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Section Two: Key Terms,

Discussion Questions, and


Writing Assignments
Chapter 1: The Challenge of Effective Public
Organization and Management

Chapter 1 Key Terms


Organization
Management
Generic tradition
National Performance Review
Presidents Management Agenda
Agency scorecards
Human capital
Goal
Environment
Performance
Leadership
Structures
Processes
Incentives

Chapter 1 Discussion Questions

1. Why do you think public organizations are prone to criticism?


2. From your perspective which criticisms of the public sector are warranted? Are
private companies more or less prone to criticism? Why or why not?
3. How might the study of organization theory and public management help the public
manager who is interested in improving the perception of her agency?

4. Define the domain of organization theory and organization behavior.


5. Discuss some of the challenges to effective public management and the reform of
public organizations.

Chapter 1 Writing Assignments and Reports

1.

If you were to writing a book on the general topic of management, what chapters
would you include? How would a book on public management differ?

2.

Chapter 1 briefly discusses the contributions of other disciplines to organization


theory and public management and notes that political scientists and economists
tend to oversimplify topics such as structure and motivation. Write an essay
considering this statement in more detail. In the essay, give examples of how
perspectives on the same topics (for example, motivation, formal environment,
interests groups, rationality, incentives, and so on) differ by discipline. For example,
political scientists view formal laws and regulations as necessary constraints.
Likewise, a good deal of research in economics focuses on principal-agent
relationships. On the other hand, researchers and practitioners of public
management are more concerned with how the formal environment might hinder
performance or how the presence of multiple principals might complicate goals.
What implications might this have to advancing knowledge in organization theory
and public management?
Note to instructor: The assignment can vary in length. There are three main
objectives: (1) to create an awareness of the contributions that other disciplines
have made to the field; (2) to create an awareness of how perspectives on the same
topic, such as motivation, formal environment, and interests groups, differ by
discipline; and (3) to encourage consideration of the limitations of the various
perspectives.

3.

The author notes the dilemma in balancing legitimate skepticism about public
organizations and the recognition that public organizations are indispensable.
Explain this statement. Provide examples in the context of a government department
or agency with which you are familiar; discuss its value to citizens and criticisms
that may surround it.

Chapter 2: Understanding the Study of Organizations:


A Historical Review

Chapter 2 Key Terms


Systems theory
Closed versus open systems
Inputs
Outputs
Subsystems
Throughput processes
Feedback
Adaptation
Classical approach to the study of organizations
Scientific management
Human relations school
Contingency theory
Bureaupathology
Theory X
Theory Y

Chapter 2 Discussion Questions

1. Identify and describe the following topics and persons:


a. Systems theory and the systems metaphor in organization theory, and its
relation to contingency theory.
b. Scientific management and Frederick Taylor and Max Weber.
c. The Administrative Management School (POSDCORB, principles).
d. Hawthorne studies.
e. Chester Barnard and Herbert Simon.
f. Group dynamics movement.
g. Human Relations School/Abraham Maslow/Douglas McGregor.
h. Sociotechnical School (Trist and Bamforth).
i. General idea or meaning of contingency theory.
2. What did Burns and Stalker contribute to our understanding of management and
organizations?
3. What did Lawrence and Lorsch contribute to our understanding of management and
organizations?
4. What are Theory X and Theory Y? Give examples of Theory X and Theory Y
management styles.
5. What have been the important changes in the way theorists and many managers view
members of organizations and the nature of effective organization? (Describe the
transition from closed system perspectives to more open, adaptive systems
perspectives).

6. Provide an example of how historical trends in society have influenced a development


in management and organization theory.
7. How have other disciplines influenced the development in management and
organization theory?
8. What has been the role of increasing complexity and rapid change in the development
of management and organization theory?
9. The author presents a definition of organization, and a conceptual framework for
analyzing organizations. How do the components and concepts in these materials reflect
the developments in organization theory we have discussed and read about?

Chapter 2 Writing Assignments and Reports

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Theories often reflect socioeconomic conditions at the time. Discuss and explain the basic
tenets and assumptions of the classic school in relation to the times in which it became
widely accepted.
Describe the general evolution in management thought and organizational theory across
this century.
What would a federal agency or department look like if it were run by Frederick Taylor?
Max Weber?
On what grounds did Herbert Simon refute the tenets of classical organization theory? Do
you agree or disagree with his critique?
Discuss studies in organization that were done in the 1960s and their contribution to
adaptive and contingency theories. How did these studies add to and refine earlier thought?
Youve been hired as a consultant to improve the Department of Motor Vehicles. As a first
step, you have decided to survey the employees, including management at the local and
regional offices. After reading much literature, youve decided that the human relations
school offers the most guidance for understanding and reforming organizations. What
questions would you ask in your survey if you anticipate making changes along the lines of
the human relations school?

