Chapter 11

     In chapter 11, it talks about the types of communication. The two types of communication are formal communication and informal communication. Communication is a very important role in organizations and public administration. Communication, although very important and very helpful, also has its flaws like everything else in this world.
     Formal communication is written messages that follow formal chains of command. According to the book, in organizations, managers tend to use more formal communication because the role of an agency's executive is to direct, coordinate, and control the activities of persons below them. One of the biggest issues faced when dealing with formal communication is cost efficiency. Formal communication, especially in large organizations, produces too much paperwork which is very cost heavy. Money must be spent to produce, process, and store formal communication. Another issue faced in a situation such as this is also that it is not environmentally savvy. Creating too much paperwork is not environmentally friendly and this causes issues with many people especially in today's society and the worry about global warming.
     The second form of communication, informal communication, is about oral communication that "flows inside and outside formal channels of communication and written communication that does not follow formal channels" (p.277). Informal communication usually is more informative than formal communication and is spread faster throughout an organization. Forms of informal communication are e-mails, faxes, photocopies, telephone answering machines, and voice mail. Informal communication is a lot more eco-friendly than formal communication but it too has its flaws. Informal communication is limited and prohibited during power outages, when the internet or phone lines are down.

Chapter 10

      In chapter 10, it talks about personality types, micromanagement, and approaches to leadership. The different types of personality are active-positive, active-negative, passive-positive, and passive-negative. Active-positive personality is when a person desires to reach goals and attain results above everything else. Active-negative is when a person feels the need to have power and keep it. Passive-positive is when a person tries to be loved and revered. Passive-negative is when a person stresses civic virtue.
     Micromanagement is when managers supervise too closely. When you have micromanagement, it prohibits employees to do their best work and reaching their full potential eventually. Also, micromanagement hurts overall vision because leaders that micromanage become too busy worrying about every little thing subordinates are doing. Of course, there should not be little management either. Leaders must balance out how much management is given. Part of being a good leader is to be able to help move people in new directions and help them reach their full potentials.
     Functions of leadership are "to define an agency's mission and goals, to be viewed as the institutional embodiment of its purpose, to defend its integrity, and to bring order to internal conflict" (p. 249). Leadership involves three levels of responsibility and control which are technical, managerial, and institutional. Leaders deal with problems dealing with performance at the technical level. At the managerial level, leaders mediate "between the lower levels of the agency and those who use its services and acquiring the resources needed to carry out its central functions" (p. 249). Leaders make long term policies and provide support to help the agency reach its goals in the institutional level.

LeMay, Michael C. (2006). “Balancing Values in the Administration of Public Policy”  Public Administration: Clashing Values in the Administration of Public Policy.  WADSWORTH CENGAGE Learning, 2nd edition.

Chapter 9

            In chapter 9, it talks about the functions of personnel in administration. A separate staff that serves line management is the human resource development (HRD). They are responsible for creating policies for people and positions in the public sector. Nationally, the system is run by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Human resources functions include “position classification, recruiting and selecting employees, negotiating with collective bargaining units, doing performance appraisals of current employees, and conducting training and professional development events” (p.222).

            Recruitment is the process of which job openings are advertised, trying to get candidates to apply for them. Part of the recruitment process is to have the candidates take skill tests, provide police clearances and court clearances. The skills tests are specific to each company and each position to ensure the candidate is qualified to fulfill the requirements of the job position.

            Another thing chapter 9 talks about is the rights of employees. Employees tend to have strikes and labor unions to “guarantee the rights of public employees beyond wages and working condition issues within contract negotiations and agreements.” These rights deal with things like layoffs. Public unions have established rights and protections such as a right to join a union, freedom of association, unions can collect agency fees, public employees have the right to express their views in public forums, employees must be involved in decisions on contracting a project or making it in house, fair treatment, equal pay for equal work, retention of employees who perform well, protection against such things as arbitrary action, and protection against reprisal for lawful disclosure of information (pp. 231-232).

LeMay, Michael C. (2006). “Balancing Values in the Administration of Public Policy”  Public Administration: Clashing Values in the Administration of Public Policy.  WADSWORTH CENGAGE Learning, 2nd edition.

Chapter 8

            In Chapter 8, it talks about values and the public policy process. Values are part of the very nature of the policy process because values help set goals and a program’s success or failure is “largely measured by how well it achieves its goals.

