Public Service Is The Serving Of Public Services

My Introductory to Public Administration class has taught me the range that can come with public administration. Public administrators are employed in all levels of government, across various fields including social welfare, financial administration, and human resources (Denhardt, 2014, p. 1). Despite the various type of public administration jobs that exist, the one thing all public administrators are required to do is to maintain a commitment to public service (Denhardt, 2014, p. 1). In order to better understand how public administrators are responsive to public interests, I was assigned the task of interviewing a professional in public administration. I chose to interview Jeanell Emond, program manager for Central Valley Prevention Program (CVPP) and Mental Health Systems (MHS), because of my future in social work and my interest in developing and managing programs that benefit the community. Through the interview I was able to gain valuable insight on the agency and Mrs. Emond’s role as a public administrator. More importantly, I was able to learn how interorganizational partnerships, financial management, ethics, and leadership and management skills in public administration can help develop stronger communities.

The purpose of this paper, An Understanding of Public Administration, is to provide the reader with an overview of the field and its application towards public programs, agencies, groups and other associations. It also provides a clear definition, introduces some principles associated with public administration along and how it is used in American society. Public administration allows public policies and actions, decision-making ability and day to day operations of an agency to be executed effectively in our

Americans will always find a way to help others, wether this is in serving our country through military, government, or research to help better ourselves. I believe that through encouragement, not force, we can raise the public service rates in our country.

Delivering effective public service is of top priority to the organization I work for, City of Largo. The City of Largo is progressive and values itself on integrity, professionalism, teamwork, respect, diversity, competence, responsiveness, passion, creativity, empathy, and pride. The City's mission statement is clear and relates to the community it serves which is to provide superior services that enhance the quality of life and community pride. The City wishes to be looked upon as an organization that is vibrant and distinctive, with a dynamic, diverse, innovative, and high performance workforce that provides superior services through responsible stewardship. The City of Largo is driven by missions, rather than rules.

Role of public service – to provide essential services well and to help the public to navigate to get services including help; it implements government policy to serve the public the best way possible and strives to meet the needs and hopes of the people of the land. It needs to communicate and to understand the needs and situations of users so that the services it provides will be appropriate and relevant. In the face of rising expectations, it needs to engage the public even more, to welcome the co-creation of solutions and to make improvements to current services and policy implementation. Too often, implementation is understood to be execution (for example, getting things done without sufficient consideration for communication). The key

Leadership can be interpreted in many different ways and styles. In the Unit discussions it is taught that the term leadership can be broken down into an array of different styles. These styles include: Power Model, Administrative Model, Transformative Model, Smaller Agency, Midsized Agency, Large-sized Agency, Homogenous Community, Heterogeneous Community, and Metropolitan Community. While going more in depth with the functions of these models, the Transformative Model correlates the best with this personal leadership portrait. Considering the tasks that public service workers are responsible for, the transformative model would be best suited for a leader in this field.

In order to gather a definition of any word, it is not simply to give a term, or phrase, meaning, but to also at the same time identify its origin and purpose. All of this is then applied to a specific perspective. This perspective then allows a word to take on it’s own individualized life each time it surfaces as a spoken word, an action, a written text, thought, or observation. Approaching the term “public service” embodies the aforementioned idea that a definition, despite having a generalized meaning, can shift its purpose when used in differing perspectives and circumstances.

Public administration is often times the enforcement of government policy and also academic discipline that prepares people for working in the public service. It is a field with a diverse scope. The goal is to have advance management and policies so that the government can function. A public administrator’s biggest concern is having a sense of organization with government policies and programs. Often times many unelected officers can be considered heads of city, county, regional, state, and federal departments. Some federal departments can include municipal budget directors, human resources administrators, city managers, census managers, state mental health directors, and cabinet secretaries. Public administrators can work in public at all levels of government.

The goal of an introductory course within any subject field is an ambitious one indeed: to introduce a group of students to a novel field of study. While that may seem simply accomplished, its complexity is borne out within its application. For instance, the field of philosophy represents a multitude of subcategories ranging from metaphysics to jurisprudence. However, within an introduction to philosophy course, instructors compress this ostensibly infinite subject matter into a finite number of weeks. So too, in the field of public administration that encompasses every corner of the body politic. That said, what utility is gained from such an extreme compression of information? I argue that the introduction to different divisions and different methodologies within a field of study helps establish foundational principles within the minds of those students. Within our exploration into the introductory themes within public administration, we have been exposed to concepts that, I believe, are significant principles in an overarching understanding of the field. The principles are as follows: the differentiation of the public and private sector, the political nature of public administration, the intergovernmental environment of public administration, the variation in organizing within public organizations, and the role of ethics within public organizations. What follows is a brief elucidation of these concepts and their utility to frontline administrators.

Public agencies are unique. They are all performing at different rates with different missions and goals. Despite their differences, it cannot be denied that all agencies want to improve or maintain their performance. This paper outlines some of the important features and strategies that directors should take into consideration if they want to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their agency. These strategies and components include being an autonomous agency, practicing organizational learning, having strong leadership and implementing institutionalization.

In this essay, public service leadership will be defined and analyzed. A detailed leader profile from my placement will be developed and described using Competing Values Framework, as this is the most effective model that helps leaders think differently about value creation and shows them how to clarify purpose, integrate practices, and lead people in an organisation. Competing Values Framework can be used to assess core competencies, decision-making, human resources practices, and leadership capabilities of a leader and organization as well. This study used a 360 Degree Feedback model, which provides a holistic view of the leader by gathering feedback from a leader’s manager, peers, and direct reports.

In light of recent recoveries from the existing fluid economic crisis, many nations are racing towards achievement of distinctive goals. Resources have been pulled beyond reasonable lengths to ensure economic development is achieved. However, to achieve this global objective, both governmental and private entities must devise resolute policies that will ensure growth is achieved. All this is achieved through application of managerial strategies. This paper will build a discussion around two managerial strategies employed in public administration relative to how it sculpts the rudiments of public service. Various sources shall be used to shed light on these strategies as well as unearth benefits and risks that accompany them.

Managing and running a public agency is never a simple task. In addition to running efficiently and effectively, public organizations are often expected to be responsive to citizens. However, occasionally there are issues with the structure of an organization and its decision-making processes that are problematic. As exemplified by the case study involving Steve and the Department of Transportation (DOT), such issues are present and are therefore making its responsiveness to the public particularly poor. First, there is an extreme lack of cooperation between departments. Secondly, Steve makes some excellent suggestions, however, rethink his decision making process. Third, In order to become a more responsive department, first the DOT must rearrange its organizational structure. Lastly, by adopting a team approach, the DOT has the potential to become a more effective organization.

As students of Masters of Public Service degrees, it is imperative to develop a holistic and deep understanding of what “public service” means. Our class discussions have shown us the ambiguity of striking a balance between opposing forces: between intention and outcome, aid and empowerment, intrinsic and extrinsic affirmation, and self-interest and altruism. How do we balance these perspectives, when each has its benefits and pitfalls to the success of any project? In determining my own definition of public service, my hope is to elucidate factors that optimize each of these perspectives. In doing so, we can come closer to defining public service in a way that is both operationally useful and ethically guiding. Considering course documents and class discussions, I have defined the phrase as follows: