Randall S. Davis

Putting the Methodological Cart Before the Theoretical Horse? Examining the Application of SEM to Connect Theory and Method in Public Administration Research:

The application of psychometric statistical techniques, such as confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, has grown significantly in public administration research over the past three decades. Given the growth in the application of these techniques, we take stock of the ability of these statistical approaches to advance public administration theory by examining their use in two areas of research: public service motivation and red tape. We further argue that theoretical and methodological diversity in public administration is desirable, so long as scholars recognize that the application of new and multiple methods in a single study do not inherently lead to better tests of theory. Instead, scholarship should focus on emphasizing that each theoretical and methodological approach adds significant, yet partial, contribution to public administration scholarship.

Connecting Knowledge of Rule-breaking and Perceived Red Tape: How Behavioral Attribution Influences Red Tape Perceptions

ABSTRACT Since the 1990s, governmental strategies for enhancing organizational performance have sought to reduce the amount of red tape public employees face. These strategies assume that employees’ perceptions of rules as red tape stem solely from the actual content of rules, but a sizable body of public management research has revealed the psychological processes through which red tape perceptions develop. This article builds on psychological process models of perceived red tape by applying attribution theory to explore how an organization’s social context influences red tape perceptions. Findings illustrate that individuals will judge a rule to be red tape based on information conveyed second-hand regarding the rule-breaking behavior of others.

Social and Technical Determinants of Perceived Contract Performance: Rules, Autonomy, and Ethics

ABSTRACT Contracting for services represents one mechanism employed to improve the performance of government agencies. While research examining contract performance sheds substantial light on the circumstances under which contracting achieves intended goals, it has rarely considered how the technical and human factors of the contracting process jointly affect contract performance. As a result, relatively little is known about how human factors affect contract performance under shifting technical contingencies. This gap is addressed by exploring how autonomy over contract management and perceived ethical behavior (social factors) are contingent upon changes in contract rules training (a technical factor). The study finds that contract managers who have had more rules training tend to believe that they have less autonomy and view the behaviors of others as unethical. Findings also indicate that more training in contracting rules may inhibit perceived contract performance when mediated by autonomy and perceptions of ethical behaviors.

Accounting for personal disposition and organizational context: connecting role ambiguity, public service motivation, and whistle-blowing in federal agencies

Abstract Organizational psychologists and HRM scholars have long argued that prosocial organizational behaviors enhance organizational performance. However, prosocial behaviors are motivated by both self-interested and altruistic intent. Moreover, some have recognized that the factors that encourage shifts between egoistically and altruistically motivated prosocial behaviors may result from inherent tensions between individual disposition and situational contexts. As such, this study draws from literature examining prosocial behavior to evaluate whether work situations with clear task expectations dampen the extent to which prosocial personal dispositions diminish egoistically motivated prosocial behavior. Findings from a series of structural equation models reveal that altruistic dispositional traits diminish egoistic motives for engaging in one specific prosocial behavior, whistle-blowing. However, findings also reveal that work situations characterized by clear task expectations dampen the negative effect of altruistic dispositions on egoistically motivated whistle-blowing. Our findings imply that managers can adjust organizational contexts to capitalize on the enhanced benefits resulting from altruistically motivated prosocial behaviors.