Overview of Managing Public

1
Overview of Managing Public Nonprofit Org.

• Catastrophies such as 9/11 and Katrina underscore
  the importance of effective organization and
  management of public organizations
• However, we are ambivalent about governmentits
  a love-hate relationship often influenced by
  ideology

2
What is Management?

• Many different perspectives and frameworks for
  studying management
• We will focus on organization theory and behavior
  from a public perspective
• Our basic framework will examining the
  structures, processes and people of public and
  nonprofit organizations
• See p. 18 of Rainey for a broad definition of an
  organization

3
Course Topics

• Foundational theories
• Environment and networks
• Forms of organizing
• Leadership, power org. culture
• Motivation
• Communication conflict
• New governance

4
The Study of Management is Important!

• Consider rise of MPA programs like UNCW
• Need to address nonprofits as well as government
  orgs (QENO)
• Management as a second profession

5
Major Schools of Thought

• Purpose of studying management is to build your
  conceptual tool kit that is, provide multiple
  frameworks or perspectives for understanding
  orgs. and situations. Examples
• Scientific Management Theory
• Administrative Management Theory

6
Major Schools of Thought

• Human Relations Theory
• Human Resources Theory
• Systems Theory
• Quality Management Theory
• Organizational Culture Leadership Theory

7
Learning from Experience

• We will learn about management by integrating
  theory (Rainey Tompkins) and practice (Ashworth
  and each other).
• Observe your bosses carefully
• -- learn from both the good and the bad
• -- importantly, tell them what they need to
  know, not what they want to hear (tactfully!)

8
Learning from Experience

• Ethics must be the foundation for practice
• -- first, trust your instincts (dont ignore
  discomfort)
• -- second, draw on multiple sources of guidance
  for how to conduct yourself (upbringing, faith,
  loyalty to superiors and organization, history,
  personal conscience)
• -- for public service career, look particularly
  close to democratic and constitutional
  imperative
• (p. 165 in Ashworth)

9
Learning from Experience

• Develop a persona like an egg with a semi-porous
  shell
• There is a substantial universality of experience
  in public service that transcends geography or
  agency
• You are permitted to get frustrated, but never
  thoroughly discouraged or disenchanted

10
Learning from Experience

• You cant learn unless you get into the fray!
• Stretch your comfort zonetake on new tasks or
  challenges that scare you a bit!

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Foundational Theories

• The Systems Metaphor
• -- inputs, throughputs, outputs
• -- feedback (single vs. double-loop)
• -- closed vs. open or adaptive systems
• Frederick Taylor and Scientific Management
• -- each task can be broken down and one best
  way discovered to attain most efficient process

12
Foundational Theories

• Max Weber and the Ideal Bureaucracy
• -- based on legal and rational forms of
  authority rather than tradition or
  charisma-based
• -- focus on hierarchical lines of authority,
  rules, consistency, specialized expertise,
  stability
• -- raised concerns about need for individual
  freedom, creativity, flexibility

13
Foundational Theories

• Administrative Management School Principles of
  Administration
• -- POSDCORB
• -- span of control (between 6-10 subordinates)
• -- one master for each subordinate
• -- clear delegation and accountability
• -- task homogeneity dissimilar tasks should
  not be grouped together
• -- significant contribution, but what about
  people?

14
Foundational Theories

• Mary Parker Follett and the Law of the Situation
• -- the giving of orders should be based on a
  shared understanding between superiors and
  subordinates of the particular situations and
  what it requires
• Hawthorne Studies Discovery of Human Beings in
  the Workplace
• -- social situation and psychology matters

15
Foundational Theories

• Chester Barnard and The Importance of the
  Executive
• -- leaders induce and coordinate key
  cooperative activities
• -- incentives matter, not just money but also
  power, prestige, fulfillment of ideals
• -- leaders are key in shaping organization
  culture
• -- the informal organization is as important to
  understand as the formal structure

16
Foundational Theories

• Herbert Simon and Bounded Rationality
• -- focus on how decisions are made in
  organizations
• -- strictly rational decisions and choices are
  impossible in complex situations
• -- administrators satisfice or choose the
  best of a limited set of alternatives within the
  constraints of limited information and time

