Professor Patrick O’Hara Professor Flora Rothman Professor J. L. Peters

3504 N Suite (3501) 3537 N 3520 N

212-237-8086/610-286-7163 212-237-8072 212-237-8071

patohara@email.jjay.cuny.edu frothman@email.jjay.cuny.edu jlpeters@email.jjay.cuny.edu

Goals: The goal of this course is to introduce students to public administration as a field of practice and as an academic discipline. This first course in the Master of Public Administration program is also designed to insure that every student engages the skills, protocols, and communication methods—both written and oral—essential to success in the program. Completing this course with B or better means that students have demonstrated the capabilities and fundamental understanding necessary for success in the remainder of the MPA program. Failure to achieve a grade of B in this course, therefore, may result in dismissal from the MPA Program.

Overview: This course is designed to be challenging, stressing the development and application of written and oral communications skills, research methods, and simple mathematical calculations in the context of the public administration discipline. Written homework will be assigned most weeks, requiring students to engage with and synthesize assigned readings prior to each class. Students will be held responsible for completing each week’s written assignment prior to class and submitting the assignment in class. All homework should be typed or neatly handwritten, double-spaced, and carefully proofread. All homework will be graded for presentation (grammar, spelling, sentence construction), clarity (the degree to which the assignment accurately and clearly communicates with the reader), and substance (the student’s understanding of the materials upon which the assignment is based). Late submissions will, without exception, be penalized. In addition, failure to do each week’s assignment will greatly increase the likelihood of low grades on tests and classroom participation. Homework assignments are directly linked to each week’s class discussion. Questions on the midterm and final examinations are drawn directly from the homework assignments. Logical, well-organized, clearly written homework submissions are your foundation for success in this course.

One homework question (Week 12, #2) requires students to apply basic mathematical skills. As with all homework, students are expected to engage fully before class with this Week 12 assignment. A "research skills exercise" requires students to demonstrate their ability to utilize library resources, and conduct a simple search on the Internet. This assignment consists of an annotated bibliography of no less than three articles on a single topic from a professional journal, and direct links to at least three Internet-based analytical articles on the same topic, which must be related to organizational improvement component of your term paper. This assignment must be submitted by e-mail to the instructor by Week 11 and must include working electronic hotlinks to the internet-based articles. This assignment is best done over several weeks rather than immediately before the due date, particularly because of its relevance to your term paper.

Term Paper: The homework for Week 5 consists of three "organizational profile" questions, which must be answered about the student’s place of employment unless the instructor approves an alternative organization. The homework for Week 9 addresses two means of "organizational improvement"—productivity and incentive programs—one of which must be analyzed in depth relative to the student’s term paper organization. Your week 5 answers (and the feedback from your classmates) and your week 9 answers (and the feedback from the instructor) form the basis for the term paper, due at the Week 13 class. Students are expected to draw upon the course textbook as well as other sources (organization charts, agency reports and budgets) to develop the organizational profile portion of their papers. Students are expected to draw upon their library research assignment to develop the improvement proposal portion of their papers. A "Frequently Asked Term Paper Questions" page is attached to this syllabus.

Midterm (Week 8) and Final Exams (Week 15): Each exam will consist of 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’ 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.

Denhardt, Robert. Public Administration: An Action Orientation. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1998. (You must have this book before week 2.)

Stinebricker, Bruce (ed.). Annual Editions: State and Local Government. Guilford, CT: Dushkin McGraw Hill, 2000. (You must have this book before week 2.)

Westbrook, Paul. Math Smart for Business: Essentials of Managerial Finance. New York: Random House, 1997. (This book is optional but highly recommended as an MPA Program resource for students brushing up on long-unused math skills.)

Shafritz, Jay. Dictionary of American Government and Politics. New York: Harper and Collins, 1993. (This book is not required but it is highly recommended as a resource that will facilitate your progress in this course and throughout the MPA program.)

