Fall 2008 — Volume 37, Number 3
The Manager’s Musings
Warren Master
Overboard
As Sanford Borins states in his recently edited book Innovations in Government: Research, Recognition, and Replication (Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC, March 2008), during the past two decades, “the public sector has been … transformed (as much as the private sector), though perhaps in ways more visible to students of government than to the average citizen.” Some refer to such public-sector initiatives as reinventing government or citizen-centered governance; others, as public management revolution. Borins adds that the Harvard Kennedy School Innovations in American Government Awards Program (sponsored by the Ford Foundation) has helped institutionalize such novel thinking by “further disseminating innovative ideas and practices and promoting a culture of innovation within the public sector.”
The recent conference hosted by The Public Manager and the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA)—Transforming Bureaucratic Cultures: Challenges and Solutions for Public Management Practitioners—represented another effort to share innovative practices that have proven successful in a variety of public-sector settings. The inaugural two-day event featured more than one hundred “volunteer” speakers and moderators drawn from federal, state, and local government agencies; public nonprofits; the public management consulting and training community; and schools of public administration. With six tracks focused on such applied topics as performance, accountability, human capital, technology, communication, and governance, the conference offered more than thirty concurrent sessions and workshops, as well as plenary sessions that framed the challenges, discussed the emerging multisector workforce, and considered an agenda for the next administration.
It strikes me that the overarching challenge in addressing these thematic transformational challenges is inherent in the nature of bureaucracy itself. That is, how does one make fundamental changes in the culture of an organization whose modus operandi is to ensure exogenous factors (even ideas) don’t take it off track—keep the organization from straying from its original game plan? Notwithstanding this built-in Weberian conflict, as presentations at the recent conference and the Kennedy School Program demonstrate, there nevertheless seems to be a revolution going on out there. So … while others ponder how this can be possible, we’ll just have to be content with catching bureaucrats in the act of venturing away from the norm and seducing them into sharing their stories.
Casting Off
Our feature article in the fall issue is contributed by James Edwin Kee and Kathryn E. Newcomer, who also have recently written a book on a related topic, Transforming Public and Nonprofit Organizations: Stewardship for Leading Change (Management Concepts, Vienna, VA, 2008). Their piece on why change efforts fail and what leaders can do about it includes lots of ground-level insight on how to set the stage and manage the change effort once underway. Next up is Marty Goldberg and Tracy Haugen, who offer their experience and perspectives on a new generation of change solutions for public bureaucracies. What follows is a peek into the process of creating a “super” agency in San Diego County, California, by Jackie Werth and Dale Fleming. And a team of firsthand experts, Perry R. Cooper, Roger E. Miller, Donald L. Faust, and Daniel Kachenchai, share their take on transforming this country’s leviathan military health system. Shifting gears, Satish Nambisan provides some interesting views on how collaborative innovation can be the key to transforming government.
New Tacks
An article on performance management, written by Mary L. Stewart, takes us down a narrower lane—on how a data exchange can be used as a benchmarking tool. Tacking in the direction of HR concerns, Roz Kleeman has organized a mini-forum on how to manage the federal brain drain—including articles by William Bransford, Steven A. Glazer, Joe Mancias, Jr., Carson Eoyang, and John Stone III. Also in the area of human resources management, Bill Trahant enumerates six communication secrets of top-performing organizations, Howard and Marilyn Balanoff edify and update us on the national certified public manager program, and Tony Bingham talks about the talent factor.
Other Moorings
In addition to these case-oriented articles, Samantha Donaldson speculates on the appeal of public service, and Myra Shiplett captures three related accomplishments and inspirational public-service stories recognized at the ASPA National Capital Area Chapter’s recent awards ceremony in Washington, DC. Three book reviews follow: (1) Tim Dirks cogitates over a road map for improving human capital practices in the federal government, (2) Patricia McGinnis reflects on the value of smart power in a time of transition, and (3) Warren Master, c’est moi, looks into genocide and the ethics of public management. Saving the light-hearted curmudgeon Grimaldi for last, we serve up his one-pager Recount, The Movie!