Public Administration Research Research Articles

Policy Implementation in Military Organizations: The Impact of the Key Characteristics of Military Administration

Western military organizations face an increasingly complex landscape of threats and challenges from immense changes in the international security situation. At the same time, they are experiencing still more political and societal demands. Designing and implementing policies to meet these numerous and multifaceted demands call for effective, efficient, and legitimate public administration. Public administration research in military organizations is scarce. This article explores how critical characteristics of military organizations impact policy design and implementation within these organizations. Based on a systematic review of contemporary literature on specific military characteristics, the study identifies critical characteristics of military organizations related to structure, culture, profession, leadership, and management. Furthermore, strengths and challenges related to policy design and implementation in a military context are analyzed and discussed. The article argues that military organizations must scrutinize and strengthen their policy design and implementation efforts. Lastly, the article points to future research agendas.

Policing, Technology, and Public Values: A Public Administration Research Agenda

Policing, Technology, and Public Values: A Public Administration Research Agenda

A Meta-Analytic Review of Transformational Leadership Research in Public Administration

Despite the increasing research attention devoted to transformational leadership in public administration, there is still concern over whether it is appropriate and effective in the public context. To answer the important question of whether and when transformational leadership is effective, this study meta-analytically reviewed transformational leadership research based on 70 primary studies that include 151 independent effect sizes from 718,601 participants. It was found that transformational leadership was significantly related to outcomes at both individual (motivations, attitudes, and behaviors) and organizational (performance and innovation) levels, and positively related to transactional leadership and leader-member exchange. Moderation analyses revealed that national cultural values and public/semipublic affiliation of the studied samples, as well as measurement scales of transformational leadership explained some of the transformational leadership-outcome relationship variations. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Reviewer Acknowledgements for Public Administration Research, Vol. 13, No. 2

Reviewer acknowledgements for Public Administration Research, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2024.

The Need to Reconnect Public Administration Education, Research, and Practice

How relevant is current public administration pedagogy to the discipline and to those working in public service? Public administration education prepared leaders during World War II and the New Deal and once was viewed as a critical subfield of political science. Over the years, and despite various Minnowbrook incarnations, public administration has become a self-standing but narrowly defined body of knowledge characterized as “the business of government,” without any relational emphasis on its historical, legal, and economic context. This diminished intellectual scope poses a serious challenge to its practical relevance.

The Multilevel Administrative State and the Future of Public Administration Research

ABSTRACT The administrative state, originally coined by Dwight Waldo, emphasizes the distinct role of public administration in democratic governance. Yet, public administration research has insufficiently theorized how administrative structures at one level of government may be consequential for public governance at another level. This study theorizes how the administrative state has transcended its mere domestic role in democracy, and suggests how future research should study multilevel administrative systems. Departing from the invitation and lessons of Waldo, the article theorizes how ways of organizing the administrative state at one level of government bias public governance across levels of authority.

Are Extrinsic Goals Detrimental to Public Service Motivation? A Panel Analysis Based in Taiwan

ABSTRACT The relationship between utilitarian incentives and public service motivation (PSM) has long been a core issue in public administration research. Scholars have accumulated ample evidence regarding how the pursuit of monetary rewards can affect PSM, but we know relatively little about the effect of various non-monetary rewards on PSM. The pursuit of utilitarian incentives, in goal content theory (GCT), is referred to as extrinsic goals. The present study identifies multiple extrinsic and intrinsic goals and tests whether pursuing extrinsic goals relative to intrinsic goals compromises PSM. Regression results based on panel data collected from Taiwanese public servants in 2018 and 2019 render support to this proposition.

Promoting Research Utilization Through Social Media: Evidence from U.S. Public Administration and Policy Researchers

Public affairs research has explored how researchers communicate their findings to practitioners, notably through social media. Many researchers use social media as one means of communicating with practitioners, but to what extent do social media postings affect research utilization? Few studies, if any, provide evidence about the effectiveness of social media communication in promoting research utilization by public policy and public administration practitioners. Our study seeks to address this gap in knowledge regarding the effects of social media on perceived utilization by policy practitioners. Data for the present study come from an original survey, developed and implemented at Arizona State University from November 2020 through February 2021. Since the basic unit of analysis for the study was a specific research article drawn systematically from seven leading peer-reviewed journals associated with public affairs research, the study was anchored in a discrete referent: the published article. Online questionnaires were sent to the authors of each article appearing in the journals. Using the article as the data point, a response rate of 47.5% was obtained. Questions were asked about perceived research utilization by practitioners and various issues related to motives and communication strategies, including whether the researchers posted their published results on social media. We find that researchers’ social media use has no significant impact on perceived research utilization by practitioners; however, strong policy research motivations and contacts initiated by policymakers may increase it.

