ABSTRACT

Spring 2008 — Volume 37, Number 1

FEATURE ARTICLE

Virtual Networks: An Opportunity for Government

Frank DiGiammarino and Lena Trudeau

Today’s government relies on a broad network that extends beyond other public-sector entities to include the private sector, nonprofit organizations, community groups, and individual citizens. Government entities need to work effectively across boundaries that impede the collaboration and information sharing required to innovate and change.
“Virtualizing” these networks gives government the opportunity to extend outside its institutions and employ the resources of nongovernmental organizations and the citizenry at large. It also provides government leaders with new ways to reach deeper into their own organizations to leverage the wealth of information and ideas that reside there, stifled by the natural hierarchy of government and the “operating silos” that hierarchy has created.
This article looks at these virtual networks in general and The Collaboration Project in particular, the National Academy of Public Administration’s newly launched leadership forum that uses research, best practices, and other resources to help apply the benefits of Web 2.0 and collaborative technology in government.
Frank DiGiammarino serves as vice president for strategic initiatives and business development at the National Academy of Public Administration in Washington, DC. Lena Trudeau is program area director for strategic initiatives at the National Academy. They jointly lead The Collaboration Project.

THEME ARTICLES - COMMUNICATION

Interagency Network of Enterprise Assistance Providers

Carroll Thomas

Less than ten years ago, twenty million small businesses across America faced the catastrophic year 2000 crisis! Y2K, as it was called, threatened computers around the world because they were based on a DD/MM/YY formula. This formula made computers believe that the year 2000 was actually the year 1900, rendering them unable to correctly calculate any information dealing with time.

Enter a fairly young public-private program—the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), headquartered at the National Institute of Standards and Technology—which focuses on assisting small manufacturers around the country. Through collaboration, MEP was able to broker a deal with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Small Business Administration Small Business Development Centers. Working together, they leveraged their reach and resources to small businesses across America and helped them avert the crisis. The successful collaboration helped millions of small businesses survive, but soon thereafter the synergistic collaborative efforts between the organizations ceased.

The looming Y2K catastrophe spurred the federal agencies that serve medium and small businesses to work together, but in today’s interconnected world such collaboration needs to be routine and continuous. This article explores how in January 2006, this need led to the formation of a more formal public-private network, the Interagency Network of Enterprise Assistance Providers.

Citizen Engagement in Gallatin County

Earl Mathers

The population of Gallatin County, Montana, has grown about 3 percent annually for a number of years, leading Montana through most of the last decade. Growth brings challenges to local government, but in this case, the accompanying cultural change and conflicting viewpoints pose dilemmas unheard of a decade ago. New residents often have different perspectives than natives concerning the environment and quality-of-life issues. Moreover, many of the new residents are interested in influencing policy and are not reticent in sharing their opinions.

To serve a more diverse array of interests, a broader range of businesses has been established in Bozeman, the county’s largest municipality and county seat. In reaction, clever traditionalists outside Bozeman have recently coined the somewhat disparaging term “Bozangeles” in reference to the city. They lament the fact that new residents fail to understand that a certain “code of the west” still prevails in many parts of the region. Although ethnic diversity in Gallatin County is changing only gradually, different groups have distinct attitudes.
This article discusses how this county government uses communication techniques to democratize the decision-making process without impeding it.

Earl Mathers, current Gallatin County administrator, has served as an executive with the Graduate School, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and in various capacities as a manager, long-term advisor, and consultant to local governments domestically and internationally. His international experience includes long-term postings in Lithuania and Romania as well as numerous short-term assignments in Eastern Europe/Newly Independent States, Africa, and the Middle East. He can be reached at Earl.Mathers@gallatin.mt.gov.

Improving Government Transparency Online

Jerry Brito

Democracy is founded on the principle that the moral authority of government derives from the consent of the governed. That consent is not particularly meaningful, however, unless it is informed. When government makes decisions in secret, opportunity for corruption increases and government’s accountability to the people decreases. This is why we strive for transparency in government. When official meetings are open to citizens and the press, when government finances are open to public scrutiny, and when laws and the procedures for making them are open to discussion, the actions of government enjoy greater legitimacy.

