Fragmented jurisdictions in a metropolitan area have pursued individual economic benefits through competition with others. Intense development competition has produced negative economic externalities. Therefore, local governments have strategically considered collaborating with other jurisdictions in order to maximize benefits and minimize costs through collective actions. However, collaboration among individual communities potentially involves collective action dilemmas endemic to the fragmented metropolitan area. Therefore, jurisdictions strategically create and develop informal collaborative networks with others, depending on the conditions where local jurisdictions are involved. While previous studies have focused on the influence of collaborative mechanisms on economic outcomes and emphasized the importance of the roles of networks (Lee, 2009, Feiock, Steinacker, and Park 2009, Olberding 2002), this study focuses on how the networks emerge and evolve at the micro-level, especially in the economic development policy arena. This dissertation began with the research questions: how do local jurisdictions cope strategically with collective action, how do they efficiently and effectively resolve problems through informal policy networks, what motivations lead local jurisdictions to enter collaborative networks, and what effects influence the selection process of collaborative partners for local economic development. In order to answer the aforementioned questions, this study applied the institutional collective action framework (Feiock and Scholz 2010) and the cross-sectional and the longitudinal network analysis proposed by Snijder and his colleagues with the SIENA program. The micro-level analysis reveals that in the economic development policy arena, local jurisdictions prefer close-clustered relations with others, rather than loosely connected relations to central coordinators. The analysis also showed that a small number of county governments primarily play crucial coordinating roles in economic development policy networks of a metropolitan area. On the other hand, the results of the effects of homophily and resources on the selection process of collaborative partners for local development confirm that jurisdictions with insufficient resources more actively search for collaborative partners to supply resources, and that they tend to collaborate with others that share the similar political institutions and socio-economic conditions. The results help us understand the partner selection process in interjurisdictional collaboration in a metropolitan area that standard transaction costs economics cannot account for. By examining informal economic development policy networks in the decentralized metropolitan area, this dissertation provides new insights into understanding how fragmented jurisdictions within a metropolitan area self-organize to resolve problems and conflicts that result from competition between jurisdictions, and what motivations lead collaborative governance among local jurisdictions involved in economic development issues. / 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. / Spring Semester, 2011. / March 29, 2011. / Interjurisdictional Collaboration, Collaborative Governance, Local Economic Development Policy Networks / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; John T. Scholz, University Representative; Frances S. Berry, Committee Member; Kaifeng Yang, Committee Member.

Economic development policy in jurisdictionally fragmented metropolitan areas is often characterized as a competitive environment in which local governments compete for jobs and growth. However, the positive and negative intergovernmental externalities from growth create demands for more integrated development approaches that can address economies of scale, urban sprawl, income inequality, environmental impacts, and other regional issues. This dissertation examines the formation of regional economic development partnerships among local government to explain patterns of local government cooperation in pursuing economic development. The traditional game theoretic approach, based on assumptions that actors are motivated by rational calculation of benefits and costs, provides useful insights for understanding the essence of the collective action problem, but it provides only a limited and incomplete explanation for the emergence and sustainability of regional development collaboration. This dissertation investigates how the social context in which a game is embedded can determine which game the actors are supposed to play and, therefore, shapes the action of players. In other words, social structures should be considered to be both the medium and the outcome of the players' activities. A formal model of regional partnership formation is developed, taking into account actors' attributes and social relations. Propositions regarding how contextual and relational factors affect regional partnership formation are derived from this model and empirically tested. / 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. / Spring Semester, 2009. / December 8, 2008. / Regional Governance, Social Network Theory, Regional Partnership, Game Theory, Collective Action / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; John T. Scholz, Outside Committee Member; Keifeng Yang, Committee Member; Keon-Hyung Lee, Committee Member.

