Pubic Administration? What Is Public Administration? Marc

¶ … Pubic Administration?

What is Public Administration?

Marc Holzer -- in the good company of thousands of colleagues in public administration and business -- embraced the box. The box serves to as a frame to our thinking, acts as scaffolding to our decision-making, and serves our innate tendency as human beings to create meaningful patterns from our experience. And how better to improve on the box, than to further divide it into four boxes -- each of which represents the tensions we experience regarding whatever we have put into the box. The box is familiar as it serves many disciplines. Economists may love the box more than any other group, save management consultants. That said, quadrants are a useful heuristic, and I utilize that attribute here in my version as applied to public administration and the management of non-profits.

The Quadrants

The four quadrants I describe are, on the vertical axis, Subjective / Uncertain / Flexible and Objective / Certain / Controlled, and on the horizontal axis, Policy / Politics / External and Business / Economics / Internal. Further exploration of the quadrants shows an action-oriented phrase, included to describe how the thinking and decision-making within a quadrant influences the ability of the public administrators to make things happen. Making Things Happen is the nexus where all the vectors from the four quadrants intersect, and the balance or imbalance of those factors determines the nature of the action that results.

The quadrant labeled Policy / Politics / External represents the rule-making bodies who, after laborious and costly study, determine what is right and what is profitable. And then some time is devoted to the best way to execute the policies, while still ensuring that one's own constituents are well-served. The symbol in this quadrant is a pick-up truck, which is driving the agenda by steering toward a goal with the confidence born of brute clout. It is important to note that the bed of the pick-up contains tons -- often over and above the tested capacity -- of earmarked baggage. So heavy is the load that it often causes the vehicle to skid off track. This is what policy analysis was designed for, but it is generally not met with much enthusiasm by either policymakers or policy implementers. Wildavsky wrote, "There are men so convinced of the ultimate righteousness of their cause that they cannot imagine why anyone would wish to know how well they are doing in handling our common difficulties" (Wildavsky, 1969).

The quadrant labeled Business / Economics / Internal represents implementation of policy and response to political forces -- those external forces that set and drive the agenda for implementers. This is the province of the street-level bureaucrat who must figure out how to implement the policy directives delivered by political agents. The street-level bureaucrat experiences considerable discretionary opportunities, which can be both good and bad. Discretion is good -- some would say necessary -- because policy very often is delivered with bugs or inherent flaws that make implementation by the letter difficult and, on occasion, impossible. Discretion is bad -- here, some would say deliberately diverting -- because it can result in substantive policy slippage. Street-level bureaucrats have devised an array of coping devices to assist them with the realities of implementing policy, and in this respect, they are responsible for determining the direction of policy once it hits the streets. For non-profits, these dynamics translate well to the tyranny of grant funding. For instance, the question becomes can the agency now execute all that it has promised in order to obtain funding? The arrow in this quadrant would indicate uni-directionality but that is clearly not the case. The goal is to appear to be implementing policy as directed while simultaneously adapting implementation to the constraints and demands of the work (Lipsky, 1980).

The quadrant labeled Objective / Certain / Controlled represents theories of organization, organization development, and organizational management. As a nod to the early work of Frederick Taylor and Max Weber, the figure associated with this quadrant is a factory. Control is a concept cherished by management theorists (note business management books that contain the word "control" in the title) and that is necessarily an important attribute of quality control and statistical control, etc. Gulick (1937) advanced organizational behavior in his argument that one's span of control structures the relationships between workers and managers in organizations. He identified three key factors that influence span of control: Diversification of function, time, and space. Much of what is emphasized in this quadrant has to do with following the rules as described by management and the reach of regulations.

The quadrant labeled Subjective / Uncertain / Flexible, represents the organic influence of individuals within the organization. From the perspective of an economist, this quadrant is human capital -- from an organizational perspective, the quadrant represents human resources. The predominant dynamic in this quadrant is creating meaningful work. Whether this goal is covert or overt within an organization, it exists for each individual regardless of their role. Studies completed by the Gallup Organization indicate that this one of the predominant elements of job satisfaction. In its way, the research completed by Gallup covers some of the same territory as the work of Maslow. When all the basic needs of individuals are met, what Maslow termed the deficiency needs, individuals become free to focus on the being needs -- self-esteem and self-actualization (Maslow, 1943). Engaging in meaningful work is foundational to a life that emphasizes the being needs.

Personal Management Philosophy

If it is not already apparent to the reader, from the tenor of this essay to this point, that my own personal management philosophy tilts heavily in the direction of the Subjective / Flexible / Creative quadrant, then I shall further clarify the matter through a brief mention of the work of Mary Parker Follett. When I review Follett's management philosophy -- keeping it within the context of the time known as the Roaring Twenties when women were flexing their independence like never before in this country -- I am reminded of the Scandinavian autonomous work groups. The quality work group practice relies on the motivation that each worker has for doing work that he or she can be proud of, that contributes to the overall reputation of the work group and the company, and that results in the type of quality that translates into product excellence and reasonable profit.