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Feature Article #1

When the best can’t pull it off…

What is to be done when even the best, most idealistic and well-seasoned elected official, in the country’s most politically progressive state, cannot prevent her staff from abuses of power based on crony-ism and conflict of interest?

Create a State Ombudsman Office.

Deborah Alicen | June 30th, 2008 | Continued

Feature Article #2

The People’s Right To Know – Right Now!

By J.T. “Jerry” Miller

Former Commissioner of Kentucky’s Department of Parks

You are a huge basketball fan. Your team is playing in the tournament finals. You’ve used your hard earned money to buy tickets for your family, not to mention the expensive drinks, popcorn and hot dogs. Now imagine that you and the other fans in the stands have to watch the game through a foggy window. You can’t really see the action, so you have to rely on the P.A. announcer who will give you updates on what’s going on – as he sees it.

Jerry | June 23rd, 2008 | Continued

Feature Article #3

Revisiting the Original Premise and Vision

The premise, rationale, and remedies all lead to what I see for the future of this blog: a network of people in different parts of this country and the world, monitoring the state of bureaucracies within their areas

Deborah Alicen | April 21st, 2008 | Continued

About this Site

I am a scholar activist, organizer, and consultant to businesses, organizations and individuals focused on increasing effectiveness by achieving transparency and accountability in bureaucracies, whether in the public or private sector. Following a first career as a television producer/director, I went back to grad school in psychology and spent 20 years in private practice.
My doctoral [...]

Other Recent Articles

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Conduct Unbecoming a University

“I thought my situation was over here at IUPUI but now I find that the IUPUI News Center, run by Rich Schneider, is still telling members of the media that the problem was not in my reading the book in question but some other actions that they can not reveal to the press. “

3Jul2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
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Changes and Announcements Coming…

BureaucracyBlog will soon have a new look, and one or more new authors contributing to the flow of information, analysis, and ideas.  J.T. Miller, whom I wrote about in a post last month, has sent me an revised version of his op-ed piece and has kindly agreed to post occasional Kentucky updates here.
There have also [...]

23Jun2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
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“Incredibly quick response for a governmental institution…”

A nod to yesterday’s Progress Report for pointing me to this Washington Times story. It’s about veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) being given the drug Chantrix in a Veterans Administration study about smoking cessation.  Chantrix has a record of causing or exacerbating mental instability, and someone somewhere had to be nuts (to use the [...]

18Jun2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
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A couple of different organizational bureaucracies…

My lack of posting much recently owes to my having had the opportunity to do some work with a couple of different organizations, each with very different cultures, though the leadership of each would describe them in terms very similar to each other. Both are service organizations, and both profess a style of operation [...]

17Jun2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
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Stuck

Stuck is a movie I’d really rather not watch, but I think I’m going to have to see it. I don’t like seeing blood and gore, and Stuck has plenty of it, according to what I’ve read. But the movie juxtaposes a horrific, real life event against a callous bureaucracy, and that’s why [...]

9Jun2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
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Another International Update–Nepal

A couple of months ago I ran a story about the promotion of ethics in civil service in Nepal. It appears we can look for that to continue following the abolishment of the monarchy and the nation having been declared a democratic republic.
I am far away from an expert on Nepalese politics, but as someone [...]

29May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
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Rudd and bureaucrats again…

Kevin Rudd’s administration in Australia is going to continue to be of interest here because of his background as a bureaucrat, and his apparent dedication to bureaucracies that well serve the public.
The operative word there is “apparent.”
Time will tell the story, of course, but there’s a news item today–or technically, tomorrow, given that it’s now [...]

28May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
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My Memorial Day Weekend

I suppose I spent the Memorial Day Weekend much as many people did. I mostly did yard work, planting flowers and cleaning up the detritus that gathers in a yard over a winter. I talked with neighbors who were walking their dogs or pushing a stroller with a studious little face peeking [...]

27May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
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