In what ways can privatization diminish or enhance the quality and quantity of services once delivered by government? Are privatized services more or less responsive to citizen demands? Are privatized services more or less inclined to streamline services and go for "big payoff" services while getting rid of less profitable services? Discuss generally privatization's impact on public administration over the next ten years. What do you think will happen to the scope of the services the government provides? How will the clientele that the government serves change if privatization continues to grow?

According to the National Performance Review, today's successful public agencies are characterized by four key principles: 1) cutting red tape, 2) putting customers first, 3) empowering employees to get results, and 4) cutting back to basics to produce better government for less. Consider NPR's recommendations for applying these concepts to federal agencies. (You can see a sample of these recommendations by going to http://www.npr.gov/.) How do you think specific authors in both the classical school of organization theory (writers on scientific management, bureaucracy, principles of management) and the organizational behavior school of organization theory (writers on human relations/organizational psychology, socio-technical systems, organizational culture, etc.) would react to how the four principles above are being implemented in government? What would specific authors you have chosen approve of? Why? What would the specific authors you have chosen reject? Why?

Labor organizations in the public sector can significantly affect the ability of administrators to direct and control the various functions of human resources administration. Human resources administrators in the public sector must understand the dynamics of labor relations in government, the various laws that govern those relations, and role of collective bargaining in governing work rules, pay and management authority.

You are invited to discuss the dynamics of U.S. labor relations, using the following factors as points of departure for your discussion:

Processes and issues of collective bargaining that conflict with other goals agency executives might have in terms of effectively managing their human resources.

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