J. Steven Ott

A TEST: CAN STEWARDSHIP THEORY SERVE AS A SECOND CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATION FOR ACCOUNTABILITY METHODS IN CONTRACTED HUMAN SERVICES?

Stewardship theories have been proposed recently as the possible basis for the reform of roles and responsibilities of principals and agents in government contracted service relations, and for the design and development of more effective methods for ensuring accountability (and quality) in contracted human services. This article reports on an empirical field study that tested the relationship between two values-related independent variables associated with stewardship theories–values convergence and altruistic (public service) values–and service quality of contracted providers. The study did not demonstrate a positive relationship between the independent variables and service quality, but the authors argue that stewardship theory should not be dismissed yet as a conceptual foundation for the development of methods for ensuring accountability in human services contracting. They urge additional research in this area.

Challenges Facing Public Sector Management in an Era of Downsizing, Devolution, Dispersion and Empowerment—and Accountability?

Agencies at all levels of government are facing strong ideological pressures to downsize, devolve, dispense, and empower both employees and recipients of services. These ideological pressures provide many performance advantages, but collectively they threaten historic notions of achieving economy, efficiency, and effectiveness, along with accountability. It has been widely assumed in recent years that advancements in information technology and performance measurement provide adequate replacements for the historic notion that accountability flows up-the-hierarchy to elected officials and the sovereignty. These technologies, however, are not yet able to ensure responsible administration or accountability in many areas of domestic government services. Todays public managers can play leading roles in developing alternative approaches for achieving accountability if they are supported by forward-looking human resources management (HRM) agencies.

Important but largely unanswered questions about accountability in contracted public human services

Contracting-out for human services has become preferred public policy at all levels of government. This service delivery policy choice has important implications for accountability and for the ability of contracting nonprofit organizations to be flexible and innovative. Although the use of contracting has expanded dramatically in the human services since the 1970s, many important public management policy questions remain unasked and unanswered. This article raises and discusses nine largely unanswered questions that are central to the reasons why government continues to expand its dependence on contracted human services. These questions address key elements of a larger policy-of-public-management question: “Is it possible to achieve accountability and flexibility when government contracts-out for the provision of publicly funded human services?” By addressing these nine questions, we seek to determine what is known and not known about the key accountability issues in contracted public human services. We also attempt to highlight the importance of these questions and issues for public management policy, inter-sectorial organization theory, the practice of nonprofit and public organization management, and thus for research and theory development.

Public Sector Reform, and Moral and Ethical Accountability: Performance Measurement Technology Cannot Ensure Accountability for Contracted Human Services

Abstract During the 1990s, a new government reform ideology won widespread public popularity. Alternatives to bureaucracy—including downsizing, devolution, diffusion, and empowerment—were widely touted and adopted as practical solutions to a variety of perceived and real problems. These reforms are manifestations of a powerful and widely accepted ideology. They also substantially diminish government’s ability to achieve accountability through hierarchies. They require well-developed performance measurement and information technologies that are able to provide meaningful and timely information about performances and outcomes. Unfortunately, current performance measurement approaches are unable to deliver the information needed to achieve ethical accountability in the human services. Officials cannot be permitted to simply assume that performance measurement technology will “take care of” the “accountability problem” as public sector reform models are adopted—the emperor, alas, is not wearing any clothes.

Post—September 11 Human Resource Management in Nonprofit Organizations:

This article serves as a warning, an exhortation, and a guide to nonprofit trustees, executives, and human resource (HR) managers. The United States has experienced cumulative national shock waves during the past 2 to 3 years of a magnitude not previously experienced before—at least not in the past 50 years. The tragic events of September 11, 2001, alone would have changed the environment faced by Americas nonprofit organizations. But there have been other shock waves on top of September 11. Each added new strains to the existing ones. Thus, organizations in the nonprofit sector face difficult HR challenges that may continue to become more acute in the upcoming months and years. This environment requires skillful management, particularly of human resources. This article is an exploratory study to identify how the post-September 11 environment is affecting nonprofit organizations and tried-and-true management tools to help cope in this era of uncertainty.

MPA Program Partnerships with Nonprofit Organizations: Benefits to MPA Programs, MPA Students and Graduates, Nonprofit Organizations, and Communities

Service to community is a long-standing tradition in American democracy and society. Nonprofit public service organizations are key actors in the provision of public goods and services, as well as partners in the process of governance. MPA program curricula often incorporate coursework and service-learning opportunities to help students better understand the link between nonprofits and public sector organizations and functions. A case analysis of the University of Utah MPA program illustrates the benefits of tying MPA course curricula to community partnerships. Common barriers to creating and maintaining productive long-term community partnerships are identified. Lessons learned include maintaining consistent and well-funded outreach efforts, anticipating and managing faculty disinterest and resistance, employing multiple models of service learning, and linking nonprofit education to studies of democratic go vernance.

Coproduction, participation and satisfaction with rehabilitation services following the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat, India

The most successful post-earthquake rehabilitation program is the one that involves the victims in their own relief, reconstruction, and rehabilitation efforts. The role of the government and NGOs is to facilitate people’s participation. This article explores the concept of coproduction in action in the 2001 post-earthquake rehabilitation in Gujarat, India.

Public Administration in the Middle East and North Africa

This Special Issue of IJPA includes an Introduction to the Special Issue by the editors, Dixon, Bhuiyan, and Űstůner, that identifies the dimensions each country-specific article is to address. They are included in a foundational article by Hamid E. Ali that is essentially about a model of the life cycle of states as applied in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The Special Issue then presents six articles that explore countries’ governments in MENA, each addressing dimensions identified in the Introduction. These explorations include public administration as a concept and as a praxis, public sector reforms and administrative reforms. More specifically, each country-specific article addresses: