FEATURE
Strategic Public Sector Learning and Development
Jerry Ice
The nation’s career civil servants implement the laws, carry out the programs, deliver the services, and manage the resources that keep the nation functioning. The nation’s most daunting challenges—those often beyond the capacity of the market and other institutions—are assigned to government, and the hard work of finding solutions falls uniquely on public managers.
However, many government organizations have yet to develop a truly comprehensive
and systematic approach to employee education, training, and development.
Mission-critical skills and competency gaps clearly exist.
To address these needs, the Graduate School has developed five guidelines that
professionals should employ when designing education, training and development,
and performance improvement initiatives for government workers.
- Guideline #1: Consider all the ways you can incorporate continuing education and
training into the employee lifecycle—from the first day on the job to skills
training and career advancement opportunities.
- Guideline #2: Conduct annual, or more frequent, assessments to determine
training needs and knowledge gaps. These can change all the time.
- Guideline #3: Ensure that there is a strong succession plan in place—begin
developing future managers and leaders now.
- Guideline #4: Understand that people have different learning styles and
preferences, and develop your education and training program based on these
differences.
- Guideline #5: Use education and training as a way to create a strong learning
culture in your organization. It will help maintain day-to-day job satisfaction
as well as increase recruitment.
Jerry Ice, EdD, is CEO and president of the Graduate School. Based in
Washington, D.C. with eight field training sites around the United States, the
Graduate School is a full-service continuing education, training, and academic
institution that provides classes, certificate programs, degree programs, and
other offerings in subjects ranging from governmental accounting, auditing,
human capital management, and acquisition to foreign languages, economics, and
leadership development.
ARTICLES
Technology Management
The Rise of Gov 2.0 - From GovLoop to the White House
Steve Ressler
A revolution is happening in government as the result of a new generation of
government employees, the rise of Web 2.0 technologies. Often called Gov 2.0,
this next generation of government workers is marked by the principles of
openness, transparency, and collaboration, as well as the idea that the voices
of the many are smarter than the voice of one.
One of the most successful examples of Government 2.0 is GovLoop.com, an online
community created for and by government employees that has brought together more
than 16,500 members of the government community. Dubbed by some as a “Facebook
for Government,” GovLoop brings together government employees from the United
States and other nations to discuss ideas, share best practices, and create a
community dedicated to the betterment of government.
In only one year, GovLoop has begun to smash the age-old silos that existed
between federal agencies by facilitating dialogue that has never existed before
between state, local, and international government agencies. Members range from
chief information officers, White House political appointees, and city managers
to brilliant government innovators across all levels of U.S. government. Most
importantly, GovLoop members have started connecting in ways to improve
government, including
- developed a burgeoning “Acquisition 2.0” movement to employ innovative
acquisition methods
- been the leading source of government input into the Obama Administration’s Open
Government Memo
- established a repository of best practices on social media policies, government
hiring, and government Twitter use
- created the first-ever Tweetbook summarizing all the messages on Twitter at the
Open Government and Innovations Conference into a concise e-book for readers
worldwide
- launched a top-rated podcast "Gov 2.0 Radio."
Steve Ressler is the founder of GovLoop.com, the "Facebook for Government" that
connects and fosters collaboration among more than 16,500 members of the
government community. He is also the co-founder of Young Government Leaders, a
professional organization for young federal employees. He can be friended on
govloop.com and reached at founder@govloop.com.
Advanced Collaboration Techniques for More Effective Management
Greg Nuyens
Advanced 3D collaboration technologies are being used by government agencies to
enhance training, operations center management, and research and development.
These new solutions deliver greater value with fewer resources and help public
managers shorten cycle times, reduce costs, make better decisions, and act more
rapidly than they can when using traditional communication and collaboration
methods.
In essence, 3D virtual workspaces enhance and improve intelligence and decision
making for work groups and teams because they integrate many existing
communication and collaboration technologies into visual environments that
simulate physical work locations, including conference rooms, offices, project
rooms, and operations centers. Virtual collaboration technologies also support
all three communication styles that people use while working face-to-face:
speech, gesture, and sketch. Together, these styles enable teams in virtual
workspaces to re-create the natural ways they would work together if they were
in the same physical location, and help to establish trust within newly formed
teams.ams.
