Chapter 3 The Anatomy of Public Organization Internal

Chapter 3 The Anatomy of Public Organization

Internal Sources of Values Introduction: q The use of specialized language within an organization socializes it’s members into it’s culture and specific bureaucratic ideology. q Bureaucratic managers use this culture as an actor in the public policy process. q Bureaucratic organizations are about problem solving or at least problem coping. q Values shape the organization’s approach to solve or cope with these problems.

Internal Sources of Values 1. Budgetary needs and constraints. 2. Standards promoted by powerful unions of public employees who make up the agency. 3. Codes of ethics adopted by professional associations who share members with that bureaucracy. 4. The need to be efficiently productive (conflict). 5. The morale of members of the organization.

Organizational Culture • Definition: It is the way an organization views its role within the broader society. It is a complex interlinking of assumptions, attitudes, beliefs, norms and values that collectively guide an organization. • Values are applied by the members who cope with policy problems that are central to the agency’s goals and mission. Norms of bureaucratic behaviuor are acquired by members and guide their routine in dealing with problems. Thus we can conclude that “BUREAUCRATS ARE MADE, not made”.

The organizational Culture Organizational values cannot differ greatly from societal values, although it may stress some more than others. Ex: - private property Respect. Organizational Values Societal Values Public Policy implementation

Functions of Organizational Culture 1. Determines what members see as right or wrong and how they should deal with certain circumstances and problems. 2. Reduces the need for authority, rules and controls. 3. It is a powerful mechanism that guides the actions of organization members by approving or prohibiting varied patterns of behavior. 4. An organization uses culture to recruit individuals who hold similar values. 5. To deal better with multiple or even conflicting goals imposed by a legislature. (societal compromise)

The question is: Is Organizational Culture all beneficial in its effects? q. No, effects may be negative. q. Excessive organizational inflexibility. q. Organization becomes so rigid in decision making it fails to adopt to any change in its external environment. q. Groupthink: - which is a mode of thinking in which people strongly seek consensus that their decisions become unrealistic.

The Bureaucratic Ideology q Anthony Downs defines Bureaucratic Ideology as follows: - is a verbal image of the good society with which a particular bureau is concerned, plus the chief means of constructing that portion. q Ideology flows downwards from the organization’s higher levels of formal authority and infuses its communication systems both formal and informal

The Bureaucratic Ideology cont. q Top-level officials develop the ideology to provide an efficient means of communication with both external environment and bureau insiders. q The Bureau ideology states agency goals in terms of the organization’s policy objectives in serving the broader society. q The verbal image of the bureau’s ideology enable *others to use this ideology in decision making without additional cost. *others = legislators, voters, related interest groups, low-level organization members.

Bureaucratic Symbols • Managers of government agencies have welldeveloped ideas of what government “ought to do”. These ideas are defined to each agency’s narrow area of expertise. • Agency ideology may be: HARD: - holds that the bureaucracy must be interested not only in preserving its existing policies, but also in imposing a new set of policies. or SOFT: - the soft version of an agency ideology is that the existing program of the agency constitutes a set of ideas favored by the bureaucracy.

Jargon & Acronyms q. Jargon is slanguage. One way managers use to manupilate symbols in a bureau ideology. q. Acronyms new words formed from the first letters of a series of words. Thus, jargon & Acronyms are the specialized language of experts.

Assignment # 2: Briefly discuss internal sources of values to a bureaucratic agency. Give examples whenever you can. Use the net. Web sites in the book.

Quiz 2: Multiple Choice Questions: 1. _____ is the way an organization views the broader society in a complex interlinking of assumptions, attitudes, beliefs, norms, and values that collectively guide an organization. a. Organizational culture b. Systems model c. Management socialization d. Organizational groupthink

Multiple Choice Questions: 2. _____ is a verbal image of the good society and the chief means of obtaining it. a. Culture b. Ideology c. Groupthink d. Socialization

Multiple Choice Questions: 3. _____ is a mode of thinking within a cohesive group engaged in by persons who value consensus so much as to override a realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action. a. Dysfunctionalism b. Miles Law c. Group think d. The Peter Principle

Multiple Choice Questions: 4. Which of the following is emphasized by bureaucratic ideology? a. benefits over costs b. efficiency c. achievements and future capabilities d. All of the above

Multiple Choice Questions: 5. The specialized vocabulary and idioms of those in the same type of work or profession are known as which of the following? a. Groupthink b. Ideology c. Jargon d. Acronyms

Multiple Choice Questions: 6. The lack of credence given to the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research before the U. S. invasion of Iraq exemplifies which of the following? a. Stovepiping. b. Groupthink c. Outsourcing d. Bureaupathic ideology

Fill in the blanks 7. List at least FOUR values that have been characterized as “core values” in American society. _______. 8. _____ is a mode of thinking within a cohesive group engaged in by persons who so seek consensus as to override a realistic appraisal of an alternative course of action. 9. A _____ is a verbal image of that portion of the good society with

Fill in the blanks 10. _____ are words formed by using the first letter, or first few letters, of a series of words, often becoming part of the jargon of an agency. 11. A major foundation of bureaucratic power is ______, or specialized knowledge.

True or False 12. ------ Groupthink is the way an organization views the broader society in a complex interlinking of assumptions, beliefs, norms, and values. 13. ------- Ideology is a verbal image of the good society and the chief means of achieving it. 14. ---- Bureau managers use free information streams to transmit information about an agency and its ideology and values. 15. -------Expertise, or specialized knowledge, is a major source of bureaucratic power.