Chapter 3: What Makes Public Organizations


Distinctive

Chapter 3 Key Terms


Generic tradition
Polyarchy
Public goods
Free riders
Externalities

Commonweal organizations
Enterprises
Publicness

Chapter 3 Discussion Questions

1. What is meant by the blurring of the sectors? In what ways does this occur?
2. What distinction did Dahl and Lindblom make between markets and polyarchies?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each? What are the reasons for the
existence of government, from an economic and a political point of view?
3. How did Dahl and Lindblom distinguish between agencies and enterprises?
4. How do Wamsley and Zald employ ownership and funding in making a distinction
between public and private organizations?
5. What does Bozeman mean by publicness, and how does he employ this concept?

Chapter 3 Writing Assignments and Reports

1. Consider a local public department with which you have recently interacted. List
and discuss the nature of services they provide. What groups do they serve? Do you
consider the department effective or ineffective? Explain. To what standards should
they be held? Explain.
2. Consider any government agency with which you have interacted. What laws, rules,
and regulations are relevant to the particular services they provide? Describe the
political environment of the agency. How might the department, its structure, tasks,
and clientele change if the political environment changes? How does the economic
environment affect the department? What job competencies should be required of
the employees? What type of training should they have?
3. What are some major problems and approaches to analyzing the distinction between
public and private organizations?
4. What are the common assertions about the distinctive nature of public organizations
and management? Describe two that you consider accurate and two you consider
inaccurate or overblown.
5. What is the generic tradition in organization and management theory, and what are
its implications for the public-private distinction? What have been the research
findings supporting this generic position?
6. How do externalities affect the role of the public sector?

Chapter 4: Analyzing the Environment of Public


Organizations

Chapter 4 Key Terms


Organization domain
The organizational domain refers to the goods and services offered and the
customers and otherstakeholders served; an organization designs transactions to
enlarge its domain. An organization operatesin both specific and general
environments. One way to enlarge the domain is to expand internationally.
The specific environment contains outside stakeholder groups who have a direct
effect on obtainingresources. Changes in the kinds of customers or in consumer
tastes affect an organization. Strategies toattract customers change to meet new
customer needs.
Outside stakeholder groups include customers, distributors, suppliers, unions,
competitors, and thegovernment. An organization deals with each group to attain
resources for survival, protection, andenlargement of its domain.
The general environment contains forces that affect all organizations and shape the
specificenvironment.
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis in conflict resolution, project management, and business
administration, is the process of identifying the individuals or groups that are likely
to affect or be affected by a proposed action, and sorting them according to their
impact on the action and the impact the action will have on them
Environmental capacity
Generosidad extremada o la escasez de recursos.
Evolutionary perspective of organizations
The approach also has important connections to the perspectives described later in
this chapter. It includes the processes of variation, selection, and retention, with
elaborations. All three of these processes can operate on organizations from external
or internal sources.
Variations in routines, procedures, and organizational forms can be intentional, as
individuals seek solutions to problems, or blind, as a result of mistakes or surprises.
In addition, there is a fourth process, struggle, in which individuals, organizations,
and populations of organizations contend with each other over scarce resources and
conflicting incentives and goals.
This perspective goes even farther than the population ecology approach to provide
insights about ways in which organizational populations are integral to processes o
social change; show much more diversity of form than some research, such as the
contingency approaches, recognized; and continually emerge and evolve.
Co-optation

