Showing papers in "Public Administration Review in 2012"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate ways in which organizational leaders can reinforce and even augment the potential effects of public service motivation on employees' attraction to the organization's mission (mission valence).
Abstract: This article contributes to our understanding of public service motivation and leadership by investigating ways in which organizational leaders can reinforce and even augment the potential effects of public service motivation on employees’ attraction to the organization’s mission (mission valence). The results contribute to two research questions. First, the findings provide new evidence on the sources of public service motivation. The authors find that transformational leadership is an organizational factor associated with higher public service motivation. Second, the article examines the relationship between transformational leadership and mission valence. The authors find that transformational leadership has an important indirect effect on mission valence through its influence on clarifying organizational goals and fostering public service motivation.
501 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the relationship between electronic participation and trust in local government by focusing on five dimensions of the e-participation process: satisfaction with eparticipation applications, satisfaction with government responsiveness, development through the participation, perceived influence on decision making, and assessment of government transparency.
Abstract: This article examines the relationship between electronic participation (e-participation) and trust in local government by focusing on five dimensions of the e-participationprocess: (1) satisfaction with e-participation applications, (2) satisfaction with government responsiveness to e-participants, (3) e-participants’ development through the participation, (4) perceived influence on decision making, and (5) assessment of government transparency. Using data from the 2009 E-Participation Survey in Seoul Metropolitan Government, this article finds that e-participants’ satisfaction with e-participation applications is directly associated with their development and their assessment of government transparency. The findings reveal that e-participants’ satisfaction with government responsiveness is positively associated with their perceptions of influencing government decision making. Furthermore, there is a positive association between e-participants’ perception of influencing government decision making and their assessment of government transparency. Finally, the article finds that there is a positive association between e-participants’ assessment of government transparency and their trust in the local government providing the e-participation program.
370 citations
TL;DR: This paper provided an introduction to the literature on policy diffusion in political science and public administration and provided seven lessons derived from that literature, built from numerous empirical studies and applied to contemporary policy debates.
Abstract: The scholarship on policy diffusion in political science and public administration is extensive. This article provides an introduction to that literature for scholars, students, and practitioners. It offers seven lessons derived from that literature, built from numerous empirical studies and applied to contemporary policy debates. Based on these seven lessons, the authors offer guidance to policy makers and present opportunities for future research to students and scholars of policy diffusion.
355 citations
TL;DR: An overview of the key research findings and core concepts on the topic of organizational networks can be found in this article, where the primary focus is on goal-directed “whole” service delivery networks, which are prevalent in the public and nonprofit sectors.
Abstract: This article provides an overview of the key research findings and core concepts on the topic of organizational networks. The primary focus is on goal-directed “whole” service delivery networks, which are prevalent in the public and nonprofit sectors. The findings and ideas presented are especially salient for helping public managers build, maintain, operate, and govern multiorganizational networks in ways that will enhance their effectiveness. Because research and theory on networks extend well beyond the boundaries of public management and administration, the authors draw on thinking from a number of fields, providing a broad understanding of public networks and network functioning. The article is intended to provide usable information on networks for both practitioners and students, as well as to suggest directions for future research for the many public management scholars who now study organizational networks.
354 citations
TL;DR: A review of the basic assumptions and empirical work on organizational reputation in the public sector identifies a series of stylized facts that extend our understanding of the functioning of public agencies as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: This article examines the application of organizational reputation to public administration. Organizational reputation is defined as a set of beliefs about an organization’s capacities, intentions, history, and mission that are embedded in a network of multiple audiences. The authors assert that the way in which organizational reputations are formed and subsequently cultivated is fundamental to understanding the role of public administration in a democracy. A review of the basic assumptions and empirical work on organizational reputation in the public sector identifies a series of stylized facts that extends our understanding of the functioning of public agencies. In particular, the authors examine the relationship between organizational reputation and bureaucratic autonomy.
