Book Description

If the reengineering of government is to be successful, we must first understand how the current system affects how managers actually manage.Based on a comprehensive study of four federal agencies--including interviews with over 100 public managers--How Do Public Managers Manage? is a richly detailed analysis of the effect of organizational culture on managers' behavior. This important book offers a practical understanding of how government managers solve problems, manage personnel, and plan in the face of bureaucratic constraints.How Do Public Managers Manage? examines what managers can do to work more effectively within existing systems, and evaluates the potential of success of the reform efforts designed to free managers from the chains of bureaucracy. Author Carolyn Ban delivers critical information on how managers from government agencies (that vary in mission, size, structure, resources, and leadership) cope with bureaucratic limitations and constraints. She reveals how organizational differences directly affect such considerations as the management selection process, the quality of management training, and the managers' career path. The book also analyzes how the role of manager can vary within and between organizations as exemplified by first line "working" manager-supervisors and supervisors who have the title but perform very few of the functions of a supervisor.Focusing on how coping strategies differ across agencies, the author probes how managers' react to the constraints imposed by the civil service system and the budget process and outlines the strategies they use when dealing with the lengthy and complex process of hiring and firing. And the author examines how managers implement the often frustrating mandates of personnel ceilings, hiring freezes, and reductions in workforce. Using numerous examples and insightful stories, the book reveals the range of methods that managers find to operate within or to circumvent the formal systems of