FOUNDATIONS EXAMINATION QUESTIONS--SPRING 2003

Students must answer each question on the exam day

Public Administration Foundations Question

Explain Woodrow Wilson's dichotomy between politics and administration, making sure that you carefully define each term. Discuss also Wilson’s general views on what the job of administration is, and how administration should relate to the political executives and elected legislators. Then answer the following question: How does government administration today measure up to Wilson’s recommendations about its role and its relationship with elected officials? Your answer should include the following areas when assessing the conformity of today’s public administration with Wilson’s model: the degree to which politics/politicians affect both policy and how day to day administration is carried out; and the degree to which “professionals” (teachers, law enforcement officers, social workers, etc.) have proven to be task-focused, public interest oriented and unselfish experts. If you find that present day circumstances deviate from Wilson’s recommendations and expectations, explain why you think these deviations help or hinder the effective delivery of public services. Your answer must include present day real-life public administration situations as examples of the positions you take.

Note: Students are unlikely to do well on this question without reading Wilson’s original article. A link to the article is directly below. The second link is Professor Rothman’s analysis of the article. That analysis is designed to generally enlighten students about Wilson’s opinions and was NOT WRITTEN with the question above in mind. The effectiveness of the response to the question above depends on YOU.

http://www.udayton.edu/~mpa/PAARTICLES/WILSON.html

http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~phara/WilsonTestBed.htm

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Organization Theory Question

Presidents, Mayors and Governors are asking that public organizations do more with less. In New York City, for instance, productivity improvements are an explicit demand the Mayor is making of any public employee union seeking a new contract. Write an essay in which you take an historical view of the origins and development of the productivity movement in public management and organization theory. Your answer should make logical connections, supported by reasoned discussion, between “classical” thinking on organizational productivity/efficiency (exemplified by, but not limited to, Adam Smith and Frederick Taylor), through “neo-classical” thinking on making organization’s more productive (exemplified by, but not limited to, Porter & Lawler and March & Simon) through latter day thinking/writing on organizational productivity (exemplified by Osborne and Gabler as well as the National Performance Review). Conclude your answer by assessing how the present day emphasis on productivity improvement in public administration is likely to affect service delivery, public employee morale and the responsiveness of public administration to social conditions.

Note: Students are most likely to do well on this question by being familiar with the writers mentioned by examining what they have written, not what others have written about them. A good source for articles by these authors is Classics of Organization Theory by Shafritz, et.al.

Human Resources Management Question

You are the newly appointed Director of Human Resources in the Department of Homeland Security. Homeland Secretary Ridge, the head of the Department, gives you a list of human resources management functions (see below) and asks you to:

1. Rank order the HRM functions in terms of the six that are most important to the Department’s ability to achieve its overall goals and objectives. He asks that you give your reasons for each item’s placement in the order, and recommends a standard format for your reply: “The __________ function is placed number one (or 2, 3, 4, etc.) because of its critical importance to our department’s achievement of XYZ (where XYZ are departmental goals and objectives whose achievement, as you will carefully and clearly explain, relates logically to the HRM function chosen).”

2. Define, in layperson terms, your six ranked Human Resources Management functions so that the secretary, in a speech announcing his HRM policies, can articulate the major HRM priorities for the department and how they can contribute to the Department of Homeland Security’s goals.

Human Resources Planning Training

Equal Employment Opportunity Affirmative Action

Classification/Job Design Performance Appraisal

Compensation/Fringe Benefits Employee Assistance Programs

Recruitment Discipline

Selection Labor Relations