PUAD 520_002 Mid Term Exam

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A. RULES FOR THE EXAMINATION: You may find it useful to review the George Mason University Honor
Code as you undertake this examination. You are free to use all possible written or electronic sources on the test. This is not required. My expectations are that all questions can be answered completely from our textbooks, readings, and lectures and the accompanying organizational charts. You may not discuss or gain assistance from anyone except myself in seeking to understand the questions or in
formulating your response. Limit your communications with me to e-mail. I may respond by e-mail to the whole class to share any clarifications that are appropriate.
B. QUESTION INTRODUCTION. The following question can be answered as written essays. But if you believe graphics or diagrams help you express your answer, feel free to include. A well thought out single paragraph might provide a complete answer in some cases. Several paragraphs for each question
may be the norm. See the specific instructions associated with the questions. Many of these questions address one or more of the three cities whose organization charts are attached. Respectively, these are a small, medium and large American city. Use the various city websites to provide you background information that can help you answer the questions and provide evidence or examples for your specific
points. For all these questions, you may initially draw a blank regarding your answer, but after a bit of hought, I think your answers will suggest themselves. I will be available to answer your questions and,
if appropriate post an answer for you and all the class. Do not discuss the question with others. Send me your responses by e-mail.
TEST QUESTIONS
1. PUBLIC WORK AND CITY ORGANIZATION: I’m thinking of the organization charts as an indication of the work governments are being asked to do by their constituents. For the attached organization chart for the city of Harrisonburg, Virginia, construct two or more separate paragraphs that answer
the following two part question:
a. Part 1) Describe the general nature of the work that this city and its organizations are
seeking to accomplish on behalf of its citizens. Along this line of thought, I see the city
manager as the Executive of the overall city government with the City Council as the proxy
board of directors for Harrisonburg voters. In this context, the city manager’s function in
the Harrisonburg government is to integrate the various element of city government for the
benefit of the the citizens. What general outcome is the city manager seeking to achieve?
Include your answer to this specific question in your general paragraph.
b. Part 2) What is the division of labor of this work as illustrated by the Harrisonburg
organization chart? Discuss why or how this division of labor differs with from division of
labor illustrated by Adam Smith’s pin factory.
2. I have compared organizational structure, as illustrated by organization charts, as something like a
“standing wave” in a river, or it might be compared with the force of gravity, shaping everything
that is subject to its forces. Organizational structure takes individuals and assigns them roles that
interact with other individuals both inside and outside the organization. At the individual level, this
structure exists as descriptions of employee duties and behaviors. Identify and describe the
behavior of an individual operating as shaped by organizational structure. This can be a general
example or, if you choose, can be a specific indivual chosen by you. Discuss also why an
PUAD 520_002 Mid Term Exam – Spring 2017 (Five Questions, Two Pages)

individual might consent to be controlled or shaped in this way. Finally, If you can, try to put this
individual behavior in a wider organizational context.
3. EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT: Please describe to me your current understanding of the concept of an
employment contract – not as a precise legal document, but as a set of social expectations that
almost always are incomplete. Start with the simple idea of a contract itself and describe the
various forms and dimensions an employment contract might take. Obviously the Rousseau readings
are a first place for review as you formulate your answer. But I don’t want to know what Rousseau
says, I want to hear your words and your understanding of the idea and how it might take different
forms in different kinds of work. It seems to me Wilson touched on this idea as he describes the
mutual expectations of workers and organizations. Finally, how might employment contracts be
effectively “broken” by both sides (employees and organizations) and what effect will this have on
the organization and its work?
4. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: For each of these cities, describe what you believe are the three most
important environmental factors these mayors and their public organizations must accommodate as
they attempt to govern and provide services to their citizens. By environmental, I mean factors not
under the control of the mayors and their organizations. It could be a very poor population in terms
of finances or education. It could be in terms of climates and climate risks. In some cases you can
see clues about their environment and the problems it asks city governments to solve or mitigate.
You can see it in the specialized departments these problems create in city organizations. Use the
various organization charts as means to illustrate your answers as you discuss the differing
environments of each city. A little background on each city gained from web research will help you
describe the environment and how it shapes the structure of city government. Hint: Think of our
discussion of organizations as closed and open systems. A closed system is relatively unaffected by

PUAD 520_002 Mid Term Exam

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its environment. Do you see these cities as closed to their environments? If not, what
environmental factors do you see relevant to each of the three cities.
5. WORK PROCESSES: Several time during the class we’ve touch on “process” as a representation
of something central to the study of organizations. For example, the division of labor as discussed
by Gulick or Adam Smith with his Pin Factory example, is about how processes can be organized for
different results. These results flow from the work the organization does. Identify a process either
at your work or in your personal life and describe it in the vocabulary and terminology we
introduced in some of the early lectures of the class. The terminology was not only in the lectures.
Wilson endlessly invokes the language of process and discusses what difference it makes. Choose a
process suitably complex to coherently incorporate as many as possible of the ideas and concepts
introduced in the readings and lectures. A specific idea I’d like you to be able to illustrate is the
difference between tasks or activities that can be done serially or in parallel and what difference
this makes to the results. I’m using the word “results” here as a synonym of outputs or outcomes –
terms I’ve used more regularly in the class