Weekly Format (8/20 update)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Fall  03

        University of Utah Master of Public Administration Program

SYLLABUS

POLS 6300 ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY


Instructor:  Prof. Rick Green, Director, MPA Program

Office:  OSH 214

Mail:  Center for Public Administration & Policy, OSH 214, 260 So. Central Campus Dr., Un. of Utah, SLC, 84112

Email: rick.green@cppa.utah.edu

Web Address: www.cppa.utah.edu/~rg4280

Phone:  581-6781 ofc;  277-6861 hm

 

Office Hours:  Mondays, 3:00-6:00pm or by appointment.  Please call for an appointment if office hours are inconvenient.  I am also happy to correspond via email. 

 

 

REQUIRED TEXTS

 

B. Guy Peters. The Future of Governing. 2nd ed. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. 2001. ISBN: 0-7006-1130-4 pbk.

 

David H. Rosenbloom & Robert S. Kravchuk.  Public Administration: Understanding Management, Politics & Law in the Public Sector, 5th ed.  New York: McGraw Hill, 2002. ISBN: 0-07-240192-3 pbk.

 

Jay M. Shafritz & Albert C. Hyde. Classics of Public Administration, 4th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1997.  ISBN: 0-03-019382-6 pbk

 

Jay M. Shafritz & J. Steven Ott. Classics of Organization Theory, 3rd ed.  New York: Harcourt College Publishers, 2001.  ISBN: 0-15-506869-5 pbk.

 

E-Reserve Readings: A collection of readings and cases is available through Marriott library electronic reserve web access at www.lib.utah.edu/circ/reserve/student.html. Follow instructions on the Web or call the Help Desk at 581-6802 or 585-6727.  (NOTE: You can access the collection from your home or work computer after establishing a network ID. Your computer must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded free off of the web.)

 

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

 

Administrative Theory is a foundation course that addresses the theory base for the field of public administration.  It provides a set of theoretical frameworks for the field that helps students interpret and understand more about the real world of public administration.  It will also aid students in drawing connections among all the courses in the MPA program. 

 

The course objectives are as follows:

1.       To understand the nature, scope, and history of the field of public administration, and the variety of academic disciplines that have contributed to its theories and practices.

2.       To understand the competing values, traditions, and tenets that shape public administration as a field of both theory and practice.

3.       To understand and apply a variety of normative and theoretical perspectives to the issues and practices of public administration.

4.       To become familiar with a wide variety of theorists who have contributed directly and significantly to the field of public administration. 

 


COURSE REQUIREMENTS

 

1.       Students will take two take-home essay examinations.  Students must answer 3 or 4 questions from a list of questions.  The questions will emphasize analysis and synthesis more than recall, and will cover assigned readings and class discussions. 

 

2.       Administrative/Policy Analysis Paper: Students will conduct in-depth research on two administrative theorists, and apply their ideas and insights to an administrative or policy context of their choosing.  “In-depth research” means that students should thoroughly read at least one major work for which each author/theorist is known, and should summarize the essential points of the work.  Students should also look at book reviews or other sources of scholarly criticism of the theorists’ work to report on weaknesses or problems with their ideas.  Then students should show how various insights or ideas of the authors can be applied to organizational or policy settings with which the student is familiar.  If a student has no administrative or policy experience, they should consult with me about how to approach the analysis/application portion of the paper.

 

 

GRADING CRITERIA

 

            Grades are based on the following criteria: Class Participation/Attendance = 20%; Exams = 25% each; Paper = 30%. Class participation will be assessed through a combination of attendance and active, meaningful contributions to class discussions.  If you must miss a class session, please give me advance notice, and make arrangements with a fellow student to take notes or tape the class session. Missing class without notice (beyond the drop/add period) will affect your grade immediately.  Missing more than two class sessions (beyond the drop/add period) with or without notice will affect your grade. 

 

 

STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC HONESTY

 

            In academic and journalistic writing it is required that all sources from which ideas and words are drawn be fully acknowledged and cited.  It is also a basic principle that we should not represent someone else’s work as our own. Therefore, make sure that you use quotation marks to indicate use of someone else’s writing or words in your work, and provide a full citation that identifies the author(s), title, publisher, location of the publisher, year published, and page(s) at which the quotation may be found.  If you use WEB sources, make sure to include a full WEB address for the specific work.  When in doubt about a proper citation form, consult a style manual, and be sure to use one style consistently throughout the paper. 

            A citation should also be given when using someone else’s idea(s) or concept(s), even if you are not quoting directly from their work.  A common form for such a citation is to put the author and year of his/her published work in parentheses at an appropriate place in the sentence that employs the concept. Then put the full citation of the work in the references (this is the “APA” format).  Consult Turabian or some other style manual for specifics on proper styles of citation.

