The Public Manager articles from September 2004

The Public Manager archives from September 2004

The Manager's musings.
September 22, 2004... Participant Observers During the past few months, as this journal's board of directors revisited our strategic plans, the question that emerged was: What business are we in? The information business? Education and training? Is the...

Creating an Agenda for Transformation; Government decision makers discuss "change" and its associated drivers: policy, leadership, the workforce, private-sector partnerships, and technology.(MINI-FORUM: PARTNERING FOR CHANGE)
September 22, 2004... In May, the National Capital Area Chapter (NCAC) of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA)--the association's largest chapter--held its annual conference at The George Washington University. NCAC had not held such a conference...

Service to America Medal winners tell their stories: three government careerists tell how they had opportunities and experiences of a scale and level of interest that would have been difficult to duplicate in the private sector.(MINI-FORUM: PARTNERING FOR CHANGE)(Panel Discussion)
September 22, 2004... The opening session of the National Capital Area Chapter's (NCAC's) conference was devoted to exploring the careers of three of the federal government's most distinguished officials--each of them a winner of the prestigious Service to America...

The President's Management Agenda delivers: how the Executive Branch Management Scorecard is being used to measure progress for the five government-wide initiatives of the PMA and, more important, what agencies are learning from each other on how to achieve results.(MINI-FORUM: PARTNERING FOR CHANGE)
September 22, 2004... Our Founding Fathers feared a strong, efficient government, so they created one with many checks and balances. These checks and balances can create an enormous challenge to those of us who seek an efficiently managed government. To reinforce...

The procurement system: backwards to bureaucracy? A look at the goals of procurement reform over the past few decades and a suggested course of action that mirrors current concern over achieving performance outcomes while adhering to high ethical standards.(MINI-FORUM: PARTNERING FOR CHANGE)
September 22, 2004... This is a dangerous time for the federal procurement system. Political controversies over Iraqi contracting have been in the headlines, following earlier headlines over credit card abuse. Within the system, there have been reports of...

Technology and change: learn what the federal government is doing to make productive use of new technology; to constantly find ways to improve services to citizens, business, and governments; and to transform itself.(MINI-FORUM: PARTNERING FOR CHANGE)
September 22, 2004... Transformation and change are essential parts of the American experiment. Our culture is never fully satisfied. We hunger for more, and often ask, "Can we do this better?" This desire to innovate in a free market drives the technology...

Can Policy Drive Change? Eight insights that future policy developers should consider on how emerging e-government policy and operations are beginning to effect change at the federal level.(MINI-FORUM: PARTNERING FOR CHANGE)
September 22, 2004... Each day in Washington resources are consumed in an effort to shape policies that will drive the transformation of the U.S. government. Do these policies cause change? The answer is no: policy itself cannot cause change. Bureaucrats who think...

The new public administrator: a seasoned practitioner discusses continual downsizing, employee turnover, and the inability to attract young employees to public service and offers recommendations for effective public management in the 21st century.(ARTICLE)
September 22, 2004... The federal public administrators of the 21st century can no longer rely on the same staples of management their predecessors employed. Obstacles of the past two decades have created an atmosphere where today's administrators must employ...

Establishment of priorities for the federal government's foods program: the former director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition shares a case study of an effective approach to building predictability, transparency, and accountability into agency expectations.(ARTICLE)
September 22, 2004... I was appointed director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA's) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) in February 1998. When I came onboard, CFSAN's resources were at a 20-year low. Moreover, CFSAN had received many new...

Performance-based management at the U.S. Transportation Security Administration: the agency shares its experience with comprehensive performance measurement as a method of putting innovation into practice, highlighting the requirements, challenges, and successes of creating results-based government.(SERIES: INNOVATION)
September 22, 2004... The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) serves as a model of innovation in its performance measurement and management activities. While it is a new agency that continues to evolve, it has held innovation as a core value since the...

