Day 1
System’s Thinking and Public Administration
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Theories, Principles & Practice of Public Administration
System’s Thinking and Public Administration
Big Democracy, Big Bureaucracy
Historical Paradigm Shifts of Public Administration
The Threads of Organization: Theories
The Fabric of Organizations: Forces
The Fibers of Organizations: People
Managing Human Capital in the Public and Nonprofit Sectors
Intersectoral Administration Intergovernmental Administration
All solutions are tomorrow’s problem,
Redefine the problem as a challenge,
Then look for opportunities.
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Beware of Sweeping Generalities
Generalization is the formulation of general concepts from specific instances by abstracting common properties.
“I think women are really good at making friends and not good at networking. Men are good at networking and not necessarily making friends. That's a gross generalization, but I think it holds in many ways.” Madeleine Albright
“Even the recognition of an individual whom we see every day is only possible as the result of an abstract idea of him formed by generalization from his appearances in the past.”
James G. Frazer
“The word generalization in literature usually means covering too much territory too thinly to be persuasive, let alone convincing. In science, however, a generalization means a principle that has been found to hold true in every special case. … The principle of leverage is a scientific generalization.”
Buckminster Fuller
“All generalizations are false, including this one.”
Mark Twain
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What is Public Administration?
It’s a System
It’s Power
It’s a Business
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What’s a System?
Systems thinking is the process of understanding how things, regarded as systems, influence one another within a whole.
In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, movement, plants, and animals work together to survive or perish.
In organizations, systems consist of people, structures, and processes that work together to make an organization "healthy" or "unhealthy".
Systems thinking has been defined as an approach to problem solving, by viewing "problems" as parts of an overall system,
rather than reacting to specific part, outcomes or events and potentially contributing to further development of unintended consequences.
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Systems thinking is not just one thing but
a set of habits or practices within a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system can best be understood
in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation.
Systems thinking focuses on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect.
The several ways to think of and define a system include:
A system is composed of parts.
All the parts of a system must be related (directly or indirectly), else there are really two or more distinct systems
A system is encapsulated, has a boundary.
The boundary of a system is a decision made by an observer, or a group of observers.
A system can be nested inside another system.
A system can overlap with another system.
A system is bounded in time.
A system is bounded in space, though the parts are not necessarily co-located.
A system receives input from, and sends output into, the wider environment.
A system consists of processes that transform inputs into outputs.
A system is autonomous in fulfilling its purpose.
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What’s Power?
Can do….
The ability to accomplish a goal…
A series of interacting systems that enable’s one with the ability to accomplish a goal…
Power is the Key factor that allows:
the follower to accomplish their task,
the leader to influence others,
and the manager to accomplish organizational goals.
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What’s a Business?
A business is a System that’s called an Enterprise that provides a product [ goods or services] for a consumer that resolves a problem and or satisfy a need.
As rumor has it, Abraham Lincoln said the purpose of government is to provide those services that the individual is unable to provide for themselves.
Types of Businesses‘
Volunteer
Non-profit
For-profit
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DO WE NEED GOVERNMENT?
Not everyone agrees that bureaucracy and government are basic to society.
Some contend, in a distorted extension of Thomas Paine’s dictum “that government is best which governs least,” that the very best government is no government at all.
As a prominent conservative explains, “What holds together the conservative movement” is that conservatives “want the government to go away.”
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The Wrecking-Crew View
It has been argued that, when those who want the government to go away are in power,
they deliberately delegitimize government in the eyes of the public.
Restrained by only what is politically infeasible, these “no-government conservatives” act as a “wrecking crew” that sabotages governmental competence;
tolerates, even encourages, corruption; and privatizes or sheds altogether core public responsibilities.
It is this perspective that has encouraged the founding of roughly a thousand extreme anti-government groups (the number varies widely from year to year),
such as those that influenced the bombers of a federal building in 1995, that killed 168 adults and children, and the armed takeover and trashing of federal facilities in Oregon, in 2015, resulting in one death by shooting.
Americans do not subscribe to the wrecking-crew view.
Most Republicans and Democrats agree that Washington should play a prominent role in controlling terrorism, responding to natural disasters, and managing food, medicine safety, infrastructure, and even immigration.
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IS GRAFT GOOD?
Graft, or corruption, is the conduct of dishonest practices.
This is the nicest definition; standard dictionaries also offer such nouns as “putrefaction,” “perversion,” “depravity,” and “debasement” in their several definitions.
Defying even the basic definition of corruption is the contention that graft-ridden government can be good. It has two components:
the political and the economic.
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Fighting for Fraud: Corruption Improves Public Services
The political argument for corruption is an old chestnut originated by a distinguished political scientist who studied corruption in Chicago.
Graft, as understood in American English, is a form of political corruption, being the unscrupulous use of a politician's authority for personal gain. Similarly, political graft occurs when funds intended for public projects are intentionally misdirected in order to maximize the benefits to private interests.
Political justification for graft is that corrupt political machines “work,” and perform “many important social functions.”
In exchange for votes and the public’s tolerance for politicians and their toadies who plunder the public till, ward heelers fix their constituents’ traffic tickets, get them jobs, lower their tax bills, waive zoning and building codes, and attend their funerals, among a slew of other services, some more licit than others.
Unfortunately, corruption slashes governments’ legitimate revenue by as much as half, and, with it, public services,
and adds from 3 to 10 percent to the cost of legitimate services because citizens must bribe officials to acquire them.
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Question
Is government the problem or the solution?
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