            Academic honesty also forbids the use of other students’ work as your own, or even turning in a work written in an earlier course as though it was newly written for this course.  Honesty is so important that severe sanctions exist in all universities and colleges for cases of proven dishonesty.  Expectations of honesty are especially high for graduate students.  Correspondingly, abuses of academic honesty are not tolerated.  If you are in doubt as to a proper standard of honesty in a specific situation, please consult your professor. 

 

 

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

 

            In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), I offer any student with a disability the opportunity to communicate with me privately to discuss receiving reasonable accommodation.  Such accommodations will be afforded based on the specific disability and as agreed in writing.  This statement in no way asks that students identify themselves publicly as having a disability; however, a request for reasonable accommodation can only be granted if a student makes his or her disability known to the instructor.

 

 

COURSE/ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE

(Note on Classics Readings: Make sure you read the chapter introductions to each section of both classics texts.  They provide important context for the readings that follow.)

 

Aug.25: Introductions & Review of Syllabus

 

Sept 1: Labor Day, no classes

 

Sept 8: Founding Administrative Theory: Federalists & Anti-Federalists. 

Read: ROSENBLOOM & KRAVCHUK, Chapters 1-2.  E-RESERVE, Federalist essays 10, 47-48, 51, 72, 78; Green, “Alexander Hamilton on the Foundations of American Public Administration;” Richard Stillman, “Changing Patterns of Public Administration Theory in America;” Herbert Storing, “What the Anti-Federalists were FOR,” chapter 3 & Conclusion.

 

Sept 15: Founding vs Jacksonian Administrative Theory. 

Read: ROSENBLOOM & KRAVCHUK, CHAPTERS 9 & 11; E-RESERVE, Crenson, chapter 3;

Case: (1) “Political Shoot-Out in the Lone Star State”; (2) “A Question of Contamination”

 

Sept 22: Progressive Administrative Theory

            Wilson & Goodnow

            Rise of Complex Organizations   

                        Bureaucratic Theory (The edifice of Weber)

                        Normative Origins of the “Business Model”

                        Scientific Mgt in Two Voices: Taylor vs Follett

                        The “Traditional Model” of PA emerges.

            Read: PETERS, chapter 1; CLASSICS OF PA, essays 1-5, 7; CLASSICS OF OT, essays 4 & 5;

Cases: (1) “Efficiency, Effectiveness, & Patronage”, (2) “It’s Not Easy at the Top”; (3) “The

Good/Bad Administrator”

 

Sept 29: New Deal Administrative Theory (The Rise of the Executive)

            The Executive Power and Public Administration

            Rise of the Professional State (Carl J. Friedrich)

            The Principles of Public Administration – POSDCORB

            The Functions of the Executive

            Read: CLASSICS OF PA, Essays 6, 8-10, 19; E-RESERVE, Rohr, Chap. 9; Cases: (1) “Are the Library

Trustees Obsolete?” (2) “State Agency Reorganization”

 

Oct 6: New Deal Administrative Theory, (Planting Seeds of Discontent)

                        The Rise of Administrative Law

                        The Congressional Response to Exec-Centered PA

                        The Rise of Interest Group Liberalism

                        Quiet Conservatives Rebuild their Foundation

Read: E-RESERVE, Rohr, chap. 10; Rosenbloom, chap. 5; Case: “Promulgating a Controversial

Administrative Order”

Mid-Term Take-home exam handed out.  Due back by class time, Oct 20th. 

 

Oct  13: The Human Relations School 

Emergence of Social Psychology of Motivation

            Hierarchies of Needs (Maslow, Herzberg)

Self-fulfilling prophecies (MacGregor)

            Organizational Psychology of Fear (Thompson)

Alternative Models of Motivation

Read: CLASSICS OF PA, essays 14 & 21; CLASSICS OF OT, essays 15, 18-19; E-RESERVE

Cases: (1) “A Problem of Motivation”; (2) “An Authoritarian Approach to Mgt”; (3) “Some Counselors are More Equal than Others”; (4) “What’s a Single Mom to Do?” (5) “The Far Side of Fifty”

 

Oct 20: Leadership Theory

                        Selznick, Fiedler, Blake & Mouton, Burns, motivation theories, etc.

