The American Review of Public Administration recent issues

Beyond the Rhetoric: Lessons From Louisville's Consolidation

Savitch, H.V., Vogel, R. K., Ye, L. — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:09:30 PST

Louisville’s consolidation with Jefferson County was the first large-scale merger to take place in the United States in more than 30 years. The authors examine this merger as a major institutional innovation that was supposed to enhance economic development. Proponents of consolidation claimed that institutional change would "shake up" the system and create an economic boom. The authors use actual results to determine whether this much-heralded experience warrants claims that it can be a role model, point of reference, or best practice. In doing this, they compare data from premerged and postmerged Louisville over a full 8-year period. Of central concern are whether "shake up" worked, how elites manage results as unsatisfying outcomes become apparent, and what that behavior portends for responsible governance. The authors conclude with a number of principles and policies regarding institutional change.

County Limits: Policy Types and Expenditure Priorities

Choi, S. O., Bae, S.-S., Kwon, S.-W., Feiock, R. — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:09:30 PST

This study extends Peterson’s city limits perspective to counties to empirically examine how economic, political, institutional, and demographic factors influence overall county spending and spending priorities across three core policy arenas. Pooled cross-sectional time-series analysis of Florida counties reveals that although population density and economic conditions influence spending, politics and institutions matter. Political ideology as indicated by presidential and gubernatorial Democratic vote share has a positive influence on all three spending categories. The findings also reveal that county adoption of a home rule charter leads to greater emphasis on developmental and redistributive rather than allocational functions.

Does Democratic Anchorage Matter?: An Inquiry Into the Relation Between Democratic Anchorage and Outcome of Dutch Environmental Projects

Edelenbos, J., Steijn, B., Klijn, E.-H. — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:09:30 PST

Does democracy matter? This is an intriguing question. Not only as a normative question, democracy is a value in itself that can be cherished for that reason alone but also as a question of its impact on the outcomes of governance processes. In this article, the authors look at the question of to what degree citizens and politicians are involved in governance processes around environmental projects and what the effect is of these forms of democratic embedding on the outcomes of those projects. The research is based on a survey in 2006 that resulted in 337 respondents involved in spatial projects in the Netherlands. The analysis shows that, according to respondents, both stakeholders and political parties are well involved in the process (stakeholders slightly more than political actors). The authors also find that both democratic anchorage forms are related to perceived outcomes, but only stakeholder involvement has a strong significant effect on outcomes.

Building Trust in Public and Nonprofit Networks: Personal, Dyadic, and Third-Party Influences

Lambright, K. T., Mischen, P. A., Laramee, C. B. — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:09:30 PST

This article provides greater understanding of factors influencing interpersonal trust in networks composed of public and nonprofit service providers. The present theoretical model identifies propensity to trust, the perceived trustworthiness of the trustee, the relationship between the trustee and trustor, and third-party relationships as influencing interpersonal trust. The model is tested using action research data collected from a network of local social service providers. Key findings include the following: (a) Successful past cooperation between a trustor and a trustee and structural equivalence increase the likelihood the trustor will perceive the trustee as trustworthy; (b) the frequency of interactions between the trustor and trustee, trust transferability, and the perceived trustworthiness of the trustee have a direct, positive impact on whether the trustor trusts the trustee; and (c) trust between the trustor and trustee has a positive impact on expected future cooperation.

Competitive Sourcing in the Federal Civil Service

Snavely, K., Desai, U. — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:09:30 PST

Competitive sourcing, meaning public—private competitions to perform work in the federal civil service, was made a priority management policy of the George W. Bush administration. Competition, it is believed, will greatly enhance administrative efficiency whichever bidder, public or private, wins. Introduction of such market-based human resource policies into the federal civil service has engendered debate over long-term effects on merit principles, public service motives and ethics, and administrative performance. This article contributes to that discussion by examining the policy origins and purposes behind competitive sourcing and by analyzing implementation of the policy during the Bush administration. Results show that the market ideology expressed in competitive sourcing has been moderated and mediated by the implementation process. Congressional and public employee involvement alongside that of the administration produced policy outcomes of mixed results.

