Award Date

5-2010

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Educational Leadership

Department

Educational Leadership

First Committee Member

Cecilia Maldonado-Daniels, Chair

Second Committee Member

Yeonsoo Kim

Third Committee Member

Sterling Saddler

Graduate Faculty Representative

Lori Olafson

Number of Pages

112

Abstract

Public managers are a key component of a bureaucracy. The reliance on a public manager by an elected official is high as is the expectations that these managers have the necessary skills to manage a public organization. The goal of this study was to explore what elected officials perceive are skills needed by managers to lessen the impact on the human resource, financial, and political challenges when faced with significant change efforts in order to meet their expectations and that of the citizens to whom the organization is responsible.

Findings indicate that managing upward and managing the political impacts are within the necessary skills required by a public manager as is the ability to manage interpersonal relationships to overcome the human resource challenges of a public organization. In addition to the human resource challenges, public managers face financial and political challenges (McGuire, 2002) to managing effectively. In order to overcome those challenges and accomplish any transformational changes (Rothwell et al., 2009) a public manager must hold themselves to a high standard of values that includes honesty, integrity, consistency, and accuracy. A public manager must also have, in addition to interpersonal skills, an ability to negotiate, act quickly and decisively, think strategically, and provide accurate data.

Keywords

City managers; Elected official; Local government; Municipal government; Organizational change; Public administration; Public manager; Public officers; Public Organization; Transformational change

Disciplines

Educational Administration and Supervision | Public Administration

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/


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