Christopher Koliba

Chapter 2 Educating Public Managers and Policy Analysts in an Era of Informatics

Christopher Koliba and Asim Zia

Abstract In this chapter, two ideal types of practitioners who may use or cre- ate policy informatics projects, programs, or platforms are introduced: the policy informatics-savvy public manager and the policy informatics analyst. Drawing from our experiences in teaching an informatics-friendly graduate curriculum, we dis- cuss the range of learning competencies needed for traditional public managers and policy informatics-oriented analysts to thrive in an era of informatics. The chapter begins by describing the two different types of students who are, or can be touched by, policy informatics-friendly competencies, skills, and attitudes. Competencies ranging from those who may be users of policy informatics and sponsors of policy informatics projects and programs to those analysts designing and executing policy informatics projects and programs will be addressed. The chapter concludes with an illustration of how one Master of Public Administration (MPA) program with a policy informatics-friendly mission, a core curriculum that touches on policy infor- matics applications, and a series of program electives that allows students to develop analysis and modeling skills, designates its informatics-oriented competencies.

2.1 Introduction

The range of policy informatics opportunities highlighted in this volume will require future generations of public managers and policy analysts to adapt to the oppor- tunities and challenges posed by big data and increasing computational modeling capacities afforded by the rapid growth in information technologies. It will be up to the field’s Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Public Policy (MPP) programs to provide this next generation with the tools needed to harness the wealth of data, information, and knowledge increasingly at the disposal of public

C. Koliba (�) University of Vermont, 103 Morrill Hall, 05405 Burlington, VT, USA e-mail: ckoliba@uvm.edu

A. Zia University of Vermont, 205 Morrill Hall, 05405 Burlington, VT, USA e-mail: azia@uvm.edu

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 15 M. Janssen et al. (eds.), Policy Practice and Digital Science, Public Administration and Information Technology 10, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-12784-2_2

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administrators and policy analysts. In this chapter, we discuss the role of policy infor- matics in the development of present and future public managers and policy analysts. Drawing from our experiences in teaching an informatics-friendly graduate curricu- lum, we discuss the range of learning competencies needed for traditional public managers and policy informatics-oriented analysts to thrive in an era of informatics. The chapter begins by describing the two different types of students who are, or can be touched by, policy informatics-friendly competencies, skills, and attitudes. Com- petencies ranging from those who may be users of policy informatics and sponsors of policy informatics projects and programs to those analysts designing and executing policy informatics projects and programs will be addressed. The chapter concludes with an illustration of how one MPA program with a policy informatics-friendly mission, a core curriculum that touches on policy informatics applications, and a series of program electives that allows students to develop analysis and modeling skills, designates its informatics-oriented competencies.

2.2 Two Types of Practitioner Orientations to Policy Informatics

Drawn from our experience, we find that there are two “ideal types” of policy infor- matics practitioner, each requiring greater and greater levels of technical mastery of analytics techniques and approaches. These ideal types are: policy informatics-savvy public managers and policy informatics analysts.

A policy informatics-savvy public manager may take on one of two possible roles relative to policy informatics projects, programs, or platforms. They may play instru- mental roles in catalyzing and implementing informatics initiatives on behalf of their organizations, agencies, or institutions. In the manner, they may work with technical experts (analysts) to envision possible uses for data, visualizations, simulations, and the like. Public managers may also be in the role of using policy informatics projects, programs, or platforms. They may be in positions to use these initiatives to ground decision making, allocate resources, and otherwise guide the performance of their organizations.

A policy informatics analyst is a person who is positioned to actually execute a policy informatics initiative. They may be referred to as analysts, researchers, modelers, or programmers and provide the technical assistance needed to analyze databases, build and run models, simulations, and otherwise construct useful and effective policy informatics projects, programs, or platforms.

To succeed in either and both roles, managers and analysts will require a certain set of skills, knowledge, or competencies. Drawing on some of the prevailing literature and our own experiences, we lay out an initial list of potential competencies for consideration.

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2.2.1 Policy Informatics-Savvy Public Managers

To successfully harness policy informatics, public managers will likely not need to know how to explicitly build models or manipulate big data. Instead, they will need to know what kinds of questions that policy informatics projects or programs can answer or not answer. They will need to know how to contract with and/or manage data managers, policy analysts, and modelers. They will need to be savvy consumers of data analysis and computational models, but not necessarily need to know how to technically execute them. Policy informatics projects, programs, and platforms are designed and executed in some ways, as any large-scale, complex project.

In writing about the stages of informatics project development using “big data,” DeSouza lays out project development along three stages: planning, execution, and postimplementation. Throughout the project life cycle, he emphasizes the role of understanding the prevailing policy and legal environment, the need to venture into coalition building, the importance of communicating the broader opportunities af- forded by the project, the need to develop performance indicators, and the importance of lining up adequate financial and human resources (2014).

Framing what traditional public managers need to know and do to effectively interface with policy informatics projects and programs requires an ability to be a “systems thinker,” an effective evaluator, a capacity to integrate informatics into performance and financial management systems, effective communication skills, and a capacity to draw on social media, information technology, and e-governance approaches to achieve common objectives. We briefly review each of these capacities below.

