Argyris and Schon (1996, p.xvii) contend, "it is conventional wisdom that business firms, governments, nongovernmental organizations, schools, health care systems, regions…need to adapt to changing environments, draw lessons from past successes and failures, detect and correct the errors of the past, anticipate and respond to impending threats, conduct experiments, engage in continuing innovation, build and realize images of a desirable future." Argyris refers to this as "the learning imperative." All of the organizations and tasks mentioned directly relate to the constant activities of a legislative body. These external actors, as described by Argyris, are engaged but outside the internal process. They seek to influence both process and final product, but now must do so in an environment of constant change due to the imposition of term limits. The legislative processes in the Florida House of Representatives consistently provide examples of single-loop learning. Errors and problems emerge, legislation is introduced, designed to provide remedy, and the cycle is repeated. But, according to Argyris (2000, p.4), "genuine learning involves an extra step, in which you reflect on your assumptions and test the validity of your hypothesis," which is characterized as double-loop learning, a critical ingredient for a learning organization. This paper identifies weaknesses in the learning activities of the Florida House of Representatives as well as impediments to the implementation of improved organizational learning processes. By using interviews with key actors it identifies the various factors that affect the policy consideration process in this setting, including frequent turnover of membership, leadership, staff leadership, and committee staffing and membership. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2007. / June 11, 2007. / Legislatures, Organizational Learning, Learning Organizations, Policy Processes / Includes bibliographical references. / Earle Klay, Professor Directing Dissertation; Randall Holcombe, Outside Committee Member; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member; Frances Berry, Committee Member.

This dissertation empirically tests existing theories that have been used to explain the capacity of nonprofit sectors within and across nations. Firstly, this study briefly reviews each theory and discusses how each can usefully be extended to explain the existence and the capacity of nonprofits. A framework was developed from existing literature and tests the explanatory power of competing theories about the presence of nonprofits (NPOs) within and across nations. This study aimed to systematically explore the theoretical and empirical foundations of nonprofits' existence and capacity in order to contribute to the development of a more general framework of this phenomenon. It is hoped that this comprehensive conceptualization of NPOs capacity and existence will provide a ladder between existing and future research and provide guidance for better understanding NPOs. In addition, the cross-national component of this study is intended to explore the explanatory power of existing models for settings other than national culture in which most of them were created. Our results provide support for several theoretical perspectives the explaining variation in nonprofit sector capacity in a given community. Our analysis revealed a number of detailed findings about socioeconomic and institutional determinants of nonprofit service provision. Most of these are consistent with earlier studies. Theories that mostly focus on demand or need for nonprofits argument were not supported very well. Theories that focus on supply side and institutional theories appear to give us the stronger explanations for how nonprofit sector size varies across the communities. As discussed in the research findings, this study has made valuable contributions to the understanding and insights about how local conditions affect nonprofit existence and capacity analysis. From the results of the comprehensive data analysis and procedures, this study concludes that local condition affects existence and capacity of nonprofit sector. It is expected that the information produced and the implications of the study may be of help to nonprofit managers, policy-makers, and scholars to build more comprehensive understanding of nonprofits. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Public Policy in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2006. / October 30, 2006. / Cross-National Nonprofits, Nonprofit Therories, Nonprofit Existence, Nonprofit Capacity / Includes bibliographical references. / Ralph S. Brower, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lee P. Stepina, Outside Committee Member; Richard Chackerian, Committee Member; William E. Klay, Committee Member.

