Instruction:
This assignment is to encourage you to add your own deliberation based on the course readings,
lectures, background knowledge, experiential lessons, and critical thinking. By giving answers,
please spell out, with your own writing, what the readings state, what your opinion or idea is,
how you have come up with it, why it is a significant point of view, which data or factual
information may support your thought, and what implications can be finally made.
Answer two of the following questions upon your choice; each question has sub-questions
to be answered. For the two answers, please limit yourself to a total of 4 double-spaced pages,
using 1” margins and 12 fonts, Times New Roman. You need to add references on a subsequent
page after the main text, which is not included in the page count. Refer to the APA guidelines for
formatting, paraphrasing, quoting, and citation details. Please hone your answers by
“wordsmithing” rather than tinkering with font size and margins. Writing is important (do not
rely on direct quotes). The Essay assignment is worth 10 percent points toward your final
grade, each answer worth 5 percent points. Answers will be graded on accuracy and quality of
the discussion, organization of the essay, adequate use of existing literature, and grammar and
spelling. Use MS Word for submission. Check the grading rubric below.
Questions:
1. Discuss key historical contexts that have shaped public administration in the U.S. and
how they have changed governmental roles and responsibilities in addressing public
problems. Finally, provide your own definition of public administration.
2. Compare and contrast the contributions of Taylor and Weber to the field of public
administration. Discuss how their theories were challenged in what specific points by
what scholars.
3. How does the concept of the Iron Triangle help us understand bureaucratic politics and its
impact on the delivery of public services? Provide a real example to support your answer.
4. Compare different theories of management and choose one that works best and is most
important for public management. Why?
5. Scenario – Jane is a newly appointed manager in the public sector. She encounters
difficulties while trying to motivate a technical team during a period of long work hours
caused by unfilled vacancies. Jane becomes frustrated with her inability to convince staff
to volunteer for top-priority projects and attributes the team’s long hours to staff
inefficiency and excessive use of flexible working hours.
If you were Jane, how would you motivate them? How would you encourage them to
engage in the project actively? Which HRM strategies would you mostly find useful?
6. Choose three decision-making theories and compare them. Which of the decision-making
theories best applies to your case study? How?
7. Articulate your conceptualizations of the public interest and public values. Provide an indepth logical justification and a practical example for each conceptualization.
