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The influence of legal training and experience upon the behavior of policy decision makers has been a source of both academic and popular concern. This paper is a preliminary investigation of factors that might contribute to an undue influence of legal training on governmental policy making. The specific focus of this paper is higher-level federal executives in the career service. The distribution and number of high level executives with legal backgrounds are determined, and comparisons between legally-trained executives and executives from other backgrounds are made with respect to career patterns and attitudinal orientations. Executives with legal backgrounds are found to vary marginally on some specific characteristics, but there do not appear to be any systematic differences between groups which would lead to a variation in policy-making behavior. These findings do not support the assertion that lawyers dominate executive institutions of government. Lawyers do not appear to dominate the federal bureaucracy in numbers, nor do the data suggest that they are particularly different from other executives. Legal training, therefore, does not appear to have a direct, unmediated impact on the formation of public policy, at least to the extent that administrative agencies are involved in such policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of organizations across sectors have begun efforts toward managing workforce diversity. At the federal level in the United States, almost 90 percent of agencies report that they are actively managing diversity. However, very little empirical research has tied diversity management to work group performance or other work-related outcomes. This paper uses a survey of U.S. federal employees to test the relationships between diversity management, job satisfaction, and work group performance. The findings indicate that diversity management is strongly linked to both work group performance and job satisfaction, and that people of color see benefits from diversity management above and beyond those experienced by white employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that the use of rulemaking as an alternative means of implementation can have policy consequences and, as a result, can have significant political implications. In the case of the Federal Trade Commission, the balance of forces in the agency's political environment has proved dominant to determining its willingness to rely on rulemaking. Similarly, the commission's emphasis on rulemaking in recent years has significantly altered its relationships with key members of its environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with omnibus legislation designed to change time-honored processes of internal government operations. Examples cited are drawn from the federal government: the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Privacy Act of 1974. Specifically, the paper is concerned with four generic characteristics of such legislation which work to thwart effective implementation. The author describes the functional management approach to Privacy Act implementation developed in the Public Health Service and proposes that approach, together with an innovative role for the designated oversight official, as a model for government agencies at all levels-federal, state, and local-to use in overcoming the obstacles to implementation inherent in all omnibus statutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the factors and issues related to the personnel mobility in government agencies of the U.S. The author focuses on the central policy considerations likely to be faced in any wideranging effort to manage mobility in the public service more effectively at all levels. The author refers to the National Conference on Mobility in Public Service, addressed by the American Society for Public Administration at Arden House, Harriman, New York. According to the author certain baseless assumptions were taken in the conference. As freedom of movement is a basic democratic value, it was therefore taken for granted that only a national crisis accompanied by almost total consensus would warrant the solution of mobility problems by such devices as restricted occupational choice, arbitrarily channeled education, forced labor, and so on. Talking about the geographical mobility in the U.S., the author says that the rural-urban migration is continuing to result in drastic reduction of the farm population.

This article reports on the major findings of a study of information resources management (IRM) at the federal level The study found that IRM has not penetrated very far across departments and down into bureau management Information technology management dominates IRM activities, and the end result may be a failure to build a long-term IRM capability. Information is still considered a "free good" in most department and bureau managers' views, and federal paper- work reduction requirements commonly are seen as a wasteful bureaucratic burden. Recommendations for practice include (a) changing the current IRM oversight focus to IRM program support and long-term capacity building, (b) developing an IRM governance base as the first step to improving IRM, (c) providing incentives for information management efforts, and (d) revisiting the Paperwork Reduction Act requirements to deal with problematic paperwork reduction rules. Research in several areas is also recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the strategy literature has largely focused on business firms, public agencies also engage in strategic management, as reflected in a variety of policy- making and administrative activities. This paper extends the emerging literature on strategic management in public organizations by reporting the results of field studies in four Ohio agencies and providing a preliminary classification of public organization strategies. Also, characteristics of four distinct strategies (developmental, transformational, protective, and political) are identified and described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the administration of its farflung systems of multipurpose diplomacy the United States faces an extraordinary network of complexity. A large variety of sounds must be expected and tolerated from the playing of the many specialized instruments which comprise a democratic orchestra of power, but they must somehow produce music that is in harmony with the major themes of our objectives. The purpose of this prologue to the symposium is briefly to identify a number of the major complexities of an administered diplomacy. The basic issue of the complexity of our foreign affairs policies and operations is of course to be found in the contemporary international environment and in the varying and onerous roles the United States has been called upon to play in it. The escalated workload of the Department of State and the problems of organization raised thereby would be worthy of a separate symposium, even though important aspects of these problems are treated in the papers which follow.