Organizations that want to deploy virtual collaboration tools need to ensure
that the technology selected can meet objectives. It is important that all
employee demographic groups are able to use the selected technology easily. The
software must be able to fit within current organizational workflows without
significant process changes. All data and tools used regularly should be brought
into the virtual world effortlessly. In addition, the solution should make it
simple for people to communicate with one another and include all of the
following methods of communication: talking, texting, showing, sharing, using
webcams to show emotions, gesturing, and sketching. The economics of the
technology, both the return-on-investment (ROI) and the total cost of ownership
(TCO), also need to be considered.
Greg Nuyens is CEO of Qwaq, Inc. He has more than 20 years of experience as a
high-tech executive. He has served in a variety of roles, including CEO of
Devicescape, CTO of Neomar, chief technologist at Inktomi, co-founder at Ilog,
director at Sun Microsystems, and researcher at Xerox PARC and Xerox AI Systems.
He holds a master’s degree in Computer Science from Stanford University and a
bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Carleton University. He can be
reached at greg.nuyens@qwaq.com.
Performance Management
Aligning Government
Performance and Community Outcome Measurement
Kathryn Kloby and Kathe Callahan
As public managers develop more outcome-oriented performance measurement systems,
they are in essence finding new ways to connect the dots between the
deliverables of their programs and services and their impact on broader societal
concerns. They are generally working with two levels of measurement: one that
shows how everyday actions contribute to the efficiencies and effectiveness of
service deliveries; and the other that shows how such actions contribute to
societal indicators representing broader economic and social concerns.
Taking a societal approach to measurement generally involves a significant shift
in focus, from internal to external, and includes diverse perspectives for
identifying what indicators matter to the public. Although difficult, some
governments have managed to transform performance measurement from an accounting
tool to an integrated management system capable of measuring agency-specific
performance measures and societal indicators. Examples include Washington
State’s Government, Management, Accountability, and Performance (GMAP) Program;
King County’s Annual Indicators and Measures (AIMs) High; Oregon’s Progress
Board, Sustainable Seattle, Truckee Meadows Tomorrow, and the Baltimore
Neighborhood Indicators Alliance.
Suggested strategies for designing outcome-oriented measurement systems,
selecting indicators, reporting results, and sustaining efforts include
- capture intermediate program outcomes when designing outcome-oriented systems
- demonstrate the link between program-specific indicators and community
indicators
- select the most important indicators and avoid developing a cumbersome system
- seek community input to determine, revise, or draft new indicators
- adopt a plain language policy in reporting outcome
- present data around themes or desired outcomes
- highlight progress and let the data speak for itself
- use performance reporting as an opportunity to reflect and learn
- use the media to your advantage
- report on progress toward meeting community indicators approximately once a
year or less frequently
- think about using the internet and other web 2.0 capabilities
- build and sustain relationships with other service providers
- ensure that top leaders are meaningfully engaged
- institutionalize the process, and build it in bureaucratically.
Kathryn Kloby, PhD, is an assistant professor and graduate
faculty, Department of Political Science, Monmouth University.
She can be reached at kkloby@monmouth.edu. Kathe Callahan, PhD,
is an assistant professor and associate director, Center for
Executive Leadership in Government, Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey. She can be reached at
kathe@dceo.rutgers.edu.
Quattro Punti: Four Steps to Budgeting and Performance Management—Part II
Thad Juszczak
Budgeting and performance management (B&PM) is a tool for anyone interested in
improving government agency performance. The Summer 2009 issue of The Public
Manager began a review of the four steps (quattro punti) to B&PM. Part I
examined the first two steps: 1) What are you doing and how are you doing it?
and 2) How do you measure success? This article reviews the next two steps in
the equation.
Terza Punto addresses the question: How Much Will It Cost? Government
organizations typically concern themselves with two different sets of B&PM cost
questions: How much will it cost to run this organization next year? and What
will it cost to change the performance level? The basic answer to the first
question is relatively easy to calculate. However, if you want to make changes
in planned performance levels from last year’s budget, you need a different
level of cost detail.
Quarto Punto addresses the question: How Are You Going to Get There? Tasks in the
first three B&PM steps include identifying goals, objectives, or activities that
need to be changed, creating performance measures and targets, and calculating
the cost of performance changes. In the next step, we need to implement changes,
such as changing organizational structures, setting performance targets,
assembling a budget, and executing the budget.
Thad Juszczak is a director with Grant Thornton LLP. He is a retired federal
budget official who now consults on budgeting and performance management issues
with organizations such as the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and
Agriculture, NASA, and Yale University. He can be reached at
Thad.Juszczak@gt.com.
