The Public Manager articles from September 2000

The Public Manager archives from September 2000

What ever happened to teamwork?(Warren Masters, civil service)(Brief Article)(Column)
September 22, 2000... THIS ISSUE'S MUSINGS BEGAN to take concrete form as I sat in my room on the eighth floor of the Sarajevo Holiday Inn during a two-week consulting engagement in late September-early October. Reviewing the first trickle of draft articles I had...

Two mini-forums in search of a transition.(United States government personnel management)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2000... This issue's two mini-forums provide a sweeping glance at the American public management horizon, particularly as it relates to a changing of the guard in federal leadership. Myra Shiplett introduces one on human resources in transition, with...

Throwing down the gauntlet.(Ron Moe, Congressional Research Service)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2000... Questioning the legitimacy of recent reinvention initiatives--particularly as they relate to enterprise government, Ron Moe of the Congressional Research Service offers a critical review of the role and efforts of the National Partnership for...

Applying balm.
September 22, 2000... To round out the Fall edition, we also have articles on a variety of helpful topics and interests. One--oddly enough--is by Corey Rindner on reinventing acquisition. This is the first of many that our acquisition feature editor, Wally Keene,...

The Human Resources Challenge in Government.(reports)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2000... What public sector leaders, human resources professionals, and the incoming administration should consider as they address the challenges ahead. People--Our Most Important Product!!!! A number of years ago a major corporation used this...

Forces of Change in the Public Sector.(United States government services analysis)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2000... Today's public administrators face the challenge of ensuring the relevance of public sector institutions. How will they respond? The public sector and other institutions critical to our system of governance are struggling with the...

Reform, Transform, Perform: What It Will Take to Modernize the Civil Service System?(United States)
September 22, 2000... Some suggestions to help the new administration decide what stance it will take on the federal workforce. In the pre-transition weeks and months, discussion of the need for civil service reform has intensified to its highest level in many...

Jump-Starting Federal Staffing.(civil service management)
September 22, 2000... Human resources offices are improving the way they fill jobs within existing legislation and with little regulatory relief Personnel staff reductions with no change in mission, a bureaucratic and out-of-date federal civil service personnel...

Partnering to Improve HR Service Delivery.(government human resources management)
September 22, 2000... Managers are looking outside their own organizations to leverage human resources and round out needed expertise. Organizations in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors have been entering into partnerships at an increasing rate during...

A Call to Action.(U. S. government human resource management reform)
September 22, 2000... A roadmap for the future based on two summit meetings of human resources management professionals. The idea that there needs to be transformation within the federal human resources (HR) community is not new. Since the early- to mid-1990s,...

The Grand Gurus of Transition.(National Academy of Public Administration examines transition process)
September 22, 2000... How new officials learn the importance of career service employees and key nonprofits in implementing their agenda and gain a leg up in achieving their objectives. The modern period of United States presidential transitions began in 1933,...

Introduction: The Evolution of Results-Driven Management Culture.(Brief Article)
September 22, 2000... After seven years of GPRA, federal agencies are increasingly making performance management part of their overall business culture. The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) has been in place for nearly seven years. While agencies...

A Look at GPRA Practices: How Far Have We Traveled?
September 22, 2000... NAPA provides a qualitative snapshot of three federal organizations implementing programs and initiatives consistent with GPRA. The monitoring of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) has primarily focused on how well federal...

Restoring Public Confidence in Government.(Government Performance and Results Act addresses accountability)
September 22, 2000... Accountability can improve government performance and consequentially public confidence in the United States. It's only a matter of time. One of the most interesting phenomena of this election has gone unreported by candidates and the...

Focusing on Performance: Thinking, Doing, and Learning.
September 22, 2000... The deputy secretary of the US Department of Transportation reflects on a practical leadership formula for meeting today public sector challenges Those of us in the public sector have been and will continue to be faced with a variety of...

