PP 500 Public Administration

and Management

Unit Nine Seminar

Dr. Bruce Bordner

Kaplan University

Public Administration and Management

Welcome to the Unit Nine Seminar!

• Review of this week’s seminar.

• Review of this week’s Unit Nine course work.

This Week’s Assignments:

• Read Chapter Twelve in the Course Textbook.

• Read the additional assigned readings and lecture notes.

• Post to both Unit Nine Discussions (25 points).

• Attend the Unit Nine Seminar (10 points).

• Finish and submit your group projects.

Public Administration and Management

Government and Public Administration:

• Full of contradictions and paradoxes.

• Social and Governmental Environment

• New directions in Public Administration.

Crisis of Legitimacy.

The current state of Public Administration.

• Balancing values, accountability, efficiency, and public

participation against issues of representativeness,

expansiveness, and strong leadership.

• Politics and Administration.

- Was Woodrow Wilson right or wrong?

Public Administration and Management

Some conflicts: • Efficiency and Accountability of Programs.• Increased demands for government involvement, yet we

demand less government.• Issues of Equity versus Economic Efficiency.

The Social and Governmental Environment:• The tension between equity and economic efficiency is not new.• Conflicts are compounded by:

- Social change.- Growth in economic and social diversity.- The Knowledge Explosion.- Technological Change.- Decline in the respect and influence of authority.- Religious Fundamentalism.

Some demands on the bureaucracy may be unrealistic.• Global problems may require global solutions.

Public Administration and Management

What about the Changing Face of America?

- Change within the country is driving new policy choices for

lawmakers, and public administrators.

• Growing Population.

• Aging population, Shrinking younger population.

• More diverse.

• More urban.

• More educated.

• Traditional family is changing.

• Poverty.

Changes within society mean new choices for lawmakers and administrators.

- Examples: Medicare and Social Security.

Public Administration and Management

Paradoxical Developments:• Blurring of the line between private and public sectors.• A revolution of rising expectations regarding both the

quality of life and individual standards of living.• Industrial society versus post-industrial society.• Globalization and nationalism.• Rising violence versus desire for non-violent means of

settling disputes.• A desire for limited government versus a desire for stronger

regulation.• A selfish attitude toward government versus hostility toward

government.• Rule by consensus vs. “Overhead Democracy.”

Public Administration and Management

Issues and Changes in the Environment of Public Administration:• Internal and external participation in government.• Expansion of information Technology.• Attempts to eliminate public employee unions and collective bargaining.• Renewed emphasis on budgets, performance management

and employee productivity.• Fiscal and budgetary constraints.• Executive dominance and the use of reorganization as a policy tool.• Continuing efforts to de-bureaucratize.

Changes in the field of Public Administration:• The growing importance of Public Administration for business students.• New academic programs.• Organizational Humanism and Organizational Development.• Increasing study and application of productivity improvement.