345 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored eight participatory design elements and offered nine propositions about how those elements are likely to affect the ability of administrators to identify and understand public values with regard to a policy conflict.
Abstract: This article seeks to put the “public” back in public values research by theorizing about the potential of direct citizen participation to assist with identifying and understanding public values. Specifically, the article explores eight participatory design elements and offers nine propositions about how those elements are likely to affect the ability of administrators to identify and understand public values with regard to a policy conflict. The article concludes with a brief discussion about potential directions for future research.
323 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a framework for assessing power in collaborative governance processes that considers authority, resources, and discursive legitimacy as sources of power and considers the participants, the process design, and the content of collaborative governance process as arenas for power use.
Abstract: The growing use of collaborative methods of governance raises concerns about the relative power of participants in such processes and the potential for exclusion or domination of some parties. This research offers a framework for assessing power that considers authority, resources, and discursive legitimacy as sources of power and considers the participants, the process design, and the content of collaborative governance processes as arenas for power use. A case study of a collaborative governance process is presented and analyzed using the power framework. Implications for the design of collaborative governance processes are discussed, including the benefits of a multidimensional definition of power, tools for managing power imbalances among participants, and strategies that participants can use to participate more fully in collaborative governance processes.
296 citations
265 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors question the dominant implementation-control-discretion narrative and suggest an alternative framing based on the concepts of agency and pragmatic improvisation, which surfaces tensions between practice and the goals of social equity.
Abstract: Street-level workers’ judgments, decisions, and actions touch on questions of social equity, a dominant theme of H. George Frederickson's deep contributions to public administration scholarship. Based on empirical work, the authors question the dominant implementation-control-discretion narrative and suggest an alternative framing based on the concepts of agency and pragmatic improvisation. Street-level workers are often conservers of institutional norms and practices, but their work surfaces tensions between practice and the goals of social equity.
240 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a theoretical framework that explains the determinants of local government Web site transparency is presented. But the authors focus on three dimensions of transparency: decision making transparency, policy information transparency, and policy outcome transparency.
Abstract: This article contributes to the emerging literature on transparency by developing and empirically testing a theoretical framework that explains the determinants of local government Web site transparency. It aims to answer the following central question: What institutional factors determine the different dimensions of government transparency? The framework distinguishes three dimensions of transparency—decision making transparency, policy information transparency, and policy outcome transparency—and hypothesizes three explanations for each: organizational capacity, political influence, and group influence on government. Results indicate that each dimension of transparency is associated with different factors. Decision-making transparency is associated with political influence; when left-wing parties are strong in the local council, local government tends to be more transparent. Policy information transparency is associated with media attention and external group pressure, and policy outcome transparency is associated with both external group pressure and the organizational capacity. The authors discuss the implications for policy and administration
236 citations
TL;DR: The authors locates the origins of polycentricity in Ostrom's early research on resource management in the Western United States and demonstrates its continuing influence throughout The Intellectual Crisis in Public Administration, The Political Theory of a Compound Republic, and his other major publications.
Abstract: Among Vincent Ostrom's many contributions to the study of public administration, policy, and political science, the concept of polycentricity remains his single most important legacy. This essay locates the origins of this concept in Ostrom's early research on resource management in the Western United States and demonstrates its continuing influence throughout The Intellectual Crisis in Public Administration, The Political Theory of a Compound Republic, and his other major publications. Although typically pigeonholed within the confines of the public choice tradition, Ostrom's body of work should be widely appreciated as an early statement of the critical importance of network forms of governance in democratic societies.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the informal norms, expectations, and behaviors that facilitate collective action and promote informal accountability among non-profi t network actors, and propose a preliminary theory of informal accountability.
