The concepts of leadership and management are said to be similar yet, ?very different.? Please discuss how the two concepts are both, similar ?and different. Additionally,

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LEADERSHIP

This is the time when we can have a rebirth in leadership and seize the opportunity to reform management practices in our public institutions.

Management vs. Leadership in the Public Sector

by Alvin William Musgrave Jr.

What does it mean to manage in government? Is that different from lead- ing, and if so, what is that difference? Can managers be leaders? It is time to rethink management and leadership in the public sector.

With public trust in government at a low ebb and agencies struggling to do more with less, there has never been a greater need for leadership at all levels of government. We need a new paradigm for rethinking government management, one that can generate and empower new leaders at all levels and inspire a new generation of professionals to a calling in public service.

Today’s Leadership Imperative In 1985, Warren Bennis lamented in his book, Leaders, “We desperately need women and men who can take charge, and we hope that you the reader, will be among them.” Bennis set the stage for his book by defin- ing a national context of “dispiritedness” rising from the prior 20 years of “….assassinations, the Vietnam War, Watergate, corporate crimes, and untenable domestic and international conditions.” Fast forward, and just as Bennis looked back 20 years and saw a dreary picture, today’s perspective is similarly depressing: the tragedy of 9/11, 10-plus years of war in Iraq and

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Afghanistan, corporate scandals, the Great Recession, and the devastation caused by hurricanes and tornadoes.

Government executives are growing weary and risk- adverse. Public confidence in government is at an all-time low when government faces myriad challenges. Just as Bennis saw in 1985, we have a desperate need for lead- ers today in all sectors of society, and in particular in our public institutions.

A Back to the Future Landscape On January 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy cap- tured the imagination of the nation in his inaugural address, saying “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” His leadership spawned a new era in public service, during which the Peace Corps was launched and NASA sent astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon and back.

In contrast to Kennedy’s message of government service, President Ronald Reagan charted a radically new course 20 years later when he said in his inaugural address, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Following Reagan’s call for smaller government, the political process has continued “government bashing.” Notwithstanding political beliefs, public managers are faced with major issues that must be addressed: con- fronting the effects of global climate change; rebuilding obsolete infrastructure; reforming education; reforming healthcare; addressing poverty; protecting people against crime and terrorism; reforming immigration, and project- ing American interests in peace and stability around the world. It will take innovative leadership and skilled man- agers to address such issues.

We are in the midst of a struggle for the soul of America. However, viewing America’s growing talent pool, demographic shifts, the rapid advancement of innovation, and an improving economy, a strong argu- ment can be made that “the glass is half full.” This is the time when we can have a rebirth in leadership and seize the opportunity to reform management practices in our public institutions. With inspired leadership, govern- ment agencies can alter the effectiveness and efficiency of their institutions around these four trends.

Millennials Think Differently Today’s recent graduates, the Millennials, born between 1979 and 1994 and growing up in the age of the Internet,

think differently about jobs and careers. As reported in Forbes, Millennials will represent 75 percent of the global workforce by 2025. Most are tech savvy and want to work for a company or entity that encourages some form of global or community social responsibility.

Technology Advances Rapidly We have seen a blinding pace of technological change with the Internet and the ability to communicate with one another and retrieve information. This has brought dra- matic improvements in human productivity, and more new frontiers are unfolding with a pace of change unlike any- thing humanity has experienced. What is coming over the next 10 years in healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, energy, agriculture and the “Internet of everything” will sig- nificantly alter the way we live, work, and organize activities.

Unbundling Bureaucracy, Empowering People Because of rapid environmental change and the need for agility in addressing challenges and opportunities, com- panies are making radical shifts in traditional top-down organizations. Organizational cultures characterized by a “command and control” approach are being replaced by cultures of innovation with emphasis on teams, dis- tributed leadership, decentralized decision making, and cooperation and interaction across functions.

Shifting from Linear to Creative Because of the pace of change, organizations are shift- ing to agile planning approaches. In a Harvard Business Review article, Steve Blank points out that “lean start-up practices” are taking place within large, established pri- vate companies.

Reshaping the Organizational Culture of Public Institutions Traditionally, government has been about hierarchy and structure, process and procedures, and order and discipline. The challenge facing government is that it has little choice but to capture many of the lessons being learned by innovative private-sector organizations about adapting to a rapidly changing world. The ques- tion is how.

The figure shows a transition where, as the govern- ment organizational model transitions from a top-down approach to a team-based approach—with empowerment, agility, and stakeholder engagement—the emphasis on leadership versus traditional management is on the rise.

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While this may sound utopian and not applicable to the real world of governmental organizations, consider the flawed rollout of the Affordable Care Act website. The problem was resolved by a team of software engi- neers who knew what they were doing and were given the authority to do it. With the right leadership and manage- ment approach, rollout out of Heathcare.gov could have run more smoothly and not become a debacle.

A New Future in Public Management In thinking about a recommended transition path to a more effective future in governmental organizations, I see five steps that leaders at all levels can embrace. These steps hold the potential for catalytic long-term improve- ments in management practices in the public sector.

