These are turbulent times of increasing government expenditures and opposition to higher taxes. A new kind of civil servant is needed, one who has the initiative and independence of the entrepreneur. / This study undertook the development of a profile of the personal qualities of the public entrepreneur and the identification of elements in the organizational environment which either facilitate or hinder public entrepreneurship, defined largely in terms of the way in which they impose themselves on the public entrepreneur. Further, an effort was made to examine the entrepreneurial behaviors that emerge from the interplay of the individual personality and organizational expectations. / Three research strategies were followed: a review of written and on-line literature, public documents, and interviews. Two methods were used in identifying individuals for the interviews. First, snow-ball or chain-sampling, and second, the specification of jobs which require entrepreneurial behavior in raising resources. Seventy officials were interviewed, 40 from Florida state and local governments, 22 from a public university, and eight from the non-profit sector. Content analysis was used to secure quantitative measures; and careful transcriptions of the interviews provided the basis for qualitative scrutiny. / The basic conclusion is that public entrepreneurs see themselves as creative people with a strong value orientation; feel they are needed and can function effectively in the public sector despite certain constraints; are task-oriented and place much emphasis on planning and goal-setting. These characteristics were common in the entire study population. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-09, Section: A, page: 3363. / Major Professor: Frank Sherwood. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

The problem. Public entrepreneurship is increasingly regarded as the means to manage governmental organizations, even through, the approach has not been fully investigated and researched. The term entrepreneurship is often overused and the process by which it occurs is not understood. This research seeks to build understanding in these areas. / Research methods and strategies. Rather than concentrate on an ideal definition, the identification of traits, or a single influential person, this dissertation explores public entrepreneurship as an evolutionary process that follows various functional stages to produce and sustain an innovation. Through nine case investigations, the process by which local governments engage in entrepreneurial activities is analyzed. The environmental factors that lead to the entrepreneurial activity are examined. The influence of community attitudes towards innovation, risk and entrepreneurial activity is appraised. The extent to which a commonly shared vision supports the entrepreneurial activity is considered, as well as the relative importance of the various governmental officials in the creation, implementation, and institutionalization of the activity. / Findings and conclusions. Each case provides a profile of the entrepreneurial process in local government and exposes variations in the decision-making processes by which entrepreneurial activities are formed and operationalized. Public entrepreneurship is found to be collective, even when it begins with an individual, and highly situational. Entrepreneurs and their visions create new or enhanced organizational cultures while at the same time the organizational cultures determine the acceptable limits for entrepreneurial activity. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-10, Section: A, page: 3672. / Major Professor: Frank Sherwood. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

Executive Order 99-281 (1999), commonly known as the "One Florida Initiative," abolished affirmative action policies in university admissions, state employment, and state contracting. This dissertation studies the impact that the implementation of this initiative has had on the admission, retention and graduation rates of minority students in Florida's university system. Quantitatively based trend analyses are used to examine changes in the university system during the ten years surrounding implementation. These analyses are supplemented by an examination of the programs put into place at each individual university in the absence of affirmative action and qualitatively-based interviews with four subject matter experts. Finally, a discussion of how these findings inform equity policies on a theoretical and on an empirical level is provided. / A Dissertation submitted to the Reubin O'D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillments for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2010. / Date of Defense: March 22, 2010. / Social Equity, Education Policy, One Florida Initiative / Includes bibliographical references. / Mary E. Guy, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Lance DeHaven-Smith, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Dale Lick, University Representative; James Bowman, Committee Member.

