Relevant Academic Decision Making Political Scien
Case study documents were upload as pdf files named “Improving Services (A)” and “Improving Services (B)”
This assignment should do the following:
1. Discuss the most important facts that the decision maker must consider and describe the decision context.
2. Provide an analysis of the key constraints and enabling circumstances operating on the primary decision maker that affected or will affect the decision. What are they and why are they important in this case? How did/would these key elements impact the decision maker and drive his/her actions in the case? How did/do they shape the nature of or set the context for the primary decision that was made or needs to be made? Include pertinent points from both the theoretical and factual research you have collected to provide support for your arguments.
3. Provide an analysis of the relationship among the analytic dimensions of structure, culture, and craft at play in this decision, explaining the dynamics among these elements. Did one appear to impact others? If so, then explain how.
4. If the primary decision already has been made, draw your theoretical and factual research to assess whether this was or was not the right decision to make. If the primary decision has not yet been made, provide a recommendation, supported by your theoretical and factual research, for the decision that you (as the analyst) believe should be made.
While you may draw from prior assignments submitted, keep in mind that the Final Exam is unique and should offer a different perspective than earlier assignments. Focus on the complexity of your case to present a cogent and well-supported analysis rather than merely restating a listing or report of the factual and conceptual elements.
The format for this submission is an essay, which must be properly formatted with an introduction to the case, a well-defined and supported argument, and a concluding statement. In other words, write a beginning, middle, and end. Proper citations and a reference list formatted in APA style are required in this submission, which should include citations from conceptual and theory sources (including textbook, course readings, your annotated bibliography, and andy other relevant academic decision making theory sources) and from case facts and details (news clips, articles, organization documents, or personal interviews).
The questions to guide your analysis are the following:
- The goals in Missouri were to make the delivery of social service more effective, to eliminate duplication across service divisions, and be generally more responsive to the needs of at-risk children and families. Interagency and intersectoral collaboration provides the mechanism through which such effective delivery is provided. What have been the major barriers to providing more effective services to at-risk children and families in Missouri? What were some of the political, policy, and bureaucratic obstacles to collaboration?
- One observer has written that whenever collaboration can be avoided, then it should be avoided. However, it appears that Missouri had no choice; it had to face both the benefits and the costs of collaborating. What can public managers expect to encounter when attempting to design and implement a complicated collaboration such as what Missouri has done? What management and leadership issues arise?
- Goldsmith and Eggers argue that “networks encourage the kind of experimentation so critical to the innovation process by enabling government to explore a greater range of alternatives involving a variety of providers.” Does this case provide examples of such “experimentation”? Or is this an example of incremental change? Explain your answer.
- In a recent article, one public manager stated that in the instance of collaboration, “…the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It may be achieving individual ends, but there’s an additional outcome that is shared separate from individual ends.” What is the primary outcome of collaboration in this case? What are some “additional outcomes” that might have been achieved (or might be experienced in the future) by the collaboration in Missouri?
- What strengths and lessons from its own and others’ recent efforts can Missouri draw on in forming a new policy?