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The Crisis of Meaning

The Crisis of Meaning

When employees don’t feel valued and don’t feel their work is valued, or can’t see how their work ties into the bigger picture, they lose meaning. Because work feels like…

Public Administration in Today’s Troubled World

Public Administration in Today’s Troubled World

The profession of public administration is an ancient and high calling to service within the varied institutions of government. Since its creation in 1939, ASPA has been a consistent advocate…

Ask Not

Ask Not

Questions persist today about what motivates public servants. One columnist dismisses President Kennedy’s appeal as a “cloak” and asserts those who take his words at face value are “ignoring that…

Pitching Politics

Pitching Politics

People pay taxes to their local state and federal government, as required by law, without consideration of specific services government provides. In the private sector, people choose to pay for…

Status Quo and Loss of Direction

Status Quo and Loss of Direction

Winston Churchill, the former British Prime Minister and one of the greatest wartime leaders of modern history, was voted out of office in July 1945, just two months following the…

Social Justice in Southside Chicago

Social Justice in Southside Chicago

American history is fraught with thousands of examples of community groups that brought national attention to their causes and community needs. These groups force us, as public and nonprofit managers,…

Navigating Religion and Public Service with an Increasingly Diverse Workforce

Navigating Religion and Public Service with an Increasingly Diverse Workforce

It is rare for the discipline of public administration to acknowledge religious inclinations as a public service motivation. This lack of attention or appreciation does not negate the very real…

Dreamers, DACA and the Fourteenth Amendment

Dreamers, DACA and the Fourteenth Amendment

While it’s stated there are over 800,000 DACA recipients in this country currently, Rhode Island’s numbers hover somewhere around 1,200. Under the Trump Administration, only 250 qualify for DACA renewal.…

What’s Next for Food Security?

What’s Next for Food Security?

Food security is a major concern of governmental, nongovernmental and international organizations for moral, health, economic and sometimes for national security reasons. History has demonstrated that food insecurity does not…

World Cup Soccer and Policymaking: Strategies for Success

World Cup Soccer and Policymaking: Strategies for Success

Winning the World Cup, or merely qualifying, as the United States failed to do for this summer’s competition, requires tactics and principles that can provide lessons for successful policymaking and…

Employee Valuation: The “A-ha” Moment!

Employee Valuation: The “A-ha” Moment!

Are Administrators not investing in people because of low output (read: productivity and widgets), or, as Administrators, have we underinvested in our greatest commodity: People? We must have an “A-ha”…