Unit 2 Notes PDF

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These are the lecture notes for the second unit of Dr. Easterly's Intro to Public Administration course....

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Chapter 4: Organizational Theory Structural Approach to Large Organizations  Structure – basic building block of organizations; it is the formal arrangement among the people engaged in the organization’s mission o Focuses on the patterns of behavior regardless of who has the role o Governments use authority to make decisions  Public administration as a structuring of authority o Two models of politically neutral, efficient structure  Classical Model (Gulick)  Bureaucratic Model (Weber) Structural Approach  Central problem of power to political society o Traditional model  Hierarchy – top-down delegation of authority from higher officials to lower ones  Humanist; Pluralist; Government by proxy; formal  Authority – government has legitimate power to make decisions within constitutionally defined limits, with the expectation of widespread compliance Structural Approach: Administrative Implications  Principals and agents o Principals: elected officials who make policy and delegate responsibility to public administrators o Agents: administrators charged with carrying out the law o Agencies: organizations established to do the work  Narrow defined specialization  Internal specialized structure  Rules of the game for the agencies’ units and position holders  Outside definition of roles and responsibilities o E.g. – legislature has authority to alter agency Two Molds of Structural Approach  Classical Model: Gulick (1930s) o Organization begins at top  Clearly bounded jurisdictions of authority and responsibility o Subdivision of positions immediately under top position o Prime value of efficiency o Classical Theory’s Six Specific Doctrines  Bases of organization: purpose, process, clientele, place  Mutually exclusive alternatives  Focus on purpose at top  Span of control  Single head for agencies  Separate line and staff  Bureaucratic Model: Weber (1946) o Legitimacy of the system of authority (pure)  Traditional authority: depends on loyalty of individuals to someone who has become chief  Charismatic authority: rests on personal devotion to an individual  Rational-legal authority: legally established impersonal order  Weber: most efficient  basic structure for accountability  Ideal type of bureaucracy o Systematic division of labor

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Hierarchy of offices based on the scalar principle (chain of command) Bureaucratic operations are rule-governed Administration based on written documents and file-keeping Strict differentiation between organizational resources and those of members as private individuals

Systems Theory  Generalizes about all organizations, public and private, large and small  Uses analogies from physical and biological fields o Environment outside organization as key factor o Organization viewed as if it were a biological entity that regulates itself in order to adapt to the environment o Porous boundaries to allow feedback exchanges from inside and outside the organization

System Theory Features: Boundaries and Purpose  System boundaries: defined by agency jurisdiction o Inputs to the system and system’s outputs o Survival needs are adaptation to external environment and suppression of internal threats  System purpose: agency mission o Translates inputs and outputs Challenges to Structural Approach and Systems Theory: Humanist Approach  Wants to humanize organizations, condemns impersonality of bureaucratic hierarchy o Emphasis on individual workers in the organization  Scientific management movement: Frederick Taylor (1900s) studied how long it took workers to accomplish specified tasks to determine the “one best way” of accomplishing tasks o Assess how the best workers perform and persuade workers that scientific management will best serve their interest o Why?  More money  Taylor’s approach made clear distinction between: o Brain workers: management who did the thinking o Hand workers: those who did the labor  He felt that brain workers should make all the key decisions in organizations  Human relations movement: 1950s, happy workers are more productive o Belief that large organizations would work better if top officials changed behavior  Sensitivity training: team building activities for corporate executives Challenges to Structural Approach and Systems Theory: Pluralist Approach  Emphasizes the responsiveness of a government organization to society’s politically active interest groups  Administrative organizations are the product of this conflict and accommodation of interests Organizational Culture  Organizational Culture: stresses variation among agencies; generalizations about structure of authority are problematic  Critiques o Too fuzzy to guide theory or practice o Ex: the disintegration of NASAs Columbia

