Jeffrey L. Brudney

The Purpose (and Perils) of Government-Nonprofit Partnership

This study seeks to understand similarities and differences in why local governments and nonprofits choose to collaborate, particularly when those relationships are not governed by formal contracts or grants. Exchange, transaction, and resource dependence theories are used to understand the perceived advantages and disadvantages of collaboration as expressed by local government and nonprofit executives. Based on two large, comparable samples from Georgia, the analysis finds that the two sectors demonstrate a remarkable similarity in the benefits they seek from public-private partnerships, but with some key differences. The motivation to partner is driven by a desire to secure those resources most scarce for the respective sector: expertise and capacity for government, funding for nonprofits. Nonprofit executives generally exhibit a stronger undercurrent of negativity toward intersectoral partnership than do their public sector counterparts. This article discusses possible reasons for these similarities and differences and contributes to the scholarship linking capacity with organizational outcomes.

Learning Organizations in the Public Sector? A Study of Police Agencies Employing Information and Technology To Advance Knowledge.

In an attempt to reap the purported benefits that “knowledge workers” bring to organizations, many police departments have shifted to a community problem–oriented policing philosophy. Rather than focusing on enforcement and incarceration, this philosophy is based on the dissemination of information to promote a proactive, preventative approach to reduce crime and disorder. In keeping with much of the contemporary literature on the “learning organization” (sometimes called the “knowledge organization”), police departments hope to deter crime through the knowledge benefits that derive from information and its associated technologies. With goals to stimulate productivity, performance, and effectiveness, police departments across the country are employing information technology to turn police officers into problem solvers and to leverage their intellectual capital to preempt crime and neighborhood deterioration. Many public and private organizations are striving to change their operations toward this same concept of the knowledge worker. Information technology is often touted as a vehicle for capturing, tracking, sorting, and providing information to advance knowledge, thus leading to improvements in service–delivery efforts. Based on an extensive study of police departments that have attempted to implement a knowledge–worker paradigm (supported by information technology initiatives), this research explores the feasibility, effectiveness, and limitations of information and technology in promoting the learning organization in the public sector.

Public Perception of "Who is a Volunteer": An Examination of the Net-Cost Approach from a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Our aim is to enhance the knowledge regarding how the public assess and rate volunteerism. We begin by first developing the model for understanding the potential use of the net-cost concept in eliciting the publics subjective perceptions on the extent to which certain activities are perceived as volunteerism. Four hypotheses relevant to the use of the net-cost concept are developed. We developed a questionnaire consisting of 50 case scenarios and applied it in Canada, India, Italy, Netherlands, and Georgia and Philadelphia in the United States, each with a sample of 450 adults or more. With one exception, our net-cost hypotheses are supported, suggesting that the public perception of volunteering is strongly linked with the costs and benefits that accrue to the individual from the volunteering activity, and that this result holds true across different cultures. Finally, we suggest directions for future research that can shed further light on the relationship between net cost and public good.

The Adoption of Innovation by Smaller Local Governments: The Case of Computer Technology

Most research on the adoption of computer technology centers on municipalities with populations exceeding 50,000. This article explores the degree to which findings from these large local governments apply to the adoption of computers in smaller municipalities. Based on a panel study of local governments at two points in time, the analysis provides support for hypothesized relationships derived from studies of larger cities linking environmental and organizational factors to computer technology adoption. Adopting innovation has inspired voluminous research aimed at explaining why one organization is more likely than another to adopt an innovation.

A Cross-Cultural Examination of Student Volunteering: Is It All About Résumé Building?

