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ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION.
Term Paper ID:28972
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Discusses effects of intergovernmental relations & power & politics on efficiency & effectiveness, governmental process, & citizen control.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Discusses effects of intergovernmental relations & power & politics on efficiency & effectiveness, governmental process, & citizen control. Identifies 2 major domains of organizational theory that applies to public organizations. Public interest objectives. Conflicts in public demands (efficiency & lower costs vs. services). Issues of accountability.
Paper Introduction:
ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: EFFECTS OF INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND POWER & POLITICS ON
EFFICIENCY & EFFECTIVENESS, GOVERNMENTAL PROCESS, AND CITIZEN CONTROL
Domains of organizational theory may be defined on several different bases, depending upon the lens through which the body of theory is viewed. Domains of organizational theory in relation to public organizations, such as (1) intergovernmental relations and (2) power and politics typically, would not be directly applicable to private organizations, although elements of each of these two areas of interest would be found in domains appropriate for assessing private organizations (Daft, 1998).
Of the several domains of organizational theory as applied to public organizations identified, the two domains identified abo
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(1995). An interest group defends a particular interest, while a pressuregroup promotes a particular interest (Finer, 1995). M., & Mayer, R. Dueprocess, within this context, demands that the views of citizens affectedby the actions of a public organization be both heard and considered bysuch an organization before decisions are made (Harmon & Mayer, 1995).Essentially, this approach demands that public organizations be accountableto citizens for their actions (Walter's, 1992). While government is an instrument, governance is aprocess. Osborne and Gaebler (1991) viewed governance as the process bywhich society collectively solves its problems and meets its needs.Government was, thus, viewed as the instrument used by society toaccomplish these goals. The third area of contemporary interest by the general public inpublic administration-accountability-does not generate as many conflictsfor the public organization as do the vectors of efficiency andresponsiveness. St.Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Company. (1995). J. Political ScienceQuarterly, 2, 14-26. Promoting the protection and welfare of childrencertainly appears on it face to be a noble objective to most people. Making such a statementstick in a court of law, however, is another question. (1998). Breaking through bureaucracy: A new vision formanaging in government. Organization theory and design. Grizzle, G. Government,thus, becomes a co-producer of public output, as opposed to a simpleservice provider. (1994). (1999). In the contemporary period in whichOsborne and Gaebler developed the reinventing government concept, privateparties are able to do many things more efficiently than government. Accountability for program implementation.Public Administration Quarterly, 9(2), 125-14 . (1992). That concept,however, does not really address the issue of which body-government or aprivate contractor-is ultimately responsible when some tragedy occurs thatis attributable to the actions of a public-private partnership. (1996). L. The evaluation of program outcomes by public administrators is not anew task. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Health Administration PressPerspectives. The effective publicadministrator in contemporary American society, thus, must somehow findways to satisfy both sets of demands. Should aprison inmate die as a consequence of misconduct or poor training of acorrections officer, it is easy enough to state that the correctionsofficer or the prison contractor is responsible. The aspects of the functioning of publicorganizations considered in this essay are (1) the efficiency andeffectiveness of public organizations, (2) government process, and (3)citizen control over public organizations. Pfeffer, J. When the rains failed to arrive in the springand summer of 1988, however, the country's farmers and ranchers were quickto demand financial relief from the federal government, and were evenfaster in their condemnation of federal public administrators for notresponding immediately to their demands. Holding public administrators accountable on the basis ofprogram outcomes, however, may change the character of the discipline.Certainly, accountability, in this new context, will cause many publicadministrators to think twice, before considering means by which programobjectives may be circumvented. Reinventing government: Managing thepolitics of change. (1988). (4th ed.). WhenCDF founder and guiding light Marian Edelman attempts to promote the ideaonly children have real problems and that problems such as they are thatconfront adults should not be addressed if such action means curtailing anyCDF objective, as she frequently does, however, support for the CDF publicinterest group tends to wane. One casein point with respect to the justness or desirability is the Children'sDefense Fund (CDF). With respect to publicinterest organizations, one tends to make an assumption that the foundersof such groups, as well as the attorneys who work for such groups, and thepeople who support such groups are motivated by a desire to put right somesocial wrong. In Wilson'scase and in Wilson's time, government was able to do many things moreefficiently than were private parties. The study of administration. Osborne and Gaebler (1991) contend that governmentshould be responsible for outcomes, as opposed to inputs. (1996). It is thetype of public interest which creates high stress and frustration levelsamong the country's public