Public Administration Scholars Research Articles

Siefken, Sven (2018). Parlamentarische Kontrolle im Wandel. Theorie und Praxis des Deutschen Bundestages. Baden-Baden: Nomos. 461 Seiten. ISBN: 978-3-8487-4966-9

This book addresses the practices of the German Bundestag in controlling the federal administration. Siefken elaborates on different notions of parliamentary control and provides a detailed mapping of the parliament’s use of formal control instruments from 1949 - 2017. Most interestingly for scholars of public administration, Siefken conducted eight case studies of parliamentary control of federal agencies – both “traditional” and “modern” agencies established according to the ideas of the New Public Management or the independent regulatory agency model. Those case studies are instrumental for answering the book’s overarching research question about the exercise of parliamentary control under the conditions of major changes in the organizational setup of the state. With the exception of regulatory agencies, Siefken finds no major differences in control practices according to those categories, but fleshes out middle-range explanations of parliamentary control behaviour. This is an empirically rich book providing unprecedented insights into the actual practice of parliamentary control.

Goal Ambiguity in Public Organizations: A Systematic Literature Review

In the literature on the public-private organizations is well known that public organizations have more ambiguous elements than private ones, such as ideology and objectives, that negatively influence the enthusiasm (Brunsson, 1986), motivation and performance of public employees (Pandey & Raney, 2006), as well as organizational performance (Chun & Raney, 2005). The close relationship with performance led many public administration scholars to deepen the concept of goal ambiguity in public management. However, given the lack of a univocal conceptualization of the phenomenon, the present work aims to contextualize goal ambiguity in the public administration, carrying out a systematic literature review. The results bring out goal ambiguity methods of measurement, its antecedents and consequences and the relationship between goal ambiguity and performance. From a theoretical point of view, the study allows systematizing the contributions on goal ambiguity, while from a practical point of view, a thorough knowledge of the concept allows public managers and policy-makers to obtain valuable information for the achievement of good organizational performance.

Giving Time: Examining Sector Differences in Volunteering Intensity

Abstract Sector differences in prosocial motivations and behaviors among workers receives a great deal of attention in public administration scholarship. Extant literature consistently finds public sector workers are more likely to engage in prosocial behaviors, such as volunteering, than their peers in the private sector. Less attention has been paid to the sector gap in volunteerism along the intensive margin. Using time-diary data, which accounts for potential social desirability bias, from a nationally representative sample, this study investigates the gap between public sector workers and their private sector counterparts. The results suggest that public sector workers spend more time, on an average day, volunteering than observably similar private sector peers, and the difference cannot be explained by other observable differences between public and private sector workers. The gap in volunteer intensity is largest at the local level and among teachers. The implications of these results for research and practice are discussed.

The Impact of Extrinsic Rewards and Public Service Motivation on Public Employees’ Work Performance: Does Seniority Matter?

An important issue for scholars in public administration has been providing the appropriate motivation needed to increase public employees’ work performance. This study aims to clarify the inconclusive relationship between performance-related extrinsic rewards, public service motivation, and the work performance of public employees. This study also aims to ascertain whether senior civil servants respond to the two types of motivation differently than junior civil servants do. Data for this study come from a 2015 survey of the 569 civil servants of Taipei City Government, Taiwan. Our analysis indicates that public service motivation seems to be a powerful incentive that can effectively enhance work performance, while extrinsic rewards in public organizations tend to have little effect in bolstering work performance. In addition, the use of extrinsic rewards may have similar effects on work performance for both senior and junior civil servants, as do intrinsic rewards.

Public Administration in the Islamic World: Considering the Importance of Religion, its Values and Culture

A small but growing area of public administration scholarship appreciates the influence of religious values on various aspects of government. This appreciation parallels a growing interest in comparative public administration and indigenized forms of government which recognizes the role of culture in different approaches to government. This article is at the crossroads of these two trends while also considering a very salient region, the Islamic world. The Islamic world is uniquely religious, which makes this discussion even more relevant, as the nations that represent them strive towards legitimacy and stability. The history and core values of Islam need to be considered as they pertain to systems of government that are widely accepted by the people. In essence, this is being done in many countries across the Islamic world, providing fertile grounds for public administration research from a comparative perspective. This paper explores these possibilities for future research on this topic.

