1 Independent administrative agencies Abstract Independent administrative authorities have emerged as an alternative to the classical administration, which was interwoven with shortcomings resulting from its organization. The answer to some of these failings was to be the independence of agency, which promised to eliminate the risk of political or economic influence, promote greater transparency and efficiency through expert-based leadership. However, independent agencies, while proving to be functional, were set up chaotically and unconceptually across diverse states, leading to them being perceived as marginal anomalies rather than as having a key role in a state's administration. And yet they have been entrusted with the management of so many important areas of everyday life, such as personal data protection, audio-visual broadcasting, energy, competition, etc. Moreover, their unconceptual creation made it impossible for a long time for these agencies to be easily defined and described by their main characteristics, as each agency differed from the other. In addition, there was another problem - their cardinal feature, i.e. independence, became an area of legal friction, because in the classical European civil law we cannot allow an agency that would not be subject to the supreme body of executive power....

This thesis replicates Herbert Kaufman's study of the administrative behavior of federal bureau chiefs at the state level. Kaufman asserted that bureau chiefs are not as autonomous as we depicted. Their behavior is confined by the legal, institutional, political and operational constraints. This thesis supports Kaufman's findings--except that it's more optimistic about the occurrence of innovative changes in public agencies. This study looks at six state agency heads of the State of Virginia. Their behavior is examined from the conception of "responsibility." Chapter One argues that responsibility connotes two aspects of meaning: objective and subjective. Objective responsibility is ensured through the constraints placed on bureaucrats. Contents of these constraints are examined in Chapter Two. The findings show that these agency heads are behaving in ways consistent with the limits set by the constraints. / Master of Public Administration

The compliance theory of Amitai Etizioni was employed as a base for the assessment of involvement and power to describe the role of the secretary in organizational administrative units. The majority of Certified Professional Secretaries reported their involvement as moral and the power exerted by their supervisors as normative. Moral involvement and normative power are congruent, and thus effectiveness is assumed. Most of the correlates of the compliance theory further supported the described congruency of moral involvement and normative power. Those organizational elites who serve in supervisory roles with the Certified Professional Secretaries supported the moral involvement and normative power descriptions reported by the CPSs. In a majority of cases, noncertified secretaries in the administrative units also supported the congruency reported by the Certified Professional Secretaries. The minority group of Certified Secretaries who reported moral involvement but remunerative power described incongruent situations. Much of the correlational data further described situations of disharmony in these incongruent units. However, the power and involvement reported by the supervisors and the noncertified secretaries in these units failed to support the incongruencies reported by the CPSs. The defined role of the secretary morally involved and normatively controlled is a description of an entrenchment in a traditional role for a large group of workers who are hindered in their attempts to reach goals which are more supportive of their societal role and recent status attainments. The congruency of moral involvement and normative power is a natural and historically reinforced · situation. Recent emphasis on professionalism for secretaries further reinforces the entrenchment. If a movement is to occur, it is most likely to be successful if initiated and powered from within with efforts which are directed against reinforcement of normative power and moral involvement and toward remunerative power and calculative involvement. Role and title changes for secretaries are suggested and educational training activities which give emphasis to calculative involvements and remunerative power control are recommended. / Ed. D.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

Numerous models of IS success and technology acceptance their extensions have been proposed and applied in empirical. This study continues this tradition and extends the body of knowledge on the topic of IS success by developing a more comprehensive model for measuring IS success and technology acceptance within a government organization. The proposed model builds upon three established IS success and technology acceptance frameworks namely the DeLone and McLean (2003), Venkatesh et al.'s (2003) unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), and Wixom and Todd (2005). The findings from this study provide not only a comprehensive IS success assessment model but also insights into whether and how IS success models are influenced by application variables as applied within a government organization. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed for instrument refinement and validity test of the existing and proposed models. Using data from employees of a local government municipal, the comprehensive model explained 32 percent variance. Four of the hypothesis were fully supported five were not supported, and four were partially supported. In addition, the results suggest that behavioral intention may not be the best predictor of technology acceptance in a mandatory environment.

Thesis. 1979. M.C.P.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 116-126. / M.C.P.

The specific aims of this study were determined on a conceptual appreciation that management of information assets and services in some government agencies was deficient in meeting both existing and developing demands. This appreciation manifested itself in a commitment to investigate the principles and processes intrinsic to existing management methodologies, to relate these processes to the needs of users, and to determine a strategy which could more ably meet the information provision requirements of those users. The achievement of these aims predicated the use of the case study research method, selecting as the first case study the Department of Human Services and Health (DHSH), an agency that had recognised that a problem existed in the provision of information services, and had initiated action to address that problem. As a counter, the Department of Defence, an agency which adrmts to a problem, but which had yet to initiate an active, global program for its resolution, was chosen as the second case study. A theoretical model, which reflects extant international thinking and practice, was initially constructed in order to establish a basis on which to ascertain and evaluate the information management circumstances of the two case study departments. This model specified the objectives considered to be fundamental to effective information management in a public service environment. It included studying the foundation repositories of information services from which information in the portfolio domains of government are sought. These services are the traditional records centres or registries, the library services which provide a repository of published and grey material in printed, image and magnetic formats, and the computerised networks holding electronic records at varying levels of development. An analysis of findings was carried out separately on each case study agency before bringing the data together for cross-case analysis. In order to maximise the veracity and validity of the data collected and its subsequent interpretation by the researcher, the draft analysed case study findings were submitted to the respective agencies for review and critique. All matters of substance received have been incorporated in the final version. The findings from the two case studies and the cross-case analysis confm that, despite significant advances in some specific agencies, the initial hypothesis that government agencies are still deficient in providing optimum services to meet the information needs of users, is demonstrated. The advances that have been made, however, similarly support the other thesis hypotheses that the implementation of an integrated information management strategy in any government agency will provide a foundation for improved information provision and the timely delivery of relevant available information to the user. Finally, a model of optimum processes involved in such a strategy, derived from the theory and practical products of this study, is offered. This could be the subject for future evaluation and testing for realistic and functional application.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

Univ., Habil.-Schr.--Potsdam, 2005.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration