Political Science

Chapter 1 Organizational Behavior as a Way of Thinking
This chapter focuses on the definition of human behavior and its importance in public andor non-profit organization. Denhardt emphasized that organizational behavior is a field of study that provides tools, skills, ideas and strategies in order to guide the management of human behavior in an organization at different levels individual, in group, organizational and system level, for public interest (p. 5). Likewise, the goal of organizational behavior in the public sector is that, it seeks to enhance employees motivation and values and to modify negative behavior in order to improve public service. At this point, the need for leadership competencies and effectiveness is highly required, which should manifest in all levels of organization as illustrated in the management effectiveness framework in which the core is personal effectiveness (p. 9).

Thus, understanding human behavior is helpful in addressing behavior-related problems in an organization, which can be done through conducting research studies.

Chapter 2 Knowing and Managing Yourself
As the initial requirement towards achieving effective management of human behavior, Denhardt pointed out that knowledge of self is necessary in order to discover ones leadership potentials (p. 17). According to him, knowing oneself will lead to understanding what motivates or what troubles a person, which gives him sensitivity how his behavior affect other people as well as guides him in dealing with employees.

For this reason, Denhardt suggested that public administrator and managers of non-profit organizations to focus on the development of their own behavioral skills and emotional intelligence. Moreover, the following will guide a person develop self-awareness (1) create personal vision to provide a person a sense of direction and (2) assess oneself of personal values, personality type, interpersonal orientation, locus of control, career orientation and competence, and self-disclosure. Aside from practical suggestions given to enhance self-knowledge, Denhardt emphasized that a person can increase self-knowledge through establishing personal vision or vision statement (p. 32).

Chapter 3 Fostering Creativity
Denhardt stressed in this chapter that every person has the capacity to be creative (p. 55) but to foster creativity, which is one of the hallmarks of leadership (p. 55), one has to develop it. Creativity is described through various perspectives. As a personal trait is predispose (p. 58), which means that creativity reflects in a persons attributes. Others view creativity as a cognitive ability (p. 59) and, creativity is also linked to ones behavior (p. 59). To sum it all, creativity is a process that requires ones behavior, cognitive and emotion to elicit creativity through multiple phases and stages (p. 60).

Creativity is needed in public administration in order to meet challenges and to create new strategies in solving problems. For this reason, Denhardt suggested that a supportive organizational environment can enhance and encourage individual creativity (p. 68). Besides, any organization must eliminate certain behaviors or actions that hinder creativity.

Chapter 4 Managing Stress
Being in a public office often brings very stressful experiences because the demands of work are the sources of stress. The way a person manages stress affects his sense of well-being, motivation and performance (p.  84). The stress causes changes in the body as the result of the bodys physiological responses to stress. In a sense, stress is bad besides, it is the cause of many problems in the workplace such as workplace violence (p. 92).

Knowing what causes stress in the workplace will help eliminate its occurrence. They are interpersonal relationship, role ambiguity and conflict, workload, intrinsic nature of work, working conditions, organizational justice, organizational environment, and home to work and back. Coping with stress requires lifestyle adjustments, attitude adjustment, social support, emotional regulation, taking control of your time, job redesign, and other organizational factors. However, at personal level, a person has to take charge in identifying major stresses in his life and take care of himself for possible effect of stress in his body find balance be creative and adjust his attitude.  

Chapter 5 Decision Making
The decision-making skill is important as a public administrator because the kind of decision being made brings considerable impact in the organization aside from the fact that different decision-making is made at different levels of organization (p. 112). But in general, there are many considerations to take before making any decision basically, they need to uncover underlying problems to treat the root causes (p. 114). Decision-making is associated with problem-solving.

There are many models that can be utilized such as the rational model which involves five phases that begins with analysis of situations to implementation phase the organizational process model seeks the coordinationparticipation of different groups of people in the organization in drawing out decisions to be done and, the governmental politics model on the other hand, is decision-making as a group effort participated by different people in the government. The last type of decision-making involves participants in the process. In doing this, several techniques can be employed such as focus groups, brainstorming, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, nominal group technique, and logic models. In the absence of these models, any person can make decision he has to define the problem thoroughly, generate solution, brainstorm other alternatives, seek advice from those who disagree with you allow group-think and gain consensus from stakeholders.

Chapter 6 Motivating Yourself and Others
Personal and organizational motivation is also important to fulfill the responsibilities of being a public servant. To start with, self-motivation should be done by means of establishing projection or dealing with your own lost of interest through someone else.  Similarly, Motivation as defined is what causes people to behave as they do (p. 146). Motivation is clearly explained using different theories as popularized by many known experts, such as Needs theories, Expectancy theories, goal-setting theories, equity theories, reinforcement, reward and punishment, participation as a motivator, motivation and life stages, and public service motivation are just some of other theories of motivation. Each of these theories is helpful towards ascertaining specific action towards enhancing motivation.

