INSTRUCTIONS
Please answer one question in each of the three areas listed below (Public Policy; Methods and Skills; and Public Management). Take your time in planning and organizing your thoughts. Good Luck!
The exam lasts 3 hours so plan your time accordingly. Be as specific as you can in using concepts or theories, in citing authors, and in giving examples. Please write your social security number (NOT YOUR NAME) on each blue book you use and number the blue books consecutively. Write your social security number on this question sheet and return it with your blue book(s).
1. How do constitutional features and structures of government affect decisionmaking and public policy formation? Give federal and state examples.
2. Senator I. Shirley Winn has proposed a national health care plan under which the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would receive tax payments from employers as well as smaller tax payments from employee wages; and disburse these funds to citizens according to a formula for average annual medical expenditures worked out by HHS experts. In addition, Senator Winn's bill would regulate health care costs.
She argued for this legislation, claiming, "Americans' are caught in an ever-spiraling escalation of costs which will result in the denial of health care to most of us and the undermining of our business competitiveness as firms spend more and more on health benefits. A firm in my home state has total assets of $3 billion, but the net present value of the health benefits it will pay out over the next twenty years is $1.9 billion. This is an intolerable situation!"
Discuss how Senator Winn has structured/defined the policy problem. How has she integrated facts and values, and how has this integration process shaped her policy proposal? How might the same facts combined with different values generate a different analysis and proposal?
1. Summarize the generic steps in any comprehensive MIS study, and explain what is required to make each step successful.
In your answer be sure to incorporate the key concepts you should know if you are asked to evaluate a computer system with major problems, identify optimal solutions, and then implement the solutions.
2. Explain the factors which determine the size and composition of a survey sample. If you were asked to design a survey of the health needs of residents of a five county region in southern New Jersey, what information would you need from the client in order to develop a sampling plan?
3. Many county government officials strongly resist major changes in MIS operations, such as recently happened in Gloucester county leading to the forced resignation of the MIS director (at the end of 1991). What are major steps to ensure the success of a large scale MIS innovation in a county government, especially if there is a high probability of potential resistance to the planned changes? Discuss both objective strategic planning methods and subjective implementation tactics.
1. Describe two of the following newer approaches/movements in public management today. Compare the two approaches and briefly discuss the implications for public managers.
2. Organizations have traditionally been define as groups of people brought together to accomplish some purpose, some goal. In recent years, however, organization theoretic understanding of the significance, description and source of goals has undergone much rethinking and review.
Given this context, write an essay on this question: Do goals matter? Defend your thesis with evidence from the works of scholars in the Rational Systems School, the Natural Systems School and the Open Systems School.
3. What are three major strategies available to public sector managers to increase the productivity of their operations? Give examples or illustrations of these strategies.