The article presents information about an action program for American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) regarding the citizen participation in public administration. Specific steps for ASPA include the following namely. recruit minority group people, for ASPA membership. Two reasons strongly suggest the necessity for this. First, past leadership and membership of ASPA have not been able to relate effectively to the needs of minority communities. Second, ASPA must take this initial step if it is to help lead the peaceful and necessary change of the American System. The motivation for these activities has to be real; ASPA cannot and should not buy minority group participation just to tell others what to do and to give ASPA a nice looking head count. Only through honest inducements of visible, direct benefit to minority communities will these people join. In a sense, ASPA will not realize benefits until these people "marinate in ASPA" and become definitely sauteed, that is, thoroughly familiar with its operation. Consequently, ASPA will have the advantage of new committed members from the community who are local experts, not paper consultants. Increased membership can be induced if the benefit of belonging to ASPA are understood by community groups and people.

There is consensus on the need for a successor to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in Washington, D.C., but no agreement on how this entity should be organized and funded and what it should do. There are now many players, both organizations and individuals, in the intergovernmental field, and they need to be sorted out. A key distinction is that American federalism is both an idea and an interest, and a new ACIR should focus on the former as a neutral, independent body with informational, convener, educational, and dissemination functions. We should encourage a discussion and debate on what the new ACIR should be and how it should be structured in order to bring federalism and intergovernmental relations back to the table in Washington. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the creation and demise of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) and assesses the prospects for restoring an ACIR-like capability to the federal system. Recent initiatives by the National Academy of Public Administration, the Big 7 state and local government official associations, and Congress are summarized, and the facilitating and inhibiting factors associated with intergovernmental institutional development are examined. At least three ingredients in the formula that gave birth to the ACIR in 1959 will need to be present more than 50 years later: (1) support from congressional champions, the president, and public interest groups; (2) visibility and urgency of intergovernmental fiscal and management issues and the need for a permanent intergovernmental presence to address them; and (3) 'homework and spadework' to enlist potential conservative and liberal interest group and think tank backers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What did the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) accomplish before it was disbanded in 1996? Were its accomplishments sufficiently valuable to justify reestablishing the organization? This article reviews the commission's origins, history, and accomplishments, and addresses future intergovernmental needs. The ACIR's accomplishments were substantial, but are largely unavailable today. Lessons learned from the ACIR suggest the need to (1) recreate a network of intergovernmental advocates within the legislative and executive branches of the federal government; (2) restart the information flows and high-level federal, state, and local policy dialogues that withered after the ACIR's demise; (3) strengthen boundary-crossing institutions capable of addressing metropolitan and multistate problems; and (4) develop new opportunities to achieve public policy outcomes that can be attained only by the cumulative efforts of federal, state, and local governments working together-often with private parties as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To compare administrative reform in one of the world’s most ancient civilizations and in one of the world’s “youngest countries” produces some surprises. Administrative reforms in both countries are similar, but occur at different periods of history. Mengzhong Zhang of the University of Maryland at College Park discovers that some of China’s recent reform efforts resemble historic efforts in the United States up to half a century ago. Other components of administrative reform in China reflect contemporary practices in the United States. This phenomenon reflects convergence, rather than divergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

