Reinventing Government in America: A Controversial Concept Behind the National Performance Review

Abstract

American governmental administration, also known as the American bureaucracy, has been generally regarded be most countries in the world as competent and effective. Ironically, American citizens always think that their government is wasteful, incompetent, mediocre, and has unchecked power. Most academics and researchers contend that by possessing these characteristics, an organization tends to fall into certain patterns of behavior such as rigidity, proceduralism, resistance to change, oppressive control of employees, dehumanized treatment of clients, incomprehensible jargon, empire building, and concentration of political powers (Goodsell, 1994: 3-5). The ugly portrayal of bureaucracy, whether right or wrong, has threatened the public sentiment and degraded the image of bureaucracy.