THE NEED FOR QUALITY The first thing that we need to consider, in any organization, is that quality is the most important thing. The quality of your work defines you.  Whoever you are,  Whatever you do,  I can find the same products and services cheaper somewhere else. But your quality is your signature. Developing and delivering high quality products and services means that you are doing things correctly from the beginning. As a consequence, you are reducing the need for additional services, from verification to warranty.

Total quality management.

C an governmental organizations change? Reform initiatives have swept through governments in the United States and overseas, again and again bringing news about eff orts to reinvent, transform, or reform government agencies ( Barzelay 2001; Kettl 2000; Pollitt and Bouckaert 2000; Stillman 1999 ). Curiously, however, this recurrent theme of change in government agencies has not induced a high volume of articles that explicitly address the topic in public administration journals. # ere are prominent exceptions to this observation (e.g., Bryson and Anderson 2000; Chackerian and Mavima 2000; Mani 1995; Wise 2002 ) and journal articles about topics related to organizational change (e.g., Berman and Wang 2000; Brudney and Wright 2002; Hood and Peters 2004 ). Articles reporting research and theory with titles containing “ organizational change ” and with that theme as a focal topic, however, appear with much less regularity in public administration journals than in research journals focusing on general management and organization theory.

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Managing Successful Organizational Change in the Public Sector

In seeking to explain the antecedents of public service motivation, James Perry focuses on the formative role of sociohistorical context. Th is study tests Perry’s theory and examines the role that organizational factors play in shaping public service motivation, based on responses from a national survey of state government health and human service managers. Th e fi ndings support the role of sociohistorical context, showing that public service motivation is strongly and positively related to level of education and membership in professional organizations. Th e results also underscore the signifi cant infl uence of organizational institutions, indicating that red tape and length of organizational membership are negatively related to public service motivation, whereas hierarchical authority and reform eff orts have a positive relationship. Th erefore, public organizations have both an opportunity and a responsibility to create an environment that allows employees to feel they are contributing to the public good.

The Role of Organizations in Fostering Public Service Motivation

Study in administration

Studies of the association between innovation characteristics and innovation adoption at the level of organization are scarce. This study develops direct and moderating hypotheses for the relationship between innovation characteristics, manager characteristics, and innovation adoption in public organizations. The hypotheses are tested using survey data on the adoption of 25 innovations in 725 local governments in the United States and data from a panel of experts. The findings suggest that both innovation characteristics and manager characteristics influence the adoption of innovation; however, they do not reveal significant moderating effects of manager characteristics on the relationship between innovation characteristics and innovation adoption. The implications of the findings are discussed for further research on innovation adoption in the public sector.

Characteristics of Innovation and Innovation Adoption in Public Organizations: Assessing the Role of Managers

