Policy makers face inherent vices in the policy-making process that can affect the outcomes of the policy process. While it is widely recognized in the literature that these vices lead to policy volatility, to date, virtually no attention has been paid to how these vices can be controlled. In the Netherlands, policy control was introduced as a mechanism to increase the likelihood of implementing effective policy by involving policy controllers at all stages of the policy process. This study shows that policy control can be an mechanism to control inherent vices.
{"title":"Policy Control as a Strategy for Controlling Inherent Vices of Policy-Making","authors":"Roderick Fitz Verploegh, Tjerk Budding, Mattheus Wassenaar","doi":"10.1177/00953997241262508","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997241262508","url":null,"abstract":"Policy makers face inherent vices in the policy-making process that can affect the outcomes of the policy process. While it is widely recognized in the literature that these vices lead to policy volatility, to date, virtually no attention has been paid to how these vices can be controlled. In the Netherlands, policy control was introduced as a mechanism to increase the likelihood of implementing effective policy by involving policy controllers at all stages of the policy process. This study shows that policy control can be an mechanism to control inherent vices.","PeriodicalId":47966,"journal":{"name":"Administration & Society","volume":"56 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141775669","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-23DOI: 10.1177/00953997241261614
Isabella Bonacci, Danila Scarozza, Emilio Greco
New technological imperatives have changed the configuration of work, shifting it toward flexible and high-performance logics. Added to this was the global health emergency that paralyzed most work activities, with dramatic impacts on employment. During and after the emergency, organizations have realized that digital transformation has the potential to increase productivity, and Smart Working (SW) is part of this transformation process. The variable this analysis focuses on is Smart Working Satisfaction (SWS) in Italian public organizations, with the aim of identifying trends and solutions to improve human well-being and labor productivity. Accordingly, the research aims to answer the following questions: (a) What factors influence SWS? (b) What effects on satisfaction does a flexible form of work generate? (c) How does SWS manifest itself? A survey of 1,252 civil servants tapped the level of satisfaction of agile workers. The study aims to shift the focus of the scientific literature on SWS toward a new organizational approach to work. This research seeks not only to fill a theoretical gap related to SWS but also to demonstrate how the diffusion of new flexible working logics enhances workers’ sense of affiliation.
{"title":"The Innovative Implications of Smart Working in a Post-pandemic Era: A Model of Smart Working Satisfaction in Public Sector Organizations","authors":"Isabella Bonacci, Danila Scarozza, Emilio Greco","doi":"10.1177/00953997241261614","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997241261614","url":null,"abstract":"New technological imperatives have changed the configuration of work, shifting it toward flexible and high-performance logics. Added to this was the global health emergency that paralyzed most work activities, with dramatic impacts on employment. During and after the emergency, organizations have realized that digital transformation has the potential to increase productivity, and Smart Working (SW) is part of this transformation process. The variable this analysis focuses on is Smart Working Satisfaction (SWS) in Italian public organizations, with the aim of identifying trends and solutions to improve human well-being and labor productivity. Accordingly, the research aims to answer the following questions: (a) What factors influence SWS? (b) What effects on satisfaction does a flexible form of work generate? (c) How does SWS manifest itself? A survey of 1,252 civil servants tapped the level of satisfaction of agile workers. The study aims to shift the focus of the scientific literature on SWS toward a new organizational approach to work. This research seeks not only to fill a theoretical gap related to SWS but also to demonstrate how the diffusion of new flexible working logics enhances workers’ sense of affiliation.","PeriodicalId":47966,"journal":{"name":"Administration & Society","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141775670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-25DOI: 10.1177/00953997241261059
Levent Demirelli, Recep Aydin
Patronage appointments have been a frequently used indicator in order to gauge the level of politicization of bureaucracy in different countries. Studies tend to explain the politicization based on governmental, prime ministerial, or ministerial alternation. By relying upon a unique dataset consisting of 12.832 decisions of appointment to higher echelons in the Turkish bureaucracy during the Justice and Development Party’s uninterrupted one-party governments between 2002 and 2018, this study, however, suggests that the patronage appointments, and thereby politicization of the bureaucracy, might very well have been triggered by the within “power bloc” crisis linked to Turkey’s socio-political conditions.
