ASPA Series in Public Administration and Public Policy - Böcker

In a recent paradigm shift, local governments find themselves shouldering more responsibility for day-to-day governance and crisis management, thanks to regulations and federal spending cuts. While 20 years ago a book on local government administration might have been considered complete with chapters on budgeting, public personnel management, productivity and responsivity, and community engagement, any discussion of local government must now also include resilience, emergency management, climate change, smart cities, social media, and infrastructure funding. Bringing together key voices from the academic and public sectors, Local Government Management offers techniques and insight into how local government can most effectively lead and manage their resources in an evolving political—and environmental—landscape.Featuring examples from expert contributors’ own decades of public service and research, this forward-thinking book explores the rapid speed of change in local communities and the need for local government to not only adapt but also proactively plan for the future. Local Government Management is essential reading for local government officials, public stakeholders, practitioners, and students of public administration and management.

In addition to traditional management tools, government administrators require a fundamental understanding of the tools available to address the ever-changing context of government communications. Examining the ins and outs of the regulations influencing public information, The Practice of Government Public Relations unveils novel ways to integrate cutting-edge technologies—including Web 2.0 and rapidly emerging social media—to craft and maintain a positive public image.Expert practitioners with extensive government communications experience address key topics of interest and provide an up-to-date overview of best practices. They examine the specifics of government public relations and detail a hands-on approach for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the wide-ranging aspects of government public relations—including how to respond during a crisis.In addition to the tools provided on the accompanying downloadable resources, most chapters include a Best Practice Checklist to help you successfully utilize the communication strategies outlined in the book. Focusing on the roles of government managers enacting policies adopted by elected officials and politicians, this book is ideal for program managers seeking innovative and inexpensive ways to accomplish their programs’ missions. While no manager can be an expert in all aspects of public administration, this book helps you understand the external communications tools available to advance the mission and results of your agency.

Gone are the days when researchers, policymakers, and practitioners each worked in isolation. In recent years, a few interrelated issues have emphasized the need for greater collaboration among these groups: the increased emphasis on results and accountability (particularly where public funds are at stake), the need to improve services, and the growing use of technology. This book is about these all-important partnerships, specifically the relationships between those searching for evidence and those putting evidence to use, designing and implementing policy at the federal, state, or local level.Yet the science or art of how to create partnerships and how to make them work has just begun. This book offers the reader a toolkit for effective researcher/policymaker collaborations by exploring innovations underway around the country and developing an analytic framework to describe the process. It asks questions such as: What can we learn from these examples? How can and should partners communicate? Where should partners plan together, and where is it best to leave some separation to respect the differences in our roles? Through carefully chosen and organized case studies, this book demonstrates the motivations that lead to partnerships, the core elements of successful implementation, and the lessons to be learned about sustaining these relationships. It further examines the use of research once the research phase has concluded, as well as the ever-important consideration of investing in collaboration by both non-profit and public sector funders. For policymakers, this book offers a greater appreciation of the role of research in the policy process and new insights into different types of research. For researchers, the book provides insights into how best to formulate questions, how to work closely with those most affected, and how to communicate findings in ways that can be more easily understood by those who are depending on clear answers. Students of public policy, public administration, social work, and education will find much to inform future roles in research, policy or practice.

Underlining the relationship between the public and nonprofit sectors, Effective Nonprofit Management: Context, Concepts, and Competencies, 2nd Edition comprehensively explores of the practical art of forming, managing, and leading nonprofit organizations, contextualizing the changing socio-political conditions and expectations of key stakeholders in nonprofit organizations. Grounded in the practical experiences of real-life nonprofit managers, this thoroughly revised second edition explores contemporary issues that are becoming central to effective nonprofit management, including: an increasing emphasis on outcome assessment and accountability; innovative use of social media; big foundations’ impacts on nonprofits and public policy making; tensions between federal, state, and local governments with nonprofits; and the importance of instilling a culture of ethics in the sector. A completely new chapter on nonprofit ethics and accountability has been added. Each chapter introduces the reader to relevant and current scholarship on the topic, utilizes the language of nonprofit practice, explores contemporary issues and examples, provides practical tips, includes text boxes with profiles of nonprofit organizations and best practices, and ends with a short and practical case study followed by discussion questions. Effective Nonprofit Management, Second Edition will be of interest to practitioners as well as graduate and upper division undergraduate students enrolled in nonprofit and public management courses.

