Research Catalog

Title

Managerial reform and professional empowerment in the public service / Walter L. Balk ; foreword by Frank J. Thompson.

Author

Balk, Walter L.

Publication

• Westport, Conn. : Quorum Books, [1996]
• ©2996

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

viii, 203 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

• Well over two million very qualified individuals mediate between high-level managers and other members of public agencies. These grossly under-utilized "intermediary professionals" must become truly empowered to reduce waste, malfeasance and other costly errors. Balk proposes an applied theory of public agency democracy designed to liberate the potential of its highly trained experts. The book begins by discussing professionals as power intermediaries and their necessary tensions with authority around matters of reform. Recognized dilemmas in the field of public administration are reviewed to demonstrate the need to resolve issues concerning public agency democracy. A model is then developed to incorporate democratic action with responses ranging from routine to whistle-blowing activities.
• The second part of the book shows why existing management orientations are not receptive to the need for agency democracy. Conventional orientations reject the paradoxical realities of government environments. Therefore highly ingrained beliefs about effectiveness and management authority are at times inappropriate; management approaches to public service motivation lack sophistication. Four final chapters are devoted to techniques and approaches on the part of professionals to initiate change. Ways are proposed for professionals and others to institutionalize public agency democracy in government environments.

Subject

• Organizational change
• Professional employees in government
• Whistle blowing
• Whistleblowing
• Organizational Innovation
• Organizational change
• Professional employees in government
• Whistle blowing
• Verwaltungsreform
• Öffentlicher Dienst
• Management
• Overheidsinstellingen
• Organisatieverandering
• Professionalisering

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Foreword / Frank J. Thompson -- 1. Theory and Action -- 2. The Silent Intermediaries -- 3. Dilemmas of Democratic Administration -- 4. A Model of Agency Democracy -- 5. Interpreting Effectiveness -- 6. Organizational Authority -- 7. Liberating Individual Potential -- 8. Borderline-Role Performance -- 9. Out-of-Role Performance -- 10. Professional Transitions -- 11. Stakeholders in the Future.

ISBN

• 1567200117
• 9781567200119

LCCN

95019463

OCLC

• ocm32547984
• 32547984
• SCSB-2082042

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library