The Public Administration Workbook

Public administration is a craft that demands real-world application of concepts and theories often learned in a classroom. Yet many students find it difficult to make the leap from theory to practice completely unaided. The Public Administration Workbook, 8e is specifically designed with the theoretically-grounded, practice-minded student in mind. It reviews scholarship in political science, law, industrial psychology, and the sociology of organizations and then allows students to see how these intellectual fields inform the analytical and managerial tasks that comprise public administration. Where standard public administration textbooks examine the nature of public agencies and explain how bureaucracies relate to other institutions, this workbook promotes a more effective way of learning—by doing—and more directly prepares those who will pursue careers in public agencies. Each chapter begins with a discussion of relevant concepts and scholarship before moving into a hands-on exercise analyzing core analytical and management challenges. This edition includes an all-new exercise on contract negotiation, many international examples interwoven throughout the book, and a fully updated HRM section to reflect alternative ranking and compensation systems. Each chapter is further supported by a detailed Instructor’s Manual written by the author to guide instructors on solutions, explanations, and ideas for using or modifying the exercises to fit a variety of course needs, as well as downloadable datasets and exercises, providing students with a unique opportunity to apply and test classroom concepts outside of the job.

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Decision Making and Policy Analysis 1. Rational Decision Making 2. Policy Evaluation 3. Designing Organizations 4. Administrative Ethics Part 2: Public Management 5. Operational Management: Techniques for Total Quality Management 6. Project Management: Critical Path Method 7. Contract Management: Privatization 8. Regulatory Management: Administrative Law 9. Emergency Management: Tabletop Exercise Part 3: Human Resource Management 10. Job Analysis and Job Description 11. Performance Evaluation 12. Classification and Compensation 13. Succession Planning 14. Recruitment and Selection 15. Collective Bargaining Part 4: Budgeting 16. Line-Item Budgeting 17. Performance and Program Budgeting 18. Outcome-Based Budgeting

About the Author :
Dennis Dresang is Professor Emeritus of Public Affairs and Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

Review :
"Especially in academic disciplines like public administration and political science, one frequently hears that there is a huge gap between theory and practice, between what is in the textbook and what happens in the real world. The Public Administration Workbook comes closer to filling that gap than any other book in the field. It offers students the opportunity to deal with real world problems that public administrators are constantly required to address." – Allen Rosenbaum, Florida International University, USA