This volume considers how local, national, and global crises with differing durations, sizes, and impacts challenge the public sector to respond.Within the public administration and policy disciplines, there has been limited recognition about the nature of, linkages among, and the response options for crises and polycrises, when more than one crisis, emergency, disaster, or catastrophe (whether human-caused or natural) simultaneously impacts citizens in one geographical location. This handbook gathers experts from different fields to explore how each crisis challenges human capacity, information technology, and communication capabilities, and how public leaders must respond. These expert contributions are grouped within five thematic sections:Structures in Crisis: A North-South Dialogue, to engage national and global perspectives on how political, social, and economic structures respond during crisesAgents in Crisis: A Cross-Actor Dialogue, on how agents respond to crisesHuman Capital and Information Technology in Crisis, exploring how these resources interact during crisesPublic Sector Communication in Crisis, examining issues of government and governance in effective crisis communicationPractitioners in Crisis, a reminder to the discipline that important context and realities are missed if practitioner realities are overlooked.Chapters in the book engage 23 countries and one overseas dependency along with 14 crisis events. Eighteen chapters are focused on one crisis event while ten chapters directly or indirectly engage polycrises.As crises and polycrises become a constancy of our time, this volume will be of great interest to students, researchers, and practitioners of public administration and public policy.

Through three comprehensive editions, Government Contracting: Ethical Promises and Perils in Public Procurement has been lauded for exposing fraud, incompetence, waste, and abuse (FIWA) and analyzing corruption, mismanagement, and ineptitude that defile government contracting. The first two editions thoroughly outlined procurement throughout the contracting cycle including initial planning, evaluating proposals, contractor selection, contract administration, contract closeout, and auditing. They further provided much-needed guidance on contracting documents, management tools, and processes for addressing negative influences on government contracting.This third edition incorporates the results of a new nationwide study into best public procurement practice, as well as recent examples of real-world procurement fraud cases, offering recommendations for procurement practices to deter fraud. Public procurement tools such as requests for proposals, pro forma contracts, proposal evaluation forms, sole source justification and approval forms, and other useful tools including PowerPoint presentations are provided on a website to accompany the book. This textbook is aimed at postgraduate students and academics working in the fields of public administration, policy and procurement, along with public procurement professionals.

Growing local economies, empowering communities, revitalizing downtowns, developing entrepreneurship, building leadership, and enhancing nonprofits — you can achieve all these benefits and more with a comprehensive and strategic revitalization plan. Chronicling the struggle of local revitalization as organizers move from trial and error to effective revitalization strategies, Promoting Sustainable Local and Community Economic Development documents the current transformation in community revitalization from market-based incentives to mixed strategies of public sector learning, partnerships, and community capacity. Knowledge about the field and what works is growing, but not always publicized and readily accessible. This reference surveys the breadth of innovative place and people development practices, presenting lessons and examples at a general and textured level, putting information about innovative ways to change, influence, and improve the economic development process within easy reach. Roland Anglin brings his unique vantage point to the topic; his experience as a practitioner and applied academic allowed him to see how community economic development practices grow over time in size, scale, and impact. He highlights the difference between what is now termed community economic development (CED) and traditional local economic development practice, specifically the priority placed on community involvement in economic development partnerships between the private sector and government. The book includes case studies that demonstrate what has and has not worked in revitalization efforts, as well as how active public and private sector partnerships have been the most effective in revitalization efforts. A Resource Guide is included at the end of the book for readers who may want a more expansive understanding of community economic development.

From the early postwar period until his death at the turn of the century, Dwight Waldo was one of the most authoritative voices in the field of public administration. Through probing questions, creative ideas, and novel insights, he perhaps contributed more than any other single figure to the development of public administration as a discipline in the mid-20th century, from his classic, masterful debut The Administrative State (1948) to his last published book, The Enterprise of Public Administration (1980). In this new look at Dwight Waldo’s writing, Richard Stillman offers a representative selection of Waldo’s most important works alongside introductory essays to help a seasoned public administration scholar as well as the novice student alike appreciate and comprehend Waldo’s remarkable contribution to this critical field of study. Selections have been chosen for their ability to speak to current and ongoing concerns of the field in the 21st century as well as for their utility, readability, and importance. This anthology provides new generations of readers with a fresh look at the work of this prolific, profoundly influential author, while offering both administrative scholars and practitioners renewed access to many of his hard-to-find works. This book will be required reading for all those interested in public administration as a field of inquiry and practice.

