'Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony', American Journal of Sociology, 83, pp. 340-63.

Study in administration

This study examines the trends in revenue diversification in approximately 240 suburban municipalities in the Chicago metropolitan region between 1988 and 1997. It then tests a model of revenue diversification's impact on tax effort using data from 1993 to 1997, and separated by home rule and non-home rule municipalities. Trends show that suburbs with higher increases in diversification tend to be home rule, younger, less residential, experiencing more growth, less reliant on property taxes, and more reliant on sales taxes. Model estimates show that communities with more revenue diversification have lower tax effort when controlling for other determinants of tax effort, and this effect is stronger in non-home rule municipalities.

Revenue Diversification: Fiscal Illusion or Flexible Financial Management

There is a deeply relational aspect to the systems people employ for sorting through and prioritizing plural values assigned to social–ecological interactions. Spurred by interpersonal relationships and adhesion to societal core values, such as justice and reciprocity, relational values go beyond instrumental and intrinsic approaches to understanding human behaviour vis-a-vis the environment. Currently, this relational dimension of values is entering the spotlight of the cultural ecosystem services (CES) literature focusing on non-material benefits and values people derive from ecosystems, such as aesthetics and sense of place. Relational values foster reflections on appropriateness and morality of preferences and respective behaviours in contributing to collective flourishment across space and time, holding implications for social–ecological justice and sustainability. Recently, several studies explored the potential of using social media data for assessing values ascribed to CES, but did not look at how this emerging approach could contribute to an enhanced understanding of relational values. In order to take up this goal, we conducted a systematic review, screening 140 publications and selecting 29 as relevant for exploring the extent to which relational CES values are inferable through social media. Our results show that social media data can reveal CES values’ plural and relational dimension. Social media platforms, thus, can be understood as new arenas for the co-construction of values, where relational values stemming from social–ecological interactions are negotiated and defined. Yet, work on their implications for social–ecological justice and sustainability needs to be extended.

/pdf/digital-co-construction-of-relational-values-understanding-4o898moytm.pdf

Digital co-construction of relational values: understanding the role of social media for sustainability

https://works.bepress.com/michael_johnson/81/download/

Emerging trends and new frontiers in community operational research

Policymakers are increasingly mandating intergovernmental coordination. As a result, new questions have arisen about how bureaucrats interpret and respond to these directives. Drawing on the perspectives of top-down implementation and institutional theory, this article suggests that mandates to coordinate will result in structural efforts such as hierarchy, centralization, and formalization to signal coordination and demonstrate compliance with the mandate. However, such efforts can be ineffective for achieving coordination. These claims are explored through a case study of the implementation of the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act of 1998, which called on federal land management agencies to coordinate with units of local government in southern Nevada to develop a regional system of parks, trails, and natural areas. The discussion draws on interviews with 14 participants to provide context and explanation for the actions of the implementing agents, including how the mandate affected the...

Mandates to Coordinate: The Case of the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act

The determinants of outsourcing in local government are widely studied from a variety of frameworks. One concept consistently used to explain local government outsourcing is fiscal condition, with ...

Reexamining the Relationship Between Fiscal Stress and Outsourcing

Department of Political Science, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas Correspondence Josephine Gatti Schafer, Department of Political Science, Kansas State University, 802 Mid Campus Dr. South, 115 Calvin Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506. Email: jgschafer@ksu.edu Present Address Josephine Gatti Schafer, Center for Public Affairs Research, University of Nebraska at Omaha Omaha, Nebraska 108 CPACS 6001 Dodge Street Omaha, NE 68182 402.554.2133 Email: jgschafer@unomaha.edu

A systematic review of the public administration literature to identify how to increase public engagement and participation with local governance

Multicriteria decision analysis is a decision support aid touted for its ability to help participants overcome bias and make holistic assessments However, few offer empirical tests of this thesis This research examines the use of multicriteria decision analysis to implement the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act The Act called upon federal, regional, and local agencies to develop a connected system of parks, trails, and natural areas throughout Nevada The partners used multicriteria decision analysis to make decisions about which parks, trails, and natural areas projects to fund We assess the extent of political and cognitive biases among the participants when using the multicriteria decision analysis process We find no strong evidence of strategic behavior, a finding that highlights many of the celebratory claims made about multicriteria decision analysis However, we also note a preference for projects adjacent to high-income areas as well as the presence of cognitive biases in the assign