Goddin, Neil, and Erik Palma. Grammar Smart. New York: Princeton Review/Random House, 1993. (This book is not required but it is strongly recommended as a reference source to improve student writing, along with a good standard hardcover dictionary. Students who receive negative presentation and/or clarity grades are particularly encouraged to obtain this book and use it.)

Students should also obtain a copy of the APA guide from the college library as soon as possible, and use it as a reference for citations on the term paper in this and all other classes. The guide is also available online at http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/research.html.

Methods of Assessment: You will be assessed on your ability to engage with and synthesize assigned readings, as evidenced by the substantive content of your weekly homework assignments, your performance on exams, your classroom participation and the quality of your term paper. Class participation grades are based on attendance (including lateness) as well as on how well each student helps the class understand and amplify assigned readings. All written assignments are graded for communications skills, as evidenced by the organization, logic, clarity and grammatical correctness of each homework, exam and paper submission. Homework grading includes separate grades for presentation factors (see below). Grading on the library/internet homework, as well as on homework requiring quantitative analysis, assesses your grasp of basic research and analytical skills needed for graduate study.

Late Submission Policy: As a matter of fairness to students who submit papers and take exams on time, all late submissions and exam-takings are penalized. For papers (including homework assignments), grade calculations begin at 90 for material submitted within a week after the scheduled class, 80 thereafter. For exams, grade calculations begin at 90 for students who take an exam within a week after the scheduled date and class hour, at 80 thereafter. No exceptions will be made for any reason. Students who know they will be absent on specific dates should arrange to take exams and/or submit papers before that date. Students who are unexpectedly absent should arrange to deliver or e-mail their homework (send it as "plain text" in the E-Mail rather than as an attachment) to the instructor before the class in which the material is due. Please note that "incomplete" grades are by college policy reserved ONLY for students who, having a passing grade (B or better) on the majority of assignments and prospects of a passing grade in the course, are prevented from completing one or more final assignments by circumstances beyond their control. The instructors will not entertain incomplete requests from students whose grade, including late penalties, projects to a B- or lower.

Course Web Pages: Every student enrolled in PAD 700 will automatically be given access to a password-protected course site where they will find, in addition to the syllabus, a number of valuable resources to supplement the classroom experience. The site may be accessed at http://jjconline.jjay.cuny.edu/. Additional information about accessing the page is located on page 10 of this syllabus. Professor O’Hara also has a publicly accessible web page (http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~phara/) containing links to various materials relevant to all students taking this course. 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/grammar/index.htm. For help on APA documentation, visit http://juno.concordia.ca/faqs/apalynx.html.

Homework Grading: 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.) Essay answer homework submissions 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. Each homework grade will be the average of the three components, and the homework grade for the semester will be an average of all submissions. The Internet/Library assignment is part of your homework grade.

Grades of 93 to 100 (equivalent to A to A+) indicate excellent/superlative performance on the factor graded. Grades of 90 to 93 (equivalent to A-) indicate very good performance. Grades of 87 to 89 (equivalent to B+) indicate good performance. Grades of 83 to 86 (equivalent to B) indicate passable performance. (A "B average," 3.00 GPA is required for your graduate degree.) Grades of 80-82 (B-), 77-79 (C+), 73-77 ©, and 70-73 (C-) or lower indicate deficient performance that must be improved to earn a B or better in the course. Weak grades for any factor on early homework assignments signal that the student must improve the quality of his/her work. Students whose homework grades improve significantly over the semester will have additional weight given to later submissions.

Grading: All grades will be calculated according to the numerical and letter grade equivalents in the above paragraph. The weighting scheme below will be used to arrive at a final class grade.

Midterm examination 20% Homework submissions 20%

Final examination 20% Class participation 20% Term paper 20%

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, prepared before the class, are a prerequisite 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" and so on. 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 meet on Tuesday the week of February 12 and the class regularly scheduled for Tuesday will NOT meet that week. Please note these changes so that assignments can be submitted when due.

Week 1 Course Introduction

Student survey; course introduction, participant expectations

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?

