Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
Chapter 13 – Representing the Organization “On the Outside”
Slide 1 – Opening
Slide 2 – Chapter Objectives
•Recognize skills needed for external relations
•Identify steps for a relationship with legislatures
•Define methods of technology usage
•Recognize the importance of working with the media
•Implement methods for effective presentations
•Understand the importance of citizens, clients, and customers
Slide 3 – Working With Others
•Much of what we have discussed to this point has focused on the management of organizational
behavior within public and nonprofit organizations. But leadership, communication, motivation,
and other such issues also are very much at the center of the relationship between any particular
public agency and the individuals, groups, and organizations surrounding it.
•The game of public policy formulation and implementation no longer is played primarily by those
Slide 4 – Working With Others
•Focus on one particular agency—a federal agency, a state-level department or division, a city
department or division, or a nonprofit organization. Construct a chart showing the major actors in
the agency’s environment that agency personnel must deal with on a regular basis.
Slide 5 – Core Skills
•Managers at all levels increasingly are being asked to take on the responsibility of representing
their organizations on the outside. As they do so, they will need to develop the traditional skills of
working with the legislature, working with the media, and making formal presentations as well as
develop new skills in relating to citizens and external groups.
•There are a variety of ways in which those in public agencies interact with elected officials,
especially members of the legislative body. First, of course, most agencies owe their very
Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
in the agencies of government. Inquiries that come from members of the legislature acting on
behalf of their constituents—often the result of legislative “casework”—are matters requiring
administrators’ special attention. Fourth, members of the legislature depend on those in public
agencies for advice concerning emerging policy issues. Those in public agencies often are the
Slide 6 – Core Skills
•Obviously, many government agencies at the federal, state, and local level, as well as many
nonprofit organizations, are using new technologies when dealing with the public. In many ways,
these organizations are putting on a new “face” to the public, a face which may be seen as helpful
and friendly, on the one hand, or tedious and confusing, on the other. In putting their best face
forward, it is important for public and nonprofit organizations to design technological interactions
with the public that meet high standards of excellence.
Slide 7 – Core Skills
•The news media play an extremely important role in a democratic society.
•Obviously, the media communicate both from government to citizen and from citizen to
government. Certainly, the media inform the public about the activities of government and how
Slide 8 – Core Skills
•During your work in a public organization, you often may be asked to make formal presentations.
You may be asked to present a reorganization proposal to top management. You may be asked to
explain a newly developed policy to a legislative committee. Or you may be asked to speak at a
civic club or neighborhood organization. In any case, your ability to deliver an effective
presentation will have an impact on your agency’s work as well as on your own reputation.
Slide 9 – Listening
•In addition to the traditional skills of external relations, today’s public managers must develop
skills in listening to the voices of citizens, clients, and “customers”; in understanding how to
involve citizens in the work of government; and in becoming more adept at building collaborative
relationships with other groups and organizations.
•Over the past couple of decades, those in both the public and private sectors have become more
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Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
Slide 10 – Citizen Involvement
•Involving citizens in the development, and even the implementation, of public policy has long
been an important concern for public administrators. Those in public organizations have sought to
reach out to and involve citizens in many different ways, using techniques such as advisory
Slide 11 – Citizen Involvement
•The various benefits and costs of involvement should be carefully thought out so as to address
the possible concerns or biases that could prejudice the outcome.
Slide 12 – Forms of Public Power
•There are a range of activities that involve the participation of citizens in the work of government.
One way to think about these differences is to focus on the amount of power that is assumed by
the public.
•In a sense, the involvement of citizens in the work of government is part of a larger movement
toward a broad-based system of governance that is emerging. Boyte pointed out that citizens are
Slide 13 – Collaboration
•Public agencies today face issues that are not easily solved by a single agency acting alone.
More and more, major developments in the design and execution of public policy occur through a
difficult and convoluted process of bargaining and negotiation within some particular policy
network. Traditional hierarchical government is giving way to a growing decentralization of policy
interests. Control is giving way to interaction and involvement.
Slide 14 – Collaboration
Slide 15 – Collaboration
•Thomson and Perry (2006) offered five dimensions of collaboration that must be taken into
account in the operation of any collaborative arrangement. The first is what they call the
governance dimension, the requirement that parties must come together to jointly make decisions
about the rules to govern their activities and develop structures through which power can be
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Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
shared. The second, the administration dimension, focuses on management practices and, in
their view, requires “clear roles and responsibilities, the capacity to set boundaries, the presence
of concrete achievable goals, and good communication.” Third is the autonomy dimension, that
is, the process of reconciling individual and collective interests. Parties to a collaboration or
network retain their own distinct identities and allegiances to their “home” organizations, but they
Slide 16 – Collaboration
•According to Imperial these collaborative activities may be confusing because they take place at
many different levels. Collaboration at the operational level, depending on the services that the
government agency delivers, may include actions that will improve environmental conditions,
educate the public and the decision makers, and monitor the activities of delivering the service.
Collaboration on the policy-making level, however, does not have direct effects on the “real
Slide 17 – Ways of Acting
•Increasingly, public managers at all levels will be asked to represent their organizations “on the
outside.” They will be asked to testify legislative bodies. They will be asked to build networks with
other public, private, and nonprofit organizations. They will be asked to find creative ways of
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