Public agencies at the federal, state, and local levels are realizing just how important it is to assess and improve their current performance and to convey information on their achievements and opportunities to staff, leaders, and decision makers as well as externally to constituents. Organizational Assessment and Improvement in the Public Sector Workbook provides public administration practitioners, at all levels of government, with practical advice and tools they can use in planning and conducting an assessment of their organization and creating usable action plans for implementing the results.This workbook addresses how to:Determine whether an organizational assessment would benefit a particular organizationEvaluate organizational readiness for assessment, in terms of leadership support, organizational priorities, timing, staff engagement, time and energy, and financial resourcesSelect an assessment tool and method Influence decision makers and identify organizational championsCommunicate effectively to internal and external constituentsEngage employees in the processThe book guides decision making about assessment by creating awareness of the available options and considerations, and by providing a framework for discussions that will determine the right approach for an agency. Each chapter consists of both information and tools, including surveys, exercises, and worksheets which can be used by agencies at all levels to determine whether and how to conduct a meaningful organizational assessment, and how to turn the results of that assessment into organizational improvements. Designed specifically to meet the needs of government organizations, using language and examples that illustrate the challenges and the realities of working in the public sector, this workbook provides the tools to help practitioners "do more with less" and promote

Most contemporary public managers will work in some type of collaborative or networked arrangement at some time in their professional careers. More and more work in public administration and policy is now being done in collaborative formats, and while there are many studies, articles, and cases describing successful endeavors, a good deal of confusion persists about what, exactly, makes them work. What are the best practices? This book focuses on the processes, protocols, and incentives needed for successful collaborative endeavors. Moving beyond new public governance theories and the limits of new public management, Chandler uniquely focuses on the facilitative skills and tools that members and facilitators need for success in collaborative work. Written by an author with both academic and practical experience in organizing, developing, leading, and facilitating public-private collaboratives, this book has both an academic thrust and an action focus, drawing on case studies from the fields of health and human services to highlight important theoretical and/or practice points. Making Collaboratives Work is required reading for undergraduate and graduate public-administration students of collaborative management, nonprofit administration, organizational theory and practice, communications, public policy, and leadership. The book is also ideally suited to public administrators and nonprofit managers asked to work in public-private partnerships and collaboratives to solve complex problems.

Nationwide, approximately 1,000 Community Action agencies advocate for the poor and provide diverse but critical services such as (but not limited to) emergency food and shelter, energy bill assistance, weatherization, education, job training, transportation, housing, and health services. In the face of dynamic environments and shifting poverty needs, Community Action agencies are constantly seeking innovative ways to effectively address poverty in their communities while building their internal capacity to ensure sustained impact and outcomes. This book focuses on the major leadership roles and responsibilities of the Community Action leaders, the types of challenges they face, and how they address those challenges, covering questions such as: How do Community Action leaders identify the needs of low-income people and use that knowledge to tailor programs to meet those needs?In what ways are low-income people involved in Community Action agencies (e.g. board or advisory council members, volunteers, employees, advocates)? What are the advantages and disadvantages associated with their participation?How do the leaders and their staff assess and demonstrate the effectiveness of their organizations and programs? What challenges do they encounter in assessing and communicating performance?What approaches are Community Action leaders using to diversify their revenues? What are the advantages and challenges associated with those approaches?How are the leaders developing their staffs and preparing for leadership succession? How do the leaders benefit from an affiliation with state and national associations?Through original and comprehensive research undertaken by the Center for State Policy and Leadership at the University of Illinois Springfield and the Illinois Association of Community Action Agencies (IACAA), this book is designed to inform and enhance leadership in Community Action agencies and other nonprofit or government organizations with similar missions. It is written in a nontechnical manner and includes a chapter on the history and evolution of Community Action agencies for readers who are unfamiliar with Community Action and the War on Poverty. It will be required reading for professionals working at the frontlines of income inequality, as well as university professors and their students in the fields of public administration, nonprofit management, and social work.

