Competition, Depot Maintenance, and Businesslike Reform of the Department of Defense
Date
2011-05-26
Authors
Cuda, Daniel L
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Abstract
This research studies the effects of competition on businesslike supporting organizations within the Department of Defense (DOD). These public organizations are often structured as working capital funds to create nominally businesslike management conditions. The effort seeks to understand how competition among DOD public organizations in this structure can be harnessed to improve their cost performance. It treats internal organizational rivalry as a general phenomenon of public management and specifically examines how rivalry as competition can be harnessed to improve the efficiency of public organizations. A case study focusing on the Navy shipyard and aviation depot competitions from 1985 to 1994 is the specific means for achieving these research objectives. The study concludes the competition did reduce costs as part of a wider set of Navy management initiatives during this period. The research works from a rational choice economic perspective.
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Keywords
Department of Defense, Competition, Reagan Administration, Public Choice Economics, Budgeting, Bureaucracy