Biases in multicriteria decision analysis: The case of environmental planning in Southern Nevada

The choice to privatize municipal services has commonly been characterized as complex and intractable (Fernandez et al. 2008; Warner and Hebdon 2001; Hefetz and Warner 2012; Brown and Potoski 2003; Levin and Tadelis 2010). The economics of outsourcing are typically unclear (Lowery 1998; Sclar 2000; Brown and Potoski 2003; Hefetz et al 2012) and the politics often contentious (Henig 1990; Starr 1987; Fenandez et al. 2008). In just such policy arenas, strategically reaching out to stakeholders may provide municipal governments' indomitable resources to manage the challenge (Head 2008; Haubold 2012; Bryson, 2004; Bryson et al, 2002). Theoretically, engaging and consulting stakeholders can provide information to reduce the risks and transactions costs to government as well as minimize the effect of conflictual politics. We seek to test these claims, as they are replete in the literature. We ask, to what extent do municipal governments engage and consult stakeholders about contracting out? Are municipalities strategic in the stakeholders they consult? Finally, how does engaging stakeholders affect the extent of contracting out in municipalities? The literature on the determinants of municipal contracting out is rich, in part due to the International City/County Management Association's (ICMA) Alternative Service Delivery (ASD) survey which has been conducted every five years, since 1982. However, the role of stakeholders in the process has not been given a great deal of consideration to date. In fact, only a few estimations of outsourcing in local government has examined this factor (see: Fernandez et al. 2008; Warner 2006; Warner and Hefertz 2008; Hefetz et al. 2012). Moreover, these articles do not provide a clear theoretical explanation for the role stakeholders may play. However, the stakeholder literature offers some clear advice. We integrate these two literatures by articulating a theoretical argument for how engaging stakeholders may influence the extent of contracting out and test these claims with an empirical model. We find that the extent to which city officials engage external stakeholders has a significant and positive effect on the extent of contracting out in municipal government. THE ROLE OF STAKEHOLDERS Stakeholders are "Any person, group, or organization that can place a claim on the organization's attention, resources or output, or is affected by that output" (Bryson, 1995, 27). Engaging stakeholders' in decision making is a critical component of democratic society. Stakeholders' feedback is a powerful means for public administrators to fulfill their obligations in a democracy providing a conduit between the public at large and government and ensuring responsible and representative governance (Bingham et al, 2005). In addition, stakeholder engagement has been shown to build trust, develop learning and inspire confidence in public processes (Bierle and Konisky, 2000), all of which are critical elements of democratic practice. Deriving from these calls to engage stakeholders, several typologies have exhumed in the literature that define the extent to which stakeholders are engaged. For instance, an early typology depicted participation on a ladder (Arnstein's 1969). At the bottom, passive dissemination of information and at the top, active engagement. Emphasis is usually placed at the top. For instance, Lawrence (2006) calls for "transformative" participation by stakeholders, highlighting the need to educate stakeholders in order to develop transformational and systemic changes in beliefs and values (Lawrence, 2006). More recently, some have begun to develop a more instrumental view of stakeholder engagement (Reed, 2008). Thomas (2013) claims that stakeholder management should be a practical matter. Stakeholders should be engaged strategically, when needed and at a level that is purposeful to the task. Similarly, Bingham et al (2005) suggest that public administrators should engage stakeholders to fulfill their own self and strategic interests. …

Josephine Gatti Schafer

Papers

Mandates to Coordinate: The Case of the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act

Reexamining the Relationship Between Fiscal Stress and Outsourcing

A systematic review of the public administration literature to identify how to increase public engagement and participation with local governance

Biases in multicriteria decision analysis: The case of environmental planning in Southern Nevada

The Role of Stakeholders in Municipal Contracting Out