An often debated and studied question is the degree to which the modern media influence and impact governmental policy-making. One major area examining these questions revolves around the agenda-setting theory of the press: that the press may not influence specific actions or policies, but does influence which policies will be placed on the public agenda for consideration. / This study examines these issues in the context of a state government policy structure, specifically examining statewide newspapers and the policy process of the Florida Legislature prior to, and during, the 1981 legislative session. The study posits that the agenda of state newspapers, by a count of stories about a specific set of issues, will correlate with the agenda rank of those same issues as expressed in questionnaire results from legislators. / Building upon the work of Drs. William Gormley, Jack Walker, McClure and Patterson, as well as Shaw and McCombs, and Caspi, the results indicate a very strong relationship between the two sets of agendas, strongly reinforcing the notion of press impact on policy development, and largely confirming the hypothesis of the study. / The study found a Spearman rho rank order correlation between legislators and newspaper content of issues of .73 (at a Confidence Level of .05). Perhaps more importantly, the study found a similar correlation of .72 between the newspaper content in the two months prior to the imposition of the questionnaire, and legislators' ranks based on those questionnaires. / The study raises significant issues regarding the relationships between policy makers and news institutions, as well as the processes and persons who gather the news about policymaking events. It also raises questions about the nature of previous agenda-setting research which heavily depended upon front page content. / The results develop a model of behavior between the institutions and actors in the media and policy/potential processes, placing greater emphasis upon the kind and type of media information, or cues, legislators receive in preparation for political and policy decisions. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-10, Section: A, page: 3415. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

The purpose of this study was to explore the degree of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction in three occupational levels in Saudi Arabia. Twelve of Herzberg's factors were selected for use in this study. / Data were obtained through the use of an eleven-page questionnaire consisting of three parts. Dunnette's instrument was used with modifications. / The questionnaires were administered to 800 Saudi civilian public employees in two of the largest cities--Riyadh and Jeddah. A stratified sample was drawn to represent the three occupational levels. A total of 300 subjects was selected from the low level, 400 subjects from the middle level, and 100 subjects from the high level. / Eighteen hypotheses and sub-hypotheses were tested by using analysis of variance to investigate the differences in satisfaction with job content and job context factors among the three occupational levels, and by using the Pearson Product Correlation to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction and age, length of service and educational level. / The major results are summarized as follows: (1) The most important job dimensions motivating employees in Saudi Arabia were work itself, achievement, relationship with peers, working conditions and relationship with supervisors. (2) Employees in the higher occupational level were more satisfied than those in the two lower levels with the work itself, recognition, responsibility factors. (3) Four of the content factors were determined by employees to be important causes of dissatisfaction. (4) Only three of the seven context factors were reported to be a source of disatisfaction. Employees in the middle level were more dissatisfied with salary than those in the other two levels. (6) Employees with higher educational levels were less satisfied with their salary than those with lower education levels. (7) Older employees were more satisfied than those who were younger. (8) Employees in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were significantly more satisfied with their jobs than those in other governmental agencies. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-06, Section: A, page: 1917. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

