Abstract: It is widely believed by the public lately that the "public sector" is a behemoth "prevailing style of management" (also known to members of the In2:InThinking Network as a "Red Pen Company") bureaucracy, incapable of innovation and strategic vision. "Public mangers," therefore, are nothing more than life-tenured "career bureaucrats" who are committed to upholding and reinforcing antiquated hierarchical organizational paradigms. Shifting population dynamics, coupled with scarce budgetary resources, has meant that public sector organizations are being forced to do much more with much less than ever before. Vigorous movements to deregulate, privatize and contract-out, to partner, and more recently, to re-regulate and even nationalize, have inspired a growing interest in inter-organizational networks of actors spanning the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Collectively, these developments have inspired many officials and high-level public managers to search out new governing models and shift from current paradigms. With that said, old paradigms and mental models are being shattered as civic and public leaders serving in Los Angeles County have been shifting their views on the role of public sector agency toward crafting and implementing strategic missions that are focused on creating public value. This shift is being facilitated by the county's comprehensive commitment to becoming a "learning organization," where existing public employees are meant to be transformed into higher-order thinking organizational leaders who will charged with carrying out these missions in fiercely challenging political and economic environments.

Biography: Henrik Minassians is the Director of Regional/National Educational Partnerships & Services for Graduate & Professional Educational Services and Programs at The Tseng College, California State University, Northridge. He also teaches courses in Public Policy and Administration at CSUN. His research interests include implementation and evaluation issues in higher education and health care policy. His applied research has focused on accountability programs in higher education and the effectiveness of indicators used for performance measurement. Dr. Minassians has written on the implementation of public programs in higher education and healthcare.

Before coming to CSUN, Dr. Minassians worked as a senior research associate for the higher education program at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, New York. Recent publications include: Performance Reporting: "Real" Accountability or Accountability "Lite" (2003); Reporting Higher Education Results: Missing Links in the Performance Chain (published by Jossey-Bass, 2002); State Performance Reporting Indicators What Do They Indicate? (In Planning for Higher Education, 2002); Performance Reporting: The "No Cost" Accountability Program, (2002); Linking State Resources to Campus Results: From Fad to Trend, (2001); Performance Funding and Budgeting: An Emerging Merger? (2000); and Myths and Illusions: The Media and AIDS Policy (with Stella Theodoulou, 1996); "Good Cities and Healthy Communities in the United States" Journal of Urban Design and Planning (with Zeynep Toker)(Accepted for publication in October 17, 2011); Core Concepts in American Government: What Everyone Should Know The chapter titled "Bureaucracy" (with Lawrence Becker) (accepted for publication in fall of 2010).

He has had the experience working for public agencies as well as not-for-profit organizations. In addition, he taught public policy and American politics courses at State University of New York-Albany. He currently teaches public policy classes for the MPA program. Henrik holds a Ph.D. in public policy from the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Policy and Affairs at the University at Albany-SUNY.

Contact: Henrik can be reached by e-mail at henrik.minassians@csun.edu for additional information about this Weekend Conference session.