Terence M. Garrett

Whither Challenger, Wither Columbia Management Decision Making and the Knowledge Analytic

The Challenger and Columbia similarities in management decision making with regard to the ill-fated shuttle mission failures bear scrutiny. Key aspects of both tragedies include senior-level managers ignoring the advice from experts within the NASA organization leading to tragedy. NASA is typical of modern organizations in the tendency to relegate worker knowledge below that of managers and executives. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board has determined that the organizational/management culture was a key factor in the demise of the Columbia. The author argues that culture, although an important contributor to the tragedy, is inadequate for assessing the problem. Differences in knowledge between executives, managers, and the workers are key to unlocking the central problem of the NASA organization. The author uses and develops the theoretical approach that delves into multiple knowledges in organizations that is known as the “knowledge analytic.”

The Waco, Texas, ATF Raid and Challenger Launch Decision Management, Judgment, and the Knowledge Analytic

The author argues that the Challenger space shuttle launch disaster and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raid on the Branch Davidian compound both offer insights for managers and organization theorists as to how managers make judgments concerning their employees based on conceptions of how the employees ought to do their work. Managers with a knowledge of “management as science” objectify the work of employees under them. Workers know their work as craft based on firsthand experience. The author argues that traditional management practice results in decision making that does not take into account the knowledge of all organizational participants, and this leads to catastrophe. “Worker” knowledge and “management” knowledge, as well as other kinds of knowledge in organizations, are frequently incompatible. This aspect is characteristic of modern organizations but tends to be accentuated during times of organizational crisis. These two cases illustrate well the problems involved in decision making within complex organizations.

America’s Homo Sacer: Examining U.S. Deportation Hearings and the Criminalization of Illegal Immigration

Border politics became a high priority for the U.S. government following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and illegal immigration became the “problem” of the southern border dominating the news. The perceived loss of Americans’ safety, jobs, and health care was pinned to the “problem” of illegal immigration. The new border/security policies, with the onset of the War on Terror, further criminalized immigration law and heightened enforcement of illegal immigration. The authors examine the administration of “illegal” immigration policies to test Agamben’s State of Exception and Homo Sacer theories—used here to describe and explain U.S. immigration and deportation policy.

Interorganizational Collaboration and the Transition to the Department of Homeland Security A Knowledge Analytic Interpretation

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) transition has shown problems between executive political leadership, management associations, and labor unions, despite “collaborative efforts,” resulting in bureaucratic inertia. This means slower incremental changes for proposed personnel reforms based on private business models advocated by presidential administrations in recent years. The author submits that collaborati©ve organizational reforms advocated by those at the top of the pyramid have been stymied by differences in knowledges between executives, managers, and workers in the DHS. The executive level of knowledge continues dominating public organizations at the continued expense of workers through management initiatives such as the new public management and collaborative public management movements.

The DHS Border Fence in the Rio Grande Valley: Semiotics, Space, and Subjectivity

The authors call on related theoretical concepts to better understand the effects on the Rio Grande Valley of the U.S. governments recent border security activities. In particular, we explore the consequences of U.S. wall-building policies in terms of semiotics (Baudrillards simulacra), space (Foucaults heterotopias), and subjectivity (Agambens homo sacer). These three interrelated perspectives are developed as analytical tools to study impacts of national security initiatives on the life world of south Texas. Although the Department of Homeland Security has worked steadfastly on building the wall in the name of improved national security, considerable local public resistance continues. Property owners, mayors, business leaders, clergy, and others remain fearful of what the wall represents to their collective economic, social and political well-being. The authors argue that examining the phenomenon of the wall through theoretical lenses leads to the development of relevant (alternative) theories and practices that explicitly address community concerns.

The Phenomenology of Perception and Fear: Security and the Reality of the US–Mexico Border

Abstract This article uses an interpretive phenomenological approach to examine the deployment (and perception) of fear in the US–Mexico border region. This region is currently perceived by “others” to be under siege by drug-trafficking organizations, terrorists and undocumented immigrants. However, the inhabitants of this region experience a vastly different reality that is far-removed from the rhetoric of fear often used by politicians to identify and define the inhabitants. In many instances, the effects of border violence are exaggerated in ways that benefit political and corporate interests; moreover, this specific tactic operates to squeeze and constrain efforts aimed at civic engagement and public input in policies. We expose perceptions and misperceptions on issues related to fear, and explain the ways in which fear can be expropriated as a social construct that prevents meaningful political dialogue.

