organizations and private companies, according to a public sector reputation survey conducted by T-Media. Private companies have the edge, particularly in terms of perceptions related to their ability to innovate and their leadership.

This was the first time the reputation of public administration was assessed. In the study, 4,465 Finns evaluated the reputation of 51 organizations. The results were compared to a study conducted in a similar manner that focused on private companies.

Organizations’ reputations were examined across the eight dimensions Reputation&Trust. The analysis focused on the organizations’ transparency in governance, financial situation, leadership, ability to innovate, interaction with stakeholders, level of service, performance as an employer, and corporate responsibility.

Citizens gave public sector organizations the highest ratings for financial management. The second-highest ratings were for employment practices, and the third-highest were for accountability, which was also anseende only anseende where public sector organizations outperformed private companies.

“From the perspective of a democratic society, it is both interesting and important to understand how citizens view the operations and quality of publicly funded organizations. After all, taxpayers fund the entire public sector,” says Riku Ruokolahti, Director of Development at T-Media, explaining the background of the study.

The biggest difference in adaptability and leadership

Citizens rated the ability to innovate as the weakest area of public administration organizations. Public administration received a score of 3.01 on a scale of one to five, while the corresponding score for businesses was 3.43. The difference between the public and private sectors was the clearest of the eight reputation dimensions in the category measuring the capacity for renewal.

“The perception gap is clear, but there are also some refreshing exceptions. One example is the Emergency Response Center Agency, which has recently been featured in the media and clearly outperforms the corporate average in terms of its capacity for renewal. This is due in part to the innovative 112 mobile app, which has already been downloaded 1.4 million times,” says Harri Leinikka, CEO of T-Media.

The second area where public sector organizations face the most criticism is leadership. Citizens perceive private companies as being clearly better managed, even though the leadership perceptions associated with private companies do not, in turn, reach a “good” rating.

“The results for the public sector reflect the respondents’ actual work experiences, which indicates that there is indeed much room for improvement in management. On the other hand, senior executives at numerous government agencies and institutions have received less media attention than corporate executives, which partly explains the difference in ratings. The public appreciates a more personal approach,” says Riku Ruokolahti.

Data for the study was collected via an online survey between October 1 and October 22, 2018. A total of 4,465 Finns participated in the study, providing a total of 10,593 organizational evaluations. A total of 51 central government organizations were evaluated. The results have been compared to a large-scale corporate reputation survey, to which a total of 6,612 Finns responded in the summer of 2018.

In both studies, the target group consisted of Finns aged 15–65 nationwide (excluding the Åland Islands). The samples were weighted to be representative of the population by gender, age, and region of residence. The statistical margin of error for the reputation scores by dimension is no more than 0.02 units in either direction.