Table of Contents

1998
 

Volume Three, Number 1    

Symposium on Cyber-Management and Public Administration

Donald C. Menzel, Symposium Editor

1. Symposium on Cyber-Management and Public Administration
   Introduction
   Donald C. Menzel
        
   Managing in a high tech, information intensive environment is an increasingly difficult and complex matter. The Internet, the World Wide Web, gateways, FTP, URLs, servers, browsers, search engines, listservs, html, chat rooms, email have entered the vocabulary of public and private sector managers. Webmasters, an occupational specialty that did not even exist a mere five years ago, are now members of every organization of any size. Public managers need to learn about managing in a cyber-driven organization and public administration scholars need to understand how cyber-technology is changing the face of traditional public management.

   This symposium takes a first step toward examining the emerging world of cyber-management in government agencies in the United States. Although the articles that comprise the symposium focus on agencies in the United States, many insights derived from the articles would seem to have transnational relevance.

2. Going Online: What Public Managers Need to Know
   Stephen A. Maclin
     
   This paper discusses cyber-technology and its effective integration in government and public agencies. Four questions are addressed regarding the technology integration process: (1) Which types of goals are reasonable for cyber-management? (2) Which initial steps should an agency take to integrate its existing technological structure with the requirements of cyber-technology? (3) Is there a need for separate Intranet and Internet policies? And, (4) which cost and effectiveness factors should be used in creating and maintaining a World Wide Web site?

3. The Cyber-Management Environment: Where Technology and Ingenuity Meet Public Purpose and Accountability
   Richard K. Ghere and Brian A. Young
   
   This paper guides managers in understanding the complexities of the cyber-environment emerging around public organizations. First, it differentiates among some specific functions of cyber-management in government: access engineering, substantive policy communication, records keeping, decision making support, and informal communication. Second, this paper discusses the legal environment of cyber-management as circumscribed by open records laws and public information policies that vary among states. And finally, it suggests how technologically intensive environments may harbor some unintended consequences that confound managerial activities.

4. Wired Government: Information Technology, External Public Organizations, and Cyberdemocracy
   Jason Hansen Alexander and Joseph W. Grubbs
   
   Current trends in public information management focus on traditional concerns over the efficiency and performance of public agencies. However, innovations in information technology and policy, including data warehousing, civic networking, and the Internet, provide a unique opportunity to create external public organizations which emphasize democratic participation in the processes of governance. Planning for cyber-management now and in the future must consider the factors of externalization and political interactivity in order to integrate the delivery of services and increase citizen access to public information.

5. Tangled Webs In Public Administration: Organizational Issues In Distance Learning
   Dianne Rahm and B.J. Reed
     
   The rapid growth of distance learning modalities to deliver education programs is having a major influence on higher education in the 1990's. This article examines the changes occurring in the delivery of curriculum and the use of technology to restructure course offerings. It also discusses the management and organizational issues that surround distance learning initiatives based on two national surveys of schools of public affairs as well as a series of eight case studies on distance learning in public affairs programs active in delivering coursework at a distance.

   Findings from the surveys indicated a growing number of programs actually use distance learning approaches with most using fiber optics and computer technologies. Adopters of distance learning technologies are driven to do so largely by external stakeholders. Adopters are also more likely to report that powerful external actors are interested in promoting the use of distance learning technologies and are more likely to perceive increased competition from other programs.

   The case study findings indicate that line responsibility for program delivery resides in the departments housing public affairs programs while much of the operational and management responsibilities lie outside these departments. This provides some relief of administrative burden but at the cost of considerable duplication and overlap. Also, while fiber and satellite systems still dominate, Internet based delivery is increasing rapidly and, as noted in the surveys, external pressure by administrators and policy officials drive much distance learning growth.

   These findings raise questions about appropriate levels of program control, organizational barriers to effective delivery of educational programming and the rapid change in use of Internet as a delivery systems.

6. Privatization and Managerial Ethics in the Information Age
   Donald C. Menzel
       
   This paper explores the ethical implications for public managers facing the pressures of privatization and the rapidly expanding use of Information Technology in the workplace. The privatization "rage" is occurring at a time that happens to coincide with another "rage’-- the Internet "rage." How, if at all, are these "rages" challenging public management ethics? Will the time honored ethical principles and values of the past serve public managers of the present who find themselves drawn increasingly into the ethical haze of privatization and the ethical time warp of the Information Age?