To conclude, the following are helpful ways to enhance ones motivation be self-reflective and proactive factors differ from person to person think of motivating others as well participate in setting clear and challenging goals be excited with rewards be honest with people treat people fairly and make works satisfying and meaningful and, understand behaviors.

Chapter 7 Leadership in Public Organizations
The leadership style that is appropriate for the modern society should manifest creativity, innovativeness and adaptability. For this reason, the leader must have the capability to influence others and to stimulate participation to pursue the organizational goals. Hence, there are traditional theories that were proven ineffective in certain situations. Trait approach for instance produces different outcomes depending on culture leadership style focusing on task may destroy the morale of the group while relationship may undermine tasks a situational leadership may find difficulty handling unwilling, unable or insecure followers these and many other traditional leadership approaches were found ineffective nowadays.

Contemporary leadership styles are characterized by a persons skills that manifest competencies and strategies. Practically, he has the ability to use power and influence effectively, the ability to communicate with and motivate others, and the ability to work in and among diverse groups (p. 181). Thus, Denhardt differentiated transactional over transformational leadership. Transactional involves an exchange of valued things (185) while transformational is engaging in such a way that each actor achieves higher levels of morality and motivation (185).

These characteristics are important to possess by anyone who handles leadership in the public service because of the diversity of groups, because of the social ideals, and the need for integrity. As concluded, Denhardt stated that leadership in public service needs the skills of shared leadership (p. 199) which can be acquired through constant practice.

Lesson 8 Power and Organizational Politics
This chapter acknowledges the vital role of power in the process of execution of laws and organizational goals in the government. Certainly, the power must be used properly. Power is essential for many reasons but the use of power has also changed because of the changing society it is exercised with the use of shared power (p. 210). From a traditional one-man leadership power (as introduced by Machiavelli, Weber, and Russell), it has evolved to a more equalized power consistent with this enlightened view (p. 214). Hence, power is perceived in the contemporary world as empowering individuals but with the consent and approval of the dominant coalition (p. 215). Power then is not derived from the person but from his position and those powers are differentiated as legitimate, reward, coercive power, referent, and expert power. Power in the public service is structural or function-based through which a person uses the power guided by organizational structure and objectives to avoid overuse of power.

Denhardt suggested to properly manage power through (1) clarify goals, (2) use various tactics and strategies to gain power, exercise influence, and balance the power of others, (3) use impression management, and (4) use power to influence the behavior of others. By means of this, a leader empowers his people and not simply delegates responsibility. Hence, he must enhance his personal power by considering all of its possible sources, making oneself visible and indispensable, taking charge of his own empowerment, using power constructively and effectively, devoting time and energy to clarifying goals, support and foster the empowerment of others, thinking about plan for, and maintain ones awareness of political issues in management and in the implementation process, and whenever possible, being nice.

Chapter 9 Communicating Effectively with Others
Communication is important in managing and leading an organization however, there are barriers that affect understanding between parties. The communication process helps analyzing the barriers since misunderstanding may take place at various point of communication. To eliminate this problem, improving interpersonal communication can help a lot. Through this, there will be supportive communication with one another through face to face communication, persuasive communication, active listening, nonverbal communication, and electronic communication. Aside from that, using specialized forms of communication can enhance communication skills, such as personal counseling meetings dialogue and, memos, reports, and proposal.  Likewise, it is also suggested to explore diversity and interpersonal communication for those in the public service. This can be done by means of learning cultural awareness and by increasing cultural competence.

The following are the guidelines towards enhancing communication skills (1) remember that effective communication involves creating meaning, transmitting meaning, and deciphering meaning recognize the many barriers that inhibit effective communication practice supportive communication when speaking, consider your audience and make sure that your content, tone and approach fit the situation when you wish to persuade someone to accept your position, consider your credibility and work to improve it listen remember that body language communicates more than what we actually say take advantage of electronic communication, but use electronic channels only when they are appropriate always consider the receiver and the norms and expectations embedded in the situation and, remember to consider the ethics of communication.

Chapter 10 Working in Groups or in Teams
Teamwork is also applicable in government service as well as in non-profit organization when outside of workplace. From its definition, teamwork requires mutual responsibility and common goal. Similarly, work group has the same importance as teamwork the difference is that the former has one person that directs the tasks while in teamwork, tasks are shared in management level, managing project, across various functions, and in work processes. In public organization, team implementation begins with team orientation that includes commitment and setting of goals. . To make it effective its design must be supportive of the organizational goal such as conducting team and individual evaluation of performance using the standards of quality, quantity, and timeliness (p.296). Its development towards maturity of teams undergoes several stages in which several conflicts also occur such as interpersonal, structural, and many more (p. 305).

