Public utility management

This chapter is a brief introduction to some of the more important principles of management that utility operators, supervisors, and commission members need to understand and apply in public service management. It focuses on the open innovation model as appropriate for the public utility operating environment within which managers guide the utility’s activities. It includes an overview of the key constraints and universal principles that guide managers in carrying out their tasks. Management is the set of guiding activities taken by human actors to help others accomplish the many objectives of an organization. Public utility managers apply these activities to accomplish objectives in organizations engaged in providing a public service, including managing all actions relating to the organization’s franchise granted by some public body.