Much current thinking about information technology in the public sector emerges from private sector experiences. While much can be transferred from sector to sector, much cannot. O'Looney provides a rare understanding of what transfers best, and the difference a good transfer can make in establishing a successfully wired government. O'Looney provides an overall strategic orientation to the challenges that public managers will face in the new age of cyberspace. He helps decision makers and executives understand what it takes to transform an agency or organization into a model of electronic government. He includes the policies, practices, technologies, and operating tactics one needs to do it. Especially important, he helps public managers find the best fit between new technologies, their current operating practices, and the special characteristics and goals of their organizations. Wiring Governments will help public managers with little technical background to navigate the IT terrain by identifying its key characteristics and explaining how to use them, not only to reform jobs but also to reinvent organizations. It explores how a fairly simple technology in the private sector—knowledge management—presents many policy and practical dilemmas in the public sector. O'Looney shows how IT systems stress existing organizational cultures. With this as a basis, he gives managers the practical advice they need to make better IT system choices, ones that match the current realities of organizational cultures as well as realistic expectations for performance gains. The book even outlines key architectural alternatives that public managers must know about when they embark on the task of building new electronic public meeting spaces.
Should we be doing—or trying to do—everything ourselves, or might it be better to contract some tasks out to others? Could they do them better and cheaper than we can? More and more state and local governments are asking these questions, and while there are many answers on the Federal level, these answers often don't apply lower down the line. Nevertheless, it is evident that contracting out is often the better strategy—but how best to go about it? What are the benefits and what are the hidden risks? Dr. O'Looney's book provides precisely the guidance that state and local managers need: first, how to decide to outsource a government service, then step-by-step how to proceed. Based on extensive interviews and other research, O'Looney takes managers through the intricacies of contract outsourcing and administration, but in doing so he makes clear that he appreciates the importance of government. His book is not an argument for privatization, as so many other books are; rather, it is an affirmation of government and the benefits of its many services. Readers will find theory and advice on the services that are most suitable for contracting out; a listing and review of the components of a high-quality analysis, including the analysis of often overlooked political, organizational, and functional aspects of government; advice on how to go from deciding to outsource to actually designing, implementing, and monitoring a contract in situations that could prove hazardous to the livelihoods of government workers. He also discusses the changes that need to be made in the organizational culture, management, and employee training as a result of the change to a contract-based system of providing services; the considerations in designing work specifications and other critical aspects of the government-vendor relationship, and how ideal contracting processes and ideal contracts can differ according to the nature of the service being contracted. The result is a thorough and highly practical volume for executives and managers in the public sector, and for those who hope to do business with them.
Beginning Nonviolence is a guide to proactive problem solving using proven strategies and tactics of nonviolence. Not a remote system used only by saints, albeit deeply rooted in the Ghandian-Kingian tradition, this handbook offers specific strategies for building peace in families, schools, communities, and commerce. Readers will learn ways to tap into the vast reservoir of power called nonviolence for use in everyday life. Based on a highly respected course, Alternatives to Violence, developed in Northeast Ohio in the 1970s, this book can be used as a primer as well as an introduction to an ancient body of knowledge that is reflected in the world's major religions. The authors believe that the practice of nonviolence in everyday interactions is far more efficient and productive than common oppositional competitiveness. Those who try the strategies offered here will be convinced of the greater efficiency of nonviolence. Keywords: nonviolence, violence, anger, conflict, resolution, peace, listening, arbitration, mediation
Based on the concept that nature is neither random nor irrational, this revised edition offers clarity, brevity, accuracy and a lively and interesting writing style. Using an inquisitive and explanatory approach, the book answers not only "what," but "how" and "why.
A four level architecture has been developed for SJFHQ processes. This architecture has been used to develop a simulation of SJFHQ operations. Correct simulation performance has been verified and initial results produced. The results focus on personal work tasking and multi-tasking effects.
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