Overview of new Cutting edge methodologies
The process of reinvention of government is a very hectic process that requires a government to be fully focused in its service delivery. The new cutting edge methodologies have been employed by the government to help improve its service delivery. These methodologies help the government from being accountable to achieve better results in their operations. These methodologies helps in making employees achieve better results in their work stations. This helps to ensure that good citizens are not trapped in bad systems instead these systems are improved to ensure they are good for use. The government is able to tend to its traditional functions and check on its spending activities making wiser and better decisions regarding the same. This leads to a sea of change bringing a new perspective and frame of mind. These methodologies also help us to develop new management theories reflecting the information age instead of the industrial age. The advantages of these methodologies are the better and increased functioning of the government by lowering the costs involved in running government agencies. There is better understanding between agencies within the government and thus agency by agency recommendations can be achieved. Recommendations for underlying systems can also be achieved since the methodologies used helps in simplifying and streamlining layers.
The process of reinventing government has been a long process that began early in the 19th century and has been going on to date. The government has greatly evolved throughout this time and is now able to carry out its functions better and much easier and cheaper than it could do a few decades back. For example before 1870s the government had no mechanism to care about its poor and less fortunate. There was no welfare state to look in to the poor’s troubles even the sick had no welfare state but when Bismarck came up with the first one during the 1870s he created a foundation that has made almost all governments in the worlds to be able to come up with policies that help them care about their citizens by paying their health care and retirement pensions to them. Over the years governments have improved on their services and engaged in activities that no one predicted a government would do a few decades ago. The government now is engaging in several activities that are meant to empower its citizens such as investing in the private sector through offering of grants and loans to the people to help them engage in business activities. The new model of government that we are witnessing across the United States is a kind of government that is entrepreneurial in nature.
During the late 1980s the government was experiencing very serious problems that had engulfed the whole state. There were very poorly developed public schools with an out of control health care system. The courts and prisons were getting full with several convicted fellows walking freely among innocent civilians. To top it all up most cities and states were becoming bankrupt. This led to an article that appeared in the Time Magazine with the heading “Is Government Dead” mainly as result of these problems that were being experienced. The confidence of most Americans had gone down with the government with many citizens preferring not to enter into a career of government service. By the year 1990 these problems had increased for the government with very little public support from its civilians. They were experiencing multibillion dollar deficits in several states, most cities cut off a huge number of employees with the federal deficit moving to an all time high of $350 billion during that year. These problems almost choked the government to death unlike today where there is a level of increased confidence with the government among many citizens; though our cities face several incidences of crime and the poverty levels of most citizens is also a big issue for our government. Though there is an increase in the service delivery in most government institutions and newer public institutions are also coming up which are lean, decentralized and very innovative compared to the past institutions.
The Bankruptcy of Bureaucracy
Several decades ago our cities were faced with high growths with many immigrants coming in to offer their labor to the several factories that were coming up due to the industrial revolution that was being experienced. The bureaucratic government in exchange for immigrant votes dispensed jobs, favors and services without looking at the real problems that were facing the public at that time. The problems of industrial America included overcrowding and poor living conditions leading to slums, sweatshops and very poor infrastructure to these areas. These problems led to wars in the 1980s when the citizens could not take it anymore leading to a more progressive America. The progressive movement helped in the transformation of the of the country for the next thirty years bringing an end to the use of government jobs as patronage and bringing about protection from arbitrary hiring or firing from government jobs. This led to the limit of power to most political figures keeping construction of most facilities out of their reach and creation of independent public bodies to oversee these activities.
These bureaucratic models used by the government are very different from the ones being used today. Today all these characteristics are not visible in the models being applied by the government. Our society today is much more informed and the economy is more knowledge based and most workers are well educated and customers on the other hand accustomed to high quality and extensive choices. Our institutions today are very flexible and adaptable, more responsive to customer needs, they deliver high quality services and most importantly the employees are given a sense of meaning and control within these institutions. With the ever increasing need by customers for high quality products and services our government institutions are continuing to adapt in order to provide goods and services that match to customer’s demands. This makes the government to engage in very hard and complex tasks making it very difficult for its institutions.
Trusted Leader Methodology Explicated
After the “Spanish Flu” of between 1918 and 1919 that almost led to the collapse of the nation’s nascent public health system. People lost trust with what the government could do in face of a national disaster like that and confidence levels went down. Over a century after that the United States still faces the prospect of another deadly flu attacking its citizens but with the government fully in control of its health system such a case is highly unlikely. This makes the government much more prepared and ready that nit was a few decades back. This means that there is also an increased level of trust among the citizens and the confidence levels are a bit higher than they were several years back. Over the years more cabinet level federal agencies have been made by the government leading to increased spending on the same by the government. This has led to more and more people being employed by government agencies in states and local governments from 3.3 million people to 19.2 million between the years 1946-2005 compared to the 2.6 million people currently working for the federal government. The government might have experienced mixed results on its performance through the years, the public’s opinion on its trust has not been so indifferent. 1964 had most people trusting the government to do what is right for its citizens at 76% and this fell down to only 21% in 1994 and by 2006 it was at 31%. The statistics on citizens who believe the government is wasting most tax payers’ money has also increased in the years between 1958-2006 from 43% to 61%. This trend in statistics shows a lack of trust with most elected leaders in the United States with only 46% of those asked in 2006 whether they trust the president saying they do so with the rest saying they do not and only 35% trusting members of the congress.
This lack of trust among Americans with their elected leaders is not so easy to explain with several theories trying to make us understand why the decline in trust over the years. Others say it is due to the dissatisfaction with most politicians that has been experience over the years some say it is dissatisfaction with the services being offered by both the president and the congress. This book trusted leader gives us an insight into the level of trust that Americans have with their leaders and the government as a whole, it also tries to explain the growth of government and its institutions over a period of time.
Application
The government has over the years been striving at ways to improve on delivering their services to its citizens. The government has tried to make itself available whenever needed by its citizens trying to solve all issued to the problems facing its citizens that are by ensuring better health systems, better education systems and better service delivery to all. All these efforts by the government have been purely based on its mandate to serve its citizens. Government institutions such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were all created by the government to help in solving crimes and other criminal issues that affects the American public. Their main aim is to serve and protect the public and this makes them one of the most trusted organizations by the public. The reason why the government and the leaders have made these organizations to operate independently is to improve the trust both in these organizations and the leaders themselves. With good trust and confidence by citizens to most government agencies it is easier to govern the country since the citizens are assured that the government is taking their bests interests ate the heart of its operations.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The government throughout the years has faced the challenge of ensuring they function to the best of their ability to make life for its citizens much better. Over the years leaders have been elected to help lead this government with most citizens voting to make a change. Though the level of trust between citizens and the government has been on a decline most citizens believe that it is the government that can offer them better services, the same government can make life cheaper for them, by lowering its taxes and making its services available to all. The government can also come up with policies meant to empower its citizens such as better health care plans, better education systems and proper service delivery. Citizens are obliged to trust their elected leaders and let them carry out the duties they were elected to do diligently. Those who do not fulfill their promises to the public should be recalled from their positions o that only those who are able to lead are allowed to do so. This will greatly enhance public confidence and trust to both the president and the congress in the coming years.
References
Osborne, D., & Gaebler, T. (1992). Reinventing government: How the entrepreneurial spirit is transforming the
public sector. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.
Newell, T., Reeher, G., & Ronayne, P. (2008). The Trusted leader: Building the relationships that make
government work. Washington, D.C: CQ Press.