What are the causes of administrative reform? Even though the question is critical in understanding administrative reform efforts and their impacts on administration and society, much remains to be understood about this process. In this dissertation, I will examine the following research question : What accounts for the occurrence of two types of state-level administrative reform - the adoption of performance-based budgeting legislation and comprehensive state executive branch reorganization ? I focus on these reforms because they are core administrative reform processes. More importantly, the examination of two reforms within a single study provides an opportunity to examine the differences in the adoption prospects and process (Chackerian and Mavima, 2001). Administrative reform matters. Government structural reorganization has been used to cope with rising fiscal stress, the lack of managerial control over state bureaucracies (Franklin, 2000; Gortner, Mabler, & Nicholson, 1997; Meier,1980), and is not infrequently part of the political rhetoric in campaigns (Garnet 1980; Chackerian 1996). Budget reform also has been used to cope with economic and fiscal pressures, citizen demands for better program outcomes and low taxes (Berry, Brower, & Flowers, 2000). Administrative arrangements are crucial since they affect "who gets what" and the flow of costs and benefits over time. They have distributional consequences among interested actors (Feiock & Stream, 1998). My framework attempts to integrate the micro level political market approach with macro perspectives that point to the importance of external forces. There are diverse administrative reform theoretical perspectives. In my view, administrative reform can be explained in terms of the political market in which elected officials provide administrative reform to constituents based on their costs and benefits and constituents supply political support based on their costs and benefits (Feiock & Stream, 1988; Keohane, Revesz, & Stavins, 1997; Dixit, 1996). However, these micro aspects of the political market are embedded in macro environmental forces such as institutions and more general socio-economic conditions (Chackerian, 1996; DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Berry & Berry, 1990). Therefore it is important to consider the macro environmental forces as well as the micro political market factors simultaneously. The units of analysis for this study are forty-eight U.S. continental states. Annual data for each of the variables in this study were collected for 48 U.S. continental states for the 17-year time period 1980 to 1996. The reason why I choose the year 1980 is related to "new federalism" and the beginning of the Reagan administration. From that time, not only were federal grants to states severely cut, but also states played more important roles in the federal system. This new trend, the so-called "Resurgence of the States" (Bowman, 1998) or "New Federalism" (Dye, 1990), provide the ideal context to study state government activities in terms of administrative reform. In addition, I choose 48 U.S. continental states to capture neighboring state effects on administrative reform. To answer the research question of what accounts for state administrative reform, I will integrate both the micro and macro factors and also consider the interaction effects among the factors. Micro factors are elements in the political market in which political exchange occurs between demand-side forces such as individual tax burden, conservative citizen ideology, fiscal stress, bureaucratic density, and business density and supply-side forces such as institutional turnover, conservative government ideology, unified government, and electoral competition. However, these micro factors do not exist in a vacuum, but are embedded in more broad macro forces. In this model, I consider four macro forces such as neighbor adoption, professional organization density, economic growth, and population density. In addition, I expect some interaction effects between the micro and macro factors. I used Event History Analysis as statistical method of my research. Based on the analysis, I found several important factors that have effects on the adoption of administrative reform some in common for both reforms, some unique to each. The factor that is common to both types of administrative reform is individual tax. Unique factors in regard to budgeting are: bureaucratic density, legislative turnover, and electoral competition. The adoption of performance budget reform occurs less when the power of bureaucracy is greater, more when there is legislative turnover and less when electoral competition is high. In contrast to the adoption of performance budget reform, the unique adoption factors for reorganization are conservative government ideology and higher population density. The power of bureaucracy has statistically significant and negative effect on the adoption of performance budget reform, while it does not have significant effect on the adoption of state executive branch reorganization. Legislative turnover has statistically significant and positive effect on the adoption of performance budget reform, but does not have significant effect on the adoption of state executive branch reorganization. Also, electoral competition has statistically significant and negative effect on the adoption of performance budget reform, but does not have statistically significant effect on the adoption of state executive branch reorganization. Even the patterns of interaction effects are somewhat unique for each of these reforms. There are no significant interaction effects in the model of performance budget reform. However, there are a few significant interaction effects in the model of state executive branch reorganization including neighbor adoption /unified government and economic growth / legislative turnover. These differences in the adoption processes might have important implications for a theory of administrative reform implementation. As Chackerian & Mavima (2001) and Matland (1995) suggest, different types of reforms lead to different factors being influential. This analysis is suggestive of the fact that the dynamics and influences on "administrative reform" may be very different depending on the nature of the reform. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2003. / June 3, 2003. / Administrative Reform / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard Chackerian, Professor Directing Dissertation; William D. Berry, Outside Committee Member; Ralph Brower, Committee Member; Richard C. Feiock, Committee Member.