The Costs and Benefits of Volunteering Programs in the Public Sector: A Longitudinal Study of Municipal Governments

Public sector volunteering is an increasingly common phenomenon that has attracted public administration scholars’ attention for several decades. Previous literature suggests that one of the main advantages of citizen involvement in public service delivery is related to subsequent cost savings. However, a lack of longitudinal data has limited our ability to test this proposition and constrained our understanding of the subject. The main goal of this study is to fill this lacuna and analyze the relationship between volunteering and the level of spending as well as the number of paid employees in city governments across 10 years. The empirical findings indicate that volunteer involvement is indeed significantly and negatively associated with the level of spending and the number of paid employees, with the number of services unaffected. The cost savings, however, may come with delays most likely because it takes time and resources to properly train volunteers. This may also drive up administrative costs.

Communicating to the Public in the Era of Conspiracy Theory

During the last decade, social scientists have taken a strong interest in both the veracity of citizens beliefs and the quality of information on which those beliefs are based. In particular, social scientists have focused much of this work on conspiracy theories given how such theories can undermine government initiatives. The extant literature shows: (1) that the current information environment allows conspiracy theories to spread among citizens farther and faster than ever before; (2) that most Americans believe conspiracy theories; and (3) that conspiracy theories can generate undesirable political and social outcomes. While social scientists have been working to both understand and correct conspiracy beliefs, this literature has yet to inform or to be informed by the relevant scholarship in public administration. This short article attempts to synthesize the conspiracy theory and public administration literatures to make informed recommendations to public administration scholars and public administrators who engage in public outreach during this era of “post-truth.”

Where Public Theology and Public Administration Meet

Abstract Since 9/11 Jürgen Habermas has paid considerable attention to religion in the public sphere. He has described contemporary Western societies as ‘post-secular’, arguing that believers and non-believers should show a mutually cooperative attitude and engage in complementary learning processes. Although public theologians have urged for policies that would encourage such collaboration, public administration scholars and practitioners seem to have completely neglected this call. In this article we inquire into the possibility of a ‘post-secular public administration’, which grants a more significant place to beneficial forms of religion in modern societies. By presenting a case study on Street Pastors in the British night-time economy we offer an example of both a post-secular religious contribution to the public sphere, as envisaged by Habermas, and a piece of post-secular empirical social science research. Finally, we critically assess Habermas’ post-secular turn within the context of a cross-narrative between public theology and public administration.

Explaining coping strategies of agricultural extension officers in Tanzania: the role of the wider institutional context

Building on Lipsky, public administration scholars have conducted ample research on the coping strategies of street-level bureaucrats. To explain their behaviour, many studies focus on the individual characteristics of street-level workers or on features of the organization that they form part of. So far, less attention has been paid to the influence of the wider institutional context. This article presents findings of research on how different elements of the institutional context – the formal public administration, the norms of the professional community and the expectations of the public – can explain the coping strategies of agricultural extension officers in Tanzania. In the absence of specific guidance from the administrative context and of pressure by the public, the strategies that these street-level workers choose are primarily inspired by the norms of their professional community. Points for practitioners Public managers should be especially aware of the fact that, to a large extent, the professional norms of street-level workers determine how they use their discretion. Therefore, the training of street-level bureaucrats should not only focus on their professional abilities, but also include the transfer of key values of the public service.

Integrative Democracy: Mary Parker Follett’s Integration and Deliberative Democracy

In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the work of Mary Parker Follett by scholars of management and public administration, but the acute relevance of Follett’s work to deliberative democracy has yet to be fully appreciated. In her 1918 work The New State Follett articulates a normative political theory that I refer to as Integrative democracy, which can be seen as an alternative formulation of deliberative democracy that is based on an activity that Follett refers to as integration rather than deliberation. In this paper I first present two contemporary challenges faced by deliberative democrats: how deliberation itself ought to be defined, and whether or not deliberation produces epistemic benefits in comparison to non-deliberative voting. I then show how Follett’s theory is able to respond to both of these criticisms. Finally, I discuss how Follett’s theory may need to be extended or modified to deal with challenges highlighted by the recent systemic turn in deliberative theory.

