Reconstruction of the Implementation of Quality Public Service: A

Study in South Minahasa Regency, North Sulawesi

Max R. Rembang

Public Relation Programme, Universitas Sam Ratulangi, Manado, Indonesia

Keywords: Quality Public Service, Government of South Minahasa Regency

Abstract: The research problem that proposed is to answer on how the implementation of quality public service by

taking South Minahasa as a research location, in which based on previous research and pre-survey have shown

the public service is not in line with public expectation. This research aims to find a new model of the

implementation of quality public services. Nevertheless, the focus of this research is to find other possible

aspects of the theory of implementation of public services, according to George Edwards III. This research

adopted a qualitative research approach, where the researcher alone will be as the main instrument of his

research. In having said, data collection has been done by doing an in-depth interview, observation and

documentation study. The data analysis technique uses interactive data analysis and triangulation model. At

the end of this research, the result will be shown on how the implementation of public services based on

George Edwards III theory with aspects of Bureaucratic Structure, Communication, Disposition and

Resources is not yet optimized in order to meet public expectation. Reconstruction of the implementation of

public services is needed by adding other substantial aspects, namely Regulation, Transformational

Leadership, and Organizational Culture, to produce quality public services, particularly in South Minahasa

Regency. In other words, the result of this research will discover a new model of implementation of public

services.

1 INTRODUCTION

Decentralization and regional autonomy are

country’s strategic policies that aim to build

democratic governance systems, bringing public

services closer, empowering people and accelerating

the development process in various aspects – in order

to achieve a just and prosperous society.

The role of regional government in increasing

effectiveness and efficiency of Local implementation

Governance, by carrying out quality public services,

especially to encourage investment to come into

region in order to become the main driver of

economic growth that impacted toward the

improvement of the welfare of the society. Kuncoro

(2005) have explained on four main activities on

marketed the area, which are (1) developing attractive

and robust positioning, (2) designing incentives for

investors, (3) marketing products and services

efficiently and easily accessible, and (4) promoting

regional attractiveness and benefits. Meanwhile, the

definition of implementation policy according to Van

Meter and Van Horn (1975) stated that “policy

implementation encompassed those action by public

or private individuals (or groups) that are directed at

the achievement of objective set forth in prior policy

decisions. This includes both one-time efforts to

operational terms as well as continuing efforts to

achieve the large and small changes mandated by

policy decisions” Grindle (1980) highlighted on

implantation policy determined by (a) power, interest

and strategy of the actor involved, (b) institutional

and regime characteristic, (c) compliance and

responsiveness.

On the other hand, to encounter competition

inter-regional and the demand of global competition,

the needs of the utilization of advance science and

technology primarily on technology in the field of

communication and informatics by the Government

of South Minahasa Regency (research object) is

expected to be able to carry out its role optimally in

implementing the broadest possible authority, based

on rights and obligation to carry out regional

autonomy as stipulated in the Law Number 23 of

2014.

R. Rembang, M.

Reconstruction of the Implementation of Quality Public Service: A Study in South Minahasa Regency, North Sulawesi.

DOI: 10.5220/0010686300002967

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of Vocational Higher Education (ICVHE 2019) - Empowering Human Capital Towards Sustainable 4.0 Industry, pages 419-423

ISBN: 978-989-758-530-2; ISSN: 2184-9870

419

This pre-survey research shows that the Regional

Government of South Minahasa Regency is fully

aware that investment is essential to sustain the

improvement of people’s welfare; however, to bring

in investors is indeed not easy. Some of the obstacles

faced by the Government of South Minahasa Regency

can be seen as below:

First, the investment policy specifically relates to

enhancing the investment climate such as –

standardized normative service, implicit spatial

planning and development of investment zones,

investor rights and obligations as well as investment

service performance;

Second, improving legal aspects to ensure

investment certainty. The tendency of Local

Governments in the era of regional autonomy is that

many local regulations are oriented towards Local

Own-Source Revenue (PAD). The excesses of the

plenty regional regulations namely, the high-cost

economy and indeed become an investment

constraint; Third, convoluted public services impede

all levels of society; Fourth, complaints from the

society in general, and especially investors and the

people who manage to license, emerge as following:

(1) Cost, amount of the fee is not transparent; (2)

Time, length of time to obtain the permit or permit

extension (3) Requirements, the same requirements

repeatedly asked for various types of permits; Fifth,

there has not been established a parallel partnership

between the regional government of South Minahasa

Regency and the private sector as much as the

government in another region/city/ provinces.

