The Public Manager articles from June 2006

The Public Manager archives from June 2006

The Manager's Musings Warren Master.
June 22, 2006... It's the culture, stupid. Microsoft's ad in Fortune's May 15 issue could easily be titled "It's the culture, stupid." The ad asks readers if their business is people-ready. Of course, to get people ready, you need to ensure they have the...

The T-REX megaproject: Denver's showcase for innovation and collaboration: working together, federal, state, local, and private-sector entities plan and execute an intermodal transportation breakthrough in Denver's Southeast Corridor.(Colorado Transportation Expansion project)
June 22, 2006... The megaprojects environment has changed dramatically since the 1970s. Forming and maintaining the strong coalitions required to sustain multibillion dollar, multiyear, and multiterm megaprojects have become more complicated. Our new...

The Pennsylvania Health and Human Services Call Center: five Pennsylvania agencies and a private-sector partner collaborate on a high-technology, citizen-friendly call center.
June 22, 2006... This four-part article is a case study of the launch and operation of an integrated system of help-line information services: the Pennsylvania Health and Human Services Call Center (HHSCC).The HHSCC resulted from the collaboration of five...

Peer professional development in Arizona: peer reviews of Arizona's one-stop career centers are helping to improve workforce development services statewide.(Table)
June 22, 2006... Arizona's workforce development services professionals recognize the challenge of giving a broad range of communities uniformly good service statewide. Diverse community sizes and associated resources have resulted in an uneven service capacity...

Improving health care access in San Diego County: the county's Health and Human Services Agency reengineers business processes and exploits technology to help public health nurses better serve the community.
June 22, 2006... When taxpayer dollars are involved, every penny counts. That is one reason why the County of San Diego focuses on performance management and continuous improvement. Systems must be scrutinized regularly to ensure that they are still the best...

Cultural change in a maximum-security prison: the Wyoming State Penitentiary has improved its work environment through a project funded by the National Institute of Corrections and led by the warden and a professor.
June 22, 2006... For the past fifteen months, we have undertaken a program to change the organization culture at the Wyoming State Penitentary (WSP),Wyoming's only maximum-security prison. This effort has been funded by the U.S. Department of Justice's National...

E-governance in Slovenia--Part III: the Slovenian government has made progress in opening up e-portals to its citizens and businesses, but how much has it made, and can it continue?
June 22, 2006... This third article in our four-part series focuses on the Slovenian government's efforts to provide effective e-portals for citizens, businesses, tax applications, and urban planning. These four areas are the highest priority e-governance...

Evaluating municipal development in Romania: launching a United Nations sustainable development program in one Romanian city has its unique challenges.(Local Agenda 21)
June 22, 2006... Introduction Local Agenda 21 is a program launched by the United Nations (UN) as part of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The Agenda encourages local communities and citizens to rethink development models to balance economic...

Balancing sports scorecards: in Spain, the local Granada government uses the Balanced Scorecard to help manage sports programs.
June 22, 2006... Today's governmental entities focus on strategic performance management, especially in regard to complicated, varied services, such as public sports programs managed at the local level. Local governments not only make sports centers available...

Applying flowcharts to improve service in the public sector: a quality action team in Columbus, Georgia, used an innovative technique to tackle a human resources problem, demonstrably improving service quality.
June 22, 2006... Quality Management In 1998, the U.S. Federal Quality Institute was established to initiate total quality management (TQM) throughout the U.S. government. Quality initiatives trickled down to the state and local levels, and by the early...

Competing for talent in the federal government--Part II: one private-sector firm, Rockwell Collins, has recruiting lessons for federal managers.
June 22, 2006... The Federal Dilemma In the near future, the federal government faces a retirement "tsunami," according to Linda Springer, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). In February 2006, she told an audience of government...

Budgeting for disasters--Part II. Solutions: better budgeting techniques and hedges will help state and local governments prepare for disastrous expenses.
June 22, 2006... As noted in the first article of this series, historically, when disaster strikes, all levels of government do what is necessary and worry about paying for it later. Local and state governments share the responsibility for protecting their...

Talkin' 'bout my generation: improved communication and greater flexibility can bridge the generational divide in the public-sector workforce.(image of public service)
June 22, 2006... Four generations of employees work side by side in the public-sector workforce, each with its own set of values and history. This multigenerational workforce creates not only age and value discrepancies, but also differences in attitudes...

Don't feed the crocodiles: democratic protections are eroding. What can the public administration community do to restore them?(Opinion)(Editorial)
June 22, 2006... Ronald Reagan once warned, "To sit back hoping that someday, someway, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last-but eat you he will." We can--we must--stop feeding the crocodile. Adherence to...

Highs and lows of the career roller coaster.(The uncivil Servant)
June 22, 2006... The working world has changed during the span of my working career and certainly since that of my father. When my father began his career during the height of the Great Depression, he worked twelve hours a day and six days a week. Then he went...