administrators. Unfortunately for the publicadministrator, the general public typically does not consider theimplications that demands in one of these interest areas may have on theability of the public administrator to perform in one of the other areas. An effective public administrator in the contemporary period must,among other things, recognizes the significance of public administration incontemporary American society within the context of the way ordinarycitizens in the United States tend to view public organizations. By contrast, Woodrow Wilson(1887) contended that government should be seeking new service deliveryopportunities. The politics of health legislation: Aneconomic perspective. This approach to assessing public outcomes creates problemsfor public administrators because the concept of equity of outcomesfrequently conflicts with requirements that public administrators treat allpersons the same so as not to be guilty of the accusation of favoring onecitizen or group over other citizens or groups (Pfeffer, 1997). Reinventing focused on adjusting the approaches publicmanagers could explore, such as public private partnerships, contracting-out, load sharing, privatization, vouchers, empowerment, volunteers, TQM,participatory management, and alternative service delivery mechanisms.None of these procedures were new, but many had not been applied in theUnited States for a long while, and never had governments consideredapplying them all at once as might be appropriate for the variousresponsibilities of government. Daft, R. London: Allyn andUnwin, Publishers. Organizational Theory in Public Administration: effects of intergovernmental relations and Power & politics on efficiency & effectiveness, governmental process, and citizen control Domains of organizational theory may be defined on several differentbases, depending upon the lens through which the body of theory is viewed.Domains of organizational theory in relation to public organizations, suchas (1) intergovernmental relations and (2) power and politics typically,would not be directly applicable to private organizations, althoughelements of each of these two areas of interest would be found in domainsappropriate for assessing private organizations (Daft, 1998). (1997). Osborne and Gaebler (1991) contended that government should rid itselfof many of its service delivery functions. Anonymous empire. (1996). Osborne, D., & Gaebler, T. Berkeley, California: University of CaliforniaPress. A. Trial, 27(5), 58-62. Finer, S. Oxford, England:Oxford University Press. Individual citizens and citizen groups are much more likely to assess theperformance of public organizations from perspectives based in positivistvalues (Dryzek, 1996). Theinterest of the general public in public administration in contemporaryAmerican society is centered in efficiency, responsiveness, andaccountability (Klinger & Nalbandian, 1996). Farmers and ranchers are not alone in demanding efficiency ingovernment, reduced governmental benefits in general, but immediateresponse by public administrators to their own specific demands. Social causes, to gain widespread publicacceptance, must be societally encompassing. This issue turns ona contention that a government cannot shift its constitutionalresponsibilities (and liabilities) to a private party. (1985). (4th ed.). It isimportant to note that finding out what government can do bestcharacterizes both approaches. In the past, public administrators oftenwere able to circumvent the intent of elected officials through the ways inwhich they implemented programs (Grizzle, 1985). Goodsell, C. In this context, public administration not only serves society,it is shaped by societal values and norms. As an example of such conflict, consider the paradox of simultaneouspublic demands for both improved efficiency and responsiveness in thepublic sector, which, at first blush, might not appear to be a conflict ofdemands. E., & Nalbandian, J. Becton, C. Because public monies are involved, the constraintsplaced on the actions of public administrators are more restrictive thanare those placed on private sector managers. (1992, December). The agricultural sector, in general, in the late-198 s hadadvocated less government spending on most domestic programs, and lessbureaucratic interference in the operation of the country's farms andranches. Burke, Virginia: Chatelaine Press. Wilson W. Chatham, New Jersey: Chatham House. Osborne and Gaebler (1991) argued that government can be reinvented bymaking public administrators and public employees assume responsibility fortheir own performance serving their citizen-customers. Public personnel management.(4th ed.). The indications are that many oversight staffs continue to viewaccountability in the context of implementation, as opposed to the qualityand quantity of outcomes. A major problem area for publicadministrators in the area of accountability is that public administratorsmust often take the heat, so to speak, for the outcomes of public programswhich were poorly conceived at the political level of government (Mazmanian& Sabatier, 1996). References Barzelay, M. Theeffective public administrator in contemporary American society will bothrecognize and appreciate this situation (Goodsell, 1994). Harmon and Mayer (1995) observed that the concepts of efficiency andeffectiveness are applied differently for public organizations than forprivate organizations. E. Democracy in capitalist times. Harmon, M. (1887). Reading, Massachusetts:Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. Conversely, however, this approach toaccountability in public administration provides the political arm ofgovernment with a new means of avoiding responsibility (Barzelay, 1992). A. Dryzek, J. Nevertheless, the concept of accountability often createsproblems for public organizations. (5th ed.). In the mid- to late-198 s, however, public administrators began to be held accountable forprogram outcomes (Mazmanian & Sabatier, 1996). Critics of theOsborne and Gaebler (1991) approach to reinventing government then contendthat, in effect, no party is really