Understanding and Managing Public Organizations, 6th Edition

CHAPTER ONETHE CHALLENGE OF EFFECTIVE PUBLIC ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT

As work on this sixth edition began, the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted nations around the world, ultimately infecting and killing millions of people. Leaders of nations affected by the virus relied on workers and organizations in the administrative branch of their governments for responses to the pandemic. In the United States, the president, governors of states, and local government officials called upon administrators for policies and procedures to contain the virus and to explain them to the citizenry. The US president, along with political supporters, had expressed disdain for “the deep state,” which allegedly involved officials in the federal administrative branch who opposed the president. During this crisis, however, the president held public briefings in which administrative officials played leading roles. The White House coordinator for the response to the crisis and the head of a unit of the National Institutes of Health came forward in the briefings to explain decisions, and to answer questions from the press.

In public statements, the President and other elected officials at all levels referred to the crucial roles that administrative officials and organizations played. The administrators represented an alphabet soup of organizations and positions – the Surgeon General of the United States, the White House coordinator, CDC, FDA, HHS, NIH, Homeland Security, Departments of Public Health at state ...