Systems Thinking Knowing the right kinds of questions that may be asked through policy informatics projects and programs requires public managers to possess a “sys- tems” view. Much has been written about the importance of “systems thinking” for public managers (Katz and Kahn 1978; Stacey 2001; Senge 1990; Korton 2001). Taking a systems perspective allows public managers to understand the relationship between the “whole” and the “parts.” Systems-oriented public managers will possess a level of situational awareness (Endsley 1995) that allows them to see and under- stand patterns of interaction and anticipate future events and orientations. Situational awareness allows public mangers to understand and evaluate where data are coming from, how best data are interpreted, and the kinds of assumptions being used in specific interpretations (Koliba et al. 2011). The concept of system thinking laid out here can be associated with the notion of transition management (Loorbach 2007).

Process Orientations to Public Policy The capacity to view the policy making and implementation process as a process that involves certain levels of coordination and conflict between policy actors is of critical importance for policy informatics- savvy public managers and analysts. Understanding how data are used to frame problems and policy solutions, how complex governance arrangements impact policy implementation (Koliba et al. 2010), and how data visualization can be used to

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facilitate the setting of policy agendas and open policy windows (Kingdon 1984) is of critical importance for public management and policy analysts alike.

Research Methodologies Another basic competency needed for any public manager using policy informatics is a foundational understanding of research methods, par- ticularly quantitative reasoning and methodologies. A foundational understanding of data validity, analytical rigor and relevance, statistical significance, and the like are needed to be effective consumers of informatics. That said, traditional public man- agers should also be exposed to qualitative methods as well, refining their powers of observation, understanding how symbols, stories, and numbers are used to govern, and how data and data visualization and computer simulations play into these mental models.

Performance Management A key feature of systems thinking as applied to policy informatics is the importance of understanding how data and analysis are to be used and who the intended users of the data are (Patton 2008). The integration of policy informatics into strategic planning (Bryson 2011), performance management systems (Moynihan 2008), and ultimately woven into an organization’s capacity to learn, adapt, and evolve (Argyis and Schön 1996) are critically important in this vein. As policy informatics trends evolve, public managers will likely need to be exposed to uses of decision support tools, dashboards, and other computationally driven models and visualizations to support organizational performance.

Financial Management Since the first systemic budgeting systems were put in place, public managers have been urged to use the budgeting process as a planning and eval- uation tool (Willoughby 1918). This approach was formally codified in the 1960s with the planning–programming–budgeting (PPB) system with its focus on plan- ning, managerial, and operational control (Schick 1966) and later adopted into more contemporary approaches to budgeting (Caiden 1981). Using informative projects, programs, or platforms to make strategic resource allocation decisions is a necessary given and a capacity that effective public managers must master. Likewise, the pol- icy analyst will likely need to integrate financial resource flows and costs into their projects.

Collaborative and Cooperative Capacity Building The development and use of pol- icy informatics projects, programs, or platforms is rarely, if ever, undertaken as an individual, isolated endeavor. It is more likely that such initiatives will require interagency, interorganizational, or intergroup coordination. It is also likely that content experts will need to be partnered with analysts and programmers to com- plete tasks and execute designs. The public manager and policy analyst must both possess the capacity to facilitate collaborative management functions (O’Leary and Bingham 2009).

Basic Communication Skills This perhaps goes without saying, but the heart of any informatics project lies in the ability to effectively communicate findings and ideas through the analysis of data.

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Social Media, Information Technology, and e-Governance Awareness A final com- petency concerns public managers’ capacity to deepen their understanding of how social media, Web-based tools, and related information technologies are being em- ployed to foster various e-government, e-governance, and related initiatives (Mergel 2013). Placing policy informatics projects and programs within the context of these larger trends and uses is something that public managers must be exposed to.

Within our MPA program, we have operationalized these capacities within a four- point rubric that outlines what a student needs to do to demonstrate meeting these standards. The rubric below highlights 8 of our program’s 18 capacities. All 18 of these capacities are situated under 1 of the 5 core competencies tied to the accred- itation standards of the Network of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), the professional accrediting association in the USA, and increasingly in other countries as well, for MPA and MPP programs. A complete list of these core competencies and the 18 capacities nested under them are provided in Appendix of this chapter.

The eight capacities that we have singled out as being the most salient to the role of policy informatics in public administration are provided in Table 2.1. The rubric follows a four-point scale, ranging from “does not meet standard,” “approaches standard,” “meets standard,” and “exceeds standard.”

2.2.2 Policy Informatics Analysts

A second type of practitioner to be considered is what we are referring to as a “policy informatics analyst.” When considering the kinds of competencies that policy infor- matics analysts need to be successful, we first assume that the basic competencies outlined in the prior section apply here as well. In other words, effective policy in- formatics analysts must be systems thinkers in order to place data and their analysis into context, be cognizant of current uses of decision support systems (and related platforms) to enable organizational learning, performance, and strategic planning, and possess an awareness of e-governance and e-government initiatives and how they are transforming contemporary public management and policy planning practices. In addition, policy analysts must possess a capacity to understand policy systems: How policies are made and implemented? This baseline understanding can then be used to consider the placement, purpose, and design of policy informatics projects or programs. We lay out more specific analyst capacities below.

Advanced Research Methods of Information Technology Applications In many in- stances, policy informatics analysts will need to move beyond meeting the standard. This is particularly true in the area of exceeding the public manager standards for re- search methods and utilization of information technology. It is assumed that effective policy informatics analysts will have a strong foundation in quantitative methodolo- gies and applications. To obtain these skills, policy analysts will need to move beyond basic surveys of research methods into more advanced research methods curriculum.