            Head Start, a federally funded preschool program that aims to improve a child’s overall well being, is an example of how values are great in public policies. Head start is for kids ages 4 and below that come from low-income families. At first, Head Start was only for children ages 3 and 4, but because the early years in a child’s life are critical in their developmental processes, it was extended in the 1990s to children as young as newborns—just like a daycare center.

            Another thing this chapter talks about are two contrasting views of government management which are results-oriented management and process-oriented management. Outcome-oriented program objectives are set by managers to analyze their programs and report their findings to CEOs or the people in positions above them. Process-oriented management is where objectives “are limited to comment, feedback, and process objectives.”

            In order for any policy to work anywhere, the policies must always be evaluated. The typical evaluation standards are compliance, efficiency and effectiveness. Compliance relies on auditing making sure the transactions are legal and just evaluating the books. Efficiency evaluates the productivity of the program and the resources used—making sure tasks are completely understood and the right people are doing them (qualified employees). Finally, effectiveness is used to see if the government resources are helping achieve the goals of the policies.

LeMay, Michael C. (2006). “Balancing Values in the Administration of Public Policy”  Public Administration: Clashing Values in the Administration of Public Policy.  WADSWORTH CENGAGE Learning, 2nd edition.

Chapter 7

            Chapter 7 talks about management. It mentions the different approaches to management in this chapter: management by objectives (MBO), organizational development (OD), operations research (OR), program evaluation and review technique (PERT), quality circles (QC), and total quality management (TQM).

            MBO defines short term and long term objectives and records program results to determine their effectiveness. Throughout the world, private and public organizations have used this approach because it distinguishes between functions and objectives. It also calls for rapid change and for managers to be flexible and to think quickly on their feet.

            OD is “a process for increasing an organization’s effectiveness by integrating an individual’s desire for personal growth with the organization’s goals” (p. 173). Managers use change agents whom are outsiders that help bring about change in the organization.

            OR emphasizes efficiency through maximizing payoffs in goals the agency sets out to accomplish. It relies heavily on “probability theories, queuing techniques, and mathematical model building.” OR originated after WWII in England so that they could study bombing runs and submarine warfare. The U.S. in turn adopted this approach to help solve problems like bus schedules, mail delivery, waste management, etc.

            PERT maps out steps to carry out a program. It basically aims toward finding the best possible solution that requires the least amount of work or steps. QC is a small group of employees that try to solve problems that directly affect their work. It requires much participation, innovation, and flexibility. TQM involves continuing concern for quality in the production of goods. It seeks top performance (as should every organization).

            I believe all these approaches are great especially when aspects from each of them are combined to reach optimum performance, quality, and efficiency of the organization at hand.

Chapter 5

            In chapter 5, it talks about the schools of organizational theory. The five schools of thought talked about in this chapter are classical theory, humanist theory, neoclassical theory, systems theory, and new public management theory. Each school focuses on certain values in organization to characterize the school of thought. The scholars that make up a school share common values and assumptions about organization.

            The humanist school of organizational theorists, also known as the human relations school, developed in reaction to the image that organization is “one composed ideally of clearly defined units and subdivisions arranged in a pyramidal or hierarchic structure of authority” (p. 119). They think the classical model is too authoritarian and suppresses creativity. Human relations theorists focused on a need of the recognition of informal aspects of organization. It sought to help the workers and understand what factors that did not deal with economy affected these workers, the organization and the workers’ performances.

            The systems school of organization theorists value change rather than efficiency. This was created after World War II. The systems theory is multidimensional, complex, and sees organizations as states of equilibrium. It favors structures less rigid because “flexibility is a core value.” It calls for organizations to keep changing and adapting to their new environments to come.

            I think the best theory is the systems school theory because I like the idea of change, for the most part. Like many people, well everyone, in this world I want change but am scared of it. I believe change, most of the time, is a great thing but it does have its downfalls. The systems theory forces change and adaptation which can very much be a good thing and teach us to be quick on our feet and see what things are in need of change for the betterment of our communities.

Chapter 4

            In Chapter 4, it talks about the models of U.S. federalism which are the layer-cake model, the marble-cake model, and the picket-fence model. The layer-cake model was used to characterize relations within the federal system. Its emphasis was on the division of powers between the national and state levels which led into dual federalism later on in the years. It is called the layer cake model because each level has certain authority and it emphasizes each level’s distinctiveness.