Week 4 Intergovernmental and Extra-Governmental Policy and Practice

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

Read: Denhardt, Chapter 8 ß Review carefully, fully for best term paper draft.

Assignment: Submit the answers to the questions below at Week 5’s class.

NOTE: These are the three questions whose answers constitute the "organizational profile" component of your term paper, which must address the organization you work for unless the instructor has approved another organization. (The "organizational improvement" component of your term paper is will be drafted later as an answer to one of the three questions assigned for Week 9.) The first question elicits basic facts about the organization you will write about. The second question requires you to profile the culture of your organization. The third question requires you to consider the extent to which your organization possesses certain characteristics associated with successful organizations. Work hard on your answers; effort expended now saves you effort later. In addition, your draft answers will be reviewed by, and you will receive detailed feedback from, a fellow student. Reading all of chapter 8 carefully before you begin will help you to better address all of these questions. For this submission ONLY, put only the last four digits of your social security number on the front of the paper. DO NOT use your name.

1. You must, in no less than one typewritten page, describe your organization. What service(s) does it perform? For whom? To what larger organization (and/or jurisdiction) does your organization belong? Identify the CEO (or commissioner or whatever), as well as other important bosses between the CEO and your unit (an organization chart helps immensely here, but it may not for substituted for a narrative description). Approximately how big is the organization (in terms of personnel, dollars budgeted, quantity of services delivered)? What are the major divisions of your organization? Give any other information that you think will give the reader a good picture of your organization.
2. Assess the cultural personality of your organization using the organizational culture aspects developed by Edgar Schein (298). Your answer should address at least those aspects of organizational culture identified by italics in the Organizational Excellence section of the Term Paper Feedback form. Step outside your organization and your job when performing this assessment. Act as a "detective-psychologist" profiling his/her subject. These two steps will best help you see things that you might—as a member of the culture—be blind to and will help keep your emotional reactivity to workplace issues from coloring your analysis.
3. Assess your organization in terms of Denhardt’s "excellence in government" criteria (301). Use Peters and Waterman’s "best company" characteristics (301) if your organization is private. Whatever list you choose, your answer should address at least those aspects of organizational culture identified by italics in the Organizational Excellence section of the Term Paper Feedback form.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Your answers will be distributed to other students for feedback at the end of this class, and reviewing students must return these answers, with their review, at the beginning of the next class (Week 6). Each student’s class participation grade will be significantly affected by (1) his/her timeliness in this process (2) the general accuracy of each partner’s feedback on the reviewed draft.

Reading: Denhardt, Chapter 5, Articles 25, 37 and 40.

This examination will consist of 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: These are the two "organizational improvement questions" for your term paper. Choose one for your term paper, and draft a comprehensive response to submit in class as the "organizational improvement" section of your term paper. Be ready to also discuss the question you DO NOT choose in class, and be ready to answer that question on the final examination.

1. Pick out one major service delivery activity of your agency (e.g., patrol, instruction, traffic control, shelter provision, etc.), or one major internal process (e.g., arraignment, registration, purchasing, cleaning). For the activity or process you choose, apply the step-by-step productivity improvement process (Denhardt: 342-344) to create a concrete improvement that promises higher productivity. This means explaining why the activity or process chosen is ripe for improvement and backing up your explanation with facts/data. This means directing the reader to web sites or other sources that show how improvements in this area have succeeded elsewhere. Also explain why particular individuals would be chosen to make the productivity improvement happen and identify, in concrete service delivery or process cost/speed terms, realistic goals for the program. Identify management and/or technological changes that would be needed and identify barriers that might arise to the successful implementation of the change. Finally, describe how you would evaluate the productivity improvement program.
2. Leaving aside any incentive program (Denhardt: 335-337) that your organization has already implemented in a major way, pick out the ONE incentive program whose implementation would be most possible and most useful in your part of the organization. For the incentive program you choose, apply the step by step productivity improvement process (Denhardt: 342-344) to both justify and plan for the implementation of this new or upgraded incentive system. This means explaining why the current system of reward and penalty (incentives) leads to low motivation, and backing up your explanation with facts/data. This also means directing the reader to web sites or other sources that show how the incentive program you propose has succeeded in other organizations similar to yours. Identify the individuals in or outside of (e.g., high level union reps) your organization that would have to buy into the incentive program in order to make it happen and describe a strategy that would persuade these individuals to come on board. Identify the management and/or technological changes that would be needed for this incentive program and identify barriers that might arise to successful implementation even after all higher level officials had signed on. Finally, describe how you would determine that the new incentive program has been a success.

