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This thesis reports the results of an investigation of some public relations activities of one city manager government--that of Fort Worth, Texas, under L. P. Cookingham.

The internship with the Management Services Division of the Office of the City Manager in Dallas, Texas, provided opportunities to observe and participate in management and supervisory techniques and practices. The administrative environment of the Office of the City Manager provided the opportunities to assist the three Assistant Managers in the performance of their respective activities. Projects and assignments were discussed with these officials as were the personal views of administration and supervision of each Assistant Manager. The major portion of the internship was spent researching and writing reports on different projects assigned by the Assistant Managers. Research techniques, leadership theories, and interviewing concepts were practiced and tested.

The purpose of this thesis was to develop and test a causal model of Texas city manager policy role orientation. The first chapter contains a selective review of major works concerning the city manager and the council manager plan. From these works, research perspectives and variables thought to affect managerial policy behavior were identified. A policy role orientation typology was constructed from nine role questions. Four "types" of managers were identified. After a review of the characteristics of the Texas council-manager cities and managers surveyed, the analysis of the isolated variables was carried out. A causal model of managerial policy role orientation was developed and the predictions and assumptions were tested. Further study was indicated, due to the model's failure.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Iowa University, 1917. / Published also as University of Iowa monograph. 1st ser., no. 18, July 1918. Studies in the social sciences, v. 1.

abstract: Research on government innovation has focused on identifying factors that contribute to higher levels of innovation adoption. Even though various factors have been tested as contributors to high levels of innovation adoption, the independent variables have been predominantly contextual and community characteristics. Previous empirical studies shed little light on chief executive officers' (CEOs) attitudes, values, and behavior. Result has also varied with the type of innovation examined. This research examined the effect of CEOs' attitudes and behaviors, and institutional motivations on the adoption of sustainability practices in their municipalities. First, this study explored the relationship between the adoption level of sustainability practices in local government and CEOs' entrepreneurial attitudes (i.e. risk taking, proactiveness, and innovativeness) and discovery skills (i.e. associating, questioning, experimenting, observing, and networking) that have not been examined in prior research on local government innovation. Second, the study explored the impact of organizational intention to change and isomorphic pressures (i.e., coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures) and the availability and limit of organizational resources on the early adoption of innovations in local governments. Third, the study examines how CEOs' entrepreneurial attitudes and discovery skills, and institutional motivations account for high and low sustaining levels of innovation over time by tracking how much their governments have adopted innovations from the past to the present. Lastly, this study explores their path effects CEOs' entrepreneurial attitudes, discovery skills, and isomorphic pressures on sustainability innovation adoption. This is an empirical study that draws on a survey research of 134 CEOs who have influence over innovation adoption in their local governments. For collecting data, the study identified 264 municipalities over 10,000 in population that have responded to four surveys on innovative practices conducted by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) in past eight years: the Reinventing local government survey (2003), E-government survey (2004), Strategic practice (2006), and the Sustainability survey (2010). This study combined the information about the adoption of innovations from four surveys with CEOs' responses in the current survey. Socio-economic data and information about variations in form of government were also included in the data set. This study sheds light on the discovery skills and institutional isomorphic pressures that influence the adoption of different types of innovations in local governments. This research contributes to a better understanding of the role of administrative leadership and organizational isomorphism in the dynamic of innovation adoption, which could lead to improvements in change management of organizations. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Public Administration 2013

Ever since the middle of the twentieth century the public sector has expanded greatly with an increasing number of civil servants. Politicians however keep getting fewer and fewer with less capability of monitoring said public sector. This creates a tension between democracy and bureaucracy that begs the question how society should adjust to these changes. How should the relationship between politicians and public servants be managed and how should responsibilities be divided between them? Too much responsibility given to public servants runs the risk of lowering chances of public transparency and accountability. Too much responsibility given to politicians may however decrease the efficiency and capability of tend-ing to the citizen’s needs in the public sector. Regardless of how the issue is approached there needs to be a formal division of responsibilities. A lack of or unclear division of responsibility will decrease citizen’s possibility of holding politicians and public officials accountable. It also helps clarify to what extent crossing the boundaries between politics and bureaucracy is allowed. A prime example of a public servant that is caught in between the opposite sides of politics and bureaucracy are city managers, who lead the municipalities along with local politicians. They serve as illustrations of how responsibility may be divided and what roles are expected of leading public servants. To study this, instructions for city managers has been used as material. The method for this study has been quantitative content analysis. The results show that city managers firstly are expected to act as "managers" inspired by New Public Management. At the same time to a rather large extent they are expected to act as "controllers", a neutral follower of political will like in traditional Weberian models for management of the public sector. This creates a contrast between an independent and pro- active city manager that prioritizes efficiency with an obedient and passive manager that prioritizes political control. Both internal administrative and political arenas become relevant, while surrounding arenas and contact with external parties are less prioritized. Political major-ities and the size of a municipality appear to have none or marginal effects on what role is preferred and how responsibility is divided.

Theses (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2017 / The purpose of the study was to examine the perceptions of senior managers on the upper limits policy for the remuneration of senior managers at Polokwane Municipality. In 2014 the Minister responsible for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in South Africa published a notice on the implementation of upper limits for the remuneration of senior managers across all municipalities in South Africa. The notice signified a new paradigm in the local government remuneration practice in the local government sphere. Local government remuneration in South Africa was characterised by lack of uniformity and negative public perceptions on the huge salaries that senior managers in local government earned. There are substantial variations in municipal salary structures and benefits, municipal managers’ salaries vary between R155 424 and R1, 3 million per year (National Treasury Local Government Budgets and Expenditure Review, 2001/02 – 2007/08). The South African media published stories articles on senior local government managers who earns more than the president of the republic. The public scrutiny on the remuneration in local government was compared to the standard of service delivery in their areas, and often there was no relationship between the remuneration of the senior managers and the performance of their municipalities. The implementation of the upper limits policy in 2014 meant that for the first time in the democratic South Africa, the remuneration of senior managers in local government was regulated. This meant a shift from a practice of senior manager’s negotiated remuneration to nationally regulated remuneration. The implementation of the Upper Limits policy had the potential of de-stabilising the local government sector in terms of senior manager’s recruitment, retention and availability of skills due to the low remuneration that the policy has introduced. v The research was conducted at Polokwane Municipality and the study sampled all senior managers of Polokwane Municipality. The researcher opted for a qualitative research approach and utilised semi-structured interview schedule to gather data. The research findings indicate that all senior managers (7) of Polokwane Municipality perceived the upper limits policy negatively and they were not in support of its implementation. The research indicated that the reasons for the negative perception was that the Upper Limits Policy was not properly introduced at Polokwane Municipality. The researcher recommends that Polokwane Municipality needs to formally introduce the Upper Limits Policy to senior managers. This needs to be done through conducting workshops on the policy.