Image versus Reality
efore Sept. 11, Kay Coles James said improving the image of government was her top priority. But image isn't everything, says Renee Lerche, a University of Michigan professor and former Ford executive. "It has to be more than superficial PR. If that's all you do, you will create cynicism and backlash," Lerche says. The people that can best badmouth government work are those who are sold on a promise, come to work for the government, find that agencies don't deliver, and then leave. Then they tell their friends about it. "People do word of mouth very well," she says.
After Sept. 11, James is indeed focusing on reality rather than perception. With polls finding renewed trust in government following federal agencies' response to the terrorist attacks, James says improving the hiring process, the government's performance appraisal system and the compensation system are her major priorities. "Ability is useless unless it's used," she said at a Council for Excellence in Government forum in November.
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