Public Management in the Central and Eastern European Transition: Concepts and Cases [antikvár]

Preface Richárd J. Stillman, II* This text may well be the first of its kind, at least for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) readers. Unlike prior works proposing to train students as well as practitioners for government careers, especially for CEE executive posts, this book focuses upon managerial responsibillies and roles as opposed to education in law, politics or other fields. In the following pages readers will learn why management is so critical today in making government at all levels work, what key tasks public managers perform and which skills and techniques are vitai to carry out successfully public policies and programs. The aim of this textbook therefore is action-oriented, applied and practical, not theoretical nor philosophical. It discusses in straight-foiward prose, step by step, how to make things happen in the public sector effectively, efficiently and economically. And is that challenge not the central challenge for CEE nations, if not eveiy modern society today? To make the public service operate to fulfill the public's needs? Yet, quickly I must add a second unique characteristic of this text: it is all about management for the public good, not the priváté interest(s). It talks about not merely keeping the trains running on time, but why it is more important that public managers alsó insure that the trains run in the right direction—even if they should run at all—for the benefit of eveiyone they serve. Again, this is no small job to accomplish successfully. In business there is "the bottom-line" or the profit and loss statements which reveals quarterly whether or not a business manager performs well for the stockholders. Yet, in a democratic society, in which eveiy voter is a shareholder, what is and is not operating in the public interest is much, much harder to judge and calibrate, in turn making the public manager's role significantly more complicated compared to priváté or for-profit management. How to get everyone into the act, yet still act for the good of the whole today is the toughest part of being a good public manager. Readers therefore will find that authors of this text repeatedly stress how ethics, morals, and democratic values must infuse every governmental managerial decision and action. The authors certainly cannot—and will not—provide easy answers or THE ANSWERS, but they do help underscore throughout the following chapters why public management requires a special ethical emphasis upon achieving the public good. The dilemmas and difficulties of balancing the values of administrative efficiency and effectiveness with public demands for accountability and responsiveness are therefore what make the public manager's job special. Realism through use of case analysis is a third unique feature of this new book. Cases, both mini-cases as well as those of somé length, are included to Professor, University of Colorado, Denver, USA