Recent years have seen a renewed effort to increase government transparency in the United States. In the wake of the Jack Abramoff, Duke Cunningham, and William Jefferson scandals, Congress moved once again to shed light on its own activities. Senators Barack Obama and Tom Coburn introduced legislation requiring the full disclosure of all organizations receiving federal funds through an online database operated by the Office of Management and Budget. The result was the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.

This article describes how citizen-engaging technology can make government data available online, easy to access, and understandable.
Jerry Brito is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. This article is adapted from “Hack, Mash, and Peer: Crowdsourcing Government Transparency,” forthcoming from the Columbia Science and Technology Law Review in 2008. He can be reached at gbrito@gmu.edu.

FORUM: THE NEXT PRESIDENT’S MANAGEMENT AGENDA

Introduction and Overview—Part II

Alan P. Balutis

This brief opening piece introduces the spring issue forum, a continuation of a dialogue from the winter issue on PMA 44—the President’s Management Agenda of the forty-fourth president. Like the contributors to Part I, the authors of these articles were part of a luncheon seminar series organized by Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group—the company’s global consulting arm. In Part II, we group the ideas into four categories—two familiar ones (human resources and technology) and two newcomers (acquisition and execution).

Alan Balutis is a director and distinguished fellow in the Internet Business Solutions Group, Cisco’s global consulting arm (www.cisco.com). The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent those of the Internet Business Solutions Group or of Cisco Systems, Inc. He can be reached at abalutis@cisco.com.

Human Capital—The Most Critical Asset

Stephen Benowitz

Since the comptroller general placed the management of human capital on the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s list of high-risk programs in 1999, a series of legislative and policy initiatives have tried to recast the way federal agencies think about and perform the human capital function. Although many have been high profile, for the most part these efforts have not succeeded in redirecting the management of government’s most critical asset, the people who perform its work. New laws promoting the management of human capital—the Chief Human Capital Officers Act of 2002—and giving the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense the authority to establish new personnel systems have not succeeded.

This article discusses how the next administration should set two goals to sustain ongoing executive leadership. The first is to require leadership development programs that transcend administrations and prepare our future leaders. The second and more important objective is to fund these programs sufficiently and in a way that the money is protected for this purpose.

Stephen Benowitz is a consultant, primarily on human resources (HR) management issues, and counts among his clients federal and state government agencies, universities, and private-sector firms. He retired after 32 years in federal government, most in the HR arena, receiving three Presidential Executive Rank Awards. He can be reached at stevebenowitz@comcast.net.

The Courage to Change When Challenged

Tom Hughes

The nation faces an enormous challenge but has the opportunity to institute change through collaboration among top-level government and private-sector executives. Americans want an effective, efficient, and results-driven government as we move through the twenty-first century. We have great opportunities to leverage information technology (IT) in areas such as economic development, education, health care, homeland security, public safety, and worker productivity. Does the nation’s government have the highly trained and talented top-level executives critical in promoting innovative ideas and growth through the use of IT? The answer is “No.”

The government’s process for hiring the top-level executives needed to implement this change-when-challenged approach appears to be broken. Government does not attract the best talent; instead, young people shy away from public service because they fear the bureaucracy moves too slowly for their career development paths. This top talent is crucial in leading government organizations to success using current IT capabilities and those yet to be discovered. This article looks at how the U.S. government can recruit and retain the highly trained and talented top-level executives to promote innovation and growth through IT use.

Tom Hughes is chief information officer at the U.S. Social Security Administration. He can be reached at Tom.Hughes@ssa.gov.

Acquisition Challenges, 2008 and Beyond

Shirl Nelson

As we head into 2008, federal acquisition faces a long list of challenges; this article examines three of the most pressing: the workforce, oversight, and performance-based acquisition (PBA).

The acquisition workforce will be gradually rebuilt, but to optimize that workforce, acquisition leaders must establish an organization strategically aligned with the direction of the agency and an environment that fosters learning, innovation, and creativity. Acquisition oversight will intensify over the next year or two, but acquisition leaders can prepare by conducting their own assessments and embarking on improvements in anticipation of external reviews. The benefits of PBA have not yet been fully realized because many challenges with implementation remain, notably the lack of understanding of what PBA really is and the dearth of skills to articulate and measure outcomes.

