Trenton J. Davis

What Makes Municipal Councils Effective? An Empirical Analysis of How Council Members Perceive Their Group Interactions and Processes

Although local government scholars acknowledge the centrality of the municipal council to overall government performance, the literature provides limited guidance regarding how those councils can improve their effectiveness. Councils that display recurrent patterns of dysfunctional behavior are more likely to be ineffective in their core functions. Although there is research that identifies dysfunctional council behavior and its potential consequences for government performance, there is limited investigation into what aspects of member behavior are related to the functionality of the council itself. This study uses surveys of council members to identify which aspects of council behavior (interpersonal relations, leadership, staff competence, and conflict) have the greatest effect on perceptions of council effectiveness. The findings indicate that both interpersonal relationships between members of council and the mayor’s leadership ability are significantly related to perceptions of council effectiveness.

Strategic Compensation: Utilizing Efficiency Wages in the Public Sector to Achieve Desirable Organizational Outcomes

Given that continued pressure will be levied on public sector organizations to provide higher levels of service while maintaining low costs, the importance of considering an organizations relative position in the regional labor market should not be understated. Using efficiency wage theory as a theoretical foundation, this research examines the use of market-clearing wages as a tool for strategic compensation in the public sector. Two separate survey instruments were distributed to municipalities in the Chicago suburban metropolitan area: a salary and fringe benefits survey and a reputational service quality (RSQ) questionnaire. The primary finding of this research indicates that efficiency wage rates are a significant predictor of increased reputational service quality, suggesting that municipal organizations may be able to leverage their reputation as a tool for increasing economic development and attracting more affluent residents to the community.

Gender Disparity in Professional City Management: Making the Case for Enhancing Leadership Curriculum

Professionally trained administrators are critical to the operation and management of governmental agencies. That is particularly true with respect to local government, where city managers are situated at the top of the organizational hierarchy. However, these senior management positions remain largely the domain of males; female represent just 12% of the positions. This disparity, for reasons still unclear, comes to the fore at a time when the field of public administration faces a new set of global challenges, and many in the field have expressed concern about a looming leadership gap. As the world of public administration changes, so must the teaching of the subject, driven by specific areas of inquiry, including why more women do not attain senior executive positions. Using national postsecondary enrollment data, this article demonstrates that the underrepresentation of females among city managers cannot be explained by a shortage of women with professional training. The central conclusion of this research is that professional training programs can better prepare women for the new world of public administration by making gender more visible within the leadership curriculum.

Demand versus Supply: Can MPA Programs Satisfy the Need for Professional Management in Local Government?

This article addresses concerns expressed by members of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) regarding whether the supply of qualified local government managers will keep pace with the future demand for this occupation. The authors developed several important observations, which are based on decades of experience with a Master of Public Administration (MPA) program focused on local government management, plus strategic planning experience in over 100 local governments. First, it is likely that the impending retirement of the Baby Boom generation of city managers will cause some supply shortages of professional managers in specific geographical regions of the country. Second, increases in the number of professionally managed cities creates the probability that some municipalities, due to their lack of associational attractiveness, may experience difficulty in generating sufficient pools of quality applicants. We suggest that MPA programs continue to nurture communication and relationships with local governments that will lead to specific mutual benefits. For instance, MPA programs benefit from the availability of practitioner speakers and student internships and, in turn, local governments benefit from the creation of a pipeline that provides a continual stream of quality applications.

Revisiting the Information Technology Skills Gap in Master of Public Administration Programs

Abstract This study investigates how employees in government entities develop information technology (IT) competence and the extent to which training in Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs contributes to such competence. To facilitate this evaluation, we surveyed government employers and MPA program alumni and carried out a content analysis of MPA program offerings. We use results from the employer survey to gauge employer perceptions of IT-related knowledge levels of employees with MPA degrees, and we use the survey of MPA program alumni to ascertain alumni perceptions of their own competence. Our content analysis of MPA program technology offerings provides insight into what IT training is available to help students meet the identified functional IT needs of the organizations surveyed. Our findings indicate a gap between MPA curricula and such critical skills, and we provide recommendations for curricular changes to address this gap.

Of politics, self-preservation, and symbolism: An investigation of jurisdiction-stripping and legislative redistricting

Abstract Jurisdiction-stripping has long been a questionable component of Congresss power to supervise the judiciarys policymaking role. It has gained notoriety in recent debates surrounding judicial involvement in areas including religious establishment and privacy issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Most scholarship equates the advocacy of jurisdiction-stripping measures with symbolic position-taking that is unmotivated by the goal of traditional policy success. This work, a quantitative case study of the first such measure to pass the House of Representative since Reconstruction, seeks to isolate legislative motivations for exerting jurisdictional controls against the Supreme Court. Legislators’ votes on this measure were multifaceted. While those decisions were guided in part by the symbolic and representational considerations that traditionally underlie the advocacy of such legislation, there is also evidence more substantive motivations played a part. The study highlights the evolving objectives of jurisdiction-strippings advocates and, more broadly, Congresss objectives vis-à-vis the courts.