Leadership

This report profiles three outstanding local government executives – Robert O’Neill, Jan Perkins, and Phil Penland -- who have served in various local governments over the years. The study profiles the change activities of these city/county managers as they have sought to transfer a set of values and a methodology for leading change into a new setting. Case studies are developed on the change activities of each of these managers, drawing out lessons from their experiences that might suggest a model of leading change in American local governments. Leadership

This report analyzes the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) work with the private sector in implementing FEMA's goals via public-private partnerships. The project includes an assessment of FEMA's Project Impact Program. The objective of the study is to assess and compare the achievement of national policy goals through private sector partnerhsip programs. Collaboration: Networks and PartnershipsMissions and Programs

This project examines the changing operational challenges faced by today’s public managers as they participate in collaborative undertakings with other governments and the nongovernmental sector. The lessons are derived from experiences in several Midwestern states, where many established networks operate. Collaboration: Networks and PartnershipsMissions and Programs

A major challenge facing the public sector in the years ahead will be to manage across boundaries. To better understand the challenge of boundary-spanning management, this report profiles Dr. Helen Gayle, Director of the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHSTP) at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In her role as Director of the Center, Dr. Gayle is responsible for working closely with the United Nations and other international organizations and nations in combating the AIDS epidemic. Collaboration: Networks and Partnerships

Since its creation in 1953 as an amalgam of several existing agencies, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (originally the Department of Health, education and Welfare) has struggled to find the appropriate balance between centralized functions in the Office of the Secretary and autonomy to the various agencies and bureaus contained within its boundaries. Over the years, the pendulum has swung back and forth between emphasis on centralization and decentralization.

This project describes the many human resource innovations that have taken place in the Internal Revenue Service over the past five years. Organizational human resource innovations include splitting the personnel function in IRS into three parts: the Office of Strategic Human Resource Management, agency-wide Shared Services, and "embedded" human resource units in each of the major operating divisions. This project also describes the use of broadbanding at the IRS.

In the report, Professor Behn moves away from the conventional tenet of public administration to "make the managers manage." Instead, he offers an approach that encompasses eleven "better practices" that he has observed in use by successful public managers over the years. This approach focuses not on individual attributes and virtues, but rather on activities or practices which can spur improvements in program performance.

This report consists of a series of in-depth interviews with senior executives in government who have been identified as outstanding leaders. The study attempts to determine the characteristics that have most centrally contributed to the success of these senior executives. Leadership

This report offers case studies of five current federal career executives, each of whom accomplished major changes in several different federal agencies. The study identifies common factors in their experiences that led to their inter-agency mobility. These factors provide useful guidelines for creating incentives to encourage more widespread mobility in the future and allow federal executives to consciously plan for greater career mobility to ensure a more flexible and responsive government. Human Capital Management Leadership

Will the federal government be able to recruit and retain employees with the qualities needed for leaders in the future? To help answer that question, the IBM Center for The Business of Government surveyed career and noncareer members of the federal Senior Executive Service (SES). Survey results showed that federal executives have a new vision of leadership and think that changes in current leadership systems will help make the vision a reality. Human Capital ManagementLeadership