Table of Contents

1999
 

Volume Four, Number 2
    

Symposium in Progress

PA 2000: The Future of Public Administration

Jack Rabin and C. E. Wynn Teasley, Editors

I.     Information Age, Global Society and Ethics

1. Theory of Soul
   Thomas D. Lynch and Cynthia E. Lynch

   This paper postulates a way of thinking about our individual and collective being that the authors argue is essential for us as professionals in public administration for the twenty-first century.  In spite of the use of the words "soul" and "spirit," this is not a paper about religion but it is about infusing public administration with ethics and morality. We call this approach the Theory of the Soul. In this theory, the human "soul" is at least an acquired consciousness of one or more sentient beings that guides our behavior.
      

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2. A New Social Contract for the New Millennium
   Anne Osborne Kilpatrick

   This article suggests, through the use of premises, that these times dictate the need for a new social contract between employer and employee. The origins of this contract originate in the organization development research of the 1980s, and suggest that public organizations can support the cause of democracy within and through administration. Premises include the following: Trust in public institutions and their leaders is perhaps at an all-time low. Organizations and their leaders need to rebuild trust in their istitutions and among their employees. Our administrative systems are harmed, in part, because most people do not understand the difference between elected and appointed public servants, and the rules that govern their selection and oversight; the result is a perception of blurred lines between elected and appointed officials. Healthy organizations are possible. The focus in leadership literature on ethics, spirituality and personal characteristics, combined with principles which have been reinforced by the quality movement, suggest a positive future for healthy workplaces. A new social contract can help to fix the system. Developing and maintaining healthy workplaces offers a laboratory in which to practice true participatory democracy.
      

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II.   Public Administration as a Calling

1. Communicating Commitment: Public Administration as a Calling
   Marc Holzer

   Skepticism of government is an old, even honored American tradition. However the current hostility to government and politics is becoming overwhelming, ranging from the merely apathetic to the outright hostile. Holtzer argues that by presenting evidence of public service as a "calling," undergirded by commitment and competency, we can reverse the negative, distorted stereotypes which are deeply imprinted in the public consciousness.

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2. Response to Holzer's "Communicating Commitment"
   Robert K. Whelan

   The image of our public servants is not as negative as Holzer and others suggest. However, it is not good enough to attract the "best and brightest" into the profession. We can use our skills to study significant innovations. Some reforms and a modest, research agenda are proposed.

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III.   Integrating the Discipline and the Profession

1. Transitioning to Tomorrow's Public Administration
   Robert T. Golembiewski

   Periodically, my attention has turned to the wellsprings of public administration and management: broadly, what considerations should dominate in the design of graduate degree programs and associated activities? The first concentrated attention came in 1964-67, as we at Georgia -- primarily Bill Collins, Geoff Cornog, Frank Gibson, and myself -- were modeling one of the first of what became a string of second-generation MPA programs. Our burgeoning enrollments, and especially those off-site, highlighted the lack of convenient teaching materials, and this market force then led directly to about 25 editions of a family of readers (e.g., Golembiewski, Gibson, & Cornog, 1966, 1972, 1976...). Subsequently, in what was essentially a Lone Ranger sortie, the design of one of the early DPA programs came into focus. And then a bit later, the target was the broad design of PA as discipline (Golembiewski, 1977c). Later still, my objective was an overall sense of what there was to learn from the range of PA/PM graduate programs that I had either helped design or had observed, up-close and personal (e.g., Golembiewski, 1979, 1980).

   Now is another one of those retrospective times for an integrative review of experience and insight that might yield directions as well as limits for PA 2000: The Future of the Profession. Specifically, three themes get targeted:

   • a survey of today's conditions;

   • a brief sense of PA's near-future markets; and

   • ways of easing the here à there transition, beginning with short-run opportunities, and extending to longer time frames.
      

