ABSTRACT
Technical expertise is one of three hallmarks of a public service professional. This chapter discusses types of technical proficiency and higher education. It addresses the rudiments of relevant operational capacities including strategic planning, program management, financial administration, managing people, and information management. The space shuttle Columbia calamity, terrorist attacks, enormous task confronting the Department of Homeland Security, innovative community planning, and unconventional organization charts illustrate and document the analysis. Technical expertise consists of scientific knowledge to understand what to do, legal structures governing what should and should not be done, and institutional savvy to achieve objectives. Institutional knowledge, finally, knows how to accomplish tasks inside an organization. Government agencies, non-profit organizations, and businesses have formal and informal procedures from buying equipment to getting a definitive answer on a new proposal. Administrators must have sufficient technical understanding to acquire able personnel and appropriate technology, knowledge of how their subordinates work, and the skill to create financially sound programs.