Inducing institutional change through projects? Three models of projectified governance

ABSTRACTThe study of short-term projects in policy implementation has lately gained ground among scholars of environmental governance and public administration. The increasing reliance on and prevalence of projects, or ‘projectification’, has spurred critical debates on the ability of projects to contribute to long-term goals, including sustainability, as well as institutional change. Yet, the literature on projectification lacks specificity in terms of how projects are understood, how the relationship between projects and permanent organizations looks like, and how projects can influence institutional orders. The aim of this paper is to systematize the literature in order to uncover the processes of transforming project outputs into institutional change. Three models of projectified governance – mechanistic, organic, and adaptive – is presented, providing a conceptual apparatus that advances the study of projects in environmental policy and governance. The paper argues that the adaptive model, with its reliance on multi-scalar networks for the coordination of project activities and knowledge, shows most promise in achieving institutional change to address complex environmental problems.

The History and Evolution of the Southeastern Conference for Public Administration

The Southeastern Conference for Public Administration (SECoPA) began in 1969 in the wake of reapportionment and desegregation. The founders of SECoPA sought to promote the emergence of a new South, one that would be both dynamic and inclusive, by promoting the practice and study of public administration throughout the region. In the decades since, SECoPA has continued to host annual conferences serving the region. Through coding and analysis of annual conference programs, and using the lens of new institutionalism, this article explores SECoPA’s history and fidelity to its founding mission. The annual conferences have been responsive to concerns of public administration scholars in the region, but drastic declines in practitioner participation mirror broader trends in the profession.

THE ROLE OF MANAGERS AND LEADERS IN MANAGEMENT FUNCTION

Leadership is a mutual relationship between people, not imposed on one person to another person. Leadership is when people believe that a leader is capable of meeting their needs. The American School of Leadership at the University of Columbia surveyed 1500 people from different sectors found in leading positions in their own firms. Answers from 20 countries have been received, including America, Japan, European countries, Latin America, etc. Answers were given to what are the most important features It is important that people who in the near future can be entrusted with the role of the leader in any enterprise or system. Do these people have the people who decide on the fate of these leading companies?To be truly effective, leaders of large bureaucracies (large in number) should bring time to many activities within an agency. For many scholars, the key to leadership lies in the features or features that lead to this task, while other scholars describe what features feature theory has. According to them is the belief or the assumption that leadership is based on unique characteristics, qualities or characteristics that have the leaders and that enable them to assume responsibilities. Trust in the theory of features assumes that there is the quality of "born leadership", an assumption that led to the emergence of research on leadership skills and something else of a tradition within the public administration. The authors of this theory try to differentiate and describe the essential features and characteristics of all good leaders.For some time and mostly before the Second World War, public administration scholars interested in leadership aspects of those who handle large bureaucracies assumed that leaders had the gift or the attribute that separated them from the others who followed them. They believed leaders were born like that. Leaders had charisma, and their leadership was based more on their personality than on formal leadership positions or on any rational or legal authority.Any agreement which features were exactly essential to a good leadership did not exist. All of these features are useful to a leader, but no set of features could be demonstrated theoretically as essential. Since the 1960s, the importance of features has been increasingly seen as obsolete. Other factors have been seen to be at least as important or even more important than any other personal qualities of the leader. Some of the qualities suggested above as essential can be seen as counterproductive in some contexts.

Public servants’ appreciation for themes in public administration scholarship

AbstractOne of the defining characteristics of Canadian Public Administration is its singular coverage of topics. In this research, we extend Wake Carroll and Kpessa’s (2007) work to see if the themes found in Canadian Public Administration (CPA) for the 2008‐2016 period are in line with the topics published for the 2000‐2006 period. We also compare the contemporary topics published in CPA to the Australian Journal of Public Administration (AJPA). We then surveyed Canadian public servants about their interests. Our results show that they express more interest towards the themes published in CPA in the last decade than during 2001‐2006, and more interest than the ones published in AJPA in the last decade.

