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Much maligned in the past as wasteful and self-serving, government
public relations provides several distinct services that can be
used to advance the substantive mission of an agency in ways that
save money, time, and effort. In the same manner as budgeting, HR,
strategic planning, and performance assessment, public relations
must be included in the contemporary public administrator's
toolbox. Using unorthodox yet cost effective measures, public
relations can increase the utilization of governmental goods and
services, promote voluntary compliance with new laws, improve media
relations, and strengthen the standing of the agency with the
public at large. In short, public relations "is" public
administration.
Addressing the theory, practice, and context of government
public relations, Government Public Relations: A Reader compiles
contemporary writings from international sources to provide an
understanding of the importance, value, and uses of public
relations as tools to advance the goals of government. Each section
begins with an introductory overview and short preview of the
section topic. The end of each section provides additional reading
and a list of discussion questions that can help identify key
points.
Beginning with an introduction to the general subject, the book
focuses on the discrete purposes of public relations to make their
benefit and application more tangible. Topics include media
relations, public reporting, responsiveness, and outreach, as well
as the integral role of PR in crisis management. The book stresses
the "publicness" of government public relations as distinct from
business PR and examines the increasing use of non-profit agencies
to deliver governmentfunded services. The last section summarizes
the overall themes along with trends likely to influence the future
of the field such as globalization and e-reporting. An extensive
appendix consists of an annotated bibliography of the historical
literature.
* Provides public managers with an understanding of the uses of
public relations as tools to advance the goals of public agencies,
including media relations, an informed public, public branding,
listening to the citizenry, and crisis management * Helps managers
know what external communications tools are available to them for
advancing the mission and results of their agencies. * Focuses on
practitioners throughout the public sector, including the US
federal government, state and local governments, and public
administrators outside of the US * Addresses the use of digital
communications as social media and the resultant rapid diffusion of
information has transformed the responsibility, accessibility, and
vulnerability of government communications * Examines the topic of
branding, its growing influence in the public sector, and how it
can be used to connect with citizens and increase public
engagement.
The 'managing for results' movement that began in the early 1990s
has now reached adolescence and is creating new challenges for
government managers. After spending years creating planning and
performance-measuring systems, managers and policy makers now need
to focus on how to use performance information to make data-driven
decisions. Managing Results for 2005 describes through a series of
case studies the progress being made in federal, state, and local
governments in managing for results. Part I increases our
understanding about the potential use of performance information in
government. It starts with a chapter on how government leaders can
overcome obstacles to using performance information. Another
chapter presents a comprehensive framework for tying performance to
the budget process. The book provides specific examples of how
performance information has been used to dramatically improve
program outcomes. Part II presents case studies on the use of
performance information to improve results in a range of federal
agencies, in Texas state government, and in the City of Baltimore.
As pioneering efforts, these examples do not all present success
stories; nevertheless, the lessons learned will be instructive to
public managers as the 'managing for results' movement advances
toward maturity.
Government bureaucracy is something Americans have long loved to
hate. Yet despite this general antipathy, some federal agencies
have been wildly successful in cultivating the people's favor.
Take, for instance, the U.S. Forest Service and its still-popular
Smokey Bear campaign. The agency early on gained a foothold in the
public's esteem when President Theodore Roosevelt championed its
conservation policies and Forest Service press releases led to
favorable coverage and further goodwill.
Congress has rarely approved of such bureaucratic independence.
In "Congress vs. the Bureaucracy," political scientist Mordecai
Lee--who has served as a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill and
as a state senator--explores a century of congressional efforts to
prevent government agencies from gaining support for their
initiatives by communicating directly with the public.
Through detailed case studies, Lee shows how federal agencies
have used increasingly sophisticated publicity techniques to muster
support for their activities--while Congress has passed laws to
counter those PR efforts. The author first traces congressional
resistance to Roosevelt's campaigns to rally popular support for
the Panama Canal project, then discusses the Forest Service, the
War Department, the Census Bureau, and the Department of
Agriculture. Lee's analysis of more recent legislative bans on
agency publicity in the George W. Bush administration reveals that
political battles over PR persist to this day. Ultimately, despite
Congress's attempts to muzzle agency public relations, the
bureaucracy usually wins.
Opponents of agency PR have traditionally condemned it as
propaganda, a sign of a mushrooming, self-serving bureaucracy, and
a waste of taxpayer dollars. For government agencies, though,
communication with the public is crucial to implementing their
missions and surviving. In "Congress vs. the Bureaucracy," Lee
argues these conflicts are in fact healthy for America. They
reflect a struggle for autonomy that shows our government's system
of checks and balances to be alive and working well.
