Understanding and Managing Public Organizations

Chapter 1The Challenge of Effective

Public Organization and Management

• Government organizations and the people in them perform crucial functions.

• We expect government to “protect us.”

• Public organizations have many similarities with private business firms and nonprofit organizations, but they also differ in important ways.

Toward Improved Understanding and Management of Public Organizations

• All nations face decisions about the roles of government and private institutions in their society.

• To assess government practices, we need to understand the similarities and differences among public, private, and nonprofit organizations.

• Researchers and writers of public management and public organizations agree that we need more careful analyses of organizational and managerial issues in government.

• Advancing public management requires reconciling legitimate skepticism about public organizations with the recognition that they are necessary with the recognition that public organizations play an indispensible role in society.

Toward Improved Understanding and Management of Public Organizations

• Evidence indicates that we can profit from general knowledge about management and organizations, but the governmental context sharply constrains performance.

• Understanding and improving management of public organizations is possible with a study of the literature integrated with a review of the research on public organizations.

Ambivalence Toward Government

• The increase in privatization and contracting out policies suggest an antigovernment sentiment.

• Presidential policies and statements usually reflect the assumption that government performs less effectively and efficiently than private firms.

• In reality, Americans regard government with more ambivalence than hostility.

General Management and Public Management

• Understanding and improving management of public organizations is possible with a study of the literature integrated with a review of the research on public organizations.

• Public management can benefit from diverse and interdisciplinary literature.

• Organizational behavior, organization theory, and management • Important to advancing public management but mostly reflect the “generic

tradition” • Public administration, economics, and political science

• Also important, but not much attention to internal management• Tend to oversimplify such topics as motivation and organization structure for

public bureaucracies

Generic Tradition

• Treats private and public management as similar in most important respects

• Recognizes merit in both sides of the debate• Generic tradition offers valuable insights, but there is a need

for a body of knowledge specific to public organizations.• Managers in public agencies can effectively apply generic

management procedures, but they must also skillfully negotiate the external political environment.

• Political science and economics tend to oversimplify topics such as motivation, structure, and so on.

Issues in Education and Research

• There is an elaborate body of knowledge on management and organizations, but too little analysis of differences.

• Graduate programs in M.P.A.s now emphasize management skills but also recognize sectoral differences in applying those skills.

The Dilemmas of Improving Public Management

• Concerns about ineffective government have led to continuous reform efforts.

• Carter and Reagan both attacked federal bureaucracy in their campaigns.

• Carter instituted the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 as a management improvement initiative. This made it easier

• To discipline and fire federal employees

• To base pay on performance

• For politically appointed heads to transfer career civil servants under them

The Dilemmas of Improving Public Management

• Reagan reforms were even more aggressive than those of Carter. These

• Worked for cuts in authority, funding, and staffing

• Sought to increase presidential authority over agencies

• Increased the number of political appointees to high levels in agencies but cut staff

• Decentralized

The Dilemmas of Improving Public Management

• The aftermath of Reagan reforms

• There was an increase in indictments.

• There were reports of employee morale problems.

• Cutbacks provided a reason to escape previously set goals.

• Paul Volker of the Federal Reserve Board also chaired a commission to analyze crisis and recommended steps to improve pay and performance and relationships between appointees and civil servants.

The Dilemmas of Improving Public Management

• The pattern of reforms continued under the NPR• The system—not the people—caused the problem.• There was a major cutback in federal employees (approximately

325,000).• George W. Bush

• Rejected Clinton reforms• Initiated the President’s Management Agenda• Instituted agency scorecards

• red = failure • green = success• yellow = mixed results

The Dilemmas of Improving Public Management

• Obama has continued the pattern.

• On the bright side• “Human Capital” now receives attention.• Researchers recognize the complexity of the problem. • Concerns about a lack of knowledge have led to numerous

books and scholarly articles since the 1990s.• There is a movement under way to recognize that governments

can perform well and continuing inquiry is needed.

• Continuous efforts underscore the political context of public management. It’s not a matter of straightforward science.

Effective Public Management

• There is plenty of help available for improving public management practice and research.

• There is more evidence of excellence in public service.

• The field includes the use of sources outside typical academic research: government reports and observations, and practices of managers.

• Texts focused on management may include such topics as inventory and information systems.

The Challenge of Sustained Attention and Analyses

• Public management involves complex objectives.

• Public managers balance conflicting objectives and priorities.

• The debate over government performance and the uniqueness of the public sector will continue.

• There is merit to both sides of the debate.

Organizations: A Definition and Conceptual Framework

• An organization consists of a group of people working together to pursue a goal.

• They obtain resources from their environment.

• They transform resources by accomplishing tasks and applying technologies to achieve performance of goals.

• They deal with uncertainties of the processes by organizing activities and establishing structures and processes.

• Organizing involves leadership and strategy.

• Structures are relatively stable observable assignments and divisions achieved through hierarchies, rules, and so on.

Organizations: A Definition and Conceptual Framework

• The division of responsibilities determined by the organization structure divides the organization’s goals into components on which the individual groups can concentrate—hence the term organization referring to the set of organs that make up the whole.

• Processes are not as physically observable as structures.

• Processes are more dynamic and play an important role in coordination. They include such matters as decision making, communication, and determining power relationships.

• Within processes, groups and individuals respond to incentives, resulting in performance.

A Framework for Organizational Analysis Goals / Values

(Chapters 6, 11)

Leadership / Strategy(Chapters 7, 11)

Culture(Chapter 11)

Environments(Chapters 4, 5)

Structures(Chapter 8)

Processes(Chapters 7, 12, 13)

Organizational Performance / Effectiveness

(Chapters 6, 14)

Tasks / Technology (Chapters 8)

Incentives(Chapters 9, 10)

PeopleGroups Individuals

(Chapter 12) (Chapters 9, 10)

Incentives(Chapters 9, 10)

A Framework for Organizational Analysis ( Elaboration of Figure 1.1)

Goals / Values(Chapters 6, 11)

Leadership / Strategy(Chapters 7, 11)

Culture(Chapter 11)

Environments(Chapters 4,

5)

Structures

Specialization/Division of Responsibility

Departmentalization/SubunitsHierarchy/CentralizationFormalization/Rules and

Regulations(Chapter 8)

ProcessesPower Relationships

Decision MakingCommunications

Change/Innovation(Chapters 7, 12, 13)

Organizational Performance

/ Effectiveness(Chapters 6,

14)

Tasks / Technology (Chapters 8) PEOPLE

GROUPS INDIVIDUALCohesion Values/Motives

Teamwork Perception/Attributions (Chapter 12)

Motivation Job Satisfaction

Organizational Commitment

(Chapters 9, 10)

Auspices : Public or Private

Nonprofit, Hybrid(Chapter 3)