H. George Frederickson’s “The Spirit of Public Administration” is an informative yet drab look at motivating public administrators. Frederickson discusses a wide variety of topics that would be useful to any public administrator, but the verbiage used is a bit difficult for an individual that may be entering into the service field “The Spirit of Public Administration is broken down into three parts. These parts are:
Part I: Governance, Politics, and the Public
Part II: Issues of Fairness
Part III: Ethics, Citizenship, and Benevolence in Public Administration
Frederickson did take the initiative to explain public administration and some of its functions before going in-depth on different facets of the role. Some great topics discussed
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A more effective way may be informative newsletters that provide alternate solutions that are not as time consuming.
Chapter 2 and 3 discusses the political aspect of public administration and governance. In Chapter2, Frederickson discusses the theory on which his book is based upon, the Hamiltonian tradition. This chapter makes valid points in how important it is for administrators to be versed in politics. Administrators are not delegated power through the U.S. Constitution, but state constitutions are political processes allow for administrators to be more involved in government. Through this vital tool, administrators are able to profoundly assist the public. After addressing the political aspect, Frederickson makes a smooth transition in Chapter 3 to discuss governance. Frederickson points out that there are several different definitions in defining governance. Frederickson makes a profound remark by stating, “it is likely that governance is the preferred modern theory that attempts to marry politics to administration (p. 92).” Frederickson also list five vital points pertaining to governance (p.92):
1. Governance is a positive symbol
2. Governance is a remarkable fusion of popular literature on government reform, popular executive politics, serious empirical scholarship, and modern public administration theory.
3. Public administration as
Paul C. Light’s (2006) article, “The Tides of Reform Revisited: Patterns in Making Government Work, 1945-2002”, has revealed to the readers how the current landscape of administrative reorganization is and how the sphere is gradually being dominated by four major competing ideas, viz. scientific management, the war on waste, the watchful eye, and liberation management. Light (2006), has explained how at the very heart of the American reform policies lays the four tides of reform ingrained with four philosophies. Light (2006) has stated that “the Constitution contains harbingers of all four “tides,” or philosophies, of administrative reform that populate the federal statute books today. It spoke to the logical of scientific management by creating a single executive with tight day-to-day control over the officers and departments of government. It laid basis for future wars on waste by requiring an annual accounting of expenditures and revenue while reserving the appropriation power for Congress.” Light (2006) has also stated that, the Constitution also “emphasized the need for a watchful eye on government excess through an elegant system of checks and balances. And it invented future efforts to liberate government from excessive regulation by vesting all executive powers in the president.” It is noteworthy that, Light (2006) has tried to make the readers understand how in the recent decades, all the four tides have accelerated in pace and intensity and how such acceleration
Authority is defined as the ‘power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience’. There are many different organisations that enforce discipline within the public services, which have the right to extend different levels of authority and enforce different levels of obedience within a service. These are;
The management of an organization plays an integral part in determining the direction and performance of the organization. The manner in which the management of an organization is handled has a profound effect on the organization. The success of an organization is dependent upon a flexible and skilled management and workforce. The management of an organization is responsible for shaping up the organizational behavior and ultimately the culture within the organization. Public management faces a multiple of challenges and opportunities, how the management deals with these issues translates to efficiency in management. The personal judgments and skills of public managers can make a significant impact in public management. If
Calling Public Administration the unofficial 4th Branch seems like an ideal way to describe it. Like the book describes, someone/entity has to physically enact the laws or carry out policies. PA has its own dynamics that we see on the news or experience locally, which seem to conform to the local population. As far as bureaucracy being positive or negative is relative, the author of the book would probably argue it is the greatest thing since sliced bread, where as a libertarian would see it as an infringement on his/her natural born liberties. I will propose a firsthand argument against it. I paid $30.00 for a permit to build a deck, but why? No one checked to see if I built it to a certain safety standard and no local official even showed
One way to see public administration in action is by attending a city council meeting, whether it be in an urban or rural area, public administration still has a part in each event. As Kettl (2018; p. 244) referenced in his book, there is not a civil system that would be sustainable without strong leadership. This paper will discuss the author’s description, observation, and reflection during a city council meeting.
On a macro level, public administration and business management are similar in their overall functions. “At the broadest level, some organizational theorists contend that administration is administration whatever its setting, and that the problems of organizing people, leading them and supplying them with resources to do their jobs are always the same (Kettl, 2012, p. 38).” In his paper, “Public and Private Management: Are They Fundamentally Alike in All Unimportant Respects?,” Graham T. Allison explains that in comparing public and administration and business management, “it is possible to identify a set of general management functions (Allison, 2012, p. 4).” Regardless of their end goal, each administration must form strategies by setting goals, priorities and creating procedures. Public and private organizations must manage internal components by organizing staff, defining job responsibilities, hiring and managing personnel and creating budgets. Furthermore, they must manage external constituencies such as other agencies, the press and public (Allison, 2012, p. 5). His observations stem from Wallace Sayre’s famous words, “public and private management are fundamentally alike in all unimportant respects (DiIlulio, 1993).”