Impact of Competing Accountability Requirements on Perceived Work Performance

Kim, S. E., Lee, J. W. — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:09:30 PST

A number of qualitative studies have found that failure to accomplish missions can be attributed to competing accountability requirements. This article presents empirical evidence concerning the impact of competing accountability requirements on employees’ perceived work performance. Specifically, this article has two objectives: (a) to identify different types of accountability requirements with quantitative data and (b) to determine to what extent the competing pressures of accountability affect individual employees’ perceived work performance. The authors find that accountability is indeed a complex and multidimensional construct— compliance, professional, and political accountability—that imposes competing pressures on employees’ perceptions of their work performance, which can reduce the probability of actual mission accomplishment in an agency.

Book Review: Stephen Goldsmith and Donald F. Kettl (Eds.). Unlocking the Power of Networks: Keys to High-Performance Government. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2009. 252 pp. $29.95. ISBN 9780815731870

Reckhow, S. — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:09:30 PST

Ways of Knowing: Passionate Humility and Reflective Practice in Research and Management

Yanow, D. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:57:00 PDT

For all the attention that the concept of reflective practice has attracted, very little has been said concerning what might incline someone to be open to engage in it. My concern in this essay is with two characteristics of professional, including administrative, practice—a language of certainty and a language of inquiry —and, when the conditions under which the language of certainty has come to dominate professional practice, with the question of what might be required to introduce a posture of reflective inquiry into that practice. I advance the idea that "passionate humility" may be one of the criteria requisite for the cultivation of reflective practice, as it contains the promise of turning administrative and policy action from a language of certainty to a language of reflective inquiry. I suggest that we might learn something about the production and place of humility from the treatment of scientific practice in the philosophy of natural and social science, in two areas: in general, which sees "science" as grounded at least in part in an attitude of doubt; and in particular, from interpretive research methods and interpretive policy analysis, in which the language of inquiry is increasingly operative. Both of these might have something important to tell us concerning contemporary practices in administration and management.

What Do Public Values Mean for Public Action?: Putting Public Values in Their Plural Place

Davis, P., West, K. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:57:00 PDT

Public values are moving from a research concern to policy discourse and management practice. There are, though, different readings of what public values actually mean. Reflection suggests two distinct strands of thinking: a generative strand that sees public value emerging from processes of public debate; and an institutional interpretation that views public values as the attributes of government producers. Neither perspective seems to offer a persuasive account of how the public gains from strengthened public values. Key propositions on values are generated from comparison of influential texts. A provisional framework is presented of the values base of public institutions and the loosely coupled public propositions flowing from these values. Value propositions issue from different governing contexts, which are grouped into policy frames that then compete with other problem frames for citizens’ cognitive resources. Vital democratic commitments to pluralism require public values to be distributed in competition with other, respected, frames.

National Performance Mandates and Intergovernmental Collaboration: An Examination of the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART)

Stalebrink, O. J. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:57:00 PDT

This exploratory research is aimed at offering insights into how intergovernmental dependencies influence Program Assessment Rating Tools (PART) ratings under circumstances when federal funds and responsibility are delegated downward in the system. The research offers formal support for the hypothesis that programs carried out under such circumstances score relatively lower on those portions of the PART instrument that are dependent on intergovernmental collaboration. The findings are important in that they draw attention to an opportunity to improve the consistency of PART ratings across programs. Specifically, they suggest that it may be necessary to revise the instrument to include questions that recognizes and gives credit to efforts of intergovernmental collaborative efforts as part of the PART scoring process.

Does Office Location Influence the Work Actions of Public Sector Human Service Managers?: The Effects of Rural Practice Settings on Core Managerial Role Competencies

Preston, M. S. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:57:00 PDT

Numerous studies have empirically examined the influence of situational determinants on the nature of managerial work. One important determinant that has received little attention is office location, or, more specifically, rural versus urban practice settings. The present study addresses this underexplored area of inquiry by assessing the relative influence of office location on core managerial role competencies. Eighty-one office managers responsible for three types of county-based human service agencies in New York State were surveyed. Public managers responsible for larger, more rural human service offices reported engaging in human resource management role competencies significantly more than their urban colleagues. After controlling for the effects of office size, public managers situated in more rural practice and settings were significantly more likely to engage in the role competencies of mentoring and staff development than were their urban counterparts. Possible explanations for the findings are discussed, along with implications for public management research and practice.