{"title":"Prime Minister, Minister, or Else? Determinants of Patronage Appointments and Politicization of the Bureaucracy at the Senior Level in Turkey (2002–2018)","authors":"Levent Demirelli, Recep Aydin","doi":"10.1177/00953997241261059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997241261059","url":null,"abstract":"Patronage appointments have been a frequently used indicator in order to gauge the level of politicization of bureaucracy in different countries. Studies tend to explain the politicization based on governmental, prime ministerial, or ministerial alternation. By relying upon a unique dataset consisting of 12.832 decisions of appointment to higher echelons in the Turkish bureaucracy during the Justice and Development Party’s uninterrupted one-party governments between 2002 and 2018, this study, however, suggests that the patronage appointments, and thereby politicization of the bureaucracy, might very well have been triggered by the within “power bloc” crisis linked to Turkey’s socio-political conditions.","PeriodicalId":47966,"journal":{"name":"Administration & Society","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141507635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-27DOI: 10.1177/00953997241249174
Danielle N. Gadson, Seri Park
Social equity is a normative value in the field of public administration; however, policy guidance and associated funding rules are often rooted in values of equality. This perspective explores the conditions under which a public administrator’s professional responsibility to social equity goes beyond a program’s requirements for equality-based outcomes. This mismatch often results in extraneous efforts on the part of the administrator to implement creative solutions above and beyond what is funded and required by bureaucratic guidance. Realigning program rules and providing sufficient funding with an eye for equity will provide responsible public administrators with sufficient resources for success.
{"title":"Social Equity and the Responsible Administrator: The Challenge of Equity in Public Policy Initiatives","authors":"Danielle N. Gadson, Seri Park","doi":"10.1177/00953997241249174","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997241249174","url":null,"abstract":"Social equity is a normative value in the field of public administration; however, policy guidance and associated funding rules are often rooted in values of equality. This perspective explores the conditions under which a public administrator’s professional responsibility to social equity goes beyond a program’s requirements for equality-based outcomes. This mismatch often results in extraneous efforts on the part of the administrator to implement creative solutions above and beyond what is funded and required by bureaucratic guidance. Realigning program rules and providing sufficient funding with an eye for equity will provide responsible public administrators with sufficient resources for success.","PeriodicalId":47966,"journal":{"name":"Administration & Society","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140808992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-13DOI: 10.1177/00953997241244701
Montgomery Van Wart, Jeremy L. Hall, Cary M. Barber, Miranda McIntyre
Scholars warn that another American civil war is increasingly plausible, if still unlikely; professional political commentators express greater concerns. This study examines the likelihood of another U.S. civil war by comparing perspectives of the 1850s with those of today by using a negative social capital framework as the analytic lens. The analysis finds striking similarities between the two periods. Yet, civil war is a relatively rare phenomenon in developed countries, and the analysis also points to contemporary mitigating examples. At least for the foreseeable future, more likely are trajectories moving toward other types of social unrest short of civil war: ongoing civil strife, additional insurrections, decades-long intraregional political gridlock causing widespread administrative dysfunction, and even a failure to relinquish power. The negative social psychology has already had an extraordinary impact on public administration and is unlikely to decrease in the near term; it may yet increase exponentially as it did in the 1860s.
