Track
1: Budgeting, Financial Management and Procurement
Sample
Topical Areas:
- Fiscal stress and resource deficiencies
- Effects of
public finance strategies from practice-based research
- Fiscal
accountability and creative budgeting
- Public debt and budget deficits
issues
- Acquisition, contracts, procurement and grants
management
- Privatization and partnerships in the public
sector
- Creating synergies between economic development and
sustainability
- Performance-informed budgeting and reporting
- Changing
the rules for budget decision-making to reduce gridlock
- Financial
transparency and public financial reporting
- Public retirement systems in
state and local government
How do we budget for the unexpected? How do we
finance economic development to remain competitive? How do we utilize the budget
process to fulfill program level performance expectations? How is performance
information utilized in budget decisions? Budget and finance practice has become
increasingly sophisticated, utilizing a cadre of tools to minimize risk—from
interest rate swaps to indexing tax rates to economic and revenue forecasting.
Performance-informed budgeting has become commonplace. But budgets must also
recognize the reality of complex intergovernmental and intersectoral
collaboration, networks and partnerships. They must confront new and expanding
problems that are beyond the reach of individual agencies, programs or line
items. Public-private partnerships offer a mechanism for sharing and allocating
risk for long-term projects. Fiscal stress has characterized budget
decisionmaking in recent years, forcing unique cutback management approaches to
maintain services under fiscal constraint. The new models of budgeting and
finance capture this complexity and continue to break new ground in search of
the proper allocation of resources.
Track 2: Comparative Public
Administration
Sample Topical Areas:
- Trends and developments in global public administration
- Collaboration across public
administration professional organizations (exchanges, collaborations,
internships, study abroad and other initiatives)
- Sharing best practices and
new ideas—how we can learn from each other?
- Strategic approaches to
intergovernmental or inter-organizational networking
- Sustainable governance
in nations around the world
- Emerging models of collaborative
governance
- Democracy and social justice across national
boundaries
- Current issues in international and comparative public
administration
Public administration in a global context offers rich
comparative examination. Multiple principals, goal multiplicity and multiple
dimensions of accountability characterize the current reality for many public
and nonprofit managers around the world. Horizontal relationships, such as
partnership, collaboration, networking and cooperation are commonplace to
achieve economy of scale, address problems that supersede jurisdictional
boundaries and stretch resources. Contractual arrangements and grants
characterize intergovernmental and intersectoral practice in the hollow state,
where multiple levels of government, nonprofit organizations and private
enterprise share responsibility for programs and services. Organizations face
new challenges and bold leadership requires new skills to function effectively
within the current global context. As challenges grow in scope, organizing
solutions will continue to evolve, both strengthened through comparative
understanding and analysis.
Track 3: Environmental Sustainability,
Climate Change and Technology
Sample Topical
Areas:
- Natural resource management
- Implementing green policies and
communities
- Environmental policy and the role of the public
sector
- Social media—trends, patterns and emerging issues
- What does
Government 3.0 look like?
- Technology tools and emerging trends for the
effective administrator
- Innovation and transformation in program design and
service delivery
- Open government, open data and
transparency
- Innovations in transportation
- Synergy between economic
development and sustainability
- Smart growth and livable
communities
- Sustainable financial management in cities and
communities
- Trends, issues and practices in national and global health
policy
Science and technology are creating breakthroughs in health and
medicine, genetics, biotechnology, IT, transportation and other fields, creating
new problems for public administrators. New technologies are the source of
economic development and growth, and regulators must square those values against
safety, equity and other concerns. Scientific evidence has been used to argue
for expanded domain and power for some agencies, while detracting from others. A
“war on coal and oil” squares natural resource-rich states against the federal
Environmental Protection Agency. Amazon.com has explored delivering packages by
unpiloted drones, commercial space travel is nearly a reality and driverless
cars are now on the road. Each technological breakthrough offers potential for
economic development but many also offer more efficient and sustainable
approaches that are necessary to preserve our planet, reduce pollution and
promote intergenerational equity. This track explores the complexity of
technological innovation, related policy and management issues, and its
relationship to environmental sustainability and good governance.
