207 Timetable

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PSC 207: Public Administration, Timetable.
Page revised 2 Nov. '07, with amended dates, by Jeremy Lewis. Wide window recommended to align table.
Fall '07 NO classes: M 3 Sep Labor day; M8-T9 Oct Fall Break; W 21-23 Thanksgiving.
Week: [01] [02] [03] [04] [05] [06] [07] [08] [09] [10] [11] [12] [13] 14] [15] [Final] [Resources]

PSC 207	Public Administration WEEKLY TOPICS:
	Reading [Instructor's outlines.]	Topic (give priority to bold readings). [Links to students' outlines.]	Speaker
Week 1	Starling 1	Lecture on Bureaucracy Nature of Public Administration How can we define bureaucracy, and how is it separate from the other branches? How is public administration different from private management? How is the work of a public manager different from a businessman?
21, 23 Aug	Osborne	Preface; and Introduction: An American Perestroika. How do Osborne and Gaebler wish to reform American bureaucracy? What do they mean by entrepreneurial government? What are their qualifications for the job? What does Perestroika mean? What was the progressive movement? What is the 1992 environment of their writing? What services do they think government or business will perform better?
Week 2	Starling 2	The Political-Legal Environment of Administration. How do agencies connect their management strategy to a political strategy? What steps are needed to implement a program? How does an agency make an interpretive rule? How are agencies checked by the public, Congress and appointees? What does a court consider in checking an agency? What are the bases of individual powers in administration?
[blurb]	Goodsell 1	Bureaucracy Despised, Disparaged and Defended.
28, 30 Aug	McTigue	"Rolling Back Government: Lessons from New Zealand".	Maegan
Week 3	Starling 3	*Intergovernmental Relations.** What types of jurisdictions are there in the US? What eras have existed of federal-state relations? How have federal grants evolved? How has the role of the Supreme Court evolved?
4, 6 Sep	Osborne 1	Catalytic Government: Steering Rather Than Rowing.	Larry
	Curtis (ed) v2	Edmund Burke.	Chrys
Week 4	Starling 4	Administrative Responsibility and Ethics. What to Madison were "auxiliary precautions"? What are the core values of public administration? What makes a customer-driven program? What are the key ideas of the New Paradigm? Can you sue a civil servant for wrong doing?
11, 13 Sep	Osborne 2	Community-Owned Government: Empowering Community. How can a community police crime? How can citizen participation improve administration? How can this work in criminal justice; welfare; health care; and housing?	Emily
	Goodsell 2	What Citizens Experience from Bureaucracy.	Erin
Week 5	Osborne 3	Competitive Government: Injecting Competition into ... Distinguish between competitition and privatization. Does Phoenix's garbage and public works reform show competition works? Does USPS parcel service indicate competition works? Does Air NZ show competition works? What varieties of competition are there? What are the qualities and faults of competition in schools?	Spiegel
18, 20 Sep	Curtis (ed) v2	Adam Smith.	Rick & Shane
TEST	Thursday	Mixture of identifications and essays
Week 6	Starling 5	Planning. What is the relationship of planning, policies and goals? What is the rational planning approach? What is the logical incremental approach? What are vision plans, urban & contingency plans? How should an organization manage a crisis? What is the trade-off between prevention and services? How can an agency measure performance?
25, 27 Sep	Osborne 4	Mission-Driven Government: Transforming Rule-Driven ... How can agency missions be a better guide than detailed rules? How do formal reforms of agencies fail to improve them? Is it better to allow agencies to retain their savings instead of returning them? Should managers be able to move personnel down or sideways, not only upwards? How did the China Lake personnel experiment work?	Larry
	Goodsell 3	More Bureaucracy Myths to Delete.	Jason
Week 7	Starling 6	Decision Making. What steps must managers take to make decisions? What analytical techniques help in making decisions? How does a manager control for biases? What role does research play in decisionmaking?
2, 4 Oct	Osborne 5	Results-Oriented Government: Funding Outcomes, Not Inputs. What's wrong with simply paying agencies by numbers of clients served? What performance measures actually improve performance? How can agencies respond by "gaming the numbers"? Should groups instead of individuals be rewarded? Is low quality caused by a whole system - or a mistake?	Brady
	Goodsell 4	Ask the Impossible of Bureaucracy? Easy!	Maegan
