Public administration in america milakovich pdf

Information Technology

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Informed decision-making is an important aspect for working in the government. According to Milakovich and Gordon, provide some examples of how information technology can be used to assist bureaucrats in decision-making?

Bureaucrats are neither able to anticipate every significant problem nor does the government consistently attempt to respond to problems prior to the problem reaching heightened levels. In many situations, aAbsent national security or natural disaster concerns, the national government lacks consistency in its response policy to address specific problems that arise. Thus government usually has to respond, instead of being in a position of being proactive, to such things as earthquakes, wild fires, floods and terror attacks/attempts. (Milakovich, M. E., & Gordon, G. J., pg. 376).

As noted in our text readings; Frederick Taylor asserted a singular best practices approach to complete a task, absent consideration of the outside political impact or inside organizational dynamics; Max Weber failed to fully consider the inefficiency and misdirection of the organization; and Woodrow Wilson theorized a separation of politics and administration could be achieved. The culmination of these beliefs from founding scholars within the field, coupled with others, gave birth to oppositional schools of thought and ultimately an increase in citizen choice, participation and involvement with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), community service organizations, faith-based and nonprofit agencies. (Milakovich, M. E., & Gordon, G. J., pg. 382). I contend that information technology also played a role in the spread of information that made it easier for citizens/participants/recipients to become more aware on issues and in turn provide information or feedback in various forms of data that is used by decision makers. It has also increased awareness and afforded these various groups to share information, galvanize positions which impact bureaucracy decisions. At the core of bureaucracy plans is to have an organization that achieves what it was designed to achieve. Information technology can facilitate that goal set by the organization.

Information technology afforded the government bureaucrats the ability to resolve known and unknown problem that arise. The Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle affords Bureaucrats the ability to plan, respond, study and act. Specifically data gathering, afforded by technology, affords the decision maker an opportunity to make a systematic investigation of alternative options and integrate evidence for and against each option.

Time-trend projection which affords the decision maker the ability to compare pre-program date with actual postprogram data of projects is another method. Information data can be accumulated over extended periods of time and allow for the creation of projection, then the decision maker can compare the actual results.

Controlled experimentation is the comparison of preselected and similar groups of people some served by the program and some not serve. This data gathering approach is one of the more complex and costly evaluation processes. This approach can be combined with the time-trend projection and jurisdictional comparisons in the data gathering process.(Milakovich, M. E., & Gordon, G. J., pg. 408-409).

Charles Jones, addressed the issue of program implementation. He focused on three significant components: 1) Organization - establishment or rearrangement of resources; 2) Interpretation - translation of program language such as laws, rules and regulation into a format that is easier to understand; and 3) Application - routine provision or services, payments, etc based upon the organizational goal. (Milakovich, M. E., & Gordon, G. J., pg. 395).

In modern times programs involve complex tasks. Information Technology Governance (ITG) has afforded the decision maker with a data gathering process, such as seen in the FBI crime data collection and Government Accountability Office (GAO), to make more informed decision. GAO is able to compare pre-program data with actual post program data; compare groups of similar people served by programs versus those not served by the program. Also, increased systematic evaluations on federal programs have led to better program performance under certain conditions.

However; political support for or against a program can carry more weight than the actual informational results presented from the data gathered through the information technology process. An example of this problem can be seen in the national housing program. The housing program repeatedly falls short of its projected goals based upon independent evaluations. Despite the data showing that the program consistently fails to meet its goal, the interests for building low-income public housing are outweighed by the influence of other who oppose. Therefore, the program has continued since the 1940’s despite its failures. (Milakovich, M. E., & Gordon, G. J., pg. 411).

References:

Milakovich, M. E., & Gordon, G. J. (2013). Public administration in America. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

Shafritz, J., & Hyde A. (2017). Classics of Public Administration. Boston, MA

Sundberg, L & Larsson, A. (2017). The Impact of Formal Decision Processes on e-Government Projects [PDF file]. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/Danie/Downloads/admsci-07-00014%20(2).pdf

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