Recent studies on emotional labor address how worker emotional behavior is influenced by and influences organizational routines. To build upon existing theories, this dissertation investigates the determinants and consequences of emotional labor from a perspective on the interaction of self and organization. More specifically, the dissertation offers a model of emotional labor that combines dramaturgical and dispositional approaches. In this model, display rules (the standards for appropriate expression of emotions on the job) and individual/organizational well-being (i.e., emotional exhaustion and service performance) act as the antecedents and consequences of emotional labor respectively. In addition, it posits that there can be mutual influences between organizational settings and personal traits on emotional behavior. Thus, individual differences—including public service motivation and emotional intelligence—are hypothesized to moderate the relationships among the antecedents, dimensions, and consequences of emotional labor. The data for hypothesis testing were collected by means of self-report survey, developed on the basis of a theoretical analysis of relevant literature. Questionnaires were administered to the Certified Public Manager (CPM) program students who are currently working full-time in service occupations in Florida. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and moderated multiple regression (MMR) analysis were employed to test the proposed model. Analytical results provided support for hypotheses set forth regarding the determinants and consequences of emotional labor, while the majority of the moderating hypotheses failed to be supported. The findings include: positive display rules (what to express on the job) contribute to more attempts to modify inner feelings to match the required emotional displays. In contrast, negative display rules (what not to express) result in the adjustment of observable emotional expressions to pretend feeling a desired emotion. Also, the increased emotional inauthenticity opens a window for a greater risk of job stress. In addition, more emotive efforts made by employees to approximate the desired emotion lead to better service performance. However, emotional inauthenticity often results in poor service performance. Finally, workers with higher levels of compassion will exert more efforts to comply with organizational rules and norms and report less emotive dissonance when dealing with clients/customers. Besides, commitment to public interest, compassion, and effective emotional regulation contribute to better service performance. The work advances the understanding of the subtleties of emotional labor in public service roles. Information provided not only reconciles the disputes between the dramaturgical and dispositional approaches of emotional labor, but also allows practitioners to better target their emotion management strategies and limit the potentially harmful consequences to worker health and performance. Findings demonstrate that the attention paid to the tasks performed by employees who work "with heart" to deliver services is of vital importance to enhance public service. / 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. / Summer Semester, 2009. / June 15, 2009. / Emotional Labor, Public Service Delivery, Display Rules, Compassion, Emotional Exhaustion, Service Performance / Includes bibliographical references. / Mary E. Guy, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Ralph S. Brower, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Koji Ueno, Outside Committee Member; James S. Bowman, Committee Member; Kaifeng Yang, Committee Member.

