The Management of Executive Departments

One of the most important aspects of the management of the executive branch of the federal government relates to the organization and administration of the 13 executive departments. Yet there has been little attention given to this aspect of public administration in the literature. If the functions of the government of the United States are to be efficiently executed, it is vital that the executive departments be well conceived, structured, and managed. This means that they should be set up to carry out definable major purposes of the government, the enacting statutes should provide for adequate authority in the secretaries, there should be substantial freedom to adapt the departments to changes in priorities, greater attention should be given to the design and implementation of modern management systems, and reliance should be placed on the career civil servants who alone have the knowledge and continuity to assure efficient and consistent administration. It is likely, however, that there is so little agreement as to how the shortcomings of our departments can be remedied that something like a new Hoover Commission may be required to identify solutions and raise public awareness of the urgency of the situation.