            The marble-cake model was used during the time cooperative federalism developed. The marble cake model is named so because like marble cake, the distinctions are blurred and it is difficult to say where one “flavor” (the national government) ended and the other “flavor” (the state and local levels of government) began. Its focus was more so on the separation of government structures than the programmatic functions.

            The last model, the picket-fence model, connects all three levels of government (state, local, and national) through one centralized form of government. The bureaucrats in the different levels interact more often with those of other levels than with those of the same level of government.

            This chapter also talks about the different approaches to federalism. These approaches are dual federalism, cooperative federalism, creative federalism, new federalism, and renewed federalism. I never knew there were so many different forms of federalism. Dual federalism is when each level of government was viewed as supreme within its areas of responsibility and limited intergovernmental funding. Cooperative federalism emphasized national, state, and local governments cooperating with each other to solve problems. Creative federalism included partnerships with businesses and nonprofit social organizations. New federalism returned more autonomy to states and put more focus on block grants than project or categorical grants. Renewed federalism emphasized things such as individual rights, limited government, and economic capitalism.

            This chapter talks about many different ways and possibilities that were and can be used to help our government work best for the betterment of our nation and our people.

Chapter 6 Reaction

            In chapter six, there is a portion that talks about the effects of public policies and prices on youth smoking. This affects me personally because when I was younger, like many of my peers, I thought it was “cool” to smoke. I tried it and thank goodness I hated it. Smoking not only causes so much damage to the smoker’s body but it also causes even more damage to those around them. I suffer from secondhand smoke a lot of times. I have friends and family members that smoke around me and I hate it. I also have asthma so it makes it even harder to breathe. Also, being able to go to bars or billiard places is affected because many of these places still allow smoking in them.

            Many of the adults in today’s society have started smoking when they were minors. I did not know this until reading the book, but Congress enacted a Synar amendment “requiring states to enactg and enforce laws that prohibit tobacco sales to minors” in July of 1992. I was in the Youth for Youth organization in high school and I participated in Synar for about two or three years. Synar is when minors, along with an adult chaperone and a Revenue and Taxation officer go around the island to various vendors and see if the salesperson makes a sale of tobacco to the minor. If the salesperson allows the sale, especially without asking for identification, the Revenue and Taxation officer then comes and writes up the store for this violation. I used to think Synar was only something they did here on the island, but I was glad to read that they also do this in the mainland United States which is a really good preventive technique to keep kids from being able to get a hold of tobacco products.

            I believe that youth consumption of tobacco products is continuing to rise since the 1990s when public officials became aware of it. I think the government and private business owners should take more precaution and preventative techniques to help slow and eventually stop youth tobacco consumption. More places should ban smoking or have a designated area for smokers. I also think that in these designated areas there should be someone looking out for minors and if they find a minor smoking or using tobacco, to report them to the authorities or even to their parents so that it does not continue to happen in the future.

Chapter 3 Reaction

            In chapter three, it talks about bureaucratic power and politics. One thing that mainly caught my eye was Box 3.1 on the creation of TSA, Transportation Security Administration. I did not know that the TSA was made after September 11, 2001. As far back as I can remember, every time I went to visit my family in the states, I had to deal with TSA regulations of sorts. Then again, I was only a kid and my parents packed my things for me. I started to try and think about what things or restrictions have been implemented since 9/11. The things that popped into my head were not being able to carry liquids (if you do they must be smaller than 3 oz. and fit into a Ziploc), no one can bring sharp objects (even nail cutters), and the implementation of the body searches and body scans.

            Luckily, I have not had to deal with the issues of the body scanners, but I have dealt with body searches. Just in 2009 when I was traveling to California and had to go through Japan, I had to stand there while a TSA officer patted me down to make sure I did not have any weapons or contraband. I felt so awkward, but I know that they were just doing their jobs to help provide protection for all the passengers flying. Although all these new implementations with security at the airports have been made and are a hassle for most people, I know it is for the greater good of society because they are just precautions that are made to ensure our safety while flying.

            Another thing in chapter three that caught my eye was the acronyms, or words formed using the first letter or first few letters in a series of words, that the government uses. Figure 3.1 shows a bunch of the acronyms that are used in public administration. I thought those were a lot of acronyms but I know that they aren’t the only ones. Some of the acronyms I know of are TSA (which I just talked about), FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations), CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), DOD (Department of Defense), and much more. Thinking about all the acronyms used in public administration made me think of not only the jargon public administration uses but also the many departments and such that the government has. There are so many departments in the government that I probably don’t even know half of them which is pretty sad since I want to possibly work for one of these major departments like the FBI or CIA one day.

