Public Service Exemplars
Product details
- ISBN 9781032212258
- Weight: 670g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 02 Aug 2024
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Understanding and encouraging the development of good leaders are so important that schools of business administration, public administration, public policy, and organizational development teach courses in leadership. Within the public administration literature, scholars have discussed the value of studying outstanding individuals who have been uniquely effective in fulfilling their formal duties, as well as ethical in leading their organizations. Public Service Exemplars is the first book to highlight the decision-making styles of American public servants who serve as models of excellence in public service.
While the roles they held, eras in which they served, formal training for the job, personalities, and relative levels of fame differ widely, the figures profiled in this book are united in their strong belief in the efficacy of government service and a willingness to employ innovative methods for accomplishing objectives. Examining three theories of decision-making by effective leaders (autocratic leadership, democratic leadership, and delegative leadership), this book explores the way that unelected leaders working within public agencies—and, in a couple of cases, the US military—reached decisions that are widely considered to be highly effective. Profiling leaders as diverse as Robert Moses, Frances Perkins, James Webb, Colin Powell, and Anthony Fauci, to name a few, Public Service Exemplars questions whether great leadership truly is, as it is often assumed, an elusive, almost indefinable quality. Can it be taught? Are effective leaders born, made, or a combination thereof? This book will be of keen interest to both current and future public service leaders, including students enrolled in public administration and nonprofit management courses.
J. Michael Martinez is an assistant professor of legal studies at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, Georgia, USA, and a former lecturer of political science and public administration at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Scoundrels: Political Scandals in American History (2023) and Congressional Lions: Trailblazing Members of Congress and How They Shaped American History (2019).
