Sborník 2009 díl 2. - Fakulta informatiky a managementu - Univerzita ...

Renata Przygodzka PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS AND THEIR ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT
OF REGIONS
the managing entities, are obligated to create the possibly best living environment for
the citizens. This means the necessity of stimulating and coordinating the development
on the following planes: economical, social and environmental. In each of these planes
public organizations perform a series of tasks, however their special role breaks down to
managing the region, providing public goods and services as well as to building the
region's competitive advantages 3 .
Managing the region and its development
With a limited budget and periodically changing authorities, apolitical, long-term plans
take special meaning in the region's management process, as they ensure its balanced
and stable development. These plans are the most important tool for strategic
development, which during the recent years has become the leading method of
development control. Managing is a thought-through, planned in a perspective,
effectively organized, effectively executed and constantly controlled process of
formulating and implementing the region's development strategies. This concept focuses
its attention on as effective use of own potential as possible, especially intellectual
capital, social, financial and material capital in a long-term perspective. Its main
advantage is the partner-like approach, as representatives of various organizations
(private, public, social) and entities included in the system, which is the region,
participate in it. The primary functions of strategic management are: organizing,
stimulating, supporting pro-development activities, especially in the economic sphere,
maximizing financing from own means, acquiring financial means for development
from external sources as well as collecting and processing information [11, p. 110].
The literature more and more often emphasizes the need of complex approach towards
management, which takes into account also the marketing management subject. This
concept focuses on identifying and determining the needs, requirements and
expectations of clients of external organizations, and then on providing them with the
desired satisfaction in a more efficient and effective way than the competition does it
[11, p. 121]. Although one may agree with the first part of the concept, one needs to
emphasize that public organizations, by performing regulatory and managerial
functions, generally are monopolistic in nature, which however does not exempt them
from the necessity of being effective.
In Poland, regional management lies with the self-government authorities of the
voivodship and voivodes and their agencies. In practice, recently the characteristic
quality of development management has been the typical "term of office". Only the
membership in the European Union started the growth of interest of the regional
authorities in strategic management, as the condition necessary in applying for
structural funds possessed a development strategy. One also needs to emphasize that the
specificity of public administration, as an organization with a high publicness level,
3 Although this issue has not been discussed in the article, it is worth adding that public organizations are
an important employer and thus they affect the labor market and the level of incomes. In many regions of
Poland employment in the public sector amounts to 1/4 and even more of the general population of the
employed. In certain types of operations, however, employment is the exclusive domain of public
authorities (e.g. in public administration, national defense, education system). In the health protection and
social care systems it amounts to nearly 80%, in transport and warehouse management - circa 50%, and in
communal service operations - circa 40%
185