Public Management Power & Environments Wednesday, August 13, 2014

1. Public ManagementPower & EnvironmentsWednesday, August 13, 2014 Hun Myoung Park, Ph.D. Public Management & Policy Analysis ProgramGraduate School of International Relations

2. General Environmental Conditions • Technological conditions • Legal conditions • Political conditions • Economic conditions • Demographic conditions • Ecological conditions • Cultural conditions

3. General Environmental Conditions • Technological conditions: the general level of knowledge and capability in science, engineering, medicine, and other substantive areas; general capacities for communication, transportation, information processing, medical services, military weaponry, environmental analysis, production and manufacturing processes, and agricultural production.

4. General Environmental Conditions • Legal conditions: laws, regulations, legal procedures, court decisions; characteristics of legal institutions and values, such as provisions for individual rights and jury trials as well as the general institutionalizations and stability of legal processes.

5. General Environmental Conditions • Political conditions: characteristics of the political processes and institutions in a society, such as the general form of government (socialism, communism, capitalism, and so on; degree of centralization, fragmentation, or federalism) and the degree of political stability (Carroll, Delacroix, and Goodstein, 1988). More direct and specific conditions include electoral outcomes, political party alignments and success, and policy initiatives within regimes.

6. General Environmental Conditions • Economic conditions: levels of prosperity, inflation, interest rates, and tax rates; characteristics of labor, capital, and economic markets within and between nations. • Demographic conditions: characteristics of the population such as age, gender, race, religion, and ethnic categories.

7. General Environmental Conditions • Ecological conditions: characteristics of the physical environment, including climate, geographical characteristics, pollution, natural resources, and the nature and density of organizational populations. • Cultural conditions: predominant values, attitudes, beliefs, social customs, and socialization processes concerning such things as sex roles, family structure, work orientation, and religious and political practices.

8. Lawrence and Lorsch (1967) • An open systems theory of organizations adapt. • Organizations must balance differentiation and integration to be successful. • Those companies who manage to achieve high sub-unit differentiation and yet still maintain high integration between sub-units seem to be best equipped to adapt to environmental changes.

9. Lawrence and Lorsch (1967) • Groups that are organized to perform simpler, more certain tasks (e.g., production groups) usually have more formal structures than groups focusing on more uncertain tasks (e.g., research and development). • The time orientation of sub-groups is primarily dependent on the immediacy of feedback from their actions. Thus, sales and production groups have shorter time orientations than R&D.

10. Lawrence and Lorsch (1967) • The goal orientation of sub-units is relative to the part of the environment that affects them the most. • Comparative study of six organizations in the same industrial environment. • The researchers were most interested in comparing the degree of integration and differentiation between subgroups in each company, and how these subgroups related to the environment the firm operated within.

11. Lawrence and Lorsch (1967) • Rather than start with the individual, they decided to start with an ecological view of the organizations and their environments. • They define an organization as a "system of interrelated behaviors of people who are performing a task that has been differentiated into several distinct subsystems, each subsystem performing a section of the task, and the efforts of each being integrated to achieve effective performance of the system."

12. Lawrence and Lorsch (1967) • They define differentiation as "the state of segmentation of the organizational systems into subsystems, each of which tends to develop particular attributes in relation to the requirements posed by its relevant external environment.” • They define integration as "the process of achieving unity of effort amount the various subsystems in the accomplishment of the organization's task.“

13. Lawrence and Lorsch (1967) • Differentiation and Integration: Highly differentiated subsystems had more difficulty in integration. • Differentiation and Integration on Performance: Firms with high differentiation and high integration tended to do better than those with low differentiation and low integration.

14. Contingency Theory • An organization’s structure must be adapted to contingencies. • In simple, homogenous, and stable environments, organizations can successfully adopt mechanistic and centralized structures. • In more complex environments, successful organizations must be organic and less decentralized.

15. Mechanistic vs. Organic

16. Dimensions of Environment • Capacity: the extent to which the environment affords a rich or lean supply of necessary resources • Homogeneity-heterogeneity: the degree to which important components of the environment are similar or dissimilar • Stability-instability: the degree and rapidity of change in the important components or processes in the environment

17. Dimensions of Environment • Concentration-dispersion: the degree to which important components of the environment are separated or close together, geographically or in terms of communication or logistics • Domain consensus-dissensus: the degree to which the organization’s domain (its operating locations, major functions and activities, and clients and customers served) is generally accepted or disputed and contested

18. Dimensions of Environment • Turbulence: the degree to which changes in one part or aspect of the environment in turn create changes in another; the tendency of changes to reverberate and spread • Munificence: the availability of needed resources • Complexity: the homogeneity and concentration of the environment • Dynamism: the stability and turbulence of the environment

19. General Values and Institutions • Political and economic traditions • Constitutional provisions and their legislative and judicial development • Due process • Equal protection of the laws • Democratic elections and representation (republican form) • Federal system • Separation of powers • Free-enterprise system (economic markets relatively free of government controls)

20. Competence Values • Efficiency • Effectiveness • Timeliness • Reliability • Reasonableness

21. Responsiveness Values • Accountability, legality, responsiveness to rule of law and governmental authorities • Adherence to ethical standards • Fairness, equal treatment, impartiality • Openness to external scrutiny and criticism

22. Political Authority and Influence • Chief executives • Legislative bodies • Courts • Government agencies • Other levels of government • Interest groups • Policy subsystems ands policy communities • News media • Public opinion • Individual citizens