Co-optation is used to counter problematic forces in the specific environment. An


organization brings adversaries inside the organization
Environmental scan
Environmental scanning is the acquisition and use of information about events,
trends, and relationships in an organization's external environment, the knowledge
of which would assist management in planning the organization's future course of
action. Depending on the organization's beliefs about environmental analyzability
and the extent that it intrudes into the environment to understand it, four modes of
scanning may be differentiated: undirected viewing, conditioned viewing, enacting,
and searching
Mechanistic firms
Mechanistic firms emphasized a clear hierarchy of authority, with direction and
communication dependent on the chain of command, and specialized, formally
defined individual tasks.
Organic firms
Less emphasis on hierarchy and more lateral communication and networking. Tasks
were less clearly defined and changed more frequently.
Managers in these firms sometimes spurned organizational charts as too confining
or even dangerous.
Contingency theory
Besides the efforts to apply systems concepts to organizations, research results
supported the view that organizations adopt different forms in response to
contingencies.
Contingency theories (CT) are a class of behavioral theory that contend that there is
no one best way of organizing / leading and that an organizational / leadership style
that is effective in some situations may not be successful in others. In other words:
The optimal organization / leadership style is contingent upon various internal and
external constraints.
Buffering methods
Buffering involves protecting the internal operations of the organization from
interruption by the environmental shocks such as material, labor, capital shortage
etc. Organizations generally create a role to handle this sort of shocks. Through their
efforts, uncertainty associated with a complex or changing environment is absorbed,
freeing those in the production centers from concerns that might distract them from
their work.
Boundary spanning is the name given to environmental activities including passing
needed information for decision makers. It also covers the activities representing the
organization o its interests to the environment.
The difference between the 2 is that while Buffering deals with the material
requirements of the organization, while boundary spanning is more of information
need. Many a times the 2 roles are seen to overlap - we take 2 examples in here.
Boundary-spanning units
Boundary-spanning unitssuch as inventory, personnel recruitment, and research
and development unitsto try to create smooth flows of information and resources.
Environmental stability
Dynamism, change rates

Population ecology
The population ecology perspective analyzes how
populations of organizations go through processes of variation, selection, and
retention.
Variation involves the continuing appearance of new forms of organization,
both planned and unplanned. Then the selection process determines which
forms of organization will survive and prosper, based on their fit with the
environment
or their capacity to fill an environmental niche. A niche is a distinct combination
of resources and constraints that supports the particular form of
organization. Retention processes serve to continue the form through such
environmental
influences as pressures on the organizations to maintain past practices,
and through such internal processes as employees developing common outlooks.
Resource dependency theory
Resource-dependence theories analyze how organizational managers try to obtain
crucial resources from their environment, such as materials, money, people, support
services, and technological knowledge. Organizations can adapt their structures
in response to their environment, or they can change their niches. They can
try to change the environment by creating demand or seeking government actions
that can help them. They can try to manipulate the way the environment is perceived
by the people in the organization and those outside it. In these and other
ways, they can pursue essential resources. These theorists stress the importance of
internal and external political processes in the quest for resources
Transaction cost theory
Transaction-costs theories analyze managerial decisions to purchase a needed
good or service from outside, as opposed to producing it within the organization
Analyzing the Environment of Public Organizations 87
(Williamson, 1975, 1981). Transactions with other organizations and people become
more costly as contracts become harder to write and supervise. The organization
may need a service particular to itself, or it may have problems supervising
contractors. Managers may try to hold down such costs under certain conditions
by merging with another organization or permanently hiring a person with whom
they had been contracting
Institution, institutionalization
Public and nonprofit managers encounter many instances where new procedures
or schemes, such as a new budgeting technique, become widely implemented as
88 Understanding and Managing Public Organizations
the latest, best approachwhether or not anyone can prove that it is. In addition,
some of the research mentioned earlier shows how external institutions such as
government impose structures and procedures on organizations. Some of these
theorists disagreed among themselves over these different views of institutionalization
whether it results from the spread of beliefs and myths or from the influence
of external institutions such as government (Scott, 1987)
Isomorphism
refers to organizations

and other institutions becoming similar or identical to each other in form


(Dimaggio and Powell, 1983; Scott, 2003, p. 134141).
Coercive isomorphism
they have to comply with similar laws and regulations.
Normative isomorphism
comes from compliance with professional and moral norms such as those imposed
through accreditation
or certification processes by professional associations.
Mimetic isomorphism
occurs when organizations and other entities imitate each other, based on a prevailing
orthodoxy or culturally supported beliefs about the proper structures and
procedures. Frumkin and Galaskiewicz (2003)
Active representation and passive representation
Active representation occurs when
the members of a group actually serve as advocates for the group in decisions about
programs and policies. Selden (1997, p. 139; see also Selden, Brudney and
Kellough,
1998)
Keiser,Wilkins, Meier, and Holland (2002) point out that passive representation has been
found to lead to active representation for race but not for gender. They then report
evidence of conditions under which passive representation will lead to active
representation for gender in educational contexts
Federalist Papers
In the Federalist Papers, James Madison discussed the constitutional
provision for dividing power among the branches of government as a way of
constraining
power. He pointed out that a strong central executive authority might be
the most efficient organizational arrangement. But the government of the United
States, he wrote, was instead being purposefully designed to constrain authority
by dividing it among institutions. In one of the great exercises of applied
psychology
in history, he pointed out that if humans were angels, no such arrangements
would be necessary. But because they are not, and because power can
corrupt some people and oppress others, the new government would set ambition
against ambition, dividing authority among the branches of government so that
they would keep one another in check

