The Public Manager articles from September 2001

The Public Manager archives from September 2001

The Manager's Musings.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The lost art of oversight THIS ISSUE'S MUSINGS BEGAN PERCOLATING at the National Academy of Public Administration's (NAPA) third annual "performance" conference. All day I had been listening to speakers describe the difficulty at every...

A Quality Workforce: How to Build It, How to Keep It!
September 1, 2001... What are the legislative, leadership, and structural issues that must be addressed if the public service is to attract and retain the talent it needs? High-performing organizations must have the right people with the right set of skills in...

Crisis in the Federal Workforce: Challenges, Strategies, and Opportunities.
September 1, 2001... A long-time public servant who has served as mayor, governor, and US senator shares his optimistic vision of a revitalized government culture. Looming Retirement Crisis What would happen if half of America's federal employees suddenly...

The Human Capital Challenge in Acquisition, Science, and Engineering.
September 1, 2001... Sixty conference workshop participants from across government attempt to identify and prioritize the most pressing recruitment and retention issues and point the way to solutions. Nearly 60 attendees at the recent conference on workforce...

Federal Managers Respond to the Human Capital Crisis.
September 1, 2001... What can be done to assure a quality workforce in the future? How to rebuild one, and how to maintain it over time? On April 2 and 3,2001, federal human resources professionals and program managers came together at a conference, "Workforce...

College Candidates and Public Service Careers: Key Recruitment and Retention Strategies.(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... Learn how students rate 20 different job benefits and what government employers can do to compete for these "Generation Y" hires. Since 1997, employers in all sectors have engaged in often fierce competition for new college hires. With...

Millennium Dreams: 21st Century EEO Practices for Federal Employees.(equal employment opportunity)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... A leading practitioner examines the overall effectiveness and efficiency of providing equal employment opportunity (EEO) and averting discrimination in the federal workplace. Millennium dreams inevitably involve the hope that we can create...

The Public Service in Transition: People, Politics, and Technology.
September 1, 2001... A seasoned practitioner and three young professionals share views from a recent conference on the myriad changes that are likely to reshape careers in public service. The specter of change, whether on a small scale in our own organizations...

An Aging Workforce: A Time of Opportunity or a Time of Calamity?(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... How agencies can seize the opportunity to fill the workplace with truly qualified employees and create a satisfying workplace that increases productivity. Over the next five years, one of every five federal employees will retire. The...

People: Attracting, Retaining, And Motivating.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... A hint as to what the public sector is considering to improve recruitment, increase employee satisfaction, and boost productivity in the workplace. Attracting, retaining, and motivating a qualified workforce was one of several topics...

The Politics of Transition: What Is Next?(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... What political transitions in the new administration might portend for the federal workforce. The spring conference of the National Capital Area Chapter, American Society for Public Administration, brought together a panel of experts to...

Understanding Knowledge Management.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... How a people-centered change process can create surprise business performance improvements in public organizations. In his recent conference presentation, Jerry Glass of KPMG defined knowledge management, described its value, and concluded...

First Impressions.
September 1, 2001... The General Services Administration (GSA) helps the Bush--Cheney Administration get a running start after a most unusual election. At least once every eight years, and possibly every four, the executive branch of our federal government...

E-Government 2001, Part II: Evolving Strategies for Action.
September 1, 2001... The outgoing co-chair of the Chief Information Officers Council's e-government committee provides his views on a near-term digital government action agenda. In almost a score of transition reports and white papers, various think tanks,...

Conducting Web-Based Surveys: Keys to Success.
September 1, 2001... Agencies can successfully conduct surveys over the Internet, but careful execution is required for sound results. Use of surveys in government to gauge performance and improve operations is widespread. Managers must either understand survey...

Recognizing Exceptional Public Program Management.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... How to showcase your organization's (or community's) outstanding public program and call attention to the excellent services it provides. For those of you solidly delivering services year after year or those pushing the envelope with...