Variation in Access to Safe Drinking Water across Different Countries: An Explanatory Framework

Building upon extensive field interviews with past and current public officials from domestic agencies and international organizations who are involved in safe drinking water policy in Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea, the research identifies and clarifies the causal mechanisms behind the different rates of expansion in access to safe drinking water among these five countries. It then examines how well theories in public administration, particularly with emphasis on theoretical frameworks in implementation scholarship, help capture and explain these mechanisms. Both strengths and weaknesses of public administration theory are examined where efforts to improve existing frameworks are suggested with their merger with theories from comparative politics. This opens the discussion on how public administration scholars should be involved in addressing and offering insights and advice to tackle the outstanding global challenge of 663 million people still living without access to safe drinking water.

Mission Congruence: To Agree or Not to Agree, and Its Implications for Public Employee Turnover

Previous studies within and outside of the field of public administration consistently find positive organizational outcomes when there is high compatibility or fit between employees and organizations—a concept now widely known as person–organization fit. Previous public administration scholars have established the link between employees’ person–organization fit perceptions and employee turnover intention. However, no previous study has examined whether there is a link with actual turnover. This study addresses this gap in the literature on public sector employee fit by examining the relationship between one particular type of fit—mission congruence—and public employee turnover. Using nationally representative data on public school teachers, we find that teachers in U.S. schools who perceive themselves to be compatible with their organizations’ central mission are at least 11% more likely to remain at their current school. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for research and practice.

The ‘political’ roles of the European Commission

ABSTRACT The extent to which the European Commission exercises ‘political’ roles in European integration is very much up for debate. Some recent analyses of the Commission take it for granted that its political roles have been in decline, while others have suggested they have increased – especially under the current President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, who was appointed in 2014 by a much more politicised process than had been used previously and whose College has sought to present itself as being guided by a political mission and as offering political leadership to the EU. In this article, we aim to show that in the debate about the political roles of the Commission, ‘political’ has often been poorly defined and operationalised. By drawing on Public Administration scholarship, we offer a framework for analysing how and where in the EU system the Commission’s political roles might become manifest. We then assess empirically these roles in different functions the Commission undertakes.

Mutual dependence or state dominance? Large private suppliers and the British state 2010–15

As public outsourcing has grown, the need to understand government's relations with supply side actors has become more important for public administration scholars. The article analyses the role of a small group of large contractors in the British outsourcing system during Britain's Coalition government. These ‘public service conglomerates’ have thus far received little attention in the public administration literature. The article compares two approaches for understanding the role of these corporations and analyses why the corporations faced sometimes severe disruption during the Coalition period in the form of multiple contract problems, conflict with ministers and financial problems. Over the period, the corporations became the objects of policy debate, and what had appeared to be a stable set of arrangements started to fracture. The case shows the value of analysing the political and organizational foundations of contracting arrangements.

The Disarticulation of the Administrative State (and Public Administration)

The author takes the opportunity to review two compelling contributions to the field of Public Administration (PA) to expose how either would not ostensibly identify with the scholarly field of PA itself. Both of the works advance their theses through the integration of disciplines, though less than a self-identifying “public administration” scholar might like. Nonetheless, they do so better than PA scholarship has done beyond its own limited readership. The author argues that pathologies of managerial and political silos that largely ignore “rule of law” as a pillar of the administrative state make Public Administration—as an academic enterprise—largely silent (or incapable) in conversations about critical issues of governmental legitimacy and crisis.

Why gender and research productivity matters in academia: Exploring evidence from NASPAA-accredited schools

ABSTRACTThis study is the first to examine the research productivity of public administration faculty by gender through the perceptions of full-time faculty members at NASPAA-accredited schools. It specifically examines how research productivity varies by gender according to faculty tenure status and academic rank. This study extends previous research by using survey methodology to explore research productivity through the perceptions of faculty using gender, tenure status, and academic rank. Findings suggest that during tenure-track years and after tenure, women publish significantly less than men overall. Findings also suggest that women who are assistant and full professors publish significantly less than men in similar ranks. Finally, the study finds no significant differences in publication rates between women and men who reported themselves to be associate professors. Through this study, the authors make three contributions to the discipline and present three recommendations that explore avenues to develop the research productivity of women in public administration scholarship.