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Hierarchy in organizations is obsolete. There is a better way: one that increases the engagement of employees and managers alike, reduces micromanaging and other limiting approaches, and promotes organizational and individual success. In this book, self-management expert Samantha Slade presents seven concrete practices to help your organization flatten its existing hierarchy and develop a horizontal organization. The result will be enhanced creativity, greater growth, and a increased employee retention and productivity--and a better bottom line. These days, more than ever, successful organizations must respond quickly and nimbly to change--they need every employee's best thinking. A horizontal organization creates an environment of true collaboration, respect, and openness. It allows everyone more freedom to express unconventional ideas or to work through issues that are getting in the way of organizational goals. And it's a more human way to organize--after all, we function perfectly well in our day-to day lives without someone telling us what to do. But when an organization decides to go horizontal, it can be overwhelming for both managers and employees. Slade offers a practical, proven, incremental method to help organizations of all kinds and sizes ease in to a non-hierarchical model. She includes techniques for using your organization's purpose to stay focused and aligned, developing shared decision-making, creating a mutual feedback culture, nurturing autonomy, holding co-managed meetings, and maintaining an environment of collective learning. Going Horizontal will help organizations become more adaptive, collaborative and innovative, which is vital in today's highly competitive and constantly-evolving world.

From the first, specialization and coordination have presented governments with a conundrum: specialized program might be best for delivering one service to the public, but combining such programs for all public services inevitably produces costly redundancies and inefficiencies. In this long-awaited book, Guy Peters brings his expertise and extensive experience to bear on the problem of administrative and policy coordination. Through theory and four real-world case studies, he explores how—and whether—coordination can transform ordinary, flawed patterns of governing into more effective and efficient performance by the public sector. This timely work arrives at a moment when coordination is proving especially challenging—as popular approaches to public administration emphasize breaking larger public organizations into smaller, single purpose programs, and as a push to involve the private sector in policy development and implementation has increased government segmentation. For insights into the workings—and limitations—of coordination, or horizontal management, Peters draws on extensive scholarship as well as his own consulting work with governments including Finland, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, and Mexico. He highlights practical successes, and failures, of horizontal management in case studies of Homeland Security in the US; child protection in the UK; policymaking in Finland; and the operations of the European Union. In the process, Peters evaluates a full tool chest of “instruments” that might be used to enhance coordination. Combining theory and practice, and considering a wide range of public policy challenges, this book clearly and cogently presents the most comprehensive, in-depth, and detailed discussion available of policy coordination in the public sector—at a time when its insights are most urgently needed.

Coordination has been the most poorly understood and least examined problem for governments since their inception, and this book discusses the causes, consequences, and possible remedies of coordination problems.

In the 21st century governments are increasingly focusing on designing ways and means of connecting across boundaries to achieve goals. Whether issues are complex and challenging – climate change, international terrorism, intergenerational poverty– or more straightforward - provision of a single point of entry to government or delivering integrated public services - practitioners and scholars increasingly advocate the use of approaches which require connections across various boundaries, be they organizational, jurisdictional or sectorial. Governments around the world continue to experiment with various approaches but still confront barriers, leading to a general view that there is considerable promise in cross boundary working, but that this is often unfulfilled. This book explores a variety of topics in order to create a rich survey of the international experience of cross-boundary working. The book asks fundamental questions such as: What do we mean by the notion of crossing boundaries? Why has this emerged? What does cross boundary working involve? What are the critical enablers and barriers? By scrutinizing these questions, the contributing authors examine: the promise; the barriers; the enablers; the enduring tensions; and the potential solutions to cross-boundary working. As such, this will be an essential read for all those involved with public administration, management and policy.

A festchrift in honour of Peter C. Aucoin, professor emeritus of political science and public administration.

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: The first chapter gives a introduction into the topic and explains how the whole work is structured before the key subjects in chapter two will be discussed. Okay Sir, I will put you through to someone else . Does this sound familiar? Trying to switch to a different contract with a cell phone operator, but nobody seems to be qualified to handle a request. Dissatisfaction arises and the customer would like to report his problem. On the one hand the customer experiences a breakdown in service and on the other hand a second disappointment may follow if a service provider fails to handle the grievance after it is stated. The question arises as to why complaint handling is important nowadays. Complaint handling is not as selfless an act by a company as it may seem. A complaint is the cheapest, most honest and most qualitative form of management consulting there is, according to market research into sales force by Pawlik Sales Consultants AG. Companies should not be afraid to face feedback and complaints. According to the Treasury Board of Canada: Research suggests that relatively few dissatisfied clients bother to complain. As a result, every complaint received may provide a window into a much larger pool of dissatisfaction. By dealing with the causes of complaints, the organization can further reduce both the number of complaints and dissatisfaction with its program delivery or service. Complaint management is a tool to prevent the migration of customers to competitors, and more and more companies understand that simply recruiting new customers is not sufficient. As a consequence, intensification of defensive marketing, in contrast to offensive marketing actions, becomes more interesting to a company. The aim of defensive marketing should be the development of long-lasting customer relations. For example, Volvo/Saab, the Swedish automobile manufacturer, estimates that the cost of generating new customers is three times the cost of retaining an existing customer. Satisfactory complaint management can create satisfied customers. The key figure mediating between a company and a customer with a complaint is, of course, the employee of the service organization. The role and performance of the employee will determine the success of a complaint handling process and the adequate service recovery. In order to be able to fulfil this goal, employees need to undergo training. Furthermore the management needs to develop a corporate [...]