New technologies are innovations, such as the Internet, wireless communications and information management. These technologies have a profound impact on public administration. Thomas Friedman proclaims that the world is flat (Feiock, Moon, & Park, 2008).
Location ceases to be one of the factors that a business considers when it is assessing its competitive advantage in the current information age. This has implications on the public administrators in the United States. They craft, implement and evaluate economic development strategies or theories. The American communities will find it challenging to maintain an edge through innovation.
Richard Florida argues that the world is spiky. Those places that have higher concentrations of the creative working class are undergoing high levels of economic activities (Feiock, Moon, & Park, 2008). Globalization has offered opportunities for corporations and institutions. It has also created opportunities for the political elites who own or run these corporations.
Globalization has provided connectedness, communications and new forms of integration by means of the Internet, e-governance and administration of organizations worldwide. The twenty first century is characterized by rapid change, globalization, hyper-competition and hyper-uncertainty (Farazmand, 2009).
The public administrators can no longer rely on the success of the traditional systems of governance in this chaotic environment. There are threats of growing poverty, insecurity, terrorism, conflict, war and unemployment. All of these have increased under the emerging new world order, therefore, there should be more global integration.
Globalization of production brings challenges to public administration. The government and especially the public administrators, are finding themselves challenged by globalization in the modern world. The globalization of production changes the role of the government.
To achieve competitive success, there should be strong relationships and linkages across borders and the local settings empowered with strong capabilities (Farazmand, 2009). Such actions will cause great restrictions on the structure and linkages of local and regional economies, including their wealth generating potential and performance.
Roberts (2011) uses smokestacks and silos asmetaphors to portray the inability to share information and integrate system activity, focusing our attention on the lack of coordination from the part of the government. Coordination may be defined as the synchronizing of the system elements to forge a coherent and integrated whole.
E-government appears when the government uses new technology, such as the Internet, to deliver information and services to the public. Citizens can access information at their own convenience. Citizens do not have to wait for a government office to open so that they can get information. These digital models of government are able to change service delivery and the public’s perception.
The continual growth and implementation of e-government and especially e-democracy has proven to be instrumental in governance in the current age. The public are able to access more information on political processes and any new developments (Lee, Chang &Berry, 2011).
Major Themes
Feiock, Moon, & Park (2008) highlight the fact that Thomas Friedman considers technology, like Internet and wireless communication, as the one that allows everyone to be players in the global economy. Logically, a business-centred strategy appeals more to economic development.
The government focuses more on lifting education standards across the US while cities and localities reduce the costs of doing business through subsidiaries. They get incentives in the form of regulatory relief.
Feiock, Moon, & Park (2008) also note that Florida advocates for a people centred strategy. The government should be interested in attracting and retaining personnel to be the drivers of economic development. These individuals have great ideas and access to capital.
Local government should invest in public safety, school systems, urban parks, health care, retail shopping centers and sports. This is a great strategy for the young professional singles who are marrying much later in life. They are the ones that make up a significant ratio of the creative population.
In considering the expansion of administrative capacity in the current age of globalization, micro and macro factors should be considered when designing governance and economic systems (Farazmand, 2009). Macro deals with institutional and organizational policy and managerial issues of public governance and administration on national and international levels.
Micro, on the other hand, deals with acquisition, refinement and application of detailed administrative knowledge and tools to achieve broader goals of macro design. In the age of hyper-change and globalization, there are long-term strategies that will guide public policy and administration action appropriately. They are adaptive strategy, service delivery performance strategy, development and advancement strategies.
The government needs to deal with the challenges of globalization of production. “This involves the need for government to understand global value chains (GVCs), engage in value chain-related trade facilitation, invest in logistics systems, strengthen enterprise clusters and effectively govern the risks, inherent in GVCs and networks” (Roberts, 2011, p.679).
They need to focus on lead efforts to invest in and foster educational capacity, skill development and training.
Smokestacks and silos search of solutions web 2.0 platforms, exemplified in the peer-to-patent and Haitian relief network cases demonstrated one potential solution in reducing coordination costs. In the present age, the information is being generated faster than it can be processed. The National Visualization and Analytics Centre alerted the public to the staggering amount of data being collected.
This was proven in the Haitian case when some nongovernmental organizations opted not to participate in the relief network because they were unable to process all the information relayed to them.
Visual analytics, the new interdisciplinary field that deals with information overload by helping analysts fuse data and detect patterns, affords some relief, but up-to-date, there is no resolution to the information overload that people experience (Roberts, 2011).
In transformation of service delivery and citizen attitudes there are four stages to e-government transformation. These are the bill board stage, the partial service delivery stage, the portal stage with fully executable and integrated service delivery and interactive democracy with public outreach and accountability enhancing features (West 2004). The twin applications, namely, e-government and e-democracy are linked.
The success of policy change implementations depends on how factors, such as learning, political norms, competition and citizen pressures are handled. All four factors are usually strongly addressed in nations where e-government policy is highly advanced.
There are critical and “complex internal factors, such as political norms and public pressure that affect the development of a country’s e-democracy” (Abonyi and Van Slyke, 2010, p.40)
Methods of inquiry
Different methods were used by the different authors in analysing the impact of globalization and new technology on public administration. Feiock, Moon and Park (2008) employed a comparative critical analysis approach grounded from theory to practice. They analysed Thomas Friedman and Florida arguments to determine if the world is flat or spiky.
The study begins by looking at the arguments provided by the two scholars on the effect of governance implications of globalization on economic development. The researchers analyse the two perspectives while considering the four pivotal factors of economic development strategy.