Improve the Self-Image of Public Servants Researchers cite the power of the Pygmalion effect or self-fulfilling prophecy: We become what we can envision ourselves to be. It takes leadership to give people a positive view of themselves, allowing them not only to rise to the occasion, but to feel better about themselves in the process.

One of the important ways professionals in govern- ment improve their self-image is by engaging their stake- holders. The purpose of government is to serve. The more that government professionals have the occasion to inter- act with their external stakeholders—those they are there to serve—the more their self-image is enhanced.

Several years ago when I was running The Enterprise Network (TEN) of Silicon Valley, I invited a representa- tive from the IRS to talk to a group of our entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs learned about taxation to ensure that their ventures were in compliance, and they also learned that the IRS is not “the enemy.” I suspect also that the IRS representative went away with an enhanced self-image after talking to this group of entrepreneurs.

When government leaders send their personnel out beyond the organization to engage stakeholders, an extra

“kicker” in self-image is generated and an enhanced appre- ciation by the public of government can be gained as well. A great example of this is the way the military services engage in humanitarian missions following natural disas- ters, and young men and women engaged in combat zones help to rebuild housing, schools, and infrastructure in sup- port of the citizens they are fighting to protect.

Increase the Use of Teams Teams are incredibly powerful in many ways, but it takes leadership and initiative both to form them and to nur- ture their continued existence. Much of today’s creativ- ity and innovation is being spawned from the energy in teams, particularly those that reflect diversity.

At San Jose State University, I have been using team- based learning, including team-based exams, in all of my classes, and I am seeing a major increase in student enthu- siasm and learning. We are all affected in positive and negative ways by those around us. When we are a member of a properly formed and nurtured team, we are energized and our individual capabilities are magnified synergisti- cally. Government leaders can exploit the power of teams in their organizations in many ways at many levels.

Increase Risk-Taking by Senior Leaders We must instill in managers and leaders the motiva- tion to think and reach beyond the status quo, to have a mindset of continuous improvement. One of the leaders

I had the privilege of serv- ing under who did just that was the late Rear Admiral Claude P. (Bud) Ekas Jr., USN, who would challenge us to think “the art of the possible.” One of the ways to institutionalize increased risk-taking is to empower professionals, decentralize

decision making, and shift more responsibilities to teams through a distributed leadership approach.

Maximize Opportunities for Inter-Organizational Cooperation It takes strong leaders to decrease organizational paro- chialism and to imaginatively reach out and seek oppor- tunities for inter-organizational cooperation. The more that public-sector leaders forge interagency programs, public-private initiatives, and integrative programs among

Teams are incredibly powerful in many ways, but it takes leadership and initiative both to form them and to nurture their continued existence.

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federal, state, and local levels of government, the more that synergistic results are achieved.

As the Internet blurs organizational boundaries and the world of big data provides insights and understand- ings that we can hardly imagine today, opportunities for cross-sector and interorganizational cooperation will increase at an exponential pace.

Engage in Creative Outreach in Recruitment of New Public Sector Talent To tap the next generation of government professionals, high school and college students need to hear recruit- ing messages that tell a positive story of public service. NASA is setting an excellent recruiting example with science fairs and internships, even for business students. When Janet Napolitano headed the Department of Homeland Security, she made an inspirational impres- sion by promoting the need for computer science gradu- ates to serve in cybersecurity.

The resounding message from our public managers to our students needs to be what touched my generation 50 years ago with Kennedy’s inspirational call to public service. If our public leaders can deliver such a message of service again, today’s young talent will listen and respond.

Create a New Era in Public Leadership The public sector is the keeper and protector of American ideals and provider of common services critical to a prop- erly functioning society. In an environment of declining resources; an increasingly complex, dangerous, and rap- idly changing world; and a public that has a diminished view of the role and performance of the public sector, public managers have little choice but to embrace a new philosophy of leadership.

Public-sector professionals need to be empowered and inspired. We must create innovative programs and processes to excite American youth about careers in pub- lic service.

We must envision new pathways to mission success. It is time to turn our best minds and energies to making the transition to a new era of leadership in the public sector.

Alvin William Musgrave Jr. teaches entrepreneurship, management, and organizational behavior at San José State University. He is a retired U.S. Navy Captain, has held senior leadership positions in industry, and has MBA and DBA degrees from The George Washington University. Contact him at [email protected]

Transitioning to a New Leadership Model in Public Management

* Differences between management and leadership selected and adapted from Richard L. Daft, Management, 2014.

Phase I

Emphasis on vertical flows and functional structure

Phase II

Plus team structures & horizontal flows

Phase III

Plus agile organic structures & empowerment

Phase IV

Plus stakeholder engage- ment, permeable boundaries, inter-organizational initiatives

M an

ag em

en t E

m ph

as is Organization Culture from Bureaucracy to a More Organic Environment

Management Environment*

• Rational

• Maintains stability

• Assigns tasks

• Organizes

• Analyzes

Leadership Environment*

• Visionary

• Promotes change

• Defines purpose

• Nurtures people

• Innovates

• Uses personal power

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