With the data from Florida cities' comprehensive annual financial reports, first, we identified and categorized debt into three groups: (1) general obligation (GO) bonds, (2) notes, loan, leases, certificates of participation (NLL), and (3) governmental revenue (GR) bonds. This dissertation investigates Florida cities' debt issuance incorporating three perspectives: institutions, financial management, and public economics. First, we introduce the relationship between the GO bond limit and local debt financing, and develop hypotheses for the empirical tests. Second, we examine how governance structure shapes a city's debt issuance. However, we did not find any effects of GO bond limit and governance structure on local debt issuance amounts. We also began this study attempting to explain the local government's debt financing from the financial management perspective. If cities have higher financial management capacity, it was argued, they are likely to issue larger debt amounts than cities with lower financial management capacity. Overall, test results present that financial management capacity has no effect on the debt issuance amount. From the public economics perspective, first, this study examines the effect of interjurisdictional competition on cities' debt issuance based on Jensen and Toma's model. Test results reveal that interjurisdictional tax competition does not influence a city's debt issuance. Jensen and Toma's model is extended to explain the relationship between intergovernmental or overlapping government tax competition and debt financing. We contend that Jensen and Toma's model is suitable to explain the relationship between overlapping government tax competition and their debt issuances. Empirical tests show that, in Florida, there is no serious problem of intergovernmental tax competition which induces overlapping governments' debt issuances. This study also applies the flypaper effect to local government's debt financing. A weak flypaper effect is found in local governments' issuances of GO bonds and NLL while there is scant wideness for fiscal illusion in GR bond issuance. We also find that local sharing is related to the flypaper effect in debt issuance but state sharing is not. / A Dissertation submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2006. / Date of Defense: January 24, 2006. / Fund Balance, Flypaper Effect, Tax Competition, Local Government Debt, Municipal Bond / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; Thomas W. Zuehlke, Outside Committee Member; Robert Bradley, Committee Member; Earle Klay, Committee Member; Frances S. Berry, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to determine the readiness for Organization Development in selected organizations in Nigeria and in selected Florida county governments. Specifically, the study examined respondents' perceptions concerning their organizations' readiness for OD, respondents' attitudes toward new ideas, and avenues for communicating new ideas. Three research instruments were used to collect data from three sets of participants: middle-level managers and top executives of three selected organizations of the Lagos state government of Nigeria, and top executives of 24 county governments in Florida. / The analysis of data on organizational climates indicated the existence of an atmosphere conducive to the adoption of OD values in both types of governments, with more receptivity found in the Florida organizations. The findings of the study revealed that with cultural modifications, the technologies of OD have a generic applicability. / The study results show a favorable attitude toward acceptance of new ideas in the organizations of both systems. Both sets of respondents indicated great interest in leaning new ideas; this receptivity should transfer to willingness to adopt the principles of OD. / Analysis showed a reasonable use of identified support systems as avenues for communicating new ideas, but indicated that these channels of technology transfer are not sufficiently operative. Both sets of participants indicated that workshops and seminars are the most important avenues for transferring new ideas/OD. / It was recommended that further research efforts seek for additional information pertinent to the determination of OD readiness and transfer potential with a view to ascertaining the successful cross-cultural application of OD. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-02, Section: A, page: 0654. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

Increasingly, the role of government bureaucracies in setting policies is being recognized and explored. The focus of this research was to examine whether such bureaucracies can set and implement policies using a technique developed for large private firms, strategic planning. As part of the analyses, the impact of constraints hypothesized in the literature as precluding strategic planning's utility for public agencies was assessed. / Analysis primarily consisted of an in-depth examination of the implementation and impact of strategic planning by Florida's Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. A survey of other state social service agency directors was also conducted to increase the generalizability of findings. / Results do not demonstrate that strategic planning increases the rationality of policy-making or allows the bureaucracy to play a more active policy role. It major function appears to be a means by which central management gains greater control over the periphery through clarification of priorities. / Strategic planning was generally well received and was more likely to be implemented where gubernatorial and legislative controls were perceived to be weaker and there was a greater need to control because of decentralization and interest group power. / Support was found for Steiner's hypothesis that strategic planning would be more problematic for public agencies. Problem severity ratings were significantly higher for his "pitfalls" than problem severity ratings for corporate managers. In addition, some of the unique qualities of large public agencies hypothesized to negatively affect strategic planning had higher problem ratings. / In terms of the strategic planning literature, support was found for the contention that involvement of the chief executive officer is critical to success and that strategic planning must fit the management style of the organization to be successful. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-12, Section: A, page: 4509. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