Local economic development is in transition to "green economic development." Local governments in the U.S. and other countries have adopted a variety of policy tools to promote green economic development and are appying them to to their local economies. The success of these efforts may depend on whether local officials have a systematic understanding of green development and how it is different from more conventional economic development approaches. One purpose of this study is to enhance our understanding of green development policy by advancing a theoretical framework and identifying empirical evidence to account for local green econmic development activities and policies. The most basic but essential task is to understand when and how policy tools are used. The factors influencing conventional economic development activities and green economic development activities are drawn from three explanatory approaches in the literature on urban policy and econmic development: the economic pressure model, the political/institutional choice model, and development/environmental coalition model. These explanatory models are adapted and extended to account for energy based green economic development policy including the promotion of energy efficient technology, promotion of renewable energy development, and regulatory relief targeted to energy efficincy and renewables. This investigation produces several potentially important findings. First, local decision makers' perceptions and motivations regarding the importance of green businesses and industries significantly influence the use of each of the four policy tools. Additionally, neighborhood and environmental protection organizations, which have not had much impact on conventional development, have a significant influence on green development policy. Also, a community's standard of living and collaborative activities for green development are linked to regulatory relief for energy efficient technology development by local governments. Some of the same factors that determine conventional economic development activities such as administrative capacity, economic stress, development competition, voters' preference, and support of private organizations also influence the use of green economic development policy tools. An unanticipated finding is that Florida citizens registered as members of the Democratic or Green Party in Florida are less likely to support incentives and regulatory relief for renewable energy development. This curious result may reflect factors unique to Florida or cleavages in environmental voting blocks over renewable energy. Certain renewable energy sources are controversial and are purported to generate energy sprawl and negative environmental externalities. In Florida, renewable energy policy may be associated with Republicans because incentives and regulatory relief have usually been favored tools of the Christ administration. Since 2006, the Republican Party in power has emphasized climate changes and promoted renewable energy development. This study concludes that the development incentives for local green economic development are the product of political bargainig and collective action among stakeholders, rather than a product of economic pressures or conditions. This is in stark contrast with regulatory relief for green economic development. While regulatory relief for the use of energy efficient technology is significantly influenced by economic pressure and conditions, regulatory relief for renewable energy development is substantially influenced by political choice and stakeholders' activities. Comparison of development incentives and regulatory relief also provides new insights. Incentives for energy efficient technology are influenced by political/institutional factors and stakeholders' power and roles. In contrast regulatory relief to promote energy efficient technology development is shaped more by community economic pressures and conditions. However, both incentives and regulatory relief for renewable energy development are influenced by political bargaining and the power of environmental advocacy coalitions. The conclusion urges local governments or decision makers to pay attention to the distinctions highlighted in this analysis in the design, adoption and implementation of policy tools for green economic development. / A Dissertation submitted to the Reubin O’D. Askew Shcool of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2011. / June 10, 2011. / Green Economic Development, Renewable Energy, Efficient Energy Use Technology / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; Timothy C. Chapin, University Representative; Frances S. Berry, Committee Member; Keon-Hyung Lee, Committee Member.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have gained prominence and attention at the local, national and international scene during the last two decades. NGOs are considered as important actors on the landscape of development. The NGO sector in Pakistan is gradually expanding, yet it is less mature as compared to other countries in South Asia. Most of the research available on NGOs studied the importance and role of NGOs, the impact of NGOs on social services and government - NGO relationships. Nevertheless, capacity development, institutional strengthening and leadership development in NGOs have been largely ignored or given less attention. One goal of this study is to fill this gap and study the capacity development and leadership challenges in the NGO sector of Pakistan. Capacity development is one of the central ideas within contemporary international development. This emerges from the belief and experience that addressing social, economic and environmental issues requires greater competencies everywhere in society. This dissertation has three principal purposes: (a) to understand the dynamics and factors shaping the capacity development of NGOs in Pakistan; (b) to elaborate the pressures and challenges faced by NGOs for capacity and leadership development and (c) to generate theoretical propositions for successful capacity building interventions. In the process of achieving these goals a more general understanding of the interactions among the various stake holders in the NGO arena and the internal and external environment of NGOs were studied. This study observes that capacity development is an ongoing and long term activity that involves a wide range of actors whose participation and contributions are important. It is not a onetime activity by an outside agent. Similarly, successful capacity development interventions need to have ownership from those for whom they are designed. It is a multifaceted concept and there is no single accurate way to define and implement it. It is conceptualized and implemented by stakeholders according to their contextual situations and preferences. NGOs are successful in attaining a unique position in the development sector of Pakistan. However, this new and increasing role of NGOs has implications for organizational capacity development and skills of the NGO staff. This study supports the idea that too much emphasis on the top leadership ignores the role and importance of rank and file managers where much of the organizational knowledge exists. Also, the over emphasis on top leadership hinders the capacity development of middle level managers. The government lacks a well-established policy framework with regard to the roles and responsibilities of the NGOs in service delivery and development sector. The findings here suggest that government needs to play a more proactive role by undertaking proper institutional arrangements for NGOs where they can perform and deliver and at the same time they can be held accountable. For survival and sustainability of NGOs it is important to explore alternate sources of funding especially from private philanthropy. People in Pakistan donate large amounts of charity to religious organizations but they do not consider funding NGOs with their charities. Scholars and researchers may explore this issue further. People can be encouraged to consider donating for addressing issues like development and improvements in social services through NGOs. This study proposes that for successful and sustainable capacity development of local NGOs donors have to focus more on local NGOs and establish close ties with them in addition to the larger national level support organizations. Trust is an overarching factor that plays an important role in shaping the partnership between government and NGOs on one hand, and promoting collaboration between donors and the government on the other hand. In order to improve trust relations a genuine understanding of mutual expectations and agreements on different roles and responsibilities is expected of each stakeholder. The findings of this study demonstrate that the capacity development efforts of the three stakeholders are not properly triangulated and there exists a trust deficit among the NGOs, the government and the donors and which needs attention. / 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. / Fall Semester, 2013. / August 12, 2013. / Capacity Development, Development, Foreign Aid, Leadership Development in NGOs, NGOs / Includes bibliographical references. / Ralph S. Brower, Professor Directing Dissertation; Stephen McDowell, University Representative; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member; William Earle Klay, Committee Member.

Interlocal energy collaboration builds upon network structures among local policy actors dealing with energy, climate change and sustainability issues. Collaboration efforts overcome institutional collective action (ICA) dilemmas, and cope with the problems spanning jurisdictional boundaries, externalities, and free-rider problems. Interlocal energy collaboration emerges as the agreements in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction, pollution control, land use, purchasing, retrofits, transportation, and so forth. Cities work collaboratively through contractual mechanisms (i.e. formal/informal agreements) and collective mechanisms (i.e. regional partnerships or membership organizations) on a variety of energy issues. What factors facilitate interlocal energy collaboration? To what extent is collaboration through interlocal contractual mechanisms different from collective mechanisms? This dissertation tries to answer these questions by examining: city goal priority on energy related issues as well as other ICA explanatory factors. Research data are drawn mainly from the 2010 national survey "Implementation of energy efficiency and sustainability program" supported by National Science Foundation and the IBM Endowment for the Business of Government. The research results show that city emphasis on common pool resource, scale economies and externality issues significantly affect individual selection of tools for energy collaboration. When expected transaction costs are extremely high or low, the contractual mechanism of informal agreement is more likely to be selected to preserve most local autonomy and flexibility; otherwise, written and formal tools for collaboration are preferred to impose constraints on individual behavior and reduce the risks of defection. / 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. / Summer Semester, 2011. / July 7, 2011. / Interlocal Collaboration, Energy Policy, Sustainable Development, Climate Protection / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; Kaifeng Yang, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; David Cartes, University Representative; Tingting Zhao, Committee Member; Frances Stokes Berry, Committee Member.

