High Table Student Conference

Morning Panel 1

Maria DiPasquantonio
“Running the Government like a Business; The Transformation of a Public Agency to a Performance-Based Organization”

The theme of this paper is one of transformation of a public organization to a Performance-Based Organization (PBO).  The FAA is currently undergoing a transition to a Performance-Based Organization to more closely align it with a private sector business model in order to reduce operating costs and improve delivery of service.  The FAA was granted authority to become a Performance-Based Organization in 2000 by Executive Order, with the actual implementation beginning in 2003.  The creation of a PBO within the FAA was the culmination of decade long attempts by previous administrations, Congress and the FAA to improve the delivery of air traffic services by adopting best business-like practices.   The purpose in examining the FAA’s initial stage of transformation to a PBO is to determine the impact of the new structure on improved organization performance. 

Natalie Heffernan
“Volunteerism in a Compound Republic: Power of the People”

Public organizations rely on volunteers to build capacity.  For example, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers assist during disasters and relieve professional responders from administrative burdens.  Participation of citizens in governance and a knowledgeable electorate are cornerstones of American federalism.  Power in the United States is vested in the people and exercised in their participation.  This paper provides a conceptual framework to examine the factors that may influence individual volunteer participation through the lens of the CERT program.  Additionally, it attempts to link this logic at the individual level to the societal level of the compound republic.  Through this cross level analysis, greater understanding of the impact of the individual on democratic society may be achieved.

Kathlyn Hopkins Loudin
“Design Agents: A Post-Acquisition Reform Cost-Benefit Analysis”

In the wake of high-visibility acquisition problems such as those faced by the U.S. Coast Guard’s Deepwater program and the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship program, it is especially important to understand and utilize lessons learned from mid-1990s Department of Defense (DoD) Acquisition Reform initiatives.  Once such lesson centers on partnering with industry, to the extent that private companies are entrusted as “design agents” with the overall responsibility for weapons system design and development, with acquisition (on behalf of the Government), with funds allocation, and importantly, with the success of the program from design initiation through completion.  The design agent must possess thorough programmatic knowledge, monitoring all activities and working proactively to ensure that cost, schedule and performance objectives are met, all the while maintaining the high degree of trust required of a Government agent. The paper chronicles the history of several DoD programs enlisting contractors as design agents.  Examples range from Mk 41 Vertical Launching System (hardware, electronics, software and system integration) to nuclear and Ohio-class submarines, to a data-sharing system known as Cooperative Engagement Capability, to ballistic missile defense, to combat system ship qualification trials and other test and evaluation (T&E) events.  In recent years, however, the number of new design-agent contracts has decreased significantly, possibly signaling the demise of this Acquisition Reform initiative.  Recent arguments state that design-agent contracts have: (1) driven up acquisition costs, and (2) generally weakened DoD's ability to coordinate and control its major acquisition programs. Analyzing the aforementioned programs, I investigate these claims.  The relationship between Government and industry will be explored, drawing from network theory (Goldsmith & Eggers, 2004; Agranoff, 2007), as illuminated by institutional economic theory.  After all, although exchanges of some information and knowledge spiral smoothly through design agent arrangements, the underlying financial and legal structures of organizations tend to erect certain barriers that cannot be crossed. To address the question of whether DoD’s Acquisition Reform stance on design agency has led to increased costs, the researcher normalizes, interprets and compares historical data on development and acquisition costs, both pre- and post-Acquisition Reform. To explore the argument about DoD's weakened ability to manage acquisition programs, qualitative research targets intangible but real costs, arising from clashes over data rights, organizational conflicts of interest, lack of transparency, the temptation to self-certify, and the possibly comprised integrity of follow-on competitions, as well as loss of management capacity and technical expertise within DoD.  Following the cost-benefits analysis, I make recommendations, largely in favor of rebuilding Government capacity, by rebalancing the risk and rewards offered within the National Security Personnel System, and modifying policies promulgated via the DoD supplement to the Federal Acquisition Regulation. 

John O’Brien
“Performance and Models of Governance:  Pronouns Matters”

This paper challenges a rising tide of criticism to performance suggesting measures are the problem; output-based reporting requirements make measures a compliance control mechanism rather than a tool for improvement.  Viewed this way, performance can easily be labeled a “failure”.  I argue that measures are not the problem, pronouns are.  A relationship exists between governance models and public management that is reflected in performance measures.  Managers may demonstrate an individualistic, “I - Centered” style or an external, collective, “We - Centered” approach.  Current research uses measures from institutional economics but other models view performance differently.  The key is the pronoun.

