John,
The quote I think you're referring to is:
We train hard
but every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we
would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any
new situation by reorganizing
and a wonderful method it can be of creating
the illusion of progress while producing inefficiency and demoralization
Petronius Satyricon, First Century AD
Sincerely,
Edward Ferris
At 11:03 AM 2/20/00 -0600,
johno@cameron.edu wrote:
>Hope this makes it to digest. First forwarding failed.
>
>JPO
>
>------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
>From: Self <Single-user mode>
>To: Wendy L Corfield <
Wendy.L.Corfield@MAINROADS.QLD.GOV.AU>
>Subject: Re: Analysis Paralysis - long post
>Reply-to:
johno@cameron.edu
>Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 11:50:26 -0600
>
>Dear Ms. Corfield,
>
>Your letter reminded me of one of those stellar quotes that I
>encountered a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, I didn't clip it
>out and save it.
>
>It was attributed to an ancient Roman (?) general, and the jist of it
>was:
> "We never really solve problems, we just reorganize."
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>The problem involves the differences between public-sector and
>private business organizations, the realities of political
>environments, and the need to sort out the good from the bad of
>bureaucracies.
>
>My musings on this come from the experiences of my first two
>career tracks in life: military (regular and later reserve), then
>newspaper journalist // and the studies and limited experiences of my
>third: college professor. (And hopefully last track).
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>Private vs. Public Sector
>
>Private business operates under the profit model, generally involving
>a buyer and a seller involved in a voluntary relationship.
>
>Public-sector organizations operate under the public goods model
>(maximize the benefits to be derived from Org. X's public goods).
>The recipient and deliverer of these goods are often involved in an
>INVOLUNTARY relationship, mandated by law.
>
>The "public goods'' concept appears to have little salience in
>the mind of the average US citizen. Hence, many US citizens are
>reluctant to embrace, for example, municipal public transportation -
>because it doesn't "pay for itself." They then fail to realize that
>the private automobile proliferation doesn't "pay its own freight"
>either - it is subsidized by highway construction funds paid for with
>tax dollars.
>
>Also, the US citizen needs to pay more attention to the roadways. A
>lot of the infrastructure build during the 1950s interstate highway
>system boom is now breaking down, and needs to be replaced.
>
>In Western Europe, the "public goods" concept is more talked about
>due to the prominence of the social democrat political philosophy
>(whether they're in power or not). I'm not sure how much the
>British and Australians think about it.
>
>
>Political Realities
>
>Public organizations theoretically exist to maximize the benefits of
>public goods for use in their particular area. Private-sector
>organizations, conversely, are governed by the profit motive. But,
>the average US citizen - and I suspect many other nation's citizens -
>fail to realize this.
>
>Thus, economic pressures control poorly performing private-sector
>firms (they go broke), whereas political pressures control
>public-sector firms. Your basic public-sector organizations, such as
>police and road departments, have a rather rigid hierarchy. This is
>in part a defense against the political pressures for the public
>sector org to somehow "turn a profit", which according to my theory
>is an impossibility. But, the debate on maximizing benefits (what?)
>to the citizens (which ones) is a valid one, and can get heated.
>
>The bureaucracy and its procedures are designed in part to create the
>trappings legitimacy in terms of stewardship of the public goods.
>More coherently put, is there systematic "due process" in how
>decisions are made in using these goods.
>
>Also, how do we decide which members of society deserve access to the
>benefits of Org. X's public goods? (The political economists and
>conflict management people call this area "distributive justice." I
>only done a little reading in this area myself, although it is
>interesting). ****************
>
>
>Bureaucracy to the Rescue
>
>So, bureaucracy gives orderly (and hopefully reasonably efficient)
>process to govern our public goods/benefits system. Bureaucracy came
>originally as a response to the evils/inefficiencies of nepotism and
>cronyism as ways to run organizations. As mentioned in your letter,
>bureaucracy was supposed to be, in part, a meritocracy where the
>employees would be trained in the system, and the best performers
>promoted.
>
>But, "performance" becomes a touchy term in the public sector, in
>part because of the difficulties of determining this in a non-profit
>motive arena. (I'm leaving this thought underdeveloped... sorry).
>
>In bureaucracies, true reform and improvement takes place usually
>within given departments. Rarely does major reform take place
>bureaucracy-wide. Part of the problem comes from what the Marines
>call the "Crisis of the Month", similarly known in the Air Force as
>the "Deal of the Week." People endure, year after year, a flood of
>half-baked initiatives which are supposed to solve problems, but
>never really do.
>
>Some organizational researchers tout Empowerment as a way to achieve
>major change. It involves top management support to really
>restructure the organization. Even if everyone has true "buy in" to
>empowerment, it often takes 5 to 7 years to really make the cultural
>leap to the new system.
>
>------------------------------------
>
>So, (ASSUMING YOU HAVEN'T FALLEN ASLEEP YET)
>read up on Empowerment and Distributive Justice, and you should come
>upon a few public-sector success stories. Public sector success
>really does happen - it's just that many journalists ignore it while
>looking for stories on embezzling department heads going to prison.
>
>JPO
>
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>
>--------------------------
>John P. Orr, Ph.D. (Management)
>Dept. of Business, Rm. 314
>Cameron University
>2800 W. Gore Blvd.
>Lawton, OK 73505
>Phone: 580-581-2367
----------
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