Public sector organizations currently operate in an environment of change and choice (Berry, 2007). In particular, the complex governance and unpredictable nature of the contemporary public sector environment have challenged governments' attempts to improve their performance and accountability. Organizational learning is the key to performance improvement in changing and uncertain environments (Argyris and Schon, 1996; Schein, 1993) because it is based on new knowledge development or performance information use, which in turn enables managers to make better decisions to improve performance. In this respect, organizational learning is an important component of the current performance management reforms or managing for results, which focus on collecting, distributing, and using performance information to improve government organizations' performance. Although organizational learning is a critical domain in performance management, empirical understanding of organizational learning in the public sector settings is limited. Thus, this study attempts to advance both theoretical and empirical research on organizational learning in the public sector, using data from the Organizational Learning and Performance Management Survey 2010: Florida Municipal Governments. The overall research question of this dissertation is: what factors influence organizational learning in Florida municipal governments? In particular, this study attempts to assess if there are differences in the antecedents of single-loop and double-loop learning. In this study, therefore, we use two dependent variables which consist of indicators for single-loop and double-loop learning respectively, in our models to examine a facilitative environment or condition for organizational learning. To answer this research question, based on past research, this study develops a theory composed of six factors to assess what seems to impact single and double-loop learning based on: 1) structural factors, 2) cultural factors, 3) learning forums, 4) performance management systems, 5) network characteristics, and 6) external stakeholder's participation. We found strong support for our organizational learning models, and variables representing each of the six theoretical factors were significant. Research results indicated that there are some different patterns of effects and different impacts for single-loop and double-loop learning. The goal and mission orientation, strategic planning, external networks, and political officials' participation are facilitative factors to double-loop learning but do not have a significant relationship to single-loop learning, while the utilization of IT is important to single-loop learning but not to double-loop learning. Moreover, the impacts of decentralization, risk-taking culture, and learning forums are stronger in double-loop learning than in single-loop learning, while the impact of internal network is greater on single-loop learning than on double-loop learning. Low formalization, resources, and benchmarking, however, were unexpectedly found to have negative relationships with at least one type of organizational learning. Moreover, we found the mediating effect of single-loop learning on double-loop learning. Overall, the findings provide insight into antecedents of and strategies for fostering single-loop and double-loop learning, and ultimately performance improvement of local governments. / 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. / Fall Semester, 2010. / October 19, 2010. / Single-loop Learning, Double-loop Learning, Performance Management, Networks, Local Governments / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances Stokes Berry, Professor Directing Dissertation; Koji Ueno, University Representative; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member; Kaifeng Yang, Committee Member.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-86). / The research question examines how conceptual and contextual problems affect the measurement validity of policies directed at Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in South Africa. This study looks at the definition of concepts used in policies directed at OVC in South Africa and to what extente these concepts lend themselves measurement. The research focused on two specific concepts related to OVC policy: 'OVC' and 'stigma'.

abstract: The purpose of this study is threefold: highlight the present health, self-sufficiency and integration needs and assets of asylum seekers in Phoenix, Arizona during the asylum seeking process phase (while an asylum claim is awaiting a decision); understand the City of Phoenix’s response to asylum seekers; and contextualize and compare the city’s present response to increased arrivals of asylum seekers against municipal responses in other contexts and academic discussions of the “local turn.”. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews with asylum seekers and community leaders, this study finds that asylum seekers’ physiological healthcare needs are sometimes met through emergency department admissions and referrals to sliding scale services by caseworkers in the International Rescue Committee’s Asylum-Seeking Families program in Phoenix. Mental and behavioral health service needs are less likely to be met, especially for women who want to speak with a medical professional about their traumatic experiences in Central America, trip through Mexico, detention in the United States (U.S.) and their often-marginalized lives in the U.S. This dissertation concomitantly explores how other municipalities in the U.S. and internationally have responded to increased immigration of asylum seekers and refugees to urban centers, and how certain approaches could be adopted in the City of Phoenix to better serve asylum seekers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Transborder Studies 2020

Includes bibliographical references. / Since 1994 a strong legal and policy framework has been in place to ensure that women are adequately represented and treated as equals to their male counterparts. Affirmative action is the official programme used by the government to ensure that, among other things, women are fast tracked into the public service. This thesis examines the extent to which women are represented in provincial government and the possible barriers, if any, confronting them in their career advancement. A mixed-method approach incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data is used in this study.