Improved Trust Fosters Improved Results
Earl Mathers
In many public organizations, the public-political-administrative “trichotomy”
produces an environment that is not always conducive to building trust.
Competing interest groups, political agendas, and bureaucratic inertia may all
undermine trust. However, if the level of trust within the organization is high,
policy making and administrative actions can be carried out in a manner that
engenders public trust and provides a sense of mutual accomplishment. The County
Administrator for Gallatin County, Montana, shares some lessons about giving and
gaining trust.
- Trust and communication. There is a high degree of interdependence between
trust and communication, and it is difficult to productively communicate when
trust is absent. It is equally difficult to build trust without clear and open
communication that is understood by all parties.
- Public trust and legitimacy. Each of us holds a certain set of beliefs that has
been influenced by our education, experience, cultural background, and peer
groups. As public administrators, however, it is vital that we not allow
predispositions to direct our actions.
- Authority and trust. By virtue of their elected or appointed positions,
government officials exercise authority over certain things. However,
effectiveness depends largely on the degree to which officials nurture a sense
of reciprocal trust among co-workers.
- Interdependence and trust. In public organizations, a willingness to cultivate
relationships of interdependence as opposed to seeking the gratification of
independent glory can make all the difference in terms of long-term success.
- Trustworthiness. To foster trust within an organization, you must first
establish yourself as trustworthy. Several personal and professional attributes
are likely to inspire trust: predictability, consistency, accessibility, ethics,
emotional maturity, openness, accountability, confidentiality, among others.
Earl Mathers is the county administrator in Gallatin County,
Montana, a position he has held since August of 2006. Prior to
that time, he served as an executive with the Graduate School,
USDA in Washington, D.C. He has developed and conducted numerous
training activities for local governments domestically and
internationally. For more details on the management development
program in Gallatin County, he can be reached at
earl.mathers@gallatin.mt.gov.
Culture of Bureaucracy
Managing Change in the Federal Government—Part II
T.E. Winchell, Sr.
Part I of this series, published in the Spring 2009 issue, contrasted differences
in private and public sector management and established some baseline
assumptions regarding internal federal administrative operations. Part II
provides the sequence for assessing opportunities and barriers that affect
change in your organization.
Evaluating your internal organization’s ability to absorb change is the critical
first step in any change process. The steps of program assessment in
administrative organizations are straight forward: 1) review your local policy
instructions and other published guidelines that affect your program area of
responsibility, 2) assess the status of your information technology and its
interface with manual operating procedures, and 3) evaluate whether your
training and development programs meet staff requirements.
The next step is identifying how your programs align with agency priorities. For
example, managers should be able to define how their programs align with agency
strategic and resource allocation, how much work will be required to align
current internal policy documents and staff competencies with strategic
priorities and current legal and administrative regulatory requirements,
security and risk assessment requirements, and how the change initiatives can be
sold as a means of reducing vulnerabilities and increasing security compliance,
and the competitive advantage of the program.
Step three is assessing how available human resources programs can positively
impact your change initiatives. And the final step is to get employee buy-in.
Some advice for achieving buy-in includes remaining patient and transparent
throughout the process.
Readers are encouraged to provide comments online at
www.thepublicmanager.org—through case studies and other feedback on ideas
presented in this article. Part III of this series will cite these ideas and
perspectives and offer the Obama Administration suggestions on how to improve
the efficiency and effectiveness of government operations.
T. E. Winchell, Sr., is a retired federal HR professional and consultant who has
worked in a variety of federal agencies with distinctly different cultures. He
has received multiple senior awards during his 25 years as a program manager. He
is currently on the adjunct faculty of George Mason University and the Board of
Editors of The Public Manager. If you would like more detailed information on
sources for this article or wish to contribute your thoughts on how best to
maximize the cost-effectiveness of federal operations, please contact Tim at
TWinc33551@aol.com.
The Ethical Pothole: Tolerable Corruption?
Frank Anechiarico
Although many have argued that some political grease is often required to achieve
results, history proves that tolerating a little corruption will not solve the
underlying problems of service distribution and effectiveness that corruption is
intended to address, but actually masks it. Examples abound: New York City
corruption control at its height, from the 1970s to the 1990s; the political
machine that ran Chicago under the first Mayor Richard J. Daley; and more
recently, the fall of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
What needs to occur instead is democratic governance—work to which a political
machine is unsuited and that a pay-to-play system makes impossible. That is, a
broad consensus that with citizen involvement, service effectiveness, and
integrity can be pursued jointly and will enhance each other. Talk about how
much corruption is tolerable or necessary misses the point. The point has to be
connected to the role and mission of public management. The point has to be
legitimate administration, based on democratic principles.
