The Public Administrator's Companion


Book Description

The second edition of The Public Administrator’s Companion: A Practical Guide examines the most important elements of public administration. The authors provide readers with a keen understanding of how government works, useful for both students and practitioners of public administration. The book discusses governmental structure, human resources, and public funding. It delineates administrators’ actions in strategic planning, consensus building, budget development, performance measurement, and public policy assessment and implementation. This edition includes new chapters on nonprofit organizations and leadership for administrators, as well as an appendix about preparing and making presentations. The previous edition’s appendix on getting a job in local government has been revised to include interviewing and hiring from the perspectives of both the agency and applicant. Real-world examples and cases from the local, state, and federal level reinforce key topics. Each chapter ends with a “Practicing Public Administration” section that provides helpful exercises for building the skills described in the chapter and a “Bibliography,” which provides useful source materials that can broaden the reader’s comprehension of the chapter.




Research Methods for Public Administrators


Book Description

As in previous editions, this highly practical book is written with beginning MPA students and practitioners in mind. It focuses on the interpretation and use of research findings, not just number crunching. It covers the entire research process, from initial questions to final report, in clear, jargon-free language, and includes numerous easy-to-understand examples and exercises that provide opportunities for concrete applications of the concepts. It is solidly grounded in public administration and recognizes both the promise and limitations of research within a political environment. Key features of the book: --It is highly practical and written to accommodate a mix of readers: those who want to become analysts, managers who will oversee research contracts, and citizens who need to know whether to believe the facts and data they read in today's news; --It minimizes the use of jargon and explains difficult concepts in clear language. Plentiful end-of-chapter exercises provide opportunities for concrete application of the concepts; --Key points are highlighted as "takeaway lessons" so readers are reminded about what really matters. The tough questions to ask are suggested in every chapter; --Examples and applications are used throughout the book to illustrate concepts and add topical interest; --It covers the entire research process, from initial questions to the final report. This book demystifies and makes practical the research every public administrator and policy analyst needs to do the job well. Online instructor's materials, including a Test Bank, PowerPoint slides, and a Survey and Documental Analysis (SDA) guide, are also available to adopters.




Public Administration


Book Description

The public sector today permeates much of society. This wide-ranging reach is distilled into a cogent overview of governing in the twenty-first century in the latest edition of Johnson’s acclaimed work. In a clear and engaging style, the author examines the public-private collaborations through which public policies are shaped, implemented, and revised. Throughout, he emphasizes the role of public administrators in forming and maintaining the partnerships that advance the goals of government. Johnson’s well-organized survey draws on both classic works and current issues in describing the organization and operation of American government. Abundant sidebars on current challenges like immigration, health care, disaster preparedness, homeland security, infrastructure investment, and data privacy offer valuable examples of public administration in practice and illuminate the collaborative nature of American governance.




The Public Administrator′s Companion


Book Description

Help your students make the leap from theory to practice. This handy guide emphasizes application with straightforward instruction and abundant case material. It provides brief, tested steps for addressing management, resource, and operational needs, encouraging students to develop and hone crucial skills. Each chapter includes "Practicing Public Administration" exercises that range from preparing a sample budget to designing a flowchart to doing a SWOT analysis. With a particular focus on ethics, students are not only prepared to address daily tasks, but also to think through sticky moral dilemmas.




Public Administration


Book Description

This is a complete and up-to-date revision of the classic text for public administration which presented public administration as a tension between the necessary exercise of power and the search for accountability by public servants. In this revision, the authors have initiated a new approach to the study of public administration by focusing on middle- and lower-level managers. These are positions that most students will occupy for the bulk of their professional careers. The book recognizes that most of the administration is in field offices, in state and local government, and in cooperation with the private sector. It then focuses on power and its potential for influencing the behavior of the bureaucracy. This leads to the relationship between theories about administration and the actual practice.




