In This Issue:

• Public Service Recognition Week: May 7-13
• Annual Conference Photo Feed Now Online
• Webinars, BookTalks and Student Series on the Horizon
• PublicServiceCareers.org April Sale for Employers
• Make the Most of News-Based Member Resources
• Institute for Peace and Dialogue Summer Academy
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Issues Calls for Proposals
• Government Training: Retirement, Risk Management and Procurement This May
• 25th NISPAcee Annual Conference Taking Place May 2017
• MPAC, TPAC and SELC Are Just Around the Corner
• Rutgers Certificate in Appreciative Inquiry Begins in June
• Lien International Conference Announced for October 2017
• SECoPA 2017 Heads to Hollywood Beach, FL
• Rutgers SPAA and NASPAA Release 4th Edition of the Teaching Resources Guide
• PAR Update
• New on PA TIMES Online
• Career Resources

Public Service Recognition Week: May 7-13

For more than 30 years, Public Service Recognition Week (PSRW) has served as a dedicated opportunity to celebrate public servants across the country and throughout the public sector. Federal, state and local employees, city managers, fire/EMS professionals, nonprofit experts and more are all honored during this time for the ways in which they support and care for members of the public.

Nationally, PSRW touches millions of people—but did you know that ASPA and its members play a significant role?

This year, more than 15 Chapters will be holding events that will celebrate PSRW through awards, lectures and conferences, touching approximately 1,000 people. To put this into perspective, that’s almost as many people as those who gathered in Atlanta just a few weeks ago for the 2017 Annual Conference. And your group—Chapter, Section, university, nonprofit organization or federal or local government agency—can be part of these efforts!

"PSRW is more than just a PR tactic to praise public servants," observes ASPA communications chief Karen Garrett. "This is a concentrated effort for all of us across the country to demonstrably appreciate the public servants in our lives. It is our annual opportunity to remind citizens in our towns, villages and small cities—those who interact with public servants the most—that these individuals perform ‘bold and noble service’ and should be celebrated for it."

No matter the size of your organization, there are ways you can get involved, from issuing proclamations from your town to writing op-eds for your local paper to organizing a letter-writing campaign for your local public servants. Public Employees Roundtable, the group that organizes PSRW, has an online toolkit to walk you through these and other options.

Whatever you do and however you engage, make sure you tell ASPA about it! We are launching a page on our website to showcase events taking place throughout our community, proclamations that are issued and other ways our members get involved so we can celebrate public service and have an even bigger presence within PSRW.

Look for more information about the new web page shortly and contact us with any information you can provide about what your group is doing!

Follow #PSRW for plenty of information from across the country about PSRW events, now and throughout the month of May!

Annual Conference Photo Feed Now Online

Whether or not you were in Atlanta for the 2017 Annual Conference, make sure you visit ASPA's Flickr feed and check out the fun! Interested in getting clean copies of photos? Contact us and we will be happy to send them to you.

More conference resources will be posted to the Annual Conference website shortly, including audio from the plenaries, text from some of the speeches and papers and presentations from our panels. Keep checking back to www.aspanet.org/2017conference to find updates and links as these resources are made available.

Webinars, BookTalks and Student Series on the Horizon

ASPA's professional development webinars are ongoing throughout the year. Averaging 75 attendees per webinar and free to ASPA members, these e-learning opportunities provide you with valuable insights and information at your fingertips. We are still planning for Spring and Summer 2017, but at least one BookTalk is in your future! Visit our website to stay in the loop about all upcoming webinars, BookTalks and Student Series.

BookTalk: Without Purpose of Evasion
April 20 | 1 p.m. EDT
Presenter:
John Thompson, Author and Former City Manager

This BookTalk looks at John Thompson's novel, Without Purpose of Evasion, which highlights a city manager's behavior in tough situations. The discussion will showcase the excellent ways fiction can be used to teach students about how to be a great public administrator—and how to be a terrible one. The story follows City Manager Brad Jacks' struggle as he guides his small city's review of a large, controversial development project. As he learns about little known, factual incidents of government deceit, Brad reassesses his role and personal values, while being mindful of his family's security.

PublicServiceCareers.org April Sale for Employers

Is your organization looking for candidates for open positions? If you have a public sector job to post, make the most of PublicServiceCareers.org—a wide-ranging and robust jobs site attracting talented academicians and civil servants for their job hunt. For the month of April, your organization can post a 30-day ad for just $100.

