The Public Manager: The New Bureaucrat articles from March 1991

The Public Manager: The New Bureaucrat archives from March 1991

Excellence in government? I'm all for it! Maybe. (an analysis of the thesis, Procurement and Public Management: The Fear of Discretion and the Quality of Government Performance, by professor Steve Kelman) (editorial)
March 22, 1991... The Case for Discretion Professor Kelman contends, quite simply, that the constraints that keep well-intentioned civil servants from using their judgment in decisionmaking are the causes of many of our federal procurement woes. He...

Comments on performance appraisal.
March 22, 1991... IT'S GPAS (Government Performance Appraisal System) time again. Always a time for soul-searching and staring at the water stain at the corner of one of the cork ceiling panels looking for just the right word, pharse, or snide remark to fill...

The problem of professional ethics. (professional codes and statements of ethics)(includes related article on the ASPA statement of principles)
March 22, 1991... Professional codes and statements of ethics often engender cynicism and derision. This is because these statements, couched in terms of broad and generous public spirit, frequently harbor self-serving sentiments which, when exposed, embarass...

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics. (includes mini case study and related article on the SEA awards.)
March 22, 1991... What constitutes ethics for public servants? Are they governed by extraordinary standards or by the same standards as all other citizens of a society? These same questions have been posed for centuries. Over three thousand years ago, the...

The formula for success in TQM. (total quality management)
March 22, 1991... In these words, Grace Hopper has given us the most succint definition of total quality management I know. In a way, her words are a formula for success in total quality management (TQM), for she has offered us equal but different approaches to...

Working diversity: managing the differences.
March 22, 1991... One compelling challenge for public sector managers today is that of the changing workforce. Workforce 2000 statistics (prepared by the Hudson Institute, 1987) are now widely known. White nativeborn men are no longer a majority in the...

Civil service reform in The People's Republic of China.
March 22, 1991... The People's Republic of China is committed to civil service reform for its 4.2 million employees. This is a tremendous change which is being carried out without fanfare and with the full support of the leaders in China. It is considered so...

Expanding GAO's evaluation capabilities. (General Accounting Office)
March 22, 1991... For some time now at the General Accounting Office (GAO), we have been expanding our ability to do program evaluation. By program evaluation, I mean the use of systematic research methods to assess policy or program design, implementation, and...

The sinister character of the public sector. (left handedness)
March 22, 1991... Now that we again have a Republican left-hander as president (his predecessors are James A. Garfield and Gerald Ford), it may be appropriate to take a systematic look at laterality in public office. I offer for discussion the proposition that...

Reacting to media slurs. (response to insults to public employees by the media)
March 22, 1991... What can be done about gratuitous insults to the publice service that appear in the news and entertainment media? Consider these examples: Ziggy On Sunday, August 12, 1990, color comic strips across the country carried a large,...

Changing the negative image. (providing the public with a clear image of public employees)
March 22, 1991... When I accepted the job as manager of advertising for the U.S. Savings Bonds Division, savings bonds were viewed as dull, boring, and unimaginative. Although the products itself was sound when compared to most other fiancial products and paid...

Managing a public service career.
March 22, 1991... Career advance is one of the most important criteria people use to evaluate quality of life and assess their sense of fulfillment. In spite of the importance placed on career success and advancement, however, careers often are not managed in a...

Getting substantial contributions from new professionals. (the role of new professionals in acheiving organizational goals )
March 22, 1991... A delicate issue faced by managers supervising motivated employees concerns the role of new professionals in accomplishing the organizaton's mission and goals. Are new professionals the equivalent of guild apprentices who are assigned...

Who's minding our grants business? (grants management )
March 22, 1991... Samuel F. B. Morse got the first federal grant. It cost the country $30,000, a large sum then. The grant paid off, though, with the invention of the telegraph. Today, almost 150 years later, federal grants have become a colossal...

Labor relations: a conflict trap. (includes related article on the tactics of integration)
March 22, 1991... Conflict management is heavily influenced by a variety of perspectives. Some view conflict pessimistically as a threat; others are more neutral, seeing it as the grist for compromise; and still others are optimistic in their outlook, actually...

American public information systems in Korea.
March 22, 1991... Computer information systems are designed to accelerate and thereby improve the activities of communicating comprehending, and deciding upon information affecting organizations. These systems are highly associated with the culture of which...

The Washington Monument syndrome: bye, bye blackbird, good bye.
March 22, 1991... "DEPARTMENT DENIES BACKING BIRD STUDY" was the bold headline in the Anchorage Daily News on October 23, 1990. The story is that someone to undertake a study to get someone to kill some birds, sea otters, and other flora and fauna; dip them in...

Public Management: The Essential Readings.
March 22, 1991... THERE ARE NOW a number of readings--collections of seminal articles in public administration available to help practitioners and academics keep up with their profession. Appropriately, pioneering work in the production of such was done,...

The Politics of Public Budgeting: Getting and Spending, Borrowing and Balancing.
March 22, 1991... THIS YEAR'S PUBLICATION of Irene Rubin's book on public budgeting marks an interesting milestone. Her text is one of the first to appear that works from the assumption that the old standard budgetary theory of incrementalism so forcefully...