Instructor Resource

Kettl, Politics of the Administrative Process 7e

SAGE Publishing, 2018

Test Bank for Politics of the Administrative Process

7th Edition Kettl 1506357091 9781506357096

Download full test bank at:

https://testbankpack.com/p/test-bank-for-politics-of-the-administrative-process-7th-
edition-kettl-1506357091-9781506357096/

Download full solution manual at:

https://testbankpack.com/p/solution-manual-for-politics-of-the-
administrative-process-7th-edition-kettl-1506357091-9781506357096/

Chapter 6: Organization Problems

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. All of the following are part of the general administrative puzzles that American
government uses to solve the dilemmas brought on by coordination EXCEPT ______.
a. interagency conflict
b. representativeness
c. interagency coordination
d. role of staff in supporting and controlling operating activities
Ans: B

2. Promotion of private efficiency, accountability to the president, and effective database

are components of which government organizational concern?
a. choosing organizational criteria
b. interagency coordination
c. interagency conflict
d. role of staff
Ans: A

3. Which organizational concern emphasizes purpose, clientele, process, and place?

a. choosing organizational criteria
b. interagency coordination
c. interagency conflict
d. the role of staff
Ans: C
 Instructor Resource
Kettl, Politics of the Administrative Process 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2018

4. Staff activities are responsible for all of the following EXCEPT ______.
a. commanding line officials
b. giving advice
c. securing organizational leverage
d. monitoring implementation of presidential decisions
Ans: A

5. Executive restructuring efforts that focus on enhancing symmetry and improving the
logical grouping of activities are associated with ______.
a. clearance procedures
b. executive leadership
c. representativeness
d. neutral competence
Ans: D

6. The major components for governments’ structure may include all of the following
EXCEPT ______.
a. accountability to Congress
b. compatibility with state regulation
c. capacity to generate profit
d. utilization of an effective database
Ans: C

7. The organizational concern that emphasizes horizontal and vertical activity is ______.
a. the role of staff
b. interagency conflict
c. choosing organizational criteria
d. interagency coordination
Ans: D

8. Line activities are responsible for ______.

a. operating activities
b. giving advice
c. securing organizational leverage
d. monitoring implementation of presidential decisions
Ans: A

9. Neutral competence restructuring efforts in government have focused on all of the

following EXCEPT ______.
a. reducing the executive’s span of control
b. improving grouping of activities
c. creating interest group panels
d. strengthening administrative coordination
Ans: C
 Instructor Resource
Kettl, Politics of the Administrative Process 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
10. This was NOT one of the basic organizational values developed by Herbert
Kaufman.
a. neutral competence
b. executive leadership
c. coordination
d. representativeness
Ans: C

11. What is the term for those support units (such as personnel or budgeting) that
promote the functioning of an agency?
a. control activities
b. line activities
c. operating activities
d. staff activities
Ans: D

12. What is an iron triangle?

a. a theory that suggests agency managers, congressional committees and
subcommittees, and interest groups work closely to shape policy and that their shared
work is more important than other forces on the process
b. a theory that suggests agency managers, cabinet members, and interest groups work
closely to shape policy and that their shared work is more important than other forces
on the process
c. a theory that suggests agency managers, congressional committees and
subcommittees, and cabinet members work closely to shape policy and that their
shared work is more important than other forces on the process
d. a theory that suggests cabinet members, congressional committees and
subcommittees, and interest groups work closely to shape policy and that their shared
work is more important than other forces on the process
Ans: A

13. Staff roles include which of the following?

a. core-assist, assisting, and technical
b. assisting, technical, and senior
c. core, auxiliary staff, and control
d. line, technical, and executive
Ans: C

14. Which framework is recognized by an organizational design that minimizes political

interference in issues concerning the technical parts of administration?
a. representativeness
b. executive leadership
c. neutral competence
d. an interagency agreement
Ans: C
 Instructor Resource
Kettl, Politics of the Administrative Process 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
15. Horizontal cooperation seeks to draw related agencies together in common purpose
through which of the following?
a. conflict resolution
b. terms with contracted services
c. common agreement
d. vertical coordination
Ans: C

