Administrative reorganization of a public institution: Construction of the formal organizational structure of the office of the governor or the the State of San Luis Potosí, México

Abstract

The completion of this research arose from the concern of documenting the actions and strategies executed for the administrative reorganization of the Office of the Governor of the Satate of San Luis Potosí, during the constitutional period of 1997-2003, in charge of Fernando Silva Nieto. It is considered that a research with these characteristics can provede empirical evidence that serves as a reference for other public organizations-whether they are federal, state or municipal-with an interés in the execution of actions in the same sense, in other words, it can help from the legal, administrative,

technological,,technical, methodological ponto f view among other aspects. It is a preponderantly qualitative research taking into consideration the fact that is supported almost in its entirety by documentary review. However, the research also includes the experiences of the authors, who performed as public servants during the reviewed period and directed the actions documented in this research. In addition to the description of the actions and strategies utilized for the reorganization, the products generated derived from such activities are also included. In general terms, the documentation of the case was accomplished through the following sequence first, the administrative political environment of the office and the activities of the state executive power holder are described, as well as the quandary the office represented; in second place, an exposition regarding the execution of a diagnosis of the conditions prevailing in the internal scope of the examined administrative unit; in third place, how the deficiencies found were dealt with in terms of organizational structure, competence and coordination of and finally, the proposal used to reestructure the administrative unit under study is satated. The research shows diverse advantages for several actors, for instance public servants, academics and researchers, scholars of political science and public administration, among others, since the metholody used can be replicated for other public organizations independently of the government sphere in questions-federal, state, municipal-. In the fiel of public administration, análisis such as the one made in this research in the Depth it was executed are very scarce. To document the experience of reorganizing the office of the Governor is in itself a valuable contribution. Fort he authors, it resulted extremely fascinating and rewarding, to intervene in the review of oficial documents generated during the governmental periodo f 1997-2003, fact that contributed to provide all the elements necessary to conduct this research.