The mechanism of regional government

administration is demanded to be more productive,

efficient and innovative, especially in providing

public services, this relates to public needs are

increasingly broad and involved so that the

expectations of quality services are also increasing.

Reality shows that public institutions, in general, have

not provided quality public services.

In this study, it is attempted to add several

aspects towards the policy implementation model

according to George Edwards III (1980) with 4 (four)

main aspects namely Bureaucratic Structure,

Communication, Resources and Disposition.

Conditions in the field are as follows: First,

bureaucratic structure. Reality illustrates that the

bureaucratic structure in relation to public services is

already sufficient because all licensing services have

been carried out through the Investment and One-

Stop Licensing Services Office. Second, internal and

external government communication is relatively

ongoing as it should be even though it is not yet

optimal. Government communication in the form of

vertical communication and horizontal

communication has been carried out. The obstacle

that still occurs is the ongoing diagonal

communication to accelerate the response to public

demands and expectations.

External communication is still conventional

through mass media and has not been yet using online

communication media and social media. Third,

resources. In principle, both natural resources, human

resources and financial resources are sufficient and

relatively have been done, although not yet optimally

empowered. Fourth, disposition. Formal disposition

has been made, but it has not been able to encourage

motivation, creativity and innovation in quality public

services by bureaucrats.

Based on above explanation of the background,

thus it can be said that the model of implementation

of public services according to George Edwards III is

not sufficient enough to produce a quality

implementation of public services – and based on

Author perspective, other aspects are still needed to

achieve it. This has also encouraged the author to

conduct the research, namely Reconstruction of the

Implementation of Quality Public Services (Study in

the South Minahasa Regency of North Sulawesi

Province).

This study uses a qualitative method, according

to Creswell (2010) is a method for exploring and

understanding the meaning by several individual or

group of people ascribed to social issues or

humanitarian. The final report of this research has a

flexible structure or framework. Data collection

techniques use in-depth interviews, observation and

document review. Data analysis uses an interactive

model that is data collection, data reduction, data

presentation and drawing conclusions.

2 RESEARCH FINDINGS

Based on the data processing of this research,

illustrates that the implementation of the quality of

public services in South Minahasa Regency has not

been optimally embodied whilst the implementation

of public services according to George Edwards III

has been carried out, such as:

2.1 Bureaucratic Structure

Factual conditions indicate that the bureaucratic

structure has been simplified by granting delegation

of authority to the Investment and One-Stop

Licensing Service Office (Dinas PM & PTSP) to

optimize public services by improving:

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a. Job specialization supported by

specialization competencies

b. The apparatus works based on the primary

duties and functions in serving the granting

or extension of licenses

c. Chain of command of the line of authorities

is long and layering in order to serve the

public, especially to those investors who

need permits, have been cut through a one-

stop licensing service.

d. The full and long-range of control has been

simplified, and the procedure shortened

e. Decentralized decision making creates

subordinates gained certainty in taking

action, and coordination becomes simple.

2.2 Communication

a. Internal government communication

vertically from top to bottom has been done

in the form of giving directions or

instructions, work meetings, special

meetings, and work instructions in the

manifest of the implementation of public

services. Upward vertical communication

has also been carried out in the form of

periodic reports according to their respective

duties and functions.

b. Horizontal communication among units in

which their duties are directly related to

public services has not been done regularly

unless there is an urgent problem to highly

needed to be resolved immediately, given

based on user request’ or public demand.

c. Diagonal communication hasn’t been

smooth; this might have happened by the

cause of top leadership has not given enough

space and time to do it

d. The governance communication climate has

not been conducive due to the new media

communication such as online media, social

media, and information disclosure has not

been going well

2.3 Resources

a. Natural resources in South Minahasa

Regency are sufficiently available, such as

mining, fisheries, agriculture, plantations

and yet tourist attraction that have not been

managed optimally and professionally.