The Capital City Fellows Program.
September 1, 2001... How the District of Columbia is attracting recent master's degree graduates in public administration and related fields to work for the city in two-year fellowship appointments. Anthony A. Williams envisioned the Capital City Fellows...

Grimaldi's Guide to the Confirmation Process.
September 1, 2001... Or would the new administration like some clues on how to make the most of the executive branch transition? Just when you thought it was safe to go outside, Senator Jeffords of Vermont decides that his stripes should be spots. His...

VIEWS YOU CAN USE NEW IDEAS FOR MANAGEMENT.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... A series of reviews, notes, comments, ideas, and references for public sector professionals trying to keep pace with the accelerating rate of change in the information-technological-management environment. Cutting Costs, Part I ...

Introducing the Portal.(knowledge management)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Over the last year, information technology (IT) has achieved a way to make it easier and more cost effective to advance the way in which organizations can further change management programs such as managing knowledge. Portals and portal tools...

Which human capital crisis?(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... For the last two years, most federal agency leaders have been almost in panic mode thinking bout their human capital situation. At the heart of this multifaceted set of problems involving recruitment, retention, and relocation of the workforce...

Creative destruction: innovation with a capital I.(Review)
September 1, 2001... Foster, Richard & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction (Currency Doubleday, New York,: 2001) and McKnight, Lee W., Paul M. Vaaler, & Raul L. Katz, eds., Creative Destruction (M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, MA: 2001) While Joseph Schumpeter's...

Everyone wants others held accountable.(Review)
September 1, 2001... Belni, Robert D., Rethinking Democratic Accountability (Brookings Institution Press: 2001) In Rethinking Democratic Accountability, Robert Behn takes a well-used word in public management discourse--accountability--and asks simply, what...

The Manager's Musings.(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Common pain, common cause, common sense THIS FALL ISSUE'S MUSINGS were overtaken by events the morning of Tuesday, September 11. As I sat listening to plenary remarks at the National Academy of Public Administration's (NAPA) annual human...

AGA's Annual Meeting Marks 50th Year. (Mini-Forum: Celebrating Aga's 50th Year).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... The association's growth from "an elite group of federal accountants" to a significant nationwide body of financial professionals in all levels of government is paralleled by the growth of its annual meeting. Forum Editor's Note We...

Imperatives for Governmental Accountability. (Mini-Forum: Aga's 50th Annual Conference).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... The US comptroller general shares his views on managing government business in the 21st century at the 50th anniversary conference of the Association of Government Accountants. It is noteworthy that the Association of Government Accountants...

Trust and Reliability: How a successful program at HUD illustrates the usefulness of e-government in furthering trust in programs and how it is essential to reliability. (Mini-Forum: Celebrating Aga's 50 Years).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... In the private sector our economy relies on reliable infor-mation to conduct business. The accounting profession historically has been the insurer of such reliability A recent USA Today article cited several examples of overstated income...

Information-Based Management: Getting Early Warnings and Useful Answers About Performance. (Mini-Forum: Aga's 50th Celebration).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Performance improvements occur only when congressional and executive branch decisionmakers use information resulting from these reforms to help inform decisions and improve the performance and accountability of the federal government. In...

Democratic Visions for Performance Management. (Mini-Forum: Managing For Performance).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Forum Editor's Note This year's fourth annual Performance Conference was bigger, better, and bursting at the seams of the Kellogg Conference Center on the campus of Gallaudet University. The conference attracted over 450 attendees from...

Managing by Results to Benefit Our Citizens: The US comptroller general reflects on providing the American public and their representatives with an annual government report card. (Managing for Outcomes).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... This article addresses the important topic of strategic planning and the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) as a means toward these ends. I will also addresses how we can strive to maximize the performance and accountability...

Emerging Management Challenges: Recommendations for the New Administration and Congress. (Mini-Forum: Managing for Performance).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... One moderator and six observers of government management reform gauge the Bush administration's actions and signals through the first six months. An Assessment to Date Mark Abramson: How do you think the administration has done in...

