Over the past several decades, local governments have provided public services through a dynamic process including direct public delivery and market contracts. These public service delivery modes have been influenced by the dominant paradigms in contemporary public administration such as New Public Management (NPM) and Public Value Management (PVM). This study aims to examine factors influential in choosing public service delivery modes in local governments. Influential factors are divided into three main categories. The first category is public values as perceived by public managers. The second category is related to organizational environments. The third category is associated with characteristics of public services. This study focuses on public service delivery in County and City governments in Virginia. In order to test hypotheses, I use two sets of data: a survey and the U.S. Census. First, the survey measures public values, organizational environments, and public service characteristics. The survey population consists of 95 Counties and 39 Independent Cities in Virginia. The total number of County Administrators and City Managers who responded to the survey was 70. Second, the U.S. Census provides demographic information. In analyzing data to address research questions, I use descriptive analysis and a binary logistical regression model. Findings indicate that the more County Administrators and City Managers perceive the importance of efficiency and customer orientation values from New Public Management in determining public service delivery modes, the more local governments choose contracting out. In contrast, the more County Administrators and City Managers perceive the importance of fairness, political accountability, and employee safety values from Public Value Management in determining public service delivery modes, the more local governments choose delivery by public. / Ph. D.

Information is considered to be the organization's greatest asset and an important strategic resource. To have access to accurate information affects the organization's efficiency and goal fulfillment. Information and exchange of information in a government organization is particularly important because the organization has responsibilities towards two different parties linked to each other, the individual as part of the public and governments appointed by the public. Legislation, regulations and system support have been developed in order to protect both the individual and the organization. Rules and procedures go hand in hand and are used to ensure that the right person partakes in the welfare system at the right time. But there are situations that require more information than the organization has access to and where the exchange of information between authorities and other organizations is the only way for the individual's rights to be met. It is important that efficiency does not come at the expense of personal integrity or a loss of trust in the organization. In this study I have looked at the impact that information and information exchange have on case management within the Swedish Pensions Agency. I have taken part of current exchange of information and the principles on which it is based. To be able to reflect on what impact information has on integrity and trust in the welfare system I have looked at relevant research. Furthermore, I have interviewed six key persons who have a strategic responsibility in area of importance for the Swedish Pensions Agency's information exchange between organizations and authorities. I have reached the conclusion that information and access to it is associated withintegrity and trust in the welfare system and public values.

abstract: In the U.S., one of the most affluent countries in the world, hunger and food waste are two social problems that coexist in an ironic way. Food banks have become one key alternative solution to those problems because of their capacity to collect and distribute surplus food to those in need as well as to mobilize collective efforts of various organizations and citizens. However, the understanding of U.S. food banking remains limited due to research gaps in the literature. Previous public values research fails to address the key role of nonprofit organizations in achieving public values, while prior nonprofit and food bank studies suffer from insufficiently reflecting the value-driven nature in evaluating overall social impacts. Inspired by these gaps, this study asks the following question: how does food banking in the U.S. respond to public value failure? To address this question, this study employs the interpretive approach as the logic of inquiry and the public value mapping framework as the analytic tool to contemplate the overall social impacts of U.S. food banking. Data sources include organizational documents of 203 U.S. food banks, as well as other public documents and literature pertaining to U.S. food banks. Using public value mapping analysis, this study constructs a public value logic, which manifests the dynamics of prime and instrumental values in the U.S. food banking context. Food security, sustainability, and progressive opportunity are identified as three core prime public values. Instrumental values in this context consist of two major value categories: (1) intra-organizational values and (2) inter-and ultra-organizational values. Furthermore, this study applies public value failure criteria to examine success or failure of public values in this context. U.S. Food banks do contribute to the success of public sphere, progressive opportunity, sustainability and food security. However, the practice of U.S. food banks also lead to the failure of food security in some conditions. This study develops a new public value failure criterion based on the inherent limitations of charitable service providers. Main findings, contributions, and future directions are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Public Administration 2017

This paper presents a case study examination of the Commonwealth of Virginia\'s public higher education market and the use of asymmetrical information flows between providers and consumers by college and university institutions to intentionally create market failures to maximize brand building through increased revenue collections via profit maximization behaviors. Existing economic research in the financial services market hold that asymmetry of information generates inefficient allocation of goods and subsequent identification of market failure conditions. Market failures can lead to tipping points which may result in public values failures as threats to human subsistence (i.e. food, clothing, education) and imperfect public information. Market failures resulting in public values failures warrant government intervention to correct market inefficiency and ensure pareto efficiency in the allocation of goods. Mandatory non-educational fees increase the cost to attend a post-secondary institution which subsequently aid in increased student debt and reduced access and affordability for low income classification groups thus exacerbating societal cleavages identified as public values failures. This research identifies the application of economic and public administration theory to construct a policy recommendation to mitigate asymmetrical information and improve pareto efficiency involving transactions in the public higher education market. / Master of Public Administration