Regional leadership institutes: creating constituencies for regional collaboration; Nine regional leadership programs demonstrate an effective approach to preparing and connecting a group of leaders to work together across jurisdictional boundaries.(SERIES: REGIONAL GOVERNANCE)
September 22, 2004... Townships have their supervisors, cities have their mayors, counties have their executives, and regions have their... well, for now, regional leaders, of sorts. Unlike townships, cities, and counties, regions in the United States do not have a...

National drug control case study (part I): this two-part series describes how ONDCP and its partners linked four components of public governance to go from measuring progress to managing it. Part I focuses on the measurement challenge.(SERIES: PERFORMANCE BASED MANAGEMENT AND PUBLIC POLICY)
September 22, 2004... Performance management refers to a variety of mechanisms aimed at aligning the operation of an organization or agency toward the attainment of some desired results. The intent is to enable the agency to rise above, at least to some extent,...

City management in the old west: what was it like to manage a small city in Wyoming in the mid-1880s, and how did city administration evolve in response to a variety of issues confronting the Laramie city council?(SERIES: STATE AND MUNICIPAL MANAGEMENT)
September 22, 2004... Water shortages, urban renewal, open space, and zoning are only a few of the issues facing modern city administrators. But what was it like to manage a small city in the American West in the mid-1880s at the dawn of public administration in the...

Certified Public Managers program: a history; Modeled after the certified public accountant experience, which features state societies and a national organization, the certified public manager certification is available today in 25 states and the District of Columbia.(SERIES: PUBLIC MANAGER TRAINING)
September 22, 2004... Imbued with the philosophy that well-trained public managers provide better service to the public, a small band of Georgia educators and state officials in the mid-1970s formed the genesis of what is now the Certified Public Managers (CPM)...

Performance-based standards: better treatment for juvenile offenders; How national standards have been designed, tested in the field, and put into place to generate measurable, best-practice outcomes and solve a widespread problem in corrections and detention facilities nationwide.(public service)
September 22, 2004... This is a story about how this country's juvenile detention facilities once treated its young offenders and how it is increasingly treating them today. It is a very encouraging tale, and one that is still being told. Just ten years ago, an...

It takes a community to grow a leader: the executive director of the Honolulu-Pacific Federal Executive Board spells out how the federal community helped make a Hawaii-wide program for senior federal managers unique and enduring.(BEYOND THE BELTWAY; Pacific Leadership Academy)
September 22, 2004... The Pacific Leadership Academy is one example of a federal community's solution for developing and steering today's leaders into the future. The partnership between the Honolulu-Pacific Federal Executive Board (FEB) and the Office of Personnel...

Can you transition? Our perennial curmudgeon considers the downside risks of election-time success--for both political appointees and careerists alike.(THE UNCIVIL SERVANT)
September 22, 2004... Well, now all the nonsense of the election is over. Another quadrennial cycle is over. Perhaps the tradition that marks our brand of democracy as distinct is the orderly transition from one administration to another. And even if the incumbent...

The end of HRM.(NEW IDEAS FOR MANAGEMENT; human resource management)
September 22, 2004... Now on to the next of our "final four" issues in Views, where we examine the four core management functions of government: budgeting, human resources management (HRM), information technology (IT) management, and performance management. In the...

Fixing federal hiring.(FEDLAND)
September 22, 2004... In a May 2004 report, the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) identified a number of barriers to efficient and effective hiring in the federal government (http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04959thigh.pdf). This report concluded what most...

Attack on the Federal Government Workplace--Views from Within.(Book Review)
September 22, 2004... Oman, Ray C. "Attack on the Federal Government Workplace--Views from Within." International Journal of Public Administration (2003) 26, 10/11 (special edition). Ray Oman's "Attack on the Federal Government Workplace--Views from Within" is...

The X-Box generation.(VIEWS YOU CAN USE)
September 22, 2004... Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, Wolfgang Puck, and Donald Trump--what do they all have in common? Beyond being incredible successes in their chosen profession, they are all brands. From TV to magazines, airlines, and record stores, cooking to...