The Agency Game: Inside The Bureaucratic Jungle by William B. Parker

William B. Parker

SO WHAT MAKES THE AUTHOR SO SPECIAL, SO KNOWLEDGEABLE?

Mr. Parker earned an undergraduate degree in History from the University of Virginia and, later, a master’s degree in Marketing and Organizational Behavior from the University of Chicago. Before he entered public life (excluding two obligatory years of active military duty), he worked five years for a heavily regulated (by a government agency, of course) subsidiary of a Fortune 15 giant. He subsequently worked for two non-profits. His public sector and non-profit service totaled just over a quarter-century, of which 20 years were spent in Washington, DC.

The Author’s perspective, both in prior employment and academic training, differed from that of most of his peers who entered public service fresh from college. Upon entering the field, with his freshly assimilated corporate mindset, the author naturally got hammered. Repeatedly! But he kept at his job, and resolved to understand why and how his numerous bloody noses came about. Through persistent questioning, observation and reflection, THE AGENCY GAME slowly filtered through. By and by, since there was little of substance to accomplish, not much money to make, and little fun, amusement or satisfaction that came out of his work, he evolved from sideline observer to player in THE AGENCY GAME, where real accomplishment takes place – and truthfully, where most of the fun in public service lies. For the author, the most stimulating challenge was to predict the behavior of various actors, given their known traits, character and motivation. His batting average was about .950. By the time he left government service, he had accumulated an unsystematized, discombobulated, painfully earned body of knowledge no doubt shared by other career staffers, but little known outside the corridors of government.

Possessing a curious, clinical turn of mind, Mr. Parker determined first to document and codify his observations and insights, then to sort them into a logical, descriptive, and realistic framework. Perhaps his academic training in Organizational Behavior helped in these endeavors. After transcribing and collating his hard-won and painfully earned accumulated observations, he classified them into a coherent body (which distinguishes it from the knowledge of career staffers). It took a great deal of effort, thought and time, but this one-of-a-kind manual, THE AGENCY GAME, is the result.

To our knowledge, no one has undertaken such a work before, which makes this effort truly path-breaking. Moreover, the lore and accumulated wisdom that the author has pulled together is universal: it applies equally to all levels of government – federal, state, regional, county, municipal – and everything in between. It also applies to First, Second and Third world agencies.

One of his long-term aims in sharing his unique insights is to extend his work, and ultimately transform the art of agency service into a science. On that score, he’d welcome constructive feedback from readers and practitioners.

William Parker lives in Florida with his wife.

To contact the author, just click on the Xlibris link below.