 A culture unresponsive to airing and resolving problems Formal Approach  Bureaucracies are networks of contracts built around systems of hierarchies and authority  Individuals seek self-interest  Transaction costs: the cost to the supervisor of supervising the subordinate  Employees work because they receive pay and fulfillment  Employers pay workers to get the job done  Market determines pay scale One Example of Formal Approach  Principal-Agent Theory: higher officials (principals) initiate the contracts and then hire subordinates (agents) to implement them  Workers are responsible to top-level officials (principals) through contracts in exchange for specific rewards  Results will be only as good as the contracts Conclusion  Each approach embodies a significant truth about government organizations  Error of these approaches lies in over generalization  Important to study reality  Need to formulate middle-range theories: those that explain a limited range of phenomena Chapter 5: The Executive Branch Executive Branch Components  Most nations, including the US, passed through four stages in administrative development o 1. Managing money, including revenues, spending, and borrowing (as with Treasury) o 2. Maintaining internal law and order (through courts or DOJ) o 3. Keeping the country safe (military and navy) o 4. Managing foreign affairs (foreign ministry)  New functions = new departments  Cabinet departments (e.g. bureaus, departments, agencies, commissions, and offices)  Independent agencies  Bureaus  Field Offices  White House o Executive Office of the President Cabinet Department  Cabinet: from 16th c., when English king began meeting with closest advisors in a cabinet, or small room o Agencies grouped together  15 cabinet departments, including Department of Homeland Security (created in 2002) o “Creatures of the legislative branch”  Accounts for 90% of executive branch’s civilian employees and 80% of all federal spending o Defense has largest number of employees o Health and Human Services (HHS) spend the most Independent Agencies  Independent agencies: outside cabinet departments, account for 1/10 of federal government’s employees and 1/5 of spending o Originally created as individual bodies insulated from presidential control and legislativeexecutive politics o Enormous power over important parts of the economy

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Regulatory commissions (monitors transports, communication, power production and distribution, banking, etc.)  Ex: FDA, OSHA Government Corps (engaged in lending, insurance, and other business type operations)  Ex: FDIC, National Railroad Passenger Corp. (Amtrak)

Bureaus  Bureaus: principal operating organizations of government; cover many organizations within larger departments o E.g. Bureau of Motor Vehicles, IRS, FBI  Bureaucracy is government by bureaus o Many at state and local levels Field Offices  Most government operations, including bulk of federal operations, done in the field o Ex: airport screeners and air traffic controllers; local SSA representatives  Thousands of field offices in states and overseas Problems Managing Components  Presidents o Often weak at managing these components of executive branch  Must focus the politics to survive o Not chosen for managerial ability, unconcerned with administration o Often disappointed when they count on cabinet members to ensure administrative effectiveness  Interdepartmental friction points have multiplied o Agencies must work together which makes leadership determination difficult  Burden of top-level coordination falls on aides and staff agencies The Executive Office and White House  Executive Office in 1939 had 570 employees  Brownlow committee: 1937, associated with expansion of White House staff under FDR, proposed 6 new presidential assistants  The Executive Office in 2010 had about 1,900 employees  White House staff now large, multi-tiered, and hard to coordinate Executive Office of the President (EOP)  White House Office  Executive Residence Staff  Office of the Vice President  Office of Management and Budget (largest) (OMB)  Office of Policy Development  National Security Council  Others: trade, drug Office of Management and Budget  Bureau of Budget established in 1921 in Treasury Department; became part of Executive Office of the President in 1939  Office of Management and Budget: renamed by President Nixon in 1970; largest unit of Executive Office of the President; annually reviews all agencies’ spending proposals o Controls budget process  Analyzes proposals, makes recommendations to President, compiles request into budget for Congress National Security Council