Welcome everyone to the Governor’s Conference on Economic Development, today we shall discuss some interesting topics that should deal with our economy, and how it has developed and changed over time. To do this, we first need to discuss variables that might affect the equilibrium of supply and demand, as well as how that could be desired. Then, through using the concept of consumer and producer surplus, we will introduce the efficiency of markets, costs of taxation and some benefits of international trade. We will also discuss any side effects or consequences that might prevent market equilibrium, and the government’s policies that are used to remedy the inefficiencies in markets that are caused by externalities. Finally, we will finish with learning the difference between the efficiency of our tax systems, and the equality of a tax system.
Though business-like mechanisms can create a more efficient and potentially innovated government, government and business should be run differently, since they are inherently different in their conceptual values. Appleby explains some of these differences. He argues that no one can serve the public as it should be served unless he or she has a public-interest attitude with certain special characteristics. In addition, business has much narrower extent, while public officials are more broadly stimulated, with a breadth of view and a public-interest attitude. Government is complex as well as vastly interdependent with many other nonprofit and private organizations. Also, the government is subject to public scrutiny and public outcry. According to Denhardt and Denhardt, government acts, in concert with private and nonprofit groups and organizations, to seek solutions to the problems that communities face. In the process, the role of government is transformed from one of controlling to one of agenda setting, bringing the proper players to the table, facilitating, negotiating, or brokering solutions to public problems—often through coalitions of public, private, and nonprofit agencies. Finally, government is different from business
After a search in ProQuest the article Transformational Leadership and Public Service Motivation: Driving Individual and Organizational Performance, was selected for review to determine if the content is relevant to research topic. An empirical research method in which the authors reviewed a vast amount of past research was used to explore ways in which managers can use positive motivation to improve public service employee and organizational performance as well as give recommendations to assist managers to implement motivational values in a variety of management settings (Paarlberg, L., Lavigna, B.,
Understanding the pillars of public administration is a vital way for leaders to gain perspective when leading successfully. Among these six pillars of public administration, the leadership style addresses a connection with any civic organization.
My impression from these courses was that Public Administration integrated policy, management, and economics. This was the perfect counterpart to my undergraduate focus as well as an adequate description of my responsibility as an Office Manager at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business in the Marketing and Communications department. Additionally, I examined my involvement in the Staff Representative Group for Terry College and Terry's Business and Professional Staff group. Both groups serve as representation for the employees of the college. I was able to use my education while participating in these groups as well. Public administration was functional in both my job and as a member of the aforementioned groups. It functioned differently, in part, because each situation had a completely different sense of urgency. I delved further into how it was applied in and evaluated the decision making process in each setting. In both, the rational choice theory was used in an effort to maximize benefits and minimize costs. In other words, decisions were made using a cost-benefit analysis of the different actions with the objective being the greatest benefit at the lowest cost. The emphasis is usually placed on lowest cost which does not always guarantee the greatest reward.
The purpose of this essay is to discuss the public interest and the administrative responsibility. Discuss some of the recent ethical obligations confronting public administrators in their day to day decision making. Also we will examine the recent trend in privatizing government functions. Finally, we will discuss if privatizing posses any type of dilemma’s for the attainment of public interest.
This has been in my thoughts as I’ve been drafting my way into my own dissertation ideas. My background in critical social studies means I am very familiar with building arguments, so some of this uncertainty is expected. AT the moment, I know enough to say I am on the right track with my research ideas and know that public administration, and public policy in particular, is the right field for me.. However, I also feel rather critical of the policy process literature. It has been claimed, “public administration exists to realize the governance of society” (Raadschelders, 1999, p. 288). Yet, what society believes policy to be, and for whom, changes over time and across place. I feel at this moment public policy in the United States will change dramatically and I worry that our field is ill equipped to deal with these changing views of policy. Consequently, most of my underlying thoughts and reflections have been on understanding how can we adapt to this changing atmosphere.
Public organizations and the public administrators have an important duty of promoting and maintaining democratic government especially by ensuring good governance. Social and economic development can be achieved through good governance. Collaborative governance is a primary component of good governance (Ansell & Gash, 2008). Admittedly, public management reforms are fundamental to improving the abilities of various nations to address issues that touch on democratic government. Some of the