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"Strategic planning is an important function in nonprofit and public organizations, and leaders are continually striving to increase efficiency and effectiveness. "Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations" explores John Bryson's strategic planning model and outlines the reasons public and nonprofit organizations must embrace strategic planning to improve their performance. The book offers leaders, managers, and students detailed guidance on implementing the process, and specific tools and techniques to make the process work. This sixth edition features updated cases and examples, a number of new cases, and a more extensive discussion of design as a method of strategy development. This 6th edition would also feature broader international appeal via the addition of co-author Bert George. Bryson and George would also work to build out an online component to aid students and teachers alike that would feature downloads, links to additional materials, podcasts, instruction modules, and much more."--

Surveys have long been a dominant instrument for data collection in public administration. However, it has become widely accepted in the last decade that the usage of a self-reported instrument to measure both the independent and dependent variables results in common source bias (CSB). In turn, CSB is argued to inflate correlations between variables, resulting in biased findings. Subsequently, a narrow blinkered approach on the usage of surveys as single data source has emerged. In this article, we argue that this approach has resulted in an unbalanced perspective on CSB. We argue that claims on CSB are exaggerated, draw upon selective evidence, and project what should be tentative inferences as certainty over large domains of inquiry. We also discuss the perceptual nature of some variables and measurement validity concerns in using archival data. In conclusion, we present a flowchart that public administration scholars can use to analyze CSB concerns.

AbstractAdministrative tasks often are an unavoidable aspect of the daily work of street‐level bureaucrats (SLBs). These burdensome tasks are job demands that can cause stress and put a strain on SLBs' working experience and performance. So far, few studies have searched for job resources that can help SLBs cope with this aspect of their daily work. This study analyzes how performing administrative tasks results in job stress. Participation in organizational decision‐making is presented as a job resource that mitigates this impact—although, we hypothesize, less so in countries with high power distance. Using a survey dataset of 113,210 teachers across 46 countries, we find that participation in organizational decision‐making indeed reduces the impact of spending time on administrative tasks on job stress. Power distance does not influence this moderation significantly but does have cross‐level interactions with both the time spent on administrative tasks and the level of participation separately.

Public managers often employ valuation tools to support policymakers. These tools are expected to rationalize decision-making. Using a vignette-based, randomized survey experiment with Flemish politicians, the authors study the effect of the type of valuation tool, valuation outcome, and asset salience on politicians' willingness to sell public real estate assets. The purpose is to test whether valuation tools indeed spark rational reactions from politicians, thus demonstrating their value as decision-making support. Findings suggest that cognitive biases emerge when politicians are confronted with valuation tools. Public managers need to take those biases in account when employing valuation tools.

Management tools are often argued to ameliorate public service performance. Indeed, evidence has emerged to support positive outcomes related to the use of management tools in a variety of public sector settings. Despite these positive outcomes, there is wide variation in the extent to which public organizations use management tools. Drawing on normative isomorphism and contingency theory, this article investigates the determinants of both organization?oriented and client?oriented management tool use by top public sector executives. The hypotheses are tested using data from a large?N survey of 4,533 central government executives in 18 European countries. Country and sector fixed?effects ordinary least squares regression models indicate that contingency theory matters more than normative isomorphism. Public executives working in organizations that are bigger and have goal clarity and executive status are more likely to use management tools. The only normative pressure that has a positive impact on management tool use is whether public sector executives have a top hierarchical position.

It has recently been recognized in the public administration literature that multiple reforms coexist in public organizations, ranging from the Weberian bureaucracy to New Public Management and, more recently, new public governance. This study develops a typology of the employment relationship with features of these macro‐level changes and tests their impact on the civil servant's affective commitment by including the individual‐level social exchange relationship. This multilevel model is tested with data from 936 employees in a public organization. The findings confirm the existence of different approaches to the employment relationship: overdemanding, mutual investment and moderately demanding. Civil servants in a mutual investment employment relationship are most affectively committed, and civil servants in a moderately demanding employment relationship benefit most from a positive social exchange relationship. Implications for public management theory and practice are discussed.