WINTER 2012 - National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and ...

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Yahong Zhang, Robert Lee and Kaifeng Yang Table 1. Top Knowledge and Skills for Managers in Policy Making Knowledge and Skills Frequency 1 Communication skills (a) Listening skills 27 (b) Compromising and consensus-building skills 19 (c) Writing skills 9 (d) Face-to-face communication skills 5 2 Budgeting and financial management 22 3 Information technologies 17 4 Local government structure 16 5 Analytical and research skills 13 6 Practical ethics 11 7 Human resources management 8 9 Strategic planning and management 2 People skills. People skills are also called “soft skills.” Mintrom (2003) defines them as the “habits we cultivate that allow us to make good use of our time, to work well with others, and to communicate our ideas so that they are influential” (p. 1). Communication skills and practical ethics are key components of people skills. The managers in our interviews suggest that their policy-making role especially requires them to have a strong capability to listen to others, deliver ideas, interpret messages, negotiate and compromise with different opinions, and facilitate communications among diverse individuals. As one manager states, “the success of any city manager is based upon that (communication skills). Even if you are frustrated, how do you communicate your frustration as a city manager to your council? That is your challenge.” Communication skills contain many aspects. The managers see listening skills as the most critical, followed by compromising and consensus-building skills, writing skills, and face-to-face communication skills. The following quotes demonstrate the importance of listening skills: 194 Journal of Public Affairs Education
I think communication is one of the most important things they (local public managers) really need. They need to know when to listen, what to listen, and pick up the important issues. * * * You have to have a very key ability to listen. . . . You have to be able to interact with your staff, commissioners, and the community. So the listening skills are really important. * * * It is a big picture that you have to realize you have five bosses. Make sure you are listening to each of them: what is their concern, what is the best thing coming forward to the city? And share your opinion not only in the public meeting, but at least with the elected officials on a one-on-one base. Compromising and consensus-building skills are frequently stressed by the managers. Local managers work with a group of elected officials who may have different ideologies, political goals, and constituencies, and who usually are not trained with professional expertise and sometimes make irrational decisions. “A lot of times policy is not created in a rational way. It is created for an irrational reason or for emotional reason,” indicates a city manager. The situation becomes even more difficult when a manager confronts a split council, which means no matter what issue is at stake, it is always hard to achieve agreement. Therefore, local public managers often have to put themselves in a political game and try to find a way out for the best interest of the community by compromising and negotiating with each party. Being able to work with others, compromise on principles, and an ability to see the “big” picture as well as the smaller details are important skills for one to deal with elected officials. * * * Effective policy making is dependent on being able to bring together diverse opinions. . . . The elected officials today are more diverse in every way which necessitates the aforementioned facilitation skills. * * * Stories from Local Public Managers in Florida Journal of Public Affairs Education 195
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JPAE VOLUME 18 NUMBER 1 JOURNAL OF
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Journal of Public Affairs Education
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FROM THE EDITOR In the symposium in
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NASPAA Presidential Address Annual
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Leading by Example: Modeling Global
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FROM THE GUEST EDITOR FROM THE GUES
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FROM THE GUEST EDITOR A SYMPOSIUM I
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on other fronts, certainly it can h
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Picasso, P. (1937). Guernica. Pictu
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A View from the 50th Street Gate on
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Reflections of a Working-Class Acad
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Reflections of a Working Class Acad
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Reflections of a Working Class Acad
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Class Rooms Kenneth Oldfield Univer
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Class Rooms although I did, but not
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Class Rooms GRADUATE SCHOOL I was u
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Class Rooms the odds this appointee
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Class Rooms The Great Leveler, too
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Class Rooms of higher learning and
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Didactic Changes Class Rooms Pedago
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Shaw, G. B. (1928). The intelligent
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What’s a Girl Like You Doing in a
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What’s a Girl Like You For exampl
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What’s a Girl Like You and operat
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What’s a Girl Like You captured t
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What’s a Girl Like You full-blown
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What’s a Girl Like You and collea
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What’s a Girl Like You toward ser
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Blue-Collar Teaching in a White-Col
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Blue-Collar Teaching Half of my fam
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Blue-Collar Teaching from physics.
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Blue-Collar Teaching lifelong dream
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Blue-Collar Teaching Before him, in
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Blue-Collar Teaching One may argue
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Blue-Collar Teaching graduation in
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Blue-Collar Teaching advantages oth
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Carrizales, T. (2010). Exploring cu
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Oldfield, K. (2010). Socioeconomic
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Moving Forward by Looking Back Gary
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Moving Forward My father married my
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Moving Forward Federalist 51 detail
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Moving Forward their profession, in
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REFERENCES Ashwander v. Tennessee V
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Techniques in Teaching Statistics:
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Many researchers have explored the
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LITERATURE REVIEW Techniques in Tea
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Techniques in Teaching Statistics b
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Techniques in Teaching Statistics T
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Techniques in Teaching Statistics l
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Table 1. Downloads of Papers at Sel
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Figure 2. Expanded Model of Researc
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Techniques in Teaching Statistics o
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Figure 3. Expanded Model of Researc
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Techniques in Teaching Statistics L
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Techniques in Teaching Statistics o
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Felbinger, C. L., Holzer, M., & Whi
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Snee, R. D. (1993). What’s missin
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Are They Connected? Exploring Acade
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Exploring Academic and Social Netwo
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Exploring Academic and Social Netwo
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Information for Contributors The Jo
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