Executive succession has been defined as the planned or unplanned permanent change of the formal leader of a group or organization (Gorden & Rosen, 1981). The scholarly work in this area can be traced back to 1952 and the publication of a study of managerial succession at a gypsum plant by Alvin Gouldner, one of several students of Robert K. Merton at Columbia University, who contributed to emerging empirical work of the time on organizations as a field of interest. The body of literature that has emerged since that time has examined succession in a variety of public and private contexts and at all levels of public governances. Unfortunately, the literature remains a fragmented collection of works that do not cohere as a single theory or even a collection of theories regarding succession. This research contributes to the body of scholarly work to date by examining this phenomenon among an important and under-examined group of public sector executives: Florida municipal police chiefs. Specifically, this study proposes a theory of succession among police chiefs that suggests that there are both social relations variables and institutional context variables that affect the odds of police chief succession will occur as a result of involuntary dismissal, coercion or pressure, or voluntary separation from office. The findings in this study support the influence of certain social relationships in determining the likelihood of involuntary succession and succession due to coercion or pressure when compared with voluntary separation, but found no evidence to support the influence of institutional context variables in affecting the odds of one type of succession event over another. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2005. / November 7, 2005. / Police Chief, Executive, Succession, Turnover / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; William Doerner, Outside Committee Member; Ralph S. Brower, Committee Member; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member.

Using a constructionist approach, this study applies the critical theory of Jürgen Habermas to analyze public policies surrounding the Florida Everglades. Habermas argues that policymakers in advanced industrial democracies are caught between conflicting imperatives: they are expected to serve the interests of their nation as a whole, but they must prop up an economic system that benefits the wealthy at the expense of most workers and the environment. Critical theory suggests that this contradiction will be reflected in Everglades policy by communicative distortions and blockages that suppress and conceal tensions between environmental and economic priorities. In theory, policymakers will give programs misleading names; will overstate programs' environmental benefits and understate their benefits to economic special interests (farmers, ranchers, developers); and will suppress evidence and advocacy that cast doubt on policymakers' claims about program performance. A constructionist approach previously has been used in policy analysis, and the research has shown that definitions of public problems are socially constructed. Yet without a larger theoretical framework, such as critical theory, constructionist analysis has been insensitive to the presence of systemic contradictions and reactions to those contradictions in the policy process. Conversely, comprehensive theories have been used in policy analysis to highlight and explain policy muddles and failures, but these analyses have not included constructionist research to investigate how systemic contradictions erupt and play out as policy develops. Thus, this study bridges an important gap in policy theory and research. The study also poses a challenge to mainstream policy research, which typically avoids comprehensive theory and treats policy areas, policy concepts, and problem definitions as straightforward and unproblematic. By approaching the subject matter from a critical theory perspective, the study seeks to demonstrate that mainstream policy research actually relies on a comprehensive set of assumptions that it fails to recognize. This set of unacknowledged premises constitutes a paradigm in need of articulation and assessment. The mainstream paradigm assumes that government activity is fragmented into numerous, separate, and distinct "policy areas"; each policy area evolves independently according to its own internal logic; and policymakers are reasonable, truthful, and oriented to solving public problems and improving policy performance. By applying critical theory to Everglades policy and policymaking, the study reveals this paradigm by confronting it with competing concepts and hypotheses. / A Dissertation submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2010. / July 26, 2010. / Critical Theory, Habermas, Advocacy Coalition Framework, Social Construction Theory, Everglades / Includes bibliographical references. / Lance deHaven-Smith, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robert Jackson, University Representative; Ralph Brower, Committee Member; William Earle Klay, Committee Member.

The retention and graduation of students is at the core of postsecondary education. This topic becomes increasingly relevant as tight budgets force state legislatures to seek increased accountability, and soaring tuition costs force students and parents to demand results for their investment. Numerous studies have been done exploring progression and the factors affecting it. However, few have framed the pursuit of a baccalaureate degree using the concept of anticipatory socialization. This study seeks to fill that void and link three fields of study: Organizational Theory, Anticipatory Socialization Theory, and Student Progression Research. A longitudinal cohort analysis was performed to assess the role of anticipatory socialization in increasing the likelihood of attainment of a baccalaureate degree. The anticipatory socialization mode of focus was attendance at a secondary faith-based institution as a socialization mechanism preparing students for attendance at a faith-based university. The hypothesis underlying the analysis suggested that students who are already socialized within a faith-based learning institution would exhibit higher graduation rates from a faith-based university, than students who graduated from non faith-based secondary institutions. Furthermore, using Tinto's Stages of college student progression, it was argued that attrition rates would be higher for non-faith-based high school graduates during the freshmen year, when integration occurs. Finally, the subsequent enrollment of drop-out was examined in order to determine the types of institutions they subsequently transferred to. Logistic regression models confirmed the effect of faith-based secondary school enrollment and found that the stage of exit was different based on high school type. The significant factors affecting subsequent enrollment still require further research. / A Dissertation submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2004. / March 15, 2004. / Organizational Studies, Anticipatory Socialization, Education, Retention / Includes bibliographical references. / Lance deHaven-Smith, Professor Directing Dissertation; Carolyn Herrington, Outside Committee Member; Frances Berry, Committee Member; Richard Feiock, Committee Member.