Week 8	Starling 7	Organizing.[Mon-Tue Fall Break] What are the elements of organizational design? What are the scalar principle, and span of control? What are Max Weber's key features of the bureaucratic structure? What are the weaker characteristics of bureaucracy? How does a matrix organization function? How do teams differ from networks? What causes reorganizations? How should you design a new organization?
11 Oct	Osborne 6	Customer-Driven Government: Meeting the Needs of the ... Does it matter if public agencies do not get paid by clients? How has the percentage of mind workers evolved? What methods of customer feedback are used? Can we reorganize services into single offices for each type of client? Can clients really judge an agency's work?	Candace
Week 9	Starling 8	Leading. Distinguish between visible and invisible aspects of program management. What types of group objectives are there? What types of leadership style are there? What can motivation and training achieve? How does the humanist school improve performance? How can a manager lead change? How does organizational development bring cultural change?
16, 18 Oct	Curtis (ed) v1	Niccolo Machiavelli.	Chanley
Week 10	Starling 9	Implementation. Why do new social programs create great challenges? How does game theory explain implementation? How does privatization affect government's role in society? What are the costs and benefits of contracting out? How is the acquisition process regulated? What is the Total Quality Management approach? How can the PDCA cycle improve administration? What is the objective of compliance management? How can backward mapping and reengineering change an organization?
23, 25 Oct	Curtis (ed) v2	Max Weber.	Chrys
	Osborne 7	Enterprising Government: Earning Rather Than Spending. Should agencies charge clients user fees? Should agencies be allowed to re-invest funds? Is it proper to treat avgencies as profit centers?	Haydyn
Week 11	Starling 10	Human Resources Management. [Evaluation Discontinued] What have been the six periods of federal personnel management? Which statutes have reshaped personnel management? How has the US supreme court affected privacy rights? How does culture affect organizational performance? How can managers use symbolism to lead? What are the questions of human resource planning? What are the major personality traits? How does collective bargaining affect the public sector?
30 Oct, 1 Nov	Osborne 8	Anticipatory Government: Prevention Rather Than Cure.	Spiegel
	Goodsell 6	Bureaucratic Bigness and Badness Reconsidered	Todd
Week 12	Starling 11	Public Financial management. What are the four phases of the budget cycle? When did the federal budget become annual? What is the scale of the federal budget? What does the federal budget spend most money on? Whence does the federal government derive its revenue? Distinguish between traditional and new performance budgeting. What are the two types of strategies in the budget process? Give the three pragmatic concepts of a tax system. What are the two legal categories of federal spending items?
6, 8 Nov	Osborne 9	Decentralized Government: From Hierarchy to Participation ...	Erin
	Goodsell 5	Looking Closer at Those Bureaucrats	Ryan
Thursday	Homework	Essay Option: eEssay of 5 pages plus at least a few hardcopy refs due Thursday by class. (From 2008, will be due Thursday of week 10, with scores returned before registration week.)
Week 13	Starling 12	Information Management. Distinguish between data and information. What makes for high quality information? What decisions do managers need to make about info tech? What factors reduce distortion in communications? What biases may occur in in/formal info networks? How can data mining reveal relationships? How can we secure info networks? Give six types of info tech used to share info. Give 8 "C"s of effective communications.
13, 15 Nov	Curtis (ed) v2	"Utilitarians": Bentham, James Mill & John Stuart Mill	Haydyn Rick Maegan
	Osborne 10	Market-Oriented Government: Leveraging Change Through ...
	Capstones	Possible Capstones Presentations in classes weeks 12-15
		*Research ePaper Option: due noon, Fri Week 13, in APSA Style*
Week 14	Osborne 11	Putting it All Together.
T 20 Nov	JRT Lewis	"Electronic Access to Public Records," (2000b). How was the FOIA adapted to the Internet -- and how does the internet change the way official records are released to the public? [Lewis, 2000b] Articles on open government, freedom of information
Thanksg'v'g	No class Th	Possible Capstone Presentations in classes weeks 12-15
Week 15	Goodsell 7	Fads and Fundamentals of Bureaucracy
27, 29 Nov	Capstones	Possible Capstone Presentations in classes weeks 12-15
3-7 Dec	FINALS: Comprehensive essay examination in regular classroom.

Resources: video documentary clips and guest speakers will be inserted only where time permits.

CNN financial news, Huntsville Report (on hi-tech developments) [3.4 MB video ASF, for academic purposes only

PBS, Tom Peters, "Excellence in the Public Sector."