Matching Items (5)
Description
Newer communication technologies (CTs) will always vie with more mature technologies for the attention of time-constrained legislators. As continual advances in CT make new methods of communication available to legislators, it is important to understand how newly introduced CTs influence novel and changing legislator behaviors. The mixed-method research presented in this study provides deep insights into the relationships between legislators and the CTs they use. This study offers many contributions, among them: it effectively bridges a gap between existing Internet Enabled CT (IECT) behavioral studies on non-legislators by expanding them to include legislator behavior; it expands existing narrowly focused research into the use of CT by legislators by including both IECT and mature CTs such as face-to-face meetings and telephone; it provides a fresh perspective on the factors that make CTs important to legislators, and it uncovers legislator behaviors that are both useful, and potentially harmful, to the process of democracy in the United States. In addition, this study confirms and extends existing research in areas such as minority party constituent communication frequency, and extends the topic of legislator CT behavior into some unanticipated areas such as constituent selective behaviors and the use of text messaging during floor debates which effectively enable lobbyists and paid consultants to participate real-time in floor debates in the Arizona House and Senate.
ContributorsWest, Joe, 1959- (Author) / Corley, Elizabeth A (Thesis advisor) / Johnston, Erik W., 1977- (Committee member) / Svara, James H. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Research on government innovation has focused on identifying factors that contribute to higher levels of innovation adoption. Even though various factors have been tested as contributors to high levels of innovation adoption, the independent variables have been predominantly contextual and community characteristics. Previous empirical studies shed little light on chief executive officers' (CEOs) attitudes, values, and behavior. Result has also varied with the type of innovation examined. This research examined the effect of CEOs' attitudes and behaviors, and institutional motivations on the adoption of sustainability practices in their municipalities. First, this study explored the relationship between the adoption level of sustainability practices in local government and CEOs' entrepreneurial attitudes (i.e. risk taking, proactiveness, and innovativeness) and discovery skills (i.e. associating, questioning, experimenting, observing, and networking) that have not been examined in prior research on local government innovation. Second, the study explored the impact of organizational intention to change and isomorphic pressures (i.e., coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures) and the availability and limit of organizational resources on the early adoption of innovations in local governments. Third, the study examines how CEOs' entrepreneurial attitudes and discovery skills, and institutional motivations account for high and low sustaining levels of innovation over time by tracking how much their governments have adopted innovations from the past to the present. Lastly, this study explores their path effects CEOs' entrepreneurial attitudes, discovery skills, and isomorphic pressures on sustainability innovation adoption. This is an empirical study that draws on a survey research of 134 CEOs who have influence over innovation adoption in their local governments. For collecting data, the study identified 264 municipalities over 10,000 in population that have responded to four surveys on innovative practices conducted by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) in past eight years: the Reinventing local government survey (2003), E-government survey (2004), Strategic practice (2006), and the Sustainability survey (2010). This study combined the information about the adoption of innovations from four surveys with CEOs' responses in the current survey. Socio-economic data and information about variations in form of government were also included in the data set. This study sheds light on the discovery skills and institutional isomorphic pressures that influence the adoption of different types of innovations in local governments. This research contributes to a better understanding of the role of administrative leadership and organizational isomorphism in the dynamic of innovation adoption, which could lead to improvements in change management of organizations.
