M. Jae Moon

The Evolution of Internal IT Applications and e-Government Studies in Public Administration: Research Themes and Methods

This study reviews research themes and methods used in information technology (IT) in government and e-government research. Although IT/e-government studies (including inward aspects of IT applications in government and e-government studies) continue to increase, they are not comprehensively understood as a subfield within public administration. Based on Rosenbloom’s three competing approaches to public administration (managerial, political, and legal), we investigated the major research themes of IT/e-government studies in public administration. We analyzed 248 IT/e-government articles published in six major public administration journals from 1965 to 2010 to examine IT/e-government research trends in terms of research themes and methods.

Efficiency Disparities among Community Hospitals in Tennessee: Do Size, Location, Ownership, and Network Matter?

This study examined the impact of ownership, size, location, and network on the relative technical efficiency of community hospitals in Tennessee for the 2002–2006 period, by applying data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure technical efficiency (decomposed into scale efficiency and pure technical efficiency). Data envelopment analysis results indicate that medium-size hospitals (126–250 beds) are more efficient than their counterparts. Interestingly, public hospitals are significantly more efficient than private and nonprofit hospitals in Tennessee, and rural hospitals are more efficient than urban hospitals. This is the first study to investigate whether hospital networks with other health care providers affect hospital efficiency. Results indicate that community hospitals with networks are more efficient than non-network hospitals. From a management and policy perspective, this study suggests that public policies should induce hospitals to downsize or upsize into optional size, and private hospitals and nonprofit hospitals should change their organizational objectives from profit-driven to quality-driven.

MEASURING ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE OF COLORADO COMMUNITY HOSPITALS USING THE MALMQUIST PRODUCTIVITY CHANGE INDEX

This study measures the productivity of 64 Colorado community hospitals by applying the DEA-based Malmquist productivity change index, decomposed into the technical efficiency change index and technical progressive change index. This study finds that the productivity of community hospitals in Colorado increased over the period 1993–2003, mainly as a result of technical progressive changes rather than technical efficiency improvement. The results suggest that to increase productivity, large community hospitals, rural hospitals, and nonprofit and public hospitals need to downsize their facilities, change their cost structure and facility operations, or adopt new management practices.

Linking Emotional Labor, Public Service Motivation, and Job Satisfaction: Social Workers in Health Care Settings

This study examines the determinants of emotional laborers’—social workers in health care organizations—job satisfaction and their public service motivation in using a structural equation model and provides empirical evidence regarding what contributes to job satisfaction or burnout in these workers. Among several latent variables, this study confirmed that false face significantly decreases the job satisfaction of social worker and is positively associated with burnout. In addition, commitment to public interest increases social workers’ job satisfaction significantly. This study has implications for the management of emotional labor. By educating emotional laborers to reappraise situations to increase their job satisfaction and avoid burnout, reappraisal training and education are expected to result in increases in positive emotions and decreases in negative emotions, and to improve employees’ performance in their organizations.

Measuring Performance of U.S. Nonprofit Hospitals: Do Size and Location Matter?

This study measures the technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency, and scale efficiency of nonprofit hospitals, the most common hospital ownership type in the United States, using a sample of 118 nonprofit hospitals between 1999 and 2003. The study conducts input-oriented and output-oriented data envelopment analyses (DEAs) using multiple input and output variables. DEA results suggest that urban nonprofit hospitals are relatively more efficient than their rural counterparts. The results also show that smaller nonprofit hospitals are relatively more efficient than larger and medium hospitals. Interestingly, results show that small urban nonprofit hospitals are relatively more efficient than any other nonprofit hospitals. From a management and policy perspective, this study indicates that rural nonprofit hospitals and larger hospitals need to benchmark urban or smaller nonprofit hospitals to improve efficiency, possibly by downsizing the scale of the hospitals, adopting new marketing strategies, and changing the cost structure of facility operation.

Introduction: Comparative Performance Management and Accountability in the Age of Austerity

ABSTRACT: The five articles in this symposium examine the issues of comparative performance management and accountability in the age of austerity from different vantage points. Brusca and Montesinos carry out an international comparison of 17 countries studying key issues in the implementation of performance reporting by local governments. Using multicountry survey data, Wynen and Verhoest provide an understanding of the effect of organizational autonomy and external result control on the use of internal performance-based steering toward lower hierarchical levels in public sector organizations. Bjørnholt, Bækgaard and Houlberg study the link between fiscal austerity and politicians’ use of performance information by using survey and documentary data from Danish municipalities. Grossi, Reichard, and Ruggiero examine the interest of politicians and public managers in the use of performance information for decision-making and monitoring the budget cycle provided in the newly established performance budgets of municipalities in Germany and Italy. Poocharoen and Wong examine performance management in different types of interagency collaborations, presenting six case studies of management projects in the field of natural resources. Taken together, these articles deepen our understanding of the fundamental and continuing shift toward use of performance measures in the public sector in the period of austerity, with both internal and external uses of performance information.