The American Review of Public Administration

Public Administration is reaffirmed as an applied field of practice rather than a traditional academic discipline. Hence, scholarly research in it should not merely expand an extant body of knowledge, but also support, encourage, and refine its linked professional practice out in the nation and world. The author tests this idea on his own books, with mixed results.

Many situations in public service delivery are characterized by uncertainty about the potential negative consequences following decisions. These risky situations make the behavior of frontline professionals particularly important. But what shapes the risk perception and subsequent behavior of frontline professionals in risky situations? This article explores the idea that organizational culture provides part of the answer. To examine this, a comprehensive qualitative study with participant observations and interviews at five public hospital wards was conducted. The findings demonstrate the importance of organizational culture on risk perception and behavior in risky situations. Basic cultural assumptions related to professional discussion, administering medicine, grading of adverse events, and prioritizing follow-up activities matter to behavior in risky situations. In organizational cultures with high levels of trust and dialogue about decision-making, the health professionals rely on each other and ask for second opinions, when making decisions in risky situations. Conversely, in organizational cultures with little trust and professional discussion, the health professionals are less likely to ask for second opinions and follow up on risky situations, which increases the possibility of unintended, negative consequences. In this way, organizational culture can be a driver of risk-reducing and risk-seeking behavior among frontline professionals.

Although much has been written about public sector innovation in the last two decades, we still do not fully understand how public sector organizations become innovative. Therefore, this study inductively explored how four Norwegian municipalities developed innovation capabilities. I found that public sector organizations develop two forms of innovation capability in a path-dependent manner: low-routinized innovation capability and highly routinized innovation capability. In the former, dynamic managerial capabilities in the form of individuals’ entrepreneurial and leadership skills comprise the source of innovation capability. In contrast, in the latter, innovation capability emerges from dynamic organizational capabilities, that is, a set of innovation-stimulating routines, processes, tools, and structures. Notably, I found that regardless of the form of innovation capability, both spur the continuous development and implementation of various radical and incremental public sector innovations. Based on these findings, this study offers several contributions to the literature on public sector innovation and to the dynamic capabilities research agenda.

While previous public management research has focused on how leadership, managerial behavior, job characteristics, and human resource management policies influence employee attitudes and behavior, we know little about the role of the external environment (both perceived and actual). By comparison, research on the external environment of public organizations has mostly focused on performance, organizational structure, and goal ambiguity. This article connects these two streams of research, develops a theoretical model to examine whether perceived environmental support (PES) influences employee engagement and considers the moderating roles of public opinion, media, and political salience. The findings suggest that PES does matter for the level of employee engagement and that this influence is moderated by political salience. This in turn has implications for how public organizations motivate their employees, manage their external reputations, and navigate their external environments. The paper ends with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the findings and limitations of the study.

Are there unintended consequences from Congress’ use of continuing resolutions (CRs), which are designed as short-term funding to bridge the period before regular appropriations are completed? During a CR, agencies are restricted in their ability to issue contracts, and after the CR ends, agencies may rush to complete their contracting before the fiscal year ends. To expedite contracting, we hypothesize that CRs encourage agencies to use sole-source contracts, rather than on a competitive basis, as well as to use cost-reimbursement contract designs, rather than fixed-price contracts. The Obama Administration found that these contracting practices result in “wasted taxpayer resources, poor contractor performance, and inadequate accountability for results . . .” We anticipate that the longer a CR is in effect, the greater the incentive to use sole-source contracts and cost-reimbursement contract designs. There are implications both for future attempts at contracting reforms, as well as for efforts to establish automatic CRs.

Nearly 30 years since their inception in the United States, charter schools are now a well-established educational option for parents and students. Although they are an important education provider schooling more than 3.1 million students nationwide, we know little about their ability to accumulate fiscal savings for weathering rainy days and sustaining smooth service. Unlike most other fiscal savings studies focusing on the unrestricted fund balance, we examine both restricted and unrestricted fund balances across Pennsylvania charter schools, this study’s unit of analysis. Using a Newey-West regression and data spanning the years 2011–2019, we show that charter schools consider all fund balance classifications when making savings decisions; albeit the unrestricted was their primary savings vehicle. Given their limited revenue portfolio, they are left with only a few options for accumulating fiscal savings. Surplus from tuition payments and additional revenues from private funding sources appear as main fund balance boosters. Surprisingly, special education enrollment significantly increases the unrestricted fund balance, a finding that requires further attention from legislators and policy makers. Concerns are also raised about participation in the state pension system as it absorbs a significant amount of slack that otherwise could be used for other purposes. Overall, most charter schools retain inadequate fiscal savings not capable of insulating their operation from revenue volatility and other contingencies. Statutory fund balance minimums and the adoption of formal fund balance policies articulating how savings are accumulated, used, and replenished should, therefore, be considered.