16. What exists at the cabinet, subcabinet, and bureau levels to promote collaboration
in jointly occupied areas?
a. clearance procedures
b. lead agency formulas
c. interagency committees
d. interagency agreements
Ans: C

17. Since parties rarely relinquish control of core functions to another, coordination is
difficult and therefore requires which of the following?
a. volunteerism and staff
b. vertical coordination
c. contracts and payments
d. horizontal collaborators
Ans: B

18. What provides the basis for collaboration in jointly occupied areas of government
activity?
a. interagency agreements
b. interagency committees
c. lead agencies
d. clear procedures
Ans: B

19. The auxiliary staff role is most closely associated with ______.
a. administrative support
b. business operations
c. pure-staff functions
d. revenue generation
Ans: A

20. What effect did the Supreme Court’s 1983 ruling on reorganization have on the
president’s ability to reorganize the executive branch?
a. The decision strengthened the president’s authority.
b. The decision weakened the president’s authority.
c. The decision affirmed the president’s past actions.
d. The decision required the president to ask OMB for analysis first.
Ans: B
 Instructor Resource
Kettl, Politics of the Administrative Process 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2018

21. How are staff activities differentiated from from line activities?
a. Staff command and line listen.
b. Staff assist and line command.
c. Staff are operators and line act.
d. They perform the same duties.
Ans: B

22. According to the text, the government’s response to September 11, 2001,
demonstrates how ______.
a. clearance procedures were misused
b. coordination and collaboration failed to be employed
c. pure-staff failed in their positions
d. control staff failed in their positions
Ans: B

23. Which of Kaufman’s organizational values calls for a strong president, governor, or
mayor and strong department heads, all who adhere to a hierarchical organization that
responds to the chief’s policy priorities?
a. neutral competence
b. representativeness
c. executive leadership
d. equilibrium
Ans: C

24. According to organizational theory, conflict stems from a mismatch of any of the
following agency bases EXCEPT ______.
a. executive
b. purpose
c. clientele
d. place
Ans: A

25. Organizational arrangements that respond to legislative interests and to the

clienteles most affected by agency decisions describe which of Kaufman’s basic
organizational values?
a. horizontal cooperation
b. executive leadership
c. neutral competence
d. representativeness
Ans: D

26. Staff roles have been defined as all of the following EXCEPT ______.
a. line staff
b. pure-staff
c. auxiliary staff
 Instructor Resource
Kettl, Politics of the Administrative Process 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
d. control staff
Ans: A

27. Of the following choices, what determines which issues get priority?
a. structure
b. cooperation
c. coordination
d. auxiliary staff
Ans: A

28. Iron triangles align congressional committees with departments or bureaus and
______.
a. pure-staff
b. state representatives
c. interest groups
d. auxiliary staff
Ans: C

29. In 1983, the Supreme Court fundamentally changed the role of how the president
can reorganize, create, and consolidate agencies making all of the statements below
true EXCEPT ______.
a. the presidency lost some of its executive power
b. the Supreme Court must rule on the constitutionality of each of the president’s plans
for agency reorganization
c. the president’s plan must be approved by a joint resolution of the House and Senate
within ninety days after receipt
d. congressional idling in neutral is no longer to the president’s advantage
Ans: B

30. According to the text, the president can comprehensively reorganize the executive
branch either through an act of Congress or ______.
a. through reducing White House staff
b. by altering department mission
c. by shifting cabinet responsibilities
d. through a small handful of bureaus
Ans: D

31. ______ seeks to bring two warring agencies before a person with the formal
authority to make a decision.
a. Horizontal cooperation
b. Vertical coordination
c. Interagency conflict
d. Organizational criteria
Ans: B

32. _______ are created to establish specific boundaries and to clarify agencies’ tasks.
 Instructor Resource
Kettl, Politics of the Administrative Process 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
a. Interagency committees
b. Lead agency formulas
c. Clearance procedures
d. Interagency agreements
Ans: D

