Thomas Dexter Lynch

Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category

Staff Professional Competency Strategy: A Call for Action

Thomas D. Lynch

Department of Public Administration
Florida international University
Bay Vista Campus – ACI-200
North Miami, Florida 33181

ABSTRACT

Staff unites, e.g., budget offices, can be improved. This article recommends a comprehensive macro strategy to improve professional competency of public Administration staff units. This represents a call for action among the Public Administration community.

This paper is a recommended strategy for improving the professional competency of public administration staff units. This is not a research report but rather a call for action among the public administration community. The assumptions of this call are based on this author’s education and experience in public administration in general and public budgeting in particular. This paper’s scope is limited to staff functions because this author believes that the education and professional knowledge for staff functions are similar but fundamentally different from line supervisors and executives. Staff require a much greater depth of knowledge and specialized skills that do line officials. Thus, their professional education and development should be tailored to their professional situation.

The remaining portion of this paper defines the professional problem and recommended solution. The challenge of hiring and developing professional staff personnel is explored with the conclusion that existing education and on the job training approaches are inadequate. The role and use of training is explained as well as its implicit current inadequacies. The importance of professional incentives is explained and the current lack of such incentives is noted. A recommended set of solutions is explained which calls for an active American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) lobbying effort, more Ph.D. degree programs oriented to staff functions, suggested areas of useful research, and key efforts to promote greater professionalism. Those keys include defining skills and knowledge appropriate for each professional sub-field, developing diagnostic testing for professionals, establishing mechanisms to critique education and training, and means to recognize achievement of professional competency standards and excellence. The latter includes professional licensing and certifications.

Public Financial Management: A professional Education?

KHI V. THAI

University of Maine

THOMAS D. LYNCH

Florida International University

Introduction

This article addresses the question of whether there is a serious pedagogic deficit in public administration education in the area of public financial management (PFM), an element of public budgeting and financial management . If public administration in general is a questionable profession due to the lack of a recognized body of knowledge (Waldo, 1980:60), there is , in particular, high inconsistency in what is taught in PFM courses. These courses tend to be hybrids of budgeting, public finance, business finance, and other selected topics with no clear consensus on what ought to be taught under the PFM title.

If the deficit is to be remedied, then the academic public administrations community should move toward defining and encouraging professional education in PFM. the “do what you wish” approach is not going to educate a broad group of public administrators better schooled to deal with the challenge of PFM.

What should be taught under PFM? The case is made below that (1) better curriculum coordination is appropriate in order to avoid duplicating public budgeting, public finance or business financial management and (2) PFM should stress managing practical governmental financial responsibilities such as debt administration, treasury management, and revenue administration.

Virtue Ethics: A Policy Recommendation
Thomas D. Lynch
Louisiana State University
Cynthia E. Lynch
Southern University
ABSTRACT

This article presents a moral intervention theory designed to morally upgrade ethical and moral behavior in public administration. The theory is based on bringing virtue ethics into the public management arena using a ONENESS ethical paradigm firmly rooted in the literature of public administration. The theory suggests four key independent variables that would lead to the desired moral upgrading of four organizations. The article explains the theory in such a way that other researchers can go the next step of empirically testing the theory to determinate its validity and usefulness.

PUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
An international Journal

The State of Capital Budgeting In Louisiana’s Local Governments

Thomas D. Lynch, Cynthia E. Lynch, and Richard a. Omdal

ABSTRACT

Given the requirement that increased political and fiscal pressures have forced local governments to control spending more efficiently and reduce taxes, the issue is whether local governments have reacted to these pressures and adopted formal capital budgeting planning procedures. The research question proposed is what factors play a significant role in the decision of a government entity to adopt formal capital budgeting procedures. This research describes the current use of “proper” capital budgeting practices in one state in comparison to a national study and examines possible casual and relational facts that may influence the existence of “proper” capital budgeting practices at the level of government.

Thomas D. Lynch, PhD., was Professor, Institute of Public Administration, Louisiana State University. His teaching and research interests are in the field of public budgeting and financial management. Cynthia E. Lynch and Richard A. Omdal are graduate students, MPA Program, Institute of Public Administration, Louisiana State University.

PLAIN ENGLISH AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Robert P. Watson
University of Hawaii at Hilo

Thomas D. Lynch
Louisiana State University

ABSTRACT

Language is more that a means of oral or written communications. It shapes the way we think and it is though the lens of language that problems and issues are conceptualized. It is thus useful to analyze the language of government. Moreover, the language used by public administrators might be a source of the problems facing bureaucracy and the hostility the public feels for bureaucracy. What exists in government is an institutionalized misuse of language, comprised of jargon, abstractions, acronyms, and a confusing amalgamation of syntax and doublespeak. This article examines the language of “bureaucratese” by identifying common elements of bureaucratese and the problems associated with its use.