Performance criteria
Values and performance criteria for government organizations
Competence
Efficiency
Effectiveness
Timeliness

Reliability
Reasonableness
Responsiveness
Accountability, legality, responsiveness to rule of law and governmental authorities,
responsiveness to public demands
Adherence to ethical standards
Fairness, equal treatment, impartiality
Openness to external scrutiny and criticism
Criterion of competence
Criterion of responsiveness
Criterion of representativeness
Criterion of timeliness
Criterion of reasonableness

Chapter 4 Discussion Questions

1. Describe the institutionalism perspective.


Define the concepts of organizational environment and the environmental domain.
An organization's environment is defined as all the elements existing outside
the boundary of the organization that have the potential to affect all or part of the
organization (Daft, 1997).
Daft (1997) identified 10 environmental sectors that may have an impact on
particular organizations: 1) industry, 2) raw materials, 3) human resources, 4)
financial resources, 5) markets, 6) technology, 7) general economy, 8)
government/legal, 9) sociocultural, 10) international.
Each of these sectors may be divided into two basic components: a) the general
environment, common to all organizations in a particular society, and b) the specific
environment, which pertains to those organizations, groups or individuals with
which the organization interacts directly. This specific environment is often referred
to as the environmental domain of the organization. For example, technological
change may be a common environmental factor for all organizations, but specific
technological advancements may be more pertinent to some organizations which
will be interacting with specific agents of that technology. Not all sectors are
equally important to an organization at any given time, so that an organization will
be attuned to different sectors at different times.
2. What is environmental uncertainty, and what are its dimensions?
Organics
Mechanistic
Differentiate
Integration
3. What are the ways in which organizations adapt to environmental uncertainty (for
example, positions and departments, buffering and boundary spanning)?
4.
5. What are differentiation and integration?
6. What are organic and mechanistic forms?
7. What is the resource dependence perspective, and how can organizations
control environmental resources?
Theories analyze how organizational managers try to obtain crucial resources from
their environment, such as materials, money, people, support services, and
technological knowledge. Organizations can adapt their structures in response to
their environment, or they can change their niches. They can try to change the
environment by creating demand or seeking government actions that can help them.
They can try to manipulate the way the environment is perceived by the people in
the organization and those outside it. In these an other
ways, they can pursue essential resources. These theorists stress the importance of

internal and external political processes in the quest for resources. Chapter Six
discusses how their analysis of resources in connection with internal power
relationships
applies to public organizations (Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978, pp. 277278;
Daft, 2001).
8. Describe the population ecology perspective on organization survival.
Population ecology theorists, for example, analyze the origin, development, and
decline of populations of organizations using biological concepts (Hannan and
Freeman, 1989). Just as biologists analyze how certain populations of organisms
develop to take advantage of a particular ecological niche, population ecologists
analyze the development of populations of organizations
within certain niches (characterized by their unique combinations of available
resources and constraints)
9. What does a resource dependency theorist say about organization survival?
Resource-dependence theories analyze how organizational managers try to obtain
crucial resources from their environment, such as materials, money, people, support
services, and technological knowledge. Organizations can adapt their structures
in response to their environment, or they can change their niches. They can
try to change the environment by creating demand or seeking government actions
that can help them. They can try to manipulate the way the environment is
perceived
by the people in the organization and those outside it. In these and other
ways, they can pursue essential resources. These theorists stress the importance of
internal and external political processes in the quest for resources. Chapter Six
discusses how their analysis of resources in connection with internal power
relationships
applies to public organizations (Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978, pp. 277278;
Daft, 2001).
10. What general effects does uncertainty have on the organization?
11. What are the important components and dimensions of the political and
economic environments of public organizations?
Technological conditions: the general level of knowledge and capability in science,
engineering, medicine, and other substantive areas; general capacities for communication,
transportation, information processing, medical services, military
weaponry, environmental analysis, production and manufacturing processes, and
agricultural production.
Legal conditions: laws, regulations, legal procedures, court decisions; characteristics
of legal institutions and values, such as provisions for individual rights and jury trials
as well as the general institutionalization and stability of legal processes.
Political conditions: characteristics of the political processes and institutions in a
society, such as the general form of government (socialism, communism, capitalism,
and so on; degree of centralization, fragmentation, or federalism) and the degree
of political stability (Carroll, Delacroix, and Goodstein, 1988). More direct and
specific conditions include electoral outcomes, political party alignments and success,
and policy initiatives within regimes.

