Introduction to Public Administration--PAD 700--Spring 2000

Term Paper: The homework for weeks 5 and 9 consist of 6 "organizational analysis" questions. Your answers to these questions must all focus on a single organization. This organization must be the student's place of employment unless the instructor approves an alternative organization. The answers to these questions form the basis for your term paper, due at the Week 13 class. In this paper, the student consolidates and organizes his/her several answers, and the instructor's feedback on those answers, into a single analysis of management issues faced by his or her organization. Students are expected to draw upon the course textbook as well as other sources (organization charts, agency reports and budgets) to develop their papers. A "Frequently Asked Term Paper Questions" page is found at http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~phara/TermPaperFAQ.htm.

Midterm (Week 8) and Final Exams (Week 15): Each exam will consist of four essay questions based on the weekly questions in this syllabus. An essay answer consists of (1) the relevant factual information and (2) an extended discussion that shows the student understands and can apply the "facts" to real world circumstances. The instructors' detailed discussion on constructing an essay answer can be found at http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~phara/EssayAnswerJJ.htm Read this discussion to better understand what your professors will expect on your examinations. Exams will be graded on scale of 100; clarity and grammatical correctness will affect your grade.

Students should also obtain a copy of the APA guide from the college library as soon as possible, and use it as a reference in all citations of course material. You may also go the Library Web Page to access the APA guide. (http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/research.html)

Course Web Pages: Professor O’Hara (http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~phara/) and Professor Peters (http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jlpeters/html/pad_700.html) have web pages to provide additional information to their classes. All students should feel free to browse either page. This information is meant to augment, not substitute, for the readings assigned each week. Students who want to sharpen their writing skills can visit: http://webster.commnet.edu/hp/pages/darling. For help on APA documentation, visit http://juno.concordia.ca/faqs/apalynx.html

Homework Grading: Each homework submission, except the internet/bibliography exercises, will receive three marks (e.g., 85/80/90). The first mark will assess written presentation—grammar, spelling, and sentence construction. The second mark will assess clarity—did you present your points in a way that enabled the reader to clearly understand what you meant. The third mark will assess your application of the materials from the readings—did you understand the key points, did you apply those points to effectively analyze the issues. These exercises are designed to enhance your study and presentational skills. Your work will be graded and detailed feedback will be given on the assumption that you have made your best effort. To learn about Prof. O'Hara's feedback codes, go to http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~phara/Grammargrades.htm

Note 1: The principal class learning mode is a dialogue relating to the issues raised by each of the weekly questions. Your written answers to weekly questions is a pre-requisite for effective class participation.

Note 2: With the exception of Weeks 10 and 11, weekly readings are anchored by chapters or chapter parts from the Denhardt text. All non-Denhardt readings are from the Annual Editions reader and are identified as "Article 4", "Article 28, 29,31." Web sites are identified by the "http://" or "www" format. Students should browse the sites listed week by week in the syllabus in order to broaden their understanding of the subject matter. Additional web sites may be found in Denhardt and in "Annual Editions."

Note 3: To adjust for holidays, the Monday class will not meet the week of February 21. "Week 3" for the Monday class is the following week. Spring break occurs from April 19^th to April 28^th. Please note these dates so that assignments can be submitted when due.

Week 1 Course Introduction

Student survey; course introduction, participant expectations

Read: Denhardt, Chapter 1, and Chapter 11, 380-386 Answer: The questions below, in writing, to submit at Week 2's class

1. Because public administration does business in a necessarily political environment, contradictory demands usually confront agency managers. Agency operations are supposed to be both efficient and responsive. The agency manager is supposed to be an expert in administration but can easily lose his/her job by misreading the politics in the community/constituencies served by the agency. First, carefully define each of the italicized words. Then, using real life examples, show how efficiency and responsiveness clash. Then, again using real life examples, show how politics can affect the administration of a program.
2. List, side by side, the rules for effective writing and the rules for effective speaking. Analyze the similarities, and the differences. Then list, side by side, the rules for effective listening and the secret weapons for organizational communications. Have you used "effective listening" techniques or the "secret weapons for organizational communications? Did they (or could they) work?