Job-seekers: if you have not bookmarked this site for your job search, make sure you do so! Featuring an array of positions from academic institutions, government agencies and nonprofits from across the country, this is a critical resource.

A brief sample of open positions appears at the bottom of this newsletter. Take a look and then visit their website to see more!

Make the Most of News-Based Member Resources

Did you know that through your ASPA membership you can get current news and information from two special feeds: SmartBrief and The Public Manager? Members should have automatically been added to the ASPA SmartBrief distribution list and we hope you are enjoying your daily e-newsletters. If you are not receiving a copy and would like to, please contact us and we will add you to the list!

You will need to sign up for your free copy of The Public Manager to receive it each month, and we hope you do! This is an independent magazine that shares real stories of unstoppable innovation in U.S. government. Information for how to access this resource is on ASPA's website—make the most of it! (Please note: you must create an account with The Public Manager to sign up for the free newsletters.)

Both of these resources are carefully chosen to provide you with news and information you need to stay connected with public administrators across the country. We hope you find them to be helpful benefits! Please contact us for assistance with either of these resources.

Want to add an event? Email Melissa Jun with the details!

Institute for Peace and Dialogue Summer Academy

The Institute for Peace and Dialogue (IPD) is one of the leading organizers of several successful annual international academic training and research programs in Switzerland in the field of peace-building, conflict transformation, mediation, security, intercultural dialogue and human rights, which these events bring together for state, private and public sector representatives. IPD is still accepting applications for its 10-day or three-month academies. All applications for its three-month academy are due by May 1, 2017. Click here for more information.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Issues Calls for Proposals

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Systems for Action (S4A) program supports research to discover and apply new evidence about better aligning the economic and community development, health care and public health systems to support a culture of health in communities and nationwide. Specifically, S4A seeks research on the ways in which development interacts with health care and public health systems to produce significant health benefits for individuals and communities. Up to five 12-month studies of up to $100,000 and six 24-month studies of $250,000 will be funded through this mechanism. To apply, visit their website and attend the informational webinar on April 17, 2017. All proposals must be received by 3 p.m., ET, May 5, 2017.

Government Training: Retirement, Risk Management and Procurement This May

Operational expenses and unexpected legal liabilities can significantly impact the financial health of any organization. The Andrew Young School's Center for State and Local Finance’s May course, Retirement, Risk Management and Procurement, will help you fine-tune your practices so that your department, agency or public authority stays prepared for any challenges. The course will focus on best practices in contracting and procurement, management of pension and post-employee benefit costs, and other process and legal strategies for risk management. Experts from the private sector, the J. Mack College of Business and the state of Georgia will teach the course, bringing decades of experience in creatively managing risk and effectively leading procurement.

• Deadline: May 10
• Class Dates: May 17-19
• Tuition: $985 for public sector

25th NISPAcee Annual Conference Taking Place May 2017

The 2017 NISPAcee Annual Conference, jointly organized by NISPAcee and Kazan Federal University, will take place May 18-20 in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan. With a theme focusing on Innovation Governance in the Public Sector, this will be a critical conference in a beautiful location!

Register now and find more information including a preliminary program, session topics, a list of accepted paper proposals and other details online. Click here for more information.

MPAC, TPAC and SELC Are Just Around the Corner

The Midwest Public Affairs Conference (MPAC), Teaching Public Administration Conference (TPAC) and Social Equity Leadership Conference (SELC) are all taking place in Omaha, May 31-June 2. Registration for MPAC and TPAC are concurrent; separate registration is required for SELC. Find a comprehensive information page and links to more details online here.

Rutgers Certificate in Appreciative Inquiry Begins in June

Learn how to apply Appreciative Inquiry (Ai) and the SOAR methodology (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations and Results) for positive organizational change/innovation and strategic planning. Through the use of positively constructed questions and a structured dialogue process, Appreciative Inquiry (Ai) seeks to discover the conditions, factors and strengths that contribute to success and how they can be replicated to create new possibilities for greater future success. This two-day workshop begins June 1; applications are being accepted now. Click here for more information.

Lien International Conference Announced for October 2017

The biennial Lien International Conference for Good Governance will take place in Singapore, Oct. 27-28, 2017. Hosted by the Nanyang Centre for Public Administration of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, the conference is organized with ASPA and IIAS. The 2017 theme will be Forging Toward an Inclusive and Sustainable Globalization. Calls for Papers have been announced and all proposals are due June 15, 2017; more information and proposal forms can be found online. Registration will open in July. Click here for more information.