17
Foundational Theories

• Kurt Lewin and Organizational Change
• -- groups and individuals maintain a
  quasi- stationary equilibrium in their
  attitudes and behaviors
• -- equilibrium results from a balance between
  forces pressing for change and those pressing
  against change (basis for force field analysis)
• -- must unfreeze and refreeze

18
Foundational Theories

• Organizational Development
• -- Action research
• -- Participative decision making (PDM)
• Human Relations School
• -- Maslows hierarchy of needs
• -- McGregors Theory X and Theory Y

19
Foundational Theories

• Contingency Theory
• -- organizations are open systems that respond
  to social, economic and technological
  imperatives (Tavistock Institute)
• -- successful firms must have internal
  structures as complex as their environments
  (Lawrence Lorsch)
• -- organizations tend to be organic or
  mechanistic (Burns Stalker)

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Distinctive Context of Public Management

• Fragmented Authority
• -- multiple masters
• Open and Responsive Decision Process
• -- operating in a goldfish bowl
• Ambiguous and Intangible Goals
• -- difficult to define and control success

21
Distinctive Context of Public Management

• Procedural Constraints
• -- emphasis on accountability restrains
  managerial discretion
• Political Constraints
• -- numerous stakeholders with varying levels of
  influence depending on the issue
• -- places premium on negotiating, conflict
  resolution and coalition-building skills

22
Distinctive Context of Nonprofit Management

• Working With/Under a Board
• Funding Constraints
• -- grants, foundations, donors
• Mission-Driven vs. Money-Driven
• Competition vs. Collaboration
• Managing volunteers

23
Distinctiveness of Public Management

• Working with Politicians
• -- very current-issue oriented
• -- they are on top
• -- a manager must keep professional distance
  and avoid inserting personal views
• -- their world is trade-offs, swapping, making
  deals, comprising
• -- you must be focused when you need them
• -- you must be willing to be the fireplug

24
Distinctiveness of Public Management

• Working with the Press
• -- consider them another branch of government
• -- be very careful about off the record
  comments (the recorder is always on!)
• -- consider their point of view
• -- be brief try to boil down complex issues
• -- dont make assumptions about what they know
• -- dont let them control the interviewknow
  the one or two points you want to make and bore
  in

25
Environment of Public Organizations

• Environmental scanning can be an effective tool
  for understanding organizational structure
  behavior
• -- technological conditions
• -- legal conditions
• -- political conditions
• -- economic conditions

26
Environment of Public Organizations

• Environmental scanning (contd)
• -- demographic conditions
• -- ecological conditions
• -- cultural conditions
• Organizations are impacted by their environments
  but can enact their own environment as well

27
Environment Key Concepts

• Turbulence and interconnectedness characterize
  the environments of most public organizations.
• Organizations can adapt their structures in
  response to their environment, or they can change
  their niches.
• -- huge issue with nonprofits!

28
Environment Key Concepts

• Efficiency not necessarily the highest priority
  in the design of U.S. government
• -- external authorities, the media, interest
  groups and citizens also demand effectiveness,
  timeliness, reliability, and reasonableness
• -- remember the three Es efficiency,
  effectiveness and equity sometimes
  uncomfortable bedfellows!

29
Competing Values Framework

• How to make sense out of all the different org.
  theories and perspectives in a way that us useful
  toward understanding org. and org. behavior?
• Quinn Rohrbaugh suggest it boils down to the
  specific criteria or values being used to
  assessand they all are important depending on
  the context.