Abstract: Widespread government contracting for nonprofi t social service delivery has resulted in extensive reliance on networks of service providers, which involve complicated accountability dynamics. Th e literature has tended to emphasize formal aspects of accountability in contract relationships, focusing on the specifi cation of contract terms, performance measures, reporting relationships, and stipulated consequences. Far less attention has been focused on the interorganizational and interpersonal behaviors that refl ect informal accountability. Th is article examines the informal norms, expectations, and behaviors that facilitate collective action and promote informal accountability among nonprofi t network actors. Th e data are based on in-depth interviews with nonprofi t senior administrators in four major metropolitan areas. Based on this research, the authors propose a preliminary theory of informal accountability that links (1) the shared norms and facilitative behaviors that foster informal accountability for collective outcomes, (2) the informal system of rewards and sanctions used to promote and reinforce behavioral expectations, and (3) the challenges that may undermine informal accountability.
TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors investigated which theory better predicts attitudes toward work, such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment of public employees, by testing hypotheses on whether public service motivation directly influences work attitudes, or whether person-organization fit mediates the relationship between public-service motivation and work attitudes.
Abstract: Public service motivation theory suggests that public service motivation is positively related to work attitudes, but person-organization fit theory assumes that person-organization fit completely mediates the relationship between public service motivation and work attitudes of public employees. This article investigates which theory better predicts attitudes toward work, such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment of public employees, by testing hypotheses on (1) whether public service motivation directly influences work attitudes, or (2) whether person-organization fit mediates the relationship between public service motivation and work attitudes, or (3) whether both hypotheses are true. Using survey data on civil servants in Korea, this article shows that public service motivation has not only a direct effect on but also an indirect effect on job satisfaction and -organizational commitment through its influence on person--organization fit.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors use survey and interview data from U.S. local governments to explore the responses of public managers to noncompetitive markets, finding that competition is weak in most local government markets and that the relationship between competition and contracting choice varies by service type.
Abstract: Capturing the benefits of competition is a key argument for outsourcing public services, yet public service markets often lack sufficient competition. The authors use survey and interview data from U.S. local governments to explore the responses of public managers to noncompetitive markets. This research indicates that competition is weak in most local government markets (fewer than two alternative providers on average across 67 services measured), and that the relationship between competition and contracting choice varies by service type. Public managers respond to suboptimal market competition by intervening with strategies designed to create, sustain, and enhance provider markets. In monopoly service markets, managers are more likely to use intergovernmental contracting, while for-profit contracting is more common in more competitive service markets. The strategies that public managers employ to build and sustain competition for contracts often require tangible investments of administrative resources that add to the transaction costs of contracting in noncompetitive markets.
TL;DR: This paper found that the perceived administrative burden of policies is associated with a preference to shift responsibilities to others, perceptions of greater flaws and lesser merit in policies that have created the burden, and opposition to related policy innovations.
Abstract: This article argues that administrative burden—that is, an individual's experience of policy implementation as onerous—is an important consideration for administrators and influences their views on policy and governance options. The authors test this proposition in the policy area of election administration using a mixed-method assessment of local election officials. They find that the perceived administrative burden of policies is associated with a preference to shift responsibilities to others, perceptions of greater flaws and lesser merit in policies that have created the burden (to the point that such judgments are demonstrably wrong), and opposition to related policy innovations.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors found moderate levels of sustainability efforts and capacity in U.S. cities, and about one third of the sustainability practices identified in this article have been implemented.
Abstract: Why do some governments implement more sustainability practices than others? Based on a national survey of U.S. cities, this article finds moderate levels of sustainability efforts and capacity in U.S. cities; about one-third of the sustainability practices identified in this article have been implemented. The authors conclude that, first, capacity building is a useful conceptual focus for understanding sustainability implementation in U.S. cities. Capacity building involves developing technical and financial support and increasing managerial execution. Second, sustainability is strongly associated with managerial capacity, which includes establishing sustainability goals, incorporating goals in operations, and developing a supportive infrastructure. Third, getting stakeholders involved furthers the capacity for sustaining sustainability efforts. Citizen involvement is strongly associated with securing financial support for sustainability.