b. The resources of the bureaucratic apparatus

from education aspect are adequate namely

the lowest is High School and equivalent, to

Bachelor’s, Master’s and P.hD holder, and

yet the public services do not yet have a

certain quality.

c. Financial resources were relatively available

to support the financing of the

implementation of quality public services,

but are still constrained by the political will

of the top leaders

d. Work ethic and work discipline in public

services are less than optimal due to the

influence of top leaders’ factors.

e. The apparatus bureaucracy tends to

normatively maintain comfort zones based

on regulations and lack of creativity and

innovation in work, in order to keep up with

the development of contemporary

(modernity) conditions and technological

development.

f. In public services, it has not treated all

stakeholders fairly and humanely.

2.4 Disposition

a. The actual condition that happened in the

field indicates that the top leaders in term of

giving instructions and coaching to

subordinates have not been followed by

exemplary and consistent of leader

behaviour—reality shown that

transformational visionary leaders have not

yet occurred in South Minahasa Regency.

b. The reality in the field shows that the control

of the giving of instructions or verbal orders

or else written ones by the top leadership has

been done, however not taking into account

seriously

c. The reality in the field illustrates that

subordinates in order receiving instructions

or follow-up given by superiors should have

been done with full sincerity and

responsibility. Nevertheless, the

subordinates’ performance at work must

have a strong motivation, maintain self-

dedication and constructive initiative.

The research findings show that the

model of implementation of public services

according to George Edwards III has mostly

been executed and yet indeed a small portion

has not been carried out by leaders and

subordinates as public service officers, in

which affected to the quality public services

have not been manifested well and

adequately. Next to that, according to the

findings of the research, there are still other

Reconstruction of the Implementation of Quality Public Service: A Study in South Minahasa Regency, North Sulawesi

421

aspects or other variants that need to be done

to actualize the implementation of quality

public services, namely as follows:

a. Dynamic regulation, this is still needed

due to political officials and

bureaucratic officials are still working

in accordance with the main tasks and

functions based on regulations. In

which, still relevant to the theory of

“law is an instrument of social

engineering” to build attitudes and

behaviour of quality public services.

The Research findings show that there

are several companies that are managing

coconut and their derivatives encounter

concerns about the establishment of a

Regional Spatial Plan (RTRW) where the

position of their company is outside the

industrial zone, and the local government

has not made any proposed changes to this

RTRW to accommodate their business

licenses issued by the Regency of the

Central of Minahasa Government and in yet

prior to the stipulation of RTRW by the

Provincial Government. Such adjustment

towards the regulations should have been

done, hence not to interference company’s

performance which implicitly irritates also

the uptake of the workforce of the

surrounding society

b. Organizational culture. Organizational

culture is the norm of behaviour and

values that are well-understood and

accepted by all members of the

organization and used as the

fundamental basis for the rules of

behaviour in that organization.

Organizational culture functionates as

increasing ownership and loyalty of

members of the organization;

instruments for organizing members;

strengthen organizational values and

norms; mechanism of behaviour control

of organizational member; as a

determinant of which behaviours can be

done and which should not be done by

members of the organization; encourage

organizational structure to improve

long-term and short-term performance.

The research findings show that the

organization culture of local

government as objects of research has

not yet developed a conducive

organizational culture towards the

implementation of quality public

services. The top-leaders of the local

government are indeed highly

influential in building a culture of

quality public services.

c. Transformational leadership. This is a

leadership model to improve human

resources, and the effect of leaders

towards subordinates can be measured

by indicators of trust, admiration,

loyalty and respect to the leaders, in

which trying to motivate followers to do

something more and do it beyond their

own expectations, meaning

transformational leadership is not only a

visionary leader but also able to change

the mindset and behaviour of followers

as well as the people they lead. For

instance, in Indonesia, the current

Mayor of Surabaya and the former

Mayor of Bandung, who is now known

as the governor of West Java.