Two forms of local government are prevalent in American cities. The style of leadership found in mayor-council cities draws attention to the mayor and frequently involves power struggles as mayors attempt to assert control over city councils and city staff. However, the leadership of the mayor in council-manager cities can be less visible and easily overlooked. The Facilitative Leader in City Hall: Reexamining the Scope and Contributions boldly suggests a collaborative model for leadership that identifies what is unique in the council-manager setting. Mayors acting as facilitative leaders can successfully guide their cities drawing on the contributions of the council and the manager rather than attempting to drive them. Scholar James H. Svara builds on his work in the 1994 book Facilitative Leadership in Local Government, and provides a more critical analysis of the mayor’s office in a wider variety of cities. This book examines the model of facilitative leadership and the importance of vision in explaining the nature of mayoral leadership and its effect on the performance of city government. It analyzes responses from a 2001 national survey of city council members and examines the findings of fourteen case studies of mayors who have served in recent years. The book features ten case studies from council-manager cities, three from mayor-council cities, and one from Denmark that highlights the importance of culture as well as formal structure in understanding leadership style. This book reexamines facilitative leadership across forms of government and addresses two questions: can mayors without separate formal powers be effective leaders? And alternatively, can mayors with formal powers provide more effective leadership by using facilitative approaches? The unexpected answer to both questions is "yes." As cities face the challenge of adapting to new approaches to governance, all mayors need to lead with facilitation and vision.

Calls for performance measures and metrics sound good, but public sector organizations often lack the tools required to assess the organization as a whole and create true change.In order to implement an integrated cycle of assessment, planning, and improvement, government agencies at all levels need a usable framework for organizational assessment that speaks to their unique needs. Organizational Assessment and Improvement in the Public Sector provides that framework, an understanding of assessment itself, and a methodology for assessment focused on the public sector. The book introduces the concept of organizational assessment, its importance, and its significance in public sector organizations. It addresses the organizational theory that underlies assessment, including change management, organizational and individual learning, and organizational development. Building on this, the author focuses on the processes and demonstrates how the communication that results from an assessment process can create a widely accepted case for change. She presents a model grounded in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program criteria but adapted for the culture of government organizations. She also addresses the criteria that form the basis for assessment and implementation and provides examples and best practices. Facing decreasing budgets and an increasing demand for services, government agencies must increase their capabilities, maximize their available fiscal and human resources, and increase their effectiveness and efficiency. They often operate in an atmosphere that prizes effectiveness but measures it in silos assigned to individual programs and a structure that encourages people to do more with less while systematically discouraging efficiency. Stressing the significant and important differences between a business and a government, this book supplies the knowledge and tools necessary to create a culture of assessment in government organizations at all levels.

A guidebook through the minefield of government contracting and procurement, Government Contracting: Promises and Perils describes the dangerous practices commonly applied in the development and management of government contracts and provides advice for avoiding the sort of errors that might compromise their ability to protect the public interest. It includes strategies for increasing profits for government contractors, rather than incurring burdensome costs, through compliance with government mandated subcontracting and financial management systems.Drawing from his indepth investigation of government agencies across the country, the author examines present-day scenarios that regularly lead public servants and government committees to manage contracts with tools that are less than optimal and to select contractors that may not be the best qualified. He then delineates practical processes, contracting documents, and contract management tools to mitigate detrimental outcomes and alternative approaches to supplant the imperfect methodologies. The author includes a CD-ROM with the book that provides a number of practical tools that you can apply as well as examples of contracts and templates that are the best he discovered during his research. The book also outlines an approach for performing advance contract planning, conducting contract negotiations, and administering contracts useful when planning for the management of the contracting process throughout the contracting cycle, negotiating a contract that protects the interest of all contracting parties, and ensuring successful contractor performance. The book includes a "Government Procurement Corruption Wall of Shame" that illustrates the myriad perils and stumbling blocks such as conflicts of interest, duplicity, favoritism, incompetence, kickbacks, and protests that government workers fall prey to.. Filled with best practices that protect you from nefarious, amateurish, and criminal mistakes that frequently lead to difficulties with harsh consequences, the book does not end its coverage with discussions of corruption, mismanagement, and ineptitude, but provides practical processes and strategies to diminish the negative impacts from these government contracting perils.

Growing local economies, empowering communities, revitalizing downtowns, developing entrepreneurship, building leadership, and enhancing nonprofits — you can achieve all these benefits and more with a comprehensive and strategic revitalization plan. Chronicling the struggle of local revitalization as organizers move from trial and error to effective revitalization strategies, Promoting Sustainable Local and Community Economic Development documents the current transformation in community revitalization from market-based incentives to mixed strategies of public sector learning, partnerships, and community capacity. Knowledge about the field and what works is growing, but not always publicized and readily accessible. This reference surveys the breadth of innovative place and people development practices, presenting lessons and examples at a general and textured level, putting information about innovative ways to change, influence, and improve the economic development process within easy reach. Roland Anglin brings his unique vantage point to the topic; his experience as a practitioner and applied academic allowed him to see how community economic development practices grow over time in size, scale, and impact. He highlights the difference between what is now termed community economic development (CED) and traditional local economic development practice, specifically the priority placed on community involvement in economic development partnerships between the private sector and government. The book includes case studies that demonstrate what has and has not worked in revitalization efforts, as well as how active public and private sector partnerships have been the most effective in revitalization efforts. A Resource Guide is included at the end of the book for readers who may want a more expansive understanding of community economic development.