TL;DR: This paper found that the involvement of agency employees in GPRA processes and program assessment rating tool generally had little direct effect on performance information use once other factors are accounted for, such as leadership commitment to results, learning routines led by supervisors, the motivational nature of the task, and the ability to link measures to actions.
Abstract: The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993 and the George W. Bush administration’s Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) established new routines that were intended to foster performance management practices. Using data from two surveys, the authors find that the involvement of agency employees in GPRA processes and PART reviews generally had little direct effect on performance information use once other factors are accounted for. The main exception is that managerial involvement in GPRA processes and PART reviews is associated with the use of performance data to refine measures and goals. This reflects the limits of government-wide reform efforts that depend on difficult-to-observe bureaucratic behavior. The authors also find that a series of organizational factors—leadership commitment to results, learning routines led by supervisors, the motivational nature of the task, and the ability to link measures to actions—are positive predictors of performance information use.
TL;DR: Social equity is rooted in the idea that each person is equal and has inalienable rights as mentioned in this paper, and the impossibility of simultaneously achieving inequality and equality produces episodic "corrections".
Abstract: Social equity is rooted in the idea that each person is equal and has inalienable rights. Because of America's unique blend of social, religious, economic, and political characteristics, we value this concept despite, or perhaps because of, the simultaneous tensions of a capitalist economy, which requires inequality, set within a democratic constitutional system, which assumes equality. The impossibility of simultaneously achieving inequality and equality produces episodic “corrections.” This was the case in the tumultuous 1960s, a period when the usually tame notion of equity gave rise to heated debate and resulted in calls for social change. Now, tumult in the form of economic inequality, unemployment, and globalization is a harbinger of renewed interest. This article explains the roots of the concept, its contemporary understandings, and its relevance to emerging issues.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review, summarize, and analyze the most important high-speed passenger rail (HSR) projects carried out to date around the globe, focusing on the main concerns of HSR projects: their impact on mobility, the environment, the economy, and urban centers.
Abstract: In April 2009, the U.S. government unveiled its blueprint for a national network of high-speed passenger rail (HSR) lines, aimed at reducing traffic congestion, cutting national dependence on foreign oil, and improving rural and urban environments. In implementing such a project, it is essential to identify the factors that might influence decision making and the eventual success of the HSR project, as well as to foresee the obstacles that must be overcome. The authors review, summarize, and analyze the most important HSR projects carried out to date around the globe, focusing on the main concerns of HSR projects: their impact on mobility, the environment, the economy, and urban centers. The authors identify lessons for policy makers and managers who are implementing HSR projects.
TL;DR: In 1984, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) collaborated to foster a community of scholars focused on research and professional practice in emergency management.
Abstract: In 1984, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) collaborated to foster a community of scholars focused on research and professional practice in emergency management. The intent was to build a community of researchers and professional practitioners who would support improved performance for an increasingly challenging set of problems confronting emergency managers at all levels of jurisdiction. The financial investment was small, but the NASPAA/FEMA initiative led to the evolution of a community of scholars engaged in emergency management research and professional practice. The authors review changes in FEMA since the 1984 workshop and the impact of the NASPAA/FEMA fellows on research and practice in emergency management, placing this initiative in the wider context of public administration.
TL;DR: This article explored the relationship between competitive/cooperative motivations and interlocal collaboration networks based on a network survey conducted in the Orlando, Florida, metropolitan area and applied a quadratic assignment procedure regression analysis to examine how dyadic conceptual ties of cooperation and competition, along with the effect of community characteristics, affect policy network structures for economic development.
Abstract: Predispositions and orientation toward cooperation or competition with other jurisdictions can play a critical role in implementing regional collaboration. By examining collaboration at the micro level, this article investigates how individual factors, including perceptions of cooperation and competition, as well as institutional and environmental factors, are related to regional collaboration. In particular, the authors assert that competitive motivation may support the emergence of regional governance mechanisms. This article explores the relationships between competitive/cooperative motivations and interlocal collaboration networks based on a network survey conducted in the Orlando, Florida, metropolitan area. The authors apply a quadratic assignment procedure regression analysis to examine how dyadic conceptual ties of cooperation and competition, along with the effect of community characteristics, affect policy network structures for economic development. By comparing estimated coefficients with sampling distributions of coefficients from all of the permuted data sets, the regression results indicate the influences of perceived competition/cooperation on the network exchange.