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National Security Council: established by statute in 1947 to advise president with respect to the integration of domestic, foreign, and military policies relating to national security  Has become focus of presidential foreign policy making  National Security Council head is Assistant to the President; very powerful o More comprehensive knowledge of developing issues and impending crises o Arbiter of disputes between State and Defense departments o Free of departmental loyalties  can claim loyalties to the national interest and president o Smaller staffs so (s)he can respond quicker than State Department o Not appointed and confirmed by the Senate, so not subject to reporting to Congressional committees Rise of E-Government  New approach to government organization via computers  IRS encourages tax payers to file electronically o 2012, more than half of all sending in returns, 100 million, filed online  Positive: potential to improve government services, citizens connect more easily to government  Negative: questions of access and equality, organizational issues (altering existing patterns of bureaucratic behavior, authority, and power), security, and privacy Chapter 6: Organization Problems Governmental Organization Problems  Choice of organizational structure is inherently political o “Who gets what?”  Many organizational problems recur  Creating an effective organization is challenging Kaufman’s Organizational Values  Herbert Kaufman (1956) detailed 3 basic organizational values for organizational structure o Neutral competence: creating of a highly skilled bureaucracy insulated from political interference that can undermine efficiency o Executive leadership: strong elected executive – president, governor, mayor, and strong and loyal department heads all politically chosen o Representativeness: organizational arrangements that respond to legislative interests and to the clientele’s most affected by agency decisions Search for an Effective Organization  Organizational problems aren’t new  Often when new problems arise, some of the best alternatives developed earlier only lead to other new problems  Endless search for better coordination  Ex: NYC police v. fire commissioners in 1988 Neutral Competence Organizational Concerns  Challenge of organizational effectiveness o Choice among criteria of good organization o Interagency conflict  Ex: clean windows at Queen Victoria’s 19th century English palace o Interagency coordination  Requires a coordinator (vertical) o Role of staff in supporting and controlling operating activities Organizational Criteria  Set of reference points to choose among alternative structures  11 different criteria  Each criteria is important; not all can be satisfied at the same time

Interagency Conflict  Conflict occurs when mismatch of organization bases identified by o Goal: purpose v. clientele o Goal: function v. area o All relevant organizations have same purpose Interagency Conflict: Purpose v. Clientele  Purpose: Department of Health and Human Services serves general population through health research and health system financing and welfare programs o Ex: Office of Surgeon General, CDC, FDA  Clientele: Department of Veterans Affairs serves veterans  Conflict occurs when HHS attempts to serve vets through national programs Interagency Conflict: Function v. Area  Function: State Department has functional bureaus focused on human rights and humanitarian affairs, environmental and scientific affairs  Area: State Department manages nation’s foreign policy; traditional internal organization is by region and country  Conflict occurs because inevitably no functional issue stops at any nation’s border Interagency Conflict: Purpose-Based Agencies  Conflict occurs between purpose-based departments  State, Treasury, Justice, and Defense all have fuzzy missions that have evolved radically since these departments were first created  9/11 commission  large part of the problem was “failure of imagination” o Solution  Congress created Department of Homeland Security  FEMA, Coast Guard, Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection  What’s missing? CIA, NSA, FBI  Each wanted to remain independent o Doesn’t improve information sharing Interagency Coordination  Conflict can undermine coordination o Horizontal draws related agencies together in common purpose o Vertical requires intervention by coordinator Interagency Coordination: Horizontal  Interagency agreements: treaties negotiated between the concerned agencies to establish specific boundaries and to clarify which agency will do what without interference from the others  Interagency committees: cabinet, subcabinet, and bureau levels exist to promote collaboration in jointly occupied areas  Lead agency formula: one agency designed to lead and attempt to coordinate all agencies’ activities in a particular area  Clearance procedure: requires that an agency’s proposed decisions in a subject-matter area be reviewed, whether for comment or for formal approval/veto, by other interested agencies Interagency Coordination: Vertical  Two warring agencies are brought together by organizational superior of both  A person with formal authority imposes a decision and monitors agencies’ compliance with it The Role of Staff  Staff activities: agencies rely on these support units to promote their functioning, assistance to line officials  Line activities: operating activities, command of line officials  Three different staff roles: pure, auxiliary, and control Role of Staff: Pure

