The Effects of Doing More with Less in the Public Sector: Evidence from a Large‐Scale Survey

Since the onset of the Great Recession, “doing more with less” has become a policy mantra. To do more with less, a range of governments have concurrently imposed wage cuts and greater work demands on public employees. This article assesses the impact of these changes on the job satisfaction and work motivation of public employees in 34 European countries. Congruent with previous studies linking income and working hours with job attitudes, the article finds a negative impact on both. There are no free austerity lunches: while public employees may work longer hours for lower pay, they are less satisfied and less motivated when doing so. One caveat applies: the effect on motivation—although not satisfaction—is mitigated when employees feel that their values are aligned with those of their organization. This puts a premium on public managers fostering value alignment, particularly when it is hardest to achieve: in times of cutbacks.     

Conceptualizing consultation approaches: identifying combinations of consultation tools and analyzing their implications for stakeholder diversity

Policy Sciences - Contemporary governance is increasingly characterized by the consultation of different types of stakeholders, such as interest groups representing economic and citizen interests,...     

Deciding who will decide: Assessing random selection for participants in Edmonton's Citizen Panel on budget priorities

Selecting participants is a key component in the design, operation, and outcomes of public‐deliberation events to reflect the diversity of opinion in the larger public. This article examines how the City of Edmonton selected the members of its Citizen Panel on budget priorities in 2009 to inform Edmonton's 2010–2011 budget. The organizers relied on random selection stratified by gender, age, length of residence in the city, educational attainment, and income. This article also reports on the findings from pre‐event and post‐event public‐opinion surveys sent to 5,000 citizens. It argues that the selection method for the Citizen Panel was justified because there were distinct views on key issues among different groups of citizens.     

Network tasks and accountability: A configurational analysis of EU regulatory networks

Intergovernmental networks have become a prominent cooperative mechanism to deal with trans-boundary and interdependent problems. Yet, we still have limited knowledge of how these collaborative endeavours are governed, which is crucial to properly understanding how they function. This article empirically examines the structural governance configurations of rule-enforcing networks in the European Union. The article relies on data from 37 networks with rule-enforcing tasks and conducts a qualitative comparative analysis. We find three basic governance structure configurations used by rule-enforcing networks: first, a configuration with legal accountability, which is characterized by having a board of appeals; second, one with administrative accountability that, in addition to a board of appeals, has powerful executive boards and professional experts in the network plenary; and a third one with democratic accountability that incorporates legislative representatives in the network plenary. We argue that these results show how network tasks are related to accountability and governance.     

The Power Dynamics of Mandated Network Administrative Organizations

In understanding what drives the development of network administrative organizations (NAOs) in mandated networks, power bargaining is central. The authors execute a comparative longitudinal case study of NAOs in two policy‐mandated networks. The article focuses specifically on the role of power in these developments and concludes that differences in NAO development arise from power dependencies, which are attributable in part to sector characteristics. It is proposed that mandated network members’ greater interdependence and greater dependence on external nonmembers, as well as whole network dependence on external actors, partly determine mandated networks’ NAO design. These networks will have larger and more capable NAOs (with more staff), accept sharing control of the NAO executive with the mandating party, and have broader responsibilities.     

Implementation of a Contingency Management-Based Intervention in a Community Supervision Setting: Clinical Issues and Recommendations

A cognitive-behaviorally based substance abuse treatment program was implemented within a Community Supervision setting. This program included a goals group that included a contingency management component and included the probation agent as a part of treatment. This paper describes the contingency management component of the treatment and discusses, in detail, issues that arose throughout the course of the study. Possible causes and solutions to the issues are discussed from a contingency management perspective that can result in improved reinforcements to achieve better probationer outcomes.