The Myth of the Coming Charitable Estate Windfall

James, R. N. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:57:00 PDT

Media accounts, fund-raising periodicals, and some academic research have pointed to a coming windfall of charitable estate transfers driven by the graying of the population. Nonprofit managers and public agencies working with nonprofits or their beneficiaries may incorporate these expectations into their long-range planning. This article presents the first comparison of estate gifts (for both taxable and nontaxable estates) with the previous annual giving and volunteering of the deceased. An analysis of approximately 6,000 deceased panel members from the 1995—2006 Health and Retirement Study suggests that estate gifts are largely offset by the loss of current giving and volunteering previously provided by the deceased donors. Consequently, nonprofit managers who plan based on anticipated future charitable giving estate windfalls may make erroneous choices.

Public Service Motivation in Undergraduate Giving and: Volunteering Decisions

Clerkin, R. M., Paynter, S. R., Taylor, J. K. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:57:01 PDT

Most public service motivation (PSM) research compares government and business employees. This article fits into an emerging body of research that links PSM to volunteer activity. PSM is a needs-based approach to motivation. People may sate this need in ways other than direct government service. In this article, the authors investigate the relationship between PSM and charitable decisions. They surveyed undergraduate students at North Carolina State University using Perry’s PSM instrument and antecedent questions. To further investigate students’ motivations toward public service, they asked an additional series of questions focused on volunteering and donating choices. The authors find that students with higher levels of PSM are more likely to choose to engage in charitable activity. Individual characteristics such as family income, political identity, sex, religiosity, family socialization, and high school volunteering experiences are also significantly related to the choices students make about engaging in charitable activities.

Book Review: Frug, G. E., & Barron, D. J. (2008). City Bound: How States Stifle Urban Innovation. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press

Khan, H. L. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:57:01 PDT

Staying Late: Comparing Work Hours in Public and Nonprofit Sectors

Feeney, M. K., Bozeman, B. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:02:41 PDT

Economic theories suggest that work behavior of public and nonprofit employees should resemble one another closely, owing to the lack of profit incentives and owner oversight of work. However, empirical descriptions of public and nonprofit workers imply that these work-forces differ in many ways. One easily conceptualized but nonetheless crucial test of possible differences is the level of work activity in the respective organizational settings. This research compares work hours reported in public and nonprofit organizations by asking, "Do managers working in, respectively, public and nonprofit organizations differ in their number of work hours and what are the determinants of managers' work hours?" The study is based on questionnaire data from the National Administrative Studies Project—III. Results indicate that managers in the nonprofit sector work longer hours compared to state managers and that work hours are mitigated by external organizational ties, perceptions, and work histories.

Governance and Networks at the Limits of Representation

Catlaw, T. J. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:02:41 PDT

Integrating literatures from public administration and social and political theory, this article provides a critical analysis of the political theory of democratic network governance. The article contends that critics and advocates alike have misrecognized the potentially transformative logic of networks by tacitly embedding their arguments and research in the taken-for-granted assumptions of representative government and its determination of political community as "the People." This determination carries with it a number of assumptions and biases that are especially problematic in the contemporary world. The article argues that a new metaphor of and new style for imagining political community can be extracted from the network and that this can open a new avenue for reconsidering the nature of public administrative practice and pedagogy.

The Human Side of Public Organizations: Contributions to Organizational Performance

O'Toole, L. J., Meier, K. J. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:02:41 PDT

Researchers in recent years have focused systematically on whether public management matters in the performance of public organizations. Internal management of organizations' human capital is one such managerial function, and a growing literature argues for its importance in delivering results. A management-and-performance model available in the literature suggests an approach to test empirically for this relationship. Here evidence from hundreds of public organizations over a 4-year period is assembled toward that end. Even when a number of other aspects of management are included, the management of human capital is related positively to virtually all performance indicators. The findings validate arguments in the recent literature of the field and emphasize the importance for performance of public organizations' investing in their people.

