Chapter 6 outlines the various governmental organizational problems with a specific emphasis on the three basic organizational values identified by Herbert Kaufman, neutral competence, executive leadership and representativeness. Neutral competence is the creation of a highly skilled bureaucracy insulated from the political interference that can undermine efficiency. The organizational concerns that persist in a neutral competence framework are (1) the choice among criteria of good organization, (2) interagency conflict, (3) interagency coordination, and (4) the role of staff in supporting and controlling operating activities.

Executives have attempted to reorganize the structure of an organization in order to solve these problems. Executive restructuring efforts have regularly sought to rearrange the organizational building blocks to enhance symmetry, improve the logical grouping of activities, reduce the executive’s span of control, and strengthen administrative coordination and efficiency. Reorganization efforts have also sought to promote executive leadership or representativeness and not simply neutral competence.