International collaboration in local government studies: a bibliometric analysis

ABSTRACT International collaboration in public administration research is getting popular, reflecting growing globalisation in PA practices and the strength of collaborative knowledge production. This article examines international collaboration in 1,550 research articles published in Local Government Studies (LGS) between 1974 and 2022. The bibliometric analysis shows international coauthorship in LGS appeared in 1980 and increased to 23.08% among articles published in 2022. While international collaboration in LGS has been lower than that of average PA journals, the gap has been shrinking. Regression analysis indicates that LGS articles with international coauthorship yield greater scientific impacts. This study argues that further internationalisation of LGS and other PA journals with a focus on local issues demands theoretical and methodological breakthroughs in comparative local studies, as well as a wider and more balanced distribution of authors. This article also calls for further studies of the quality effects of international collaboration.

Artificial Intelligence: Opportunities and Challenges for Public Administration

AbstractArtificial intelligence (AI) could be at the heart of a fourth revolution by significantly changing professional identity, relationships between individuals and resource management. To help public administration practitioners and researchers cope with changes anticipated by AI, this research note maps existing conceptual approaches on the opportunities and challenges of AI in public administration and proposes a conceptual framework and initiatives that can inform and support effective, public interest‐oriented technology policymaking. This research note outlines a potential research agenda, with multi‐level opportunities and challenges, to accelerate this critical work.

Community Diversity and Social Media Use in Local Governments

Compared to its ubiquity, social media use remains a divisive topic in the public sector. While local governments have increasingly adopted social media to increase civic engagement, many are still hesitant. Among the many factors that may have influenced the adoption of social media in local governance, we argue that community diversity deserves more attention. This study theorizes the relationship between local governments’ use of social media and community diversity. We examine this relationship within the context of township governments, which is an understudied area of research in public administration. The results indicate that community diversity is related to an increase in social media use. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings and suggest fruitful avenues of inquiry in public administration social media research.

Debate: A relational agenda for changing public administration research and practice

Debate: A relational agenda for changing public administration research and practice

Breaking Down the Wall: The Effect of Immigration Enforcement and Nonprofit Services on Undocumented Student Academic Performance

Abstract Much of public administration and nonprofit research centers on issues of race and gender, but citizenship remains underdeveloped for a variety of reasons, especially due to a lack of data on the undocumented community. The first research aim of this study is to identify how immigration enforcement affects undocumented student performance. The second contribution is to understand the effect of how legal service provision by immigrant-serving nonprofits comes into play. Theoretically, these services work toward helping buffer the negative implications of community arrests and deportations on student performance. We test our theoretical arguments using a unique dataset comprised of student-level performance metrics of 2 million Latino students – including nearly 225,000 undocumented students – in Texas public schools. These data are merged with county and district-level data that reflect the level of immigrant deportations and the presence of immigrant-serving nonprofits (ISOs) in their communities. This research finds that immigration enforcement negatively impacts undocumented student performance. Furthermore, ISOs can help limit these effects and improve educational performance.

The effectiveness of financial reward on improving the job performance of public sector employees through organisational commitment: the case of Maldives civil service employees

PurposeThough public sector organisations have continuously borrowed human resource management practices from the private sector, there seems to be sparse evidence on the effectiveness of financial rewards for public sector employees, especially in developing countries where pay remains low. Therefore, the objective of this research is to test the effectiveness of financial rewards on the job performance of those working in the Maldives civil service from the perspective of a developing country where public sector pay, especially civil pay, remains comparatively low. Additionally, this study tested the mediating effect of organisational commitment on the relationship between financial rewards and job performance.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional study was conducted using quantitative design methodology, whereby data were collected from 341 employees working in the Maldives civil service and analysed using structural equation modelling.FindingsThe findings indicate that financial rewards negatively affect civil service employees’ job performance. However, financial rewards improve organisational commitment, which reduces the negative effects, although the effect sizes of the mediator are not very significant.Originality/valueThe results of this study present critical theoretical and practical contributions to public administration researchers on using financial incentives as a mechanism to boost job performance, particularly in developing countries, where salaries and other benefits remain low. Furthermore, it presents practical recommendations for managing employees in the Maldives and other countries, where the public sector is less developed and budget constraints remain a challenge.

