Defining and Directing Public Administration toward Performance Excellence Dr. Donald Klingner International Conference on Administrative Development Riyadh, Saudi Arabia November 1- 4, 2009

The Underlying Issues: 1.Defining Public Administration as Performance Excellence –For public administration to remain an effective international development tool, we must define it as purposive, data-driven and sustainable “smart practices” that achieve desired outcomes. 2.Directing Public Administration toward Performance Excellence –We can prepare globally competent administrators and organizations, conduct purposive action research, connect research results with outcomes and policy influences, and tie competencies to public administration education and training.

1. Defining Public Administration as Performance Excellence: Purposive means practices that are focused on the urgent global development issues such as those defined by the UN Millennium Development Goals. Data-driven means practices that are informed by strategic information and guided by knowledge management and organizational learning.

Sustainable means practices that survive over time to serve as the basis for continued organizational learning, knowledge management and policy adaptation. Smart practices mean those that are consistent with how potentially useful innovations are successfully adapted, adopted and used as policy. Achieve desired outcomes means that program performance is measured and managed against outcome- based policy evaluation criteria.

2.Directing Public Administration toward Performance Excellence:  Prepare globally competent administrators and organizations.  Conduct action research based on quantitative and qualitative data.  Connect research results with policy outcomes and policy influences.  Tie international public administrative competencies to public administration education and training.

Prepare globally competent administrators and organizations:  The ability to manage diverse, multi-disciplinary and multi-organizational work teams in uncertain and changing environments is critical.  Becoming global is a necessary component for organizational survival in the global economy.  As governance networks become more global, individuals and organizations will become more globally competent.

Conduct action research:  Make ideology explicit by developing a focused and comprehensive action research agenda.  Select appropriate research methods (quantitative and qualitative, including participant observation and case studies).  Set program evaluation criteria and use performance measures. Aggregated quantitative data do not give the complete picture. However, they can help measure progress and pinpoint areas of concern.

Connect research results, policy outcomes and policy influences:  Political factors and actors complicate the connections between research results, outcomes and policy influences.  Case-based oral histories make information useful operationally, and result in insights into successes and failures that are otherwise lost.  Much of the information and “lessons learned” generated through existing case studies and expert workshops reflects viewpoints of donors or scholars; it does not necessarily meet the needs of hard-pressed institution builders in fragile or post-conflict situations.

Effective knowledge management -- governments and organizations must:  Share information about innovations and outcomes.  Provide incentives that create competition among innovations (for example, the Dubai Awards and UN Habitat Awards).  Use practical approaches pioneered by agencies and the media (television programs, case studies, networks of innovators, and a global portal based on an internationally acceptable taxonomy).

 Focus on the values/purposes/principles underlying innovation and emphasize these in resource material and documentation.  Use credible and legitimate advocates (individuals and organizations) as intermediaries in the transfer process for specific innovations.  Maintain a facilitative climate: supportive policy environment, political leadership, environmental stability, and internal social structure and capacity.  Use appropriate approaches, guidelines, training and transfer methodologies.

Tie competencies to PA education and training:  Public administrators need a range of competencies to provide effective management consultancies and exchanges among countries and cultures.  Incorporate research and consulting organizations by changing both their roles and their perspective on knowledge management. Share what we have learned about program planning, active participation, and service delivery. Use participant observation, simulations, decision situations, technical problem solving workshops, and other means to understand and achieve real global connectedness.  Use professional associations to help build governance capacity.

Summary:  Public administration can remain an effective tool for achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals and increasing government capacity if we define it as purposive, data-driven and sustainable “smart practices” that achieve desired outcomes.  We can direct it toward performance excellence by developing and conducting an action research agenda, focusing on policy implementation and performance management, using appropriate quantitative and case-based research methods, using descriptive indicators to track progress, and disseminating research results how and where they can do the most good.

 We must use public administration education and training to give students and practitioners the competencies they need to work effectively as global public administrators.

Questions and Comments? Dr. Donald E. Klingner Past President ( ), American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) University of Colorado Distinguished Professor School of Public Affairs University of Colorado at Colorado Springs 1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway Colorado Springs, CO