Enter performance management. The imperatives of performance measurement have a
strong influence on public management. “What is counted counts.” The key
recommendations here ought to be built into performance metrics and outcome
scorecards. Basically, the way in which integrity and effectiveness are combined
is what needs to measured. This is conceptually difficult, but possible.
Frank Anechiarico is the Maynard-Knox Professor of Government and Law at Hamilton
College in Clinton, New York. He can be reached at fanechia@hamilton.edu.
Managing the Multi-Sector Workforce Through Public Management Collaboration
Philip J. Kangas
Over the past twelve months, the federal government has experienced a significant
expansion. As a result, in a July 2009 U.S. Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) memorandum, budget director Peter Orszag outlined the Obama
Administration’s vision for how the federal government will engage the
multi-sector workforce to execute its complex missions.
The OMB memorandum recognized that “both federal employees and private sector
contractors deliver important services to citizens. Agency management practices
must recognize the proper role of each sector’s labor force and draw on their
respective skills to help government operate at its best.” The memorandum
established a framework through which agencies can make sector-sourcing
decisions, mandated a pilot human capital analysis related to insourcing
functions currently performed by external service providers, and required
agencies to create guidelines for insourcing procedures.
By broadening the scope of services examined for sourcing efficiencies, the
administration has created a shared responsibility for public sector managers
requiring, “meaningful collaboration across many organizational lines, ”
including contributions from program management, human capital professionals,
acquisition programs, and budget and finance professionals.
The Obama Administration has provided an initial framework through which public
managers can achieve these goals and align strategic and human capital planning
efforts. Federal agencies now have an opportunity to establish the optimal
balance of sector contributors for mission delivery. Each sector, from private
to public to nonprofit and volunteer, has an appropriate role to play in
delivering services needed. Ultimate responsibility, however, invariably will
fall on public managers to get the job done.
Phil Kangas is a director within Grant Thornton’s Global Public Sector practice
with more than 13 years of professional experience in government and consulting.
He has worked as a federal, state, and local employee prior to his work in
consulting. He earned his master’s degree of public administration from the
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and is
a Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM), Project Management Professional
(PMP) and Six Sigma Black Belt (SSBB). His recent work has focused on supporting
multiple component organizations at the Department of Homeland Security to
improve business operations and manage performance through investment
management, business transformation and multi sector workforce analysis. He can
be reached at Phil.Kangas@gt.com.
FORUM
Emergency Management 2009
From Flower to Garden: Katrina—Electricity, and Emergency Management
Lenneal Henderson
Hurricane Katrina taught federal, state, and local public managers extensive
lessons about the criticality of electricity reliability in a disaster. In the
report, The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, the White
House conceded that, “Hurricane Katrina had a significant impact on many sectors
of the region’s ‘critical infrastructure,’ especially the energy sector.”
However, the first lines of this concession focused on the shutdown and
disruption of crude oil and natural gas recovery in the Gulf of Mexico and the
shutdown of 11 petroleum refineries, or one-sixth of the nation’s refining
capacity, in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
This article focuses on the problems that arose when electricity was not
available in communities—predatory crime, lack of access to vaccines,
antibiotics, or other medicines that needed to be stored in refrigerators or
electrically operated security storage, and the spoilage of food that needed to
be refrigerated. It also examined renewable energy strategies that are
redesigning the electricity infrastructure in states that are at risk for
hurricanes. Smaller in scale, potentially more resilient in a storm, and
accessible to a variety of communities and businesses, these green
reconstruction strategies are part of the mitigation, preparedness, and response
phases of emergency management.
Lenneal Henderson, PhD, is currently a distinguished professor of government and
public administration and senior fellow at the William Donald Schaefer Center
for Public Policy at the University of Baltimore. He is a fellow of the National
Academy of Public Administration and member of the Katrina Task Force of the
American Society for Public Administration. He can be reached at LENNEALH@cs.com
or lhenderson@ubalt.edu.