Chapter 2

1.      How does viewing politics as a system influence our perception of public administrators and their role in policy making? Given the great diversity of U.S. society, is value conflict inevitable? How can value conflict in administration be viewed as beneficial to the “system”?

a.       By viewing politics as a system, it changes our perception (well, it changes my perception) of public administrators by making us see that they are only a piece of the puzzle in this policy making picture. The public administrators aren’t the entire picture so they alone can’t do anything. They need other administrators or pieces of the puzzle in order for the policies to be created and to work. Value conflict is inevitable in the U.S. because the U.S. is made up of so many different people of different races and religions and they all have different points of view on things and the various points of view are bound to clash in one way or another. Value conflict in an administration can be viewed as beneficial to the “system” because it allows the public administrators to open their eyes to all the possible solutions and policies that can be made to several problems. It allows them to keep from having tunnel vision and to be open minded and seek a lot of types of feedback to help them do a successful job at running the government.

2.      In what ways does a political party perform the linkage role? How do parties facilitate changes in values? How do parties help coordinate governmental policy making and implement policy toward a given goal?

a.       Political parties perform linkage roles by forming a link or a bond between the policy makers and the citizens. They allow for the citizens to do such things as voice their opinions to policy makers through things such as pocket meetings. Parties facilitate changes in values by employing patronage and making use of third parties to help citizens further voice their opinions and concerns. Parties help coordinate governmental policy making and implement policy toward a given goal through communication. Parties constantly communicate with the policy makers to find out what is going on and to relay it to the citizens. Policy can only be implemented toward a given goal successfully if the citizens are in on it and that is exactly what the political parties do. They make sure the citizens know what are going on and continuously seek their input and support.

3.      How do interest groups help articulate values? How do they influence which values dominate public administration at any given time? Describe their role in forging a dominant political culture.

a.       Interest groups help articulate values by keeping communication between agencies and legislatures. They have a very important role because interest groups revise draft policy proposals and influence appointments to importants positions in administrative agencies.

4.      In what ways does government manage the economy? Why do economic forces contribute to so many value conflicts? Can the economy be better managed through technological development? How does technology complicate value conflict in the political system? In public administration?

a.        The government manages the economy by making cutbacks or distributing more money to different agencies. It also uses taxes to help manage the economy. Economic forces contribute to so many value conflicts because money is a huge issue in today’s society. You need money for everything and it is hard to come by. Technological development could help better manage the economy just like with the computer making many things easier to manage. Technology complicates value conflict in the political system and public administration because technology allows for so much more access to many problems such as access to pornography, ability to hack in to government and public administration systems and records, etc.

       Key Terms

1.       Affirmative Action- the removal of all barriers to employment of minority groups; compensatory plans for disadvantaged groups, as in specific programs to recruit, hire, and promote qualified members  of designated disadvantaged groups so as to eliminate  the continuing effects of prior discrimination.

2.       Captive Agency- An agency whose personnel and decision makers are directly or indirectly influenced by outside interest from the very industry the agency is required to regulate or serve.

3.       Clientele Agency- A bureaucratic agency that serves, protects, and promotes the interest of those it was established to oversee, often at the expense of the general public rather than organized special interest groups.

4.       Conscientious Objection- State laws that allows doctors to refuse to perform a procedure to which they have fundamental moral objection (e.g., abortions).

5.       Earmarked- funds or tax revenue from a given source, that legally must be spent for a given program or service. For example, gasoline taxes must be spent on highway construction or maintenance.

6.       Ecology- The study of the relationship of living things to their natural environment.

7.       Ecosystem- Any collection of plants, animals, and nonliving things that interact with one another within their environment.

8.       Externalities- Positive or negative effects of one thing that entail costs to another.

9.       Grassroots Lobbying- A type or method of lobbying in which an interest group uses its own rank-and-file membership to send mass mailings, work phone banks, send mass emails, phone talk -radio shows, and walk the halls of the legislature to marshal public opinion and government policy toward its position on an issue.   

10.    Ideology- A comprehensive and logical set of beliefs about human nature and the role of government and how its institutions should be organized and managed.

11.   Iron Triangle- A type of sub-government; refers to the three angles of the policy process for a particular policy area- (1) the bureaucrats who implement a policy. (2) the law-makers and staff members who adopt a policy, and (3) the lobbyist from “clientele” interest groups- all of them working both formally and informally on specific policy issues.