History is institutional memory writ large. One looks at economic history to see what problems recur, what causes them to recur, what solutions have worked best in the past, and which interventions have made the problems worse. The authors argue that a moderately complex interaction between the workings of the financial sector, the way in which the political system is organized, and the administration of regulation makes perfect regulation of the financial sector extremely unlikely. Many of these problems arise as a result of conflicting incentives for those participating in and regulating the financial field. The authors find that some proposed solutions have improved matters but have costs, and that some proposed solutions have actually worsened problems in the financial sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tasked with the responsibility of finding new and innovative ways of improving administrative management, Arthur W. Macmahon, James W. Fesler, and Herbert Emmerich creatively enriched the final report of the President’s Committee on Administrative Management with their analyses. But that is not the only reason for celebrating this work today. These documents still merit attention because they are historical landmarks that draw attention to the continuing tensions between Congress and the president over which branch of government should have control over executive branch agencies. This study makes the case for a strong executive in a manner that has rarely been as clearly and forcefully stated as it was in 1937. It reminds the field that policy decisions remain nothing but aspirations until they are turned into action. Reading this study is like reading any classic treatise on government—it generates thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, resulted in a rapid response by government to evacuate the area and, in subsequent days, to bring the city back to a semblance of normalcy. This article provides a case study of government action in New York City during and after the World Trade Center catastrophe. What is most striking is the skill and intensity of government's response to the emergency and the hard work, dedication, and bravery of New York City's government officials. This article presents government and public service at its finest, under some of the most difficult conditions one can imagine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses bureaucracies in the U.S. government in 2001. The administrative agencies of government at all three government levels, federal, state, and local, have been invested with substantial grants of authority by the actions of legislatures, chief executives, and courts. Their official powers include the issuance of regulations of general application and effect, the application of laws and regulations to specific individuals and organizations, and the employment, direction, and management of staff to perform such duties. Bureaucrats also influence the meaning of policies by the way they go about their duties. The character of a policy depends on the conduct of bureaucrats as well as on the contents of their decisions. Moreover, the administrative personnel who perform the public business are well-positioned to defend their decisions and ways of doing things against outsiders who would like to change them. Most of them enjoy a high degree of tenure in office - not total security but significant legal and procedural protections against unrestricted removal and other sanctions. Compared to many of their counterparts, they are very secure indeed and therefore more independent than they otherwise might be.

This article presents information on intergovernmental comparative performance data. Performance measurement has become a major management tool across the country, and in fact, the world. It is bringing a new public administration focus on results-oriented government to the United States governments at all three levels--federal (driven by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993), state, and local. How long this will continue is not clear. However, it is common sense that public agencies and their individual service organizations should focus on the results (the outcomes) and efficiency with which they are delivering their services. The key issue is whether data collection on outcomes is sufficiently feasible and does not incur "excessive" cost, particularly as related to the actual benefits and uses made of that information. In recent years, comparisons across government agencies have become popular. This appears to be an emerging trend. Major inter-governmental comparison efforts have been made, especially at the local government level.

The article examines the role of leadership in the "reinvention of government" in nine federal offices, four located in the Veterans Administration and five in the Defense Department in the United States. This article approaches the issue of evidence by offering empirical observations organized around the four competencies of leadership developed by previous researchers as the independent variable, organizational culture as the intervening variable, and two measures of reinvention, the dependent variable. The observations lead to the conclusion that the most effective leaders foster, support, and sustain organizational cultures that facilitate the type of management reform envisioned by "reinventing government" and the attendant increases in effectiveness and efficiency. Further, to this end, the author notes that the four variables in the research are leadership, the independent variable; organizational culture, the intervening variable; and two measures of the dependent variable reinvention. INSET: Methodology.

This paper documents the public's increasing distrust and perceived lack of confidence in American administrative leadership. The perception of confidence is linked to the concept of legitimacy. It is argued that American administrators in both government and business have indeed failed to demonstrate the characteristics on which legitimacy is based. We hold that if a "confidence gap" exists, it is reflected as an erosion in confidence in leadership, not in the American institutional status quo. The implications of this decline in confidence and legitimacy are discussed, and inferences are drawn about the relationship between leadership and institutional confidence in the American administrative state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the logical underpinnings of the principles of public administration in the U.S. If people happen to want certain processes to be employed, or for certain people to benefit, then the ordinary operation of efficiency standards will have to be modified accordingly. Now, it is hard to envisage a society in which people did not have any preferences of this form. Still, it is logically possible; and in that barely possible world, the meta-principle of want-satisfaction would act as no constraint on efficiency calculations more narrowly conceived.

Competing theories imply different strategies for interjecting regional and state concerns into local land use regulation. This article presents four theories of regulation and assesses them against evidence from Florida's experience with growth management. Florida's growth management system is modeled after an administrative theory of regulation which calls for a hierarchy of regulatory agencies tied at the top to elected officials. Florida's experience suggests, however, that juridical rather than organizational variables are most important for regulatory reform. Where its legislative mandate is clear and focused, florida's growth management system has been relatively effective, but where the mandate is vague the system has performed poorly even though it is tied directly to the governor and Cabinet. The practical implication of this conclusion is that regulatory reformers should be concerned less with the organization of regulation than with its objectives and rule-making procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides public sector executives and managers with practical guidance in the application of strategic planning in their organizations in the U.S. Strategic planning has barely penetrated the collective consciousness of the public sector, at least to judge from the paucity of articles addressing either the theory or practice of these techniques in the public arena. Resource scarcity and service demands place public organizations under great pressure to apply better planning techniques. The experience of the past quarter-century in applying strategic planning has resulted in the accumulation of considerable practical wisdom, which, while it falls short of a scientific body of knowledge, is important to the practitioner. Generalizations are obviously dangerous when the empirical base is slim. Although there is substantial literature on public planning, we do not know much about the actual application of planning techniques, in terms of the seriousness of particular applications or the actual outcomes for the planning organization (beyond merely documentation).