GIS: Wonder Tool for Collaboration and Sustainability
Tammy Esteves
Geographical information systems (GIS) technology is changing the way
organizations do business, and is providing greater opportunities for
organizations to collaborate in their missions. While this technology initially
found its niche in disaster situations, it is now more greatly appreciated as a
multifaceted tool useful in emergency management, community planning, policy
study, and much more.
By using GIS, governments can partner with organizations and agencies to access,
share, and analyze information from myriad sources to work together in
developing strategies for sustainable development. The Environmental Systems
Research Institute (ESRI), a leader in the GIS software market, says this
technology will “support decision making and promote better organizational
integration and knowledge management to improve the quality of life for future
generations.”
This article highlights how GIS, a geospatial technology tool, is fast becoming a
vehicle for emergency management, community planning, and much more. It also
examines how governments can partner with organizations and agencies to access,
share, and analyze information from myriad of sources to work together in
developing strategies for sustainable development.
Tammy Esteves, PhD, is assistant professor in public administration at Troy
University. She can be reached at
tlesteves@troy.edu.
The Role of GIS in Emergency Management
Ross Prizzia
GIS application to such natural hazards in Hawaii as volcanoes, earthquakes,
tsunamis, hurricanes, and flooding varies in scope and effectiveness. GIS
application to volcanoes involves mapping rare and endangered plants and
invertebrates in the park. These data are then overlaid with maps of vegetation,
lava flows, and climate change to provide information on habitat requirements.
GIS application to earthquakes in Hawaii focuses on mapping and assessing damage
data in the aftermath of a quake, as in the case of the October 2006 earthquake.
GIS application to tsunamis reduces the damaging effects of tsunamis through
hazard assessment, warning guidance, and mitigation.
The Hawaii Statewide GIS Program and the Office of Planning GIS Program lead a
multi-agency effort to establish, promote, and coordinate the use of GIS
technology among government agencies in the state. The State Office of Planning
is responsible for planning and coordinating activities that are critical to the
state’s GIS. A primary goal of the Statewide GIS Program is to improve overall
efficiency and effectiveness in government emergency management decision making.
The article illustrates the potential use GIS has for assisting other localities
with emergency management response and recovery efforts, and offers
recommendations on how to create strategies that necessitate cooperation and
coordination supported by GIS and other advanced technologies.
Ross Prizzia, PhD, is professor of public administration at the University of
Hawaii-West Oahu in Pearl City, Hawaii. He can be reached at rprizzia@hawaii.edu.
Class and Crisis: Socioeconomic Status and the Ethics of Individual Experience
Carole L. Jurkiewicz
Evidence of ethical variance across socioeconomic classes (SESs) is particularly
notable in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina because of the enormity of the
devastation and the disparate economic circumstances of those affected by it. At
the lowest levels, those in need of food, shelter, and security will likely seek
to satisfy those basic requirements through any means necessary, whether illegal
or unethical, or both. Situational behaviors as urgent as these are usually
understood and overlooked as extreme actions during dire circumstances and not
necessarily representative of an individual’s ethical framework as a whole.
An understanding of ethical orientation can help predict what the key concerns of
these groups will be in the aftermath of a crisis. Knowing these concerns and
tailoring solutions to address them early can quiet the chaos, bring assurance
to citizens, and begin the mitigation and rebuilding efforts earlier than the
type of non-targeted approaches currently followed.
This article explains how understanding community needs in a crisis situation can
mitigate concerns and reduce the incidence of unethical and illegal behavior.
Creating an integrated program that identifies the patterns of behavior among
SESs and communicates an understanding of the needs and the consequences of
specific behaviors can reduce the incidence of violations.
Carole L. Jurkiewicz, PhD, is Woman's Hospital Distinguished Professor of
Healthcare Management, Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She
can be reached at cljrkwcz@lsu.edu. For
further information on the theoretical and philosophical basis for some of the
ideas presented in this article, please refer to the original paper posted on
The Public Manager website at
www.thepublicmanager.org/articles/originalWorks.aspx.
The Challenges of Donation Management
Frances L. Edwards
One of the lasting images of Hurricane Katrina is the mass of people outside the
Superdome asking for water from National Guard troops who had none to give.
People all over the world saw a city under water, and the human misery it
created, and wanted to respond in some way. But the United States had never
before been a recipient of foreign disaster relief, so the outpouring of
goodwill became a foreign policy disaster—offending even our closest ally, Great
Britain, when their proffered MREs (meals ready-to-eat) were warehoused in
Arkansas and ultimately given to other nations because of fears of bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease).