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2. Transitioning a Public Administration Program
   W. Earle Klay
    
   Scholars in public administration have developed a "standard" prescriptive model of strategic management for public agencies. The standard strategic management model emphasizes metaplanning, stakeholder analysis, and analysis of strengths and weaknesses. The standard model also includes environmental scanning to anticipate threats and opportunities. This paper suggests some modifications to that model to meet the needs of strategic management for academic programs in public administration.

   Environmental analysis for academic programs in public administration needs to include at least three distinct arenas of inquiry: (1) The "Disciplinary Environment" encompasses conjecture about current and future changes in the field of public administration. (2) The "Graduates' Environment" encompasses conjecture about the future context within which students are likely to live their lives and practice their profession. (3) The "Institutional Environment" is comprised of conjecture about the present and future environments of the hierarchy of institutions within which an academic program exists -- colleges, universities, university systems, state governments, regional economies, and so on. Each of these three types of environments is discussed. The paper then shows how the modified model is being applied in one setting, that of the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy of the Florida State University.

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IV.   Challenges to Democracy, Citizenship and Ethics

1. The Future of Public Administration
   Robert B. Denhardt
          
   This paper examines several trends likely to affect the field of public administration over the coming two decades. Implications of these trends for the internal management of public organizations and for the relationship between public officials and citizens are considered. It becomes apparent that new skills and abilities will be required for public servants of the future.

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2. Assessment and Commentary on Denhardt
   Mitchell F. Rice
        
   Denhardt offers many ideas for thought and reflection. And I agree with the general thrust of his arguments. While the concepts of shared leadership and empowerment, expanded democratic leadership, and "citizen first," are indeed important for the future of public management and public organizations, the advancement of these concepts as acceptable practicing values by public managers is not a new one. Today, from my perspective, the greatest challenge facing public management is DIVERSITY/MULTICULTURALISM.

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V.   Collaboration, Contracting, Customers and Clients

1. Ethics and the New Managerialism
   H. George Frederickson

   Consider some of the primary characteristics of the new public management:
    

   • First, sharply reduce governmental regulations and red tape;

   • Then mix this with privatizing and contracting-out many public functions thought heretofore to be primarily governmental;

   • Now reduce significantly the directly employed governmental workforce;

   • Do not train a cadre of government employees to be competent contract managers;

   • Now mix all of this with the widespread application of market logic and particularly the idea of institutional competition;

   • Finally, stir for a decade in a hot political and social environment.
      

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2. Contracting and Government, Some Further Thoughts
   Edward J. Clynch
        
   Because Frederickson's discourse on privatization is congruent with my own thoughts, this response is an effort to address two issues not directly covered in his paper: (1) the impact of privatization on the tension between professional administration and politics and (2) the financial implications of privatization for governments and the organizations that compose them. In particular, my comments focus on the major privatization tool, outsourcing or contracting out (Kettl, 1993).

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VI.   Civic Nutrition, Citizen Empowerment, and Civil Communities

1. Civic Nutrition, Citizen Empowerment and Civil Communities
   Mary E. Guy
          
   The next job for public administration and the field's related associations is to ensure the civic nutrition that is necessary for our communities to thrive. Law enforcement cannot enforce unless citizens respect the law; schools cannot educate when children are shooting each other; government cannot provide services without adequate resources; civil relationships do not develop in the absence of respect for one another. My remarks focus attention on local government and civic values, arguing for public administration's role in elevating citizen awareness and empowerment.

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2. Comments on Mary Ellen Guy
   Ronn Hy and Lawson Veasey
        
   The authors generally agree with Mary Ellen Guy's assessment of the challenges facing public administration in the next century, but offer an alternative perspective on the future of the discipline. America will succeed because of its diversity, not in spite of it. Less national government intervention and more substantial subnational activity will characterize the future of public administration. Government's role in the next century is not so much to insure equity, as it is to promote civil and individual responsibility and tolerance of differing values. Further, government generally will be less responsible for the socioeconomic and quality of life standards desired by the populace. Public administrators will be required to adapt to this new reality.

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