The Public Manager: The New Bureaucrat articles from December 1992

The Public Manager: The New Bureaucrat archives from December 1992

Better government, better serving citizens. (Forum - Improving Performance)
December 22, 1992... Introduction to forum. If government were under control, would it be better government, better serving citizens? Possibly. But not necessarily. A thing-process, organization, function - can be under control and not be at all efficient or...

Empowering performance improvement. (Forum - Improving Performance)
December 22, 1992... Neither performance monitoring nor any other information (except perhaps the IG) will be used in today's context until it is adequately brokered through the concepts of accountability and public disclosure. Improving government performance...

The alphabet soup approach: you'll love it! (Forum - Improving Performance)
December 22, 1992... Each approach seems excellent in principle; each has faced formidable difficulties, but they offer opportunities to today's managers. Beginning in the modern era (defined for the purpose of this article as the time since 1960), the country...

Finding excellence in public management. (Forum - Improving Performance)
December 22, 1992... Practices associated with the private sector can also be applied to public management. Examples abound in local community development agencies. Popular perceptions of management in the public sector would suggest it is weak, hamstrung,...

The Government Performance and Results Act. (includes related information) (Forum - Improving Performance)
December 22, 1992... Interest in performance improvement on Capitol Hill has been broad and bipartisan and is likely to continue growing in this session. On October 1, 1992, the Senate passed the Government Performance and Results Act (S. 20). Originally...

Goal setting, performance measurement and regular reporting. (Forum - Improving Performance)
December 22, 1992... Improving government performance is a responsibility of policymakers and managers at all levels of government - federal, state, and local. Elected and appointed officials manage the use of tax dollars for public purposes. This...

Rapid, decision-oriented evaluation. (Forum - Improving Performance)
December 22, 1992... Government must do better with less, but how? At least part of the answer depends on accurate, reliable, and timely information. Limited resources and declining public confidence are affecting government performance. Government must do...

Internal evaluation: a trend. (Forum - Improving Performance)
December 22, 1992... By adhering to a core conceptual framework and maintaining standards, evaluation can portray itself as flexible. Evaluation is viewed by many of its practitioners as a linear and logical approach to inform the decisionmaking process....

Integrating evaluation into decisionmaking. (Forum - Improving Performance)
December 22, 1992... Evaluation should be part of a continuous process of improvement, integrated into the legislative process and into program management. Evaluation should be an integral part of a continuous process of program improvement. Unfortunately, too...

The evaluation fantasy. (Forum - Improving Performance)
December 22, 1992... Managers and evaluators need the knowledge and skills to address the denial, resistance, exploration, and commitment associated with change. For a number of years I have been asking experienced government analysts and managers to fantasize...

Glass ceiling initiatives. (Managing/Valuing Diversity)
December 22, 1992... In a new and challenging economic environment, equal opportunity is the key to ensuring a productive and competitive workforce. Series Editor's Introduction Since an election year can provide greater opportunities with regard to...

Diversity: key element in new administration. (Bill Clinton's administration) (Managing/Valuing Diversity)
December 22, 1992... Shifting to a more efficient, flexible, decidedly diverse approach to improve services, expand choices, and empower citizens and communities to change our country from the bottom up. The new administration will not likely operate under the...

Glass ceilings and equity. (Managing Diversity)
December 22, 1992... There is a glass ceiling in the federal government which raises equity issues in terms of both basic fairness denied and value lost. "Business as usual" is not an acceptable response. The statistical underrepresentation of women and...

Ethical principles for public servants. (Ethics in Government)
December 22, 1992... More than 400 former senior government officials reaffirm the values and purposes of public service under the leadership of Elliot Richardson. This statement of ethical principles was prepared by the council's working group on ethics,...

Global strategies: threats and US response. (International Public Management)
December 22, 1992... The greatest challenge is to reconcile the national interest with the global economy - a world with blurring borders and rapid change. The idea of "strategic investment" - in which specific technologies are targeted for government...

Why I chose a public service career.
December 22, 1992... I can best characterize my dedication to public service as something which was instilled in early childhood, yet recognized only recently. Growing up in New York City, I was an unwitting recipient of many government-sponsored programs and cared...

Everything you wanted to know about TQM. (total quality management)
December 22, 1992... Some clues for today's young professionals, most of whom have no theoretical background in quality-related programs: catching up and keeping up. Total quality management (or TQM as it is generally called) is to the 90s what MBO (management...

A brief glossary of quality jargon. (quality control) (excerpt from 'An Annotated Glossary of TQM Jargon') (Glossary)
December 22, 1992... Quality Current definitions emphasize "excellence" and use quality as a relative or ideal measurement to make comparisons against others. Perhaps the best definition is that by the American Society for Quality Control: "Quality is the...

Meeting which customers' needs? (Toward Quality Management)
December 22, 1992... Public managers can help their multiple shareholders move from conflict to collaboration by reframing their own role. The onus is not all on the manager. The explosion of interest in total quality management (TQM) has led to many...

The difference is commitment. (Developing Managers)
December 22, 1992... Two very similar yet distinctly different organizations assess a "teamness" question, addressing similar issues, with markedly different results. You have to be committed. You have to |walk the talk.' We have heard it a million times. We...

Hollow government welcomes Clinton.
December 22, 1992... Federal workers need no reminder of the disdain in which they and government in general are held. The campaign never focused on the problems of government. Bill Clinton is in for a surprise. When this self-described policy wonk reaches for...

Why I chose a career in public service.
December 22, 1992... Last summer I was employed as an intern at the United Way of the Capital Area in Hartford, CT. My main project involved working with human service agencies to help them design campaign literature so that they could receive funds from the United...

Can we rightsize governments?
December 22, 1992... Taxpayers are frustrated with poorly delivered services, the wrong kind of services, and invisible services (in which much of the federal government's workforce is engaged). As taxpayers, we want to be sure that the number of our public...

The Washington Monument syndrome. (advice for Presidential Management Interns)
December 22, 1992... Star Trek: The Next Generation Borrowing from the popular television series seemed appropriate recently when Grimaldi was asked to share some of his accumulated wit and wisdom with the best and the brightest of the next generation of...

The Prune Book: The 60 Toughest Science and Technology Jobs in Washington.
December 22, 1992... The Big job Search Is On Immediately following each presidential election, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee or the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service publishes the "Plum Book." (They take turns each quadrennial.)...

Policy and Supporting Positions.
December 22, 1992... The Big job Search Is On Immediately following each presidential election, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee or the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service publishes the "Plum Book." (They take turns each quadrennial.)...