Editor's Notebook

n the ornate diplomatic reception rooms of the State Department, one balmy evening in May, 68 senior federal executives were recognized for their excellent work. As Carol Bonosaro, executive director of the Senior Executives Association and hostess at the elegant event, described the accomplishments of these 1997 Presidential Distinguished Rank Award winners, I wondered: Would the achievements she described more properly be credited to the winners' organizations than to the individuals gathered at this banquet? After all, bureaucracies are famous for diffusing accountability and rare is the government enterprise whose success or failure can be tied to a single leader.

Browsing through my shelf of public administration tomes, I found two strains of thinking about my question. Charles Goodsell, in The Case for Bureaucracy (Chatham House Publishers, 1994), emphasizes the role of public institutions, with little focus on their leadership. These organizations, he writes, "move ahead day by day, beyond the range of media attention for the most part, to carry out their assigned tasks with far more competence, success and steadfastness than most of us realize." Norma Riccuci, in Unsung Heroes: Federal Execucrats Making a Difference (Georgetown University Press, 1995) takes the view that senior civil servants often "are delegated the power needed to make high-level decisions and public policy."

But the question is moot if one concludes that by celebrating the individual we also celebrate the institution and give it a human face. So it was that Carol Bonosaro's praise of the 1997 winners could be taken as plaudits for their colleagues and the validity of their agencies' missions. Some cases in point:

• Joseph Rothenberg, director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, was recognized for restoring the Hubble Space Telescope to full capacity-with results that include the discovery of planets outside our solar system.
• Gary Spratling of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division was cited for overseeing a prosecution that resulted in a fine of $100 million-more than six times higher than the previous record.
• Martin Baer, the Social Security Administration's Seattle region chief, was recognized for his work on the agency's telecommunications systems (and Web site) serving more than 40 million beneficiaries.
• James Skurka of the U.S. Army Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command was cited for enlisting Walt Disney World animation experts to help create a virtual reality environment for soldiers.
• Eileen Harrington of the Federal Trade Commission was recognized for creating a national campaign to stop telemarketing fraud, resulting in convictions of nearly 50 telemarketers.
• Roger Whiteway, longtime staff director for commanders of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, was cited for his management of the world's largest naval base, with $10 billion in operating and manpower accounts.