{"title":"Another Civil War in America? Comparing the Social Psychology of the United States of the 1850s to Today","authors":"Montgomery Van Wart, Jeremy L. Hall, Cary M. Barber, Miranda McIntyre","doi":"10.1177/00953997241244701","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997241244701","url":null,"abstract":"Scholars warn that another American civil war is increasingly plausible, if still unlikely; professional political commentators express greater concerns. This study examines the likelihood of another U.S. civil war by comparing perspectives of the 1850s with those of today by using a negative social capital framework as the analytic lens. The analysis finds striking similarities between the two periods. Yet, civil war is a relatively rare phenomenon in developed countries, and the analysis also points to contemporary mitigating examples. At least for the foreseeable future, more likely are trajectories moving toward other types of social unrest short of civil war: ongoing civil strife, additional insurrections, decades-long intraregional political gridlock causing widespread administrative dysfunction, and even a failure to relinquish power. The negative social psychology has already had an extraordinary impact on public administration and is unlikely to decrease in the near term; it may yet increase exponentially as it did in the 1860s.","PeriodicalId":47966,"journal":{"name":"Administration & Society","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140592802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-06DOI: 10.1177/00953997241244500
Daniel Carelli, B. Guy Peters
Administrative law is a not a frequent subject of research in public administration, but it can reveal a great deal about the functioning of the public sector and governance in general. The nature of administrative law is, we argue, closely linked with administrative traditions, and therefore administrative law is an especially apt focus for comparative analysis. This article discusses administrative law in four countries representing different administrative traditions. The perspective is that of the student of public governance, rather than that of the lawyer, with the principal concern here understanding bureaucratic autonomy within the administrative system.
{"title":"Autonomy by Decree: How Administrative Law Shapes Bureaucratic Autonomy in Four Administrative Traditions","authors":"Daniel Carelli, B. Guy Peters","doi":"10.1177/00953997241244500","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997241244500","url":null,"abstract":"Administrative law is a not a frequent subject of research in public administration, but it can reveal a great deal about the functioning of the public sector and governance in general. The nature of administrative law is, we argue, closely linked with administrative traditions, and therefore administrative law is an especially apt focus for comparative analysis. This article discusses administrative law in four countries representing different administrative traditions. The perspective is that of the student of public governance, rather than that of the lawyer, with the principal concern here understanding bureaucratic autonomy within the administrative system.","PeriodicalId":47966,"journal":{"name":"Administration & Society","volume":"81 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140592716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-05DOI: 10.1177/00953997241240404
Caio César de Medeiros-Costa
To understand the effects of bidder’s strategies on contractual modifications, this study utilized econometric methods and a database containing 5,434 engineering service contracts from Brazilian federal government. The results demonstrate the effects arising from the trade-off between the low prices presented in the contractor selection phase and the contractual performance measured by contract modifications. Competition among bidders in a reverse auction with multiple rounds of bid submissions can exacerbate this trade-off, potentially incentivizing risk-taking strategies by bidders. Subsequently, this may lead to the need for contract modifications to facilitate the ongoing execution of the contract.
{"title":"You Get What You Pay for: An Analysis of Public Contracts for Engineering Services","authors":"Caio César de Medeiros-Costa","doi":"10.1177/00953997241240404","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997241240404","url":null,"abstract":"To understand the effects of bidder’s strategies on contractual modifications, this study utilized econometric methods and a database containing 5,434 engineering service contracts from Brazilian federal government. The results demonstrate the effects arising from the trade-off between the low prices presented in the contractor selection phase and the contractual performance measured by contract modifications. Competition among bidders in a reverse auction with multiple rounds of bid submissions can exacerbate this trade-off, potentially incentivizing risk-taking strategies by bidders. Subsequently, this may lead to the need for contract modifications to facilitate the ongoing execution of the contract.","PeriodicalId":47966,"journal":{"name":"Administration & Society","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140592791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-05DOI: 10.1177/00953997241240070
Celia Green, Gemma Carey, Eleanor Malbon
Market stewardship of social care quasi-markets has been an important area of inquiry. While most focus has been on central government stewardship, local level actors can also play a role. Using a case study of the Australian National Disability Insurance scheme, this article focuses on both how service providers can be market stewards and whether they should be. Findings suggest that while some aspects of market stewardship are appropriate for service providers to perform, others may be better done by different actors. We propose a preliminary framework for distributed stewardship to help join up the work of local level actors with central agencies.