Public Service Values


Book Description

Public service values are too rarely discussed in public administration courses and scholarship, despite recent research demonstrating the importance of these values in the daily decision making processes of public service professionals. A discussion of these very tenets and their relevance to core public functions, as well as which areas might elicit value conflicts for public professionals, is central to any comprehensive understanding of budget and finance, human resource management, and strategic planning in the public sector. Public Service Values is written specifically for graduate and undergraduate courses in public administration, wherever a discussion of public service ideals might enrich the learning experience and offer students a better understanding of daily practice. Exploring the meaning and application of specific values, such as Neutrality, Efficiency, Accountability, Public Service, and Public Interest, provides students and future professionals with a ‘workplace toolkit’ for the ethical delivery of public services. Well-grounded in scholarly literature and with a relentless focus on the public service professional, Public Service Values highlights the importance of values in professional life and encourages a more self-aware and reflective public practice. Case studies to stimulate reflection are interwoven throughout the book and application to practice is cemented in a final section devoted to value themes in professional life as well as a chapter dedicated to holding oneself accountable. The result is a book that challenges us to embrace the necessity of public service values in our public affairs curricula and that asks the important questions current public service professionals should make a habit of routinely applying in their daily decision making.




Critical Theory Ethics for Business and Public Administration


Book Description

The purpose of this book is to develop those ethical traditions. For example, Horkheimer’s books Eclipse of Reason and Critique of Instrumental Reason, and his early and now classic essay Materialism and Morality ask for a reformation of Kantian ethics. The reform sought is that categorical imperative in an individualism capitalism serves to worsen the difference between business ethics and moral philosophy. That is, it is not enough to try to be good or ethical as individuals when it is the systemic processes that must be dealt with. Therefore, Horkheimer asks that the maxim that would be made universal be done at the level of people organizing with others to change the social system that is producing the unethical behaviors. The book is organized into several sections. The first section sets the stages, beginning with a challenge to the field of social responsibility in business and public administration (Jones, Ten bos, & Parker have a new book out that is smashing). Then, we turn to Carr and to Zanettic who each have done critical theory work in public administration. This is followed by Heather Hopfl, who edited an issue on ethics of goodness, and does the kind of writing that makes deep connections. The next set of chapters make topic connections: rhizomatics, dialogics of co experience, story/narrative, and postmodern. The third set of topics focus on application: technofuturist, international business, economics, university, environment, accounting, spirituality, strategy, and ending with Mills’ work on silence of race/ethnicity in business (and public administration) ethics writing.




Public Administration in Germany


Book Description

This open access book presents a topical, comprehensive and differentiated analysis of Germany’s public administration and reforms. It provides an overview on key elements of German public administration at the federal, Länder and local levels of government as well as on current reform activities of the public sector. It examines the key institutional features of German public administration; the changing relationships between public administration, society and the private sector; the administrative reforms at different levels of the federal system and numerous sectors; and new challenges and modernization approaches like digitalization, Open Government and Better Regulation. Each chapter offers a combination of descriptive information and problem-oriented analysis, presenting key topical issues in Germany which are relevant to an international readership.




Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance


Book Description

This global encyclopedic work serves as a comprehensive collection of global scholarship regarding the vast fields of public administration, public policy, governance, and management. Written and edited by leading international scholars and practitioners, this exhaustive resource covers all areas of the above fields and their numerous subfields of study. In keeping with the multidisciplinary spirit of these fields and subfields, the entries make use of various theoretical, empirical, analytical, practical, and methodological bases of knowledge. Expanded and updated, the second edition includes over a thousand of new entries representing the most current research in public administration, public policy, governance, nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations, and management covering such important sub-areas as: 1. organization theory, behavior, change and development; 2. administrative theory and practice; 3. Bureaucracy; 4. public budgeting and financial management; 5. public economy and public management 6. public personnel administration and labor-management relations; 7. crisis and emergency management; 8. institutional theory and public administration; 9. law and regulations; 10. ethics and accountability; 11. public governance and private governance; 12. Nonprofit management and nongovernmental organizations; 13. Social, health, and environmental policy areas; 14. pandemic and crisis management; 15. administrative and governance reforms; 16. comparative public administration and governance; 17. globalization and international issues; 18. performance management; 19. geographical areas of the world with country-focused entries like Japan, China, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Russia and Eastern Europe, North America; and 20. a lot more. Relevant to professionals, experts, scholars, general readers, researchers, policy makers and manger, and students worldwide, this work will serve as the most viable global reference source for those looking for an introduction and advance knowledge to the field.




Model Rules of Professional Conduct


Book Description

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.