Charter schools represent one of many choice options available to Florida school districts. While public choice theory may provide insight as to why choice should impact student performance, using two research stages, this paper examines empirically factors leading to charter school adoption and the relationship of increasing charter schools on district academic performance. Results of this research indicate that, increasing middle school class size and emulation of neighboring adopters are statistically significant factors in a districts' charter school policy adoption. True emulation as specified by diffusion literature may be suspect due to the advent of choice alternatives in Florida prior to the law that allowed districts to formally adopt charters as a choice policy. Thus, the choice may not have diffused from early adopters to laggards, but rather via a burst of adopters who had been waiting for an opportunity. Further, cross sectional modeling provides slight or weak evidence that increases in charter schools is positively associated with academic performance in districts. / A Dissertation submitted to the Askew School for Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2007. / April 2, 2007. / Floirda, Hazard Model, Survival Analysis, Policy Adoption, Determinants, School Performance, School Choice, Public Choice, Charter, Event Hitory Analysis / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances Stokes Berry, Professor Directing Dissertation; Patrice Iatarola, Outside Committee Member; Richard Feiock, Committee Member; Lance DeHaven-Smith, Committee Member.

This is a study about organizational effectiveness in research centers and institutes (CIs) within public higher education institutions. In particular, this study focuses on how to measure their effectiveness by integrating competing conceptions of effectiveness. This study uses a linear programming method called Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to examine the relative performance or organizational effectiveness of CIs based on the Competing Values Framework (CVF) as a theoretical foundation. The CVF encompasses four representative organizational effectiveness models: rational goal model, open system model, human relations model, and internal process model. Thus, in one framework, it provides the researcher with a systematically integrated way to evaluate organizational effectiveness, and affords much latitude in dealing with various different organizational contexts. Because of its utility in drawing together a variety of theoretical approaches to organizational effectiveness, the framework provides stakeholders with a balanced perspective between different organizational values. By employing DEA methodology, this study identified the "best practice" exhibited by organizations on the efficient frontier and makes recommendations regarding how sub-"best practice" CIs could become more efficient and perform according to "best practice" standards in each model of the CVF. The DEA methodology is innovative and unique in that it determines "best practice" CIs rather than the traditional comparison to "average" performance that characterizes the analytic approach most researchers currently use. This dissertation confirmed that it is better for evaluators to consider four different values, rational goal, relations with environment, human relations within the organizations, and internal work process, for a balanced judgment of effectiveness of subject organizations. In addition, a new approach combining CVF and DEA is a useful measurement tool for organizational effectiveness and a potential management tool to stimulate organizational performance. As important members of universities, CIs provide students with ample opportunities to engage their research interests. Through research activities, public service, and teaching and training by CIs, students can be trained and constituencies can be provided new knowledge-based technology and practical services. This role of the CIs is important for the future of society, and this research contributes to their effort by measuring their performance or effectiveness with a novel approach, DEA, based on the integrated theoretical foundation of organizational effectiveness, CVF. This study finds several useful results. First, the study suggests that if one wants to evaluate organizational effectiveness, using several different models is a better approach than using the traditional goal model alone to avoid misdiagnosis of the effectiveness of the organizations. Second, managers should avoid definitive effectiveness comparisons between CIs supported by different disciplines; comparisons between CIs within the same discipline are shown to be more appropriate. Third, a new approach which integrates DEA and CVF has a potential to evaluate organizational effectiveness and to be used as an organizational management tool, but other qualitative methods should be used to get additional important information about the subject organizations. University administrators and research fund providers such as federal, state, and local governments who are interested in the understanding and knowledge of student success in postsecondary education could use the results of this study to serve a variety of private and public interests / A Dissertation submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2004. / July 6, 2004. / Management, Organizational Effectiveness, Higher Education, Research Centers and Institutes / Includes bibliographical references. / Ralph S. Brower, Professor Directing Dissertation; Wonsik “Jeff” Shim, Outside Committee Member; Robert B. Bradley, Committee Member; William E. Klay, Committee Member.