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Pure-staff or staff: staff that provide general support to agency’s line activities Provide assistance to president, not direction to department officials other than to convey presidential instructions  Job responsibilities: identify issues likely to require presidential action, assure due process among interested departments, ensure affected parties are clearly informed of decisions once taken, monitor implementation of presidential decisions, assess results of decisions taken Role of Staff: Auxiliary  Auxiliary staff: staff that provide a housekeeping function or administrative support  Job responsibilities: accounting, research, public affairs, publishing Role of Staff: Control  Control staff: staff that help top officials secure leverage over the organization  Job responsibilities o Monitoring performance o Enforcing compliance with standards and procedures  Ex: inspectors general, attorney general Reorganization  Structure o Determines which issues get priority o Which constituencies get more prime attention  Reorganization efforts have tried to solve these organizational concerns  Two attempts: comprehensive reorganization of executive branch through act of Congress or by altering small handful of bureaus  Most presidents have attempted reorganization  Some bureaus immovable (ex: Forest Service and civil works functions of Army Corps of Engineers to the Interior Department to bring natural resources functions together) Chapter 7: Administrative Reform Reform in America  Americans have always been devoted to reform – they country began with a commitment to change  Most innovative administrative thinking comes from the private sector o Why? Arise from experiments at state and local levels of government Conflicting Theories  Old bureaucratic orthodoxy  founded on traditional authority and hierarchy o Clear, universal principles  Delegation of authority on the basis of expertise  Democratic accountability through hierarchical control  Reform strategies o Downsizing o Reengineering o Continuous improvement Type of Reform: Downsizing  Downsizing: government is too big, so shrink government o How?  Set ceilings on taxes, promise big budget cuts, pledge to trim across the board, pledge to trim the bureaucracy  Originated at the state level in 1970s (property tax reduction movement), continued through 1990s and 2000s (Taxpayer Bill of Rights)  Goal: Lower expenditures  Direction: Outside-in

 Method: Blunt targets  Central Focus: Size  Action: Discontinuous Downsizing Policies  State  Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR): o 1992, passage of constitutional amendments in Colorado to limit tax increases; sparked similar legislation in other states  Federal  Private Sector Survey on Cost Control (Grace Commission): o Federal government “suffering from critical case of inefficient and ineffective management: o 1984, produced 2,500 recom. that its report said would save $425 billion over 3 years; desired huge cuts in federal government  Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act (Gramm-Rudman): 1985, forced Congress and the President to begin bringing the burgeoning federal deficit under control; made downsizing important at all levels of government o Intersected with TABOR movements  Reinventing government: 1993, Gore and Clinton attempted to make federal government work better and cost less; term from 1993 book of the same title by Osborne and Gaebler o National Performance Review promised voters $108 billion in savings by 1999 o Most saving a result of reducing federal workforce by 12% over 5 years (252,000 positions) Assessing Downsizing  Movement largely atheoretical  the “starve the beast” strategy  Little planning done in advance of adopting measures  Has limited growth of government spending and tax revenues in United States  Unclear effects on quality of services and efficiency of administration  More symbolic for officeholders Type of Reform: Reengineering  Reengineering: championed by Michael Hammer and James Champy: “reform by starting all over,” redesign of work process of 3 Cs: customers, competition, change o Successful companies = those that build their operations to serve customers’ needs o Focus on fundamental change to produce big improvements in performance  Some, like Frederickson, question validity of a governmental approach based on customer service – citizens are owners o “governments are not markets” and that “citizens are not the customers; they are the owners:  Customer service movement: in infancy, emphasizes how to identify customers and incentives for employers to serve customers better o Who are the customers? o How can we incentive government employees to serve citizens better?  Performance Management: Reshapes incentives throughout the system (i.e. Virginia and federal level)  Goal: Efficiency  Direction: Top-down  Method: Competition  Central Focus: Process  Action: Discontinuous Assessing Reengineering  Single mindedness of reengineers is greatest virtue and biggest weakness o Makes government more entrepreneurial which is dangerous. Why?

 Hard to control. How do you ensure quality/standardization?  Great influence on Gore’s “reinventing govern...