Market disruptions, climate change, and health pandemics lead the growing list of challenges faced by today’s leaders. These issues, along with countless others that do not make the daily news, require novel thinking and collaborative action to find workable solutions. However, many administrators stumble into collaboration without a strategic orientation. Using a practitioner-oriented style, Strategic Collaboration in Public and Nonprofit Administration: A Practice-Based Approach to Solving Shared Problems provides guidance on how to collaborate more effectively, with less frustration and better results. The authors articulate an approach that takes advantage of windows of opportunity for real problem solving; brings multi-disciplinary participants to the table to engage more systematically in planning, analysis, decision making, and implementation; breaks down barriers to change; and ultimately, lays the foundation for new thinking and acting. They incorporate knowledge gained from organization and collaboration management research and personal experience to create a fresh approach to collaboration practice that highlights: Collaboration Lifecycle ModelMetric for determining why and when to collaborateSet of principles that distinguish Strategic Collaboration PracticeOverall Framework of Strategic CollaborationLinking collaboration theory to effective practice, this book offers essential advice that fosters shared understanding, creative answers, and transformation results through strategic collaborative action. With an emphasis on application, it uses scenarios, real-world cases, tables, figures, tools, and checklists to highlight key points. The appendix includes supplemental resources such as collaboration operating guidelines, a meeting checklist, and a collaboration literature review to help public and nonprofit managers successfully convene, administer, and lead collaboration. The book presents a framework for engaging in collaboration in a way that stretches current thinking and advances public service practice.

Change is sweeping the globe, and at the government level, operational changes are prompting many public administrators to develop new management styles and ways of delivering services to their citizens. In the process, they are changing the face of government. The New Face of Government: How Public Managers are Forging a New Approach to Governance explores how national leaders are changing the art and practice of government and how public managers are shaping and guiding government’s response to the transformation. Includes a Field-Tested Survey for Diagnosing Institutional Disequilibrium Focusing on change at the federal, state, and local levels, this book addresses policy dimensions such as: Strategic and knowledge managementEnterprise architectureInformation and communications technologyOrganizational performance assessmentTechnological and organizational improvementIt evaluates how these areas enable agencies from the public and private sectors to become more cost-effective, performance-oriented learning organizations. Not all the ambiguities in policy making and administration have been resolved. However, there is much hope for the future of government and governance. The successes and failures included in The New Face of Government: How Public Managers are Forging a New Approach to Governance illustrate this promise and provide guideposts for public managers who find themselves faced with similar problems and new challenges. About the Author:David E. McNabb teaches a variety of public and private administration and management courses both in the U.S. and abroad, including college and university programs in Latvia, Bulgaria, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, and Belgium. He is the author of nearly 80 peer-reviewed conference papers and articles. This is his seventh book.

The community that establishes and maintains a solid economic framework greatly improves its chances of sustaining itself through fluctuations in the economy. The question is, of course, how can city officials and administrators make this happen? The Formula for Economic Growth on Main Street America examines why economic growth during the late twentieth century was marked by the dramatic rise of some communities and the equally stunning demise of others. This book identifies the key components of sustained economic growth as well as the policies, actions, and inactions that are precursors to the decline of local economies. Based on the author’s 25 years of experience as president of one of America’s foremost economic development agencies, and his involvement in assisting communities around the world, the book shows how to assess the needs of communities and details what is needed to put plans in place. Drawing on case studies, the book illustrates lessons learned and how they can be applied, including: What steps elected and administrative officials can take to stabilize and enhance the growth of their cities Why the growth of some communities within a single regional marketplace can dramatically outpace that of neighbors possessing similar locations and assets How communities can establish programs that sustain economic growth and provide jobs—without raising taxesAs communities struggle to cope with diminished tax revenues, the idea of achieving sustainable growth without raising taxes seems too good to be true. Tapping into the same strategies that allowed Fairfax County, Virginia, to enjoy triple-digit job growth while reducing property taxes, Dr. Gerald Gordon provides the framework and strategies to weather most economic storms and chart a course toward sustainable economic development.