TL;DR: In this paper, the payoff from engaging in innovation-generating activities is contingent on an organization's level of customer and learning orientation, and the authors find strong support for a direct relationship between innovative activity and public service quality.
Abstract: This article examines whether the payoff from engaging in innovation-generating activities is contingent on an organization's level of customer and learning orientation. The authors suggest that innovative activity is associated with higher public service quality when the level of customer and learning orientation within the focal organization is high. They test this hypothesis by drawing on a novel panel data set covering all public nonspecialist hospital organizations in England. Using dynamic panel data estimation techniques, the authors find strong support for a direct relationship between innovative activity and public service quality and for a moderating role of both customer and learning orientation. These findings call for a contingency perspective on public sector innovation and highlight some of the boundary conditions that need to be in place if public service organizations are to benefit fully from their innovative activities.
TL;DR: The authors examined five mainstream public administration journals over an eight-year period regarding current methodological practice, organized around the total survey error framework, and concluded that survey research in the field of public administration features mainly small-scale studies, heavy reliance on a single data collection mode, questionable sample selection procedures, and suspect sample frame quality.
Abstract: Survey research is a common tool for assessing public opinions, perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors for analyses in many social science disciplines. Yet there is little knowledge regarding how specific elements of survey research methodology are applied in practice in public administration. This article examines five mainstream public administration journals over an eight-year period regarding current methodological practice, organized around the total survey error framework. The findings show that survey research in the field of public administration features mainly small-scale studies, heavy reliance on a single data collection mode, questionable sample selection procedures, and suspect sample frame quality. Survey data largely are analyzed without careful consideration of assumptions or potential sources of error. An informed evaluation of the quality of survey data is made more difficult by the fact that many journal articles do not detail data collection procedures. This study concludes with suggestions for improving the quality and reporting of survey research in the field.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on members of the U.S. Senior Executive Service who choose collaboration as a management strategy to increase performance and, in particular, their views of the skill set of a successful collaborator.
Abstract: In this article, the authors focus on members of the U.S. Senior Executive Service who choose collaboration as a management strategy to increase performance and, in particular, their views of the skill set of a successful collaborator. Based on the current literature on collaboration and networks, these executives might be expected to identify strategic thinking and strategic management as the most important skills. Contrary to expectations, the federal executives most frequently mentioned individual attributes and interpersonal skills as essential for successful collaboration, followed by group process skills, strategic leadership skills, and substantive/technical expertise. The article provides empirical substantiation of the previous literature, with one major difference: the strong reporting of the importance of individual attributes by federal executives (much more than previously reported by other scholars in the field). Strategic leadership skills, strategic management skills, and technical skills matter, but they are not the most important factors behind successful collaborations, according to federal executives.
TL;DR: In an attempt to build on studies that have gone beyond critiquing the statistical validity and reliability of performance numbers for public services, the authors developed two hypotheses about performance enhancement, arguing that the performance-enhancing (or -obstructing) effects of management by numbers will vary according to whether the numbers are used for the purposes of targets, rankings, or intelligence.
Abstract: “Public management by numbers” has experienced an international policy boom in recent decades, and big claims have been made about its performance-enhancing effects. But it is hard to assess such claims systematically, even though we can find dramatic anecdotes of cases in which management by numbers seems to have had performance-weakening as well as performance-enhancing effects. In an attempt to build on studies that have gone beyond critiquing the statistical validity and reliability of performance numbers for public services, this article develops two hypotheses about performance enhancement, arguing that (1) the performance-enhancing (or -obstructing) effects of management by numbers will vary according to whether the numbers are used for the purposes of targets, rankings, or “intelligence,” and (2) the performance-enhancing (or -obstructing) effects of those three applications will vary according to the culture in which they operate, working differently in hierarchist, egalitarian, individualist, and fatalist settings.
