1st Edition

Debating Public Administration Management Challenges, Choices, and Opportunities

Edited By Robert F. Durant, Jennifer R.S. Durant Copyright 2013
    368 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    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.

    PART I: Rethinking Administrative Rationality in a Democratic Republic
    Chapter 1: Managing Successful Organizational Change in the Public Sector
    Authors: Sergio Fernandez, Indiana University, and Hal G. Rainey, University of Georgia
    Commentators: Patrick E. Connor and Fred Thompson, Willamette University
    J. Christopher Mihm, Government Accountability Office
    Mary Tschirhart, University of North Carolina-Charlotte

    Chapter 2: Back to the Future? Performance-Related Pay, Empirical Research, and the Perils of Persistence
    Authors: James L. Perry, Trent A. Engbers, and So Yun Jun, Indiana University
    Commentators: David J. Houston, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
    Sanjay K. Pandey, Rutgers University
    Howard Risher, Risher Enterprises, Ltd.

    Chapter 3: From "Need to Know" to "Need to Share": Tangled Problems, Information Boundaries, and the Building of Public Sector Knowledge Networks
    Authors: Sharon S. Dawes, Anthony M. Cresswell, and Theresa A. Pardo, SUNY-Albany
    Commentators: Lisa Blomgren Bingham, Indiana University
    Sharon L. Caudle, Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University

    Chapter 4: Toward "Strong Democracy" in Global Cities? Social Capital Building, Theory-Driven Reform, and the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Experience
    Authors: Juliet Musso, University of Southern California; Christopher Weare, University of Southern California; Thomas Bryer, University of Central Florida; and Terry L. Cooper, University of Southern California
    Commentators: Brian J. Cook, Virginia Tech
    Tina Nabatchi, Syracuse University
    John Clayton Thomas, Georgia State University

    Chapter 5: Reinventing Administrative Prescriptions: The Case for Democratic-Constitutional Impact Statements and Scorecards
    Author: David H. Rosenbloom, American University
    Commentator: John M. Kamensky, IBM Center for the Business of Government

    PART II: Recapitalizing Organizational Capacity
    Chapter 6: Betting on the Future with a Cloudy Crystal Ball? How Financial Theory Can Improve Revenue Forecasting and Budgets in the States
    Authors: Fred Thompson and Bruce L. Gates, Willamette University
    Commentators: Roy T. Meyers, University of Maryland-Baltimore County
    Katherine G. Willoughby, Georgia State University

    Chapter 7: Managing Public Service Contracts: Aligning Values, Institutions, and Markets
    Authors: Trevor L. Brown, Ohio State University; Matthew Potoski, University of California-Santa Barbara; and David M. Van Slyke, Syracuse University
    Commentators: Ruth H. DeHoog, University of North Carolina-Greensboro
    Suzanne J. Piotrowski, Rutgers University-Newark
    Thomas F. Reilly, Clark County, Nevada
    Andrew B. Whitford, University of Georgia

    Chapter 8: A Return to Spoils? Revisiting Radical Civil Service Reform in the United States
    Authors: Stephen E. Condrey, Condrey and Associates, Inc., and R. Paul Battaglio, Jr., University of Texas-Dallas
    Commentators: Frank D. Ferris, Executive Vice President, National Treasury Employees Union
    Norma M. Riccucci, Rutgers University-Newark
    Frank J. Thompson, Rutgers University-Newark

    Chapter 9: A Solution in Search of a Problem? Discrimination, Affirmative Action, and the New Governance
    Author: Sally Coleman Selden, Lynchburg College
    Commentators: Domonic A. Bearfield, Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University
    Lael R. Keiser, University of Missouri-Columbia
    Sharon H. Mastracci, University of Illinois-Chicago

    PART III: Reconceptualizing Institutions for New Policy Challenges
    Chapter 10: Is the World "Flat" or "Spiky? Rethinking the Governance Implications of Globalization for Economic Development
    Authors: Richard C. Feiock, Florida State University; M. Jae Moon, Yonsei University; and Hyung Jun Park, Sungkyunkwan University
    Commentators: William Lyons, City of Knoxville, Tennessee and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville
    Laura A. Reese, Michigan State University
    John C. Morris, Old Dominion University, and Douglas J. Watson, University of Texas-Dallas

    Chapter 11: Spanning "Bleeding" Boundaries: Humanitarianism, NGOs, and the Civilian-Military Nexus in the Post-Cold War Era
    Author: Nancy C. Roberts, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School
    Commentator: Robert "Robin" H. Dorff, Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College

    Chapter 12: Left High and Dry? Climate Change, Common-Pool Resource Theory, and the Adaptability of Western Water Compacts
    Authors: Edella Schlager, University of Arizona, and Tanya Heikkila, University of Colorado-Denver
    Commentators: Elizabeth A. Graffy, U.S. Geological Survey and University of Wisconsin-Madison

    Biography

    Robert F Durant, Jennifer R.S. Durnat

    "In the following chapters, thanks to the immense talent and hard work of the editors, authors, and commentators, readers can catch a rare, insightful glimpse of innovative minds at work within modern public administration—even by whom, why, what, where, and how creative innovation is accomplished throughout the field. And maybe, just maybe, they will draw the conclusion that right now American public administration lives in an incredible golden age."
    —From the Foreword by Richard Stillman, Editor in Chief and Jos C. N. Raadschelders, Managing Editor, Public Administration Review, 2006-2011