Read: Readings from Annual Editions Reader, listed below

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.

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

Library/Internet submission due at start of week 11 class: This "research skills exercise" requires an annotated bibliography of no less than three articles from a professional journal that relate to the organizational improvement program you chose for your paper. Also required are direct links to at least three Internet-based analytical articles on the same topic. In an annotated bibliography, each source is cited fully and properly in the APA style and is followed by a brief summary (100 words or less) of the article’s contents. This assignment must be submitted by e-mail to the instructor by Week 11 and must include working hotlinks to the internet-based articles. This assignment is best done over several weeks rather than immediately before the due date, particularly because of its relevance to your term paper. Your submission will be assessed on the correctness of the citations, the clarity of the summations, and the relation of the articles to your term paper topic. 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 a zero tolerance program to prevent double parking, 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. Which evaluation method provides the most useful information for management? Why?
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 10 and Chapter 11, page 386 to end

NOTE: These questions are not to be submitted in writing. Students, however, should be prepared to answer all questions in class and, with the exception of question 4, on the final examination.

1. Assess your chosen organization in terms FIVE of Denhardt’s "burnout promoting" factors (357), giving concrete instances where each factor arises. Describe the steps the organization could and/or should take to alleviate each of the five stressors you have identified. Finally, what concrete steps could you take to minimize the stress that each of these conditions—which will not get better overnight—impose on YOU right now.
2. Define and explain the basic assumption ("economic man") underlying rational decision models. Identify at least four criticisms that Herbert Simon and others level at the concept of "economic man." Evaluate "satisficing" as a realistic model of how real world decisions are made.
3. How can the various configurations of group structure and group communication facilitate or hinder effective decision-making? Consider specifically "the wheel," "the chain," " the circle," and the "all channel" structures. What are the advantages and disadvantages of group decision-making and how do techniques such as brainstorming help to make group decisions more effective?
4. Use Vroom and Yetton’s "Types of Management Decision Methods" (403) to determine the type of management decision you would use to address the case study situation below. Answering each decision tree questions step-by-step (A to G) will help you think through the issues and facilitate your participation in class discussion.

CASE STUDY: 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:

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. In addition, students will have to answer one of the two "organizational improvement" questions from Week 9 that WERE NOT addressed by your term paper. With the exception of the two 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.

1. To access your PAD 700 course online, go to http://jjconline.jjay.cuny.edu.
2. Click on the button marked "Classes." This will take you to the login page.
3. At this point you will need to provide your username and password.

• Your username is comprised of the initials of your first and last names and the last four digits of your social security number. Therefore, Alex Rodriguez (SS# 123-45-6789) would have the username AR6789.
• Your password, until you change it, is comprised of the initials of your first and last names and the first five numbers of your social security number. Therefore, Alex Rodriguez (SS#123-45-6789) would have the password AR12345.
• Please note that Blackboard is case-sensitive. That means that AR12345 is a valid password, but ar12345 is not. Always use CAPITAL letters to access the site.

1. Click the enter key or the button marked Okay and you should be in.
2. Once you have gained access to Blackboard you will see an opening page. On the right hand side will be a listing of the courses you are registered for that have course sites. Click on PAD 700 and enter the site for this course. Within the course site there will be a button on the left hand side of the page marked Tools. Click on that button and click on Change Your Personal Information. Under Account Information, enter your JJC email address if it is not already displayed. You may also change your password, if you wish. If you change your password, RECORD IT SOMEWHERE AND DO NOT FORGET IT!!!