SECoPA 2017 Heads to Hollywood Beach, FL

The Southeastern Conference for Public Administration's (SECoPA) 2017 conference will take place Oct. 4-7 in Hollywood Beach, Fla. This year's theme will be Defending Public Administration in a Time of Uncertainty. SECoPA has released its Call for Proposals and a number of Calls for Nominations for this year’s awards. Click here for more information.

Rutgers SPAA and NASPAA Release 4th Edition of the Teaching Resources Guide

The Teaching Resources Guide for Public Affairs and Administration, Fourth Edition—released by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) and edited by School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA) Professors Marc Holzer and Lois Warner (co-editors), and doctoral student Dan Bee Lee (associate editor)—brings together a broad array of teaching and learning resources in public policy, public affairs and administration and makes each available via a web link. More than 2,500 resources and web links are provided, including recent textbooks, journals, media, curricula, lesson plans and cases for class discussion. Download the publication for free here.

PAR Update


Public Administration and the Disciplines
Rosemary O'Leary, Editor
Transaction Costs and the Perceived Effectiveness of Complex Institutional Systems
Mark Lubell (University of California, Davis), Jack M. Mewhirter (University of Cincinnati), Ramiro Berardo (The Ohio State University) and John T. Scholz (Florida State University) study factors affecting how policy actors perceive the effectiveness of political institutions involved in complex water governance systems. The ecology of games framework argues that participants are more likely to perceive institutions as effective when the benefits of solving collective action problems outweigh the transaction costs of developing political contracts within these institutions. The authors hypothesize that transaction costs are a function of conflict, type of participation, political knowledge, scientific knowledge and actor resources. Survey results suggest that the importance of these different sources of transaction costs varies across study sites in the Tampa Bay watershed in Florida, the Sacramento–San Joaquin River delta in California and the Paraná River delta in Argentina. Based on the observed differences, some initial ideas are sketched about the evolution of complex governance systems from fairly simple and informal rules and networks to well-established tapestries of many formal institutions. Link to PAR Early View

Relational Leadership, Storytelling, and Narratives: Practices of Local Government Chief Executives
Kevin Orr (University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom) and Mike Bennett (Public Intelligence, United Kingdom) examine the storytelling and narrative practices of an elite group of public administrators in the United Kingdom: local government chief executives. They do so through the lens of relationality, exploring the collective dimensions of leadership. The focus on leadership and stories embraces the narrative turn in public administration scholarship. It responds to calls for research examining the distinctive settings of everyday leadership action. The contribution to theory is a qualitative understanding of the relational ways in which stories and narratives are used in the practices of public administration leaders. The article analyzes four ways in which such leadership is accomplished: inviting an emotional connection and commitment to public service, making sense of organizational realities, provoking reflections on practices and assumptions and managing relations with politicians. The authors offer an appreciation of how relational leadership influence can be generated by expressive narratives and storytelling rather than stemming from bureaucratic authority. Link to PAR Early View

Evidence in Public Administration
Kimberley R. Isett, Brian W. Head and Gary VanLandingham, Editors
Social Media: How One City Opens the Evidence Black Box
Government agencies at all levels are launching social media strategies, but one area that remains elusive is data to show what is "working." In this essay, Warren Kagarise (City of Issaquah, Washington) and Staci M. Zavattaro (University of Central Florida) detail how the City of Issaquah, Wash., developed, implemented and now continually evaluates its social media programming. Link to PAR Early View

Research Articles
Transformational Leadership and Organizational Processes: Influencing Public Performance
Leaders are essential actors in public performance improvement and organizational change. However, a key question has not been adequately addressed in prior literature on the topic: how do leadership processes make a difference? Using data on New York City public schools, Rusi Sun (University of Michigan‒Dearborn) and Alexander C. Henderson (Long Island University) explore the organizational mechanisms by which a specific form of principal's leadership—transformational leadership—influences objective organizational outcomes as measured by standardized test scores. The empirical results indicate that a principal's transformational leadership style affects student test scores through the mediating effects of purposeful performance information use and stakeholder engagement. Link to PAR Early View

