Public Administration Shaping the ‘Unscripted Future’

1
Public Administration Shaping the Unscripted
Future
2
Examining the Nature of Change in Public
Administration Limitations and Possibilities in
Public Administration Reform

• Rapid global, economic and social changes are
  profoundly affecting institutions and the lives
  of individuals. These changes are challenging
  the prevailing paradigms in public
  administration.
• Public Administration Reform in the Past
  Influenced by external forces, history, and
  institutional constraints.
• Public Administration Reform in the Future
  Requires a new theoretical framework that can
  deal with the complexities of the 21st Century.

3
Public Administration Reform in the
PastPath-dependency vs. External Forces

• Public administration has traditionally reformed
  in response to external forces, but it has done
  so within constraints. During the 20th Century,
  significant political, social and economic
  changes took place, but public administration
  remained relatively constant.
• One possible explanation for the consistency in
  public administration during the 20th Century is
  that public administration reform has been
  path-dependent (Pollitt and Boukaert 2004 Peters
  and Pierre 1998).

4
Path Dependency Key Concepts

• Originally applied to technology.
• History Matters
• Key Concepts
• Patterns of timing and sequence are important.
• Large consequences can result from small events.
• Courses of action, once initiated, can be almost
  impossible to reverse
• Political development is punctuated by critical
  junctures.
• (Pierson 2000)

5
Path Dependency Increasing Returns

• Path Dependency is frequently described as an
• increasing returns or positive feedback
  process
• which highlights two important features
• 1. The cost of switching to another
• alternative increases over time.
• 2. Timing, sequence, and formative events
• are important.
• (Pierson 2000)

6
Path Dependency Increasing Returns

• Aspects of technology and institutions that
  generate
• an increasing-returns process.
• Large set up or fixed costs.
• Learning effects
• Coordination effects
• Adaptive expectations
• (Pierson 2000, North 1990)

7
Public Management Reform as Path-Dependent

• Peters and Pierre (1998) The objectives and
  concrete design of administrative reform mirror
  the historical, political, and societal roles of
  public administration as well as its internal
  culture. Such reforms are path-dependent,
  probably to a much greater extent than we
  generally realize (224).

8
Public Management Reform as Path-Dependent

• Pollitt and Bouckaert (2004) View management
  reform as influenced by global economic factors,
  socio-economic change, and new management ideas,
  but also acknowledge the role of path-dependency.
• Certain laws, rules, and institutions can create
  heavy disincentives for change (Pollitt and
  Boukaert citing Pierson 2004, 33).
• The costs of change in management reform
  include learning new methods of operation,
  developing new networks and new patterns of
  authority (Pollitt and Boukaert 2004, 33).

9
Criticisms of Path-Dependency

• Ignores the importance of smaller, more
  incremental change.
• Engages in retrospective rationality (Peters,
  Pierre, King 2005, 1277)
• Does not account for political conflict properly.
• Inadequately explains political and policy
  change.
• Does not have a convincing account of
  decision-making.
• (Peters, Pierre, King 2005 Kay 2005)

10
Criticisms of Path-Dependency

• Criticisms are not fatal to the validity of
  path-dependency (Kay 2005).
• The concept is useful for understanding the
  limits to intentional reform which are due to the
  presence of institutional inertia (Torfing 2009,
  81).

11
Public Administrations Legacy Effects

• Public Administration is bound by tradition
• and is subject to legacy effects in the sense
• that its inheritance exerts its influence in the
  
• face of pressures for change (Painter and
• Peters 2010, 13).

12
Traditional Public Administration A Critical
Juncture

• Growth of capitalism, influx of immigrants,
  urbanization, and the Progressives.
• The Traditional Doctrine was crafted around
• Wilsons (1887) ideas of efficiency, businesslike
  administration, the separation of politics from
  administration, and hierarchy.
• Webers (1922) account of bureaucracy which
  emphasized control from the top, hierarchy, rules
  and regulations, and a rational system of control
  which made the bureaucrat subordinate to his
  political superior.
• (Moore 1995 Pfiffner 2004).

13
The Traditional Doctrine A Critical Juncture

• Work was organized, structures were designed and
  superior-subordinate relationships were crafted
  around the principles of efficiency, hierarchy
  and the separation of politics from
  administration.
• There were 11 major reform initiatives during the
  20th Century, but these basic principles
  continued to resurface.

14
The Traditional Doctrine and Path Dependency

• Timing was important. Early events mattered more
  than later ones.
• The cost of switching to other alternatives
  increased over time. Scholarship and practices
  were guided by the doctrine.
• Wilsons and Webers writings had large and
  lasting consequences.
• Self-reinforcing since there were large set up
  costs that made it difficult to change
  established methods and relationships, learning
  effects led to innovations based on this dominant
  framework, and coordination effects and adaptive
  expectations led to interdependence.

15
Reform Movements Constrained by the Traditional
Doctrine
16
The New Public Service A Break from the Past?

• The New Public Service
• (Denhardt and Denhardt 2007)
• Concepts
• Citizens as bearers of rights and duties within
  the context of a wider community
• (60)
• Citizens as central to administration,
  policymaking and implementation.
• Public administrators as guided by shared values
  and collective citizen interests
• (78)
• The public administrator is only one key actor
  within a larger system of
• governance (81).
• Concerns
• Not a blueprint for a structure. . .an ideal
  (187).
• Not yet determined if it represents a distinct
  break from the past.

17
A New Path for the 21st Century?

• Possible cost of following the same path is that
  it may lead to suboptimal outcomes (Pierson
  2000).
• Rapid rate of global, economic and political
  change is making it impossible to stay on the
  same path. We may now be at a critical juncture
  similar to the one at the beginning of the 20th
  Century.
• The traditional visions of public management can
  no longer be stretched to accommodate the growing
  complexity of the world (Kiel 1994, 3).

18
Factors Influencing Reform in the 21st Century
19
Preparing Public Administrators for the 21st
Century New Skills for Public Managers

• Change presents new challenges for public
  administration educators.
• In order to be prepared for the 21st Century,
  public managers will need a new skill set.
• Kiel (1994), Drucker (1994), and Freidman (2007)
  offer insight on the type of skills that
  employees and public managers will need.

20
Preparing Public Administrators for the 21st
Century New Skills for Public Managers

• Kiel (1994) Instead of relying on an organizing
  
• theory for direction, public managers will lead
  by
• being unthreatened by change
• letting go of control
• looking for the deep order in work
• focusing on processes instead of structure
• accepting that uncertainty is inevitable
• recognizing that values can provide underlying
  order in an organization (201-212).

21
Preparing Public Administrators for the 21st
Century New Skills for Public Managers

• Drucker (1994) Public managers are
• knowledge workers who must have the
• ability to understand and apply both
• theoretical and analytical knowledge, and the
• habit of continual learning.

22
Preparing Public Administrators for the 21st
Century New Skills for Public Managers

• Friedman (2007) In a flat world students must
• learn how to learn (309)
• have the ability to navigate the virtual world
  (310)
• have an attitude of curiosity and passion
• have a background in the liberal arts
• Educators must nurture right-brain skills that
  deal
• with emotions and synthesis.

23
Implications for Education

• This shift to a new set of skills will also
• require higher education to reconsider its
• pedagogy, orthodoxy and structure.

24
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