Julianne Mahler

Learning to Govern Online Federal Agency Internet Use

This research offers a limited empirical study of online service in federal government agencies. The authors are interested in the evolution of online governance and what factors influence the adoption and elaboration of online services. Information about online agency services was gathered primarily from online U.S. General Accounting Office reports and testimony offered between 1993 and 2000. The authors examine online activities that carry out three governmental functions: providing services, collecting information, and soliciting stakeholder comment. Four principal cases were selected: the Social Security Administration’s Online PEBES, the Department of Education’s National Student Loan Data System, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The analysis of these cases identifies a partial sequence of steps or stages in development of online services. It appears that this sequence is a result of both learning and the imposition of certain standards of performance based on best practices and legislative mandates.

The Quest for Organizational Meaning Identifying and Interpreting the Symbolism in Organizational Stories

The interest in organizational culture has led to collecting and cataloging the themes in stories from many organizations. Here stories and other accounts of organizational life are interpreted on the basis of the resemblance of symbolic elements in the stories to a classic myth archetype. Taking this interpretative approach further suggest that some widely told stories can themselves be considered as myths. It is argued that even though stories can use symbolic elements from many sources, the archetypal myth themes are widely known conventions and are a plausible and rich source of highly expressive symbolism.

Crafting the message: Controlling content on agency Web sites

Abstract While much research has focused on the new opportunities that government Web sites offer for greater citizen involvement and improved agency efficiency, less attention has been given to agency decisions about what to post on these Web sites. Here we use interviews with content managers in seven federal agencies to investigate the political and institutional influences behind decisions about Web content. We analyze the approval processes for new content and the emerging governance structures for evidence of greater centralization and political control or greater decentralization and autonomy for Web posters. In the end, it appears that institutional factors persist to influence content governance.

The Telework Divide Managerial and Personnel Challenges of Telework

Telework is an increasingly common feature of government agencies. Long a practice in the private sector, telework is credited with a range of advantages from increased productivity to reduced environmental costs to society. These advantages may not accrue to all employees, however. Large-sample federal government surveys of employees reveal support for many of the claimed advantages of telework, but taken together they also raise significant questions about the seldom-discussed costs of telework: The impact on those barred from telework. In particular, the results reveal what may be disaffection among those whose jobs may be eligible for teleworking under new Office of Personnel Management guidelines, but whose managers have not allowed them to telework. The findings also raise questions about the consequences of expanding telework to larger populations of government workers and suggest the need for further research on the possibility of an emerging telework divide.

Federal Agency Blogs: Agency Mission, Audience, and Blog Forms

ABSTRACT This article reports on a systematic investigation of every federal department and independent agency for evidence of a current or past blog with a focus on three questions: Which agencies are using blogs, how are they using them, and why are agencies blogging? The question of why becomes particularly important as more agencies establish this online presence. We examine the relationships among the mission of the agency, the audience of the blog, and the form of the blog to address these questions. We also explore the relationship between blogging and the technological sophistication of the agency generally, and portray patterns of duration and density of traffic on the blogs. A number of hypotheses related to agency constituency-building and communication are examined.

Developing Intranets for Agency Management

Intranets have become synonymous with information dissemination, but they also have the potential for achieving a qualitative change in organizational activities and for reconstituting the organization as a locus of collaboration and knowledge management. As Intranets become more commonplace in government agencies, questions about their ability to achieve the promise of interactive management and innovation need to be raised. In this article, case studies of six federal Intranets are discussed to determine what management functions have been undertaken and whether the potential of interactive management is being accomplished. The authors find several highly useful but static applications and some evidence of the emergence of interactive collaboration as well as some barriers to this collaboration that are not rooted in shortages of resources or limitations of design sophistication.

The Evolution of Web Governance in the Federal Government

Over the last 10 years, federal agencies have undergone a major transformation in the way they manage programs and internal administration, in their relations with Congress, and in their dealings with clients and citizens. Agencies now work in electronic environments of e-mail, electronic documents and filings, intranets, and the Internet. This article seeks to describe and to account for the emergence of what is now being termed Web governance. Briefly, Web governance is concerned with the control of content and design for agency Web sites. We explore the evolution of the process by which Web governance decisions are being made government-wide and at individual federal agencies. We look to changing patterns of administrative process in order to help account for the emergence of controls, and we find evidence of the importance of networking and of disbursed, self-designing processes.

Agency Internets and the Changing Dynamics of Congressional Oversight

Abstract As federal government agencies offer more sophisticated and useful web access to their programs, many have examined citizen use of these services. Other effects of the increasing online access to agency information and services have been less well studied. Here we focus on the effects of the increasing digital capacity of federal agencies on congressional oversight. We explore the impact of expanded online agency offerings on the number and type of requests for casework; on the focus, duration, and number of investigative hearings; and on the detail and specificity with which program legislation is written. This research is based on interviews with committee staff with jurisdiction over two agencies with a strong Internet presence and two with a weak presence.

Performance movement at a crossroads: information, accountability and learning

Public managers all over the world have sought to strengthen governmental operations by establishing performance measurement regimes. Ironically, the apparent success of the performance regimes may have helped ensure agency compliance with measurement requirements at the expense of real improvements in performance. Here we suggest that at least one of the reasons for this may be that the characteristics of performance management instituted by many central government policymakers -- public transparency and the use of performance metrics for making high stakes budgetary and personnel decisions -- may serve to inhibit the learning potential of performance information. How this occurs and what might be done to at least partially reconcile the performance agenda of elected officials and agency learning are the subjects of this paper.

Virtual Intergovernmental Linkage Through the Environmental Information Exchange Network

Over the past decade the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the states have partnered in developing a web-based information sharing initiative that provides state environmental agencies easy access to federal environmental monitoring data and to the environmental data of other states, and gives the EPA access to data from state sources. The Environmental Information Exchange Network (EIEN) has established basic data exchange nodes in each of the states. Using multiple regression analysis we investigate the factors that account for the number and development stage of the data exchanges in which the states participate as of 2009. Overall, we find that administrative factors, especially the EPA’s grant program, are more important than political or environmental conditions. Participation in the exchanges is important not only as a way to reduce costs for data reporting and communication, but also as a precursor to greater eventual interstate environmental collaboration. Though clear evidence of a transition to collaboration is not yet seen here, there are some indications it may emerge in time.