Public Administration and Planning
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In the field of public administration, there are countless stories of planning fiascoes. For example, one popular story of poor planning cites the highway department that built a bridge that connected to nothing on the other side of the river. The expected road on the other side was never constructed. Planning is the first rule to wise public management. It seems an obvious presumption and yet, as Mintzberg (1973, p. 38) tells us, managers frequently do not plan carefully. Managers too often spend their time dealing with day-to-day crises rather than planning strategically. This research examines the concept of strategic planning in public administration. The historical evolution of strategic planning in tracked through the field of public administration, and its contemporary application is scrutinized. Planning is one component of well-crafted public administration Planning as a managerial function is a prelude to organizing, staffing and other elements of implementing public works. The planning function is the activity that helps managers anticipate specific problems in program implementation and operations. The planning function itself may be broken down into sub-categories: management by objectives, forecasting, operations research, and risk analysis, to name a few. The general concept of planning first became recognized as an important function of public administration in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The efficient development o
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e form of cooperative conferences, such as the County Superintendents Association or the Council of Rural Counties. Additionally, many jurisdictions have established advisory groups to help coordinate planning among communities. Both planning councils and advisory groups often employ the services of elected officials as well as citizens to ensure well-rounded community input into planning decisions.
Following the ôReagan Revolution,ö however, the challenges to public administration have become ever more acute. Federal planning councils were disbanded in 1984 and federal aid to state and local jurisdictions for social projects has continued to decline ever since. The emphasis today is on privatization--privatization of functions that have long been regarded as governmental, such as park maintenance and, recently, even welfare administration. The federal government has been forced to make plans based on fewer resources, and state and local governments have been forced to turn to their own limited resources for social and infrastructural planning. These developments have not spelled the end to public administration planning, but have meant that planning of governmental projects must face new obstacles and challenges.
Strategic Pl
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Approximate Word count = 2547
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
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