Track 4: Ethics, Integrity and
Law
Sample Topical Areas:
- Professionalism and ethics for public leadership
- Transparency and combating corruption
- International ethics and corruption issues
- Defining standards for
accountable organizations
- Ethical dilemmas facing the public
administrator
- Balancing competing values
- Legal challenges and court
decisions
- Restoring trust and ensuring integrity in government
- Ethical
frameworks and techniques
Transparency is a core democratic and
constitutional value, without which other forms of accountability are not
possible. It provides the ability for citizens to assess what has occurred
within government and is key to developing trust in government. Citizens and
stakeholders have heightened expectations for transparency, ethical
administration and accountability as a result of the Internet and social media.
Technology provides new tools for collecting, processing and delivering
information to its consumers, but it also creates new ethical challenges.
Ethical administration requires not only transparency but also responsiveness to
citizen concerns; it dictates presenting performance information without gaming
data to portray the agency in a favorable light. Both public and nonprofit
agencies have boldly confronted these challenges and are addressing transparency
and ethics in novel ways to promote trust in government.
Track 5: Gender Studies and LGBTQ
Issues and Policies
Sample Topical Areas:
- Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA) and the quest for social equity
- Policy and programming recommendations for gender equality
- Shattering the glass ceiling
- Policy issues affecting this
community: youth, adults and the elderly
- Policy development in gender and
sexually diverse populations in health care
- Sexual orientation issues in
education
- Effectively addressing sexuality discrimination in the public
sector workplace
- Gender equality in the public workforce
This track
addresses the intersection between gender, gender identity, sexual orientation
and culture in the public and nonprofit sectors. It examines policy progress and
challenges and the complex role of public administrators in successfully
navigating volatile policy changes at the federal, state and local levels. It
will also look at gender roles and leadership, as well as contemporary women’s
issues in the workplace, while also illustrating the importance of bold advocacy
work, particularly in the nonprofit sector, to achieve social equity outcomes in
health care, education, workplace discrimination and marriage
equality.
Track 6: Human Resources, Leadership
and Public Management
Sample Topical Areas:
- Managing human resources, engaging employees, succession planning and talent management
- Fostering and managing diversity in the workplace
- Labor
relations, family-friendly workplace practices and employee
satisfaction
- Civil service, merit system reform and pay
reforms
- Leading by example and by process—cases in
excellence
- Strategies to stimulate and harness employee
motivation
- Improved productivity and efficiency
- Collaborative
leadership and governance
- Whistleblower protection
- Performance
management in human resources
People are society’s greatest resource.
Public and nonprofit management rely on human capital for its success. Human
resource management has come to emphasize the noble role of public service
motivation and cultivating leadership as a means to operate within the changing
governance context. Effective human resource management often requires bold
actions designed to promote excellence in performance management, protect
whistleblowers and demonstrate innovative practices designed to attract diverse,
top-notch talent in the public sector at all levels—federal, state and local.
Organizations are continually engaged in innovative approaches to attract,
retain, motivate, reward and advance employees with the specialized skills
necessary to work as part of the complex environment of public and nonprofit
administration.
Track 7: Nonprofits, Civic Engagement
and Advocacy
Sample Topical Areas:
- The role of nonprofits in shaping policy
- Building civil society and voluntary
organizations
- Collaboration with the public sector to provide social and
public services
- Volunteerism and civic engagement
- Capacity building
- Collaboration among nonprofit and NGO professional organizations and
associations
- Public and nonprofit strategies for citizen and stakeholder
engagement
- Citizen engagement and co-delivery of services
- Open source
governance
- Public consultation and participation
- Philanthropy and
civic engagement
- The role of professional membership associations
- Community visioning and master planning
Collaboration with the
nonprofit and public sectors to provide social and public services is essential.
Yet the viability and effectiveness of nonprofits and non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) is uncertain in today’s complex environment. Collaboration
among these organization, and with citizens, is a complex and ever-changing
process. Citizens are actively engaged in public and nonprofit administration as
volunteers, clients, information seekers, information providers and
stakeholders. They are a resource for public and nonprofit programs and agencies
have developed new ways to engage them. Focus groups, citizen advisory boards
and volunteer organizations provide a source of agency support and knowledge
that may improve the quality of service delivery. Citizen engagement holds
potential to influence trust in government and enhance performance in novel
ways.
