Government needs a new management style, scholars say [View All]

Government needs a new management style, scholars say

By Kimberly Palmer
kpalmer@govexec.com

A new book by two government reform experts urges agency leaders to adopt a new management style, one that focuses on relationships with people outside their own departments, including private contractors, nonprofit partners and other government agencies.

Stephen Goldsmith, former mayor of Indianapolis, and William Eggers, a director at Deloitte Research, say that federal executives spend too much time managing inside their own agencies, when they should be nurturing networks beyond their immediate purview. Executives and other federal employees need a new set of skills, closer to those found in business schools than in public policy schools, they say in their new book, Governing By Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector.

Goldsmith and Eggers offer the 2003 Columbia spacecraft explosion as a prime illustration of the new "networked" government. Boeing and Lockheed Martin joined forces to operate the space shuttle, and blame for the disaster seemed to lie somewhere between the two companies and NASA.

To counter the confusion over accountability, Eggers said in a recent interview with Government Executive that federal managers should set up explicit frameworks for handling outside contracts, which should include performance goals, incentive systems, risk allocation and a governance board. "You need to be doing it in a way so you ensure you're able to catch problems before they start," he said.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1104/112904k1.htm