NCJ Number
95052
Date Published
1983
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Prepared for masters charged with investigations of correctional facilities or supervising implementation of court orders, this primer provides a brief overview of public management theory and its application to public administration.
Abstract
The development of the modern science of management in the United States can be traced to Frederick W. Taylor, whose career in various Pennsylvania steel mills resulted in an emerging primer on managment in the early 20th century. Luther Gulick and Lt. Col. Lyndall F. Urwick introduced basic principles of public administration in the 1930's that continue to dominate the field. An adverse reaction to scientific management occurred at the same time, and experiments conducted at the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric provided the first proof of positive correlations between productivity and workers' participation in decisions affecting their work. The doctrinal linkage between Hawthorne and the current best seller on 'Theory Z' by William G. Ouchi is clear and direct. Not many of these behavioralist theories, however, have penetrated corrections. This may be due to correction's image of itself as a paramilitary organization and the fear that behavioral principles ultimately might be applied to staff-inmate relations. A third broad school of management has emerged which blurs distinctions between scientists and behavioralists and focuses on the contributions of mathematics and computers in conjunction with anthropology, sociology, and psychology. These theorists have spawned many concepts and techniques that have had a tremendous impact on industry and government, such as management by objectives. A glossary and an 18-item annotated bibliography are supplied.