Question 3: How has the role and function of the civil servant changed in post-Pandemic America?
Question 4: What are Your Four Big Takeaways From the EMPA?
Required Reading:
Zakaria, Fareed. (2020). Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World. New York: Norton.
Governments and non-profits are adapting to a post-Pandemic new normal that has broadened longstanding social and economic trends. I would like you to take a “deep dive” on how a local government is adapting to the new reality. At the local level, economic development strategies may need recalibration. Telecommuting and space needs must align (a reality across all sectors).
Elsewhere, the wage structure for “people facing” professions and decades-high inflation may cause problems for governments and nonprofits in staffing and retention (e.g., FIU wants to minimize annual turnover to 25%). Governments and nonprofits were facing difficulties with attracting and retaining younger workers long before COVID. Conversely, older workers were quitting or retiring in large numbers pre-Pandemic. That trend has also accelerated. Overall, COVID has exacerbated a downward trend in labor force participation, making for chronic labor shortages across all professions.
Zakaria’s Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World illuminates other aspects of the Pandemic that are more problematic for public administrators. These include its impact on race relations, income inequality, and political divisions. While Zakaria wrote during the Pandemic, his narrative presaged many issues faced in the immediate aftermath of vaccine rollout. These included significant differences in access, and remarkable differences in their acceptance across educational, racial, income, and geographical lines. The same differences held for attitudes toward masking and social distancing. Writ large, COVID-19 has lent credence to the political and social dynamics discussed in Anti-Pluralism. Hence, Question 3 above.
Answers from question three link directly to question 4. COVID has been a game changer in our lives, careers, and politics. How has that filtered into what you’ve learned in this program?
Please attach equal weight to your essay response in this module and respond as follows:
Part A:
Repeat the format deployed in Module 1 when reviewing Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World. Unlike earlier reviewers of this book (it was written mid-Pandemic), you have the capacity to reflect on the applicability of his work when the worst aspects of COVID (massive deaths and hospitalizations, high unemployment, political wrangling) are behind us. That said, I suspect you will find Zakaria’s assessments to be relevant, with considerable overlap to Galston and Anti-Pluralism. In sum, COVID-induced battles over science and the role of government in addressing the Pandemic were old wine in a new bottle.
Part B:
FIU’s immediate former provost, Kenneth Furton, often spoke of “habits of the mind.” In addressing Question 4, consider how the EMPA has changed your “habits of the mind.” These habits or behaviors can be personal or professional. They can be tools deployed in the workplace for motivating colleagues or promoting better decision-making. Or at the individual level, the program may have changed your processing of the nightly news or school board meetings.
Graduate education has an indelible impact. This is a good time for reflection, while course material is fresh. I am open to consideration of an entire class as your unit of analysis. My preference would be for a more discreet portion of learning, e.g., a model of decision-making, the use of ratio analysis in assessing fiscal health).
With COVID as backdrop, you might want to ask yourself, “What lessons from the program have made me more resilient as a person or professional?” Resilience means many things, with survivability and adaptability as core components. One hopes your recent investment in time, money, and effort (physical and emotional) have enhanced your resilience. This angle may clarify responses to Question 4.
Guideline Length: 8-10 double-spaced pages