12.   Issue networks- A temporary collection of lobbyist, lawmakers, staff members, bureaucrats, and experts who collaborate to shape a particular policy.  

13.   Linkage institutions- Agencies, such as political parties, interest groups, and the media, that forge links between citizens and public policy makers.

14.   Merit system- The selection, retention, and promotion of public employees based on competitive examinations or formal educational qualification.

15.   Multiculturalism- The belief that the  many cultures make up American society ought to be maintained as distinct and that laws should be used to protect and even encourage them; the value of appreciating the richness of cultural diversity.   

16.   NIMBY- The acronym for ”not in my backyard” ; donates opposition to certain government programs or facilities deemed undesirable but that are or could be located in one’s neighborhood or area; typical example are sewage-treatment plants, solid-waste recycling plants, and prisons.

17.   Partial-birth abortion- A medical procedure to terminate pregnancy during the last trimester in which doctors crush the cranium of the fetus and then induce delivery.

18.   Party in government- All the people from a party who hold public office.

19.   Party platform- A document drawn up by a political party at its state or national convention that establishes the party’s policies and positions on current public issues.

20.   Patronage- The practice of awarding government jobs and contracts to faithful members of the political party in power.

21.   Political culture- The cluster of attitudes, ideology, beliefs, and values that shape our thinking of society and government and the role of the individual within both of them; the part of the overall societal culture that determines societal attitudes toward the quality, style, and strength of its political and governmental processes.

22.   Political party- A group of politically active individuals who organize for the purpose of capturing government by controlling the nomination of election of officials and thereby control of the operation of government and determine public policy.  

23.   Proposition 209- An initiative passed in California that ended affirmative action programs by banning the use of preferences in state hiring and contracting and in admissions to public colleges and universities.

24.   Reverse discrimination- The perception that social programs to promote integration are racial preferences that promote the interest of minorities at the expense of members of the majority (usually considered to be white and male).

25.   Set-aside programs- A type of affirmative action program that includes the use of quotas (set-aside percentages) to award government contracts to minority businesses.

26.   Spin-off party- A minor, or third, party that begins as a faction within a major party, such as the Bull Moose Republicans or the Dixiecrats.

27.   Systems model- The concept that things are viewed as more than the sum of a collection of parts; an entity in which everything relates to everything else.

Source: Public Administration: Clashing Values in the Administration of Public Policy

            Author: Michael C. LeMay

Chapter 1 Summary

Public administration focuses on pretty much everything in our everyday lives. Government, decision making, communication, and many other things deal with public administration. Public administration faces many different issues. One is efficiency vs. responsiveness. In order for the government to be responsive, Congress had to make different departments and such to help distribute the work so that the people could be helped better in turn, having the citizens be happy. The government was made to be responsive because it allows for citizens to be able to voice their concerns and be heard. Although the government is responsive, it needs to be efficient meaning, they have to unfortunately sometimes turn down citizens' demands.

A thing that helps keep things running smoothly in the government is bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is when appointed officials manage government departments and agencies. However, like with anything in this world, too much of one thing (bureaucracy, for example) can be a bad thing for most.

Public policy, decisions the governments makes to find solutions to potential problems, is a key process in the government. It starts with the formation stage where the problem is identified and an agenda is made. The next stage is the formulation stage where solutions are discussed and edited. The third stage is adoption. A governor, for example, “adopts” the policy in this stage. The fourth stage, implementation, is when a specific agency is designated and authorized to handle the problem. Evaluation, the fifth stage, is the stage where they see if the policy is working well to fix the problem. Finally, the feedback stage is when the ones that adopted the policy consider information and decide whether to keep the policy, fix it, or eliminate it altogether.

Tops Hits from 1976-1979

My parents were around the age of 18 between the years of 1976 and 1979. Here are the top 3 songs from each of those years.
1976:
1. Hotel California - The Eagles
2. Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac
3. More Than a Feeling - Boston 


1977:
1. Stayin' Alive - The Bee Gees
2. We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions - Queen
3. Heroes - David Bowie


1978:
1. I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
2. Roxanne - The Police
3. Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits


1979:
1. Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 - Pink Floyd
2. London Calling - The Clash
3. Rapper's Delight - The Sugarhill Gang


I've listened to these songs time and time again as I was growing up (except for the songs from the 1979
category. My mom didn't even know what songs those were!)