Tracy Morgan Intro- Public Administration (PA301) Instructor Travis Forbes Sept, 12 2011 There were a few elements I noticed, and reflected upon while reading William Robertson: Exemplar of Politics and Public Management Rightly Understood, that I felt he drew upon, to help him successfully run the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services. Roberson utilized; people, place, physical technology, and personality, which were the specific elements that Gaus had mentioned. Let’s discuss how each event in Mr. Robertson’s life was important in reaching his goal, amongst the short term goals that were achieved because of his ability to lead.
While reading Mr. Robertson’s story you could already grasp that he was a strong, yet influential leader, who believed through his military training, that you should lead from the front. Therefore be on the same level as your subordinates, so you can understand their needs, in order to meet and exceed them, for maximum mission effectiveness could be achieved with few discrepancies. He also furthered his knowledge, not for the sake of promotion, but to have a better perspective of what was going to be needed in the future, to perform better in his job on all levels.
So in case a situation arose, he would not be thrown off guard, but have the ability to correctly assess, identify, implement, and evaluate the situation, on behalf of the public, and city. Being in a large city, such as Los Angeles, afforded Mr. Robertson the prime opportunity to shine, because he was always surrounded by all the elements, which included him walking into public council meetings that were normally full of disgruntled people, but with his ability to converse (or manipulate as some would say), thus leaving many of them thanking him.
It could even be coined as a slight form of social technology. He was able to accomplish all this by informing and educating, the people, and council of his duties, so when barriers were put in place, he and his team could work together on empowering the public to make better decisions, or be better prepared for the political battles that would surely arise, for the need for funding was on the table. Roberson’s judgment alone ancelled out Arnstein’s ladder of participation by, inadvertently giving more power to the people with knowledge, and abilities. And as a result the council members showed a little more insight, and support to Robertson, than what they did to his counterparts, thus leading to him to develop physical technologies in paving neighborhoods with limited funding, and still not overcrowding the streets with workers.
