From Market Orientation to the Community Orientation for an Open Public Administration: A Conceptual Framework

Currently, the principle of open public administration has become an important concern, given the need to modernize and refor m of public institutions. This principle is not new, but its implementation is not an easy task, given that these organizations are very complex, accounting the interface between Government and citizens. This study is built on the premise that the adoption of principles of market orientation in public administration is a way of opening it to the community. Thus, the purpose of this study is to continue the efforts to expand the concept of market orientation in public administration, proposing a conceptual frame work regarding the adoption of this concept developed in business environment in public administration, based on empirical support. Given the existing controversies regarding the use of client notion in public administration, in this study we adopted the denomination of the "community orientation". The limits of the study arise from the fact that, in order to develop the framework, only the opinions of top-management and middle management from public administration were consulted.