Working with Data in the Public Sector: From Fear to Enthusiasm is the first book designed for practicing and future public administration professionals to help overcome any anxiety about using data effectively in their roles.
Authors Anne McIntyre-Lahner and Ronald Schack explore different types and degrees of data fear (a data fear/data comfort continuum) and provide a tool-box of fear-fighting techniques, including methods of dealing with data fear “in the moment,” methods of mitigating data fear related to using, sharing, and reporting data, and demonstrating how many common data tasks need not be scary. They further offer a self-assessment instrument and process to help individuals assess their level of data fear/comfort, identifying which specific dimensions of data fear/comfort may be most problematic at both the individual and organizational level. The book examines how individual data fear can “infect” organizations, collaboratives, and communities, and how to “bake in” data fear prevention in one’s efforts to create and sustain a data-informed culture.
It is important reading for both practicing and future public servants, including those enrolled in Public Administration, Public Policy, and Nonprofit Management programs.
Working with Data in the Public Sector: From Fear to Enthusiasm is the first book designed for practicing and future public administration professionals to help overcome any anxiety about using data effectively in their roles.
Introduction PART I: The Nature of Data Fear
1. The Nature of Fear
2.
Stages of Data Comfort
3. Fear Related to Capacity
4. Fear Related to Use
PART II: Assessing Our Abilities and Anxieties About Data
5. A Fear
Self-Assessment PART III: Addressing and Overcoming Data Fear: Taming the
Fear Monster
6. A Fear-Fighting Toolbox 7, Analysis Doesnt Have to Be Scary
8. Approaches To Reducing Fears Related to Use Part IV: Moving Beyond
Individual Data Fear
9. Organizational Data Fear
10. Collaborative Data Fear
11. Creating and Sustaining a Data-Informed Culture
12. Data Fear and The
Application of Evidence-Based and Promising Practices
13. Community Data Fear
and Data Responsibility
14. Data Fear and DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion,
and Accessibility)
15. The Promise and Perils of the Use of Artificial
Intelligence in Data Analysis and Reporting
16. An Interview With The Authors
Anne McIntyre-Lahner is CEO of Action 2 Outcomes and Adjunct Professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Connecticut, USA.
Ronald W. Schack is Managing Director of The Charter Oak Group, LLC, and Adjunct Professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Connecticut, USA. He holds a doctoral degree in Political Science from the University of Connecticut.