Safety class

Chapter 1: Nervousness, Social Equity, & Public Administration

By

Susan T. Gooden

Characteristics of Nervousness

• What is nervousness?

• Usually emotional and physical traits associated with individuals – sweaty palms, hand tremors, pacing, fidgeting, knots in stomach, loss of appetite, problem focusing

– A state of discomfort

• A common experience but problematic when it interferes with ability to perform daily tasks

• What about nervousness in organizations?

Social Equity Nervous area of Government

• Gooden argues social equity, particularly racial equity is a nervous area of government (NAG)

• Historically nervousness led to inability to advance reduction of racial inequities in government

• Until nervousness effectively managed, public administrations efforts to reduce inequities won’t reach full potential

• As public administrators it interferes with provision of government services in alignment with democratic principles of US Constitution

Equity & Justice

• Evaluation of equity & justice fundamental concern for public administrators who struggle to assess social climate & ensure equity in government

• Evaluation unlikely to occur if administrators too uncomfortable to directly address topic

• Result is unacknowledged context of nervousness that is debilitating to public sector organizations, hampering progress to achieving racial equity in governance

• Phrase, “nervous area of government” evolved from interviews examining racial disparities within Wisconsin welfare program

Foundational questions in book

• What is a nervous area of government?

• How extensive are racial inequities in American society?

• How is the nervous area of government manifested in individuals & organizations?

• What can we learn from public sector organizations engaging in this nervousness work?

• What challenges remain in path ahead?

Race & Social Equity: Nervous area of Government

• “Nervousness” conceptual linkages • Merton’s (1952) “dysfunctions of bureaucracies” -

positive attributes emphasized, stress and strains almost wholly ignored

• Blau (1963), unofficial group norms provide powerful inducement of acceptance among members despite individual attitudinal differences – Behaviors concealed, hostility towards questioning,

myths to explain conformity, ostracism penalty for violating norms

Downs, 4 biased behavior of administrators

1. Distorting info forwarded to superiors

2. Biased attitude regarding certain policies & alternative actions associated with position

3. Varying degrees of compliance with directives, dependent upon preferences

4. Varying willingness to seek added responsibilities and assume risk in position

Organizational Justice

• “…justice phenomenon is pervasive in all organizations, however, …invisible until attention is focused on it by experience or perception of injustice,” Sheppard et al.

• Literature primarily adopts HR management perspective focused on employees’ fairness concerns, recruitment, compensation, grievances, layoffs, downsizing

• NAG more systemic, prioritizes treatment & experience of publics being served by organization rather than only internal, employee justice

• Public justice is context organizational value of social equity resides in

Conceptual Model of NAG

• NAG entails both internal & external dimensions • Understanding how organization effectively or

ineffectively provides public justice requires examination of 4 core areas operating in a context characterized by nervousness with racial equity as focus

• 4 areas- all exist in overall context of nervousness & influence intensity within organization – External environment – Sr. public administrators – Public servants – Organizational values

External Environment

• External environment motivators often are catalyst for racial equity examination

• Evolve from political, legal, economic, or moral stimuli

• Racial-equity motivation often provided by elected official, campaigning on specific issue – E.g. Seattle Race & Social Justice Initiative – Mayor

Nickels; NYC Stop-&-Frisk Mayor de Blasio

• Legal includes laws, regulations, court decisions/litigation promoted by advocacy groups – E.g. ACLU, NAACP

External Environment

• Economic triggers promote racial-equity in monetary terms – e.g. cost-benefit analysis, return on investment, behavioral

incentives based on large funding sources, or enhance overall organizational efficiency

• Moral triggers include grassroots concerns, civic participation, media attention, large shifts in societal perspectives, – e.g. civil rights legislation resulting from civil rights

movement

• External triggers get attention of Sr. Public Administrators (SPA)

Senior Public Administrators (SPAs)

• SPAs concentrated source of power in organization • Individual/persons at top decision-making level

exercise power by giving orders/making decisions • Leadership distinct from sheer power • 4 task of leadership

– Define institutional mission & role – Institutional embodiment of purpose – Defense of organizations integrity – Provision of order to internal conflict

• among individual employees or subgroups

• Determine boundaries of racial analysis in organization

Public Servants

• Majority of agency employees – frontline staff, managers, & midlevel supervisors

• Daily actions, decisions, & routines affect life-chances of clients which often have racial-equity implications

• Street-level bureaucrats mediate the constitutional relationship between citizens & the state – They define & operationalize the meaning of citizenship

