Collaborative Public Administration Summary Term Paper

Collaborative Public Administration Summary - Term Paper Example Donahue (1989) construed it as a kind of grant and contract agreement between public, private and (or) nonprofit sectors where funds are allocated by the public sector to private, or nonprofit sectors for service delivery. In Wright’s (2000) perspective, it is an intergovernmental alliance formed to enhance better coordination between government arms or (and) government agencies. Historically, collaboration have always been a basic component of democratic government and inter-sector arrangement but more recent considerations arising from governments failure, scarcity of resources, globalization, performance driven management, citizens’ need for better public service delivery systems, to mention a few, have combined to spotlight its importance in public administration (Koliba, Meek and Zia, 2010). a) Public Administration Hierarchies Koliba, Meek and Zia (2010) characterized hierarchy in relation to the â€Å"command and Control† structure of bureaucracies, a grad ed organization with several interlocking levels of power and responsibilities. In a hierarchy, duties are divided according to the degree of authority and the responsibility attached to position occupied in the administrative setting, (Koliba, Meek and Zia, 2010; Gladden, 1953) the goal being to create an environment where individuals, working together in groups can accomplish set goals with great competency (Koontz and Weihrich, 1990). In public administration, this basic function is in reality executed by administrators who have to carry out the managerial functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling. The administrators, by virtue of their positions at the top of the hierarchy, have powers, ferreted out as administrative authority, and presented as a form of supervisor-subordinate ties (Koliba, Meek, and Zia, 2010). In this context therefore, management is considered the development of bureaucracy that derive its relevance from the need for strategic planning, coord ination, directing and controlling of large and complex decision making process basically for the acquisition of administrative competence and effectiveness in public administration setting, the objective being to make organizational set goals and targets achievable. The basic responsibilities of a manager in a public administration hierarchy boil down to performing these basic functions including planning, organizing, leading and controlling for the effective management of organizational resources for the good of the overall goal of the organization. It is effective in this regard only with the use certain basic social norms, and maybe, internal regulations, including deference and submission to those in position of authority. These fundamental social norms and internal regulations are the very foundation of the â€Å"Command and Control† structure of a public administration hierarchy (Koliba, Meek and Zia, 2010). The accountability mechanism and performance measurement syst em put in place are effective as long as there are individuals assigned with the responsibility of determining measures and mechanisms, collecting and analyzing data, and pushing the burden or transaction cost to the appropriate office (Koliba, Meek and Zia, 2010), and also, as long as the individuals do their jobs. The public administra