Developing and Testing an Integrative Framework for Open Government Adoption in Local Governments
Open government is an important innovation to foster trustworthy and inclusive governments. Stephan G. Grimmelikhuijsen (Utrecht University, The Netherlands) and Mary K. Feeney (Arizona State University) develop and test an integrative theoretical framework drawing from theories on policy diffusion and innovation adoption. Based on this, they investigate how structural, cultural and environmental variables explain three dimensions of open government: accessibility, transparency and participation. The framework is tested by combining 2014 survey data and observational data from 500 local U.S. government websites. Organizational structure, including technological and organizational capacity, is a determinant shared by all dimensions of open government. Furthermore, accessibility is affected by a mixture of an innovative and participative culture and external pressures. A flexible and innovative culture positively relates to higher levels of transparency, whereas capacity is a strong predictor of adopting participatory features. The main conclusion is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to fostering the three dimensions of open government, as each dimension is subject to a unique combination of determinants. Link to PAR Early View

Institutional Analysis of Neighborhood Collective Action
Sublocal governance organizations may provide a way for some urban neighborhoods to stabilize and improve property values. Recent advances in collective action theory, spatial statistical methods and data availability now make it possible to more directly evaluate the effects of these organizations. Michael Craw (University of Arkansas at Little Rock) combines geocoded assessor's data and data from a survey of neighborhood and homeowner associations to analyze a model of prices of single-family homes in Little Rock, Ark., from 2012 to 2016. The results show that neighborhood and homeowner associations both have significant positive effects on neighborhood property values relative to unorganized neighborhoods and that the effect of neighborhood associations is at least as large as that of homeowner associations. Moreover, the results indicate that neighborhood association structure mediates the effect on property values, although this is not the case for homeowner associations. Link to PAR Early View

Managing the Entanglement: Complexity Leadership in Public Sector Systems
Complexity in public sector systems requires leaders to balance the administrative practices necessary to be aligned and efficient in the management of routine challenges and the adaptive practices required to respond to dynamic circumstances. Conventional notions of leadership in the field of public administration do not fully explain the role of leadership in balancing the entanglement of formal, top-down, administrative functions and informal, emergent, adaptive functions within public sector settings with different levels of complexity. Drawing on and extending existing complexity leadership constructs, Joanne Murphy (Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom), Mary Lee Rhodes (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland), Jack W. Meek (University of La Verne) and David Denyer (Cranfield University, United Kingdom) explore how leadership is enacted over the duration of six urban regeneration projects representing high, medium and low levels of project complexity. The article suggests that greater attention needs to be paid to the tensions inherent in enabling leadership if actors are to cope with the complex, collaborative, cross-boundary, adaptive work in which they are increasingly engaged. Link to PAR Early View

Murphy et al. Podcast Episode

Corruption and State and Local Government Debt Expansion
Theories describing rent seeking in the public sector posit a number of negative fiscal outcomes that the choices of corrupt officials may generate. The evidence presented by Cheol Liu (KDI School of Public Policy and Management, South Korea), Tima T. Moldogaziev (The University of Georgia) and John L. Mikesell (Indiana University, Bloomington) shows that states with greater intensities of public corruption have higher aggregate levels of state and local debt. If corruption in the 10 most corrupt states were only at an average level, their public debt would be nine percent lower, or about $249.35 per capita, all else being equal. Notably, institutional control measures may not have succeeded in restraining the expansion of state and local public debt in the presence of greater levels of corruption. State and local governments would achieve more efficient levels of fiscal discipline by curbing public sector corruption. Link to PAR Early View

Liu, Moldogaziev, and Mikesell Podcast Episode

From Birth to Death: The Life of the Standards Board for England
Organizations wax and wane, and some cease to exist altogether. The Standards Board for England was abolished after a 10-year life. Created to regulate the ethical behavior of local politicians in England, the ethics of politics was undermined by the politics of ethics. Alan Lawton (Federation University Australia, Australia) and Michael Macaulay (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand) analyze the life of the Standards Board initially through the lens of a life-cycle approach to organizations but find that a problem-cluster approach provides a sharper picture. Over its lifetime, the Standards Board faced a number of crises; its failure to resolve these crises and an unfavorable political climate led to its demise. Link to PAR Early View

New on PA TIMES Online

Career Resources


Find your next career opportunity at publicservicecareers.org. This online job board is the perfect resource for making a career change or landing your first job in the public service. It lists dozens of positions in academia, government and the nonprofit sector. Below are just a few current listings.

Town Manager – Town of Wilmington – Wilmington, VT

ICT Policy Development Specialist – Peace Corps Response – Philippines

Associate or Full Professor, Endowed Chair in Western Hemispheric Studies – Baruch College – New York, NY