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The Reformation Steve Kelman
GovExec.com, August 23, 2004 Steve Kelman, the Weatherhead professor of public management at Harvard's John
F. Kennedy School of Government and a CG Advisory Board Member, applauds a decade
of reform to the Federal defense acquisition process. "A system that had focused on rules, process and 'gotcha' was redirected to its
basic goal--supporting agencies' missions," Kelman writes.
But, he adds, "recent news reports suggest that during a decade of tough cultural
and business-process changes, the procurement system neglected 'boundary systems.'"
Kelman's insightful discussion of boundary systems can inform not only how we
look at the operation of Federal bureaucracy, but how we look at the operation
of most common institutions. Boundary systems, a term coined by Harvard Business
School professors Robert Simons and Robert Kaplan, are "the constraints and controls
that tell people what they are not allowed to do"; they "establish an environment
in which people can be given freedom to determine the best ways to achieve an
organization's goals. For example, a well-functioning boundary system to prevent
credit card abuse creates an environment in which an organization can reap the
benefits of using credit cards."
Kelman concludes:
"Boundary systems must function so well that people can take them for granted
and focus on their goals. But in properly maintaining boundary systems, managers
must be careful. Recent headlines about acquisition have sent the message that
people should pay attention to avoiding doing the wrong thing. But they say nothing
about doing the right thing - looking for better, imaginative ways to do business.
These signals can be overinterpreted on the front lines to mean that procurement
professionals should be cautious to the point where inaction is preferred over
action, avoid risking anything new and spend most of their time worrying about
the rules. So there is a real risk that the system, and its leaders, will focus
on controls, not goals."
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