Much of the published work on disaster response has focused on specific disasters, highlighting what went wrong. Taking a new approach, this book explores ways in which transformational leadership principles may be applied to an organization’s disaster preparation and response, moving the organization away from a competitive or top-down approach and toward a more collaborative one. Rather than focus on centralizing responsibility, with commands emanating from the top, author William Lester offers readers a new paradigm, with step by step instructions on placing transformative and collaborative systems front and center, in order to develop a sustainable disaster response system – one that is not centered on a specific leader or time, but instead focuses on the changes needed to build a system that can outlive any one leader. Implementation plans to move from concept into workable, effective strategies that can be used immediately are included. Assuming no prior background in either organizational theory or disaster response systems, the book offers practical examples and hands-on explorations of the responses to Hurricanes Sandy, Harvey, Irma, and Maria, written by experts who know those disasters best – delivering important insight into what elements make the best disaster response system.

Ethical concerns are among the most common problems public administrators face, yet the issues are often complex, and the correct choices are not always clear. Living up to the public trust is much more than just an act of compliance. It also involves perceiving, preventing, avoiding, and resolving accusations of illegal or unethical behavior, including appearances of inappropriate behavior. Ethics Moments in Government: Cases and Controversies examines how to identify, assess, and resolve the ethical issues and dilemmas that often confront those who govern the cities, counties, states, and federal agencies throughout America.Real Situations, Real AdviceProviding a one-stop resource for all those who must contend with thorny ethical issues, this volume presents case studies that vary in complexity and context and are based on real situations. Each case scenario is followed by discussion questions and case assessments by expert practitioners who describe how they would handle the situation. Using a "total immersion" technique, the book encourages readers to be reflexive and analytical in addressing the problems presented and arriving at appropriate solutions. A supplemental CD is included which contains PowerPoint® slide presentations, articles, workshop programs, tests, and links to organizations.For many of the scenarios presented in this volume, there are no easy answers. Practical guidance on reasoning through difficult decision-making situations enables public administrators to acquire the ethical knowledge, skills, abilities, and instincts that will ultimately help them gain the trust of their citizens and advance in their careers.

Employers face a myriad of issues when hiring: how to recruit, whom to select, how to interview, Equal Employment Opportunity policies, fair salary offerings, health issues, performance evaluations, behavior/disciplinary actions, turnover, and the list goes on and on. Practical Human Resources Management for Public Managers: A Case Study Approach provides insight into human resource trends and demonstrates how complex situations can be successfully managed by public sector practitioners. The authors take us step by step into the "real world" with examples of historical events that compare "What Happened" with "What Could Have Happened" as well as suggested readings for more in-depth analysis and important points to remember. Exploring the space between theory and what actually occurs in the world, this book supplies instructional case studies based upon actual events. The authors introduce key human resources issues with clear, concise language and provide techniques to address these issues in a real-world setting. The case studies cover legal and liability issues, recruiting and hiring, employee performance, reward and discipline issues, retention, termination, workplace violence, mentorship, motivation, and managing through transitions. The authors bring know-how from a wide array of working environments, including teaching and administrative experience in public universities and management in municipalities of various population sizes from a few thousand to more than a million. They have also worked in a variety of capacities within these organizations, which allow them to see different perspectives on how different departments handle similar situations. They use their from-the-trenches knowledge to explore pragmatic ways to deal with human resource issues in public sector workplaces.

The complexity of governments today makes the accountability desired by citizens difficult to achieve. Written to address performance policies within state and national governments, Government Performance and Results: An Evaluation of GPRA’s First Decade summarizes lessons learned from a 10-year research project that evaluated performance reports produced by federal agencies under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). The results of this project can help answer a wide variety of questions in political economy and public administration, such as: What factors make performance reports relevant and informative?Has the quality of information disclosed to the public improved?Why do some agencies produce better reports than others?Has GPRA led to greater availability and use of performance information by federal managers?Has GPRA led to greater use of performance information in budget decisions?What steps would make federal management and budget decisions more performance oriented?The book documents the current state of the art in federal performance reporting, measures the extent of improvement, compares federal performance reports with those produced by state governments and other nations, and suggests how GPRA has affected management of federal agencies and resource allocation by policymakers. It also identifies obstacles that must be overcome if GPRA is to deliver on the promise of performance budgeting. The authors chronicle the improvements observed in federal performance reporting through the lens of the Mercatus Center’s annual Performance Report Scorecard.As budget shortfalls and new debt burdens increase interest in public management and budgeting techniques that allow governments to do more with less, this is an appropriate time to take stock of what GPRA has accomplished and what remains to be done. By comparing best performance reporting practices in the US federal government with those in states and other countries, this book speeds the diffusion of useful knowledge at a critical time.

