Social media tools, as the advanced technology, have penetrated into nonprofit management field prevalently. Nonprofit organizations adopt social media tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest for attracting potential supporters, raising advocacy, and running fundraising campaigns. Social media tools break the limitation of time and space through the Internet. They change the way of how people communicate and interact with each other. The philanthropy industry hopes that social media tools could bring them the new opportunities to engage with their stakeholders, such as donors, volunteers, and customers. However, since this technology is still developing, the studies of using social media in nonprofit field are still at the infant stage. Many nonprofit practitioners are confused and questioning the effectiveness of adopting social media for civic engagement. The dissertation aims to examine how to adopt social media advantageously for helping nonprofit organizations to engage with their stakeholders. Therefore, this study uses a mix of methodology to examine how social media tools could help nonprofit organizations to gain a stronger relationship with their stakeholders. Also, the study explores in more details about the content that nonprofit organizations have sent on their social media platforms. To develop the theoretical framework, this study used social capital and social exchange theory as the guidance. To observe and examine the strategy of using social media in nonprofit organizations, the study is inspired and adopts the social media typology from Lovejoy and Saxton's (2012) research and the communication models from Lewis, Hamel, and Richardson's work (2001). The study proposed that to gain a stronger relationship with the stakeholders, nonprofit organizations should apply a well-designed comprehensive strategy with multiple goals on their social media platforms. This strategy should consider more about the stakeholders' desires and needs and allows the organizations to communicate with the stakeholders effectively. Also, the study also argues that the content that an organization presents on its social media would impact on the stakeholders' interaction greatly. The study targeted on the art/culture/humanities nonprofit organizations in the United States (n = 195). Data was collected directly from the targeted organization's social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter). The regression analysis was conducted to investigate what strategy that nonprofit organization used could gain a high engagement from their stakeholders. A content analysis was also conducted to explore what posts and tweets could influence how stakeholders react. The results indicate that most nonprofit organizations realize the importance of adopting social media, but a few of them still have not embraced the benefits of the technology essentially. Comparing with the activities on Twitter, both nonprofit organizations and their stakeholders were more active on Facebook. On social media, the primary goal for most nonprofit organizations was to disseminate the information. But sending out the information can be an effective strategy. If a nonprofit organization could combine their values/missions/programs with the hot spot on social media, it can promote the stakeholders' engagement greatly. Building a dialogic content on the organization's social media is still overlooked. But no evidence in this study shown that initiating a dialog would receive a high engagement from the stakeholders. The results of this study also show that a nonprofit organization delivered the posts or tweets more frequently does not necessarily mean it would receive a higher interactivity from its stakeholders. The organization's size (the annual budget) does not influence how nonprofit organizations used their social media tools to interact with their online stakeholders. Overall, the study explored how art/culture/humanities nonprofit organizations used their Facebook and Twitter to interact with their online stakeholders. The study helps both the researchers and the practitioners to understand the strategies of using social media tools in nonprofit organizations. It also reveals several practical examples to illustrate what kind of social media content could attract or discourage the online stakeholders' engagement. The study is also a good benchmark report for nonprofit practitioners to evaluate their social media usage.

As public administration has evolved with the technological advances in today's society, it can be challenging to ensure the demands of the public are being met in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and engagement. Nonetheless, a focus on community remains at the forefront of public administration. When looking at technology and the community, the tool known as social media emerges. Social media has allowed people to interact in new ways and therefore, has allowed the government to interact with citizens in ways they have not been able to in the past. In addition to attempting to modernize public administration, there has been an increased focus on building citizen trust through providing a more open government structure. The Open Government Directive issued by President Barack Obama focused on three tenets, which included transparency, participation, and collaboration. One of the ways government entities within the United States are strengthening these areas is through the implementation of various social media sites as a means to stay connected with citizens. With an increase of users utilizing social media tools for both information and connection, many government departments and agencies have incorporated social media use into their workplace as a function for their department. However, it is elected officials that are the ones who represent the citizens from their governmental role and thus, can aid in bridging the gap between citizens and government. Yet, there is little research on how elected officials, specifically in municipalities, are utilizing social media to connect with their constituents. This study discusses social media use by municipal elected officials and how it relates to open government community engagement. Open government community engagement is defined in terms of the three tenets of the Open Government Directive: transparency, participation, and collaboration encompassing the rungs of Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation. For this qualitative study, fifty-seven Florida municipal elected officials were interviewed regarding their social media use or lack thereof in terms of engagement with citizens. The interviews are followed-up with content analysis of social media sites. An ethnographic approach is utilized to uncover and develop common themes related to open government community engagement. The findings suggest while some municipal elected officials are utilizing social media well in terms of open government community engagement, there is a lack of clear understanding of social media use within the context of the Sunshine Law, as well as other barriers prohibiting utilizing social media for more of the participation and collaboration components. There are several reasons municipal elected officials opt to avoid social media altogether, while additional concepts related to open government limited engagement and closed government community engagement are explored. The concept of avoidance was addressed, especially as it pertained to the practical implications for both city administrators and elected officials.

This study examined the politics and policy processes that led to the formation and change of federal urban forest policy in the United States. Using the Three Streams Framework and Punctuated Equilibrium Model of policy processes for the analysis, findings suggest that federal urban forest policy began as a “top-down” policy process originating from presidential attention to New Conservation issues. In the 1960s a “wave of enthusiasm” formed for government solutions to environmental problems. Policy entrepreneurs in the federal bureaucracy recognized this opportunity and acted to use it for organizational advantage. Federal urban forest policy forms due to bureaucratic response to presidential attention and policy changes due to the United States Forest Service quest for legislator attention, new resources, and to cultivate an urban constituency. The agency accomplished this in cooperation with two principal and historically allied forestry interest groups, the American Forestry Association and state foresters. A key element was the rise of skillful policy entrepreneurs advancing policy. Political advocates were also present in Congress. Important too was that several urban forestry policy entrepreneurs cross back and forth between these groups. Another key element was not so much the absence of organized opposition, but the control of it. Opposition to federal urban forest policy existed among members of the policy monopoly due to distribution politics. However, opposition ceased when federal cooperative forestry law changed in 1978 permitting distribution of federal urban forestry funds to and by state foresters. Policy stabilizes due to the formation of a policy monopoly resulting from an advocacy coalition who controlled membership. Policy becomes unstable due to the introduction of new, competing actors into the policy monopoly and due to issue ambiguity affecting the urban forest policy image. By 1989 presidential attention to the causal story of urban reforestation (tree planting) emerges again as it did in the 1960s. This causes the coupling of the three policy process streams resulting in a punctuated moment in federal urban forest policy. This results in increased political attention and the acquisition of scarce resources for the Forest Service and distribution of funds to partners in the advocacy coalition. Keywords: Advocacy coalition; American governance; cooperative forestry; distributive politics; Forest Service; interorganizational relationships; policy entrepreneurs; policy monopoly; policy stability; political advocates; political behavior; urban forest history; urban forest policy.

The dissertation explores a postulate common to both Max Weber and Hans Blumenberg that modern organizations gain their intense motivational power from the anxieties created in the modern era by the disenchantment of nature and the death of God. The doctrine of omnipotence gave rise to a modern theodicy problem, experienced as an anxiety that the conditions of goodness must henceforth be self-consciously created by the self-assertion of large associations of interdependent people. This self-conscious forsaking of omnipotence carries with it a high price. In the work of Immanuel Kant natural law ethics and economics are no longer available and our associations tend to be bureaucratic. The dissertation follows the thought of both practical reformers and philosophers in developing this characterization of modern organization. What emerges, alongside their positive accounts of the relation between freedom and organization, is a darker picture of profound anxiety and melancholy. Particularly instructive is Kant's interpretive text on Cain and Abel in which modern people are identified with the brother who murders. Kant's insights are followed by those of Soren Kierkegaard, Rene Girard, Elton Mayo, Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, and others to explicate the structure of mimetic desire as it operates in modern large-scale organizations. These intense mimetic structures do not mean that freedom in large organizations is a myth, but it does mean that the self-conscious assertion of freedom involves a profound spiritual struggle which can result as easily in demonia as in release. Thus the final chapter employs a Weberean typology to show how freedom in its various organizational guises has so far remained elusive while the champions of freedom have tried to embody it in ever more inclusive organizational structures.

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This study used an electronic questionnaire to evaluate the levels of intrinsic motivation, compared to extrinsic motivation, in front-line local government employees. This research also evaluated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and public service motivation (PSM). Further, this research assessed the effects of performance appraisal systems (PAS) on intrinsically motivated front-line local government employees. Current research suggests that public sector employees are more intrinsically motivated than extrinsically motivated. This study found that, while the employees showed higher levels of intrinsic motivation over extrinsic motivation, most of the respondents showed moderately high levels of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Additionally, the literature suggests that public sector employees place a high value on the missions and goals of public organizations, also known as PSM. This study found that, while both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation had an influence on PSM, intrinsic motivation had a greater affect on PSM for front-line local government employees. Current research also suggests that an employee's intrinsic motivation can be diminished by exposure to an external control mechanism such as PAS. However, there are elements of the performance appraisal process, such as employee participation, that may positively influence the employee's attitude towards the management practice. This study found that the type of PAS, whether participatory or non-participatory, caused a variation in the employee's attitudes towards the PAS for intrinsically motivated front-line local government employees.