How to Introduce Government Efficiency Without Alientating, Like, Everyone

By Claire Grusin | March 2025 | LinkedIn Article

I'm fortunate to teach Marketing Strategy and Consumer Insights at Oregon State University's esteemed College of Business. I am also the child of two life-long public servants. My father worked in intelligence for 30+ years and retired an SIS Officer. My mother was an exhibit text writer at the National Museum of Natural History for decades, helping to craft the new mammals hall, the new gem hall and even an update to the elephant in the atrium.

Growing up in the DC area, many of my friend's parents did something for the government, either directly, as a federal employee, or as a contractor in some capacity. Let's be clear, most people who go to work for federal jobs in DC aren't taking luxurious trips to Hawaii on spring break. Many sacrifice larger, private-sector salaries willingly in exchange for the stability, the benefits and intellectual challenge of working in the public sector.

To say the federal government has room to improve operational efficiencies is to say the sky is blue. Everyone already knows that, including most of the employees themselves. How to go about it is an entirely different issue.

In 1959, we learn from sociologists John French and Bertram Raven that power comes in six different forms:

1. Referent Power - think of an admired group leader

2. Information Power - think of your planner friend in the group

3. Legitimate Power - think of your coach

4. Expert Power - think of your doctor

5. Reward Power - think of your teacher

6. Coersive Power - think of your boss or parent

French and Raven argue that just becasue you have a certain kind of power at your disposal, (say, idk...coersive power,) doesn't mean you have to deploy it. In fact, real power lies in the ability to choose the appropriate kind of power for the given situation.

Sometimes the use of coersive power is imperative, for example, when your toddler is walking into the street. There is no negotiation in this context, and it is appropriate because the child's safety is paramount. It might also be appropriate if you discover an employee is embezzling funds, or if a manager is discovered to be violating major HR policies.

In contrast, coersive power, when deployed against educated adults who have given their lives to public service, is as narcassistic as it is short-sighted. Trump's brash approach brings with it the underlying assumption that our existing institutions, and the tens of thousdands of individuals who show up every day in service of their country have got it all wrong.

Trump and Musk don't actually want government efficiency, they want fear and the resulting compliance. If they really wanted to bring their decades of corporate efficiency expertise to bear on government bureaucracy, they would have done just that. Rather, this approach is deliberate, and profoundly alarming to those who have read history, like, ever.