Suchergebnisse

Public administration is viewed here as facing a crisis of legitimacy which derives from (1) the field's association with societal tendencies toward regulation and control and (2) the failure ofpublic administration theory to adequately connect with adminis trative practice. In contrast, a critical approach to public administration is outlined, one which holds forth some promise of meaningful reflection and enlightened action in the public sector.

Local governments are increasingly turning to community-based organizations (CBOs) to support improvement in low-income neighborhoods. Perceptions of more than 70 community leaders and 120 citizens involved in the formation of a CBO in the Orlando, Florida, metropolitan area are used to illuminate relationships between community empowerment and community improvement. Congruent with expectations, findings suggest that both local government responsiveness and community involvement in decision making are linked to perceptions of community improvement. In contrast to expectations, findings suggest that in early stages of community development, citizen involvement in the development activities of the CBO is not strongly correlated with either the perception of community impact or the anticipation of positive change. As a result, local governments sponsoring similar ventures need to recognize the importance of information and communication as tools to secure citizen participation until such time as citizen volunteers are more fully engaged in the development process.

This article develops a conceptual model of organizational compliance using affirmative action as an example. The model is applied to universities that are both highly professionalized and loosely coupled. The article explores the dynamics of the process by which organizations with weak hierarchical links attempt to respond to demands that are sometimes unclear or changing and that make a valued resource contingent upon compliance with goals that are externally imposed. The article then attempts to show how the model could be operationalized empirically and the results used to determine whether or not an organization is making a good-faith attempt to comply with affirmative action.