0000000000128955
AUTHOR
William C. Rivenbark
Exploring Countercyclical Fiscal Policy in Local Government: Moving Beyond an Aggregated Approach
There is a renewed interest in the fiscal health of local governments in the United States, which is being driven in part by academic research, professional organizations, and the economy. This renewed interest also includes how local governments use their cash reserves for countercyclical fiscal policy, which is a stream of research that has received minimal attention in the literature. We respond in this article by exploring how 97 North Carolina counties used their cash reserves from 2005 to 2012, which includes the great recession of 2008 and 2009. Our findings provide some evidence of countercyclical fiscal policy in local government when exploring the use of cash reserves from an aggr…
Implementing collaborative governance: models, experiences, and challenges
This paper introduces the reader to a special issue focused on Collaborative Governance implementation. The purpose of this symposium is to advance our understanding of the cross-cutting and complex issues of collaborative governance implementation, which include: (a) supporting the collaborative process through innovative models and methods for enhancing a shared understanding of community problems and outcomes, (b) fostering the interplay between service policy and service delivery, and (c) combining a public service view with an institutional and interinstitutional view
Introduction to a Symposium on Broadening the Application of Performance Management
The Italian Academy of Management (Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA)), which was founded in Bologna during July 1813, is one of the oldest academic societies in the world. On the occasion of celebrating its bicentenary, the AIDEA held a conference in Lecce, Italy, during September 2013 for AIDEA members and international scholars to present their research within six major areas: Economia Aziendale, Ragioneria ed Economia Aziendale in Italia, Accounting, Management & Organization, Public Management, and Banking & Finance. The theme of the conference—The Firm’s Role in the Economy: Does a Growth-Oriented Business Model Exist?—was in response to the global crisis that has raised…
A Comparative Analysis of Performance Management Systems
Performance management is maturing as an effective organizational approach in public organizations around the world, but the existing models have limitations that must be addressed. The international comparative case study analysis in this article presents policy recommendations and organizational strategies on how regional governments can create more robust performance management systems for higher levels of accountability and transparency in a time of global economic crisis. These include the consideration of organizational structure regarding alignment, control, and culture, the positive impact of performance management legislation, the role of executive leadership, and the need for an i…
Exploring the Shift from Output Measures to Outcome Measures of Service Delivery: Insights from Municipal Research
Prior research shows that reporting on outcome measures increases the probability that local officials will use perform- ance data to inform their decisions. What has been over- looked in the literature is the question of why some local governments continue to focus more on outputs than on out- comes of service delivery, thereby limiting their ability to use performance data for decision-making. The purpose of this art- icle is to identify organizational, individual, and support factors that could increase the probability that local officials in the Apulia Region of Italy when measuring performance, will move beyond the basic measures of output to the more advanced measures of outcome. Base…
Teaching Public Administration Abroad through the Fulbright Specialist Program
The purpose of this article is to promote the benefits of the Fulbright Specialist Program—which was created in 2001 as a short-term complement to the Fulbright Scholar Program—and to encourage more public administration scholars to consider teaching abroad. After providing an overview of the Fulbright Specialist Program and the collaborative teaching approach we used for the preparation and delivery of instructional materials, it presents a number of lessons learned from the perspective of the Fulbright Specialist and the host institution for maximizing the experience of teaching abroad. This article also is dedicated to the work of Fulbright, which has pursued its mission to increase mutu…
Navigating efficiency and effectiveness relationships across local government services: Another step toward strategic resource management
A major part of maintaining a well-managed performance measurement system in local government is providing the infrastructure for performance management. The problem is that local officials often struggle with moving from adopting performance measures to actually using them for improving services and for making resource allocation decisions. This article responds to this struggle by presenting information on the relationships between efficiency and effectiveness measures across six local government service areas, with the goal of providing guidance on using performance measures to support strategic resource management. Our research suggests that stronger correlations exist between efficienc…
Performance Management in Local Government: The Application of System Dynamics to Promote Data Use
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how system dynamics can be used to enrich performance management in local government, focusing specifically on how the development of conceptual and simulation system dynamic models can foster a shared view of the relevant system among stakeholders to overcome factors that limit data use. Responding to this purpose, we present a normative case study on how key drivers can be used to foster a shared view of the residential refuse collection system for supporting policy and process changes. A major finding from our research, however, is that performance management cannot overlook the broader forces of citizenship outcomes that impact the community.
“Pursuing Community Resilience through Outcome-Based Public Policies: Challenges and Opportunities for the Design of Performance Management Systems”
The purpose of this symposium is to contribute to the ongoing debate on this topic in the public administration literature by exploring the contribution of performance management in the implementation of effective governance systems that may foster community resilience, especially to social “wicked” problems. The set of articles hosted in this issue provides a variegated mix of ideas and experiences in this field, encompassing different countries (from Northern to Southern Europe, and Canada), sectors (including labor, healthcare, tourism, and public utilities), and methodological approaches. An empirical perspective is adopted by the authors, involving case studies, interviews, and field r…
Introduction to the Symposium on Exploring the Complexities of Performance Management
ABSTRACTThe editors of this symposium hope that this collection of articles can help advance the public administration literature stream across the multiple organizational and cultural settings in which these performance management studies were conducted. However, this symposium also focused on articles that can help advance the practice of performance management, where specific recommendations are needed to help public officials collect, analyze, and use meaningful outcome measures specifically for the benefits for making better management and policy decisions.