Throughout the course of this decade, the Sunshine State has emerged as one of America’s fastest growing states. As cities compete for opportunities to expand their tax base and achieve other municipally-centered goals, cities are faced with the challenge to differentiate themselves among their peers to cash-in on these opportunities. One way to accomplish this is by engaging in marketing and branding. There is little that is known about the utilization of marketing and branding from the administrative local practitioner point-of-view from an American perspective. While it is understood that many cities engage in marketing and branding related activities, there is more to learn about the rationale behind the decisions that city managers and communications officials make regarding whether to participate in those activities. This research addresses a research gap and answers the fundamental question: At the city level, how are branding, marketing and social marketing currently utilized by public managers and individuals in charge of communications? Utilizing surveys and interviews from cities across Florida, this dissertation provides a better understanding of how public administrators view marketing, branding, social marketing through a strategic management lens and discovers the degree their cities are utilizing these elements to achieve goals put forward by municipal leadership across the state. / A Dissertation submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2018. / February 13, 2018. / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances S. Berry, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Daniel F. Fay, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Pamela L. Perrewé, University Representative; Richard C. Feiock, Committee Member; Kaifeng Yang, Committee Member.

This dissertation seeks to understand the prolong question, "why local communities adopt or change land use policies." The previous literature has provided partial and incomplete explanations about this issue. Property rights model does not explicitly consider the role of institutions and community interests while interest group models tend to put communities' physical characteristics as control variables. Because political economy view concentrates on the political variations, they consider social and economic variables lightly. More importantly, they all ignore the role of informal institutions on local land use policy change. They are not wrong; rather they just provide partial explanations. To integrate those partial explanations and understand fully the land use policy world, it is required to construct a more comprehensive framework. In this research, I used the political market framework built upon Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to establish a comprehensive framework for local land use policy. Political market framework based on the IAD framework is a useful tool to integrate those partial aspects into a framework. Local land use policy decision, which creates distributional conflicts among community members, is a political process. In the process, various actors interact for articulating their preferences in a land use policy. Political market approach provides a useful tool to understand what values these actors have and how they are articulated in a land use policy. Political system of local governments works as formal institutions to provide incentives or constraints to a land use policy. To test why local land use policies are changed pro-environmental, I identify the variations of local comprehensive amendments in Florida cities. Comprehensive plans are policies since they constrain "who gets what." Local governments change their plans in a certain direction (pro-environmental) because they have their own institutional arrangements, community characteristics, and physical characteristics. To test the influences of these variables, I tested two models: Panel Probit Model for conservation amendments; Heckman Selection Model for the ratio of large to small scale amendments of future land use map. The results show that institutions really matter in local land use policy change. Strong mayor, district election type, turnovers of council members, and administrative capacity influence pro-environmental policy changes. The most important find is that informal institutions of social capital also constrain actors, or provide pro-environmental incentives to the local actors. In addition, community interests and physical characteristics are not ignorable. They have also significant influence on the policy change. From this research, I found that these community interests can be easily articulated in a land use policy when they go through particular institutions. Interaction terms provide that various pro-environmental interests are moderated by mayor form of government and election type as well as informal institutions. Another important finding is that rule should be considered as a configurational form, not an additive form. I define strong mayor council form from the consideration of other relevant rules such as mayor elected directly, administrative power, appointment and budget power, and veto power, even though it is still limited configuration. Only the form of government that a city charter provides does not work well in a complex political system. This study has academic and practical significance. First, by integrating four models and constructing a more comprehensive explanation, this study brings sharper theory and better understanding to local land use policy. Second, the influence of institutions has been limited to formal institutions. Adding informal institutions in the framework may provide more consistent impact of institutions on local land use policy change. Third, using dynamic interaction terms in the framework proves how institutions matter on community interests as well as additive influence of institutions on policy outcome. Finally and practically, this study may provide some clues about the solutions to environmental preservation and efficient growth management practices. Formal institutions matter since it shape incentives and constraints on policy actors. However, those institutions need much of transaction costs to be established and changed. Informal institutions, even though it is not constructed easily, play roles to reduce transaction costs of addressing problems and distributional conflicts, and provide and more efficient way to local administration of growth management. / A Dissertation submitted to the Reubin O'D Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2008. / Date of Defense: June 9, 2008. / Moderating Effects, Land Use Policy, Local Governments, Political Markets, Institutions, Networks / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; Timothy S. Chapin, Outside Committee Member; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member; Kaifeng Yang, Committee Member.