Management Accounting in Public Service Decision Making

Chapter2

Operations management of public services

Introduction

This chapter is concerned with operational aspects of the delivery and management of public services and the role to be played by management accounting in decision making at this level.

It is often the case that the topic of strategy is seen, in organisations, as being more important and more glamorous than operations management. Now while a comprehensive and achievable strategy is vitally important in both public and private sectors, the existence of poor operations management in an organisation is likely to lead to a failure to achieve its strategic objectives. This point can clearly be observed in the world of military where war strategies may fail because of poor tactical practices ...