Recently added articles from The Public Manager:
The Manager's Musings.(Joseph LeDoux)
Mar 22, 2008; Master, Warren ... Synaptic Bureaucracy In his 2002 book, Synaptic Self, Joseph LeDoux explains how unlike other cells in the human organism, neurons-the cellular tissue of the brain-have nerve endings that communicate instantaneously with other brain cells to achieve a common, integrative ...
Virtual networks: an opportunity for government: the increasing power of computing is enabling a new generation of Web-based applications--Web 2.0--to harness collective intelligence in the public sector.
Mar 22, 2008; DiGiammarino, Frank ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Today's government relies on a broad network that extends beyond other public-sector entities to include the private sector, nonprofit organizations, community groups, and individual citizens. Government entities need to work effectively across boundaries ...
Interagency network of enterprise assistance providers: an unusual partnership of government agencies and private businesses communicate and collaborate to enhance services to small business.
Mar 22, 2008; Thomas, Carroll ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Less than ten years ago, twenty million small businesses across America faced the catastrophic year 2000 crisis! Y2K, as it was called, threatened computers around the world because they were based on a DD/MM/YY formula. This formula made computers believe ...
Citizen engagement in Gallatin County: a county government in Montana uses communication techniques to democratize the decision-making process without impeding it.
Mar 22, 2008; Mathers, Earl ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The population of Gallatin County, Montana, has grown about 3 percent annually for a number of years, leading Montana through most of the last decade. Growth brings challenges to local government, but in this case, the accompanying cultural change and ...
Improving government transparency online: citizen-engaging technology can make government data available online, easy to access, and understandable.
Mar 22, 2008; Brito, Jerry ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Democracy is founded on the principle that the moral authority of government derives from the consent of the governed. That consent is not particularly meaningful, however, unless it is informed. When government makes decisions in secret, opportunity for ...
Introduction and overview--Part II.(Forum: The Next President's Management Agenda)(human resources technology )
Mar 22, 2008; Balutis, Alan P. ... In the winter issue of The Public Manager, we opened a dialogue on PMA 44--the President's Management Agenda of the forty-fourth president. Our forum contributors outlined where and how our next government should differ and grouped their ideas into three categories-human resources (HR), ...
Human capital--the most critical asset: past efforts at the federal level have not succeeded in institutionalizing long-term change in the human capital function.(Forum: The Next President's Management Agenda)(Chief Human Capital Officers Act of 2002)
Mar 22, 2008; Benowitz, Stephen ... Since the comptroller general placed the management of human capital on the U.S. Government Accountability Office's list of high-risk programs in 1999, a series of legislative and policy initiatives have tried to recast the way federal agencies think about and perform the human capital ...
The courage to change when challenged: the U.S. government needs highly trained and talented top-level executives to promote innovation and growth through IT use.(Forum: The Next President's Management Agenda)
Mar 22, 2008; Hughes, Tom ... The nation faces an enormous challenge but has the opportunity to institute change through collaboration among top-level government and private-sector executives. Americans want an effective, efficient, and results-driven government as we move through the twenty-first century. We have ...
Acquisition challenges, 2008 and beyond: the new administration needs to rebuild the workforce, properly oversee it, and correctly use performance-based acquisition.(Forum: The Next President's Management Agenda)
Mar 22, 2008; Nelson, Shirl ... As we head into 2008, federal acquisition faces a long list of challenges; three of the most pressing are the workforce, oversight, and performance-based acquisition. Workforce The key challenge for federal acquisition is rebuilding the workforce to give it the right ...
Inherently governmental functions: at a tipping point? Should the government rethink its long-standing policy on contracting out work?
Mar 22, 2008; Burman, Allan V. ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] More than 15 years ago, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Federal Procurement Policy issued Policy Letter 92-1, Subject: Inherently Governmental Functions. This 1992 document offered the first government-wide guidance to help ...
The president, outcomes, and performance: changing from outputs to outcomes--evaluating individuals and organizations on results--requires cultural change and leadership at the top.(Forum: The Next President's Management Agenda)
Mar 22, 2008; Tobias, Robert ... Since Congress passed the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, the federal government has been struggling to measure outcome rather than output. Agreement is universal that designing and implementing an outcome-based performance management system would increase agency ...
Shifting federal telework into drive: the benefits of telework justify accelerated agency adoption.(Forum: The Next President's Management Agenda)
Mar 22, 2008; O'Keeffe, Stephen W.T. ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In early November 2007, the House Subcommittee on FederalWorkforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia held a hearing on how to break new ground in telework. Telework Exchange, among other witnesses, testified on why the federal government is not ...
Now is the time for collaboration: we need new forums where local, state, and federal leaders openly debate strategies to address national priorities.(Forum: The Next President's Management Agenda)
Mar 22, 2008; O'Neill, Robert J., Jr. ... The public tells pollsters that the most important issues facing our nation (other than the war in Iraq) are as follows: * Security and safety * Jobs * Health care * Education * Environment * Long-term economic security ...
The challenge of managing across boundaries: the federal government can't accomplish its program objectives without increased collaboration inside and outside the executive branch.(Forum: The Next President's Management Agenda)
Mar 22, 2008; Abramson, Mark A. ... Starting in summer 2007, Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group--the firm's global consulting arm--sponsored a series of seminars to bring leading thinkers on public management together with government and industry executives. Seminar discussions ranged from how a new administration ...
Recruiting and engaging the federal workforce: a recent seminar examines employee motivation from three perspectives.
Mar 22, 2008; Trahant, Bill ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The talk in government these days is about abolishing the General Schedule and replacing it with customized pay-for-performance systems. The General Schedule, however, is unlikely to disappear soon, so what can government executives and federal human ...
Telework: breaking new ground: successful telework programs feature active top-level leadership, clear policy and guidelines, solid program support, and integration in overall agency planning.(Brief article)
Mar 22, 2008; Kaczmarczyk, Stanley ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Why and how do some federal telework programs succeed? Eight years as part of the leadership of federal telework at the General Services Administration (GSA) have shown me that when carefully planned and rigorously implemented few, if any, of these ...
Speech and reason.(eloquence)(Brief article)
Mar 22, 2008; Bingham, Caleb ... Speech and reason are the characteristics, the glory, and the happiness of man. These are the pillars which support the fair fabric of eloquence; the foundation, upon which is erected the most magnificent edifice, that genius could design, or art construct. To cultivate eloquence, then, is ...
FEMA, Katrina, and operations research: better operations management would have helped FEMA in preparedness and response work before Hurricane Katrina--and still could now.
Mar 22, 2008; Sylves, Richard ... In the wake of the poor government response to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster, many questions have been asked about why the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), along with a host of other federal, state, and local emergency management agencies, performed so ineffectively ....
Federal contracting for food and refreshments: young contracting professionals need to know how to ensure fair and reasonable pricing when negotiating with the meeting industry.
Mar 22, 2008; Hall, Daniel ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Contracting professionals must ensure that the federal government receives the best value for the taxpayer dollar while following acquisition regulations during procurement and contract management. This article reflects on the legal regimen of the ...
Better thinking: an asset in any organization: enhanced thinking ability yields more effective decision making, improved problem solving, better individual and group performance evaluations, and higher morale.(Culture of Bureaucracy)
Mar 22, 2008; Mangieri, John N. ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For the past decade, I have been on a mission: to furnish government leaders with important data and content about an element crucial to their success--the ability to think effectively, critically, and creatively. Enhanced thinking ability is a skill ...