33. _______ require that an agency’s proposed decisions in a particular subject-matter

area be reviewed by other interested agencies.
a. Lead agency formulas
b. Interagency committees
c. Clearance procedures
d. Interagency agreements
Ans: C

34. _______________ depends on the willingness of agencies to come to agreement

with one another.
a. vertical integration
b. horizontal cooperation
c. vertical cooperation
d. horizontal integration
Ans: B

35. Four methods cited by the author for achieving horizontal cooperation include
_________, _________, ______________, and _____________.
a. interagency agreements; interagency committees; funding; presidential leadership
b. lead agency formula; clearance procedure; appropriations; OMB clearance
c. interagency agreements; interagency committees; lead agency formula; clearance
procedure
d. interagency agreements; interagency committees; Congressional approval; a solid
plan
Ans: C

True/False

1. Vertical coordination is sometimes associated with warring agencies.

Ans: T

2. Horizontal cooperation may include agencies coming together on the basis of

coercion.
Ans: F

3. Auxiliary staff provide basic housekeeping functions.

Ans: T

4. Staff and line activities are synonymous.

 Instructor Resource
Kettl, Politics of the Administrative Process 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
Ans: F

5. Auxiliary units inevitably exercise specialized control functions, especially because

top executives rarely want to invest their scarce time in housekeeping disputes.
Ans: T

6. Actual reorganization of government is common.

Ans: F

7. According to public administration scholars, the choice of organizational structure is

not a political move by public administrators.
Ans: F

8. Interagency coordination may be a problem for organizations, but intra-agency

coordination is NOT a problem.
Ans: F

9. Coordination requires intervention by a coordinator, which is a vertical activity.

Ans: T

10. Employees who manage the core functions of an agency are staff officials. Those
who support their work are line officials.
Ans: F

11. Interagency agreements require that an agency’s proposed decisions in a subject-

matter area be reviewed by other interested agencies.
Ans: F

Short Answer

1. Who coined the term neutral competence and what is it?

Ans: Answers will vary. In 1956, Herbert Kaufman argued that the three basic
organizational values were neutral competence, executive leadership, and
representativeness. The quest for neutral competence calls for the creation of a highly
skilled bureaucracy insulated from the political interference that can undermine
efficiency. This does not mean that bureaucracy is politically unaccountable or
unresponsive, but it does mean that organizational designers must take care to
minimize political meddling in issues that deal with the technical parts of administration.

2. What is the biggest difference between horizontal and vertical coordination?

Ans: Answers will vary. Horizontal coordination is marked by willing agencies coming
together to solve a problem or work on a project; vertical coordination is marked by
authority whereby a coordinator forces cooperation.

3. What role does a pure-staff official fulfill?

 Instructor Resource
Kettl, Politics of the Administrative Process 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
Ans: Answers will vary. Pure staff serve as the managers’ top assistants; they provide
managers with their perceptions on critical concepts and ideas affecting the agency,
mission, and so forth. They provide the manager with both original ideas and screened
ideas of others.

4. What does control staff do?

Ans: Answers will vary. Control staff officials assist managers with compliance and
oversight over the organization.

5. What are interagency agreements?

Ans: Answers will vary. Interagency agreements are negotiated agreements between
government agencies that outline boundaries and expectations associated with
horizontal coordinative efforts.

6. What is the difference between a purpose agency and a clientele agency?

Ans: Answers will vary. Purpose agencies serve a general population with an array of
services; clientele agencies provide services to a targeted population.

7. What is the “clearance procedure”?

Ans: Answers will vary. This example of horizontal cooperation requires that decisions
made by one agency affecting other agencies be reviewed and signed off on by that
affected agency.