            Read: CLASSICS OF PA: 18, 26; E-RESERVE, Selznick, chaps 1-2; Burns, chap.1; Fiedler &

Garcia, chap.2; Cases: (1) “Professionalism & Organizational Values”; (2) “The Disctinction Between Leadership & Management”; (3) “No More Nittany Lions,”

 

 

Oct 27: Management Science & Decision Making

Challenging Weber’s Theory of Bureaucracy

The edifice built by Chester Barnard & Herbert Simon

Read: CLASSICS OF PA, essays 11, 12, 16, 28; CLASSICS OF OT, essays 9, 13, 46, 47, 49;

ROSENBLOOM, chapter 5. Cases: (1) “Politics, User Fees, and Barracudas”;

(2) “Organizational Politics and Decision Making”

 

Nov 3: Systems Theory of Complex Organizations & Networks (org sociology & socio-technical systems)

                        J.D. Thompson (Org psychology; levels and types of managerial work)

                        Karl Weick, social-psychology of organizing

                        Hult & Walcot, governance structures

            Read:  ROSENBLOOM & KRAVCHUK, chapter 4; PETERS, chapter 4; CLASSICS OF PA: #s 26,

CLASSICS OF OT, #s 12, 20-30, 48.

            Video: “Anatomy of an Oil Spill”

 

Nov 10: Re-emergence of Politically-Based Administrative Theory

            Waldo, Appleby

            Pluralist Administrative Theory

            Lindblom, muddling through

            Lowi, interest group liberalism

            Wildavsky, budgeting politics

Selsznick, politics of cooptation

Allison, pluralist models of decisionmaking

            Read:  CLASSICS OF PA, #s 15, 17, 22, 29, 30, 36, 38, 39, 41; CLASSICS OF OT, #s 31-35;

E-RESERVE, Case: “Public Health in Rhododendran County”.

 

Nov 17: Re-emergence continued:

The New Public Administration Movement

            The Blacksburg Manifesto

            Feminist Interpretations of PA

            Read: PETERS, chapter 3-4; CLASSICS OF PA, #s 32-34, 46, 48; CLASSICS OF OT, # 38; E-

RESERVE, Cases: (1) “A Jail in City Center”

 

Nov 24: Theme I: Entrepreneurial Administrative Theory and the Resurgence of the Business Model

The New Public Management School.

Read: CLASSICS OF PA, #s 45, 47, 50, 51; PETERS TEXT: chapters 2 & 5; Cases: (1) “A Day in the Life of Tomorrow’s Public Administrator”; (2) “Entrepreneurial Government: The Morning After”; (3) “Public Management Reform – Reinventing State Government”  (4)  "Blueberries and Public Administration"

 

Dec 1: Reform and the Sublimation of Politics in Organizational Culture

            Read: CLASSICS OF OT, #s 36-43; E-RESERVE, Cases: Ott, Appendix to Chapter 1. 

Theme II: Pulling it all together.

Read:  PETERS, chapters 6-7; E-RESERVE, “Managing Change in Workingville”  

Take Home Exam handed out.  Due in MPA office by 6:00pm, Dec. 8.

 


E-Reserve Readings/Cases

 

A.J.Anderson, “Are the Library Trustees Obsolete?” Library Journal, Sept. 1, 1992

 


Adams, Bill R., Glen W. Sparrow, Ronald L. Ballard. "A Jail in City Center," in Managing Local Government: Cases in Decisionmaking.  James Banovetz, ed. Washington, D.C. ICMA 1990: 93-102


Burns, James MacGreggor. “The Power of Leadership,” in Leadership, chap.1. New York: Harper & Row, 1978: chapter 1: 9-28.

 

Crenson, Matthew. “Spoils System and Kitchen Cabinet,” Chapter 3, The Federal Machine: The Beginnings of Bureaucracy in Jacksonian America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975: 48-71.


Doe, John. "Politics, User Fees, and Barracudas," in Managing Local Government: Cases in Decisionmaking. James Banovetz, ed. Washington, D.C.: ICMA 1990: 76-92.

Electronic Hallway Network. “A Change of Management.” Public Service Curriculum Exchange: University of Washington, www.hallway.org.

 

Electronic Hallway Network. “Public Health in Rhododendron County.” Public Service Curriculum Exchange: University of Washington, www.hallway.org.


Electronic Hallway Network. "State Agency Reorganization." Public Service Curriculum Exchange: University of Washington, www.hallway.org.
 

Fieldler, Fred E., and Joseph E. Garcia. New Approaches to Effective Leadership: Cognitive Resources and Organizational Performance. New York: John Wiley & Sons 1987: 13-22.

 

Green, Richard T.  “Alexander Hamilton: Founder of the American Public Administration.” Administration & Society Vol. 34, No. 5 (November) 2002: 541-62.

 

Green, Richard T. “Managing Change in Workingville” unpublished scenario.

 

Green, Richard T. “Scenario: Public Management Reform – Reinventing State Government. Unpublished scenario.

 

Gurwitt, Robert. “Entrepreneurial Government: The Morning After,” in Governing: The Magazine of States and Localities. May 1994:34-40.

