Reply to each of these discussion post. Make each at least 150 to 200 words.
1. The social infrastructure that institute both the private and public administration are increasingly intertwined with a digital code, a big data, and processes. In today's digital age, there are traces of scholars from the Classical Organization Theory setting who concepts and techniques have shaped the contemporary systems of our Federal Administration.
The world wide web technology has allowed the government to share with the public different information, which allows the citizens to bring issue of concerns locally, regionally, and nationwide. For example, a public employee may want to engage with citizens about a current school district rezoning through the internet to gauge interest. Use of a computer and current population data can quickly send and receive the most updated information. "This is about public employees using the Web to directly engage with citizens or businesses about particularly problems or issues that they may have, in a public conversion. Government involvement in such forums may add huge value, delivering expert advice to groups who need it".
Another example would be a non-profit organization who is working closely with a city to improve services through modernization and technology. For example, "Code for America, builds open-source software for local governments and organizes people to address complex city challenges; its fellowship program sends technology teams to local governments for a year to partner with officials" (Kamensky, 2015). This is one way of helping the city and its people to tackle the biggest problem a city may have for instance gang violence, police brutality, or growing homeless population.
Finally, most major cities have made data available about their city transit systems for travel time, current road construction, and road conditions. For example, "The City and County of Denver has taken this one step further with its Denver Go app that integrates information across modes of transportation and allows a user to compare not only how long a journey takes with each method, but also the cost, environmental impact, and health benefits of each. The app uses real-time traffic data to create accurate estimates of arrival times" (Wiseman & Goldsmith, 2017).
Real-time data can assist people in so many ways. The local, regional, and federal government use of modern technology allows the citizen to get accurate information immediately. The processes helps one to determine and decipher what is best for him or herself. This type of decision making can assist bureaucrat in making formal and informal decisions by simply sharing data to inform its people. As a result, the city can save tax dollars and focus on other issues that may surround an administration.
References
Kamensky, J.M., (2015). Improving Public Services: The Secrets of Award-Winning Cities.
Wiseman, J. & Goldsmith, S. (2017). 10 Ways Data Can Make Government Better.
2. 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].