• Public servants use of discretionary judgment – Police decide who to arrest or not – Judges decide whose sentence to suspend or give the max – Teachers decide who to suspend, or remain in school & who is teachable

• Restraint by rules, regulations, & directives, but oft deferred to given specialized area of work & relative freedom from supervisor & client scrutiny

• Race equity analysis of agency’s patterns of service is important; impacted by agency socialization of acceptable/unacceptable behavior

Organizational Values • Most important area of NAG • Organizational culture establish & sustain hierarchy of

values; – efficiency, effectiveness, quality, citizen-participation, innovation

• Values explicitly & implicitly communicated & define tolerance of racial-equity analysis

• NAG is how agency considers, examines, promotes, distributes, & evaluates provision of public justice relative to race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, class, & ability status – Public servants responsible to provision of services to minority

groups that are part of public at large

• Nervous in areas due to emotional historical or societal context

Intensity of Nervousness

• Low nervousness intensity means agency minimally engaged in analysis of subject areas

• High intensity, agency in early stages of analysis; expected by unsustainable for years

• Either manage ineffectively & revert to low- intensity state or manage effectively & move to moderate-intensity state

• Moderate is optimal because sustainable as a core value, & facilitates productive, effective provision of equity in delivery of public services

Why Race?

• Race is not only NAG – Gender, class, sexual orientation, religion, & disability critical aspects

of social-equity also

• Race defined as, “cluster of inheritable bodily markings carried by a largely endogamous group of individuals, markings easily observed by others, difficult to change or conceal, & invested in a particular society as a given historical movement with social meaning” (Loury) – American political culture doesn’t freely give presumption of equal

humanity Race-equity produces significant nervousness

• W.E.B. Du Bois, “The problem of the 20th Century is the problem of the color line,” (1900)

• Racial inequality still a salient feature of society today • Racial disparities evident in many indices of wellbeing

– Wages, unemployment, income & wealth, educational achievement gaps, incarceration & crime victimization, health & morality

Structural Racism

• Historical & contemporary disparities grounded in structural racism

• Primarily deals with “discrimination in contract” - standardization of racial bias through public & private structures

• As opposed to “discrimination in contact” – unequal treatment of otherwise like persons on basis of race in associations & relationships formed in social life

• Research entails cross-section of academics, advocates, practitioners, civil rights leaders, & policy analysts to explain why race still predictor of SES & wellbeing, & id policy & practice implications

5 context of Structural Racism

• Values - promoting philosophy of American equal opportunity, & lack of success due to individual failings

• Knowledge - normalizes racial inequities & acceptance of disproportionalities

• Cultural - allows persistence of racialized media images/stereotypes

• Psychological – reinforces sense of entitlement among whites, non-entitlement/ low expectations for people of color

• Political – power exercised to sustain white privilege

Structural & Institutional Racism

• Structural racism builds upon institutional racism by recognizing the cumulative effect of social inequity that is compounded & reinforced across organizations – Interaction between institutions often produces racial disparities

• Institutional racism can be set by formal rules but depends on an organizational culture that is tolerant of such behavior

• Racist institutional decisions do not require nor preclude racist individuals

• Systematic, intentional efforts to address racial equity must entail race-conscious action – Color-blind approaches are ineffective – “Ideological colorblindness inhibits kind of democratic engagement

necessary to confront most deeply entrenched problems facing our society,” (Guinier & Torres)

Social Equity, PA, & Democracy

• Social equity directly related to democratic principle of justice

• Implementation of justice is context-bound • Sometimes justice is treating everyone the same, others

cases it means treating groups differently based on current or past inequities

• What is fair dependent upon complex array of historical, political, & social facts

• ‘Social’ implicates public administrators to be attentive to differences in fairness & justice relative to important social characteristics

Criteria for measuring Equity

• Procedural fairness – examination of problems of due process, equal protection, equal rights for policies and programs

• Access – distributional equity; review policies, services, practices to determine level of access

• Quality – process equity; review consistency in level of service provided to groups/individuals

• Outcomes – whether policies, programs have same impact for all groups/individuals served

Social Equity in PA

• PA origins - Minnowbrook conferences (1960s) – Dwight Waldo, George Frederickson architects

• 3 Pillars of PA – Effectiveness, Efficiency, Equity – 1st question of public programs – is it effective/good? – 2nd question – good for whom?

• Tenets of American Dream 1. Equal opportunity & ability to start over – most of US history

women, minorities, & poor restricted 2. reasonable anticipation of success – requires resources &

opportunities 3. success under individual’s control – those that try but fail realize

fallacy of notion but viewed as losers thus discredited

• Book examines federal, state, & local organizations operating in NAG