According to Wilson, the success of public organizations has to do with the correct identification of the most essential tasks within the organizations, distribution of authority to appropriately work with them, imparting the assistants with a sense of responsibility, and ultimately according the necessary autonomy to the subordinates to enable them carry out their tasks (Wilson 54).
Wilson advocates for the deregulation of the government in order to help rejuvenate it. The key difference between the private and public sectors is that the profit motive and the price system are usually absent from the public sector. As such, Wilson queries the ability to maintain trust and accountability of individual public sector workers taking into consideration that such workers are often faced with the choice concerning ‘mission accomplishment’ attitude and the ‘control mentality’.
It is noteworthy that positive results can be accomplished through ensuring that those who wield executive power do comprehend the culture of their respective organizations properly. This would help them to fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of the culture. In cases where members have endorsed specific organizational cultures they usually develop a sense of mission. According to Wilson, this principle enables executives to be economical with regard to scarce incentives, setting out the objectives of public organizations with the necessary confidence that subordinates would ultimately achieve them, and delegating various responsibilities confident that decisions from the lower-levels will comply with the expectations at the higher decision-making levels.
Another principle that must be observed include negotiating with the political superiors regarding some agreements that may be essential constraints and that must be observed by specific agencies. Consequently, the administrative section of the public organizations must ensure that there is equitable distribution of authority and the control over all available resources to the tasks accorded to an organization. In particular, authority in the public organizations should be placed at the lowest level of management where all the necessary elements are accessible. Another principle that Wilson advocates is judging public organizations by considering their results.
In a nutshell, Wilson recommends four important guiding principles towards creating the most effective and efficient public organizations. These principles are: delegation of neglected tasks to other agencies, negotiating with political superiors regarding the constraints or rules that are essential to maintain, matching the control over resources and the distribution of authority to the task being undertaken in the public organization, and judging the organizations through their results.
In addition, Wilson decries the apparent bureaucratic elements in the decision-making processes which he blames on the American regime. In particular, Wilson observes that the constitutional element of separation of powers worsens the problem of bureaucracy hence creating tolerable and malleable agencies rather than efficient and effective organizations. The system of running public organizations is therefore burdened with rules (77). On a positive note the system encourages participation thus increasing openness in the running of public organizations. Most importantly, people can only appreciate the importance of Wilson’s guiding principles when they are able to reckon the manner in which prospective reformers within the public service ignore those principles through the administrative spectrum.
Wilson’s recommendations can be applied in the public education sector through the College Board to enhance the success of the public educational institutions and create opportunities. The four guiding principles coined by Wilson must be the guiding ideologies that counselors, teachers, policymakers, and administrators should endeavor to implement to enable students have equitable admission into higher learning institutions. This aspect should be encouraged through encouraging students to accept the challenges brought by the rigorous academic curriculum. Further, school administrative bodies must ensure that various college-level programs mirror the diversity of student population.
Barriers such as bureaucratic decision-making processes by the College Board that shave the potential to limit students’ access to the demanding courses should be eliminated by delegating the power and authority to make certain decisions to the respective school administrations without further delays that may be occasioned by seemingly vain consultations. Such steps should be made in consideration of the fact that specific school admirations are closer to students thus better equipped to address various educational challenges especially with reference to the traditionally underrepresented socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic groups.
It is important to note that agency employees usually take three forms: careerist, professional, and politician. These forms of employees often disagree over the practice of management that would be effective and how such practice would affect a particular sector. With regard to careerists, they are usually those people who work in agencies for fairly long time and in some instances spend their entire careers in a single agency. Careerists are people who usually associate their personal success with that of the respective organizations where they work. Such employees are usually found at the lower levels of management and are a source of stability and loyalty.
The politician employees use their positions as stepping stone to bigger positions and usually work in organizations for short periods. These are usually motivated by self-interests and can be a source of creativity and implementation of risk-taking concepts. However, political employees can also be destabilizing. On the other hand, professional employees are those that draw their rewards, standards, and norms from their skilled groups. They tend to ensure that the organizational expectations are consistent with their professional goals. As such, they are very productive and may disagree with any conduct that is in conflict with what is acceptable within their profession.
Personal Observations
With regard to the foregoing, it is notable that every type of employee within the education sector and other agencies must combine their abilities towards achieving the best results for their respective agencies. This can only be achieved through negotiations and evaluating the achievements of the agency on an annual or quarterly basis and delegating tasks, resources, and authority to enable various departments to undertake their responsibilities efficiently and effectively.
Bottom line, the administrative divisions within public organizations must endeavor to manage three key aspects: civil service, public finances, and the organizations’ activities. That is to say that the administrators must ask themselves three questions: How are the people managed? How are the finances controlled? How are activities coordinated? Once they are able to answer these questions the rest will fall in place and success shall be in the offing.
Work Cited
Stillman, J. Richard. Public Administration: Concepts and Cases (9th Ed.). Cengage Learning,
2009.