Read: Denhardt, Chapter 2; Article 3, 4, 17

Answer: The questions below, in writing, to submit at Week 3's class.

1. All public administration takes place within a structure of government. Set forth the general structure of government in the United States, detailing how powers are divided among the executive, the legislative and judicial branches. Discuss where agency administration stands amidst these divided powers by addressing (1) how legislatures exert leverage over agency administration, (2) how chief executives (presidents, mayors, governors) exert leverage over agency administration and (3) how courts exert leverage over agency administration?
2. Discuss in general the relative role that (1) personality and (2) the structural power of his/her office plays in determining how an office-holder, such as a Mayor or Governor, interacts with other elected officials, subordinate managers and legislators. How does an assertive mayor, such as Rudolph Giuliani, behave towards commissioners and council members? Why? Might another in the same office act diffferently? Why?
3. In the federal government, compare the clarity of the directions an agency receives when the president and the majority of Congress are from the same party with the clarity of the directions an agency receives when the president is from one party and the Congress is controlled by another party. How do you think Jesse "The Mind" Ventura (a strong personality who is the only Minnesota elected official from the Reform Party) is faring as governor of Minnesota? Why?

Read: Denhardt, Chapter 3; Articles 6, 44, 45

Answer: The questions below, in writing, to submit at Week 4's class.

1. Much of the policy rhetoric we hear concerns intergovernmental relations, even if we rarely hear that phrase. "Getting the federal government off our backs," "cutting out needless regulation" and "letting the states experiment to find welfare programs that work" are all ways of saying that too much authority has been situated in the federal government, too little in the state government. Describe the history of intergovernmental relations in the United States making sure to define and discuss dual, cooperative, and picket fence federalism. How have the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations approached federalism? Use actual programs from each period to exemplify the type of federalism you are describing.
2. Describe the several meanings of privatization as set forth by Denhardt. Where does contracting out fit in Denhardt's scheme of privatization definitions? What forms does contracting out take?

Read: Denhardt, Chapter 8

Answer: The questions below, in writing, to submit at Week 5's class.

Please note: These are the first three of the six questions whose answers are the foundation for your term paper. The final three "building block" questions for the term paper are assigned in Week 9. Work hard on your answers; effort expended now will save you effort later. The first question is designed to get you thinking about the culture of your organization. The answers to the second and third questions address more specific aspects your organization's activity (or inactivity). A close reading of the beginning of Chapter 8 should help you with all these questions. Remember: The organization you work for must be the subject of all your answers unless the instructor has given you explicit permission to select another organization.

1. Assess the cultural personality of your organization using the organizational culture aspects developed by Edgar Schein. Your answer need not use every aspect but should, to your satisfaction, identify the key values and beliefs that bind the employees to each other and to the organization.
2. Assess your organization in terms of Peters and Waterman’s "best company" characteristics as described on page 300 of Denhardt..
3. Identify policies implemented by your organization that seek to more aggressively pursue a quality product or service. Use the questions TQM advocates seek to address (306) and the characteristics of the "new culture" of excellence (304) to identify initiatives in your organization that strive towards Total Quality Management. If you think that your organization is mounting few, if any, such initiatives, identify steps that you think your organization could take to further TQM principles.

Reading: Denhardt, Chapter 5, Articles 40 and 37.

Answer: The questions below, in writing, to submit at Week 6's class.

1. Based on the materials in Denhardt (163-170), describe what happens at each step of the appropriations process: budget formulation, legislative approval, budget execution, and audit. How do these steps contribute to the control and management of public agency activities?
2. Why is the property tax controversial? Who wins and who loses when existing property tax rates are lowered? Using Denhardt, and the two articles from Annual Editions, identify the tax you believe is most fair. Explain the reasons for you choice.