This research adopts the utilitarian view of volunteering as a starting point: we posit that for an undergraduate student population volunteering is motivated by career enhancing and job prospects. We hypothesize that in those countries where volunteering signals positive characteristics of students and helps advance their careers, their volunteer participation will be higher. Furthermore, regardless of the signaling value of volunteering, those students who volunteer for utilitarian reasons will be more likely to volunteer but will exhibit less time-intensive volunteering. Using survey data from 12 countries (n = 9,482), we examine our hypotheses related to motivations to volunteer, volunteer participation, and country differences. Findings suggest that students motivated to volunteer for building their résumés do not volunteer more than students with other motives. However, in countries with a positive signaling value of volunteering, volunteering rates are significantly higher. As expected, students motivated by résumé building motivations have a lower intensity of volunteering.

Psychometric Verification of Perry's Public Service Motivation Instrument: Results for Volunteer Exemplars

This research note reports a confirmatory factor analysis for three of Perrys (1996) public service motivation (PSM) subdimensions: self-sacrifice, commitment to public interest, and compassion. A mail survey of national award-winning volunteers constitutes the sample. Results indicate strong support for Perrys instrument, most noticeably better results for self-sacrifice than those found in Perrys original exploratory work. Implications and recommendations for PSM instrument development are discussed.

Reconciling Competing Values in Public Administration: Understanding the Administrative Role Concept

This article reports research on the administrative role concept. The authors use the inductive research technique Q-methodology to probe the belief systems of 69 public administrators about their administrative roles and responsibilities. Results show that these administrators perceive five distinct roles. The authors labeled these roles stewards of the public interest, adapted realists, businesslike utilitarians, resigned custodians, and practical idealists. There is slight evidence of a neutral competence role as suggested by the Pendleton Act of 1883, Woodrow Wilson, and others (resigned custodian) but more support of a proactive administrative role (steward of the public interest) that overlaps with the role described by recent scholars such as the Blacksburg group. Another important finding is that three of the role conceptions appear to reject being responsive to the desires of elected officials. The five roles are examined in more detail, and the implications for future research are discussed.

Social and cultural origins of motivations to volunteer a comparison of university students in six countries

Although participation in volunteering and motivations to volunteer (MTV) have received substantial attention on the national level, particularly in the US, few studies have compared and explained these issues across cultural and political contexts. This study compares how two theoretical perspectives, social origins theory and signalling theory, explain variations in MTV across different countries. The study analyses responses from a sample of 5794 students from six countries representing distinct institutional contexts. The findings provide strong support for signalling theory but less so for social origins theory. The article concludes that volunteering is a personal decision and thus is influenced more at the individual level but is also impacted to some degree by macro-level societal forces.

Volunteers in State Government: Involvement, Management, and Benefits

Much of what is known about volunteering to public agencies emanates from surveys of city and county governments. Little research has addressed the magnitude and other characteristics of volunteering to state government organizations. This study presents and analyzes the results of the first systematic national survey of volunteering to state government agencies. The study investigates two models, the first to explain volunteer use by state agencies, and the second to explain the realization of benefits from volunteer involvement. Empirical analysis shows that the rate of volunteer involvement in state government is substantial, reaching 36% of the agencies sampled. However, according to the personnel managers surveyed, simply having volunteers is not sufficient. The authors demonstrate that to achieve the full benefits of the approach as perceived by personnel managers, agencies must engage in effective management of their volunteer programs.

State Agencies and Their Environments: Examining the Influence of Important External Actors

Research on the federal bureaucracy has long recognized the importance of organization environment for differentiating among agencies and affecting their political support as well as policy outputs. Although the environment has been considered an element in the behavior of state agencies as well, research at this level has been less sensitive to important differences across agency environments. This article identifies four major actors in the policy environment of state agencies--the governor, legislature, clientele groups, and professional associations--and based on a 1978 survey of state administrators, evaluates empirically the influence of these sources over a sample of agencies encompassing all 50 states. Data analysis shows that in addition to agency type, several factors are systematically associated with differences in the nature of the environment confronted, including agency structural characteristics, funding provisions, exogenous shocks to normal operations and state political environment. Just as at the federal level, then, this research suggests that at the state level, bureaucracy more closely resembles a collection of heterogeneous agencies than a monolithic institution.