In Ports in a Storm a team of Harvard Kennedy School scholars focus diverse conceptual lenses on a single high-stakes management task—enhancing port security across the United States. Their aims are two: to understand how a public manager might confront that complex undertaking; and to explore the similarities; differences; and complementarities of their alternative approaches to public management.The book takes as its pivot point the singular case of U.S. Coast Guard Captain Suzanne Englebert and her leadership of efforts to secure America's ports after the September 11 attacks. The Coast Guard had always been responsible for securing America's ports and coastline. But now it was tasked with safeguarding these critical; complex; and vulnerable assets during a time of war; a job it clearly could not handle alone. Ports in a Storm considers the monumental challenge of driving rapid change in a complex system involving hundreds of private organizations and scores of government agencies with their operations intricately intertwined. The book examines Englebert's actions from varied conceptual vantage points; sometimes critiquing questionable calls but more often celebrating her initiative; creativity; persistence; and skill.The authors use the Coast Guard episode as a testing ground for the eclectic intellectual constructs they have been developing to guide public managers. Instead of starting with theory and searching for examples that fit; they begin with the concrete and then harness scholarship to the service of better practice. And rather than mimic management principles from the business world; they tailor their approach to the very different challenges of managing in a public sector context. The volume allows readers in both the scholarly and practical worlds to see how the theories measure up.Contributors; including the two volume editors; are Robert D. Behn; John D. Donahue; Archon Fung; Stephen Goldsmith; Elaine Kamarck; Herman B. Leonard; Mark H. Moore; Malcolm K. Sparrow; Pamela Varley; and Richard Zeckhauser.
#2205016 in Books 2001-11-28Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.98 x .76 x 5.96l; #File Name: 0815411197320 pages
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Delderfield does it again!By Nicholas RobertsI first read one of Delderfield's books regarding Napoleon's Marshals and liked it a lot. I therefore expanded to read his take on the 1813-1814 campaigns and found it just as good. The book starts at the end of the Russian campaign and goes until Napoleon's abdication in 1814. It covers the great campaign across Germany and France and explains them in great detail. The author writes from the view point of the average soldier often referring to works that describe what it was like to be a French conscript in 1813 and 1814. He refers to the hardship of marching; the bravery and the starvation that followed. You get the sense that the Grand Army went down in a blaze of flames rather than just burned through all the oil.5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. interestingBy Mary Wetzel Jollyi have this book for over a year. i am a big fan of r.f. delderfield since the early 1970s. his writing of napolean bonaparte is very detailed and easy to understand the sides of bonaparte's personality and thinking.
