James Edwin Kee

Strategic transformation process: Toward purpose, people, process and power

Across the world, public and non-profit sector leaders face an extremely turbulent socio-political-economic environment. This environment creates additional risks and uncertainties for organizations and may hinder a leaders ability to act strategically. Addressing these complex, constantly evolving conditions requires leaders to develop processes that involve the organizations stakeholders and that create organizational conditions for self-generation, creativity, resilience and action planning. In this paper we provide an organizational-level, integrative framework for the strategic transformation of public and non-profit organizations to assist leaders who are committed to effective stewardship of their organizations. The Strategic Transformation Process involves an intense dialogue among organizational stakeholders designed to create a new vision, negotiate priorities, minimize risk, and create action plans and a commitment for change.

The Rise of Competitive Federalism

This article challenges the prevailing view of increasing political and fiscal centralization in the federal government. Since 1978, the authors argue, the nation has entered a new era of “Competitive Federalism” with federal, state and local governments locked in a competitive struggle for taxpayer resources and support. The new era has emerged largely because of the loss of the tremendous fiscal advantage held by the federal government during its centralization period, 1929 to 1978. Although “deregulated” and free to move into any area of domestic policy, the federal government is constrained by necessary budget pressures and a “reformed” income tax structure. Competitive Federalism has emerged as a new balancing force between Washington, D.C. and the fifty state-local governments and will govern the federal system for the foreseeable future.

Private Finance Initiative—The Theory Behind Practice

Abstract Since its launch in 1992, the UKs Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is being used more often as an innovative means for governments to expand public infrastructures and services. The practical advantages and disadvantages of PFI have been considered, but theoretical justifications for PFI remain unexamined. Compared with conventional capital budgeting practice, we examined four theoretical justifications: the competitive market model, a new principal-agent relationship, shifting of risk, and the accountability problem. We found some theoretical support for PFI; however, some questions still remain about the theory and practice of PFI.

Not Your Father’s Public Administration

Abstract Globalization, devolution, outsourcing, multi-sector partnerships and networks, and a host of other social transformations are creating new challenges for schools of public administration and policy. These changes in the field demand greater focus on the inter-sectoral delivery of public goods and services, on globalization, and on the leadership of networks, but the core curricula in graduate public administration and policy programs have not yet changed enough to meet those demands. Until the curricula in these programs reflect the new realities of public management and the challenge of public accountability, graduates of these programs may not be fully able to meet the challenges facing today’s public leaders.

The President's FY 1990 Budget: The Last Act in a Decade of Change

This article examines the budget requests of Presidents Reagan and Bush for fiscal year 1990, and how the federal budget has changed during the decade of the 1980s. The author concludes that the federal budget has become less controllable, as the priorities and composition of federal expenditures have shifted during the Reagan years. While the Reagan and Bush budgets do not differ significantly, the manner in which they were constructed does. The effort of President Bush to define his budgetary version of a “kinder, gentler” America may be more illusory than real. The author also traces the change in federal assistance to state and local governments, concluding that, apart from transfer payments, the federal role has markedly declined.