American Review of Public Administration, The

Publisher:: Sage Publications, Inc.
Publication date:: 2021-10-06

ISBN:: 0275-0740

Issue Number

Latest documents

Perception or Reality: An Examination of Police Misconduct, Organizational Justice, and Promotion Opportunities in the NYPD
Scholars across multiple disciplines have identified numerous correlates to police misconduct. Missing, however, from this body of research is the impact of police misconduct on future promotion opportunities in a local police department. Using population data (N = 33,358) released by New York city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) from September 1985 to July 2020, this study employs logistic regression to examine civilian complaints that were found to be substantiated, in comparison to complaints that were found to be unsubstantiated or exonerated, and their effect on police officers moving up in rank beyond the incident. The intent is to examine the relationship between police misconduct and promotion. In addition, recognizing the inherent differences in the promotion process for detectives from all other officer ranks, we found that the odds of detectives being promoted to higher ranks are somewhat impacted by the outcomes of complaints, but not by the types of complaints received. However, our findings suggest that all other officers are impacted by the outcomes of civilian complaints, in addition to the types of complaints received, in terms of promotion. Furthermore, we found that the severity of police misconduct, captured by the CCRB-recommended disciplinary actions associated with substantiated complaints, matters for NYPD officer promotability for first-time offenders differently than for officers who repeatedly engage in misconduct.
Explaining Sustainability Innovation in City Governments: Innovation Mechanisms and Discretion Types in Multi-Level Governance
While existing studies have examined the separate effects of local governments’ internal conditions and external environment on local innovation, few have paid attention to their interactive effects. This study examines whether state-level rules regarding local discretion moderate the effects of city governments’ slack resources and learning, using local sustainability innovation as an example. We distinguish two types of discretion (fiscal and statutory) granted by state governments. Applying a difference-in-differences (DDD) approach with a longitudinal dataset of 238 U.S. cities, we find that fiscal discretion strengthens the positive effect of fiscal slack while statutory discretion enhances the positive effect of learning. The findings uncover the complex interactions between multilevel institutional arrangements and local innovation mechanisms.
Organizational Practices and Second-Generation Gender Bias: A Qualitative Inquiry into the Career Progression of U.S. State-Level Managers
Ely and Meyerson’s gendered organizations framework reconceptualizes traditional gender differences defined by biology and lack of structural opportunities, to a complex set of social relations in the workplace. We apply this framework to second-generation gender bias to further understand impediments to women's career progression in the public sector workplace. In-depth interviews of state-level administrators in U.S. public sector agencies indicate that “narratives” perpetuate second-generation gender bias that is deeply ingrained in organizational practices and policies, especially for women and women of color. This framework can be applied to future studies examining the gendered nature of organizations in different workplace settings. Moving beyond already identified barriers, this study offers a comprehensive framework to understand how second-generation gender bias is central to long-standing workplace inequities.
The Effect of Civilian Oversight on Police Organizational Performance: A Quasi-Experimental Study
Although civilian oversight has been introduced to make the police accountable to citizens and perform better, its effectiveness has not been thoroughly investigated yet. To better understand civilian oversight of the police, this study explores its theoretical basis as an accountability mechanism and suggests how it holds police agencies accountable even without direct disciplinary authority. The data from Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey, the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) program, and the Fatal Encounters (FE) database are analyzed to estimate the effect of civilian oversight on police organizational performance, using a propensity score matching analysis. Among the dependent variables included in the analysis as performance indicators, civilian oversight turns out to have a significant influence only on police agencies’ clearance rates. The police agencies with civilian oversight have lower clearance rates by 2.71 percentage points on average compared to those without civilian oversight. The implications of civilian oversight's negative impact on police organizational performance are further discussed.
Book Review: Public Governance and the Classical-Liberal Perspective: Political Economy Foundations by Aligica, P. D., Boettke, P. J., & Tarko, V.
To Have Versus To Have Not: A Cross-City Configurational Analysis of Social Service Contracting