A clear and practical examination of complex issues, Local Economic Development and the Environment: Finding Common Ground provides a broad, academic look at the intersection of two important areas for local administrators. In addition to managing development in a strained economic climate, most administrators are also expected to be stewards of the environment. However, economic conditions often leave them with limited options for pursuing economic development and, at the same time, being environmentally mindful. Many find themselves without a clear understanding of the concepts, tools, and best practices available to accomplish this herculean task. Translating complex environmental and economic concepts into easily applicable practices, the book:Gives practitioners the information they need to communicate with consultants, constituents, and officials, and to avoid ideological obstaclesCompares regulatory differences between states and other geographical differencesIncludes examples from across the country to highlight variations in environmental regulations and laws Provides technical, legal, and political insights into the process of pursuing local economic development projects that incorporate protection and awarenessContains case studies that demonstrate the concepts in action, allowing readers to fully grasp the complexities associated with sustainable economic developmentDiscusses how local administrators can balance the economic and environmental needs of the futureBridging the gap between policy-making intention and outcome, this book connects readers with a larger body of research that not only underpins practical applications but also helps them avoid legal, technical, and political obstacles. It provides an arsenal of best practices and everyday, easy-to-use strategies for optimizing the difficult balance between economic development and environmental protection.

City management in developing countries is a quickly growing area in current public administration literature. However, little research material can be found regarding the management of cities. Demonstrating the issues in this field, Challenges in City Management: A Case Study Approach brings the sometimes dry theories and concepts of urban planning and management to life. The author uses case studies to demonstrate "who," "what," "why," and "how," dramatically increasing readers’ ability to comprehend and apply the theories.Incorporating urban management and organizational management theories with actual practice, the author presents case studies based on observations made during her extensive experience. She offers multiple examples of common contemporary city topics ranging from personnel, policy-making, housing, homelessness, transportation, and budgeting. Each study describes and analyzes a scenario, identifying the economic and political factors as well as the often conflicting players and interest groups.The book provides enhanced understanding of the complex environment city administrators work in, helping readers develop improved decision-making and problem-solving skills through the study of real issues city administrators have experienced. The case study methodology used supplies information that is immediately applicable to real-world situations, making it a resource that city administrators can use to improve their public administration and governance skills.

Because of the complexity involved in understanding the environment, the choices made about environmental issues are often incomplete. In a perfect world, those who make environmental decisions would be armed with a foundation about the broad range of issues at stake when making such decisions. Offering a simple but comprehensive understanding of the critical roles science, economics, and values play in making informed environmental decisions, Environmental Decision-Making in Context: A Toolbox provides that foundation.The author highlights a primary set of intellectual tools from different disciplines and places them into an environmental context through the use of case study examples. The case studies are designed to stimulate the analytical reasoning required to employ environmental decision-making and ultimately, help in establishing a framework for pursuing and solving environmental questions, issues, and problems. They create a framework individuals from various backgrounds can use to both identify and analyze environmental issues in the context of everyday environmental problems.The book strikes a balance between being a tightly bound academic text and a loosely defined set of principles. It takes you beyond the traditional pillars of academic discipline to supply an understanding of the fundamental aspects of what is actually involved in making environmental decisions and building a set of skills for making those decisions.

Managing Digital Governance provides public administrators with a comprehensive, integrated framework and specific techniques for making the most of digital innovation to advance public values. The book focuses on the core issues that public administrators face when using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to produce and deliver public service, and to facilitate democratic governance, including efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and accountability.Offering insight into effectively managing growing complexity and fragmentation in digital technology, this book provides practical management strategies to address external and internal challenges of digital governance. External challenges include digital inclusiveness, open government, and citizen-centric government; internal ones include information and knowledge management, risk management for digital security and privacy, and performance management of information technologies. Unique in its firm grounding in public administration and management literature and its synergistic combination of theory and practice, Managing Digital Governance identifies future trends and ways to develop corresponding capacity while offering enduring lessons and time-tested digital governance management strategies. This book will serve as an invaluable resource for students, scholars, and practitioners in public administration, management, and governance who aspire to become leaders equipped to leverage digital technologies to advance public governance.

