PAR Preview ▪ Issue 7 ▪ May 2012
PAR Preview is a monthly newsletter that calls attention to forthcoming articles in PAR.
PAR Preview provides brief summaries of content now available digitally in Early View,
Wiley's online publication system.
Research Article
The politics of coproducing academic-practitioner research in public administration
Kevin Orr (Hull University Business School) and Mike Bennett (Public Intelligence) examine the politics of cooperative knowledge production between academics and practitioners in the traditions of public administration scholarship. The authors situate the current interest in academic-practitioner research collaboration within a historical perspective and highlight competing views of the purpose of scholarship, the roles and responsibilities of the academy, and the basis of academic-practitioner relations. Based on their own experience of coproducing research, Orr and Bennett offer insights about the practical and political dynamics of joint research and illustrate the complexity of the choices and dilemmas involved. Link to PAR Early View
Commentary on this article by David S. Reed (U.S. Government) is available in Early View. Link to PAR Early View
An examination of the impact of state debt levels on borrowing costs
Mark D. Robbins (University of Connecticut) and Bill Simonsen (University of Connecticut) investigate the potential effect of the debt burdens faced by state residents on the cost of borrowing. Testing the relationship between state debt levels and interest rates over a six-year period (2001-2006), the authors find little evidence that states pay an interest cost penalty as their outstanding debt increases. The results indicate that the market has not extracted any penalty for increasing debt loads, and without market pressures, state debt has grown unabated. Robbins and Simonsen suggest that those concerned with state debt levels must look to sources other than investors for pressure to reduce debt issuance. Link to PAR Early View
Enhancing and measuring organizational capacity: Evidence from the Rural Pilot Program
Mitchell Brown (Auburn University and Institute for Community Peace) analyzes how organizational capacity can be enhanced and sustained with minimal outlays of resources in the era of shrinking public funds. Through a case study of the Rural Pilot Program (RPP) funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, the author describes how organizational capacity is measured using a self-administered instrument and examines whether and to what extent organizational capacity is enhanced by an intermediary funding model. The assessment of RPP shows that modest positive changes were experienced and sustained by the funded organizations in organizational staffing and information technology while no changes were found in other areas. Link to PAR Early View
The moderating role of customer and learning orientation in public sector innovation
Torsten Oliver Salge (Ruhr University Bochum) and Antonio Vera (German Police University) examine whether the impact of innovative activities on public service quality is contingent on an organization's level of customer and learning orientation. Using a panel data of all public nonspecialist hospital organizations in England, the authors find strong support for a direct relationship between innovation-generating activities and public service quality. Also, this relationship is stronger when the level of customer and learning orientation is high. Salge and Vera call for a contingency perspective on public sector innovation by underlining some key boundary conditions for public service organizations to benefit from innovative activities. Link to PAR Early View
Commentary on this article by Lawrence Ashelford (Cambridge University Hospitals) is available in Early View. Link to PAR Early View
Involvement in performance management routines and performance information use
Donald P. Moynihan (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Stéphane Lavertu (The Ohio State University) explore the relationship between involvement in performance management routines and managerial use of performance information by assessing the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) and Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). An analysis of two surveys of federal employees reveals that the involvement in GPRA and PART generally had little impact on greater performance information use once other factors are accounted for. The authors also find that other organizational factors such as leadership commitment to results and the motivational nature of task are positive predictors of performance information use. Link to PAR Early View
Commentary on this article by John M. Kamensky (IBM Center for the Business of Government) is available in Early View. Link to PAR Early View
Book Reviews
Accountability unbound
Patria de Lancer Julnes (University of Baltimore) reviews Accountable Governance: Problems and Promises, edited by Melvin J. Dubnick and H. George Frederickson (2011), and High-Stakes Reform: The Politics of Educational Accountability by Kathryn A. McDermott (2011). The chapters of Accountable Governance discuss the challenges, mechanisms, and strategies related to accountability and go beyond the traditional boundaries of public administration, thereby broadening our understanding of accountability. Accountable Governance, writes de Lancer Julnes, helps us see accountability as a dynamic, interrelated, and multidimensional subsystem in the larger system of governance. On the other hand, High-Stakes Reform illustrates the state educational reforms for performance-based accountability in the United States and explains how the shifts in the conceptualization of equity, expectations, and locus of decision making have influenced educational accountability. By using the classical public administration frameworks, the author of High-Stakes Reform bridges public administration with education administration and policy. de Lancer Julnes concludes that we need multiple conceptions and models of accountability in multiple subsystems in the system of governance. Link to PAR Early View
Public Administration Review is published by Wiley on behalf of the
American Society for Public Administration.
Editor-in-Chief: James L. Perry ▪ Managing Editor: Michael McGuire
Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs
For any comments or inquiries regarding PAR, please contact us at par@indiana.edu.
For Table of Contents (TOC) alerts, please follow the instructions below:
1. Create an account / sign in to Wiley Online Library.
2. Click on "Get New Content Alerts" in the JOURNAL TOOLS menu on the PAR page.
3. An e-TOC shows up in your email inbox for each issue!