Toward Understanding Work Motivation: Worker Attitudes and the Perception of Effective Public Service

Boardman, C., Sundquist, E. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:02:41 PDT

Government reformers in the United States have recently focused on running public agencies more like private firms by emphasizing economic rewards, such as merit pay. Meanwhile, a body of literature has grown that indicates that public servants respond to factors that financially based reward initiatives tend to ignore. We introduce a new explanatory variable, perceived public service efficacy (PPSE), which quantifies public servants' perception about the benefit their employing agencies provide the public. We present empirical evidence demonstrating that as PPSE rises—that is, as public servants more strongly perceive their agencies to be benefiting the public—reported levels of role ambiguity decrease, whereas job satisfaction and organizational commitment responses increase.

Interlocal Agreements as Collaborations: An Empirical Investigation of Impetuses, Norms, and Success

Chen, Y.-C., Thurmaier, K. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:02:41 PDT

Interlocal agreements (ILAs) have long been a useful tool for municipal and county governments to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of local government services. Yet although they have a long history in practice, there is little empirical study of the impetus and success of ILAs, especially on a statewide basis. This study presents results from a statewide survey of ILAs in Iowa created in the period, 1993-2004. Results suggest that ILAs are created to increase the effectiveness as well as efficiency of local services. The impetus for ILAs provides a focusing effect. Moreover, equitable sharing of benefits is important for the success of ILAs, and population and type of service also matter.

Professional Management and Service Levels in Small U.S. Communities

Folz, D. H., Abdelrazek, R. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:02:41 PDT

Based on a national survey of small U.S. cities between 5,000 and 25,000 in size, this study classifies the level of municipal services provided by small communities and examines the community and governmental features that are related to those cities that provide higher levels of urban services. The study finds that after controlling for differences in population size, wealth, education, and metro status, those small cities that have a professional city manager and an adaptive or administrative type of local government structure are somewhat more likely to provide qualitatively higher levels of municipal services, suggesting that professional managers play an important role in advancing the level of service provided in the communities they serve.

Book Review: Hartman, C., & Squires, G. D. (2006). There Is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster: Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina. New York: Routledge

Downey, D. C. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:02:41 PDT

Book Review: Sylves, R. T. (2008). Disaster Policy and Politics: Emergency Management and Homeland Security. Washington, DC: CQ Press

Kapucu, N. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:02:41 PDT

Theory Building, Administrative Reform Movements, and the Perdurability of Herbert Hoover

Durant, R. F. — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:03:00 PDT

Prior research has offered significant insight into the politics, substance, and implications of administrative reform movements in the United States. However, a coherent theory for understanding the drivers, interactions, and implications of the evolution of U.S. administrative reform movements over time is still lacking. This interpretative essay begins to address this gap by reviewing prior scholarship assessing administrative reform movements in the United States, by using the insights of scholarship in American Political Development (APD) to illustrate its applicability to the evolution of administrative reform movements in the United States, and by teasing from APD literature an integrated process theory that incorporates the insights of prior public administration research on this topic. In doing so, it discerns the sources and implications of the repeated privileging, reflexivity, and amplifying effects of American exceptionalist, corporatist, and associationalist values on the trajectory and substance of administrative reform movements in this nation.

Who Are the Contingent Workers in Federal Government?

Mastracci, S. H., Thompson, J. R. — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:03:00 PDT

To most, federal employment means stable work with good pay, good benefits, long-run job security, and opportunities for promotion from the mail room to upper management. The authors' debunk that notion. The authors' definitively establish the presence of a core/ring structure in federal employment. Core occupations are permanent full-time, year-round stable positions, whereas ring jobs are comparatively unstable work situations: temporary, part-time, and/or for a specified period of time. Federal personnel administrators increasingly use temporary, contract, on-call, and part-time positions to control costs. Even when we control for individual characteristics—educational attainment and years of experience—we find group characteristics—particularly gender—reduce the chances of working in a permanent federal job. Is this an indictment against the federal government's reputation as a model employer? Perhaps. At the very least, the potential for gender disparity in employment outcomes deserves further study. Contingent arrangements at the agency level deserve a closer look too.