Dialog between practitioners and academics has increasingly become the exception rather than the rule in contemporary public administration circles. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, Debating Public Administration: Management Challenges, Choices, and Opportunities tackles some of the major management challenges, choices, and opportunities of the twenty-first century facing public managers across various subfields of public administration. Informed by contemporary pressures on public managers to reconceptualize purpose, redefine administrative rationality, recapitalize human assets, reengage resources, and revitalize democratic constitutionalism, the book offers students, practitioners, and researchers an opportunity to take stock and ponder the future of practice and research in public administration. Organized by three sets of major management challenges facing the field—Rethinking Administrative Rationality in a Democratic Republic, Recapitalizing Organizational Capacity, and Reconceptualizing Institutions for New Policy Challenges—the book takes an uncommon approach to the study of these topics. In it, leading practitioners and academics comment on condensed versions of articles appearing in the Theory to Practice feature of Public Administration Review (PAR) from 2006 through 2011. The authors and commentators focus on some of the best current research, draw lessons from that literature for practice, and identify gaps in research that need to be addressed. They expertly draw out themes, issues, problems, and prospects, providing bulleted lessons and practical takeaways. This makes the book a unique one-stop resource for cross-disciplinary, cross-sectoral, and cross-professional exchanges on contemporary challenges.

State fiscal decisions have a significant impact on the US economy. Taken together, subnational governments employ more than one out of every eight workers and provide the bulk of all basic governmental services consumed by individuals and businesses. Sustaining the States: The Fiscal Viability of American State Governments will give you a basic understanding of trends in, current status of, and future prospects for the fiscal sustainability of state governments. After reading this book, you should have a great appreciation for the reach and multiple contributions of state governments to individuals and communities across the nation. The book examines the broad range and depth of state revenues, responsibilities, and activities. It begins with an assessment of executive budgeting in the states, then presents the experiences of states with strong executive-driven systems and the various rules and institutions that impact state government budget discipline. The book goes on to examine state revenue sources, debt, pensions, and spending, honing in on vital state functions including education, transportation, health services and public safety. It concludes with an assessment of the challenges that will test the fiscal vibrancy of US state governments going forward: vulnerability to future economic downturns, growing dependence on an increasingly austere federal government, the obsolescence of state tax systems and an ever more coercive system of federalism.Edited by experts, with a hand-picked panel of contributors, the book delineates the resources that states generate and use to conduct the business of government. The chapters outline the very real and significant constraints on the ability of the states to fulfill their responsibilities and introduce several challenges that state governments face and are actively addressing as they strive for fiscal sustainability. These features provide a clear, realistic understanding of state operations and financing in the United States, today. The book should also leave you with a sense of optimism for the capacity of state governments to advance forward.

The current drug trafficking crisis between the US and Mexico is a "perfect storm" that has caused deaths, disappearances, and widespread fear of violence and insecurity in the border area between these two countries. Current US drug control policies with Mexico are based on a militarized system of border control and characterized by domestic gridlock over drug control and immigration reform. However, because drug trafficking and other underlying issues have both domestic and international consequences, they cannot be resolved unless both countries work together. Using the "Narcotrafico" Threat to Build Public Administration Capacity between the US and Mexico explores how they can do exactly that.Co-edited by two public administration scholars from Mexico and the US and comprising chapters by 18 other experts from Mexico, Canada, and the US, the book demonstrates how the current situation of drug trafficking and violence, on top of the other existing perceptions and conditions, creates a real opportunity for the US to build relationships with its Mexican counterparts at state, local, national, and NGO levels. With chapters written by leading experts working in a broad spectrum of international and domestic US-Mexico policy issues, the book covers immigration, drug flow and conflict, gun-running, money laundering, education and economic and community development in both countries.. Only by supporting bi-national drug policies based on mutual understanding of the border as something that both separates and unites the US and Mexico will it be possible to develop cooperative policies that can lead from militarization to regularization of the US-Mexico border. Twenty years after the signing of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) in 1994, it is time to recognize the link between effective drug control policies and the emergence of North America as a regional economic, social, and political powerhouse capable of successfully competing with the European Union, China, and other emerging regions in our increasingly globalized world, this book offers concrete, long-term solutions for building cooperative and shared public administrative capacity on both sides of the border.