Assignment: Public Administration Project

General Comment: Keep in mind the stakeholder for whom the evaluation is being performed. The stakeholder asked you to evaluate an administrative policy, process, or procedure. Your starting point is the competency and course objective. Yet, the stakeholder knows nothing about the UIU MPA program, its competencies, or its objectives. You need to figure out how you will communicate the information without referencing your MPA program.

1. Explain the competency and course objective - translate the competency to what it would mean to public organizations and for public administrators.

Every step of the process you follow in the creation of the evaluation standard will be supported by a review of the academic literature

Core competency "to lead and manage" or "to participate in and contribute to the public policy process."

The competency is "To lead and manage in public governance." The MPA program defines the competency this way. "Public Leadership is the ability to articulate goals consistent with laws and public policies and influence others to achieve those goals in a moral and ethical manner. Public Management is the mobilization of organizational resources to accomplish the goals by balancing competing values including effectiveness and efficiency in an ethical and legal manner."

In the application process, you were asked to assume that a key stakeholder was asking you to evaluate the administration of a program. The stakeholder gave you no other direction. You are going to use a universal competency and course objective to create a standard. The stakeholder has no idea what universal competency is or what a course objective means. The stakeholder is not familiar with UIU or the MPA program. You need to explain how you created the operational definition from the competency to the stakeholder. How you do that is up to you.

The competency is "to lead and manage in public governance." Your operational definition (characteristic) has to be consistent with how the UIU MPA program defines the competency. Our program defines the competency as "Public Leadership is the ability to articulate goals consisted with laws and public policies and influences others to achieve those goals in a moral and ethical manner. Public Management is the mobilization of organizational resources to accomplish the goals by balancing competing values including effectiveness and efficiency in an ethical and legal manner."

You have identified five characteristics to lead and manage. They are: analyzing, critical-thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and leading others. Pick one of these characteristics and explain why it is a valid measure of the competency. To do that, you will need to use the academic literature. I recommend picking a characteristic that is closely related to the characteristic you select for the course objective. In turn, make sure both characteristics can be combined to help you construct the evaluation standard.

Course objective - PA-502 - "to learn to describe programs, identify information useful in evaluation,collect reliable data, and analyze it effectively."

Need to explain how the operational definition of the course objective was created. You need to explain the process.

2. Connecting the competency and course objective - the Literature Review

1. Use the academic literature to articulate your understanding of the elements of the competency you identified. Focus only on a part of the whole possibilities for this competency - the parts that you think most important or most interesting.

2. Use the literature to articulate your understanding of the element of the course objective identified.

3. Use the literature review to show how that course objective ties to the competency.

The Literature Review - Using a Sentence Outline

I. competency
II. course objective
III. linking competency and course objective

1. Each paragraph begins with a sentence that describes the topic of that paragraph

1. Each paragraph has only one topic, even though it will have more than one sentence.

2. Each sentence in the paragraph following the topic sentence relates directly to that topic. Each sentence should further elaborate, explain, clarify, or give an example of the main point.

3. Every sentence should have a fully formatted citation in the source you plan to use to support each statement.

4. All citations are included in a list of fully formatted academic references at the end of the outline

2. Headings divide each of the major sections of the paper. Sub-headings divide complex sections into sub-sections.

a. Headings should describe the topic of the section or sub-section

b. Within each section, each sub-point you include must be related to the main point. Each sub-point should be developing, further elaborating on, or supporting the main point in that section.

c. The format of the headings and sub-headings should be apa format.

Headings

1. Competency - follow directions above
2. Course Objective - follow directions above
3. Linking competency and course objectives follow directions above

One and two sentence paragraphs are not acceptable and do not use direct quotes. Use your interpretation of the material.

3. Standard Creation and Data Identification

Create a standard that can be used to evaluate a policy, procedure, or process is the fourth purpose of the literature review. Once the link between the course objective and the competency has been established, identify a standard to measure an organization's compliance with that standard. The standard developed for each competency must meet the following conditions:

a. The standard is a measurable criterion against which you will evaluate the organization you selected.

b. The standard should be a normative statement created from the operational definition you developed for the competency and course objective

c. It must be linked by the literature to the course objective and to the competency to which you are applying it.

d. The standard will be applicable beyond that particular organization that you are planning to evaluate.

4. Use the standard you created in #3 to evaluate actual performance. The standard from #3 is "Public managers who practice democratic governance will schedule monthly meetings with citizens living in the community so they can offer solutions to a policy problem identified by the city manager." From the standard you need to determine if there are regular monthly meetings. Where did you look to see if the meetings are regularly scheduled? The meetings needs to involve citizens living in the community. What kind of evidence did you find that allowed you to determine if the people attending the meeting lived in the community? The brainstorming sessions need to address a policy problem identified by the city manager. How o you know if the policy problem came from the city manager? These are just a few of the many questions that need to be answered to determine if the organization is complying with the standard.

How you answer the questions become the basis for your analysis of the data. You want to provide specific examples of compliance or non-compliance. Support your conclusions with specific evidence. Your analysis need to give a complete and accurate picture of organizational performance compared to the standard.

The recommendations you make will address the specific deficiencies you uncovered. Provide management with specific guidance on how to come into compliance with the standard. All recommendations need to be supported by academic literature and sited references apa format.