Development of goals (desired future conditions (DFCs)) based on substantial public involvement is critical to the success of ecosystem management on public lands. I evaluated DFCs of riparian areas on national forests in the southern Appalachian mountains and evaluated a process for involving the public in development of DFCs for riparian areas on the Jefferson National Forest. First, I identified the major components, structures, and functions that are essential to riparian health through a literature review. Second, I examined how the key components, structures, and functions identified in the literature review were addressed in the DFCs and standards and guidelines for eight southeastern national forest management plans. In reviewing forest plans, I found a clear shift from emphasizing water quality in older forest plans to a more comprehensive incorporation of the values and functions of riparian areas in more recent plans. Riparian attributes included in DFCs varied widely and disparities between DFCs for forest plans and measurable criteria in the standards and guidelines often occurred. Finally, I designed, tested, and evaluated a public involvement process that identified public values for use in the development of DFCs for riparian areas on the Jefferson National Forest. I used a combination of alternative dispute resolution techniques and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a participatory decision-making tool. I used surveys before and after the riparian meetings to evaluate the effectiveness of the public involvement process. Survey respondents generally were middle-aged, well-educated, high-income males who were long-time residents of the area. Riparian meeting participants indicated that the DFC for riparian areas on the JNF should strongly emphasize water quality and quantity, protection of riparian-dependent species and their habitats, and maintenance of the integrity of the relationship between riparian areas and the surrounding environment. Participants indicated recreational and commodity uses of riparian areas could occur as long as they did not negatively affect the other, more highly valued characteristics of riparian areas. Participants felt that the meetings were fair, that diverse interests were represented, that they had enough information to participate in the process, and that it was a wise use of their time. / Ph. D.

The essay aims to empirically examine which public administration values that are used when recruiting municipal directors, with a focus on whether job advertisements contain a comprehensive picture of this important public mission, which can contribute to suitable people applying for this type of position. The purpose is limited to the following questions, which we intend to construct a theoretical framework around in order to be able to answer at a later stage: • Which public values are prominent in job advertisements for the recruitment of municipal directors and which values appear to a limited extent or not at all? • How are public values formulated in job advertisements for municipal directors in the form of word choice and reasoning? • What does the process look like in the creation of job advertisements for municipal directors? Recruiting well in terms of presenting from the beginning a comprehensive picture of the values and tasks of the position is important; especially in public administrations as employment affects the social-, political-, and economic parts of society. The issue of recruitment becomes interesting, as we can study to what extent democratic and economic values that managers need to relate to emerge already in the initial phase of recruitment. The municipal director becomes particularly relevant because he/she works in an organization that manages several welfare services within a broad spectrum with a large turnover. Through an empirical analysis of a quantitative and qualitative nature of job advertisements and e-mail interviews, we can conclude that it is economic values that primarily appear in the job advertisements. The descriptive study has managed to produce data which indicates that there is a local variation of values, that the complexity of the role does not emerge, it focuses to a large extent on economic values. This data may be useful for future studies that may conceivably investigate potential institutional change in public management or if party affiliation affects the content of the advertisement.

abstract: Each of the three essays in this dissertation examine an aspect of health or health care in society. Areas explored within this dissertation include health care as a public value, proscriptive genomic policies, and socio-technical futures of the human lifespan. The first essay explores different forms of health care systems and attempts to understand who believes access to health care is a public value. Using a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. citizens, this study presents statistically significant empirical evidence regarding values and other attributes that predict the probability of individuals within age-based cohorts identifying access to health care as a public value. In the second essay, a menu of policy recommendations for federal regulators is proposed in order to address the lack of uniformity in current state laws concerning genetic information. The policy recommendations consider genetic information as property, privacy protections for re-identifying de-identified genomic information, the establishment of guidelines for law enforcement agencies to access nonforensic databases in criminal investigations, and anti-piracy protections for individuals and their genetic information. The third and final essay explores the socio-technical artifacts of the current health care system for documenting both life and death to understand the potential for altering the future of insurance, the health care delivery system, and individual health outcomes. Through the development of a complex scenario, this essay explores the long-term socio-technical futures of implementing a technology that continuously collects and stores genetic, environmental, and social information from life to death of individual participants. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology 2019