This study employs a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to explore how combinations of demand- and supply-side factors jointly shape the scale of government-nonprofit contracting in social services across 38 Chinese cities. Our analysis reveals a huge disparity by identifying two pathways to large-scale government contracting for “to-have” (well-resourced cities with low service needs but a well-developed nonprofit sector) versus the other two pathways to small-scale government contracting for “to-have-not” (poorly-resourced cities with an underdeveloped nonprofit sector struggling with meeting high service needs). The study contributes to the literature by highlighting how different demand- and supply-side factors can complement each other to form different combinations in shaping the scale of government contracting with new empirical evidence from an authoritarian context. The rise of government-nonprofit contracting in China is more supply-driven, reflecting the government's active role in cultivating the nonprofit sector development. The findings also raise an important policy issue of accessibility and equity in social service provision.
Police Chiefs, Organizational Justice, and Body-Worn Cameras: A Key to Releasing Video Footage
This study addresses a missing link in the organizational justice literature—a police chief's trust in their officers. Most organizational and procedural justice studies examine these concepts from an officer's perspective, but fail to capture how leaders perceive their officers. Trust, however, is a relational concept, which implies there might be effects of a leader's trust in their officers. This study addresses if a police chief's level of trust in officers will affect their behavior as related to the release of body-worn camera footage. Body-worn cameras have been adopted across the United States and all over the world. However, if the footage they capture is rarely shared, cameras impact will be minimal. The findings suggest that if a chief has higher levels of trust in their officers, then the chief's willingness to release footage is increased, potentially leading to an improved relationship between law enforcement and communities.
Enhancing Local Service Effectiveness Through Purpose-Oriented Networks: The Role of Network Leadership and Structure
The public administration literature has demonstrated that the manner in which a network is led is related to its effectiveness. However, why this relationship occurs and whether it is dependent on external circumstances remain unclear. Relying on Provan and Milward's framework of interorganizational network effectiveness and the neo-institutional approach to local leadership, we propose that the manner in which the local authority leads the local network is related to the network's structure, which, in turn, influences its effectiveness. We also propose that this association is contingent on the characteristics of the local authority in which the network exists. Using a sample of 586 network participants from 68 Israeli networks, we demonstrate that the degree to which the local authority is centralized explains the link between the network's leadership and its effectiveness, but only in local authorities with a high socioeconomic status (SES). In addition, we find that in Israeli Arab municipalities such centralization is counterproductive, impeding the network's effectiveness. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
A Systematic Review of Empirical Emergency Management Network Research: Formation and Development, Properties, and Performance
Although network analysis has gained much attention in emergency management studies, there are few systematic reviews of emergency management network studies in public administration. After reviewing 44 journals, this article identified and reviewed a total of 58 studies that conducted network analysis in the context of emergency management. Based on existing literature, this article summarizes the common and unique factors driving network formation and development, describes the structural characteristics of emergency management networks, and reports the performance measures that have been used to evaluate network performance. It concludes by addressing research gaps, presenting propositions and recommendations for future research, and highlighting implications for emergency management practice. The context of this review is emergency management, but the three network research streams focused upon—network formation and development, network properties, and network performance—are relevant to all management and policy domains. This review also underscores the need to further explore the dynamic process of network formation and outcomes of network relationships and structures.
Women in State Law Enforcement: An Exploratory Trend Analysis
Gender diversity in policing has never been more important than it is today. However, women in state law enforcement are the least noticeable and most underrepresented of all women in policing. Using data from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) surveys, this study examines gender diversity across the 49 primary state law enforcement agencies in the United States between 2000 and 2016. Although representation varies broadly across the states, the findings are mostly negative and suggest that women in state law enforcement have remained stagnant over the past two decades with very little improvement. This is important because scholarship must continue to bring attention to the underrepresentation of women in law enforcement, regardless of intergovernmental level, and monitor its progress.