Community disaster plans are critical so the likelihood of unexpected donations
can be addressed in a timely manner. This plan should include partnering with
local non-profit organizations that handle used items and donations of goods on
a regular basis.
This article highlights how government leaders can take action to assure that
donations during public emergencies and crises are handled properly. It also
focuses on how to educate the media about getting key messages out the public
before, during, and after a crisis, and how to educate government-elected and
appointed leaders to convey the proper messages to the public through the media.
Frances L. Edwards, PhD, CEM, is with the Mineta Transportation Institute, San
Jose State University, and the director of the master of public administration
program. She can be reached at
kc6thm@yahoo.com.
Civil-Military Relations in Emergency Management
Richard T. Sylves
Since 1950, each president’s national security policy has involved civil defense
or homeland security in some manner. In times when civil defense against nuclear
attack (1950-1991) was the federal emergency management priority, much of
disaster policy was imposed from the “top-down” in the federal system. Remember,
emergency management in the United States is supposed to be from the “bottom
up,” with local governments seeking supplemental help from their state
government and the federal government. The Clinton administration (1993-2001)
made possible a temporary respite from civil defense worries when the Cold War
ended, although foreign terrorism against the U.S. homeland was not yet
recognized outside of national security circles as a major threat.
The military role in homeland security continues to expand through NORTHCOM’s
activities, National Guard augmentation, and DoD initiatives. Today, as in the
past, there are longstanding emergency management roles for the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard, which have grown to be considered an
acceptable militarization in public management. However, the terror attacks of
9/11, followed by the Anthrax letter attacks shortly thereafter, steered
emergency and public management into a realm of very heavy militarization and
national securitization. Civil military relations in emergency and public
management cannot be ignored. This may be a good time to, in Washington-speak,
“walk-back” the military penetration of emergency and public management.
This article examines the military’s involvement in emergency management. It
outlines the reasons for and against greater military involvement in state,
local, and federal disaster management and explores how the events of 9/11
changed the U.S. disaster policy.
Richard T. Sylves, PhD, is professor of political science and international
relations at the University of Delaware and a visiting scholar at George
Washington University’s Institute for Crisis and Hazards Management. He recently
published Disaster Policy and Politics with Congressional Quarterly Press, and
he has co-edited (with William L. Waugh) two other books on disaster management.
He can be reached at sylves@udel.edu.
New Orleans: The Rising Sun
Frances L. Edwards
The American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) created the Katrina Task
Force (KTF) shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005.
Each year, at ASPA’s annual conference, members of the task force consider the
implications of the event for disaster response and recovery, including
intergovernmental relations. This article summarizes the 2009 ASPA Katrina Task
Force Report.
Has New Orleans recovered from Hurricane Katrina? Questions surrounding where to
build housing, how to provide flood insurance, how to care for the most
vulnerable community members, and what to do with the damaged areas that are
below sea level still exist. And challenges surrounding a lack of social
infrastructure also linger—schools cannot attract teachers and hospitals cannot
attract medical professionals because there are inadequate support systems for
their families.
There remains a question about the federal role in the rebuilding of New Orleans.
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds were one possibility, along with
the FEMA programs. In early 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
visited New Orleans to find out what deficiencies still existed, with the goal
of supporting the rebuilding plans that the community finally accepts. However,
researchers have noted that there is still no clear strategy for injecting state
and federal funds into the implementation of the accepted plan. This article
looks at the legislation that is surfacing about how to restructure FEMA and the
reconstruction plans that still have not been solidified.
Frances L. Edwards, PhD, CEM, is with the Mineta Transportation Institute, San
Jose State University, and is the director of the master of public
administration program. She can be reached at
kc6thm@yahoo.com..
DEPARTMENTS
Opinion
Innovating the Future—A Management Agenda for the President: What Is Happening,
Why, and So What?
Alan P. Balutis
As the first year of the Obama presidency draws to an end, some assessment is in
order. Individuals who participated in the series of monthly seminars were
invited to prepare articles for two issues of The Public Manager. Those articles
appeared in the Winter 2007-2008 and Spring 2008 issues of the journal, and were
reprinted in a special issue of the journal in Spring 2008. In addition,
insights were posted on several blog sites, as well as the New Ideas website
(www.newideasforgovernment.com). Since that time, of course, Barack Obama was
elected president, a very smooth transition occurred, a new Cabinet came into
office, sub-Cabinet positions and senior management jobs around government are
being filled, with more still to come.
