Introduction to Public Affairs
Chapter Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Introduction to Public Affairs provides students with a comprehensive overview of the field of public affairs, exploring the foundational concepts, structures, and processes that shape public policy and governance. The course examines the roles and functions of government institutions, non-governmental organizations, and the public in the policy-making process. Students will engage with key issues such as public administration, ethical considerations, stakeholder engagement, and contemporary challenges in public service. Through case studies and real-world examples, students will develop analytical and critical-thinking skills necessary to understand and address societal problems within the context of public affairs.
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Managing the Public Sector 9th Edition by Grover Starling
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Chapter 1: The Nature of Public Administration
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Q1) Which of the following was NOT mentioned as a significant difference between the public and private sectors?
A)Absence of profit in the public sector
B)Size of operations in the public sector
C)Blurring of responsibility in the public sector
D)Higher visibility to the public in the public sector
E)Different incentives
Answer: B
Q2) Official records underestimate the true size of government because they ignore people working for the federal government on contracts and grants.If we include these people, along with uniformed military services and Postal Service workers, the real size of government is about
A) 3 million
B) 5 million
C) 8 million
D) 12 million
E) 25 million
Answer: D
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Chapter 2: The Political-Legal Environment of Administration
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Q1) Which of the following statements about administrative rulemaking is INCORRECT?
A) The most common rulemaking procedure is notice-and-comment rulemaking
B) The rules and regulations of all federal agencies are compiled in the Code of Federal Regulations.
C) Interpretive rules are legally binding on the public.
D) An agency need not respond to all comments.
E) Rulemaking is a continual national activity for more than 100 agencies.
Answer: C
Q2) According to Harold Seidman, executive agencies and legislative committees as allies often make common cause against the "third house of Congress." What is the third house?
A)The Rules Committee
B)The appropriations committees
C)The Speaker of the House and his staff
D)The Congressional Budget Office
E)The General Accounting Office
Answer: B
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Chapter 3: Intergovernmental Relations
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Q1) Although there is no straightforward, universally accepted method for negotiating disputes between governments and organizations, some strategies do consistently seem to work better than others.Which of the following would experts LEAST likely recommend?
A)Conceive of interest narrowly
B)Change the parties involved in the bargaining
C)Change the existing organizational structure
D)If a memorandum of understanding needs to be prepared, you be the one to do it
E)Use objective criteria
Answer: A
Q2) Any relationship in which one party, the principal, considers entering into a contractual agreement with another, the agent, expresses the principal-agent model.Regardless of the reason for relying on an agent, the principal faces what two problems?
A)Influence activities and the problem of vertical expansion
B)Design decisions and pricing decisions
C)Sunk costs and skimming
D)Adverse selection and moral hazard
E)Externalities and competitive bidding
Answer: D
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Chapter 4: Administrative Responsibility and Ethics
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Q1) The first two stages in the process of ethical analysis, as presented in the text, concern:
A) issued definition and moral philosophy
B) core values and "gut check"
C) interpretation and explanation
D) core values and fact gathering
E) moral philosophy and "gut check"
Q2) Which of the following was NOT listed in the text as a pricing strategy a public-sector organization might follow?
A) profit maximization
B) price inversion
C) discriminatory
D) cost-recovery
E) cost plus
Q3) What is the difference between malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance?
Q4) Define the public interest.
Q5) What is administrative responsibility?
Q6) Why should an administrator study ethics?
Q7) At a practical level, why is honesty important in a society?
Q8) Discuss some of the reasons some public officials deceive.
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Chapter 5: Planning
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Q1) Public administrators need to know the consequences of using different tools to implement policy.What tools are available? Which consequences are especially worth exploring?
Q2) How do policies, plans, and programs differ?
Q3) Which of the following is NOT an advantage of the rational planning model?
A)Keeps workers goal-oriented
B)Forces managers to translate goals into actions
C)Helps create a network of information
D)Incorporates feedback
E)Builds on the premises of logical incrementalism
Q4) What advice does Behn offer for terminating a program?
Q5) The Delphi technique is an example of
A)structured decision making.
B)expert forecasting.
C)unstructured decision making.
D)crisis management.
E)qualitative forecasting.
Q6) List and briefly explained the four types of program evaluation found in the federal government.
Q7) Discuss the three stages of crisis management.
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Chapter 6: Decision Making
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Q1) What are some of the biases in human decision making that administrators should be aware of?
Q2) List a few public sector decisions in which a decision tree might be helpful.Why?
Q3) The first step in decision making is to identify the problem.Discuss some of the difficulties this step entails.
Q4) In the drawing on the right, the unshaded rectangle in the middle is best described as
A)a graphic representation of the pressures decision makers face.
B)the zone of indifference.
C)the zone of feasibility.
D)type III decisions, which combine a top-down and bottom-up decisions.
E)systems analysis.
Q5) What are the four steps in program evaluation? Discuss some of the difficulties in doing an evaluation of a government program.
