Parallels in Private and Public Sector Governance

Private sector governance, i.e. governance in major listed companies, has caught much public attention in recent years due to the collapses of major corporations around the world. The result has been a plethora of standards for corporate governance in public and private companies. In comparison, public sector governance has avoided much of the controversies while developing along a parallel, if dissimilar path of raised awareness of the need for governance standards in the public sector. Examples of similarities that are markedly different in context are the role of agents, public sector managers manage funds on behalf the public versus the role played by managers in corporations, and the involvement (or expected involvement) of different stakeholders in both the public and the private sectors. This paper contrasts some of the differences in the models of governance found in the public and private sectors, and makes some observations about the desirable attributes to be sought in each.