Morning Panel 2

Kim Baker
“Succession Planning Across the Sectors: A Review for Senior Research Universities.”

A review of ten years of literature related to succession planning processes across the three sectors - nonprofit, for-profit, and government - was conducted. Similarities in the process characteristics were collated to serve as a foundational review for higher education administration as their universities look toward the baby boomer generation retiring in the coming years.

James Lepse
“Defense Acquisition: Principals, Agents, and Coalitions”

While principal-agent theory has broad roots and application ranging from economics through finance, strategic management, insurance, organizational psychology, and accounting to governmental operations, it can also be applied to analyzing Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition processes and problem. The DoD acquisition system exists to manage our National investments in technologies, programs, and product support necessary to achieve the National Security Strategy and support the United States Armed Forces.  With the DoD acquisition system and processes as the focus of analysis, this paper investigates the model proposed by Waterman and Meier (1998) for principal-agent relationships in which asymmetry of information and goal conflict are considered variable rather than discrete assumptions, and as such they change over time in response to the environment and situation.  Specifically, the case is made for viewing DoD acquisition through the lens of Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) as well as principal-agent theory.

Michael Potter
“Mission Impossible: Defining the Mission of the National Credit Union
Administration through its Relationships with Congress and Interest Groups”

This paper analyzes the evolution of the mission of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the regulator of federal credit unions.  By documenting the testimony, reports, and correspondence of Congress and interest groups, the article seeks to explore the influence that stakeholders have had on the mission statement of the agency. These relationships are underpinned by elements of agency and stewardship theory.  The paper concludes that congressional oversight efforts recently have been driven by the competitive concerns of the banking lobby. This additional oversight attention from Congress on NCUA has caused the agency to diverge from its practice of allowing the credit union lobby to heavily influence its mission. Currently, the NCUA’s mission focuses on a more restricted reading of the mandate of the credit union industry as a whole. This was primarily driven by attempts by Congress to overcome the goal differentiation inherent in the two organizations’ principal-agent relationship through more proactive oversight practices.

Neysa Slater-Chandler
“In the Beginning: Searching for Roots of Agency Autonomy in Federal Agency Creation”

Daniel P. Carpenter’s The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy identifies three elements of bureaucratic autonomy:  political differentiation, development of “unique organizational capacities,” and political legitimacy.  But how does a government agency become autonomous in the first place, and how does it maintain this autonomy?  This article reviews the concepts of federal agency, task, autonomy, and delegation with a specific focus on the legal foundations of each and presents recommended areas for further research. Constitutional and regime values and their expression through agency creation, structuring, and task delegation are explored.  Do these concurrent acts create autonomy ab initio and imbue an agency with discretion?  I advocate a return to legislative analysis, with a focus on agency enabling legislation as the source of agency structure and autonomy.  Elements of the autonomous agency are discussed, and additional elements are identified.  Can an autonomous agency retain autonomy and discretion by developing certain characteristics?  Will this development lead to continued trust in the agency and its capabilities?  Will agencies that fail at autonomy face task recapture?  A successfully autonomous agency should be awarded with further task development and assignment, more autonomy, less oversight, and reinforced legitimacy.  But the root question remains:  can an agency’s autonomy be predicted at its creation?

Afternoon Panel 1

Tara Kolar Bryan
"Voluntary Regional Councils as Network Administrative Organizations"

This paper examines voluntary regional councils through the lens of networks, in particular the role regional councils play as a network administrative organization (NAO).  NAO's are defined in the literature as “a separate administrative entity set up specifically to manage the network and its activities” (Provan and Kenis, 2005). In particular, I examine the committee structure as a core process of regional councils in their capacity as NAOs.

Christie McLaughlin
“Examining Meaning in Governance: A Qualitative Comparison of Multiple Accountabilities in Logistics Planning and Response Through Disaster Management Networks

Many public managers have embraced the concept of accountability as part of performance management in single organizations.  With the complexities of multiple actors and simultaneous actions, networks pose great challenges for the application of accountability.  The accurate pairing of actors with their actions, for example, becomes indiscernible in networks that rapidly respond to circumstances beyond their control.  Scholars have proposed that further complications in the application of accountability result from the presence of multiple types of accountability and the attempt to satisfy multiple types at once.  Through an exploratory case study that compares two sets of expectations in disaster management, this research will show that conflicts emerge based on inconsistent expectations that are rooted in multiple accountabilities across a network. 