Read: Denhardt Chapter 6

Answer: The questions below, in writing, to submit at Week 7's class.

1. How has the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) of 1978 contributed to federal management's ability to more effectively assign, direct and discipline employees? What new personnel organizations and personnel ranks were created by the CSRA? What problems was the CSRA designed to address? Have these problems been solved at the federal level? At the state and local levels?
2. Distinguish between equal employment opportunity and affirmative action. Define each concept. What is the legal basis of each program in the federal government? What organizational policies and procedures carry out equal employment opportunity requirements? What organizational policies and procedures carry out affirmative action requirements?
3. Define sexual harassment. Distinguish between at least three types of workplace situations that can constitute sexual harassment? What are the steps an agency can take to reduce the likelihood of sexual harassment?

This examination will consist of four essay questions drawn entirely from questions that have appeared in this syllabus to date. All questions have an equal probability of appearing on the mid-term exams in the various PAD 700 classes. The instructors will not reduce the pool of eligible questions nor forecast what will appear on the exam. Students should read the instructors' discussion about constructing an essay answer, which can be found at http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~phara/EssayAnswerJJ.htm.

NOTE: Below are the last three "component question" for the term paper. You must analyze the same organization you analyzed for the first three "component questions."

1. Describe the steps to productivity improvement (342). Show how each step contributes (or doesn't contribute) to quality improvement, to more timely and/or faster service/product delivery, and to greater customer/client satisfaction.
2. Pick the incentive program (Denhardt, 335) you think would be most successful in motivating productivity improvement in your organization, or in the organization you are using for your term paper. Carefully explain the reasons for your choice, analyzing both why you chose the incentive program you did, and why you rejected the others.
3. Assess your chosen organization in terms of the "burnout promoting" factors in Denhardt (357). Identify each factor that applies to your organization and give concrete instances where each factor arises.

Read: Readings from Annual Editions Reader

Note: ALL of the policy articles in Weeks 10 and 11 must be read by each student. In addition, every student will be assigned one article from Week 10 and one article from Week 11. Students "assigned" to an article must know enough about the article/issue to lead/co-lead a class discussion on the topic. With two or more students assigned as experts on each article, a diversity of views is likely to enliven class discussion. A required question on the final exam will ask each student to (1) give a brief synopsis of one of their assigned "public policy" articles, (2) explain why the issue addressed by the article is important, (3) identify the decisions that the student thinks should be made about the issue and (4) provide reasons for the his or her decision choices.

Article 30 Can Cities Escape Political Isolation

Article 31 How to Save Our Shrinking Cities

Article 32 Suburban Myth

Article 33 Who Pays for Sprawl

Article 34 Levittown to Littleton: How the Suburbs Have Changed

Article 35 A Fair Share in Suburbia

Library Submission Due At Start of Week 10 Class: Submit an annotated bibliography of at least five articles on the same topic from a public administration or public policy journal from the John Jay or other CUNY library. In an annotated bibliography, each source is cited fully and properly in the APA style and is followed by a brief summary of the article's contents. Your submission will be assessed on the correctness of the citations, the clarity of the summations, and the relatedness of the articles collected. Students may choose to collect articles related to their public policy topic assigned from Week 10 or 11.

Read: Readings from Annual Editions Reader--See Week 10 Note

Article 46 New Ways of Education

Article 49 When Welfare Ends

Article 51 The Answer to Drunk Driving: Lower the Alcohol Limit?

Article 52 The Comeback of the Cops

Article 53 Making the Case for Graduated Driver Licensing

Article 54 Rescuing the Fire Department

Internet submission due: Submit to the instructor, via E-Mail, a list hot-linked web addresses of 12 or more articles on any single issue related to public administration or public policy (specific individuals are NOT issues). Your E-Mail submission must have a centered heading describing your topic, followed immediately below by your name, which should also be centered. Then, briefly explain why you chose the topic. Immediately below this explanation should be your list of hot-linked articles. Your e-mail must be sent before the start of Week 11's class in order to avoid late penalties.

