John Clayton Thomas

E-Democracy, E-Commerce, and E-Research: Examining the Electronic Ties Between Citizens and Governments

Few doubt that the Internet is changing citizen interactions with government. To assess those changes, the authors analyze data from a telephone survey on how Georgia residents connect with government via the Internet. They find that citizens visit government Web sites for many reasons, which can be divided into three categories: e-democracy, e-commerce, and e-research. E-democracy is the least common activity, and it alone resembles traditional political behavior by being more prevalent among respondents interested in politics and government. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for future citizen engagement with e-governance and for the role of government in facilitating that engagement.

Explaining Citizen-Initiated Contacts with Municipal Bureaucrats Lessons from the Atlanta Experience

Citizen-initiated contacts represent an important, yet perplexing, category of political participation. The authors attempt to provide a comprehensive explanation of when and why citizens initiate contacts. They draw from prior research to summarize knowledge about these contacts and the measurement problems that have plagued earlier research. To explore the bases for citizen-initiated contacts, they use survey data on contacts with various municipal departments of the city of Atlanta. Logistic regressions of 15 different types of contacts reveal perceived needs as the most consistently significant predictor of most types. The influence of socioeconomic status over contacting is indirect.

Big city politics in transition

Introduction - John Clayton Thomas and H V Savitch Big City Politics, Then and Now Boston - Philip L Clay The Incomplete Transformation Philadelphia - Carolyn Teich Adams The Slide Toward Municipal Bankruptcy Chicago - Barbara Ferman Race and Reform Detroit - Wilbur Rich From Motor City to Service Hub St. Louis - Andrew Glassberg Racial Transition and Economic Development Atlanta - Arnold Fleischmann Urban Coalitions in a Suburban Sea Miami - Ronald K Vogel and Genie N L Stowers Minority Empowerment and Regime Change New Orleans - Robert K Whelan and Alma H Young The Ambivalent City Denver - Carter Whitson and Dennis Judd Boosterism versus Growth Houston - Robert E Parker and Joe R Feagin Administration by Economic Elites Los Angeles - Alan L Saltzstein and Raphael J Sonenshein Transformation of a Governing Coalition San Fransisco - Richard E DeLeon Post Materialist Populism in a Global City Seattle - Margaret Gordon et al Grassroots Politics Shaping the Environment Conclusion - H V Savitch and John Clayton Thomas End of the Millenium Big City

ENCOURAGING COMMUNITY DIALOG: APPROACH, PROMISE, AND TENSIONS

There has been growing interest in recent years in what might be termed “community dialogs,” or techniques for engaging broad-based discussions of issues within particular communities. The purpose of this article is to survey and assess this movement based on prior research. We first contrast traditional citizen involvement in public planning as a method of pursing community dialogs with the newer, collaborative public decision making approaches. The article then examines the benefits of community dialogs and the tensions which arise from their pursuit. We conclude by offering an assessment of how we might think about these techniques in the future.

Neighborhood Coproduction and Municipal Productivity

Coproduction has been widely praised in recent years as a means of increasing municipal productivity, either by reducing the cost or increasing the effectiveness of service delivery. Whether that praise is warranted remains very uncertain, however, because of the limited evidence available on the actual extent and effects of coproduction. This article develops some of the necessary evidence by examining how coproduction with neighborhood organizations works in Cincinnati, Ohio. If we can judge from interviews with municipal officials and neighborhood leaders, coproduction in Cincinnati has expanded recently, but the effects on municipal productivity are mixed. Service costs actually appear to have increased rather than decreased, and service levels have increased only modestly. Service effectiveness, however, has increased significantly as services have become better attuned to varying neighborhood needs. In other words, coproduction with neighborhoods may improve municipal productivity, but only by increasing the service effectiveness part of the productivity equation, not by decreasing the cost part of the equation. In any case, coproduction has been praised by municipal officials,

Reaching Out to Stakeholders: The Georgia DOT 360-Degree Assessment Model

This article presents a novel 360-degree organization assessment model that was developed for the Georgia Department of Transportation to solicit systematic feedback on its performance from key stakeholders. The model, which draws on a similar process in the field of human resources development, is based on surveys of contractors, consultants, local government officials, legislators, employees, motorists, professional truck drivers, and the public at large. In addition to common questions regarding overall performance, the surveys included items on issues of specific concern to each stakeholder group. The process is described in detail, representative results of the survey data are presented, and follow-up actions taken by the department in selected cases are discussed. The conclusion summarizes the utility of the 360-degree assessment approach and its applicability to other public agencies.

Transformational Leadership and Mission Valence of Employees: The Varying Effects by Organizational Level

ABSTRACT Originally developed to explain the leadership styles of political leaders and societal reformers, the theory of transformational leadership is increasingly used to explain organizational performance in public administration. Transformational leaders supposedly use their inspirational abilities, motivational skills, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration to change employee aspirations and behavior, resulting ultimately in improved organizational performance. Using Bayesian SEM on survey responses of 2,786 employees of a state transportation department, this article examines the impact of transformational leadership on mission valence at three organizational leadership levels, with organizational goal clarity and performance management hypothesized as intervening mechanisms. Results show transformational leadership having the strongest impact on organizational goal clarity at the topmost leadership level, and on the use of performance management at the lowest leadership level.

How Do Legislators Assess Administrative Performance? Georgia’s Department of Transportation in the Eyes of the State’s Legislators:

State legislatures and their member legislators serve as important overseers to state administrative departments, charged to function as principals relative to departmental agents. Yet, we know relatively little about how legislators assess the performance of those departments. This research is designed to improve that knowledge through an exploratory analysis of how and why legislators in one state assess the performance of a large state government department. Using data from a survey of Georgia state legislators, the article explores legislator evaluations of the state’s Department of Transportation (GDOT) and the factors that may underlie those evaluations. The findings suggest that legislators assess administrative performance on three principal dimensions: (a) administrative service to individual legislators, (b) assistance to the legislature as a whole, and (c) performance in meeting the state’s transportation needs. Those assessments appear to be shaped by legislator perceptions of (a) personal interactions with the department and (b) the quality of specific GDOT products and services. These and earlier findings suggest that the focus of public performance measurement systems might be broadened to include measures of personal treatment by administrative agencies in addition to traditional objective service outcome measures.

Fostering Volunteer Programs@@@Fostering Volunteer Programs in the Public Sector: Planning, Initiating, and Managing Voluntary Activities

The growth of volunteerism in the public sector Part 1 Understanding public sector volunteer programmes: costs, benefits, and pitfalls evaluating the cost-effectiveness of volunteer programmes how volunteers can improve service quality and impact sharing power and authority with volunteers issues of volunteer accountability. Part 2 Building effective volunteer programmes: a framework for designing and organizing volunteer programmes planning and managing volunteer programmes to overcome staff resistance attracting and retaining able volunteers. Part 3 Promoting volunteering efforts: encouraging volunteer involvement in the public sector guidelines for successful public sector volunteer programmes. Appendix.