The research findings were obtained

that the leaders of the Southern

Minahasa regency who have served for

eight years (almost two periods) have

not revealed the characteristics of

transformational leaders that should

have an impact on the performance of

public services.

d. Society participation. Society

participation is a crucial and absolute

element in term of development,

especially related to the shift in the

development paradigm that puts people

or communities as central in

development either as subjects and as

well as objects of the development

itself.

In the perspective of the implementation of

quality public services, active, critical and

constructive public participation infested a strategic

position, because the society acted as stakeholders of

public services. This society participation is essential

as a tool in order to control the performance of the

local autonomy goals. The research findings indicate

that the society has, in fact, tried to participate;

however, the critics, proposals, suggestions and

society’ demands have not received a positive

response from the local government. The local

government along with legislative are able to reduce

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the active participation of the society by

governed/influenced the spearhead governance,

which are the heads of village and districts as much

as the local government has succeeded in ‘taking

control’ of mass media in building their image

3 IMPLICATION OF RESEARCH

REPORT

The research showed that the implementation model,

which was proposed and conducted by George

Edwards III in the Regency of South Minahasa, North

Sulawesi Province, wasn’t materialized optimally.

Therefore, the implementation of high-quality public

service is still not within grasp. However, even if the

George Edwards III’s public service implementation

with its 4 (four) primary variables, which is

Bureaucracy Structure, Communication, Resources

and Disposition were conducted optimally, it still

wouldn’t help in improving the public service

implementation. The research report showed that

other aspects and variables are still needed in order to

achieve a high-quality public service implementation.

Other aspects that can be included in the George

Edwards III’s model are legal aspect,

transformational leadership aspect, organizational

culture aspect, and participation aspect. If those last

four aspects complement the 4 (four) aspects,

according to George Edwards III, the author believes

that high-quality public service implementation can

be materialized.

Therefore, those 8 (eight) aspects above could

contribute together positively and constructively

towards the desired public service. The implication

tells that the essence of the regional expansion and

autonomy are the democratization of government,

bringing the right quality public service closer to the

public, and people empowerment to materialize the

people’s well-being especially in the Regency of

South Minahasa, North Sulawesi Province.

4 RECOMMENDATION

4.1 Academic Recommendation

This research report is the most optimal result that can

be produced by the author, but it is well known that

it’s still far from perfect. Therefore, the author

recommends anyone who is interested in examining

this research report to do so. The author would also

like to accept any kind of critiques from anyone for

the sake of our academic progress.

4.2 Practical Recommendation

The local government of South Minahasa Regency,

North Sulawesi Province are expected to be willing to

adopt this research report in order to improve the

government’s performance in providing good quality

public service for the justice and wellness of the

people in South Minahasa Regency.

5 CONCLUSIONS

1. According to the research findings, it shows that

not all George Edwards III’s Public Service

Implementation variables or aspects haven’t

been thoroughly carried out by the local

government of South Minahasa Regency, North

Sulawesi Province. However, even if the

variables and aspects were carried out properly,

it still wouldn’t be able to produce good quality

public service. In other words, other variables

and aspects are still needed in order to complete

the model.

2. Research findings show that 4 (four) variables

from George Edwards III model, according to

the author beliefs, are yet to be completed with

the other 4 (four) variables or aspects, such as

dynamic regulation, transformational

leadership, organizational culture and people

empowerment so that those variables or aspects

mentioned above could contribute together in

materializing good quality public service.

REFERENCES

Creswell, John W. (2010). Research Design: Pendekatan

Kualitatif, Kuantitatif dan Mixed, Penerjemah Achmad

Fawaid. Yogyakarta. Pustaka Pelajar.

Edwards III, George C. (1980). Implementing Public

Policy. Washington, DC. Congressional Quarterly

Press.

Grindle, Merille S. (1980). Politics and Policy

Implementation and Public Policy in the Tirth Word

New Jersey. Princeton University Press.

Kuncoro, Mudrajad. (2005). Otonomi dan Pembangunan

Daerah : Reformasi, Perencanaan, Strategi dan

Peluang. Jakarta. Erlangga.

Van Meter, Donalds and Carl E Van Horn. (1975). The

Policy Implementation Process : A Conceptual

Framework. Anministration Society. Vol 6 no. 4

February 1975.

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