1.) Productivity is defined as the relationship between resources used and results achieved¹. Improvement in this area means either obtaining more and better program output from a given level of resources or using fewer resources to maintain or improve a certain level of output. The federal government has a vital stake in improving the productivity of state and local governments for two primary reasons: (1) the national economy is strengthened as a result of improvements in the productivity and fiscal prospects of this key sector; and (2) the effectiveness and efficiency of the multitude of federal grant and regulatory programs using state and local governments to implement federal policies are directly related to the management capacity of those governments².
The productivity in state and local governments is lower than it could be, resulting in higher costs and/or lower levels of public services. State and local government operations do not have the profit incentive to improve productivity that exists in the private sector. However, substantial fiscal and performance benefits have been achieved by innovative state and local governments which have initiated productivity improvement programs. Productivity improvement has been used as a strategy to relieve growing fiscal pressures faced by state and local governments, but most state and local governments do not have significant, comprehensive productivity improvement programs. Major barriers preventing or limiting state and local improvement programs include internal resistance, the large initial investment needed to start a program, and the limited capacity of organizational systems. The most important impact of the federal government on state and local government productivity ...
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Works Cited
Florida Center for Public Management. (2006, September). Is Productivity More Than a Slogan in Your Organization? www.fcpm.fsu.edu.
2 Statts, Elmer. (1978). State and Local Government Productivity Improvement: What is the Federal Role? GGD-78-104. Washington. http://archive.gao.gov/f0902c/107983.pdf.
3 Milakovich, Michael E., and George J. Gordon. "Performance Management in the Public Sector." Public Administration in America. Tenth ed. Boston: Clark Baxter, 2009. 468-469. Print.
4 Stevenson, Richard W.. "The Nation; Breaking Up Is Hard. Merging Is Harder.." New York Times 23 June 2002: 1. Week In Review. Web. 18 Nov. 2011.
5 Landay, Johnathan S., and Shannon McCaffrey. "Chertoff Delayed Federal Respose, Memo Shows." Common Dreams. N.p., 14 Sept. 2005. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. .
Modern Bureaucracy in the United States serves to administer, gather information, conduct investigations, regulate, and license. Once set up, a bureaucracy is inherently conservative. The reason the bureaucracy was initiated may not continue to exist as a need in the future. The need or reason may change with a change in the times and the culture needs. A bureaucracy tends to make decisions that protect it and further it’s own existence, possibly apart from the wishes of the populace. It may not consistently reflect what might be optimal in terms of the needs and wants of the people. Local governments employ most of the United States civil servants. The 14 cabinet departments in the U.S. are run day-to-day by career civil servants, which have a great deal of discretionary authority.
Setting the stage for our national and state government, Federalisms, looked to be a solution to these issues. By focusing on a strong state government, Federalism, shifted power away from the national government. Two strengths of these changes are and increase access to government, and tailored policy that fits the local government’s needs. Two weaknesses of American federalism are that local interests can hinder nationally supported policies, and a conflict of authority.
When states try to find ways to restrain from non-essential areas, unfunded federal mandates are at the top of the list. These mandates often force state and local governments to spend much more than necessary on everything from medical care to welfare to road building. A complex web of federal programs bind together the tree treasuries of the local, state, and federal government. As much as 25 percent of state budgets now comes from the federal government, and up to 60 percent of some state budgets is spent on joint federal-state programs.
State and local governments may be required to contribute partially to programs stemming from nonfederal revenue. When local and state governments have to spend more on these programs less of their own revenue is spent on programs of their choose and
A decade of decline. (1993). Managing the federal government. 1-20. Dearborn, P. M. (1993, Summer). Local property taxes: Emerging trends. Internal governmental perspective 10-12 Taylor, A. (1996, May 25). Dole's call for gas tax repeal fails to spark voters Congressional quarterly report: Economics and finance. 1212 --1378. The economics of taxation. (1995, November 2). The economics of taxation. Suanders, L. (1995, June 19). Avoiding the rack Forbes, 13, 208.
National, Local, and State governments work together cooperatively to solve common problems rather than making separate polices. They work more on an equal level to get things fixed. This type of federalism is hard to tell where one type of government ends and the next one begins. National and state governments are independent and interdependent with an overlap of functions and financial resources. It is difficult for one to accumulate absolute power with this type of federalism.
Municipal control or an alternative delivery method? This is the question that has intrigued all levels of local government and created intense debates between taxpayers across municipalities. The services that municipalities provide are often vital to the existence of a local area. The issues of accountability, cost savings, quality of service and democracy often arise when choosing the best options to deliver services to a municipal area. In recent years the concepts of privatization, alternative service delivery and public-private partnerships are often promoted as ways cut down on overburdened annual city budgets and promote a higher quality of service to citizens. Municipalities have historically always provided basic services such as fire protection, water purification/treatment and recreational facilities. However, would private companies or another municipality be able to better deliver the same services more efficiently or at a lower cost? The city or town often provides a political grass roots approach to most local problems. Municipalities are better positioned and have a wider scope to provide services to their constituents in order to ensure quality of service that does not erode accountability and transparency, or drive the municipality deeper into debt.
When trying to improve productivity for a company, one must first understand what it means to be productive and what it means to not be productive. Jonah classifies that, “I have come to the conclusion that productivity is the act of bringing company closer to its goal. Every action that brings the company closer to its goal is productive. Every action that does not bring a company closer to its goal is not productive” (Goldratt, 32). But when determining on what is productive and not productive, the actual “goal of the company must first be determined. “ If the goal is to make money, then an action that moves us toward making money is productive and an action that takes away from making money is non-productive” (Goldratt, 41). Alex has finally realized what it means for his company to be productive, but the key is to know how to see if the company is meeting the goal that is desired or in this case making money. There are certain measurements that can “ express the goal of making money perfectly well, but which also perm...
A traditional starting point is to look at what can be considered textbook definitions of efficiency. The broadest or most general meaning of efficiency as used in the public administration literature is that of technical efficiency, which concerns the ratio between resources and results, or input and output. One way or another, in all cases efficiency retains the general characteristics of input–output ratio outlined earlier, and all can be regarded as tokens of technical efficiency. The meaning of efficiency in public administration literature is almost without exception defined in terms of technical
Sterling, P. (2014, January 8). Efficiency vs. Effectiveness. Retrieved from American Public Works Association: http://www.lcnetwork.co.uk/effectiveness-doing-the-right-things/
Public sector reforms adopted in a number of countries such as USA, UK and New Zealand in the last fifteen years and characterised by efficiency units, performance management, contracting out, market type mechanisms, and agency status have come to be known as the New Public Management or NPM. Appearance of the NPM as shifting the paradigm from the old traditional model of administration has been promoted by a remarkable degree of consensus among the political leadership of various countries and is presented today as the major tool for public sector management reforms.
Pfiffner, J. P. (2004). Traditional Public Administration versus The New Public Management:Accountability versus Efficiency. Unied States: George Mason University.
Rabin, J. (2003). Encyclopedia of public administration and public policy: K-Z. United States: CRC press.
Public Administration involves the development, implementation and management of policies for the attainment of set goals and objectives that will be to the benefit of the general public. Since Public Administration involves taking decisions that affect the use of public resources there is often the question of how to utilize public resources for maximum public good. The National Association of Public Administration has identified four pillars of public administration: economy, efficiency, effectiveness and social equity. These pillars are equally important in the practice of public administration and to its success. This paper seeks to explain the role of each of the pillars in the practice of public administration.
Good, David A. “The Politics of Public Management.” University of Toronto Press Inc., (2003). P. 1-233.