The recent presidential transition is examined in some detail in two federal agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Mine Safety and Health Administration, using interview, questionnaire, and archival data collected between 1980 and 1983. The transition process is discussed in terms of the conflicting demands of organizational theory and democratic theory. Organizational theory emphasizes the difficulty with which organizations pursue change, their need for relative stability, and their ongoing attempts to adapt to their environments. Democratic theory emphasizes the importance of agency change and responsiveness given the changing desires of the electorate. These two tendencies interacted in the two agencies in different ways and to differing extents during the recent transition. Specifically, the transition produced increased centralization, less communication, and greater distrust between career and political employees. These effects are more pronounced and long-lasting in EPA than in MSHA because EPA's transition is more extreme. Such responses can impair the organization's ability to change, as well as its ability to conduct its more routine business, compromising both democratic and organizational goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the active management of conflict in the process and structure of federally-mandated, and state or locally administered activities in the U.S. The general failure of administrators at each level of government to achieve a positive perspective on conflict and its management is itself a barrier to effective intergovernmental management. The source of intergovernmental conflict is generally an issue that can be characterized as arising due to some structural condition (national vs. state goals) or process event (political changes). The output of conflict is change—parties engage in conflict behavior in an attempt to change their relative positions with respect to some mutually desired source (e.g., power, position, time, money). The final element in our conceptual framework consists of three general modes of conflict and conflict management which are drawn from the work of Louis Pondy: The first is bargaining, the second general mode of conflict is bureaucratic an the final mode is systems conflict. Planning reform demonstration are needed in order to facilitate rather than inhibit conflict management. Conflict management, as Kilmann and Thomas point out, involves three interrelated steps: (1) recognition; (2) diagnosis; and (3) intervention

This article addresses the deteriorating ability of federal agencies in the U.S. to assure the execution of public policy through changing administrations. Many of the major features of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 have the potential to improve the operations of the federal government. The Reform Act created a new personnel system, the Senior Executive Service for the 7,000 federal executives below presidential appointees. Therefore, the key to effective continuity of government operations and related citizen confidence has been and continues to be the career executive.

This article examines the administrative life patterns of staff agencies of the Executive Office of the President in the U.S. All agencies, including presidential staff agencies, display survival instincts. Survival, however, is but a necessary condition for agencies. Most of which want to prosper and grow so they might better serve the public interest and presidential needs. The present article is concerned with the different and variable administrative life patterns of presidential staff agencies.

Budgets and budget manuals from 123 large American cities were examined to determine the degree to which goal setting and performance assessment have been formally incorporated into municipal budgeting. A majority of cities require agencies to state goals, but in no more than half the cases are those goals useful standards of performance. Most cities also require workload indicators to be submitted with agency budget requests. In addition, more than 40 percent of these cities require measures of effectiveness, and about one-third attempt to measure the efficiency of their agencies' operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the evaluation program of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to improve the quality, acceptance and use of evaluation. The evolution of evaluation at FDA has proceeded through three distinct phases, each distinguished by a different type of evaluation activity. The agency has adopted Type II evaluation since it focused on the collection and manipulation of analytical data. Type II evaluations were designed to withstand aggressive peer review. A number of achievements and advantages of the Type II evaluations are also presented in this article.

This article explores the bureaucracy of the U.S. Department of Labor during the development of a plan for the evaluation of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. The Department of Labor units devoted much effort to the collaboration, but in the end, the effort fell short. Each of the units had a particular orientation to knowledge that would become crucial to the performance of the new task. For the most program managers were not interested in the evaluation approach because the actual or expected findings were either inconclusive or remote in time.