Economic conditions: levels of prosperity, inflation, interest rates, and tax rates;
characteristics
of labor, capital, and economic markets within and between nations.
Demographic conditions: characteristics of the population such as age, gender, race,
religion, and ethnic categories.
Ecological conditions: characteristics of the physical environment, including climate,
geographical characteristics, pollution, natural resources, and the nature and density
of organizational populations.
Cultural conditions: predominant values, attitudes, beliefs, social customs, and
socialization processes concerning such things as sex roles, family structure, work
orientation, and religious and political practices.
12. How do general values and institutions of the political economy, such as provision
of the U.S. Constitution, influence management and organizations in government?
13. What are competence and responsiveness values, and what are their implications for
public management?

Chapter 4 Writing Assignments and Reports

1. Using a nonprofit entity and a public agency as examples, prepare a memo


describing their general environmental conditions along the following lines:
technological, legal, political economic, environmental, ecological, and cultural.
2. How do Lawrence and Lorsch define differentiation and integration in their 1967
paper, which appeared in the Administrative Science Quarterly? What basic
propositions did they make with respect to how organizations and organizational
sub-units adapt? Describe their research findings.
3. Describe the mechanisms for institutional isomorphic change as posited by
DiMaggio and Powell (1983). What organizational and field-level variables predict
isomorphism according to their claims? Is there research evidence to support their
claims?
4. Describe a change in rules or policy that has occurred where you work or at the
university. Where did the impetus for change come from? How did the organization
respond to pressures for change?
5. Discuss the concepts of organizational environment and environmental domain and
their use as a framework for analyzing public organizations. Is this a good
framework?
6. Describe and contrast two organizations in terms of their technical core. What
conditions may affect the core? How would you propose to buffer against such
conditions?
7. Describe a public agency or department and discuss the institutions that define it
or characterize it.
8. Chose a public agency or department and describe the ways societal values and
institutions influence its operation.
9. Compare and contrast the assumptions and main claims according to the resource
dependence theory and transaction cost economic theory. What evidence exists to
support or refute each? What problems or limitations are associated with these lines
of research?

Chapter 5: The Impact of Political Power and Public


Policy

Chapter 5 Key Terms


Issue networks
Policy subsystems
Iron triangle
Agency Capture

Mass publics
Interest groups
Privatization
Garbage can model of decision making
Attentive publics
Policy instruments

Chapter 5 Discussion Questions

1. Describe how the following entities can influence public managers and public
organizations. What formal and informal authority do they have that enables them to
exert such influence?
a. Public opinion
b. The media
c. Interest groups, clients, and constituents
d. Legislative bodies
e. Chief executive
f. The courts
g. Other agencies and other levels of government
h. The public policy process
2. Name and describe two theories of the policy process.
3. What key authors are associated with literature on the policy process?
4. What key authors are associated with the role of interest groups and other main
actors involved in the policy process?
5. What is a policy instrument, and how is it used?

Chapter 5 Writing Assignments and Reports

1. What is meant by the terms hollow state and networks? How do they complicate the
lines of authority and accountability in a public organization? Give examples.
2. Choose a policy example and its associated influences. What main actors are closely
involved with the policy? Who are the major stakeholders? Which term more
accurately reflects the influences, iron triangle or issue network? How would you
describe the relationships and influences of all the parties involved?
3. Most public agencies have websites that describe their work. Likewise, many
nonprofits have mission statements that are published. Describe ways in which
formal political authority might affect the goals or missions of each organization. In
which case are political influences more pervasive?
4. Chapter 5 makes clear that there is no neat way to package the policy process. In
fact, it can be complex, nonlinear, and unpredictable. In what ways does Kingdons

theory try to make sense of the policy process? What other theories of the policy
process have currency in public administration and management literature?
5. What should a public manager know about policy instruments?

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