In the next issue, the same team of analysts, experts, and government executives
who outlined a management agenda for the new president will report on the actual
agenda—what is happening, why, and so what? Without suggesting a causal link,
much of what was advocated in the Spring 2008 issue has come to fruition in
2009.
Alan P. Balutis is director and distinguished fellow in Cisco’s Business
Solutions Group. He is also chairman of The Public Manager Board of Directors.
He can be reached at abalutis@cisco.com.
Image of Public Service: Working Together for America
Craig Pettibone
The Coalition for Effective Change celebrates its 15th anniversary by sharing new
opportunities for management and labor to collaborate on improving civil service
performance. The current OPM Director, John Berry, delivered the keynote address
at 15th anniversary celebration and heartily endorsed CEC and labor
organizations for working together to improve the civil service. He said that a
new executive order on labor-management partnerships would be forthcoming soon
and declared, “The stars are coming together to give us an opportunity to make
the first significant reform since passage of the Civil Service Reform Act of
1979.” He noted that the President and the Congress both support good government
initiatives and described public service as something worthy of the public’s
support. “Government,” he said, “is doing a great job, but many employees will
be retiring and we need to hire more good people.”
Berry pledged to recreate an SES office at OPM to work on executive issues. He
called for reform of the General Schedule—the more than 50-year-old pay and
classification system that no longer covers half of the workforce and has failed
to close the pay gap with the private sector. He asked for CEC and labor support
for OPM’s long- and short-term initiatives, particularly the development of an
effective pay-for-performance system, and he has three long-term goals-- to
improve diversity of employees in the federal service, reform the civil service
pay system now prescribed by Title 5, and to improve the Federal Employees
Health Benefits Program to make better use of its buying power to hold down
increases in health care costs. This article focuses on how labor-management
collaboration works and the partnership moving forward.
Craig Pettibone is a long-time member of the Board of Directors of the Federal
Executive Institute Alumni Association (FEIAA) and editor of FEIAA’s monthly
newsletter, Executive Summary. He represents the FEIAA on the CEC and works as a
senior associate with GRA, Inc, a human resources consulting form. He retired
from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in 2003 and can be reached at cpettibone@verizon.net.
Book Review
Managing in the Black: Understanding Structure, Culture, and Craft
Sharon L. Caudle
Review of Public Management: A Three-Dimensional Approach by
Carolyn J. Hill and Laurence E. Lynn, Jr., (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2009)
Public Management: A Three-Dimensional Approach provides a surprisingly fresh
approach for introductory public management graduate-level courses. According to
the authors, public sector management cannot be successful unless managers
understand the three dimensions of public management: structure, culture, and
craft.
Structure includes specific responsibilities that are formally and lawfully
delegated to designated officials and organizations. Culture embraces the norms,
values, and standards of conduct that provide those working in organizational
units with meaning, purpose, and sources of motivation. Craft includes public
managers’ personal tools of the trade, such as how to use personal efforts to
influence government performance through goal setting, exemplary actions, and
leadership.
The authors explain that students armed with an understanding of these three
dimensions will be able to develop and present valid arguments in support of
their positions as the foundations for responsible public management. The
authors’ educational approach in the development of public management skills
unquestionably centers on critical thinking and its illustration and application
through a variety of cases, examples, stories, and comprehensive references from
a wide variety of sources.
Sharon L. Caudle is the Younger-Carter Distinguished Policymaker in Residence
with The Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.
Before moving to academe, she worked in federal and state government, including
the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). She has numerous publications,
ranging from monographs to journal articles, and her teaching and research
interests center on homeland and national security. She can be reached at
scaudle@bushschool.tamu.edu or
http://bush.tamu.edu.
The Uncivil Servant
A Soundbite by Any Other Name Does Not a Rose Make
Grimaldi
In this opinion piece, Grimaldi sounds off on sound bites that become
increasingly hollow, writing that “public discourse recently has been bombarded
with terminology and language that is designed more to obscure and misdirect
than to clarify or aid comprehension.”
Terms such as peacekeeping missile and secondhand smoke baffle Grimaldi with
their misconstrued meanings. “What surprises me,” writes Grimaldi, “is the
ability of the reading public to accept uncritically the arguments they have
decided to agree with, while those of the opposing view are seen as deceivers in
the least or unpatriotic at the worst.”