23. Chief Executives • Includes Presidents, Governors, Mayors • Chief executives presumably have the greatest formal power over bureaucracies in their jurisdictions. • Appointment of agency heads and other officials • Executive staff and staff offices (for example, budget office) • Initiating legislation and policy directions • Vetoing legislation • Executive orders and directives

24. Legislative Bodies • Formal legal authority over agency includes legislatures, councils, and commissions • Power of the purse: final approval of the budget • Authorizing legislation for agency formation and operations • Approval of executive appointments of officials • Oversight activities: hearings, investigations • Authority of legislative committees • Initiating legislation

25. Legislative Bodies • Formal authority always operates in a political context. • Formal authority can weaken or bolster agency. • Limits of legislative power • Agencies are typically the experts. • Implementation is a source of power. • Close scrutiny over agency often has minimal political payoff because, • Could jeopardize relationships • Eliminate potential sources of favors for constituents

26. Courts • Courts confine agency to statutory authority. • Require agency to follow due process in rulemaking • Review of agency decisions • Authority to render decisions that strongly influence agency operations • Direct orders to agencies

27. Government Agencies • Government agencies • Oversight and management authority (GAO, OMB, OPM, GSA) • Competitors, Allies • Agencies or government units with joint programs • Other levels of government • “Higher” and “lower” levels • Intergovernmental agreements and districts

28. Government Agencies • Relationship of bureaucracy to other bureaucracies and different levels of government can be complex. • Interdependencies require cooperation. • Grants sometimes require coordination between agencies. • Federal system fragments authority. • Agencies sometimes compete for resources and control over programs.

29. Interest Groups • Includeclient groups, constituency groups, and professional associations • Support from constituent groups can • Bolster and legitimize agency work • Defend agency against budget cuts • Provide agency with important information, expert reports • Competition between interests gives rise to various viewpoints.

30. Interest Groups • Support of organized groups is essential to the well-being of agency. • Some criticisms • There is a danger that special interest politics will further fragment the system, complicating communication and coordination. • System favors some powerful private interests over public interest. • Agency can become “captive.” • Revolving door

31. Policy Subsystems • Policy subsystems • Issue networks • Inter-organizational policy networks • Implementation structure

32. Policy Subsystems • Issue Network • Businesses, organizations, bureaucracies, individuals, legislative committees and subcommittees all have interests in policy.  All attempt to influence the development and execution of public policy • Barriers to entering the network are rather low. • Those actively involved in the network at any one time will fluctuate; and levels of activity will fluctuate.

33. Policy Subsystems • Iron Triangle • Old name to describe relationship between bureaucracy, congressional committees, and interest groups. • Relatively stable • Entry into the triangle is rare.

34. Administrative Power • Public organizations need support from • mass publics-broad diffuse populations • attentive publics- more organized groups that are interested in specific agencies • The public manager’s concern is to maintain enough authority and discretion to meet organizational goals. • Bureaucratic power is essential to the fundamental organizational process of gaining financial resources, grants, and other resources from the environment.

35. Iron Triangle Congress Implementation as preferred by Congress Favorable laws Campaign support Budget, support of agency mission Bureaucracy Low regulation Interestgroups Can lobby for agency support

36. News Media • Media attention varies by administration and agency. • Media attention can shift unpredictably. • Media tends to take an adversarial stance. • Bad press can damage budgets, programs, and careers. • Agencies value good coverage and spend a least 5 hrs per week on matters pertaining to media (Graber, 2003). • Media serves as a watchdog, reporting government waste and abuses.

37. Guidelines for News Media • Understand the perspective of the media – their skepticism, their need for information and interesting stories, their time pressures. • Organize media relations carefully – spend time and resources on them and link them with agency operations. • Get out readable press releases providing good news about the agency; be patient if the media respond slowly.

38. Guidelines for News Media • Respond to bad news and embarrassing incidents rapidly, with clear statements of the agency’s side of the story. • Seek corrections of inaccurate reporting. • Use the media to help boost the agency’s image, to implement programs, and to communicate with employees. • To carry all this off effectively, make sure that the agency performs well, and be honest.

39. Guidelines for News Media • Prepare an agenda on each subject the media may be interested in. Include a list of three to five points you want to “sell” the reporter. • Write or verbally deliver “quotable quotes” of ten words or less. • Listen carefully to the question. The reporter may have made incorrect assumptions, and you will need to give clearer background information before answering the question. • Avoid an argument with the reporter.

40. Guidelines for News Media • If interrupted in mid-thought, proceed with your original answer before answering the next question. • Challenge any effort to put words into your mouth. • Don’t just answer the question; use the question as a springboard to “sell” your agenda. • If you do not know the answer, say so. Do not speculate. • If you cannot divulge information, state why in a matter-of-fact way.

41. Guidelines for News Media • Be positive, not defensive. • Always tell the truth.

42. General Public Opinion • General level of support affects agency’s ability to maintain base of political support. • Praise for NY fire fighters after 9/11 • Periods of antigovernment sentiment often prompt reforms. New institutions and structures can upset the organization and present numerous challenges. • Changes might include new lines of authority and new reporting requirements • Difficult to gauge what the public really wants.

43. General Public Opinion • Public regards some agencies as more important than others (e.g. police, defense). • Public sentiment can help or hinder public management. • Hargrove and Glidewell (1990) propose an agency classification in relation to public opinion. • How does the public perceive the agency’s clientele? • Is agency respected? • How important is the agency?

44. Individual Citizens • Requests for services, complaints, other contacts