The ways to improve teams effectiveness are clear goals for the team, developed improvement plan, well-defined roles, good communication, and beneficial team behaviors (p. 306).

Chapter 11 Managing Conflict
Conflicts in an organization are important because they provide opportunity for mobilization of ideas as well as promotion of creativity and innovation, and a lot more advantages however, it can be destructive if not resolved properly. Using various theories, management of conflicts will be guided well. Systems theory suggests assessment of the overall system attribution theory involves the actors in resolving any issue while, social exchange theory recommends that individual person must evaluate his interpersonal relationship. At the same time, understanding of the stages of conflict can help eliminate severe effects in case the conflict is not resolved. Managing conflicts for this reason deals with approaches and strategies or techniques categorized as integrative, distributive, and avoidance (p. 325) that can be utilized depending on the kind of existing conflict. Each of these types provides procedure in resolving conflicts.

Since public administration plays an important role in mediating conflicts in society (p. 328), there is a great need for these people to develop the skills in handling conflicts inside and outside the organization. The process then in solving conflicts is enumerated to help others acquire the skill. The following are the suggestions air all viewpoints, clarify the problems and the interests involved, brainstorm solutions, reach agreement, and be aware of your own biases.

Chapter 12 Organizational Change
Change according to Denhardt is the word that remains constant in public organization (p. 335). Hence, government people must recognize it an opportunity to address the issue of sustainability. Organization change in that sense refers to dramatic, systematic, and organic change in the organization (p. 338) in which every actor must have an open-mind about the changes to be initiated. To begin, as suggested in classic approaches, examine the forces that affect social change which include driving and restraining forces. Next, in view of organizational culture, establish organizational values acceptable to members in that way, their behavior will be guided by those values. Open systems and organizational learning by individual members can encourage the following personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, systems thinking, commitment to values, serving the public, empowerment and shared leadership, pragmatic incrementalism, and dedication to public service (pp. 348, 349).

The approaches to organizational change are reorganization, organization development, and change through six sigma. Each gives various steps to attain organizational change not only for private organizations but also for public institutions. These guidelines for actions will guide anyone to ignite consciousness on organizational change (1) consider carefully the emotional and psychological components of resistance to change, (2) try to clarify and communicate the problems, (3) involve people in the changing process, (4) think about the driving and resisting forces, (5) consider the culture of the organization, (6) listen a lot, (7) think of building a capacity for learning in the organization, (8) remember the difference between learning new strategies vs. learning new basic assumptions, (9) think twice if the change needed is structure, (10) encourage change and innovation, and (11) be attentive to the politics of change.

Chapter 13 Representing the Organization On the Outside
The institutional level of an organization is responsible in establishing good rapport between the organization and the society. Relationship with the public and other organization has to enhance to carry out programs and projects as well as to involve them in the government work. Effective relations should be established with trust and confidence with the legislative body establish respect with mass media as active partners in public service and make effective presentations to other organizations. Hence, the new skills of external relations must be developed as well such as listening to citizens, clients and customers understanding how to involve citizens in the work of government and becoming more adept at building collaborative relationships with other groups and organizations (p. 386).

The following have to be kept in mind in establishing effective relationship outside organizations (1)  in representing your agency before the legislature, remember the importance of the relationship between the agency and the legislative body (2) in working with the media, try to develop and maintain a positive attitude (3) in making presentations, know your audience and be clear about what you are trying to accomplish (4) whether you use the term citizen, clients or customer, be attentive to improving the quality of the service you provide (5) you should do whatever is possible to involve citizens in the development and implementation of policy in your agency and (6) seek out opportunities to collaborate with other groups and organizations to meet shared goals.

Chapter 14 Managing Behavior in the Public Interest
This chapter emphasized the significance of ones behavior and the whole organizations behavior in pursuing public service critical to democratic governance. In this chapter, the discussion goes on considering open participative processes within and outside of organization in such a way that involvement of various types of people is ensured. The next issue over the issue of behavior in an organization is ethics which refers to the organizational values that must reflect the values of democracy and the public interest. The last issue deals with the new public service which presents the interplay of roles between the concept of public service and public organizations in relation to democratic governance (p. 406).

Hence, the ideal of the contemporary public administration has the following characteristics it serves rather than steer the public interest is the aim, not the by-product think strategically, act democratically serve citizens, not customers accountability is not simple (law-based and not market-based) value people, not just productivity and, value citizenship and public service above entrepreneurship.