Shirl Nelson is a distinguished fellow with Acquisition Solutions, Inc. She can be reached at Shirl.Nelson@acqsolinc.com.

Inherently Governmental Functions: At a Tipping Point?

Allan V. Burmans

More than 15 years ago, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget Office of Federal Procurement Policy issued Policy Letter 92-1, Subject: Inherently Governmental Functions. This 1992 document offered the first government-wide guidance to help executive branch officers and employees avoid making “an unacceptable transfer of official responsibility to government contractors.” Implemented in Subpart 7.5 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, the policy has remained relatively unchanged since its issuance. Even the comptroller general’s 2003 Commercial Activities Panel proposed no significant adjustments to this guidance as the panel addressed the merits and procedures for contracting out government work.

However, as more and more reports question the government’s reliance on contractors for activities ranging from providing security services in Iraq to overseeing another contractor’s performance, is it time for another look? This article asks whether the policy still holds up. Has the government reached a “tipping point” regarding an overreliance on contractors, as suggested by Charles Tiefer in Government Executive magazine? What was the reason for putting it in place back then? Do changed circumstances today require the government to rethink the policy, pulling back from the level of discretion afforded by this earlier document? And if so, how should that be done?

Allan V. Burman, PhD, is president of Jefferson Solutions, the government division of the Jefferson Consulting Group. He is also an adjunct professor at George Mason University, a former administrator for federal procurement policy in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and the author of Policy Letter 92-1. He can be reached at aburman@jeffersonconsulting.com.

The President, Outcomes, and Performance

Robert Tobias

Since Congress passed the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, the federal government has been struggling to measure outcome rather than output. Agreement is universal that designing and implementing an outcome-based performance management system would increase agency performance, as well as taxpayer satisfaction with the federal government. Why doesn’t every government agency at every level have outcome performance management systems? Why has it taken the U.S. Office of Management and Budget so long to start something so basic, especially when improving organizational results is this administration’s mantra?

This article opines that the executive branch needs presidential leadership to undertake such an initiative. Only last year, after this president had five years in office, did OMB mandate that every agency select employees to form a test group and design and implement an outcome performance management system for those employees. The executive branch is still at the starting gate, while the administration’s remaining days in power dwindle.

Will the tests lead to learning, adaptation, and broad implementation, or the slow death associated with “no support”? The jury is still out. We do know, however, that creating a performance management system with outcome goals is very difficult.

Robert Tobias is the director of public sector executive education and director of the Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation at American University. He is the former president of the National Treasury Employees Union. He can be reached at rtobias1@verizon.net.

Shifting Federal Telework into Drive

Stephen W. T. O’Keeffe

In early November 2007, the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia held a hearing on how to break new ground in telework. Telework Exchange, among other witnesses, testified on why the federal government is not further along in its telework adoption. Although resistance still remains, the workforce dynamics are rapidly shifting, and the government must adapt.

This article describes how telework is transforming the work environment—propelling business continuity and pandemic planning, recruitment and retention, and real-estate savings—to the benefit of government agencies, employees, and America. As the green movement takes hold, telework is not only improving the lot of employees and businesses, but providing a breath of fresh air for the environment.

Stephen W. T. O’Keeffe is the founder and executive director of Telework Exchange. Launched in April 2005, this public-private partnership focuses on demonstrating the tangible value of telework and serving the emerging educational and communication requirements of the federal teleworker community. The organization facilitates communication among federal teleworkers, telework managers, and information technology professionals. He can be reached at SOkeeffe@okco.com. For more information, visit www.teleworkexchange.com.

Now Is the Time for Collaboration

Robert J. O’Neill Jr. and Elizabeth K. Kellar

The public tells pollsters that the most important issues facing our nation (other than the war in Iraq) are security and safety, jobs, health care, education, environment, and long-term economic security (retirement, Social Security, and Medicare). None of these issues can be tackled without a national strategy.

All of them transcend the boundaries of federal, state, and local governments and require the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to work together. Each requires a complex, multidisciplinary approach to policy development and execution. Economic policies are unlikely to succeed if driven by the federal government alone. In any analysis of the long-term financial implications of current federal tax policy and expenditure requirements, states, regions, and local governments clearly have a vital role to play in financing policy and developing program strategies for most nondefense initiatives.

