Aids Epidemic Case Study

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Aids Epidemic Being a public administrator is an exceptionally demanding job. In the Aids epidemic case study, Dr. Gayle’s work with the Center of Disease Control highlights some of these challenges that public administrators face. In addition to highlighting the challenges that public administrators face, Dr. Gayle also makes a strong role model for future public administrators. In her work with the Center of Disease Control, she had to deal with various social, economic, and political trials. Dr. Gayle was able to overcome numerous challenges by using external support, her professionalism, and her own individual power. Not only was Dr. Gayle a successful leader, she was also effective at uniting people and organizations in order to achieve …show more content…

As exemplified in the case study of Dr. Helene Gayle, these resources offer strong support in dealing with all issues. Professionalism is using higher education, expertise, and specialization in order to gain support (Starling, 2011, p. 84). Dr. Gayle has plenty of professionalism and she utilizes it daily in her profession. One of the reasons why she was able to handle the political conflicts in the CDC was due to her reliance on her professionalism. She refers to herself as a ‘technocrat’ because she lets her medical background and expertise guide her decision-making as opposed to her political viewpoint (p.17). Dr. Gayle’s expertise gained her respect from her …show more content…

Gayle was able to use bases of her individual power to overcome all of the economic, social and political issues of addressing the Aids epidemic. The way in which Dr. Gayle used these powers was through her expert power and legitimate power. Extremely similar to professionalism, expert power is when a public administrator uses their skills and knowledge to lead others (Starling, 2011, p. 85). Not only did her medical knowledge of Aids assist her, her expert knowledge on different community also helped her to gain respect and power in the CDC. Dr. Gayle also had legitimate power. Legitimate power comes from a leader’s formal position (Starling, 2011, p. 85). Dr, Gayle was given legitimate power through her role as the director of the Washing CDC office, her role as the head of the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHSTP), and lastly as her role as Senior Advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. All of these titles and leadership roles gave Dr. Gayle power to impact various areas of policy on dealing with the Aids

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