One cannot help bu wonder that George Orwell would think of the language of government today. In official public discourse and documents, taxes are now know as ‘revenue enhancements’ or ‘user fees’ and dumps have become ‘public waste reception centers’. Bureaucrats speak to the public and write regulations using ‘grammatical garbage’ laden with acronyms, abbreviations, and technical jargon. The use of such bureaucratic ‘double speak’ appears to be on the rise and is present not only in political speeches and campaigning, but in the day-to-day language used by government employees (Lutz, 1998; Roche, 1998). So too does this misuse of language exists at all levels of government , in all functional areas of government, and in governments throughout the world (Lutz, 1989).

Entrenching Ethical and Moral Behavior in the South African Public Sector
V G Hilliard & Thomas D. Lynch
ABSTRACT

South Africa, since 1994, has once more entered the global community. This means that South Africa may neither be able to call back the past to excuse present unethical behavior. nor can it rest on its post -apartheid laurels. A global perspective demands a totally different approach to morality and ethics in the new South Africa. The article advocates a global virtue ethics approach to ensuring that all South African public servants embrace virtuous ethical behavior and morality that would be expected and required from an international public servant.

This article discards the notion that regime values can serve as a basis for ethical behavior. South Africa found that regime values under the apartheid government did much harm to the country. Under the post-apartheid dispensation regime values are once again being called into questions. Insolation is not the ideal option and therefore. South Africa would have to adopt a global approach to ethics and morality. This, in effect, implies that South Africa must view its ethics and morality in terms of how the international community perceives and practices it.

SOUTHER REVIEW OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Public Financial Management: A Professional Education?

Khi V. Thai
University of Maine
Thomas D. Lynch
Florida International University
INTRODUCTION

This article addresses the question of whether there is a serious pedagogic deficit in public administration education in the area of public financial management (PFM), an element of public budgeting and financial management. If public administration in general is a questionable profession due to the lack of a recognized body of knowledge (Waldo, 1980:60), there is , in particular, high inconsistency in what is taught in PFM courses. These courses tend to be hybrids of budgeting, public finance, business finance, and other selected topics with no clear consensus on what ought to be taught under the PFM title.

In the deficit is to be remedied, then the academic public administration community should move toward defining and encouraging professional education in PFM. The “do what you wish” approach is not going to educate a broad group of public administrators better schooled to deal with the challenges of PFM.

What should be taught under PFM? The case is made below that (1) better curriculum coordination is appropriate in order ti avoid duplicating public budgeting, public finance or business financial management and (2) PFM should stress managing practical governmental financial responsibilities such as debt administration, treasury management, and revenue administration.

PUBLIC VIRTUAL ORGANIZATIONS

Thomas D. Lynch
Public Administration Institute
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803

Cynthia E. Lynch
Department of Public Administration
Southern University
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803

Richard D. Withe, Jr.
Public Administration Institute
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803

ABSTRACT
This article argues that the virtual organization model (also called web-enterprises by the former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich in The Work of Nations) can meet the challenge for our new age. This model is already in place in the U.S. federal government in the form of Cooperative Administrative Support Units (CASU’s). These organizations bear a close resemblance to Reich’s model and have documented significant successes. The article also argues that the implications and applications of the CASU in public administration are far reaching. This creative and innovate approach to responsible government warrants expanded use into new and diverse areas. Organizational designers should not restrict its use simply to role administrative activities.

This article draws heavily from the work of former Secretary Reich and Warren Master, Director of the National CASU Program in the U.S. General Services Administration. Both provide new paths of possibilities for administrators. Their leadership forges new and often brighter expectations for future organizational performance.

Public Administration Quarterly
Budget System Approach
Thomas D. Lynch
Florida International University.
INTRODUCTION

By taking what is know about our physical and social world without some means to organize that knowledge, we are easily confused and find it difficult to use that knowledge. [1] We need frameworks to organize our concepts. If those frameworks also define interrelationships among our know concepts and facts, then we have advanced our understanding to a more useful level of cognition. Theory is merely a set of ideas which address the question of interrelationships with more useful or powerful adding to our insight. For many, “theory” also must contain specific conditions for its own refutation. If not, then we have a “model,” “framework,” approach,” or “perspective.” Normative theory tell us how to conduct our lives using those interrelations. Descriptive theory explains interrelations without assuming we should use any particular set of values in our dealing with the new knowledge. Descriptive theory can be used for value oriented purposes and its creation can be motivated by values. However, it is merely an attempt to define interrelationships such as physical or social phenomena.

This article proceeds by exploring the call for a theory of Public Budgeting (upper case denotes the study of Public Budgeting and lower case denotes the practice of public budgeting) made by V.O. Key, Jr., explaining a particular approach developed by this author which is offered as an alternative to the suggestion made by Key, and finishing by explaining the potential significance of the suggested approach.