Nonprofits, Funders, and Evaluation: Accountability in Action

Carman, J. G. — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:03:00 PDT

This article examines the extent to which different types of funders are asking nonprofit organizations for evaluation and performance measurement data, and describes the many ways in which nonprofit organizations are responding to these requests. The picture that emerges is one that is decidedly mixed, illustrating a range of behaviors that challenges the current perception that most, if not all, funders are asking nonprofit organizations for more evaluation and performance measurement data. The data collected during this study show that only those nonprofit organizations that receive considerable funding from the federal government and the United Way are engaging in program evaluation and performance measurement, compared to nonprofit organizations that receive more funding from state and local governments, foundations, and other sources. Furthermore, the extent to which nonprofit organizations are subjected to external monitoring and descriptive reporting requirements also varies according to the type and amount of funding.

Exploring the Determinants of Nonprofit Coproduction of Public Service Delivery: The Case of k-12 Public Education

Paarlberg, L. E., Gen, S. — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:03:00 PDT

Americans have long formed nonprofits to voluntarily coproduce public services. However, demand perspectives on the development of the nonprofit sector and supply perspectives on the activation of civic engagement suggest potentially contradictory explanations of collective coproduction. Using the case of nonprofit support for public k-12 education, the authors explore the community- and school-level determinants of nonprofit coproduction of public education. Their findings suggest that nonprofit coproduction is influenced by unmet demand for public services and the supply of human and financial resources necessary to engage in collective action. Although the formation of a nonprofit to support a public school may be related to the demand generated by heterogeneous preferences of service beneficiaries and the human capital to self-organize, the ability to generate a significant level of financial resources to support coproduction is related to the resources of the service beneficiaries and their integration into the larger community.

Transportation Commissions as Accountability Structures: A Review of their Statutory Roles and Other Attributes

O'Connell, L., Yusuf, J.-E., Hackbart, M. — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:03:00 PDT

As of 2004, 36 of the 50 states had created, by statute, some type of external body (such as boards or commissions) to work with their departments of transportation (DOTs). The authors review the authorizing statutes that establish these boards and commissions to identify their statutorily defined responsibilities and attributes. From the literature on governance structures and accountability, three propositions are derived about their likely structure and roles. The authors propose that commissions are designed to (a) ensure broader stakeholder representation, (b) possess oversight roles and responsibilities relevant to resource allocation, and (c) encourage more open discussion and public involvement. The content analysis of the statutes and interviews with DOT officials and commission members provide support for the propositions.

Developing a Model to Measure Financial Condition in Local Government: Evaluating Service Quality and Minimizing the Effects of the Socioeconomic Environment: An Application to Spanish Municipalities

Zafra-Gomez, J. L., Lopez-Hernandez, A. M., Hernandez-Bastida, A. — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:03:00 PDT

Various studies have sought to obtain a measure of the financial health of local authorities, via the concept of financial condition. However, in measuring this latter concept, two serious problems need to be addressed: The first concerns the inclusion or otherwise of socioeconomic variables in the proposed evaluation models, and the second, the difficulty of measuring the solvency in the level of services provided. Therefore, the authors have created a methodology to measure the financial condition of a local authority, including a variable to measure the quality of the services received by the population, and present a new treatment for the variables of the socioeconomic environment so that the financial and socioeconomic factors can be integrated. The application of this method to a sample of Spanish local authorities reveals its capability of minimizing the effects of the socioeconomic environment and maximizing the value of benchmarking, making comparisons between local authorities simpler and more effective.

Book Review: Morse, R. S., & Buss, T. F. (Eds.). (2008). Innovations in Public Leadership Development. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, Inc

Daley, D. M. — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:03:00 PDT

Book Review: Mavima, P. (2008). Sovereignty, Corruption, and Civil Service Reform Implementation in Zimbabwe. Lanham, MD: University Press of America

Were, B. O. — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:03:00 PDT