This article discusses the role played by public regulatory organizations in regulatory controversies in the U.S. as of July 1978. Unlike old soldiers, regulatory agencies seem not only never to die, but never to fade away. Yet many regulatory agencies at all levels of government have been charged with having either undesirable or no impacts. One research approach for analyzing their persistence involves examining the strategies that participants (reformers, agency personnel, regulated industry) in cases of potential deregulation might follow. Deregulation can thus be viewed as a process of organizational reduction, like a special case of more general reduction or decline processes in organizations. Regulation, in the most general sense, may be considered the intentional restriction of a subject's choice of activity by an entity not directly involved in performance of the activity. Consequently, a broad definition of deregulation may be simply the removal of such a choice restriction. Four types of relatively formal methods for deregulation may be identified: catastrophic ending, guided/unguided wind-down, stripping, and disintegration with transfer of programs. These types of organizational change are not limited to deregulation; they can characterize other instances of organizational reduction, as well.

The Law Enforcement Assistance Administration has been a source of controversy since its establishment in 1968. This article examines the statutory structure of the agency and the role it has played in the criminal justice improvement efforts of the last eight years. It discusses the pre-requisites for success in criminal justice program planning and implementation and concludes that the missing element has been the establishment of a horizontal "systemic problem orientation" at the local level which cuts across police, courts, corrections, and other components of the criminal justice system. It argues that the primary objective of LEAA should be the establishment of this perspective and concludes that the agency has been unable to carry out its promise of federal leadership in this regard because of its statutory structural deficiencies. It details the primary weaknesses of the present structure and advocates several changes to the agency's legislative structure aimed at creating a systemic perspective by re-orienting the financial and technical assistance delivery mechanism away from the state level toward the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author presents his views on the role and importance of professionals in public services. The author remarks that one of the most significant trends in recent decades has been the growing dominance of those within government in the framing, the shaping, as well as the carrying out of public policies and programs. In the fields of health, housing, urban renewal, transportation, welfare, education, poverty, and energy it has been, in very great measure, people in government service, or closely associated with it, acting on the basis of their specialized and technical knowledge, who first perceived the problem, conceived the program, initially urged it on president and Congress, went on to help lobby it through to enactment, and then saw to its administration. The imbalance of professional representation in political or quasi-political positions is tremendous. Many professions whose numbers far exceed the lawyers are totally excluded from the judiciary and go virtually unrepresentative in legislatures and top levels of the executive branches, such as teaching, medicine, military, engineering, science, accounting, and others.

The article focuses on the role and influence of mental health professionals in government agencies in the U.S. Unlike general health care with its dependence on the private sector, the development of the mental health field largely has been the result of government action. Stimulated by the availability of state matching funds, local governments also have become heavily involved in mental health. The role of government as a major employer of mental health professionals is illustrated by a study of 10,000 mental health professionals whose training during the years 1948-1968 was supported at least in part by the National Institute of Mental Health. This dependence of the mental health field upon government is not reflected in the graduate education of mental health professionals. For the mental health professional who is also an administrator, there are several special attitudinal issues. The values of caring, support and therapy are often inconsistent with the exercise of power, the directive and perhaps authoritative stance sometimes necessary for successful administration.

The reciprocal relations of science with technology, and of both with society, had been an ongoing debate for long. When governments throughout the world spend billions of dollars on research and development, the centrality of science and technology to societal needs is no longer a subject of debate. As science and technology have become a self-conscious matter for government and societal concern, so also have scientists. Their knowledge proved relevant to the economic and political concerns of officials in government. Working for the government is not uncommon among scientists. A significant number are employed in government laboratories and in administrative positions in federal agencies. Despite the large numbers of scientists employed by the federal government and the growing technical orientation and involvement of many federal agencies, a career in government still poses some difficult value conflicts and barriers to policy influence for a scientist. The most important social aspect of the scientific profession is the orientation of scientists toward their work and peers.

Identifies and analyzes the level of efforts that are directed toward or substantially contribute to strengthening the overall management process of state and local governments in the United States, and the role and capacity of elected officials within that process. Office of Management and Budget's Study Committee on Policy Management Assistance; Utilization of technical assistance programs; Perceptions of various agencies concerning their role relative to state and local capability.

The article focuses on public administration. The literature of public administration is shot through with the doctrine of the strong executive. Indeed, until very recently, there was not even any rival doctrine. One can reread the works written before the late 1960s by the men who have represented the mainstream of thinking in the profession. Every writer was for a strong presidency. The Brownlow Committee on Administrative Management, of which Luther Gulick was a member, applied that doctrine to the executive branch of the U.S. government. Its object was to make the President the single directing executive authority by giving him in an executive office of the President the staff assistance he needed for that purpose. The plan was adopted, the office created, and then those who sought to aggrandize the President could pursue their mission from the inside. William Carey, a member of the Executive Office staff almost from its beginning, wrote of that mission a generation later in words Gulick would have approved: the object of a presidential staff was to help the President attain command and control.

