Abstract The emergence of the administrative burden literature has generated new theoretical, conceptual, and empirical knowledge. However, the accumulation of comparable knowledge is limited by the ...lack of validated measurement of core concepts. This article validates a four‐item scale of burden tolerance , that is, people's acceptance of state actions that impose administrative burdens on citizens and residents interacting with government, using data from seven countries and 12 surveys. We illustrate the usefulness of the scale by examining its correlates. Burden tolerance varies substantially across the countries examined, but is generally higher for males, young adults, less well educated, those with good health, those who trust state actors more, and ideological conservatives. We demonstrate how the scale can be adapted to specific policy areas and that our generic scale correlates highly with the tolerance for burdens in such diverse domains as income supports, health insurance, passport renewals, and small business licensing.
A vida no guichê é o trabalho quotidiano da administração, um universo aparentemente de rotina e anonimato, mas cujo equilíbrio é precário e cujos protagonistas não podem nunca ser reduzidos aos ...papéis padronizados que a instituição espera que eles adotem. A vida no guichê é também feita de identidades que se recompõem, de vidas singulares que se contam e as quais, de uma certa maneira, são determinadas no secreto de uma cabine de atendimento de um órgão administrativo. "A Vida no Guichê: Administrar a Miséria, de Vincent Dubois, finalmente traduzida para língua portuguesa, assume o caráter de um divisor de águas, apontando caminhos para a análise crítica das interações que dão concretude à implementação de políticas públicas, e chamando a atenção para suas interfaces com processos mais amplos de reprodução de desigualdades e da dominação das classes subalternas" (G. Lotta e R. Pires) "Pelo que representa em matéria de produção de um ponto de vista científico-social inovador sobre os encontros que se estabelecem entre agentes sociais e instituições, pelo que transmite sobre o modo de construir um tal ponto de vista em termos teóricos e metodológicos, A Vida no Guichê: Administrar a Miséria tem, agora, condições renovadas e atualizadas para continuar a atrair a atenção da comunidade científica lusófona e para inspirar o apuramento da respetiva razão sociológica." (M. Cunha e V. B. Pereira)
Abstract Following PRISMA guidelines, this study offers a systematic review of 78 articles on person‐environment (P‐E) fit in the public sector. The study reveals both an emphasis on supplementary ...person‐organization (P‐O) fit and its relationship to public service motivation (PSM). We also find evidence of both bottom‐up and top‐down processes that mutually adjust to determine fit over time. Building on these findings, we propose an integrative theory that models the multidimensionality of fit as mutual adjustment between the person and the environment along three major dimensions: values, needs, and skills. Integrating the temporal dynamics of the attraction‐selection‐attrition (ASA) model, we demonstrate how these dimensions interact and generally settle upon an equilibrium over time, which we define as P‐E fit.
Abstract Public administration research has recently paid increasing attention to public employees' social categorization of citizens and the consequences thereof for administrative decision‐making. ...We advance this line of scholarship by theorizing the concept of implicit citizenship theories (ICTs) and elaborating it in four sequential empirical studies. ICTs are implicit assumptions about citizens' typical or ideal characteristics that emerge freely and associatively in the minds of public employees and guide cognitive categorization. We investigate the content and structure of these ICTs and extract a taxonomy of six distinctive, yet interrelated, prototypes of citizens that public employees bring to their jobs. As implicit theories influence attitudes and behaviors, ICTs are relevant to the quality of public services delivered to citizens. This is particularly evident where negative prototypes give rise to unequal treatment. Practical interventions to change those prototypes might target their individual beholders or the social context that makes ICTs accessible.
Abstract Understanding collaboration between the government and community leaders or organizations is essential for effectively delivering services and creating public value. Interorganizational ...collaboration is particularly salient in communities of color when considering how historic exclusions of marginalized voices have inhibited equity. This study draws upon 88 in‐depth, semistructured interviews on collaboration (and its limits) between the police and community in Hartford, Connecticut, US. Using this context, the findings highlight the limits of collaborative community policing with regard to resources, reach, expectations, implementation, and power balances. Moreover, even after overcoming challenges, the translation of collaborative actions (e.g., community policing) into social outcomes (e.g., police–community relations) is fragile. For instance, leadership or critical incidents can influence whether community policing activities actually lead to gains in police–community relations. Taken as a whole, this study demonstrates how collaboration unfolds with community organizations, how it impacts police–community relations in communities of color, and the limitations thereof.
Abstract Theories of blame suggest that the institutional design of public service delivery affects citizens' blame of politicians for service failure, and that delegation or contracting out reducing ...citizens' blame of politicians. We replicate experimentally James et al.'s blame study to assess whether the findings still apply in the original, Western context, and if the findings can be generalized to East Asia (Hong Kong and South Korea). Our replications ( N = 3600) show support for contracting out to the private sector as an effective institutional arrangement for politicians to avoid blame—providing evidence for this hypothesized effect that was not found by the original study in England. Blame shift effects are typically weaker in East Asia as anticipated because of cultural differences. Overall, the findings show that politicians can use cues about delegation to reduce citizens' blame for service failure, but that such strategies vary in their success according to context.
Abstract This study analyzes public administrators' trust in citizens' capacities to participate in governance, their collaborative tendency, and the association between these factors and public ...administrators' willingness to implement citizen involvement efforts. The purpose of the study is to examine whether public administrators' trust in citizens' participatory capacities predicts a willingness to implement citizen participation efforts within the central administration of a Nordic welfare country. The central administration of Finland presents a counter case to previous studies, which have mostly focused on the United States. A unique survey of administrators, operationalized similarly to previous studies, was conducted, and analysis of the data provides both confirmatory and novel insights. The analysis finds that administrators' trust in citizens' participatory capacities strongly predicts their willingness to implement citizen participation initiatives. However, this relation can significantly decrease or increase depending on the degree to which administrators value the procedural legitimacy of collaborative governance.
Abstract Public administration scholars have largely ignored American Indians and Alaska Natives in their studies of racial disparities in the federal service, despite strong reasons to believe they ...face discrimination. Using three large federal data sets (the American Community Survey, federal personnel records, and the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey), we compare the status of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the federal service to both Whites and other minorities. We find that, largely due to Indian Preference, American Indians and Alaska Natives are much more likely than Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians to hold federal jobs, but they are highly concentrated in the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service, agencies with which they have a sordid and fraught history. This concentration allows them to work in positions that may advance the interests of their communities and increases their probabilities of being supervisors, but it does not prevent them from being among the poorest‐paid and least‐satisfied employees in the federal service.
Abstract It is not easy to secure and sustain efficient interorganizational collaboration in hierarchically demarcated and functionally specialized public sectors. This article investigates whether ...and how public leaders can motivate and catalyze their own employees to engage in behaviors that foster and support collaboration across organizational jurisdictions. Using survey data from 555 occupational therapists in Danish municipalities, we employed an innovative scenario‐based research design including video vignettes and a centipede game to mimic real‐life collaboration. We show that clear and collaboration‐focused leadership has a positive and substantial effect on employees' engagement in an interorganizational collaboration with a regionally employed nurse. Further, the effects are stronger for respondents with higher public service motivation, higher collaborative self‐efficacy, more tenure, and at a younger age. The findings contribute to understanding public leadership and employee engagement in interorganizational collaboration and emphasize that leaders should carefully consider their context and communication when engaging their employees.