Reform waves flowing across the American political landscape are not new. In the states they have paralleled and sometimes preceded national government reforms that began early in this century and extended into recent decades (Garnett, 1980; Conant, 1988, 1992). Shortly after the federal Taft Commission proposed management reforms in 1912, states set a pattern of examining their structures for possible reorganization. Garnett (1980) identified state reorganization waves associated successively with the Taft Commission, the Brownlow Committee of the 1930s, and the first Hoover Commission of 1947-49. Conant suggested a fourth wave of reform in the 1960 to 1980 period that included more than 20 successful comprehensive state reorganizations (1988, 894). We examine the nature of state reforms in the current decade. That state-level comprehensive reforms in the 1990s might center on "reinventing government" should come as no surprise. In their book, Reinventing Government, Osborne and Gaebler (1992) raised issues that confront state administrators and cited state leaders' experiences in developing "entrepreneurial government." From these examples they sought to identify "common threads" to offer as guides (19). After examining one state (Minnesota) in depth, Barzelay (1992) described a "post-bureaucratic paradigm" that he argued marks this next reform. The National Commission on State and Local Public Service, chaired by former Mississippi Governor William Winter, assembled a set of scholarly papers and held regional hearings to explore steps to "revitalize state and local governance" (Thompson, 1993, 1). The commission ultimately issued recommendations overlapping with reinvention. The American states appear to be adopting some changes that are consistent with reinvention recommendations. To explore this development, we surveyed state agency directors in late 1994 and early 1995 and examine here the scope, content, and implementation of reinvention reforms across the 50 states near the midpoint of the present decade. From the National Level to the States: Characteristics of Reinvention Reforms As candidates in 1992, Bill Clinton and Al Gore accepted the reinvention challenge at the national level: We can no longer afford to pay more for--and get less from--our government. The answer for every problem cannot always be another problem or more money. It is time to radically change the way the government operates--to shift from top-down bureaucracy to entrepreneurial government that empowers citizens and communities to change our country from the bottom up (Clinton and Gore, 1992, 23-24). The administration's National Performance Review (NPR) represented a turning point in federal administrative reform. Analysts have carefully reviewed the many specific proposals that emerged from it, as well as the more general reinvention proposals, and tried to place the reforms in a systematic framework. These proposals came from many sources. Osborne and Gaebler described writing their book as a process in which they "journeyed through the landscape of governmental change" and "sought constantly to understand the underlying trends" (1992, 19). Their search produced ten principles that they used to organize the book. These principles have been variously described as a "constellation of ideas" (Frederickson, 1996, 263), a "global movement" present in the private sector and all government levels and drawing on reforms in the U.S. and abroad (Kamensky, 1996, 248-49), a "conflated aggregation" (Fox, 1996, 258), a "grab bag" from which "everyone who is interested gets to pick his or her own particular purpose" (Nathan, 1995, 213); and "a collage of fashionable approaches to reforming organizations" (Arnold, 1995, 414).(1) Critics of reinvention (and of the National Performance Review, specifically) have targeted its deviation from the long-established administrative management tradition. …

Reinventing Government in the American States: Measuring and Explaining Administrative Reform

Exploring and Explaining Contracting Out: Patterns among the American States

Are women executives in state governments confronted with the "glass ceiling"? Using data from the American State Administration Project's 1984 and 1988 surveys, Angela M. Bullard and Deil S. Wright answer that and related questions. They find that women have made considerable inroads in securing top administrative posts, especially in certain types of agencies and newly created organizations. However, much of their progress has been accomplished by circumventing or avoiding rather than "breaking" the glass ceiling. The data also indicate female and male executives are-becoming more similar in terms of educational levels, types of graduate degrees, hours worked per week, the mix of administrative and policy functions, and salary levels. Differences in factors such as party affiliation, age, interagency mobility, career progress, and dependence on gubernatorial appointment remain noticeable.

Circumventing the Glass Ceiling: Women Executives in American State Governments.

Trends of female access to and presence in responsible governmental positions have gained substantial attention. The research reported here assesses and seeks convergence on several issues associated with gender representation. It extends the research by focusing on top executive posts in American state governments. In particular, the presence of women agency heads in all 50 states is examined from 1970 through 2000 using the lenses of passive representativeness and active representation. The authors find, first, that women face fewer blockages in securing top posts—the glass ceilings are cracking. Second, women’s access to peak executive positions springs from more solid educational, career, and organizational foundations or “floors.” Third, lateral career movements are penetrating the “walls” surrounding traditionally male-dominated agency types. The essay concludes with a framework for understanding relationships involving passive representativeness, active representation, and representative results. That framework assists in shifting attention toward the consequences of both passive and active representation.

Cracked Ceilings, Firmer Floors, and Weakening Walls: Trends and Patterns in Gender Representation among Executives Leading American State Agencies, 1970–2000

Deil S. Wright

Papers

Reinventing Government in the American States: Measuring and Explaining Administrative Reform

Exploring and Explaining Contracting Out: Patterns among the American States

Circumventing the Glass Ceiling: Women Executives in American State Governments.

Cracked Ceilings, Firmer Floors, and Weakening Walls: Trends and Patterns in Gender Representation among Executives Leading American State Agencies, 1970–2000

Federalism, Intergovernmental Relations, and Intergovernmental Management: Historical Reflections and Conceptual Comparisons