Essay

1. One of the four persistent organizational concerns for government is the choice
among criteria of good organization. What are some of those organizational criteria?
Ans: Answers will vary. The organizational criteria are public acceptance; adaptability;
consistency of decisions; professional competence; participation, representation, and
diversity; effective database; cost and timeliness; promotion of private efficiency;
accountability to the president; accountability to Congress; and compatibility with state
regulation. I will elaborate on both public acceptance and professional competence.
Public acceptance is the amount of trust the public places in the integrity, fairness, and
judiciousness of the information and decisions a system generates. Professional
competence is the degree to which a system makes it easy to recruit high-caliber
professionals and makes effective use of their talents.

2. How does interagency conflict arise from a mismatch of organizational bases? Make
sure to list all four bases in your answer.
Ans: Answers will vary. The four bases are purpose, process, clientele, and place. If
some agencies are purpose based and others are clientele based, then certain
predictable consequences follow. For instance, agents of the purpose-based FBI were
killed while serving warrants on an Indian reservation that is under the jurisdiction of the
clientele-based Bureau of Indian Affairs. Other conflicts often grow up within
departments that are organized by both function and area. For instance, the State
 Instructor Resource
Kettl, Politics of the Administrative Process 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
Department has units by region as well as functional units on human rights and refugee
programs. Yet, it is usually difficult to get action on any functional problem without
dealing with individual nations, and that requires the department’s traditional country-
based structure.

3. Another area of organizational concern for government is the role of staff. What are
the different types of staff roles?
Ans: Answers will vary. Staff activities differ from line (or operating) activities because
the role of the former is one of assistance to, not command of, line officials. There are
three types of staff roles. Pure-staff provide general support to the agency’s line
activities and specifically identify issues likely to require presidential action and assure
due process by permitting each interested department an opportunity to state its case.
Auxiliary staff provide a basic housekeeping function such as accounting and research.
Control staff help top officials secure leverage over the organization by monitoring
performance and enforcing compliance with standards and procedures.

4. What are the president’s options when attempting a comprehensive reorganization of

the executive branch?
Ans: Answers will vary. A president can seek comprehensive reorganization of the
executive branch through an act of Congress. This option will stir opposition among
interest groups content within the existing structure. The president could also choose to
focus reorganization efforts on a handful of bureaus. But sometimes the opposition to
such limited action can be just as fierce, however, and it always has a less sweeping
impact. In fact, some bureaus have proven immovable despite long histories of
recommendations for restructuring.

5. What type of organizational conflict emerged during the September 11th attacks that
resulted in the creation of a new department? In your answer, make sure to name that
new department and discuss whether or not it solved the problems.
Ans: Answers will vary. Investigation of the September 11 tragedy became an example
of conflict among purpose-based agencies in that information sharing among American
intelligence agencies is a source of problems. If information was freely shared between
the organizations, some posit the attacks might have been prevented. The Department
of Homeland Security was created by Congress to, according to the text, “devise a
better way of connecting the dots among any piece of information that might be
collected.” Unfortunately however, the new department did not include any of the U.S.’s
key intelligence bureaus such as the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence
Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency or the FBI so the problem remained unsolved
as each agency fought behind the scenes for their independence from this
congressionally formed department.

6. Define the term coordination as it relates to “horizontal activity” and “vertical activity.”
Ans: Answers will vary. Coordination is a horizontal activity as it seeks to draw different
agencies together through a united purpose. This is difficult to do because no agency
willingly surrenders control of its core activities to another without a struggle. Often,
coordination has to be orchestrated through the intervention of a coordinator, which is
 Instructor Resource
Kettl, Politics of the Administrative Process 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
an example of a vertical activity. Since coordination is so vital to administration, called
by the text “the core of administration,” it is worth forcing such interagency coordination
even if it seems unnatural at first so that things can get accomplished in government.

7. Why are iron triangles dangerous to government (make sure your answer defines iron
triangles)?
Ans: Answers will vary. Iron triangles are alliances made between interest groups,
administration departments or bureaus, and congressional committees that resist any
type of reorganization efforts that seem threatening to their members’ shared interests.
They are particularly “dangerous” because they impede the type of change that elected
officials might deem necessary to increase government accountability and efficiency.