This article avers that progress in these areas will only be made by restoring the relationships among all the intergovernmental partners and developing the institutional capacity to leverage these relationships to improve outcomes. For Americans to see progress in the areas most important to them, we need a renewed commitment to work together on common goals.

Robert J. O’Neill Jr. is executive director of the International City/County Management Association, the membership organization dedicated to creating excellence in local government through professional management. The association’s resources and services reach thousands of local, county, and state government professionals, academics, and consultants via its monthly mailings. He can be reached at roneill@ICMA.org. Elizabeth K. Kellar is executive director, Center for State and Local Government Excellence.

The Challenge of Managing across Boundaries

Mark A. Abramson and Alan P. Balutis

Starting in summer 2007, Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group—the firm’s global consulting arm—sponsored a series of seminars to bring leading thinkers on public management together with government and industry executives. Seminar discussions ranged from how a new administration might organize the next management improvement initiative to specific management issues, such as performance management, application of new technologies, and managing a blended workforce of contractors and civil servants.

This article focuses on one of the top challenges facing the new administration: managing across boundaries. Many seminar participants observed that government today is in many ways similar to government in the 1950s. Although computers now rest on the desks of government executives, legislators, and their staffs, the executive and legislative branches operate much like they did during most of the twentieth century. Both branches need to dramatically change to meet the anticipated demands and complexity of the twenty-first century. No organization in the federal government today can accomplish its program objectives without increased collaboration internally and with organizations in other parts of government, including Congress and state and local government, as well as the public and nonprofit sectors. Thus, boundary spanning needs to increase.

Mark A. Abramson is president, Leadership, Inc. He has served as executive director of the IBM Center for the Business of Government and president, the Council for Excellence in Government. He can be reached at mark.abramson@comcast.net. Alan P. Balutis is distinguished fellow and director of the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group. He served in government for more than 28 years and developed and organized the seminar series described in this article, with the assistance of Mr. Abramson. He can be reached at abalutis@cisco.com.

ARTICLES

HR MANAGEMENT

Recruiting and Engaging the Federal Workforce
Bill Trahant

The talk in government these days is about abolishing the General Schedule and replacing it with customized pay-for-performance systems. The General Schedule, however, is unlikely to disappear soon, so what can government executives and federal human capital professionals do to increase employee productivity and organizational performance under the current federal pay rules and performance appraisal guidelines?

That question was the focus of intense discussion at an October 4, 2007, seminar at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, hosted by American University’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation in conjunction with the Government Consulting Services practice of Watson Wyatt Worldwide. This forum, which brought together government executives and federal human capital professionals from a range of federal departments and agencies, featured presentations by James Perry, chancellor’s professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Bloomington; Toni Dawsey, assistant administrator for human capital management at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union.

This article describes the insights offered by the three speakers and how they can be used in better managing federal workers, providing them crucial (often nonmonetary) incentives, and helping them connect and identify with the goals of their organizations.

Bill Trahant is national practice leader of government consulting services for Watson Wyatt in Arlington, VA. Reach him at William.Trahant@watsonwyatt.com.

Telework: Breaking New Ground
Stanley Kaczmarczyk

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) identified job performance as a key goal of its telework program, established clear policies to encourage maximum use, and bolstered the program with abundant support and aggressive top-level leadership. USPTO now has one of the largest telework programs in the federal government. Other programs have not fared as well, or have not been tried at all. Why and how do some federal telework programs succeed?

This article discusses how success in federal telework stems from identifying practical and realistic program expectations, understanding the dynamics and measures of telework, and establishing useful and flexible policies and program design. Also required are implementation guidance, effective tools (including appropriate measures), program support, proactive senior leadership, and culture change. When carefully planned and rigorously implemented, few, if any, of these programs fail.

Stanley Kaczmarczyk is the principal deputy associate administrator, Office of Governmentwide Policy, General Services Administration. He can be reached at stan.kaczmarczyk@gsa.gov.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

FEMA, Katrina, and Operations Research
Richard Sylves

In the wake of the poor government response to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster, many questions have been asked about why the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), along with a host of other federal, state, and local emergency management agencies, performed so ineffectively. What went wrong? What is the future of the agency? How can a recurrence of the Katrina debacle be prevented?

