Provide a peer response to your classmate, Rebecca's post below. Write it like it was written by me. Share a firsthand perspective.

Hello class,

How might the study of organization theory and public management help a public manager who is interested in improving the perception of their agency? Support your opinion with examples/evidence from peer-reviewed research.

Throughout our readings this week, a few main differences came to light in regard to classical management/scientific management and administrative management. According to Rainey (2021), "the earliest classical theories, and the advice they gave to managers, emphasized stable, clearly defined structures and processes, as if organizational goals were clear and managers' main challenge was to design the most efficient, machine-like procedures to maximize attainment of the organization's goals." Frederick Taylor referred to it as the "one best way" approach to organization that homed in on specific processes, productivity, and efficiency throughout an organization. Scientific management homes in on improving individual workers and their performance, using time and motion studies, and using a top-down type of approach.

While classical/scientific management focuses on the "one best way," administrative management looks at the organization as a whole seeking to develop ways to guide managers, while looking at the structure and processes and delegating. Concerning division of work, Gulick "discussed the need to create clearly defined specializations. Specialization, he said, allows the matching of skills to tasks and the clear, consistent assignment of tasks." (Rainey, et. al., 2021, pg. 20). By dividing tasks and labor, using effective communication and coordination is key while ensuring that a small set of people are responsible for certain tasks. Both approaches may be similar, but how they are applied differs. Classical management works with individual tasks and processes at hand while administrative management looks at organizational structure, efficiency and how to ensure effectiveness. Scientific management looks to increase efficiency on an individual level while administrative management looks to have a universal plan in place that applies to all levels in the organization.

When focusing on organizational theory in relation to helping improve perception of one's agency, I think that it would allow for managers to assess how values, culture, and the mission of the company can help improve performance. "organization theory and behavior literature offers concepts for analyzing organizational structure, change, decisions, strategy, environments, motivation, leadership, and other important topics," (Rainey, et. al., 2021, pg.7). Specifically, a public manager could do a survey, focus groups, or interview different people within the agency or those outside the agency that are in direct contact with them to gauge satisfaction within the organization and outside the organization. By understanding how the public and employees view things, it can help shape the behavior and inform changes making positive results driven by the people. It will increase transparency, trust, and reliability as well by letting people know their opinion and thoughts matter. Managers can get resources from within the organization's environment. "In negotiating the environment, people in the organization may engage in partnerships, collaborations, networks, contractual relationships, and other forms of engagement with other organizations. The people in the organization must transform the resources by accomplishing tasks and applying technologies to perform effectively, thereby attaining additional resources," (Rainey, et. al., 2021, pg.13). By taking in what they see, analyzing it and then using it to help build will allow for better perceptions.

References:

Rainey, H. G., Fernandez, S., & Malatesta, D. (2021). Understanding and Managing Public Organizations(6th ed.). Wiley Professional Development (P&T).https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781119705901Links to an external site.