accountable under such a system. An important change which in contemporary American publicadministration is the way in which public administrators are heldaccountable for their actions. The reinventing government concept was introduced by Osborne andGaebler (1991) at an opportune time, because increasing public performanceand productivity with less fiscal support was becoming a necessity in theearly-199 s. Holding public administrators accountable forprogram outcomes, as well as for program implementations, is consistentwith the movement within American public administration toward improvedprogram evaluation (Harmon & Mayer, 1995). In the contemporary period, however, efficiency in government istypically interpreted by the public as lower costs and lower taxes, whilethe responsiveness of public organizations tends to be evaluated in termshow well interest group demands are met. Organization theory for publicadministration. L. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. With government acting in a steering capacity, Osborne and Gaebler(1991) viewed the solutions to society's problems as collaborativepartnerships between governments and private sector entities. Of the several domains of organizational theory as applied to publicorganizations identified, the two domains identified above-(1)intergovernmental relations and (2) power and politics-are discussed inthis essay in relation to their effects on aspects of the functioning ofpublic organizations. As Osborne and Gaebler (1991) viewed this process, governanceinvolves a wide spectrum of players, as opposed to being limited to publicadministrators, public employees, and politicians. The very term public interest tends to create misconceptions ofpublic understanding related to the justness or desirability of the causespursued and the motivations of the people pursuing those causes. Strangely enough the same objective motivated Osborne andGaebler, on the one hand, and Wilson, on the other hand, in the developmentof their contentions. Dallas, Texas: Scott, Foresman and Company. The interaction of such conflicting demands may be illustrated througha consideration of the behavior of American farmers and ranchers during thesummer of 1988. The process of government, when considered within the contexts ofcitizen rights and the adequacy of the process itself, tends to be judgedon the basis of the equity of outcomes, wherein equity is assessed withinthe context of the unique individual circumstances of individuals (Harmon &Mayer, 1995). Governing, 6(3), 11-2 . (2nd ed.). Hughes, O. 34). New directions for organizational theory. Klinger, D. A., & Sabatier, P. Government, in its steering capacity, becomes a catalystfor societal action. Reinventing government: How theentrepreneurial spirit is transforming government. Reductions in federal income tax rates were especially welcomedin the agricultural sector. (7th ed.). London:Macmillan Publishing. (1991). The mostfundamental of these concerns is the accountability of the private sectorservice providers. T. Equally misleading are the factors that motivate individuals to pursuepublic interest objectives through organizations. Both approaches,however, are integral elements of the power and politics domain oforganizational theory as it is applied to public organizations. Harmon and Mayer (1995) hold that the effect of normative values onassessments of efficiency and effectiveness in the public sector are morerelevant to relationships within and between public organizations than theyare between public organizations and individual citizens or citizen groups. Power advocacy: Shaping a more justsociety. This practice represented afundamental change in the approach to accountability in for publicorganizations. Normative values influenceassessments of efficiency and effectiveness in public organizations to afar greater extent than is the case in the private sector where positivistvalues tend to provide the bases for such evaluations (Hughes, 1994). The case for bureaucracy: A publicadministration polemic. Public administration is a part of the political system within asociety. Interest on the part of thegeneral public in public administration, thus, is vital, because, in largemeasure, such interest will shape the future of public administration. Elected officials, however, are beginning toincrease their reliance on outcomes as a means of holding accountable thepublic administrator. In the case of organizations such as the CDF as an example,there is almost always an element of the concept of social justice amongthe motivations for the founding of such organizations and the pursuit ofthe cause identifying the movement exemplified by such organizations.Social justice, however, is rarely the sole motivation for the creation ofsuch movements and organizations, and frequently is not even the dominantmotivation. Normative values related to the rights of the individual play animportant role in assessing the adequacy of government process. (1991, May). Public management and administration. Walter's, J. Conceptually, public interest objectives tend to be perceived as theadvocacy of a social cause, such as human rights or the welfare of childrenor the protection of the physical environment (Becton, 1991). Implementation and publicpolicy. T. NewYork: Oxford University Press. Government, withinthis context, becomes customer-centered and market-oriented. As citizens become customers and as governments separate the functionsof policy-making and service delivery, several concerns arise. As often as not, self interest is a strong motivator for theindividuals involved in public interest advocacy of social causes and forindividuals and groups active in the support of such causes (Feldstein,1988). Mazmanian, D. Feldstein, P. Publicinterest objectives are by an large manifestations of the pursuit of socialcauses. Efficiency was sought in each case. Osborne and Gaebler (1991) proposed a simple but unusually perceptiveand workable thesis to the effect that governments should "steer, not row"(p.
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