 

Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, John Jay.  The Federalist Papers. Clinton Rossiter, ed. New York: New American Library, 1961.  Selected Essays 10, 47-48, 51, 71-72, & 78.

 

Lerner, Alan W. and John Wanat.  “Professionalism & Organizational Values,”  Scenario #4, in Public Administration: Scenarios in Public Management.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall 1993.

 

Lerner, Alan W. and John Wanat.  “The Distinction between Leadership & Management,”  Scenario #12, in Public Administration: Scenarios in Public Management.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall 1993.

 

Lerner, Alan W. and John Wanat.  “Organizational Politics & Decision Making,”  Scenario #14, in Public Administration: Scenarios in Public Management.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall 1993.

 

Lerner, Alan W. and John Wanat.  “Promulgating a Controversial Administrative Order,” Scenario #15, in Public Administration: Scenarios in Public Management.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall 1993.

 

Meyer, C. Kenneth, and Charles H. Brown. “It’s Not Easy at the Top,” case #1, in Practicing Public Management: A Casebook, 2nd ed.  New York: St. Martins Press 1989: 15-17

 

Meyer, C. Kenneth, and Charles H. Brown. “The Far Side of Fifty,” case #8, in Practicing Public Management: A Casebook, 2nd ed.  New York: St. Martins Press 1989: 40-43

 

Meyer, C. Kenneth, and Charles H. Brown. “The Good/Bad Administrator,” case #15, in Practicing Public Management: A Casebook, 2nd ed.  New York: St. Martins Press 1989: 75-78

 

Meyer, C. Kenneth, and Charles H. Brown. “An Authoritarian Approach to Management,” case #19, in Practicing Public Management: A Casebook, 2nd ed.  New York: St. Martins Press 1989: 90-92.

 

Meyer, C. Kenneth, and Charles H. Brown. “A Question of Contamination,” case #20, in Practicing Public Management: A Casebook, 2nd ed.  New York: St. Martins Press 1989: 94-95.

 

Meyer, C. Kenneth, and Charles H. Brown. “A Problem of Motivation,” case #22, in Practicing Public Management: A Casebook, 2nd ed.  New York: St. Martins Press 1989: 103-105.

 

Ott, J. Steven. “Appendix to Chapter 1,” in The Organizational Culture Perspective. Chicago, Ill: Dorsey Press, 1989: 12-19.

 
Pisciotte, Joe P. "Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Patronage," in Managing Local Government: Cases in Decisionmaking. James Banovetz, ed. Washington, D.C.: ICMA 1990: 66-75.


Reeves, Zane T. “Some Counselors are More Equal than Others,” #3 in Cases in Public Human Resources Management.” Itasca, Ill: F.E. Peacock Publishers, 1999: 19-24.

 

Reeves, Zane T. “No More Nittany Lions,” #19 in Cases in Public Human Resources Management.” Itasca, Ill: F.E. Peacock Publishers, 1999: 41-50.

 

Reeves, Zane T. “What’s a Single Mom to Do?,” #29 in Cases in Public Human Resources Management.” Itasca, Ill: F.E. Peacock Publishers, 1999: 187-193.

 

Reeves, Zane T. “Political Shootout in the Lone Star State,” #19 in Cases in Public Human Resources Management.” Itasca, Ill: F.E. Peacock Publishers, 1999: 127-132.

 

Selznick, Phillip. Leadership in Administration. New York: Harper & Row, 1957: chaps 1&2: 1-64.

 

Starling, Grover. “A Day in the Life of Tomorrow’s Public Administrator,” in Managing the Public Sector, 4th ed.  Belmont CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1993, pp.2-8

 

Stillman, Richard J.  “The Changing Patterns of Public Administration Theory in America” in Public Administration: Concepts & Cases. 3rd ed.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1983: 5-24.

 

Storing, Herbert A. “The Small Republic,” and “Conclusion” in What the Anti-federalists were FOR: The Political Thought of the Opponents of the Constitution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1981: pp.15-23, 71-76.

 

Rohr, John A. “Executive Supremacy: The Brownlow Report” Chapter 9, in To Run a Constitution: The Legitimacy of the Administrative State. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1986: 135-153.

 

Rohr, John A. “Individual Rights: The Attorney General’s Report,” Chapter 10, in To Run a Constitution: The Legitimacy of the Administrative State. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1986: 154-70.

 

Rosenbloom, David H. “Legislative-Centered Public Administration,” Chapter 5, in Building a Legislative-Centered Public Administration: Congress and the Administrative State, 1946-1999.  Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2000: 131-155.


Vollmer, Jamie Robert. "The Blueberry Story: The Teacher gives the Businessman a Lesson."  Public Domain Email.