TL;DR: Perry and Vandenabeele as discussed by the authors examined how public service motivation relates to public managers' attitudes toward citizen participation and found that the relationship is not mediated by value congruence but rather is moderated by the perceived importance of the organization's citizen participation efforts.
Abstract: This article examines how public service motivation (PSM) relates to public managers’ attitudes toward citizen participation. Perry and Vandenabeele suggest that PSM effects are moderated and/or mediated by self-regulation and by the salience of an activity to self-identity. Using data from Phase IV of the National Administrative Studies Project, latent model results suggest a direct, positive relationship between PSM and citizen participation evaluation. The relationship is not mediated by value congruence but rather is moderated by the perceived importance of the organization’s citizen participation efforts. The moderating effect has three interpretations: (1) PSM has a stronger relationship to evaluation as citizen participation becomes more important in the agency; (2) at low and medium PSM levels, the greater the importance of citizen participation, the lower its evaluation; or (3) at high PSM levels, the greater the importance of citizen participation, the higher its evaluation. This suggests that PSM is more germane for activities such as citizen participation, invoking relevant values as perceived organizational commitment increases.
TL;DR: This article examined the relationship between public administration scholarship and the study of developing countries and found that administrative research on the developing world published in leading international publications has become a small-scale, disparate, descriptive, qualitative, and noncomparative subfield dominated by researchers from the global North.
Abstract: What is the relationship between public administration scholarship and the study of developing countries? This article answers this question by presenting the intellectual history of administrative studies of the global South and by examining recent empirical studies of developing country administration. The results suggest that administrative research on the developing world published in leading international publications has become a small-scale, disparate, descriptive, qualitative, and noncomparative subfield dominated by researchers from the global North. This empirical finding provides a platform to end a false North–South administrative dichotomy and advance a vision for public administration as a global social science.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the problem of policy alienation using the concept of "policy alienation" and developed and tested a scale for its measurement, which can ultimately help in understanding and enhancing policy performance.
Abstract: Currently, there is an intense debate on the pressures facing public professionals during policy implementation. Frequently professionals have difficulty identifying with new policies, resulting in among else diminished policy performance. We examine this problem using the concept of ‘policy alienation’, for which we have developed and tested a scale for its measurement. Policy alienation is conceptually associated with five sub-dimensions: strategic powerlessness, tactical powerlessness, operational powerlessness, societal meaninglessness
and client meaninglessness. Likert-type items have been developed for these sub-dimensions which together create a policy alienation scale. The initial scale was reviewed by interviewing 21 experts. These items were then administered in a survey of 478 Dutch healthcare professionals implementing a new financial policy: Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG, or DBC). The resulting 23-item policy alienation scale demonstrated good psychometric qualities. A reliable and valid policy alienation scale can ultimately help in understanding and enhancing policy performance.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared the environmental performance of facilities that adopt ISO 14001 certified EMSs, complete (non-certified) EMSs and incomplete EMSs across multiple environmental media.
Abstract: While there is little empirical evidence to demonstrate which types of environmental management systems (EMSs) are associated with greater environmental improvements, governments worldwide are encouraging facilities to adopt them. This research compares the environmental performance of facilities that adopt ISO 14001–certified EMSs, complete (noncertified) EMSs, and incomplete EMSs across multiple environmental media. The authors analyze these relationships for manufacturing facilities in seven countries using a two-stage model to control for selection bias. Findings indicate that the adoption of all types of EMSs is related to improved environmental performance in an international setting. However, ISO 14001–certified EMSs are associated with environmental improvements to a broader array of environmental media. These findings offer important implications about which types of EMSs have greater promise as voluntary environmental governance tools.