Economics homework help. PUB 407
Productivity Improvement in the Public Sector
Class 2
Chapter 2 (part 1)
Why do you think there is a perception of a “bumbling bureaucrat”?

• Red tape, public eye and expectations, poor hiring?
  • If mistakes are made the perception is incompetence or fraud?

Read FEMA paragraph regarding Hurricane Katrina.
Government bureaucrats (or employees) are constant attacks for the media and politicians.

• When is the last time a politician took the blame for a failed policy, events, or incident?
• It is easier to make officials look bad then explain the complexities of the position.
  • No matter what side you’re on – the current FBI/President Trump Drama.
    • To one side he is corrupt president and to the other they are a corrupt agency.

Public managers do not set goals, they manage the goals of elected officials.

• City managers manage the goals of the city council.
• County managers manage the goals of county commissioners.
• Appointed positions within state and federal gov’t manage the goals of whoever appointed them.

Causes of Failure
Accepting the negative image.
Despite public perception, most public managers are not incompetent, and are generally as good as the private sector.
Perception can become reality for some managers, and their self-image and expectations can be set by external views and create a “psychology of failure”.
The self-defeated public manager defines success as the “absence of failure”!!!

• This manager may become jaded and be a poor performer.
• It is difficult to measure performance in the public sector.
• Employees in the public sector have more job protections than the private.

 
Folding to constraints.
We’ve always done it this way or don’t rock the boat.
Innovative managers receive push back from the established governmental norms.

• Creativity is not valued as it is in the private sector.

Read Street Fair and tramway paragraph.
Being too cautious.
Analysis paralysis due to fear or failure.
Read USPS paragraph.
Hiding behind ambiguity (bullshitting)
Using overly complicated or confusing language to fake a level of competence.
Gaming the system.
Not getting pinned down so there are never consequences and they can weasel out.
Forgetting people matter.
Managers have to remember their organizations are made of people, and that they lead people not agencies, companies, or departments.
Poor managers make decisions from their office or desk and don’t venture out to see impacts or consequences.

• Decentralized decisions making and employee empowerment will increase the success of a desired outcome.

Read HELP USA paragraph.
Cocoa Water Scenario

Economics homework help