This thesis addresses topics of public values and decision making in relation to the use of technology in the public sector. The research is conducted in the Swedish government context. A range of values that is specific to the public sector has been defined and classified in prior research. These public values can be defined as normative agreements of how a government should act. The Swedish government spends SEK 46.5 billion on information technology every year. Some of these funds are invested in improvements that are intended to increase efficiency and openness, as well as to make it easier for citizens to use government services. Such ambitions are studied in the e-Government research field. The literature suggests that reasons to question the promised values of implementing technology in the public sector exist and that many initiatives ultimately fail. The public sector has some unique features that may increase complexity, such as the variety of stakeholders and multitude of organizations that are both involved in the development process and affected by the outcomes. The purpose of this thesis is to explore public values and decision making in the Swedish e-Government context by posing three research questions. 1: How can public values be utilized in decision making? 2: Under what conditions are decisions made in the studied context? 3: How can value-based decision making be adopted by e-Government practice? The thesis is based on quantitative and qualitative data gathered from case studies and a survey. Its theoretical contribution is a comparison of theoretical concepts from decision theory and public values, which are then applied to e-Government. Several fragmented concepts from e-Government can be tied together under decision theory. The study’s results show that many decisions are taken under a great deal of uncertainty due to the absence of formal support mechanisms. The Swedish public administration leans toward a variety of project models in its work with e-Government, and these models constitute the arena in which decisions are made and risk analysis is performed. However, many risks as well as opportunities reside beyond the studied projects’ control. Holistic stakeholder inclusion and risk analysis are suggested as practices beneficial for increasing value and reducing uncertainty. The thesis concludes by suggesting that further research should continue to apply concepts from decision theory on e-Government. This includes revealing the motivations and values behind digitalization of the public sector. / <p>Vid tidpunkten för försvar av avhandlingen var följande delarbeten opublicerade: delarbete 3 och 4 accepterade.</p><p>At the time of the defence the following papers were accepted, but unpublished: Paper 3 and Paper 4.</p>

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / This research report sets up a model of policy development at Traditional Authority level in Namibia that is then used in examining the Ovambanderu constitutional case. Reference to the Generic Model, as used by de Coning (2000) and the Moore (1995) Strategic Triangle is not new or original to this thesis. These models have been used elsewhere and were considered as appropriate for this case study due to the complexity of the issues under consideration. This study attempts to demonstrate the importance of applying public policy models and theories to policy making in Namibia. Firstly, the author has applied the generic model to the Ovambanderu case to elicit information pertaining to the process followed in drafting the constitution. Secondly, the Moore Strategic Triangle was used in furthering discussion on the importance of considering phases and stages in the public policy process, which touch on such aspects as political feasibility, substantive value and administrative feasibility (Moore, 1995). The emphasis here was on the importance of dynamism in the policy-making process, not as a once off event but as an ongoing process. This research report shows that public policy/constitution making needs specialised skills in order for it to be a success. Capacity needs to be sourced and used appropriately, while objectives of the policy/constitution are communicated clearly to the stakeholders. Again the fear amongst the community that once a policy/constitution is implemented it becomes binding and difficult to change needs to be addressed by clearly informing people that a policy remains a statement of intent until it is put to use and once it is implemented there is always room for improvement on issues that may create problems for the affected parties. Another important lesson is the fact that public policy making has been and remains a process as it involves bargaining, issue prioritisation, issue filtration, advocacy, reporting and consultation before decisions are made. The Ovambanderu constitutional problem has now set a scene for better policy planning at Traditional Authority level and the government needs to consider this as a serious phenomenon that can lead to major problems if ignored

In today's rapidly evolving digital age, the relationship between citizens and government entities has undergone a transformative shift, primarily facilitated by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Transformational Government (T-Gov) is considered a technological innovation and a shift to a new entrepreneurial culture from inefficient, unaccountable bureaucracy generally observed within public organizations. T-Gov involves e-government, business process reengineering, and business scope revaluation with the ambition to be more citizen-centric. This thesis presents in an aggregated fashion ICT tools and technologies that ameliorate interaction between citizens and public organizations by providing solutions to frequent issues that citizens raise as part of transformational government. When presenting those ICT tools, it is essential to depict how ICT tools and technologies are transforming public values and how assessing the maturity level of the tools for a more comprehensive retrospect of how digital tools have metamorphosed citizens, public organizations, and public officials' interactions. Here then comes the research problem as there is a lack of systematic review on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tools support to address citizens' issues as part of government transformation and a scarcity of systematic examination of the overall maturity landscape. Hence, research questions have been formulated: What ICT tools and technologies are available to address frequent issues citizens raise to public organizations to improve public services? What is the maturity level of those ICT tools and technologies? Which were answered by conducting a survey through a systematic literature review strategy. The data collection included identifying articles and systematically selecting relevant ones through screening criteria and then extracting data from those articles. The data analysis method was done through a thematic approach to extract public values embedded in those ICT tools and assess their maturity level. Supportive tools like Atlas.ti and concept matrix-assisted in extracting emerging themes from those ICT tools. These emerging themes are public values offered by those ICT tools and technologies. The maturity level assessment of each ICT tool and technology grouped into ICT solutions was based on the general availability of the solution in the market. However, the Technology Readiness Level method (TRL) evaluated each ICT tool and technology contextually. The results were an exhaustive list of ICT Solutions, each being a set of ICT tools, mapped to the public values they deliver and Citizens' frequent issues they address. The result incorporated the maturity level of each ICT tool and the ICT Solution. The maturity from the market level was also included. The discussion explained in detail how ICT tools and technologies have transformed each public value delivered by public organizations. In conclusion, grounded on the results, this thesis has brought to light at an in-depth level how matured ICT tools and technologies have substantially transformed public values by analyzing profoundly the state of each public value offered before and after the deployment of each ICT solution within public organizations, laying a pace to a strategic adoption of these solutions, thus contributing to more efficient, citizen-centric public services, which implies addressing citizens issues.