Many investigations followed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in late 2005 through 2006. Communications problems were alleged to be a factor. Poor leadership of FEMA was another claim. Failures of intergovernmental relations, particularly between the president and the governor of Louisiana, were also put forward.

This article explores whether FEMA and other disaster management agencies may have overlooked the importance of “operations research” and “operations management” in preparedness and response work before Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.

Richard Sylves is professor of political science and international relations and senior policy fellow of the Center on Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware. He was an appointed member of the National Academy of Science Disasters Roundtable in 2002–05 and coedited (with W. Waugh) Cities and Disaster (1991) and Disaster Management in the U.S. and Canada (1996). He wrote The Nuclear Oracles: A Political History of the General Advisory Commission of the AEC (1986) and has done extensive research and writing on presidential declarations of disaster (www.peripresdecusa.org). He can be contacted at sylves@udel.edu.

ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT

Federal Contracting for Food and Refreshments

Daniel Hall

Contracting professionals must ensure that the federal government receives the best value for the taxpayer dollar while following acquisition regulations during procurement and contract management. Without a large influx of new workers, federal government contract processes could be severely impaired as the number and complexity of procurements increase. From 1991 to 2005, the number of contracting officers declined from thirty-seven thousand to twenty-eight thousand while procurement spending increased from $150 billion to $350 billion.

The large number soon eligible to retire and the marked increase in those less experienced give the field a lopsided demographic. Those in the middle of their career are woefully few. Young professionals, therefore, have an opportunity to replace those who are retiring and become leaders in the contracting field. To do so, they must quickly garner an institutional education, learning from others in the field to avoid the gaps in knowledge that will cost the taxpayer.

To inform young contracting professionals, this article reflects on the legal regimen of the procurement of food and beverages, with emphasis on conferences. It also discusses the state of the meeting industry and how this can influence rates, as well as negotiation techniques to ensure fair and reasonable pricing.

Daniel Hall is a contracting officer with the Department of the Interior’s National Business Center. As a certified federal contracts manager, he negotiates and drafts contracts with the private sector on a variety of matters.

DEPARTMENTS

CULTURE OF BUREAUCRACY

Better Thinking: An Asset in Any Organization

John N. Mangieri

Government leaders need important data and content about an element crucial to their success— the ability to think effectively, critically, and creatively. Enhanced thinking ability is a skill regularly exhibited by outstanding leaders, in the United States and abroad, working in government, business, education, and health care. Unfortunately, few government professionals are aware of the relationship between enhanced thinking proficiency and leadership performance.

As a consequence, these leaders have no objective basis upon which to judge their own and others’ abilities relative to reaching sound and timely decisions, solving problems efficiently and correctly, responding positively to change, and thinking creatively. About 93 percent of the professional workforce has never had their thinking skills assessed, and 87 percent have never been taught the cognitive processes needed for critical or creative thinking to occur at high levels of performance.

This article discusses how enhanced thinking ability yields more effective decision making, improved problem solving, better individual and group performance evaluations, and higher morale.

John N. Mangieri, PhD, is president of the Center for Leadership & Personnel Development. He also is an adjunct faculty member for the Federal Executive Institute and Center for Executive Leadership and an instructor for the Project Management Institute. He can be reached at Jmangieri@carolina.rr.com.

THE UNCIVIL SERVAN

Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My!

Grimaldi

And the election process continues—ad infinitum, ad nauseum. But listening to all the rhetoric of the campaigns took Grimaldi to an examination of how the debate in the public sector has degenerated to something devoid of substance. Worse still, we have achieved “doublespeak,” a term often incorrectly attributed to George Orwell in 1984. And he is surely knowingly laughing from his grave about the current state of affairs due to the similarities with his vision for the future. Orwell saw a world that was very dark and dour. His future was run by all-powerful forces beyond the comprehension or control of the populace. Wait!! He is pretty much right!!

Grimaldi takes a look at how the political practice is to speak in euphemism, hyperbole, or even prevarication rather than to state the facts in a clear and concise way. And the practice is insidious.