Description
Book SynopsisThis book describes how rationality undermines bureaucracy's ability to solve problems or to gain the confidence of the general public. The author suggests ways to change the bureaucratic environment into one that appreciates the creative abilities of all its members, without the false premise of operating government like a business.
Trade ReviewIn this book, Edgar (Southern Arkansas Univ.) reviews existing models of bureaucratic organization and suggests ways to improve the effectiveness and responsiveness of bureaucracies. Broadly critiquing the basic paradigm behind strategies of administration, which he terms rational, Edgar suggests instead that bureaucratic actors look to scientific theories of chaos as the basis for agency operation and organization. The author makes an admirable attempt to systematize and categorize different means of organizing an administrative system, and wisely draws from his experiences as a consultant and upon an impressive array of research from the natural and social sciences. However, the book gets bogged down in reviews of the literature and details of organizational design, and the effort to tie the subject to broader issues of political disillusionment is unsuccessful. The result is a somewhat confusing medley of theory, history, literature review, and case studies. Nonetheless, the book may serve as a useful introduction to theories of public administration. * CHOICE *
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Public Disconnectedness Chapter 2: Overview of the Rational Model Chapter 3: The Organizational Level: Analyzing Administrative Strategies Chapter 4: Moving to Outcome-Bases Strategies Chapter 5: Locus of Control, Procedures, and Human Service Outcomes Chapter 6: Outcome-Based Models and Public Administration Chapter 7: The Human Sacrifices to Rationalism: The Decay of Community, Responsibility, and Reason Chapter 8: Various Attempts at Reform within Rationalism Chapter 9: An Emerging Paradigm: Chaos Theory Chapter 10: Applying the New Paradigm