Track 8: Policy Analysis,
Implementation and Evaluation
Sample Topical
Areas:
- Policy actors and the policy process
- Policy development and
efficiency in service delivery
- Discretion, front-line workers and policy
implementation
- Application of evidence-based practice to
decisionmaking
- Public administration and public policy domains (e.g.,
health, education, transportation, gun control and social policy)
- Closing
the loop on policy evaluation—implementing policy recommendations
- Defining
new standards for accountable organizations
- Using public performance
standards and benchmarking to effectively assess policy
- What gets measured
gets done—or does it? Lessons from the field
- Performance measurement,
sustainable development and governance
- Public policy and affected
communities
This track examines policy analysis and policymaking in the
field of public administration, specifically by exploring key issues in the
policymaking process through formulation, implementation and evaluation.
Strengthening the connection between high-quality performance measures and
decisionmaking should result in better policies for the communities public
administrators serve. How boldly is performance assessed? What are the
consequences for public sector organizations? Examining issues regarding
bureaucratic influences, administrative challenges and evaluating policy
outcomes in the public sector are welcome.
Track 9: Public Administration
Theory
Sample Topical Areas:
- Constitutional democracy and civic education
- Bureaucracy, epistemology and the public
service
- Theoretical concepts and approaches to advancing public
administration
- The role of theory in public administration—theory and
practice versus theory or practice
- Paradigms in public
administration
- Governance and theory
This track examines bold innovations that have become, or
are becoming, the new traditions in public and nonprofit management. Discussion
topics include development of such innovations and their theoretical roots, the
evaluation and contributions to practice-based evidence and their dissemination.
From classical public administration theory to new public management to
complexity theory and post-modern approaches—to name a few—all substantially
influence our understanding of administration and governance. Salient topics,
theoretical foundations, novel techniques and cutting edge research in public
administration theory is a core focus of this track.
Track 10: Public Safety and Emergency
Management
Sample Topical Areas:
- Managing emergencies and advancing public safety
- Public safety, accountability and
public trust
- Strategic crisis management—local Incidents and global lessons
- Implementation challenges in homeland security and emergency
management
- Enterprise risk management
- Learning from the past, planning
for the future
- Facing the unexpected and paying the bills—grants and
funding sources
From hazard mitigation and strategic planning to the
urgent deployment of resources in response to major disasters, public safety
comprises a major component of local, state and federal government
administration. Response to natural disasters like Superstorm Sandy on the
Atlantic coast, wildfires in the west or implications of potentially harmful
virus outbreaks all present unique and unpredictable challenges to police, fire,
EMS and military agencies at all levels. Acts of terror, such as the Charleston
Church Massacre and Orlando nightclub shootings, challenge our efforts to
prevent danger, minimize its effects and respond efficiently and effectively
when necessary. Security is not just a federal responsibility; local and state
agencies share responsibility. Noble public administrators are entrusted to
protect and serve citizens on a daily basis. But what are the public
administration implications when such trust is compromised by previous negative
community relationships, civil protest and violence, such as that witnessed in
Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan and Texas? Policy debate has intensified over
border security and the economic consequences it poses. Agencies often increase
their capacity to respond through professionalization, technology, training,
equipment and simulation. What happens when these tools are not enough? What
innovative approaches offer significant promise?
Track 11: Social Equity, Diversity and
Immigration and At-Risk Communities
Sample Topical
Areas:
- Social equity advances in public administration, public management and public policy
- Structural inequities and institutional racism in the
public sector
- Tribal governance and administration
- Immigration
practices and humanitarian implications
- Quality and provision of public
services in at-risk communities
- Performance management and social
equity
- Prioritizing marginalized voices across public and nonprofit
organizations
- Race, ethnicity, class, ableism and culture in the public
sector
- Privilege in public administration and policy
This track
focuses on saluting the noble work in the field that is advancing principles of
social equity in public administration. Enduring challenges confront bold,
innovative solutions, performance management and accountability. Understanding
the combination of structural inequities and privilege in public administration
and policy is fundamental to realizing social equity. Efforts to address at-risk
communities are predicated upon a commitment to inclusion, fairness and justice.
Diffusion of best and evidence-based practices provides a catalyst for sustained
equity in areas such as tribal governance, immigration, race, ethnicity, class,
ableism and culture.