Abstract Despite a concerted scholarly focus on collaborative management, there is scant research on the evolution of collaboration in international assistance networks. Questions remain on what ...explains the evolution of collaborative relationships in international assistance collaborative networks, and on the importance of trust, faith‐based status, and geographical homophily in predicting the development of international assistance collaborative networks over time. Similarly, how do organizations from different sectors collaborate over time in international assistance collaborative networks? To address these questions, we analyze the nature and evolution of collaboration between international and local non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), faith‐based organizations (FBOs), and other organizations providing disaster recovery assistance before and after the 2010 Haiti earthquake in three time periods: before 2010, 2010–2012, and 2012–2015. Employing descriptive and inferential network methods, we find that knowledge‐based trust, geographical homophily, and the faith‐based status of organizations predict the development of collaborative relations in different periods of time.
Abstract Automated, administrative decision‐making (AADM) is a key component in digital government reforms. It represents an aspiration for a better and more efficient administration but also ...presents challenges to values of public administration. We systematically review the emerging literature on use of AADM from the perspective of good governance. Recognizing the inherent tensions of values of public administration, the broad review identifies key synergies, trade‐offs, and limits of AADM and good governance associated with nine values: Accountability, efficiency, equality, fairness, resilience, responsiveness, right‐to‐privacy, rule‐of‐law, and transparency. While synergies represent “low‐hanging fruits”, trade‐offs and limits are “hard cases” representing challenges to good governance. Taking the specific decision‐making context into account, practitioners and scholars should attempt to nurture the “fruits” and lessen the tensions of the “hard‐cases” thereby increasing the desirable societal outcomes of use of AADM.
Abstract This article examines the impact of including benefits information on voter support in school bond referenda. It proposes that benefits information can increase voter support and mitigate ...the negative impact of tax implications. The proposition is tested empirically through a survey experiment, using random assignment and a nationally representative sample. The findings provide causal evidence supporting the proposition, revealing a consistently positive effect of benefits information on voter support across diverse population groups, including homeowners, individuals without children, and supporters of private education. The effect weakens but remains significant even when tax implications are considered. These findings contribute to the existing literature on bond referenda and offer valuable insights for public policy makers aiming to enhance success rates in bond referenda.
Abstract
Research suggests that citizens often abstain from taking up benefits for which they are eligible because of the costs of learning about how to apply for and the compliance and psychological ...costs associated with taking up benefits. But to what extent can such burdens be altered simply by changing the way rules are communicated? Bridging literatures on administrative burden, communication theory, and cognitive psychology, we theorize and test the causal impact (using a pre‐registered randomized survey experiment (
N
= 2243)) of two prominent aspects of rule communication: information structure and bureaucratic language. Our findings lend support to the expectation that bureaucratic language influences citizens' learning costs as well as their compliance – and to a lesser extent psychological – costs, even when the content of the rules communicated is the same.
Abstract
Nonprofit and for‐profit providers play an increasing role in public service delivery, but we know little about what shapes public service delivery preferences. Responding to calls to put ...the “public” back in public values theory, we examine the influence of public values on sector service delivery preferences for government, nonprofit, or for‐profit delivery across six service areas ranging from simple services such as trash collection to complex services such as child welfare. We find equity predicts a preference for government service delivery across areas, while efficiency corresponds to a preference for for‐profit service delivery. Nonprofit sector preferences varied across service areas; equity corresponds to simple services such as street maintenance, whereas effectiveness corresponds to complex human services such as elder care. Public administrators should be cognizant of the public value trade‐offs that underlie sector preferences for public services to design and implement service arrangements in line with the preferences of the public they serve.
Abstract
Law enforcement agencies are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI)‐powered tools. While prior work emphasizes the technological features driving public opinion, we investigate ...how public trust and support for AI in government vary with the
institutional
context. We administer a pre‐registered survey experiment to 4200 respondents about AI use cases in policing to measure responsiveness to three key institutional factors:
bureaucratic proximity
(i.e., local sheriff versus national Federal Bureau of Investigation),
algorithmic targets
(i.e., public targets via predictive policing versus detecting officer misconduct through automated case review), and
agency capacity
(i.e., necessary resources and expertise). We find that the public clearly prefers local over national law enforcement use of AI, while reactions to different algorithmic targets are more limited and politicized. However, we find no responsiveness to agency capacity or lack thereof. The findings suggest the need for greater scholarly, practitioner, and public attention to organizational, not only technical, prerequisites for successful government implementation of AI.
Abstract Gender diversity in leadership positions may not always bring desirable outcomes for an organization as diversity researchers have argued. Female leaders are less likely to contribute to ...effectiveness of their organization when it is male‐dominated and has strong masculine culture. We tested a nonlinear relationship between gender diversity at the top and organizational performance and the moderating effect of a female critical mass in an organization. Time‐series data were collected from state‐owned enterprises and quasi‐governmental organizations affiliated with the Korean government and were analyzed through fixed‐effects panel regressions. The results show that gender diversity on executive boards has an inverted U‐shaped relationship with organizational performance. The positive effect of gender diversity on executive boards on organizational performance increases up to a certain level, beyond which the diversity effect turns negative. Curvilinear relationships were found to be flatter in more gender‐balanced organizational settings, suggesting that the negative effect of gender diversity at the top is likely to increase to a lesser extent than in male‐skewed settings.
Requests for Proposals (RFP) may be the pinnacle of bureaucratic mundanity. Yet, hidden within this apparent monotony are powerful tools to advance public values. Federal, state, and local government ...grants deploy staggering sums, reaching into the hundreds of billions of dollars annually. With these distributions, the executive branch is often delegated substantial discretion. These are choices of consequence, but little support exists for public managers tasked with this work. This article examines the potential to improve administrative decision‐making by enhancing our understanding of how discretion is authorized and applied regarding RFPs. Drawing from professional experience, we create a framework to identify dimensions of discretion in these proposals and apply it to a Minnesota case. We end with a call for academics and practitioners to better partner on empirical inquiry that improves RFP administration; in doing so, there is immense potential to help civil servants to improve outcomes for the public.
