Large scale administrative organization has existed from early times. The ancient empire of Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, China, and later the Holy Roman Empire as well as recent colonial empires of Britain, Spain, Russia, Portugal, and France -- they all organized and maintaned political rule over wide areas and large populations by use of quite a sophisticated administrative appatatus and more or less skilled administrative functionaries.
The personal natures of that rule was very great. Everything depended on the emperor. The emperor turn had to rely on the personal loyalty of his subordinates, who maintaned themselves by the personal underlings, down to rank and file personnel on the fringes of the empire. The emperor carried an enormous work load reading and listening for petitions, policy arguments, judicial claims, appeals for favor, and the like in an attempt to keep the vast imperial machine functioning. It was a system of favoritism and patronage.
In a system based on personal preferement, a change of emperor disrupted the entire arrangement of government. Those who had been in favor might now be out of favor. Weak rules followed strong rules, foolish monarchs succeded wise monarchs -- but all were dependent on the army, which supplied the continuity that enabled the empire to endure so long. In absence of institutional, bureaucratic procedures, government moved from stability to near anarchy and back again.
Modern administrative system based on objective norms (such as laws, rules, and regulations) rather than on favoritism. It is a system of offices rather than officers. Loyalty is owed first of all to the state and the administrative organization. Members of the burreaucracy, or large, formal, complex organizations in the recent times, ar choosen for their qualification rather than for their personal connections with powerful person. When vacancies occur by death, resignation, or for other reasons, new qualified person are selected according to clearly defined rules. Burreaucracy does not die when its members die.
When people think about government, they think of elected officials. The attentive public knows these officials who live in the spotlight but not to public administrators who make governing possible; it generally give them little thought unless it is to critize "government burreaucrats".
We are contact with public administration almost from the moment of birth, when registration requirement are met, and our eartly cannot be disposed without final administrative certificate. Our experiences with public administration become so extensive that our society may be labeled the "administered society".
Various institution are involved in public administration.
Much of policy making-activities of public administration is done by large, specialized govermental agencies (micro administration). Some of them are mostly involved with policy formulation, for example Parliament, or Congress.
But to implement their decision, public administration also requires numerous profit and non profit agencies, banks and hospitals, districts and city governments (macro administration).
Thus, public administration may be defined as a complex political process involving the authoritative implementation of legitimated policy choiches.
Public administration is not as showy as other kinds of politics. Much of its works is quite, small scale, and specialized. Part of the administrative process is even keep secret. The anthonymity of public administration raises fears that government policies are made by people who are not accountable to citizen. Many fears that these so-called faceless bureaucrats subvert the intensions of elected officials. Other see administrators as mere cogs ini machinery of government.
But whether in negative or positive sense, public administration is policy making. And whether close to the centers of power or at the street level in local agencies, public administrators are policy makers. They are the translators and tailors the governments. If the elected officials are visible to the public, public administrators are anonymous specialist. But without their knowledge, diligence, and creativity, government would be ineffective and inefficient.
Leadership atau kepemimpinan sebenarnya tidak ditentukan dari suatu jabatan yang dimiliki oleh seseorang, melainkan suatu kemampuan untuk memimpin orang untuk mengikuti apa yang telah direncanakan.
Teori tentang kepemimpinan seringkali ditemui dalam buku, seminar, dan lain-lain. Namun sesungguhnya sesuatu teori yang diketahui tidak akan dapat diperoleh manfaatnya ketika tidak diaplikasikan dalam kehidupan.
Sederhana saja, ketika seseorang mempelajari teori berenang, maka ia tidak akan bisa berenang ketika ia hanya membaca saja dan tidak berlatih secara terus menerus. Begitupun dengan leadership, tidak akan berpengaruh apa-apa ketika kita tidak melatih jiwa kepemimpinan kita dari sekarang.
Pemimpin adalah orang yang diibaratkan sebagai "orang yang difollow", seorang pemimpin akan menjadi panutan. Dalam benak seseorang tentunya ingin menjadi orang yang di follow, bukan sekedar orang yang mem-follow. Tapi, bagaimana agar kita bisa menjadi panutan??? Yaitu dengan memantaskan diri untuk menjadi orang yang bisa memimpin.
Bagaimana kita dapat menjadi panutan ketika datang ke kampus atau ke seminar sekalipun dan kita hanya memilih untuk duduk di pojok paling belakang??? Padahal sosok pemimpin selalu di depan. Cara pandang yang seperti itulah pantas untuk diubah menjadi cara pandang seorang pemimpin.
Pentingnya memiliki sikap kepemimpinan dapat dilihat dari VUCA.
Teori "VUCA" yang merupakan singkatan dari Vollantility, Uncertaintly, Complexity, dan Ambiguity.
Vollantility berarti perubahan yang terjadi secara terus-menerus secara alami, dan bisa terjadi karena perkembangan zaman. Misalnya di lagu "Bangun tidur ku terus mandi", sekarang setiap bangun tidur mayoritas dari seseorang tidak langsung mandi, malah langsung buka BBM.
Uncertaintly berarti tidak pasti. Hidup penuh dengan ketidakpastian, sehinnga orang harus senantiasa kreatif untuk menghadapi esok hari berserta perubahannya dengan siap.
Complexity, hidup pada dasarnya merupakan sesuatu yang kompleks.
Sedangkan Ambiguity berarti ambigu, atau dapat berupa multitafsir dalam segala hal.
Sehinnga pada dasarnya, hal-hal yang tidak pasti dalam teori VUCA dapat diatasi ketika orang memiliki jiwa kepemimpinan dan percaya diri.
Kepemimpinan merupakan kombinasi dari strategi dan karakter, sehingga ketika seseorang telah mengasah karakternya, ia akan mencari strategi untuk menciptakan suatu peluang, bahkan untuk menjadi seseorang yang beda. Menjadi beda memang penting, namun beda yang dimaksud tetap beda tetapi tetap melaksanakan sesuatu dengan benar.
Mengasah kepemimpinan ini dapat dilakukan dengan BELAJAR, BERANI, dan BELAJAR SAMBIL DIJALANI.
More Lesson, More Practice
(seminar leadpreneurship 200413, dengan pengembangan)