ContributorsJeong, Wooseong (Author) / Svara, James H. (Thesis advisor) / Kim, Yushim (Thesis advisor) / Chapman, Jeffrey I. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This research examines the use of innovative mechanisms for encouragement of citizen participation in the governance, policy, and decision making processes using case studies of Washington, DC, the United States and Seoul, South Korea for comparison. The research illustrates ways of encouraging development of citizen participation using innovative mechanisms through comparative study. This research used a comparative case study of the two cities which focuses on how the two governments apply ICTs and foster citizen participation, what similarities and differences there are between the two city governments' performance and practices, and what may cause these similarities and differences. For the research, websites and citizen participation practices of Washington, DC and Seoul using innovative technologies - Citizen Summit and Seoul Oasis - are reviewed and compared using the categories of general capacity, actor, legal aspect, management, and evaluation. As capitals of the United States and South Korea, Washington, DC and Seoul lead the encouragement of citizen participation, and the two cities' specific practices are recognized as exemplary. The findings describe encouragement of citizen participation using innovative technologies in governance, policy, and decision making processes of Washington, DC and Seoul as well as similarities and differences. Both cities commonly use Government 2.0. Through Government 2.0, citizens can participate and influence the results and effects of policy. Also, governments secure transparency, legitimacy, and efficiency through direct communication with citizens. The study illustrates how citizen participation using innovative technologies can support civic engagement in local government. Strong leadership of the mayor is a common driving force of the two cities in initiating and implementing the Citizen Summit and Seoul Oasis. Different contexts of the two cities influence ways to initiate and utilize innovative technologies. Washington, DC implemented a practice combining public meeting and small group discussion using innovative technologies. On the other hand, Seoul initiated a new citizen participation practice based on the Internet. The results of the research show that innovative mechanisms allow adopting new government-citizen relationships in both cities.
ContributorsChung, So Yoon (Author) / Cayer, N. Joseph (Thesis advisor) / Svara, James H. (Committee member) / Lan, Gerald Z (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This dissertation examines the performance of various federal departments on the success of their integration of personnel based on race and gender. It determines if there are variations in the success rate and explores the reasons for the variations based on the literature review and data analysis. The data used are federal employee data compiled by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Merit System Protection Board, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission through use of personnel surveys from 1979 through 2002 and annual reports. The study uses a cross-sectional model to test whether women and minorities in General Schedule grades 13 -15 have benefited from the implementation of Affirmative Action policy in their prospective agency over time. The effect of department size and affirmative action on the success rate of women and minorities was observed. The data shows that women at the GS 13 -15 grades have made significant gains in their participation rates at all of the departments within the study from 1979 - 2002. The gains made by minorities at the GS 13 -15 grades were not at the same rate as women. In several departments, the participation rates were either flat or decreased. The regression model showed that there is a linear relationship between the success of women and the success of minorities at the GS 13 -15 grade levels within federal departments.
ContributorsSaunders, Romona (Author) / Cayer, Joseph (Thesis advisor) / Alozie, Nicholas (Thesis advisor) / Lan, Gerald Z (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The Empowerment Zones were created in 1993 under Clinton's administration, demonstrating a commitment to solving tough socio-economic problems in distressed communities. The main objective associated with this program was economic recovery of distressed communities by creating jobs and providing various services to the indigenous populations. The designation of the Empowerment Zones went in three rounds (1994, 1998, and 2001), and although the types and amounts of federal incentives varied across rounds, the four principles around which the program originated remain unchanged: strategic vision for change, community based partnerships, economic opportunity, and sustainable community development. Since its inception, the Empowerment Zones program has been implemented in 30 urban and 10 rural communities in 27 states across the U.S. Two central questions lead the research of this dissertation project: 1) What have been the main accomplishments of the round three federal Empowerment Zones program in Tucson? 2) What have been the main challenges of the round three federal Empowerment Zones program in Tucson? By using a case study research design and various techniques for data collection and analysis (including the program package Atlas.ti), this study examined the accomplishments and the challenges associated with the round three designated Empowerment Zone in Tucson. Evidence was collected from multiple sources, including 24 interviews, over 60 local newspaper articles, relevant documentation, annual performance reports, and other sources. The analysis reveals that the program's implementation in Tucson was strong in the beginning, but after two years, the earlier success started to fade quickly. The shortcomings of program design became evident during the implementation phase and further in the inability of the administration to collect relevant data to demonstrate the program's success. The consequences of the inability to provide data for program evaluation influenced the enthusiasm of the administrators and program partners, and weakened the political support. The reduction in the grant component contributed to overemphasis of the business development component thereby ignoring most community development aspects essential for the success of the program in Tucson. This study did not find evidence for the claim that round three of the empowerment zones program based on federal tax incentives contributes to the creation of new jobs and the attraction of new business in economically deprived communities in Tucson.
ContributorsAndonoska, Ljubinka (Author) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Thesis advisor) / Miller, Gerald J. (Committee member) / Svara, James H. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013