{"title":"Do Service Providers Play a Market Stewardship Role in Social Care Quasi-Markets and Should They?","authors":"Celia Green, Gemma Carey, Eleanor Malbon","doi":"10.1177/00953997241240070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997241240070","url":null,"abstract":"Market stewardship of social care quasi-markets has been an important area of inquiry. While most focus has been on central government stewardship, local level actors can also play a role. Using a case study of the Australian National Disability Insurance scheme, this article focuses on both how service providers can be market stewards and whether they should be. Findings suggest that while some aspects of market stewardship are appropriate for service providers to perform, others may be better done by different actors. We propose a preliminary framework for distributed stewardship to help join up the work of local level actors with central agencies.","PeriodicalId":47966,"journal":{"name":"Administration & Society","volume":"56 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140592808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-25DOI: 10.1177/00953997241237211
Hyung-Woo Lee, Soonae Park
This study examines the circumstances under which public organizations establish easy performance goals, analyzing nationwide data collected from cabinet departments in central and local government agencies in South Korea. Several factors have been identified as contributing to the tendency of public organizations to set easily achievable goals. Firstly, local governments tend to establish less challenging performance standards compared to central government agencies. Secondly, public organizations with higher financial resources per employee ratios are inclined to set easy performance goals. Lastly, the presence of a strong innovation-oriented culture or transparency requirements decreases the likelihood of setting easy performance goals.
{"title":"Opportunism in Performance Goal Setting in the Public Sector: Evidence from South Korea","authors":"Hyung-Woo Lee, Soonae Park","doi":"10.1177/00953997241237211","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997241237211","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the circumstances under which public organizations establish easy performance goals, analyzing nationwide data collected from cabinet departments in central and local government agencies in South Korea. Several factors have been identified as contributing to the tendency of public organizations to set easily achievable goals. Firstly, local governments tend to establish less challenging performance standards compared to central government agencies. Secondly, public organizations with higher financial resources per employee ratios are inclined to set easy performance goals. Lastly, the presence of a strong innovation-oriented culture or transparency requirements decreases the likelihood of setting easy performance goals.","PeriodicalId":47966,"journal":{"name":"Administration & Society","volume":"273 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140299780","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-21DOI: 10.1177/00953997241237531
Greg Marsden, Louise Reardon, Morgan Campbell, Sanjay Gupta, Ashish Verma
This paper explores the implementation of the Indian Government’s Smart Cities Mission in four cities. The Mission was to be delivered through a tightly specified governance form, known as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), although its function (smart urban renewal) was left more open. The national reform was, however, silent on how the SPV would work within the pre-existing network of actors. Using interviews and documentary analysis, the paper shows how the embedding of SPVs within pre-existing governance networks was strongly shaped by state-level decisions and local institutional dynamics. These insights open up new avenues for research into multi-level meta-governance.
{"title":"Tightly Bound, Loosely Interpreted: Meta-Governance and Local Institutional Adaptation in the Implementation of the Smart Cities Mission India","authors":"Greg Marsden, Louise Reardon, Morgan Campbell, Sanjay Gupta, Ashish Verma","doi":"10.1177/00953997241237531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997241237531","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the implementation of the Indian Government’s Smart Cities Mission in four cities. The Mission was to be delivered through a tightly specified governance form, known as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), although its function (smart urban renewal) was left more open. The national reform was, however, silent on how the SPV would work within the pre-existing network of actors. Using interviews and documentary analysis, the paper shows how the embedding of SPVs within pre-existing governance networks was strongly shaped by state-level decisions and local institutional dynamics. These insights open up new avenues for research into multi-level meta-governance.","PeriodicalId":47966,"journal":{"name":"Administration & Society","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140204379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}