Chapter 7: Administrative Reform

“As society continues to change rapidly, the solutions of the past are no longer sufficient. Not only is there no ‘one size fits all’ solution across countries, but countries should also learn to use reform to create institutions that can constantly adapt to changes in their own societies and to changing outside forces.” Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2002

Reform in America Americans have always been devoted to reform – the country began with a commitment to change! Most innovative administrative thinking comes from the private sector. Arise from experiments at state and local levels of government

Conflicting Theories Reform Strategies: Downsizing Reengineering Continuous improvement

Type of Reform: Downsizing Downsizing: government is too big, so shrink government e.g., Set arbitrary ceilings on taxes or personnel Originated at state level in 1970s, continued through 1990s and 2000s

Reform Strategy: Downsizing Goal: Lower expenditures Direction: Outside-in Method: Blunt targets Central focus: Size Action: Discontinuous

Downsizing Policies Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR): 1992, passage of constitutional amendment in Colorado to limit tax increases; sparked similar legislation in other states Private Sector Survey on Cost Control (Grace Commission): 1984, produced 2,500 recommendations that its report said would save $425 billion over three years; desired huge cuts in federal government

Downsizing Policies (continued) Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act (Gramm-Rudman): 1985, forced Congress and the president to begin bringing the burgeoning federal deficit under control; made downsizing important at all levels of government Reinventing government: 1993, Gore and Clinton attempted to make federal government work better and cost less; term from 1993 book of the same title by Osborne and Gaebler National Performance Review promised voters $108 billion in savings by 1999

Assessing Downsizing Movement largely atheoretical Little planning done in advance of adopting measures Has limited growth of government spending and tax revenues in United States Unclear effects on quality of services and efficiency of administration More symbolic for officeholders

Type of Reform: Reengineering Reengineering: championed by Michael Hammer and James Champy: “reform by starting all over,” redesign of work process of three Cs: customers, competition, and change Some, like Frederickson, question validity of a government approach based on customer service – citizens are owners

Type of Reform: Reengineering (continued) Customer service movement: in infancy, emphasizes how to identify customers and incentives for employees to serve customers better Performance management: reshapes incentives throughout the system (e.g., Virginia and federal level)

Reform Strategy: Reengineering Goal: Efficiency Direction: Top-down Method: Competition Central focus: Process Action: Discontinuous

Assessing Reengineering Single-mindedness of reengineers is greatest virtue and biggest weakness Great influence on Gore’s "reinventing government" Many believe reengineering is a high-risk venture

Type of Reform: Continuous Improvement Continuous improvement: more gradual, continuous bottom-up movement to top of organization Total quality management (TQM): seeks to improve quality within existing process through continuous improvement Deming: Costs decline as quality increases Reengineering believes in process, but TQM also emphasizes product, organization, leadership, and commitment

Reform Strategy: Continuous Improvement Goal: Responsiveness Direction: Bottom-up Method: Cooperation Central focus: Interpersonal relations Action: Continuous

Assessing Continuous Improvement TQM has been around longer than reengineering; utilized more Drove Gore’s “reinventing government” more than other reform efforts Many state and local reforms

Transparent Performance Failure of “vending-machine” government Obama administration implements a new strategy: transparent performance Virtually connecting with citizens Redefine accountability through transparency

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 (continued) Reengineers seek to transform lower-level workers by dramatic policy change at top; continuous improvers say let lower-level workers define organization’s transformation Approach that works best is unknown

All the World’s a Stage Administrative reform is part of government everywhere. No single set of ideas drives it globally. Developed most in the last decade.

Conclusion Reformers have mixed and matched ideas. Reforms have produced significant effects in America and other nations. Management matters only to the degree to which it matters politically. Many reforms have created big and sometimes unexpected new problems.