The article has two main themes: (1) problems of managing a cabinet department, with Commerce the instant case; and (2) problems of the delivery system- the Oakland case and the multi-state Regional Development Commissions. Part I treats the management problem of a cabinet agency-the problems and pitfalls for the senior executives who fry to "run it" and make it do something useful. Among the several vantage points considered are the views "up," "down," and "sideways." Part II considers two types of delivery systems. It points up the difficulty (if not futility) of trying to bend a federal agency to effectively deal with a major local problem in a particular locale in a complex context, with Oakland as a case in point. Having argued in Part II that the direct federal/local combination is unworkable, federal/multi-state arrangements are examined. Here the topic is "regional development" and the cases in point are the Appalachian Regional Commission and the eight Title V Commissions. Part III concludes with the need for decentralization of programs, structures, and money in order to place the resources closer to the problem-and the people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article argues that as American society moves into the post-industrial stage it will be necessary that they revise the concept of social equity along lines that demand, to an unprecedented degree, openness and participation in the administrative processes by which social services are delivered. In order to bring about this openness and participation within our administrative agencies, it will be necessary to educate future generations of administrators to a view of the world which is itself open. People feel that only by socializing these future administrators to an open method of collaborative analysis and action can the open and participative world view seem plausible and practicable. By saying to the future administrator that, "People construct knowledge in an open-ended way," and, "society is changing in an open-ended way," and then saying, "There is a method of analysis which allows for such openness and the participation and equity that goes with it," one can perhaps eventually see the post-industrial world emerge in a form more acceptable to Americans as human beings than it will be if they continue to apply the increasingly obsolete principles of industrialism.

The article examines long-term trends in the qualities of state administrative leadership from the 1960s to the 1990s. Although administrative and policy reformers often urge coordination as the key to more effective delivery of public services, there is little beyond anecdotal evidence to suggest that most approaches to coordination can actually improve public services in multi-organizational delivery systems. This article examines the effect of coordination patterns and administrative arrangements on the accomplishment of policy goals in the delivery of employment and training services under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). JTPA service delivery occurs at the local level in Service Delivery Areas (SDAs), and the Department of Labor measures performance outcomes at the SDA level, since it is there that clients are actually served. The article's study has two conclusions. First, in the current era of performance measurement and accountability; policymakers need to be aware that success along one dimension of policy performance does not necessarily mean success along others. Because the different dimensions may not be related to each other, constructing overall measures of performance will be misleading. Second, steps can be taken in the administration of employment and training programs to enhance performance along some dimensions. Coordination activities, despite the frequent grousing about them, can pay off.

What role do demands for constancy play in the operations of public agencies? Institutional constancy of agencies and firms is discussed as a concept and an increasingly important political requirement for the operation of hazardous systems in the United States. Situations that increase demands for it are outlined and a basis for analysis and improving constancy is proposed. INSET: Cases of Citizen-Induced Paralysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of the planning programming-budgeting system (PPBS) in the civilian agencies in 1969 brings into focus a continuing interest in the management and utilization of new, innovative managerial tools in the civilian sector of the government. The introduction and integration into organization of new, innovative staff activities is a process that has been occurring in U.S. organizations for some years. As organizations become more complex and as pressures on management grow to respond to developments in their organizations' environments, an understanding of the process by which new technological functions become established in organizations becomes crucial. A theoretical "life cycle" framework is proposed which attempts to explain the process, which these new integrate innovative activities integrated into organizations. Viewing the life cycle framework in light of the development of the planning-programming-budgeting system in the U.S. federal government provides a perspective for analyzing the integration of new, innovative activities in various organizations.

The article focuses on the mobility factor of government employees in the U.S. According to the author the government has made it difficult for an individual to grow and to move from one occupational field or one governmental level to positions in other fields, in other agencies, and at other levels of government. This weakness of mobility factor has wasted scarce public resources and denied many individuals of opportunities for advancement and self-fulfillment. The public service mobility now is the product of the exigencies of an acute manpower shortage stemming from an unprecedented combination of external and internal crises. The American Society for Public Administration has been regularly facilitating mobility in the public service. The Society received a grant from the Ford Foundation to explore issues involved and to stimulate professional concern in facilitating governmental career mobility. The author also refers to the mobility project initiated by the society to analyze and eliminate the problems related to personnel mobility.