Q6) Given example of a multi-objective model that might help an administrator make a decision.
Q7) How does cost-effectiveness analysis differ from cost-benefit analysis?
Q8) Compare and contrast systems analysis to operations research.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Organizing
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Q1) According to Peter Drucker, four factors -- futurity, reversibility, impact, and rarity -are helpful in
A) determining where a decision belongs
B) re-examining the final organizational form
C) determining what are the key activities in an organization
D) deciding whether an organization is mechanistic or organic
E) providing the rationale for reorganization
Q2) Organizational design involves making decisions about four fundamental principles of organization.Which of the following is NOT one of those for principles?
A) division of labor
B) hierarchy
C) span of control
D) unity of direction
E) line and staff
Q3) Defined a network organization and give an example.
Q4) Briefly explain the seven traits of an effective organization.
Q5) What do organization charts show? What are their limitations?
Q6) The text identified two types of teams: cross-functional and permanent.Given example of each.
9
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Chapter 8: Leading
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Q1) According to experts, which of the following statements about committee meetings is LEAST correct?
A) The convener should draw up an agenda and circulated it in advance.
B) The most effect groups have a balance among members of intelligence, on the one hand, and social ability, on the other.
C) Ideally meetings should begin with a short speech.
D) Voting for a formal ratification is not the best way to determine consensus.
E) One reason to have meeting is to disseminate information.
Q2) Explained the significance of the Hawthorne studies.
Q3) Though groups follow no rigid patterns, researchers find that most groups develop in four stages.List and briefly discuss each.
Q4) What leadership traits do you consider most important.Why?
Q5) According to the text, which of the following is NOT a stage that groups typically go through as they develop?
A) storming
B) performing
C) norming
D) interacting
E) forming
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Chapter 9: Implementation
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Q1) The Environmental Protection Agency has constructed the above network for a project and estimated the most likely times in weeks for the various activities.What is the critical path?
A)18 weeks
B)24 weeks
C)26 weeks
D)45 weeks
E)52 weeks
Q2) To make a clear statement about its commitment to quality and accuracy, a police department would most likely use
A) matrix algebra
B) expediters
C) ISO 9000
D) compliance management
E) golden fleece awards
Q3) Why do some think public-private partnerships are an attractive way to deliver services?
Q4) What is Total Quality Management?
Q5) "Much of what public sector organizations do involves case management." Explain.
Q6) How does backward mapping work?
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Chapter 10: Human Resources Management
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Q1) Murray R.Barrick and Michael K.Mount investigated the relation of these factors to job performance for five occupational groups (professionals, police, managers, sales, and skilled).Results indicated which dimension of personality showed consistent relations with all job performance criteria for all occupational groups?
A)Extraversion
B)Agreeableness
C)Conscientiousness
D) Neuroticism
E) Openness to experience
Q2) Discuss the relevance of the "big five" personality dimensions to recruiting and testing
Q3) Traces the development of public personnel management in the United States from "government by a gentleman" to "government by shared power."
Q4) Discuss the rights and responsibilities of public employees with respect to political activity, free speech, and privacy.
Q5) What did the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 do?
Q6) What are the four steps that normally constitute the formal grievance process?
Q7) Should public employees be allowed to strike?
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Public Financial Management
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Q1) To make the budget process more flexible, the executive and legislative branches engage in certain compromises.Explain how the following compromises work: backdoor spending, reprogramming, transfers, and supplemental appropriations.
Q2) Which of the following authors identified various strategies managers can and do use in the budget process?
A)Mice Rivlin
B)Mancur Olsen
C)Frederick Mosher
D)Aaron Wildavsky
E)J.B.Colbert
Q3) According to Allen Schick, there are three purposes of a budget.List these purposes and explain how these purposes shaped the budget's format.
Q4) Explain uncontrollable expenditures.Why are they a problem?
Q5) Discuss some of the political strategies various agencies, legislators, and interest groups employ during the budgeting process.
Q6) Explain the importance of cash management to state and local governments.
Q7) Distinguish between the following terms: budget authority, obligations, outlay, and cost.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Information Management
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Q1) The table above shows the essence of a formal reporting system used by
A)the U.S.Army in its after-action reports.
B)Texaco's visualization center.
C)Microsoft's senior management.
D)the British civil service in India.
E)New Zealand's Ministry of Treasury.
Q2) Define knowledge management.What are the key features of a knowledge management program?
Q3) To help nontechnical managers avoid information (IT) mistakes, Ross and Weill identify six decisions for which those managers should take responsibility.Explain what those decisions involve.
Q4) _______________ is data that are meaningful and that alter the receivers understanding -- the data that managers actually use to interpret and understand events in the organization and the environment.
A) input
B) knowledge
C) information
D) a list of talking points
E) a decision-support system
Q5) "Reason and instinct do not represent rival views of leadership." Explain.
Page 14
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