Agendas and decisions : how state government executives and middle managers make and administer policy / / Dorothy F. Olshfski and Robert B. Cunningham

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910965289303321
• Autore: Olshfski Dorothy F
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Albany, : State University of New York Press, c2008
• ISBN: 9780791478981; 079147898X; 9781435632080; 1435632087
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (169 p.)
• Altri autori (Persone): CunninghamRobert <1937->
• Disciplina: 352.3/30973
• Soggetti: State governments - United States - States - Management; Administrative agencies - United States - States - Management; Executive departments - United States - States - Management
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 143-150) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: ""AGENDAS AND DECISIONS""; ""Contents""; ""Preface""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""1. Introduction""; ""2. The Decision Process Model, the Cultural Environment, and Density""; ""3. Problem Identification""; ""4. Considering Alternatives and Making the Decision""; ""5. Implementation""; ""6. Evaluation""; ""7. Conclusion""; ""Appendix""; ""Notes""; ""Bibliography""; ""Index""; ""A""; ""B""; ""C""; ""D""; ""E""; ""F""; ""G""; ""H""; ""I""; ""J""; ""K""; ""L""; ""M""; ""N""; ""O""; ""P""; ""Q""; ""R""; ""S""; ""T""; ""U""; ""V""; ""W""; ""Z""
• Sommario/riassunto: Connecting theory and practice, Agendas and Decisions explores how state-level public executives and managers decide and implement policy. The authors focus on Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander's (1979–1987) management system, which believed in and practiced the principles espoused by leadership theorists: focus on one or two important substantive problems or initiatives, work with stakeholders to protect the organization and to obtain necessary resources, hire good people, and authorize them to act. In addition to sending his cabinet members to the Kennedy School of Government to learn ; leadership principles, he also established the Tennessee Government Executive Institute (TGEI) to provide a similar program for mid-level executives. Authors Dorothy F. Olshfski and Robert B. Cunningham managed the TGEI during its first five years and had unprecedented access to state-level public executives and managers. Here, they explain the everyday workings of state-level bureaucracy within the context of a simple decision model and share managers' and executives' own stories. Their research questions several aspects of the current orthodoxy on decision-making processes, offers new thinking about executive leadership in implementation and evaluation, and compares executive and middle-manager thinking and behavior.