The online Master of Public Administration (MPA) Public Management track program from Arkansas State University (A-State) prepares students to tackle the many challenges leaders in public services face. An essential focus of A-State’s online MPA in Public Management program is addressing the needs of underserved populations in urban areas that have long gone unmet by traditional public services.
In the minds of many, public administration reform is necessary to successfully support disadvantaged populations, promoting equity in access to robust and effective services. Innovation is key to driving such reform and central to the current discourse in public administration.
Why Is Public Administration in Need of Reform and Innovation?
In a sense, the complexities and challenges of modern public administration are compounded by traditional approaches to public service.
American public sector services have evolved within the context of the country’s development, values, politics and institutions. The United States’ democratic ideals promote access to a high quality of life for all. Yet, American institutions and a societal structure based on individualism, capitalism and generational wealth perpetuate and reinforce long-standing socio-cultural and economic inequities.
Public services directly aim to address these inequities. However, traditional approaches to public service reflect the institutions and dominant culture by which they were created, often including that culture’s ingrained biases and historical prejudices.
This is to say that, to a degree, some traditional public sector services have become ineffectual or even harmful to many of the people they serve. Thus, public administration reform and innovation are needed to improve public service’s positive impact on society.
What Kinds of Innovations Could Improve Public Administration?
Current innovations in public administration are promising. At the root of many are concepts like co-creation, co-production and co-design. These ideas essentially refer to bridging the gap between public services and the people served.
This means all stakeholders (citizens, public servants, community organizations and politicians) should be involved in designing, creating, executing and evaluating public policies and services. Advocates argue that the very people affected should be central to discussions regarding what services they need and how they can best access those services. Policymaking should similarly include and represent the people that policies impact. Ideally, this system of collaboration fosters more democratic, accessible and engaging representative public services and policies.
Modern technologies are also spurring public administration innovation. Traditionally, the public service approach to solving a problem might be fairly simplistic or reactive, addressing symptoms of a problem with little structural change and long-term efficacy. Analyzing and addressing the intersecting, correlational factors at the root of a whole system can be dizzyingly complex.
However, modern technologies driven by artificial intelligence (AI) can gather and analyze vast quantities of data in extremely complex, relational ways. These technologies can provide insight into correlational and causational relationships between otherwise disparate datasets, such as social and economic conditions, people, behavior, demographics and environmental factors, to name a few.
This degree of multi-layered data analysis can help researchers and public servants uncover the underlying factors that intersect and lead to a given problem. Leaders in the field can then use these insights to strategically design services that address the root of such issues, resulting in more positive, long-term impacts.
What About Risk Management in Public Administration Innovation?
Innovation in any setting comes with risks, especially when considering public service and the community’s well-being. A large-scale public administration strategy that is poorly implemented or ineffectual in practice could negatively impact large populations. A mismanaged plan could even worsen the problem it is meant to address.
AI-driven analytics, for example, can learn and perpetuate biases due to poor datasets or implicit bias ingrained in programming parameters. To mitigate this risk, software vendors and users must be vigilant in monitoring, detecting and addressing potential biases in programming, data and analysis.
Public administration professionals must consider these risks when implementing any strategy into practice. Leaders must address and identify potential flaws in the design and constantly monitor and assess potential impacts during execution.
Managing innovation and reform in public sector policies and services is not a simple task. It involves taking risks, challenging institutions and deconstructing systemic inequities. But creative, strategic innovation in public administration can potentially disrupt antiquated patterns and social structures. Leaders who drive this change can be instrumental in helping overcome the many challenges society faces today.
Learn more about A-State’s online MPA Public Management program.