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Competing Values Focus

• Internal concern with well-being of employees
• External concern for the well-being of the
  organization

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Competing ValuesStructure

• Concern for flexibility and change
• Concern for stability and control

32
Competing Values Framework

• Parsons to be a viable social system an
  organization is subject to functional
  imperatives
• Adaptive Function
• -- acquire resources and adjust to forces in
  external environment
• Goal Attainment Function
• -- develop plans and direct their
  accomplishment

33
Competing Values Framework

• Integrative Function
• -- coordinate the work activities toward goals
• Pattern Maintenance Function
• -- ensure continued commitment of members
• Tension Management Function
• -- iron out tensions that inevitably arise

34
Competing Values Framework

• Means-oriented values
• -- cohesion, morale, communication, planning,
  goal-setting
• Ends-oriented values
• -- growth, resource acquisition, productivity

35
Competing Values Framework

• When these three dimensions are juxtaposed, they
  reveal four competing models of org.
  effectiveness
• -- human relations model (Quadrant 1)
• -- open systems model (Quadrant 2)
• -- rational goal model (Quadrant 3)
• -- internal process model (Quadrant 4)

36
Competing Values Framework

• Contradictions abound between different values
  and frameworks
• However, organizations face such competition
  among values
• Successful managers must balance or concurrently
  manage competing values
• Consider how Blast in Centralia case illustrates

37
Focus on Goal Attainment (Q3)

• Rational Goal Model
• Importance of planning goal setting
• Focus on productivity efficiency
• Leadership role is Director Producer

38
Focus on Goal Attainment (Q3)

• Organizations are goal-directed, purposive
  entities.
• A basic assumption is that public organizations
  will perform better if the people in them clarify
  their goals and measure progress against them.
• Reflects the huge investment in stating goals and
  performance measures.

39
Focus on Goal Attainment (Q3)

• Roots of rational goal model are in the
  Scientific Management, Administrative Management,
  and Bureaucratic Theories
• Critical managerial task of a Director is to set
  clear goals, plan, measure against them, and hold
  people accountable for the results

40
Focus on Goal Attainment (Q3)

• However, in the public and nonprofit sectors,
  goal setting is a huge challenge
• -- no bottom line like private sector
• For example, goals can be ambiguous, multiple,
  and conflicting
• -- result can be debilitating for employees

41
Focus on Goal Attainment (Q3)

• Major tool for addressing the goal challenge is
  Strategic Planning Management
• Key elements
• -- establishing clear vision and mission
• -- conducting SWOT analysis
• -- identifying key strategic issues
• -- identifying short long-term goals in
  support

42
Focus on Internal Processes (Q4)

• Importance of information management and
  communication
• Focus on stability and control
• Leadership role is Coordinator Monitor

43
Focus on Internal Processes (Q4)

• Roots of internal processes model is
  bureaucratic theory
• Basic assumption is that organizational
  performance is enhanced by maximizing rationality
  through
• -- fixed official duties, hierarchy of
  authority, system of rules, task specialization
  and written documentation

44
Focus on Internal Processes (Q4)

• Critical managerial task as a Coordinator
  Monitor is to supervise in a top-down manner,
  ensure the standardization of work processes
  skills, integrate the efforts of work groups, and
  ensure legal compliance with rules and
  regulations.

45
Focus on Internal Processes (Q4)

• The focus on internal processes is critical, but
  the bureaucratic model presents serious
  challenges
• -- emphasis on impersonal application of rules
  procedures (creates alienation or anomie)
• -- dehumanizing impact on workers
• -- specialization hierarchy creates
  communication obstacles narrow sense of
  responsibility
• -- institutional rigidity and goal displacement

46
Focus on Internal Processes (Q4)

• Tools that address the challenges of bureaucracy
  are adjusting organizational structures and
  organizing through work groups or teams
• Different org. structures include
• -- by function
• -- by program, product or service
• -- by matrix, client or process (see Graham
  Hays reading)

47
Focus on Internal Processes (Q4)

• Focus on groups or teams came about because they
  influence communication and conflicts among their
  members and between themselves and other groups.
• Groups teams also seen as a way of dealing with
  the problems created by bureaucracy

48
Focus on Internal Processes (Q4)

• Group participation in decision making can
  enhance the quality of decisions and acceptance
  of change within an organization (SNF stages)
• Groups can bring more knowledge, info, and
  approaches than individuals
• Groups can provide sense of belonging or cohesion
  within an impersonal bureaucracy

49
Focus on Internal Processes (Q4)

• A well-documented problem with groups is
  Groupthink, or tendency towards unconscious
  conformity by memberssymptoms are
• -- stereotyping the opposition, overestimating
  ones own position, stifling dissent
• See Rainey (p. 338) for tips to avoid this
  phenomenon

50
Focus on Human Relations (Q1)

• Importance of cohesion and morale
• Focus on human resource development
• Leadership role is Mentor Facilitator

51
Focus on Human Relations (Q1)

• Roots of human relations model in work of Mary
  Parker Follett, Fritz Roethlisberger, and Elton
  Mayo.
• Basic assumption is that the human side of
  organizations matterfocusing on goals, structure
  and processes tells us nothing about how to
  manage people effectively.