Read: Chapter 7

Answer: The questions below, in writing, to submit at Week 12's class.

NOTE: Answering the questions below requires a careful, thorough reading of Chapter 12, which discusses various concepts and techniques required for deciding policy. Be especially sure to understand the distinction between outputs and outcomes.

1. Distinguish between process evaluation and outcome evaluation. In evaluating the MPA program, what factors would you measure in a process evaluation the program? Would you measure the same factors in an outcome evaluation? If not, explain why, and discuss what factors you think would be appropriate for an outcome evaluation.
2. Do case 3 (280) in Denhardt. Make a table that includes all relevant information given on alternative types of patrol. Decide which evaluation criterion or criteria are most important in evaluating the three types of patrol. Explain your choice. Then, analyze the data, and choose the type of patrol (or combination of patrols) that best suits your criteria. Explain your choice. Show all calculations that led to your decision.

Read: Denhardt, Chapter 11, page 386 to end

NOTE: These questions are not to be submitted in writing. Students, however, should be prepared to answer them in class. Also, for the "case study" question, answering each decision tree questions step-by-step (left to right) will help you think through the issues and will facilitate your participation in class discussion.

1. What is your personal delegation style (whether at work, in social organizations, or in family/friendship settings)? In what ways would your delegation style benefit from the concepts of reinforcement and goal-setting described by Denhardt?
2. What role or roles do you usually take on in work groups? Is this role comfortable for you? Is it beneficial to your career? Does it make a positive contribution to your work group’s performance?
3. Use Vroom and Yetton’s "Types of Management Decision Methods" (403) to determine the type of management decision you would use to address the following decision situation; then, assess the Vroom-Yetton model’s general utility for managers faced with difficult decisions: Your organization’s World Wide Web page has so far been tightly controlled by the Computer Resource Center. Because so many of the units in your organization want—and for organizational efficiency—need to be on the web, demand for a "piece of the page" has outstripped the Computer Resource Center’s ability to create new web page material. Most waiting units have personnel eager and able to create functional and adequate web page add-ons for their units. However, the Computer Resource Center director is adamant that this would lead to chaos in style and content. The director insists that two new web page designers be added to his staff to accomplish the needed expansion and maintain the pages in the future. The unit heads insist that their units get on the web now, with some unit heads pointedly remarking that they have had it with the center director’s tyranny. As agency head, you have decided to apply the Vroom-Yetton model to see the type or types of decision approaches to use.

Term Paper Due at the Start of Week 13 Class: Any papers delivered beyond this point will be assessed a penalty for lateness. This includes papers delivered at the end of the class by, or on behalf of, absent students and papers delivered after the class has begun by students who were not present at the outset of class.

Read: Denhardt, Chapter 4; Articles 9, 38 and 39

NOTE: These questions are not to be submitted in writing. Students, however, should be prepared to answer them in class.

1. Discuss three ethical problems public employees encounter. What steps can public employees take to deal with each of these problems?
2. List five steps an organization can take to help foster a more ethical climate. Does your organization do these things? If so, do they work? If your organization does not yet do these things, do you think they would work?
3. Using your analysis of the Annual Editions articles assigned this week, take and defend a position with respect to each of the following propositions:

Proposition 1: Lotteries are inequitable, deceptively advertised and immoral,

Proposition 2: Unlimited terms of office breed corrupt, unresponsive officials

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This examination will consist of four essay questions drawn entirely from questions that have appeared from weeks 9 through 14 in this syllabus (with the exception of Question 3, Week 13). Each student will have to answer a required question related to one of the two "policy articles" assigned to the student for Weeks 10 and 11. With the exception of the required question, all questions have an equal probability of appearing on the final. The instructors will not reduce the pool of eligible questions nor forecast what will appear on the exam.