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New Leadership Challenges for Local Government New Leadership Challenges
for Local Government
Change
Electronic innovations, world travel, global
markets, new science and technology, and
accelerated information exchange are pushing
communities and their leaders to respond to
changing environments. Speed and change
have always been driving forces in the growth
of big cities. Today, mid-sized cities and even
small towns are experiencing the fast pace and
changes brought by new technologies and
globalization. Thomas Friedman, author of
Lexus and the Olive Tree, compares change to
Formula One auto racing. The cars are de-
signed to go faster and faster every year. And
this speed sometimes gets out of control.
Someone is always running into a wall and
crashing.
The challenge for community leaders is to
avoid crashesthose fatal mistakes that are
made under high-speed pressure and are very
hard to undo. To avoid those fatal mistakes,
leaders have two options:
1. Leaders can avoid all change. This is the
equivalent of banning Formula One racing
so there wont be any crashes. Avoiding
change is hard to do. Change is necessary
for communities that want to grow and
improve their quality of life. More impor-
tantly, technology has connected people
and communities in ways that make
change unavoidable.
2. Leaders can take steps to avoid or reduce
the crash impact. Those steps might in-
clude strategies that control the damage
once the crash has occurred (like having
an ambulance and well-trained rescue
squad with lots of different blood types on
hand). Or leaders can put in place some
preventative measures that protect their
community against out-of-control speed
(similar to building a tougher car that
doesnt fall apart on impact or teaching the
driver to drive better). Community leaders
can develop buffers that protect the com-
munity against change that is too fast (like
placing bales of hay around the track in
case a car spins out of control). However,
too many protective measures, like too
many bales on the track, can slow the race
PM 1938 September 2003
Good governance should strive to be effective,
efficient, and reinforce democracy. 2
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down too much and take the community
out of the race.
Friedman concludes that if you dont want to
do any of these things, you can quit Formula
One racing and become a jogger. But he warns
joggers to be careful. Even on the sidelines
you can get run over by Formula One racers.
If the analogy holds, this suggests that com-
munities that dont want to deal with change
may not be able to avoid it.
Governing cities
What will effective government look like in
the next century? How can leaders of cities
govern well today and prepare their cities for
the future? Governments are getting more
complex. Communication technologies and
changing environments are placing new
stresses on cities infrastructures. Many federal
and state government functions are being
moved to local governments. Citizen expecta-
tions are high, but often are not met. Citizens
across the United States express a loss of
confidence and dissatisfaction with govern-
ment as it is currently functioning (Nye et al.
1997). Less than a quarter of Americans said
they trusted their federal government in 1997.
State and local governments rated a little
better (32 percent and 38 percent respectively)
(Nye et al. 1997). What does this mean for
sustaining democracy and solving community
problems? What are the governing patterns
that could increase local government effective-
ness and citizen confidence?
Local governing and decision making pro-
cesses are key factors in developing and main-
taining communities infrastructure. In this
bulletin, traditional ways of governing com-
munities are contrasted with new governing
strategies. Traditional governance patterns are
defined as the status quo that provide continu-
ity and predictability. New governance is
defined as those patterns that prepare commu-
nities to manage change. The goal of new
governance patterns is to build an infrastruc-
ture that is ready for the opportunities and
hard knocks that change brings.
The challenge for local leaders is to balance
the stability of tradition with new ways of
thinking and doing things. Leaders should
have two outcomes in mind as they evaluate
their own patterns of governing and decide
which new patterns to adopt:
1. Change is managed to benefit the whole
community, not just special interest
groups.
2. Democracy is strengthened.
Local governance
Governance practices can be divided into five
major categories:
1. Administrative processes
2. Public decision making
3. Relationships
4. Public services
5. Economic development
Local practices within these categories overlap
and influence each other. A summary of
traditional and new governance patterns is
provided in the table on page 3. Use this
summary to identify where your community is
currently. Then, think about what you could
do that would better prepare your community
to expect and take advantage of change. I
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The Shifting Paradigm of Governance
Traditional Governance
New Governance
Maintain status quo
Manage change and uncertainty
Administrative processes
Ad hoc standards
Uniform administrative standards
Ad hoc policies
Uniform laws and policies
Paper trails
Electronic information systems
Lone rangers
Administrative teams
Customer focus
Citizen focus
Public decision making
Inner circle decision making
Decentralized, inclusive decision making
Single perspective
Diverse, different perspectives
Secret deal making
Transparent decision process
Limited and lagged information
Instantaneous information flows
Information closely held
Shared information flows
Top down/autocratic
Expanded citizen participation
Reactive
Proactive/plan ahead
Relationships
Local focus/isolationism
Local focus in a global context
Single level relationships
Multilevel networks
Culture of exclusion
Culture of openness
Avoid/ignore clashing values
Manage clashing values
Public services
National and state control/mandates
Decentralization, local responsibility
Categorical focus: finance, technology,
Integration/multidimensional view
politics, health, education, environment,
security, culture
Mass production
Customized applications
Human capital (focus on individual)
Social capital (focus team building)
Public financed
Private-public partnerships
Inputs
Impacts, results, and outcomes
Spend til its gone/go get some more
Fiscal accountability
Economic development
Growth oriented
Development oriented
Grab any economic development offer
Filter and fit technology
New Leadership Challenges for Local Government, L.W. Morton, Department of Sociology,
College of Agriculture, Iowa State University, 2003. 4
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Administrative processes
Governments exist as a framework for group
decision making about resources and issues
citizens hold in common. For local govern-
ments these are decisions about creating
infrastructures (water, roads, libraries,
schools), allocating public resources, and
managing the interactions among citizens so
individual and community rights are balanced.
The core of the government function is an
administrative one. Effective public adminis-
tration includes managing the flow of dollars
and information within and among govern-
ment units and with community residents. It
also provides equity across residents.
Ad hoc standards/ad hoc policies
Many small cities have successfully managed
their public resources without established
standards for land use and development,
housing, animal control, lighting, public
safety, public nuisances, and junk yards.
County, state, and federal minimum standards
have been sufficient.
However, as cities face change, external forces,
new residents, and different viewpoints on
what government should be doing present new
challenges of fairness and equity. Community
leaders must protect the common good and be
fair across citizens, groups, businesses, and
industries. State and federal standards are
often inadequate to protect the unique re-
source base of local communities.
For example, land use planning is one of the
administrative responsibilities of local cities.
According to Iowa