Knowledge production: public management and the market spectacle

Purpose - Public management is moving towards more control by executives in the name of the people. Executive knowledge is privileged by initiatives such as new public management and collaborative public management that promote the market spectacle. The purpose of this paper is to employ a “radical,” or critical, interpretation based primarily on concepts and social critiques developed by Marx, by Weber and by Debord, to offer a position, polemic, and perspective regarding the nature and effects of public management on the American polis. Design/methodology/approach - The authors develop a social critique of bureaucracy and government towards domination governance of the polis primarily by developing and using the theoretical work of scholars such as Marx, Weber, and Debord for this analysis. Findings - These developments towards more control by executives are corrosive to the last vestiges of representative democracy in the USA. Originality/value - The question remains as to whether it is too late to reform, or turn back, the onset of the new public managerialism and whether the current condition of public administration is a symptom of the overall market spectacle trend.

MOOCs: meaningful learning tools for public administration education or academic simulacra?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore and critically assess the potential value and effectiveness of massive open online courses (MOOCs) for public administration education. Design/methodology/approach – The research in this conceptual paper offered a critical examination of MOOCs using the work of Baudrillard, Debord, and others to re-frame and reconsider our understanding of this emerging educational strategy. Findings – Baudrillard’s simulacrum and Debord’s spectacle concepts can inform the discussion and understanding of MOOCs in higher education. Research limitations/implications – This is an emerging area that needs further study and development. Practical implications – MOOCs might contribute to the blurring of lines between educational products that are needed and products for which a need is manufactured by corporate interests. Social implications – MOOCs might contribute to the commodification of knowledge in higher education. Originality/value – This is the first conceptual paper ex...

Colonization in South Texas: fences, heterotopias and emplacements

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe the taking of land from American citizens, mostly Latinos, and the public policies by the national government that gives it the power to override all federal, state, and local laws. Previous laws were established to protect property owners. Environmental regulations were designed to prevent the erosion of unique ecosystems in the USA. The legal ability to use such power has allowed the DHS secretary to effectively strip economically poor and politically powerless citizens of their personal property and to force wildlife refuges to surrender their holdings in order to build the fence. Design/methodology/approach - The author explains what this all means in terms of political power using primarily the work of Herbert Marcuse on power and repression and Michel Foucault and his concepts of heterotopias, and emplacement. Findings - The idea is to provide the means and build upon Marcuses and Foucaults works to better understand and build public administration theory. Originality/value - The value of this work is constituted in an exploration of a largely neglected border region and the impact upon people subjugated and oppressed by the State and its overall implications for governance and humanity.

Market spectacle: immigration policy along the US/Mexico border

Purpose - – The central contribution of the paper aims to provide a new way of thinking and reflecting about using a more critical public policy approach as opposed to the heretofore dysfunctional dichotomist approach common to the immigration policy debate. Design/methodology/approach - – Using critical theoretical approaches primarily based on Debord and Agamben, the author compares and contrasts the approaches made by immigration reform policy advocates and opponents to obtain a better understanding of these complex issues and the motivations behind them. Findings - – Viewing the policy immigration and border policy discourse from the market spectacle lens allows the author to see the seemingly never-ending conflict to be fully disclosed. Corporate profit-seekers have used effectively the politics of fear surrounding the terrorist attacks of 9-11, the ongoing fear generated against undocumented border crossers along with the property takings of US citizens through the use of the complexities of the dominant market language in the name of the 9-11 and the subsequent War on Terror. The authors primary intention was to expose the motivations of public policy makers and place their policy decisions into a critical context. Originality/value - – In this original paper, the author analyzes events such as the border fence construction – and the corporatist influence behind its development, the push to politically disenfranchise Latinos in Arizona, and the inability of the US Congress to pass legislation for meaningful immigration reform and border security – that have all been subject to the limitations of language, symbols and images portrayed by protagonists and antagonists of market-driven immigration policy. The value of the paper is that the author demonstrates the problems and limitations on public policy.