The Watergate scandal of 1973 claimed many casualties, political
and otherwise. Along with many personal reputations and careers,
President Richard Nixon's bold attempt to achieve a sweeping
reorganization of the domestic portion of the executive branch was
also pulled into the vortex. Now, Mordecai Lee examines Nixon's
reorganization, finding it notable for two reasons. First, it was
sweeping in intent and scope, representing a complete overhaul in
the way the president would oversee and implement his domestic
agenda. Second, the president instituted the reorganization
administratively-by appointment of three
"super-secretaries"-without congressional approval. The latter
aspect generated ire among some members of Congress, notably Sam
Ervin, a previously little-known senator from North Carolina who
chaired the Government Operations Committee and, soon after, the
Senate's Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities-known
to the public as "the Watergate Committee." Asserting that Nixon's
reorganization effort represents a significant event in the
evolution of the managerial presidency and public administration,
Nixon's Super-Secretaries presents the most comprehensive
historical narrative to date concerning this reorganization
attempt. The author has utilized previously untapped original and
primary sources to provide unprecedented detail on the inner
workings, intentions, and ultimate demise of Nixon's ambitious plan
to reorganize the sprawling federal bureaucracy. MORDECAI LEE is a
professor of governmental affairs at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is the author of Institutionalizing
Congress and the Presidency: The U.S. Bureau of Efficiency,
1916-1933 (Texas A&M University Press, 2006), among other
titles. His PhD in public administration is from Syracuse
University.
A Presidential Civil Service offers a comprehensive and definitive
study of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Liaison Office for
Personnel Management (LOPM). Established in 1939 following the
release of Roosevelt's Brownlow Committee report, LOPM became a key
milestone in the evolution of the contemporary executive-focused
civil service. Â The Progressive Movement of the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries comprised groups across the political
spectrum with quite different. All, however, agreed on the need for
a politically autonomous and independent federal Civil Service
Commission (CSC) to eliminate patronage and political favoritism.
In A Presidential Civil Service, public administration scholar
Mordecai Lee explores two models open to later reformers:
continuing a merit-based system isolated from politics or a
management-based system subordinated to the executive and grounded
in the growing field of managerial science. Â Roosevelt's
1937 Brownlow Committee, formally known as the President's
Committee on Administrative Management, has been widely studied
including its recommendation to disband the CSC and replace it with
a presidential personnel director. What has never been documented
in detail was Roosevelt's effort to implement that recommendation
over the objections of Congress by establishing the LOPM as a
nonstatutory agency. Â The role and existence of LOPM from
1939 to 1945 has been largely dismissed in the history of public
administration. Lee's meticulously researched A Presidential Civil
Service, however, persuasively shows that LOPM played a critical
role in overseeing personnel policy. It was involved in every major
HR initiative before and during World War II. Though small, the
agency's deft leadership almost always succeeded at impelling the
CSC to follow its lead. Â Roosevelt's actions were in fact an
artful and creative victory, a move finally vindicated when, in
1978, Congress abolished the CSC and replaced it with an Office of
Personnel Management headed by a presidential appointee. A
Presidential Civil Service offers a fascinating account and vital
reassessment of the enduring legacy of Roosevelt's LOPM.
The Watergate scandal of 1973 claimed many casualties, political
and otherwise. Along with many personal reputations and careers,
President Richard Nixon's bold attempt to achieve a sweeping
reorganization of the domestic portion of the executive branch was
also pulled into the vortex.
Now, Mordecai Lee examines Nixon's reorganization, finding it
notable for two reasons. First, it was sweeping in intent and
scope, representing a complete overhaul in the way the president
would oversee and implement his domestic agenda. Second, the
president instituted the reorganization administratively--by
appointment of three "super-secretaries"--without congressional
approval. The latter aspect generated ire among some members of
Congress, notably Sam Ervin, a previously little-known senator from
North Carolina who chaired the Government Operations Committee and,
soon after, the Senate's Select Committee on Presidential Campaign
Activities--known to the public as "the Watergate Committee."
Asserting that Nixon's reorganization effort represents a
significant event in the evolution of the managerial presidency and
public administration, "Nixon's Super-Secretaries" presents the
most comprehensive historical narrative to date concerning this
reorganization attempt. The author has utilized previously untapped
original and primary sources to provide unprecedented detail on the
inner workings, intentions, and ultimate demise of Nixon's
ambitious plan to reorganize the sprawling federal bureaucracy.
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