Government Reinvention Revisited.(National Partnership for Reinventing Government's executive branch reform)
September 22, 2000... A critical review of the role of the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) and its efforts to reform executive branch management. The "reinvention" of the executive branch began in late 1993 and is now completing its...

Balanced Scorecards in the Federal Government.(use of management tool)
September 22, 2000... Research findings on how 15 federal organizations are using this analytic tool. The purpose of this article is to provide useful information to federal managers who are considering the use of balanced scorecards (BSC) in their...

Public Service Scholarship Essay.(Brief Article)
September 22, 2000... Humphrey's words strike a cord with every generation, including the more cynical generation within which I exist. His words call for people to embrace hope and vision, and reach toward progress through the development of solutions to shared...

The Challenge of Federal Warehousing: Opportunities for Sharing vs. Obstacles to Reform.
September 22, 2000... Government study finds agency storage needs declining, but space inventories holding steady. Late in 1997, the General Services Administration's (GSA) Office of Governmentwide Policy (OGP) initiated a project to review the federal...

Acquisition as Business.(improving government procurement)
September 22, 2000... Tips on how federal acquisition staff can acquire procurement business savvy. Government procurement has undergone significant reinvention. We have a retooled Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) containing the goals of a streamlined...

Can It Get Any Sillier Than This?(2000 presidential election)
September 22, 2000... As if we all haven't had enough of election year humor. As H. L. Mencken once said, no one ever lost any money underestimating the intelligence of the American voter. And the election of 2000 certainly adds to the support for that...

Focus Groups: Ifs Not Just for Social Science Research Anymore?(Brief Article)
September 22, 2000... What do focus groups have to do with public management? Lots, if you care to count the applications. This successful qualitative research technique which has been around just about forever has been quietly undergoing a resurgence. New...

The Rise and Fall-Flat of e-Government.(most federal agencies are offering online information services, although most could be improved)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2000... First the good news--e-government is really taking off. Most federal agencies have active and maintained websites and real Internet strategies that call for major increases in web-based access and activities. State and local governments,...

FED CLIPS.(indications that the budget surplus may not last)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2000... What budget surplus? There's nothing like a long presi dential campaign with both par ties squabbling over what to do with excess federal revenues to make you long for the good old days. Wasn't it just eight years ago that Ross Perot...

The mapping of the bureaucratic mind.(Brief Article)(Review)
September 22, 2000... Bureaucracy vs. Democracy in the Minds of Bureaucrats: To What Extent Are These Ideologies Compatible with One Another? Sung-Don Hwang. New York: Peter Lang, 1999. 262 pages. Hardcover $53.95 Contemporary political debate on the role of...

How many personnelists does it take to...(Office of Personnel Management report on human resources)(Government Activity)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 22, 2000... A brief look at the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) three-part report on its study of the federal human resources community: Part I. Federal Human Resource Employment Trends, September 1999 Part II. Looking to the Future: Human...

The federal budget in balance.(Review)
September 22, 2000... Schick, Allen, The Federal Budget: Politics, Policy, Process, revised edition, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2000 (284 pp.) For Allen Schick, budgeting will always involve conflict. Budget rules are simply designed to reduce...

A Final Word.(future of public administration)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2000... During the past two years, Views You Can Use has covered topics ranging from activity-based costing to performance measures to technological advances which change the way organizations work. If there is anything that I have learned as a result...

FEIAA Celebrates 30th.(Federal Executive Institute Alumni Association )(Brief Article)
September 22, 2000... The idea for an association came about in the back seat of the then-new 1968 Oldsmobile of Pat Conklin, a faculty member of the Federal Executive Institute (FEI). Driving back to FEI from a 1969 Washington field trip, several FEL session...

THE 2000 NATIONAL PUBLIC SERVICE AWARDS.(Brief Article)
September 22, 2000... The American Society for Public Administration and the National Academy of Public Administration established this program to pay tribute to public service practitioners whose careers exhibit the highest standard of excellence, dedication, and...