Communities as the nexus of Public Service praxis

This essay explores the role of public administration research and graduate education in community-engaged scholarship by answering three questions: (1) What should we be doing differently? (2) Where should we turn our governance gaze? (3) How do we engage in thoughtful, reflective, and reflexive praxis? It invites responses via future submissions to the journal.

Religiosity and work motives among public sector employees

ABSTRACT Research in public administration generally has found that religiosity promotes public service motivation. Although all major religions include components that encompass work-relevant values, little research has focused on how religiosity influences work motives more generally. This study draws on self-determination theory and identity theory to hypothesise that religiosity is positively related to a public service motive but generally not to other work motives. The hypotheses are tested using multilevel logistic regression models that are estimated using public employee respondents to a cross-national survey administered in 35 countries. The findings indicate that religion has a more substantial impact on a public service motive (which is an autonomous extrinsic motive) than on controlled extrinsic or intrinsic motives. The study points to the importance of studying the role of religion in public administration.

Administrative evil and moral disengagement: The case of torture in apartheid‐era South Africa

AbstractUnderstanding how administrators can commit unethical acts is an important goal of public administration research. This article tests whether moral inversion, taken from Balfour, Adams, and Nickels' theory of administrative evil, can help explain torture, and also proposes and tests Bandura's theory of moral disengagement. It analyzes testimony from perpetrators of torture who testified before the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1996–2000. The results support moral inversion, as perpetrators stated that they believed their actions were morally justified. The results also support displacement of responsibility, as perpetrators shifted responsibility away from themselves and toward actors above or below them in the chain of command. However, the analysis does not support the theory of diffusion of responsibility, as perpetrators did not take the silence of officials outside of their chain of command as approval, but instead anticipated their disapproval and tried to conceal their actions.

A replication of “unconscious bias in citizens' evaluations of public sector performance”

AbstractIn recent years, the phenomenon of anti‐public sector bias (APSB) has garnered significant attention among public administration scholars. It is of especial interest given its possible effects on how citizens evaluate public sector performance. Despite the prominence of APSB in academic discourse, conclusive evidence requires further empirical testing. Our study addresses this gap by conducting a replication of Marvel (2016) using a different study population (citizens from China, N = 1410). The results reaffirm the negative influence of APSB on citizens' assessments of public sector performance. Notably, our research indicates the potential for altering citizens' APSB in the context of a pro‐public sector culture. This study contributes to public administration research and the discourse on APSB by confirming the effects presented by Marvel (2016) and suggesting strategies for mitigating the negative effects of APSB.

Why do politicians perceive the same financial conditions differently?

AbstractBehavioral public administration research has provided empirical evidence of several perception biases when individuals process information. Building on these findings, we seek to advance the literature by analyzing politicians' financial perceptions of their own government. Drawing on the theory of motivated reasoning, we examine the context of Swedish municipalities and find financial perception gaps associated with politicians' party affiliation (establishment or anti‐establishment), parliamentary position (opposition or governing party), and formal hierarchical rank. Specifically, politicians representing anti‐establishment and opposition parties, as well as those occupying lower positions in the political hierarchy—and thus having less influence over and less responsibility for municipal affairs—tend to perceive the financial situation more negatively. These findings suggest the presence of a motivationally driven bias in politicians' perceptions of financial conditions; moreover, they illustrate that these perceptions are influenced by factors beyond the traditional financial, socioeconomic, and demographic ones examined in previous research.

Can whistleblowing reshape public organizations? Examining the consequences of whistleblowing on procedural justice and perceived organizational performance

There has been a significant increase in whistleblowing research in public administration. However, less is known about what happens to public organizations after a whistle is blown. Based on insights from whistleblowing consequence studies and theories of procedural justice, we examine the effects of whistleblowing outcomes on public organizations. The purpose is to discover how whistleblowing claims handled by a neutral resolution mechanism—the U.S. Office of Special Council—reshape public employees’ justice perceptions and perceived organizational performance that are connected to organizational change. The dynamic panel findings from a decade (2009-2020) indicate that whistleblowing alters the collective perceptions either in a positive or negative manner. Therefore, this study claims that management plays an important role in dealing with whistleblowers. Moreover, this study discusses implications for advancing our understanding of whistleblowing in the public sector as well as developing policies to translate employee voices into organizational resources.