Week 2 - Assignment: Describe the Senior Leadership Team's Role in Managing the Agency's Mission and Week 3 - Assignment: Examine Senior Leadership's Actions Toward Improving Organizational Efficiency

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Week 2

PUB-7022 v1: Executive Leadership in Public Administratio…

Understanding Agency Management

Effective leadership is a critical commodity in public administration. An effective leader

takes actions necessary to ensure others are treated respectfully, employees are satisfied

with their working environment and work activities are prioritized based on significance

and impact. To effectively manage public agencies, senior executives must outline their

vision for the organization and develop strategic plans to serve as a guide to the agency.

Furthermore, senior executives must have an efficient team to help facilitate daily

operations due to the enormity of agencies’ responsibilities. Leaders who are effective in

public management are often very selective with the leadership team they employ.

Leading public agencies require good strategic visioning. The executive leadership team is

responsible for ensuring the agency’s strategic plan is developed, feasible, and has

adequate funding appropriation to meet the mission. Executive leaders are normally in

charge of a directorate that normally includes multiple divisions.

Lower-level managers within these public agencies are also important because these

individuals are responsible for dealing directly with employees and the general public. The

term manager is normally assigned to those leading at the division and section levels

within the agency (e.g., division directors, section chiefs, and program managers and

supervisors). In some agencies, division directors serve as part of the executive leadership

team. Policy development at this level follows an applied approach as these street-level

bureaucrats manage the organization’s daily business. Depending on the structure and

culture of the organization, there can be a combination of leadership structure that

manages the organization. Many public agencies have multi-tier leadership structures

designed to break up the mission set to make it more feasible and help manage workload

and expectation. For that reason, many federal departments and agencies have many

mission sets with individual long-term and short-term goals. Each mission is managed by a

different level of leadership.

Managing daily operations becomes a multi-facet operation, meaning that

intra/interagency coordination becomes a routine practice. Managers from different

sections within the agency must work together to accomplish common goals when

appropriate. Overall, the management of federal and state agencies depends on delegated

authority from the senior executive and other members of the leadership team. However,

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Books and Resources for this Week

Hijal-Moghrabi, I., & Sabharwal, M.

(2018). Ethics in American public

administration: A response to a

changing reality. Public Integrity,

20(5)... Link

Kearney, R. C., & Coggburn, J. D.

(2016). Public human resource

management: Problems and prospects.

Los Angeles: CQ Press. Link

Oberfield, Z. W. (2014). Public

management in time: A longitudinal

examination of the full range of

leadership theory. Journal of Public... Link

Sowa, J. E., & Lu, J. (2017). Policy and

management: Considering public

management and its relationship to

policy studies. Policy Studies Journal... Link

without a fully committed staff, none of this is possible. Therefore, workforce buy-in is

essential.

Be sure to review this week's resources carefully. You are expected to apply the

information from these resources when you prepare your assignments.

83.33 % 5 of 6 topics complete

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United States. Government

Accountability Office Link

Week 2 - Assignment: Describe the Senior Leadership

Team's Role in Managing the Agency's Mission Assignment

Due November 7 at 11:59 PM

The purpose of this assignment is to help you better understand the different challenges

senior executives in the public sector encounter and the tools and resources available for

them to assess and mitigate these challenges. For this assignment, you are a federal

auditor with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and have been asked to assess

policy initiatives at a federal agency. You are to select one federal agency and assess the

leadership’s strategic plan for operational visioning. Create a memorandum to brief

agency leadership on your findings. Be sure your memo includes the following:

1. Describe the agency’s senior executive leadership expertise.

2. Critique the agency’s mission in comparison with its strategic plan.

3. Interpret the goals within the strategic plan for operational effectiveness.

4. Recommend changes to the plan that might improve operations.

Length: 2-3 pages, not including title and reference pages

References: Include a minimum of 5 scholarly resources.

Your presentation should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts

presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this

topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure

to adhere to Northcentral University's Academic Integrity Policy.

Upload your document and click the Submit to Dropbox button.