Management and Administration Flashcards
Cost-benefit analysis
- estimates the total monetary value, costs and benefits, of a project.
- typical for public projects (highways, public facilities)
- social and environmental benefits and costs must be given monetary values.
- set for particular time and location
- compare current situation with proposed project
History: Jules Dupuit conceived of it in 1848. Federal Navigation Act of 1936 required US Army Corps of Engineers waterway system projects to have benefits exceeding costs
Cost-effectiveness Analysis
- selecting among competing projects when resources are limited
- (Cost of new strategy - cost of current pracctice) / (effect of new strategy - effect of current practice)
- CE ratio can help determine which option is most effective
developed by the military
net present value
- calculates the net monetary value of a project
- discounted to today’s present value
- NPV > 0 means monetary benefit outweights its monetary costs
- need to know: years of the project’s lifespan, quantified monetary benefits, monetary costs, and interest rate
Internal Rate of Return
- evaluation of financial benefit of a project
- NPV = 0, interest rate blank
- if IRR is greater than available market interest rate, the project is financially beneficial
Goals Achievement Matrix
GAM
- comprehensive way to evaluate different projects
- table that lists projects in rows and evaluation criteria in columns
- score each project against evaluation criteria and compare
Gantt Chart
- focuses on sequence of tasks neccesary for project completion
- x-axis is time scale
- each task is a single horizontal bar
- length of bars correspond to duration of task
- often show dependency, when one task cannot begin until another is completed
Linear Programming
- attempts to find optimum design solution for a project
- takes a set of decision variables, within constraints, and generates an optimum design solution
Program Evaluation and Review Technique
PERT
- scheduling method; large scale project
- graphically illustrates the interrelationships of project tasks
- good when precise time estimates are not available for project tasks
- steps: identify the specific activities and milestones; determine the proper sequence of activities; construct a network diagram; determine the critical path; update the PERT chart as the project progresses
History: developed in the 1950s by the US Navy
What are the steps of the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)?
- identify the specific activities and milestones
- determine the proper sequence of activities
- construct a network diagram
- determine the critical path
- update the PERT chart as the project progresses
Critical Path Method
CPM
- project analysis tool, large-scale projects
- generates a “critical path” through the project tasks
- each tasks has a known amount of time to complete
- tasks cannot be completed before the previous one
- longest path is the critical pathway
What does effective management of a planning organization require consideration of?
- organizational form
- human resources
- administrative operations
- strategic planning
- budget and finance
horizontal/flat organizational structure
- few or no levels of management between management and staff level employees
- less supervision
- employees more involved in decision-making process and have greater responsibility
- pros: can increase efficiency, reduce costs, and speed up commmunication without excess maangement
- cons: employees may lack a clear sense of directive or job duties; employees tend to be generalists rather than deep knowlege in a few subject areas; potential for power struggles over decision-making authority
- better for small organizations
Verticial/heirarchical organizational structure
- resembles a pyramid
- each employee subordinate to someone else except at top
- pros: clear sense of leadership and their level of responsibility on each task and project; promotional opportunities for employees to move “up”; employees can develop expertise in one area resulting in specialists; departmental loyalty
- cons: departments may not communicate well and rivalries could develop; more bureacracy which can slow responsiveness; could be more expensive with more mangagement
Is a horizontal or vertical structure better for larger companies?
vertical
Are specialists more likely to develop in horizontal or vertical organizational structures?
vertical
Matrix organizational structure
- encourage interdisciplinary problem solving
- difficult to manage and can be ineffective for large organizations
- both vertical and horizontal chains of command can form, sometimes causing confusion
Compensation Plan
regularly compares salaries to other organizations to determine if salaries are competative
Strategic planning
- guide an organization in determining its future
- sets goals, objectives, and policies for reaching the set objectives
- allows an organization to imagine its future while also understanding changes in operations needed
- short term - 5 or fewer years
- sometimes used instead of comprehensive planning, but not as effective at broad scale and scope
What are 8 elements/steps of a strategic plan?
- Analyze the community or organization’s needs
- identify results - determine what long-term objective the city or organization is going to pursue
- admit uncertainties - analyze the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats relating to the objectives
- involve strategic stakeholders
- identify the role of the city
- develop a funding policy
- evaluate performance
Results Oriented Management and Accountability
ROMA
- sound management practice that incoporates the use of outcomes or results into the administration, management, and operation of community action agencies
- focus on results, service quality, and customer satisfaction
- cycle: assessment -> planning -> implementation -> achievement of results -> evaluation -> back to assessment …..
History: launched in 1993 when Congress passed the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) to improve federal program effectiveness and public accountability
Benchmarks
(in ROMA process)
- performance data used for comparative purposes
- can use internal data to benchmark future progress against or data from another program
impacts
(in ROMA process)
direct or indirect effects or consequences of achieving program goals
outcome indicators
(in ROMA process)
- describe observable, measurable characteristics or changes that represent achievement of an outcome
ex: for a program with desired outcome of participants pursuing a healthy lifestyle could define “healthy lifestyle” as getting at least two hours of exercise each week
inputs
(in ROMA process)
resources a program uses to achieve program objectives
examples: staff, volunteers, facilities, curricula, and money
Measures
(in ROMA process)
- dependent on the objective to be measured, the availability of opportunities for measurement, and the cost of the measurement process
- can be quantitative, qualitative, objective, or subjective
