[The following article appears in the December 1994 edition of
_Public_Sector_Quality_Report_, pages 4 and 5.]

        REPUBLICANS CONTROL CONGRESS: THE IMPLICATIONS FOR CHANGE

     "A government that works better and costs less."
     Ironic, isn't it? Ironic how the tagline used by the Clinton
administration to describe its far-reaching National Performance
Review (NPR) reinvention effort became, almost word for word, the
mantra Republican candidates would use in November to sweep
Democrats out of power and seize control of the U.S. Congress.
     What does the Republican takeover of bode for the strategic
change initiatives ongoing within the U.S. federal government?
Will House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senate Majority Leader Bob
Dole, and colleagues apply the brakes to "reinvention," or will
they lean on the accelerator in hopes of reducing government's
size and improving its performance at a rate even faster than
that proposed by President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore?
     PSQR won't pretend to have a crystal ball on this one. Time
will tell whether the vision and momentum generated by the NPR
becomes a historical footnote, swept aside by partisan politics.
Or, conversely, whether the seeds of strategic improvement (some
planted well before Clinton took office) are so firmly rooted
that their flowering into a streamlined, more customer-focused
federal government is only a matter of time. 
     The consensus among federal employees and informed observers
we've talked to since November seems to be this: The genie of
change is out of the bottle, and the Republicans don't seem
inclined to reapply the cork.
     One federal employee, whose agency is far along in its
"reinvention," predicts the "window of opportunity" presented by
the NPR will only open wider as the Republicans press their
agenda for a leaner, more efficient government "We've taken the
position that if we're not up front and aggressive in making
changes, then somebody else is going to tell us how to do the
changes." 
     Another federal worker cited Gingrich's support for expanded
public access to government information and proceedings as a sign
that Republicans will err on the side of service to the
customers, both internal and external.
     An experienced quality consultant told PSQR that a recent
Gingrich speech was "one of the most profound treatises on TQM
I've ever heard." Gingrich also scored points among quality
practitioners by urging congressional staffers to bone up on the
writings of, among others, W. Edwards Deming and Peter Drucker.
     A few contributors to recent Internet e-mail discussions
have gone so far as to praise the "Contract With America" as an
earnest exercise in quality function deployment-recognizing what
the customer wants in a product or service, then tailoring that
product or service to satisfy the customer's demands. The
contract is a collection of policies and proposals (including a
balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a per-child
tax credit, and term limits) which the Republicans plan to act on
during the first 100 days of the congressional session which
starts in January
     Charles Barclay, a University of Hawaii professor of
management and industrial relations and a frequent contributor to
e-mail discussions on quality, management, and leadership issues,
sees the Republican takeover of Congress as setting up a
confrontation between "divergent views of how to approach quality
and government service."
     Barclay, who admits to being personally "elated" over the
election results, sees the conflict this way: "Democrats have
approached it from the standpoint of how can we do our services
better and be more customer friendly. Gingrich and company are
going to look at current practices and ask, 'How can we do the
right things right?' versus how can we do the existing services
better."
     If anything, then, a likely scenario would seem to have
Republicans and the administration locking horns over who can be
perceived as doing the most to improve and streamline the federal
government.
     Indeed, a White House official told the Washington Post's
Stephen Barr recently Clinton and Gore probably will be stepping
up their efforts to publicize NPR-related gains and cost savings.
"We've got to show what we can do to really manage and run this
government," the official said.
     Beyond that, one other thing seems certain: Although the NPR
prescription for change was written primarily for executive
branch agencies, the Republicans appear more than willing to
administer a dose of the same medicine to Congress.
     For executive branch employees who've been feeling the heat
to improve and innovate--and perhaps feeling a bit resentful of
their comparatively comfortable colleagues in the legislative
branch--it could be a classic case of "what's good for the
governmental goose is good for the gander."
     Let's stay tuned. Meanwhile, PSQR welcomes your insights at
this historic juncture in the evolution of U.S. government at the
federal level.

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