Pam Newby
“Network Structures Enhance Policy Innovations for Climate Change “Best Practices”

Weather related information can provide an important recruitment tool for public administrators to use in job searches.  Seasonal weather patterns traditionally impact property values. Weather related greetings historically have served as universal conversation starters to enhance human interactions.  In the 21st Century, accelerating public concerns about the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientific assessments can raise serious questions for municipal planners about possible local weather related threats.  What are the municipal leaders’ best practices that can serve as global models for other locations worldwide?   This article will investigate how network structures enhance policy innovations through intergovernmental and interorganizational interconnections.  The paper will evaluate how a system of network infrastructure helps create and sustain “windows of opportunity” (Kingdon 1995, Birkland 2005, Hatch 1997) to facilitate political change.

Kelly Novak
“Ecological Footprints as a Sustainability Bench Mark: How is it Shaping Local Government Land Use Planning and Policies?”

The Ecological Footprint, essentially the calculator used by individuals or entities to determine how many acres are necessary to support their current life-style and/or activities, is now being used by local land use planners through out the United States. This article explores how the ecological footprint and its scientific equation is being used as a benchmark by local governments and its implications on process and policy. This article presents the responses of interviewed land use planners in Charlotte, North Carolina; Denver, Colorado; and Chicago, Illinois. The responses ar then discussed in light of Lynn and Hill's principles of governance.  A comparison to the baseline common land use program is presnted also to delineate the effects that the footprint benchmarks are making on the process of land use planning.  The paper concludes with a look at how the process is affecting the shape of land use policy.

Afternoon Panel 2

Maeng Joo Lee
“Neither Rowing nor Steering: Myth, Reality and Lessons from the Governmental Advisory Committee of ICANN”

I examine the “advisory” role of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN is an international nonprofit organization that governs the critical internet infrastructure - known as the Domain Name System - under contract with the U.S. Department of Commerce. ICANN represents an emerging model of international self-governance in which private actors take the lead and governmental actors assist. Since the GAC is an ongoing cutting-edge governance experiment to limit the role of governments under the leadership of the private ICANN Board, I use the GAC as a vehicle to rethink the traditional role of governments in this new form of governance. By analyzing the actual advice that GAC has given the ICANN Board in its Communiqués from 1999 to 2007, I develop a typology to capture the actual roles of the GAC in ICANN. To see whether and how the role of the GAC has changed over time as ICANN has evolved, I use the metaphors of “rowing” or “steering” as opposed to the “advising” that GAC performs in the ICANN process. I find that the role of the GAC has evolved. Although from 1998 to 2002 GAC was relatively marginalized, from 2003-2007 it gained significance through structural and procedural changes in ICANN’s decision process. The GAC to some extent steers the ICANN Board’s deliberation and decisions on issues that the GAC believes to involve “inherently governmental” public policy. Explaining the GAC’s role change, I argue that a broader institutional environment has contributed to the shift from a mere advisory to an oversight body in ICANN.

Dustin Mullins
“New Institutionalism: A New Perspective on the Organizational Evolution of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection”

The policy arena of homeland security highlights the prevalence of dispersed intergovernmental functional and bureaucratic coordination challenges within the context of the American federalist system of government.  The creation of a new Cabinet level Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the organizational mechanism to facilitate the coordination of the various homeland security functions and serve as the single federal organization responsible for this area of domestic security.  This paper engages the organizational and functional coordination challenges associated with the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an operational entity within the DHS, and considers the extent to which new institutionalism accounts for the organizational evolution of CBP from the Department of Justice to the newly formed DHS?  This analysis discusses new institutionalism, from competing perspectives, and examines key theoretical dimensions of the framework and their application to this DHS component to assist in providing insight into understanding the organizational evolution of this unique DHS component.

Robert Perry
TBA

Jeffrey Stern
“The Response Equation: Bureaucracy and Leadership”

An effective response: It is what we hope for and expect during crises of all magnitudes, Bureaucracy and leadership are intertwined, making the components of an effective response: an organization (bureaucratic system) and people making the right decisions (leadership). If we were to develop a mathematical equation for response, it might be bureaucracy (B) plus leadership (L) equals response (R). B + L = R
This paper examines the nature of this relationship and tests this response equation against a few of our most recent crises, including Hurricane Katrina, the Cedar Fire of 2003, and the Southern California wildfires of 2007.  It poses the hypothesis that a certain amount of bureaucratic competency and certain amount of leadership competency are required for an effective response.  This paper will break down the components of bureaucracy and leadership based upon some common views of both drawn from the field of public administration.