Research Catalog

Title

Managers, part of the problem? : changing how the public sector works / Camaron J. Thomas.

Author

Thomas, Camaron J.

Publication

Westport, Conn. : Quorum, 1999.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiii, 171 pages; 25 cm

Summary

Written for the 19 million-plus current public sector managers who grind through every day, this book argues for a whole new way of being a public manager, one that affects what managers do, how they do it, and who they are as people. A public manager herself and successful consultant in the public sector, Camaron J. Thomas introduces a new paradigm for how the public sector should work: a collaborative, functional environment in which fast-paced, purposeful change, civility, and initiative are actually the norm. It replaces the concept of agencies and control with shared responsibility, and tests the idea in the arena of public sector budgeting. Most importantly, it recognizes that it is managers themselves who must change, one at a time, if the profession is ever going to improve.

Subject

• Organizational change
• Public administration
• Administrative agencies
• Organizational Innovation
• Administrative agencies
• Organizational change
• Public administration
• Collectieve sector
• Organisatieverandering

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Defining the Problem--And the Presentation of a Solution -- Living in a Sea Change -- Say It Isn't So -- You Can't Hug a Fountain -- A World View -- So What's All This Have to Do with Public Managers? -- Damn, and I Really Liked Focus Groups Too -- It's Time for a Change -- Good Thing This Doesn't Apply to Me -- Public Management in Decline -- In the Beginning -- Fast Forwarding the Old Paradigm -- What's Wrong with Public Sector Management Today--Part One -- What's Wrong with Public Sector Management Today--Part Two -- Time to Move On -- Snapshot -- The Seeds of a New Approach -- A New Style: Changing the Job We Do -- Creating Positive Change -- The Five Primary Tasks -- A Finger in the Dike -- Real Positive Change -- But Why Bother? -- "Doing" Real Positive Change -- A Change in Mind-Set -- Snapshot -- Working through Groups -- Work Groups--Not Teams -- Group Composition -- Choosing a Group Motivator -- The Group Process -- The Rest Is Intuition -- A Change in Mind-Set -- Promoting Creativity -- The Dreaded Time Wasters -- Making Time -- Igniting Creativity -- Defining the Problem -- "Seeing" the Solutions -- Moving from "What" to "How" and "Why" -- A Change in Mind-Set -- Snapshot -- Negotiating a Path -- Sound Familiar? -- Some Lessons to Recall in the Heat of the Battle -- Civilized Negotiation -- It's All About Differences, Not Divisions -- Civilized Results -- A Change in Mind-Set -- Snapshot -- Delivering the Product -- A Couple of Pointers -- There's Just One More Thing -- Taking That Long, Hard Look.

ISBN

• 1567202683
• 9781567202687

LCCN

98030538

OCLC

• ocm39655024
• 39655024
• SCSB-576298

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library