Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T16:09:55.663Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Organizations, Politics, and Public Purposes: Analyzing Public Organizations and Public Management

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2012

Hal G. Rainey
Hal G. Rainey
Affiliation:
The University of Georgia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The title of this lecture refers to organizations, politics, and public purposes to emphasize developments in the analysis of public organizations and their management and the need for that analysis to include politics as an influence on those organizations. The Gaus Award recognizes contributions in the joint tradition of public administration and political science. Organizations serve as essential components of the administrative branch of government and of virtually all other aspects of human life and many other forms of life. Social scientists that I call “organization theorists” have developed theory and research about organizations and the people in them. This body of work provides concepts and insights useful for the analysis of the organizations in government, which I call “public organizations.” Organizations play crucial roles in the pursuit of values and goals shared by large aggregates of people. “Organizations, Politics, and Public Purposes: Analyzing Public Organizations and Public Management” refers to these shared values and goals as public purposes. Organizations are essential to public administration and we cannot effectively analyze organizations in public administration without concepts developed by political scientists; we need to draw on political science.

Type
The 2011 John Gaus Lecture
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 9 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agranoff, Robert. 2007. Managing within Networks: Adding Value to Public Organizations. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Benn, Stanley I., and Gaus, Gerald F.. 1983. Public and Private in Social Life. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Borins, Sanford. 1998. Innovating with Integrity: How Local Heroes Are Transforming American Government. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Bozeman, Barry. 1987. All Organizations Are Public: Bridging Public and Private Organizational Theories. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Choi, Sungjoo. 2009. “Diversity in the U.S. Federal Government: Diversity Management and Employment Turnover in Federal Agencies.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 19 (3): 603–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chun, Young Han, and Rainey, Hal G.. 2005. “Goal Ambiguity in Federal Agencies.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 15 (1): 1–30. (Public Management Research Association Beryl Radin Award for Best Article in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory during 2005. Public and Nonprofit Division, Academy of Management, Best Journal Article Award, 2006).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Robert A., and Lindblom, Charles E.. 1953. Politics, Economics, and Welfare. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Feeney, Mary K., and Rainey, Hal G.. 2010. “Personnel Flexibility and Red Tape in Public and Nonprofit Organizations: Distinctions due to Institutional and Political Accountability.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 20 (4): 801–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernandez, Sergio, and Rainey, Hal G.. 2006. “Managing Successful Organizational Change in the Public Sector: An Agenda for Research and Practice.” Public Administration Review 66 (2): 168–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heinrich, Carolyn. 2003. “Measuring Public Sector Performance and Effectiveness.” In Handbook of Public Administration, ed. Peters, B. Guy and Pierre, Jon, 25–37. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Hood, Christopher, and Dunsire, Andrew. 1981. Bureaumetrics: The Quantitative Comparison of British Central Government Agencies. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Kelman, Steven. 2005. Unleashing Change: A Study of Organizational Renewal in Government. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Jung Wook, Rainey, Hal G., and Chun, Young Han. 2009. “Of Politics and Purpose: Political Salience and Goal Ambiguity in U.S. Federal Agencies.” Public Administration 87 (2): 457–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindblom, Charles E. 1977. Politics and Markets. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Lynn, Laurence E. 1981. Managing the Public's Business. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Meier, Kenneth J., and O'Toole, Laurence J.. 2011. Public Management: Organizations, Governance, and Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Meier, Kenneth J., and O'Toole, Laurence J.. 2006. Bureaucracy in a Democratic State. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
O'Toole, Laurence J. Jr. 2010. “The Ties That Bind? Networks, Public Administration, and Political Science.” PS: Political Science and Politics 43 (1): 7–14.Google Scholar
Perry, James L., and Rainey, Hal G.. 1988. “The Public-Private Distinction in Organization Theory: A Critique and Research Strategy.” Academy of Management Review 13 (2): 182–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pitt, Douglas C., and Smith, Brian C.. 1981. Government Departments: An Organizational Perspective. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pitts, David W. 2005. Diversity, Representation, and Performance: Evidence about Race and Ethnicity in Public Organizations. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 15: 615–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Provan, Keith G., and Milward, H. Brinton. 1995. “A Preliminary Theory of Interorganizational Network Effectiveness: A Comparative Study of Four Community Mental Health Systems.” Administrative Science Quarterly 40: 1–33.Google Scholar
Rainey, Hal G. 2011. “Sampling Designs for Analyzing Publicness: Alternatives and Their Strengths and Weaknesses.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 21 (supplement 3): i321–45.Google Scholar
Rainey, Hal G., Backoff, Robert W., and Levine, Charles L.. 1976. “Comparing Public and Private Organizations.” Public Administration Review 36 (2): 3–246.Google Scholar
Simon, Herbert A. 1995. “Organizations and Markets.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 5 (3): 273–94.Google Scholar
Wamsley, Gary L., and Zald, Mayer N.. 1973. The Political Economy of Public Organizations. Lexington, MA: Heath.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkins, Vicky, and Wenger, Jeffrey. 2009. “At the Discretion of Rogue Agents: How Performance Influences the Selection Decision.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 19 (2): 313–33.Google Scholar
Wilkins, Vicky, Whitford, Andrew, and Ball, Mercedes. 2008. “Descriptive Representation and Policy-Making Authority: Evidence from Women in Cabinets and Bureaucracies.” Governance 20 (4): 559–80.Google Scholar