Administrative Reform
1
Administrative Reform
Reform is:
Constant
Political
Part of American mythology
We hold these truths to be self-evident . .
That government is wasteful and inefficient
The Unholy Trinity
Waste
Fraud
Abuse
Politicians Run Against Washington D.C.
Presidents from outside Washington:
Carter
Reagan
Clinton
G.W. Bush
Obama (in part, only 2 years in Senate)
Fraud
legal term meaning a criminal act
Waste, Abuse
wrong but not necessarily defined in law as criminal
Definition is perceptual and often political or ideological
Hard to accurately determine degree of inefficiency
And compare government with private sector
BUT, every organization has inefficiencies
AND, politicians will always run against big government
Cycles of Reform
Downsizing
Reengineering
Continuous Improvement
Reorganization
Downsizing
Government is too big
Pure Downsizing: Anything to make it smaller is better
Usually ideological
Liberals see government power as a useful tool to correct private sector problems
Conservatives traditionally favor small government
Ideological Downsizing
Conservatives: cut social programs but not defense
Administrative Reform
2
(and liberals favor cutting defense)
Cut the federal government and leave it up to the states or localities
Issues of Federalism
– which level of government should do this job
Are sometimes issues of constitutional nicety
But more often issues of at what level will I win?
Political and Economic Turnout Differences
More likely to vote
Higher education, higher income, older, white collar workers
Less likely to vote
Lower education, lower income, younger, blue collar workers
The lower the election level – national to state to local – the greater the differences
Downsizing tactics / movements
California, 1978, Prop 13
Set property taxes at 1% of value
And maximum tax growth of 2% per year
Colorado, 1992, Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR)
Amendment to Colorado Constitution
Government revenue growth from new taxes limited to population growth plus inflation
Grace Commission, 1984
Gramm-Rudman, 1985
Reinventing Government – National Performance Review, 1993
Current
Libertarian Party
Tea Party Movement
Neither target nor organizational theory is clear
Target often federal government
Employment hasn’t risen in @ 50 years
(But spending and regulation have risen)
Tactic is “starve the beast”
If you cut it, they will leave
Supporters can have quite different goals
Politically popular
Impact unknown
Does it change what is done or who does it?
Contracting out
Government decides what needs to be done
Government pays for it
But, done by private sector
Sometimes creates new problems / organizational growth
New monitoring mechanisms
Administrative Reform
3
Type of Reform: Reengineering
Reform by starting all over
Redesign organizational structure and work processes
three Cs: customers, competition, and change
Assumes customers know what they want and how to get it on their terms
Successful company meets customer demands
Competition means must always have cutting edge technology
Change is constant
Versus Classic Weberian Bureaucracy
Large bureaucratic structures are the most efficient of all
Assumes the task is fairly constant
Can rely of standard operating procedures (SOP)
Organizational learning
Effective staffing and coordination
Weberian bureaucracies are inefficient under constant change
Customers?
Customer service movement
in infancy in government
emphasizes how to identify customers and incentives for employees to serve customers better
George Frederickson questions validity of government approach based on customer service
Governments are not markets
Citizens are owners, not customers
Downsizing and cost cutting are not goals
Goal is better organization
Savings MAY be an outcome
But don’t make it the goal
Halfway measures won’t work
Effectiveness difficult to evaluate
Comprehensive Review of Entire Organization
Always helpful
But also expensive
Not that different for the work of earlier scholars in the 1920-1940s
Henri Fayol
Luthor Gulick
Lyndol Urwick
Earlier goals: Fairness, Equity, Due Process
Government organizations live by the law
Must treat all people the same (fairness) or in accordance with the rules (due process)
Government organizations must include focus on process and internal procedures as much as impact on
clients / customers
George W. Bush’s “President’s Management Agenda”
aggressive reengineering approach
Administrative Reform
4
Contracting out
Tighter financial controls
E-government: reliance on Internet and computers to improve services and reduce costs
Derivation of “Red Tape”
Traditionally official Vatican documents were bound in red cloth tape.
Historical English practice of binding documents and official papers with red tape
To this day, most barristers briefs are tied in a pink-colored ribbon known as "pink tape" or "legal
tape".
American Civil War veterans' records were bound in red tape
The difficulty in accessing them led to the current use of the term
Type of Reform: Continuous Improvement
More a family of reforms than a single type
Most stress gradual but continual changes
Not a single big move
Tend to see change as bottom up rather than top down
Motivate employees to be on constant lookout for improvements
Total quality management (TQM):
TQM seeks to improve quality within existing processes
Based on work of W. Edwards Deming
Quality of product matters the most
Better quality leads to productivity and lower costs
W. Edwards Deming
Business GURU for Post WWII Japan
Credited with success of Japanese global business from 1950s-1990s
Reengineering stresses radical re-design of process
Of how to deliver good or service
Voter registration at courthouse only, or also at supermarkets?
TQM emphasizes entirety: product, organization, leadership, and commitment
Conflicting Approaches
Fundamental precepts of each movement directly conflict with others
Supporters of downsizing believe dramatic action is required
Reengineers and continuous improvers believe greater efficiency and smaller organizations ought to be
the result
Conflicting Approaches
Reengineers seek to transform lower-level workers by dramatic policy change at top
Continuous improvers say let lower-level workers define organization’s transformation
Reform Strategy: Downsizing
Goal: Lower expenditures
Direction: Outside-in
Method: Blunt targets
Central focus: Size
Action: Discontinuous
Administrative Reform
5
Reform Strategy: Reengineering
Goal: Efficiency
Direction: Top-down
Method: Competition
Central focus: Process
Action: Discontinuous
Reform Strategy: Continuous Improvement
Goal: Responsiveness
Direction: Bottom-up
Method: Cooperation
Central focus: Interpersonal relations
Action: Continuous
Type of Reform: Reorganization
A catch-all category
A variety of “reforms” that regularly reappear as solutions to selected problems
Richard Nixon
Creation of 4-5 Super Agencies
E.g. national security would include Defense, State, International Trade, etc.
Policy coherence via budgeting
Executive Budget
PPBS, ZBB
9-11
Problem
Intelligence and Security agencies did not work together
Solution
Organize by
Purpose
Rather than Process, Clientele, or Place
Post 9-11, Create Department of Homeland Security
Reform in America
Americans have always been devoted to reform.
Textbook authors claim:
Most innovative administrative thinking is taken from private sector.
Reforms generally come from state and local up to federal level.
Generally true, but may be misleading
Most innovative administrative thinking is taken from private sector
E.g. is reengineering innovative or a repackaging of Weber, Gulick and Urwick, Follette (all public
sector theorists)?
Public organizations restrained by law so experimentation more common in private sector
Innovations usually (not always) move from private to public
BUT do not confuse this with management
Reforms generally come from state and local up to federal level
True only within current era
Administrative Reform
Current states and large cities are very innovative
More so than the current federal government
States are the Laboratories of Democracy
BUT . . . .
From 1930s-1960s feds were far more innovative
Goes in cycles
6