Where Are We Now? Get Out The Map

1. Where Are We Now? Get Out The Map PA’s response to Plunkitt will be to bridge the gap between bureaucracy and democracy by building new organizations. Those organizations will suffer from congenital problems: bureaucratic rigidity, vague goals, diffusion of implementation responsibility, penetration of the task environment, limited managerial power over employees, each of whom needs an individualized approach to motivation.

2. Where Are We Now? Get Out The Map We recognize that we derive our power primarily from our noetic authority and that authority requires information about the public we serve. Since information is one of our primary tools, we will be tempted to gather and use potentially sensitive information to make our jobs easier. However, we must recognize that at times there is a fine line between the appropriate use of information and invasion of privacy. Privacy is an important public goal in a democracy and we cannot simply dismiss it even though we are also pursuing other important public goals, such as efficiency and security.

3. Lecture Preface for Chapter 7 As public administrators, we are all operating in the shadow of Tweed. A great deal of the red tape and bureaucracy for which government is criticized is essentially an effort to prevent corruption and to limit the power of public officials to misuse their offices for personal or political purposes. But as Henry notes, all these efforts to prevent corruption have resulted in inefficiency. We now think government should be faster, more agile, and more responsive; it is not enough that it be honest.

4. To this tension, Henry adds two additional considerations: much of what government does is inherently inefficient and not amenable to productivity improvements (because so much of it is hands-on service work); and the growth of bureaucracy has inspired an ideological attack on big government, leading to calls for privatization (which have not necessarily made government more efficient or honest or smaller) and the adoption of private-sector inspired productivity improvement methods.

5. As you watch The Storm and read the chapter, think back to Tweed, Plunkitt, and the ICMA videos you reviewed during the first week of class. To what extent do our cultural expectations of government play a role in how it works? What do we expect of it? What is the culture of government employees? Do they take pride in their work? Are they primarily political, or do they have a deep-seated devotion to a conception of the public good that transcends any particular political commitment? Might the problems of corruption and competence be resolved through a culture of professionalism rather than more red tape or aggressive privatization?

6. This chapter focuses on those techniques that emerged in response to three big public administration problems detailed earlier in the book: (1) public organizations pursue big, complex problems for which the relationship between means and ends is unclear; (2) corruption, waste, fraud, mismanagement, and inefficiency are often found in public management; (3) there is a rising, apparently uncontrollable cost of government. Difficult goals, lots of potential for waste (in various forms), and rising costs thus create the need for a variety of techniques for making sure that public administrators pursue those goals as efficiently and effectively as possible, keeping in mind that government also must deliver its services ethically, equitably, and, in some cases, equally. This has given rise to wave after wave of techniques that attempt to make the public sector work better, though over time different aspects of these problems have given rise to different techniques. The basic question remains, however, how do we know that government is doing as good a job as possible?

7. What do I need to know from this chapter and why is it important? What are program evaluation, performance measurement, and benchmarking, and how do they differ? What are the basic performance indicators? What is productivity? What is the role of inspectors general? What is abuse of authority and how does it differ from corruption? What are the key principles of the new public management?

8. What are program evaluation, performance measurement, and benchmarking, and how do they differ?

9. What are program evaluation, performance measurement, and benchmarking, and how do they differ? Program evaluation: systematic study of how well a program worked; retrospective; used to determine whether the program should be continued or modified; focus on how thing went. Performance measurement: ongoing monitoring and reporting of program accomplishment; current status; used to manage program and update leaders; focus on how things are going. Benchmarking: comparison of the performance of two or more agencies, governments, or programs; current or retrospective; used to gauge performance; focus on how we compare to others.

10. What are the basic performance indicators?

11. What are the basic performance indicators? Inputs: resources, their quantity and quality. Outputs: how much was produced, how many calls answered, how many miles driven, etc. Process: cycle time, rework, hiring time, touchpoints; this area is the most important in government work. Efficiency: accomplishment of a job using the fewest resources; outputs divided by inputs. Effectiveness or outcomes: production of intended results. Game the system: shifting not saving (dumping the elderly), wrong measure (heavy furniture, patients vs. lives), cherry picking (easy vs. hard), incomplete (graduation vs. reading level).

12. What is productivity?

13. What is productivity? Improvement of efficiency and effectiveness. Evolved from a simply moral concern about improving government by eradicating corruption to a focus on maximizing performance and minimizing costs. Major focus of New Public Management.

14. What is the role of inspectors general?

15. What is the role of inspectors general? Developed in 1960s. Formalized by Inspector General Act of 1978. Exposing waste, fraud, and abuse in public agencies. Resulted in new, additional layers of administrative restrictions, bureaucratic oversight structures, and procedures designed to second guess and monitor public managers.

16. What is abuse of authority and how does it differ from corruption?

17. What is abuse of authority and how does it differ from corruption? abuse of authority: inappropriate, unethical, or illegal misuse of the power vested in one’s public office. corruption: using dishonest means and committing illegal acts for the purpose of personal financial gain.

18. What are the key principles of the new public management?

19. What are the key principles of the new public management? Alertness: anticipate problems. Agility: entrepreneurial, open, and communicative. Adaptability: continuous improvement. Alignment: collaborate with other governments and sectors to achieve social goals. Accountability: managers should suffer for not fulfilling a clear and compelling mission that focuses on the needs of the people. PM, downsizing, privatization, strategic planning, streamlining, and enhanced executive authority. Unchain the bureaucrats from antiquated constraints so they can be more efficient and effective. Old public managers feared this because the loosening of administrative controls might lead to more corruption.