52
Focus on Human Relations (Q1)

• Follett believed that humans have an inherent
  need to associate with others, develop social
  bonds, and participate in collective life.
• Humans have a need for self-expression and for
  self-realization through groups.

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Focus on Human Relations (Q1)

• Follett was a pioneer in modern conflict
  resolution through her concept of integrationa
  useful conceptual tool.
• She argued that conflict is typically resolved
  through either domination or compromise. Both
  techniques are flawedwhy?

54
Focus on Human Relations (Q1)

• Integration is achieved by intermingling the
  ideas and perspectives of each party as concerns
  are discussed (called interpenetration).
• As mutual understanding and a sense of
  interdependence are created, new ways of thinking
  about the situation emerge that integrate
  interests (instead of positions).

55
Focus on Human Relations (Q1)

• Another useful concept from Follett is the law
  of the situation.
• One person should not give orders to another
  person, but both should agree to take their
  orders from the situation.
• Implications for management?

56
Focus on Human Relations (Q1)

• Mayo focused on adverse effects of social
  disorganization and irrational tendencies of
  otherwise normal individuals in the workplace.
• Roethlisberger focused on organizations as social
  systems and significance of aligning the formal
  and informal organization.

57
Focus on Human Relations (Q1)

• Classic research studies fueled the human
  relations model.
• Hawthorne studies showed that higher morale
  improved productivity by
• -- relaxed supervision (less fear anxiety)
• -- social cohesion or solidarity
• -- personal attention/sympathetic treatment
• -- participative decision making

58
Focus on Human Relations (Q1)

• Bank Wiring Observation Room
• -- output can be determined by group norms
  rather than individual effort and skill (rate
  busters or chiselers socially ostracized)
• -- social cliques within the organization
  established informal status levels and addressed
  problems outside of the formal structure and
  hierarchy

59
Focus on Human Relations (Q1)

• The focus on humans has had a tremendous impact
  on the understanding of decision making.
• Decision making from a rational goal (Q3) and
  internal process (Q4) perspective highlights the
  rational decision making process.

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Decision Making

• Rational Decision-Making Model
• 1. Decision makers know all the relevant goals
  clearly
• 2. Decision makers clearly know the values used
  in assessing those goals and know their
  preferences among the goals and can rank order
  them.
• 3. All alternative means for achieving the
  goals are examined.
• 4. They choose the most efficient of the
  alternative means for maximizing the goals.

61
Decision Making

• However, in reality managers strive for
  rationality, but cognitive limits, uncertainties,
  and time limits create a condition of bounded
  rationality.
• Thus managers do not maximize rationality, they
  satisfice.

62
Decision Making

• Managers practice incrementalism, or muddle
  through by concentrating on increments to
  existing circumstances or conditions (e.g.,
  incremental vs. zero-base budgeting).
• Also, requirement for political consensus and
  compromise bureaucratic cultures and power chip
  away at attempts to act rationally (Graham
  Allison).

63
Decision Making

• March Olson suggest that a garbage can is the
  best metaphor for decision making in the real
  world
• Decision making occurs when a variety of
  elements come together the right problem arises
  when the right decision-making participants are
  receptive to an available solution, all coming
  together in a choice opportunity. The model
  emphasizes that the linkages between these
  elements are as much coincidental as they are a
  product of rational calculation (Rainey, p. 168).
• Implications for manager?

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Decision Making

• The human relations model also points out the
  impact of personality on decision making
  (consider the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator).
• -- Extroversion-Introversion
• -- Sensing-Intuition
• -- Thinking-Feeling
• -- Judgment-Perception
• Implications for manager?