Alfred Tat-Kei Ho

Explaining the Adoption of E-Government Features A Case Study of Iowa County Treasurers’ Offices

Recently, many studies have emerged to document how the public sector uses the Internet to provide information and services, but very few have analyzed the factors that influence the adoption decision of e-government features. This study proposes a model of innovation adoption that integrates internal organizational factors and external peer influence and empirically tests how these factors influence Iowa county treasurers’ decisions to launch a departmental Web site and adopt other e-government features. Our results show that the factors influencing these two decisions are different but that both decisions are driven by the concerns about staff resistance. The authors conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for policy makers and directions for future research on e-government development.

Challenges in e-government development: Lessons from two information kiosk projects

This article discusses the challenges of implementing e-government services through an examination of the development of information kiosks. The article explains the significance of kiosk development in the context of e-government policies through two case studies. The findings demonstrate the importance of having a sound business plan, a reasonable expectation of revenue streams, incremental logics in technology decisions, and effective management of the expectations and power balance of multiple external partners and granters. Based on the lessons learned, we make specific recommendations for policymakers and public IT managers on future kiosk development and similar e-government projects.

Participatory Budgeting in Midwestern States: Democratic Connection or Citizen Disconnection?

What participation mechanisms connect citizens and city officials? Do they produce valued outcomes? Surveys of elected officials suggest that microlevel mechanisms such as direct citizen contact are more valuable in meeting participation goals than are mechanisms focusing on macrolevel concerns. However, there is a disconnect between perceptions about value and the use of mechanisms. State-level participation requirements and a city manager have little effect on the value of a mechanism. These findings raise some questions: why are microlevel participation mechanisms favored, why do some mechanisms have value even though respondents have little experience with them, and why is there a misalignment between participatory goals and the mechanisms used?

Perceptions of Performance Measurement and the Practice of Performance Reporting by Small Cities

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT is the use of quantitative indicators to regularly measure the results and efficiency of public programs that clients, cus? tomers, or stakeholders expect (Broom et al. 1998; Hatry 2000). In 1994, the Governmen? tal Accounting Standards Board (GASB) is? sued Concepts Statement No. 2 on Service Efforts and Accomplishment Reporting, which states that performance information should be an integral part of General Purpose External Financial Statements and suggested the pos? sibility of linking performance measurement to state and local financial reporting (GASB 1994, paragraphs 3SM-9, 15-20.) Requiring state and local governments to report perfor? mance measurement results if they adopt gen? erally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) in financial reporting would be a watershed in the historical development of performance measurement.

Testing the Reluctant Professor’s Hypothesis: Evaluating a Blended-Learning Approach to Distance Education

Abstract As MPA programs search for teaching options that meet students’ needs and maintain program quality, many are exploring various distance learning formats. This paper evaluates whether students with synchronous learning and asynchronous learning experiences received a different quality of instruction in an course that blended distance and face-to-face learning. The authors review the literature on blended learning distance education as an alternative to online-only distance education, discuss the model of blended learning distance education used in the course described in this analysis, and then review their hypotheses, research methodology, and statistical analysis. The authors conclude with a brief discussion of the implications of this experiment for other MPA programs that might explore a blended learning distance education component in their curriculum.

Information Technology Planning and the Y2K Problem in Local Governments

This article examines local responses to the Year 2000 (Y2K) problem in Iowa to analyze how local governments plan for information technology (IT) operations. Many local governments lacked concrete plans and failed to think strategically about the Y2K problem at the beginning of 1999. A logistic analysis shows that the decision to form a concrete Y2K strategy depended on management attitudes and the technological sensitivity of local decision makers rather than on resource constraints or system characteristics. However, insufficient resources, not management attitudes and system characteristics, were the key determinant of the eventual outcomes of planning. This study concludes that local governments should think more strategically in IT planning and that senior management should take a more active role in the planning process. Local governments, especially counties, may need state assistance to improve IT planning for the information revolution in the new millennium.

Exploring the Roles of Citizens in Performance Measurement

Abstract This article discusses why citizens should be involved in performance measurement of government and introduces a model of citizen-initiated performance assessment (CIPA). Based on the experiences of a few Iowa cities and a survey of Iowa local officials, it shows how citizen involvement has impacted the practice of performance measurement, increased the likelihood of integrating performance information in the decision-making and planning process by elected officials, stimulated different thinking about public service delivery, and opened up new opportunities to build a stronger partnership between the government and the citizenry. The article concludes by discussing the limitations of the Iowa experiment, and suggests directions for future research and experimentation to advance the understanding and adoption of citizen-based performance measurement.

Challenges in Building Effective and Competitive Government in Developing Countries An Institutional Logics Perspective

For the past two decades, many developing countries have begun to experiment with results-oriented reforms to make their governments more competitive. However, very few studies explore the question of the applicability and appropriateness of Western-oriented reforms in non-Western contexts. Based on theories of new institutionalism and institutional logics, this article examines some of the organizational, cultural, and political assumptions that are implicit in Western-styled reforms; how they may conflict with the institutional contexts of many developing countries; and how the conflicts may impact reform strategies and results. The article then recommends how future comparative research can focus more on inter-institutional layering problems. It also suggests a few hypotheses for future empirical works that are interested in exploring further the dynamics between institutional gap, implementation strategies, and leadership characteristics of results-oriented reforms.

Taking Stock: Assessing and Improving Performance Budgeting Theory and Practice

ABSTRACT Since the passage of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993, the past 20 years represent one of the most remarkable eras for performance budgeting initiatives in the United States. As a result, many studies about this tool have been conducted and published. Based on a systematic review of articles on research related to performance budgeting in major journals in the ten years between 2002 and 2011, this study assesses how performance budgeting research has evolved over time, reviews its accomplishments, and suggests a few directions for future study, such as the need to control for different intervening factors to establish causality, the need for more coherent theoretical frameworks to guide empirical work and structure the relationship between causal factors, and the need for methodological diversity. We also present a few long-standing questions about performance budgeting that future studies may revisit carefully.

Reporting Public Performance Information: The Promise and Challenges of Citizen Involvement

Today, performance measurement is a widely accepted tool of government management in the United States. At the national level, the George W. Bush administration has adopted the Performance Assessment Rating Tool to integrate performance measurement into strategic planning and budgeting (Breul and Moravitz, 2007). Many US state and local governments and professional organizations also have their own initiatives to promote performance measurement, “results-oriented” management, and public performance reporting (Berman and Wang, 2000; Jordan and Hackbart, 1999; Melkers and Willoughby, 2001; Poister and Streib, 1999).