Revitalizing public management training in the Americas
| Author | Lawrence S. Graham |
| Date | 01 May 1993 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230130202 |
| Published date | 01 May 1993 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL.
13,95-I
1
1
(1
993)
Revitalizing public management training in the Americas
LAWRENCE
S.
GRAHAM
University
of
Texas
SUMMARY
The decade of the 1980s signalled major changes within public administration and develop-
ment-oriented activities. As a consequence
of
the internationalization of the agendas of practi-
tioners and academics working in these areas, there is today a growing convergence among
public policy, public management, public administration and political science. Given the com-
plexity
of
the public sector cross-nationally, what has become necessary in public management
education is the design of programmes that meet specific needs and priorities and which
are responsive to
very
different national settings. This particular case study is centred around
one endeavour
to
achieve more effective interfacing between theory and practice,
in
the teaching
of public management and the design
of
development programmes in the United States
(US).
It is based
on
an assessment of a 10-year co-operative endeavour between the National Associa-
tion
of
Schools of Public Affairs and Administration and the US Agency for International
Development. The outcomes of this project provided not only leverage for important changes
in
the teaching programmes
of
schools concerned with international management education
but also built a
new
relationship between government and a non-governmental organization
through the contacting out
of
management development work.
Since the early
1980s,
there has been considerable ferment in public administration,
public management, public policy and political science. While intellectual traditions
in each of these areas embrace different sets
of
interests, varying agendas and distinct
concepts as to which public issues warrant attention, by the
end
of the decade the
acceleration of transitions to market economies and more open forms of governance
on
a worldwide basis had engendered increasing convergence among them. Despite
different perceptions
as
to what constitutes relevant research and teaching, today
these fields are coming to share common concern with the performance of public
sector institutions, more precise identification
of
the actors and stakeholders influenc-
ing policy outcomes, and greater interest in the way in which public issues are articu-
lated and processed. In such a setting where globalization of the economy and
internationalization of public issues are on the increase, established demarcations
between the public and private sectors are disappearing,
as
well
as
those between
domestic and international policy arenas.
As
a
consequence, one finds growing inter-
est in internationalizing professional education and in designing curriculum and
course offerings, which will enable the recipients of advanced training and education
to respond more effectively to the demands
of
the marketplace and to demonstrate
greater capacity in resolving the issues at hand.
Professor Graham is in the Department
of
Government at the University
of
Texas at Austin, Austin,
Texas
78712,
USA
0271-2075/93/020095-17$13.50
0
1993 by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
96
L.
S.
Graham
LINKING PUBLIC POLICY, BUREAUCRATIC PERFORMANCE
AND
TRAINING
In light of these circumstances, there are three sets of conditions that public manage-
ment education must be able to confront during the 1990s: how to improve public
managers effectiveness to conceptualize and process relevant data from their external
policy environments (by focusing attention on how issues are processed and how
alternative choices can be posed more clearly), how to manage more effectively the
interpersonal and interorganizational dynamics within the policy domain under their
jurisdiction (through enhancing the skills component
of
management training), and
how to look ahead and plan more effectively to anticipate the uncertainty and turbu-
lence characteristic of politics and markets (through the incorporation of strategic
management considerations). Because this task is a complex one and there are
no
ready-made formulas and an established literature to draw on, here the issues are
outlined. It is suggested that, because the public sector
is
so
complex and subject
to such great variation from one country setting to another, each programme must
make its own decisions and develop its own design for confronting these issues
according to the resources, personnel and the needs at hand, This is followed by
an extended case study of one endeavour in the United States (US) designed to
change perceptions of public management in developing countries by involving
faculty and public affairs schools graduates in
a
series of ongoing technical assistance
activities.
First,
the public management literature is generally quite clear in specifying how
public managers must have
a
broader perspective and set of concerns involving
the external environment of public organizations. This is a setting that involves
one in an array of different political, economic and social issues.
To
date, the primary
way in which these issues have been approached is centred in the collection
of
appro-
priate case material from real-life decision-making situations. This material is written
up in didactic form. Cases are used in the classroom in which the instructor together
with class participants analyse the case and the particular course of action taken.
This is done either through review of how a particular set of decisions was reached,
or through the design of
a
feasible strategy that the participants arrive at as a conse-
quence of interpersonal dynamics and the analytical process engendered through
focused dialogue.
In
the development management literature, this approach to public management
is usually referred to as the political influence model in which political stakeholders
are specified, the resources of each key group or individual are assessed, and attention
is directed at the lobbying and bargaining that goes on until
a
particular outcome
is produced, in which winners and losers are designated.’ Within the Latin American
context, the materials generally recognized as having the greatest relevance for public
sector work along this line of training are those developed
at
the Instituto Centroa-
mericano de Administracion de Empresas, through their programmes and training
centres in Managua, Nicaragua and Alajuela, Costa Rica. Over time, these materials
have been refined and expanded, until today it is apparent that this model of instruc-
tion is far more sophisticated in its analysis
of
public decision makers’ policy environ-
’
For
a comprehensive summary
of
this
approach, see the discussion
of
the political influence model
in development management in White,
1987,
chapter
9.
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