| 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?
|
|
|
|
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 |
|
|
|
ResearchePaper
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. |