Robin Bouwman

Experimental public administration from 1992 to 2014: A systematic literature review and ways forward

Purpose – Based on previous inventories, the purpose of this paper is to extend the knowledge on public administration experiments by focusing on their experimental type, design, sample type and realism levels and external validity. The aim is to provide an overview of experimental public administration and formulate potential ways forward. Design/methodology/approach – The authors examine the current state of experimental public administration, by looking at a systematic selection of ISI ranked experimental publications in major public administration journals (1992-2014) and recommend ways forward based on this review. Findings – The review indicates a rise in experimentation in public administration in recent years, this can be attributed mostly to some subfields of public administration. Furthermore, most experiments in public administration tend to have relatively simple designs, high experimental realism and a focus on external validity. Experimental public administration can be strengthened by incre...

The Impact of Red Tape on Citizen Satisfaction: An Experimental Study

ABSTRACT Red tape is one of the most often-mentioned nuisances citizens experience with government. However, there is a dearth of red tape research focusing on citizens. Therefore, the primary goal of this article is to analyze the effect of red tape on citizen satisfaction. The secondary goal is to go beyond testing a linear relationship between red tape and citizen satisfaction by examining individual factors that may moderate this relationship. In order to analyze the red tape/satisfaction relationship, we have designed an experiment in which 179 subjects participated. Experiments are still relatively rare in public administration, but are increasingly seen as a rigorous and useful method for theory testing and development. We found that red tape has a strong negative effect on citizen satisfaction, and that this effect is weaker when citizens have high knowledge of political processes. We conclude with implications and a future research agenda.

Public Sector Negotiations

Negotiation is ubiquitous in the public sector, from policy formation to budget allocation or the coordination of public–private partnerships. The focus on negotiations has nevertheless been somewhat limited in public administration research, but in neighboring disciplines such as behavioral economics and social psychology, negotiations have been studied extensively. This chapter aims at filling this gap.This chapter discusses negotiations by focusing on the individual negotiator. I focus on what a negotiation is and who negotiates in the public sector by discussing some substantive examples. Distributive and integrative negotiations are discerned and are accompanied by some public sector illustrations. Specific attention is given to public sector distinctiveness in context and its workers and its potential consequences for negotiations.

30 years of IJPSM publications: an analysis

Purpose By using the analysis of 30 years of publications in the journal International Journal of Public Sector Management, the purpose of this paper is to discover trends in publications, such as single vs joint authorship, topics and country of origin in authorship and readership. Design/methodology/approach Using secondary sources, such as Scopus and the Manuscript Central system, quantitative data are collected and then analysed with simple descriptive statistics. Findings Single authorship has gone down, while the number of articles has gone up. The authors still mainly come from English-speaking countries, as do the readers who cite the articles. The majority of publications still reports findings from qualitative, empirical research but on an increasing number of varying topics. Originality/value The findings give insight into the publication patterns in public management, indicating developments in the academic practices of the discipline.