Managerial Ambivalence and Electronic Civic Engagement: The Role of Public Manager Beliefs and Perceived Needs

• Author: Fengxiu Zhang,Mary K. Feeney
• Published date: 01 January 2018
• Date: 01 January 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12853

58 Public Administration Review • January | February 2018

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 78, Iss. 1, pp. 58–70. © 2017 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12853.

Managerial Ambivalence and Electronic Civic Engagement:

The Role of Public Manager Beliefs and Perceived Needs

Mary K. Feeney is associate professor

and Lincoln Professor of Ethics in Public

Affairs and is associate director in the

Center for Science, Technology and

Environmental Policy Studies at Arizona

State University. Her most recent research

focuses on public management and

technology use in government.

E-mail: mkfeeney@asu.edu

Fengxiu Zhang is a doctoral student

in the School of Public Affairs and a

research associate in the Center for

Science, Technology and Environmental

Policy Studies at Arizona State University.

Her research interests include citizen

engagement, organizational decision

making under risk and uncertainty, crisis

management, and behavioral public

administration.

E-mail: fzhang59@asu.edu

Abstract : This article addresses an important yet often neglected component of electronic civic engagement efforts :

managerial ambivalence about public participation. We examine how managers’ beliefs about public participation

and their perceived needs for participation in agency decision making work together to shape electronic engagement

efforts. Based on observational data collected in 2010 and 2014 and data from a 2014 survey of managers in

500 U.S. municipal governments, we find that managerial beliefs about participation and their perceived needs

for participation are two valid and separate constructs. There is a positive relationship between managerial beliefs

and electronic engagement. Perceived needs for participation interact with managers’ beliefs to affect electronic civic

engagement. A high level of perceived needs for participation reinforces the effect of managerial beliefs on electronic

engagement efforts, but a low level does not offset the effect of managerial beliefs on electronic engagement .

Evidence for Practice

• Manager values and norms are critical to facilitating adoption of electronic civic engagement.

• Managers’ beliefs about the value of public participation are distinct from their perceptions about the

need for public participation. Managers holding positive beliefs about the value of civic engagement can

nevertheless perceive a low level of need for participation in their organization’s decision making.

• Cities adopting electronic engagement tools have public managers who report positive beliefs about

stakeholder participation.

• When managers believe in the positive value of participation and perceive high levels of needs for

participation in their organization, there is a significant and reinforced effect on electronic engagement

efforts.

• Manager perceptions of the need for civic participation, although important, do not directly affect electronic

engagement efforts.

I nformation and communications technologies

(ICTs) have attracted broad interest from

government practitioners, citizen advocates, and

public policy and administration scholars for their

promise to enable more transparent, participatory,

and collaborative government. Specifically, ICTs

provide a means to connect and organize otherwise

disparate individuals and enable interaction between

government and citizens and among citizens (Feeney

and Welch 2012 ; Medaglia 2007 ; Moon 2002 ). They

can be powerful tools to complement more traditional

participation modes, although, of course, their ability

to achieve improved civic engagement relies on actual

use. The existing scholarship has identified social

media services, discussion boards, blogs, web portals,

online surveys, and online voting as the ICT tools that

governments typically employ for civic engagement

(Mergel 2013 ; Mossberger, Wu, and Crawford 2013 ;

Sandoval-Almazan and Gil-Garcia 2012 ; Youngblood

and Mackiewicz 2012 ).

It is widely recognized that ICT adoption and use

for civic engagement is embedded in and constrained

by organizational, social, and technical contexts

(Feeney and Welch 2016 ; Liu 2017 ; Medaglia 2007 ;

Oliveira and Welch 2013 ). Scholars have identified

an array of institutional, political, and demographic

determinants of ICT use for civic engagement,

including enabling and disabling factors (Chadwick

and May 2003 ; Feeney and Welch 2012 ; Oliveira

and Welch 2013 ). For example, Li and Feeney

( 2014 ) found that external demands are important

determinants for adopting technologies such as

social networking tools (e.g., Twitter, Facebook), text

messaging, and webcasts to communicate with the

public. What is relatively less examined is the role of

public managers, who constitute an important link

between the state and the public and often bear the

responsibility for facilitating stakeholder involvement.

The importance of managerial roles stems from their

broad discretion when implementing participation

Fengxiu Zhang

Mary K. Feeney

Arizona State University