Opportunities and Challenges of Public/Private Partnerships. (Intergovernmental Horizons).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... How government organizations are breaking new ground and what policy questions and operational issues need to be addressed for partnering to achieve its full potential. In the 1990s, faced with rising public demand for more cost-effective,...

Streamlining the Federal Workforce: A federal human resource professional shares his prescription for what the new administration can do to improve agency service delivery and customer responsiveness. (Article).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... The Clinton administration attempted to improve federal agency service delivery and customer responsiveness. Yet the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) did not achieve its goals of decentralizing operations and delayering...

Making Labor-Management Relations Integral to the Management Process: The Interagency Labor Relations Forum (ILRF) seeks a dialogue among federal labor relations practitioners and other interested parties. (Labor-Management Relations).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... This article is the first in a series that represents KI the collective thoughts of senior labor relations practitioners who attended two ILRF retreats in Shepherdstown, WV in July 2000 and January 2001. Ken Smith, currently the deputy...

Teleworking in the Public Sector: A four-part series to help federal managers implement new requirements by Congress for enabling 100 percent of eligible agency employees to telecommute by 2004. (The Evolving Workplace).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... This is the first of a four-part series on the practical application of teleworking in the public sector. Teleworking, or flexiplace, means enabling employees to work at or closer to home during their normal work hours. Some managers believe...

Assessing Your Organization's Readiness for Teleworking: Will telework work for us? How to determine if your organization is ready for telework. (The Evolving Workplace).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Before implementing a telework program, managers should take an objective look at several key areas that will influence overall success. This includes examining the organization's culture and needs, the existing performance evaluation and...

The "Lineholders": The former executive director of the Denver Federal Executive Board shares a little known story about one community's outreach to another--Denver to Oklahoma City. (Image).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... On April 19, 1995 at precisely 9:02 A.M., a bomb detonated in Oklahoma City that changed America forever. First came the shock that such an act could happen in the US. One hundred and sixty-eight were killed, including 19 children. Then came...

Learn Something New Every Day: A belly full of familiar aphorisms with an unfamiliar twist!. (The Uncivil Servant).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... My dad, who is the wisest man I know, always said that one should endeavor (he talks like that) to learn something new every day. Of course, he also said there is very little new under the sun; but that is grist for another mill. So, this...

GPRA Implementation at Mid-Decade: Lingering Questions. (New ideas for management).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... A series of reviews, notes, comments, ideas, and references for public sector profssionals trying to keep pace with the accelerating rate of change in the information-technological-mangement. GPRA has been a fixture in federal departments...

IT Pragmatics 2001. (Views you can use).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Lessons Learned from Code Red Over the last few weeks, the Internet has been under siege by malicious code that infects a computer and then uses that computer to infect dozens or hundreds of others. The code in question is a worm that...

Why managers can't find or keep qualified support staff. (State/Local Clips).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... The backbones of many organizations are the office and administrative assistants who operate programs and support most management functions, yet successful recruitment and retention of qualified support staff is a common problem for many public...

The Innovator's Dilemma.(Can successful managers innovate? (Reviews).)(Review)
September 22, 2001... Christensen, Clayton M., The Innovator's Dilemma (Harper Business: New York, 2001) One of the most influential business books of the last few years has been The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School. The...

For careerists and appointees. (Views you can use).(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Keene, Wallace O., and Raymon R. Bruce, Keeping the Public Trust (Derwood, MD: Keene Ideas, Inc., 2000) "Welcome to public office in the executive branch of the federal government! As a successful appointee to the executive branch, you...

NCAC/ASPA Presents Annual Awards. (Recongnition by their Peers).
September 22, 2001... The National Capital Area Chapter (NCAC) of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) presented its annual awards for 2000 at the Sheraton Canton Hotel in Washington, DC in March 2001. In addition to presentation of NCAC awards, the...