On the other hand, Farazmand (2009) used a descriptive review approach to examine the building administrative capacity for the age of rapid globalization in the midst of rapid changes, increased competition, and hyper-uncertainty. The author presents credible and theoretically grounded arguments, based on his earlier publications and other peer-reviewed studies.
Abonyi and Van Slyke (2010) applied a qualitative descriptive research method where data was collected from extensive fieldwork in the emerging economies of Southeast Asia on globalization of production and challenges to public administration in the twenty first century.
Nancy Roberts’s article on web enabled coordination in organizations and networks critically analyses the two cases of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Peer-to-Patent pilot program and the online relief effort in Haiti following the devastating earthquake in 2010. She illustrates the advantages and constraints of using Web 2.0 technology as a mechanism of coordination and a tool for costreduction.
Darrel West (2004) critically analyses the qualitative web content and public assessments in reference to e-government and transformation of service delivery and customer attitudes. Chung-pin Lee, Kaiju Chang and FrancesStokes Berry critically appraise the factors that affect the development of e-models of government and democracy in over 100 countries over a relative period of time.
Key Findings and Conclusions
Florida argues that the government should create habitable environments that are esteemed highly by the young professionals who are highly creative. This will encourage them to stay longer in these areas.
If economic growth is to be enhanced, then the government should work on reducing over the uncertainty associated with property rights. This will reduce the transaction costs. However, it is critical to note that Florida does not appropriately consider the important role that governance in different regions plays in increasing economic growth.
Metropolitan regions should be analysed and one will see that they are the amalgamation of local and regional economies. Economic success and growth is really dependant on the great relationships between regional entities. This is what creates competitive advantage and success.
Collaboration is crucial. Building, developing and enhancing administration capacity to meet the challenges of this age of rapid globalization characterized by hyper-competition, hyper-complexity and hyper uncertainty is imperative beyond question. Public administrators have no choice but to upgrade their administrative capabilities. This is how they will succeed in the age of globalization and new technology.
There should be great collaborative relationships, based on transparency and accountability. This will lead to stable and sound governance (Feiock, Moon, & Park, 2008).
There are four key factors to be greatly considered by public administrators in order to grasp and understand globalization of production. These are policy liberalization, accelerating technological change, increasing mobility of capital and demands of increasing competition. Abonyi and Slyke (2010) in their study suggest that the government should strategically think about its partnerships with private sector.
They present a conceptual model for consideration. This will really equip the public administrators with leadership capabilities while handling the governance process and related activities, which are needed in globalization of production processes.
What stands out in this proposed information platform for the web enabled coordination in organizations and networks is focus on citizens. Rather than treating citizens as victims in post disaster relief efforts, they would be called on to take on a more active role.
From the devastation of Haiti there has arisen an important realization that citizens armed with Web 2.0 capability are likely to play an increasingly vital role in disaster assistance (Roberts, 2010).
The government must make e-government sites easier to operate by citizens. One stop portals and cross agency offerings should be interlinked, depending greatly on the cooperation of government agencies. The public should be made aware of government-service portals.
The payment for e-government infrastructure is what will remain a challenge in the years to come. It is definite that the delivery of public services will greatly affect the nature of democracy. Compared to the e-government model, e-democracy emerged was developed after elementary or advanced e-government was in place.
Personal Assessment
From a personal perspective, the author(s) of the articles reviewed in the foregoing discussions provide well-informed arguments, based on the analysis of data collected from credible sources. Friedman and Florida debate on whether the world is flat or brings out critical issues.
Innovation without any limitations in regards to location is good especially for underdeveloped countries. The government will focus more on lifting education standards across the US. It is true that the increase of knowledge positively affects the skill and productivity of individuals.
There is a comparative production factor advantage in both their arguments. For Florida, the government should create habitable environments that are esteemed highly by the young professionals who are highly creative.
This will encourage them to stay longer in these areas. If economic growth is to be enhanced, then the government should work on reducing over the uncertainty associated with property rights. This will reduce the transaction costs.
I support Abonyi and Slyke’s argument that the government should work closely with the private sector to cope with globalization. It is important that the government consults the private sector to learn about their specific constraints, threats and the opportunities that they face to perform favourably.
Roberts’s article emphasizes on the government’s need to work on their coordination and highlights various models that can be used as a solution to the problem. Darrell West and Lee discuss e-government and e-democracy in a clear manner. In my opinion, they will always be related; they are both fundamental for the public administrators to cope with the rapid growth of globalization.
Overall, all the authors argued very strong cases and provided credible information which can be enlightening to the government and public administrators. The recommendations they gave will contribute to finding solutions to encompass the challenges of the globalization and new technologies being brought to economic development.
References
Abonyi, G., & Slyke, D. (2010). Governing on the edges: Globalization of production and the challenges to public administration in the twenty-first century. Public Administration Review, 70(1), 33-45.
Farazmand, A. (2009). Building administrative capacity for the age of rapid globalization: A modest prescription for the twenty-first century. Public Administration Review, 69(6), 1007-1020.
Feiock, R., Moon, M., & Park, H. (2008). Is the world “Flat” or “Spiky”? Rethinking the governance implications of globalization for economic development. Public Administration Review, 68(1), 24-35.
Lee, C., Chang K.,& Berry F. (2011). Testing the development and E- Government and E-Democracy: A global perspective. Public Administration Review, 71(3), 444-454.
Roberts, N. (2011). Beyond Smokestacks and Silos: Open Source, Web- Enabled, Coordination in Organizations and Networks. Public Administration Review, 71(5), 677-693.
West, D. (2004). E-government and the transformation of service delivery and citizen attitudes. Public Administration Review, 64(1),15-27.