A policy phenomenon sometimes has multi-facets like a polyhedron because many stakeholders with different preferences or goals are involved in the policy process. The case of tax competition in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA) is also a multi-faceted policy phenomenon. Recently the Korean central government introduced a package of tax hikes on real estate in order to achieve tax levy equity. This remarkable tax innovation, however, resulted in conflicts between three actors (the central government, residents and local governments), which were followed by an area-wide tax competition among local governments of the SMA. Under severe tax competition over the SMA, the direct impact of the tax hike policy on the property tax burden the rich group had to bear shrank to the half level the central government originally expected. Rather the tax hike policy under tax competition also resulted in unexpected inequity problems in the property tax burden occurred within jurisdictions and between jurisdictions. To analyze some interesting issues related to the three actors' behavior and interactions, this research employs three different models incorporating three different perspectives of the three actors: Median Voting, Delegation and Implementation, and Strategic Tiebout Tax Competition Models. Based on the Median Voting model, this research first examines the process of how the residents influence the local governments in the chapter 2. Supposing that preferred tax rates by median-wealth residents with small/middle sized house or condominium are lower than the recommended tax rate, the pre-electoral competition model implies that the tax competition of SMA will result in the property tax cuts. Since the house or condominium is the most valuable asset to the median-wealth residents in some local jurisdictions, the median-wealth residents strongly request for the residential property tax cut, responding the tax rate cuts in the local rich jurisdictions. Second, the Delegation and Implementation model analysis will examine: (1) why the local governments cut the property tax against the tax hike policy of the central government in spite of the expected sanctions. A trade-off condition between the tax revenue and pre-electoral benefit implies that the local governments will have the quadratic utility or preference function. Also the median-wealth residents also face the trade-off between the public goods and the tax burden, and the central government is supposed to look for the optimal property tax rate which will satisfy their goal for the fair redistribution of the wealth; (2) Under equilibrium, the central government utilizes its fiscal discretion to prevent local governments' deviation in a strategic situation; and (3) what factors influence the use of fiscal discretion by local governments. Third, this research examines the strategic tax competition of SMA. Based on some propositions from two analyses of the median voting and implementation models, the analysis of the tax competition model will examine what determines the degree of tax cut and what influences the decision making on whether to cut the property tax or not. Using a spatial econometric model, this research provides empirical evidence to support the causalities postulated in the multiple theoretical models of this dissertation. This research will first contribute to the formal model study area by enriching the empirical research literature of formal modeling. Finally, the research is expected to show that the models developed by the American or Western European scholars are applicable to the analysis of the Asian cases under some conditions. / A Dissertation submitted to the Reubin O'D. Askew of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2008. / June 2, 2008. / Implementation and Delegation, Median Voter, Strategic Tax Competition / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances S. Berry, Professor Directing Dissertation; Carol S. Weissert, Outside Committee Member; Richard C. Feiock, Committee Member; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member.

From the dawn of civilization, political science and public administration have developed a close relationship. The development of a more stable society could not take place without the improvement and coordination of political and administrative techniques that foster social cohesion. Public administration and political science not only study and develop such techniques, but also work toward accomplishing such cohesion. For all its intellectual history, the field of public administration has been acknowledged to have a niche in the political science discipline. Yet this position has not always been a comfortable one. Through their quest for authority, autonomy, professionalism, and scientism, public administration and political science emerged as two disciplines that were proven capable of institutionalizing their distinct formal knowledge. The transformation of this body of knowledge, from generalized to more specialized, contributed at times to the alliance between the two disciplines and at other times to a growing tension between them and even separation. Despite a rocky journey, the two fields appeared to have a natural alliance that had endured harsh times and weak ties and was now making its way toward a rapprochement. This dissertation examines American Public Administration's relationship to political science. It analyzes major theoretical trends in both fields' history that have had a profound impact on the historical development of such relation. These include: politics-administration dichotomy, bureaucracy and democracy, theory and practice, and behavioralism. The method of research of this study is mainly historical. However, a content analysis is conducted. The data collected include primary sources, such as scholarly publications in both fields, and other related material such as the disciplines' academic organization and professional associations. When was the origin; what is the nature; and how is the present condition, of the two disciplines' relationship? These are some of the questions this work attempts to answer. / A Dissertation submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2005. / July 5, 2005. / Public Administration, Political Science, Historical Analysis / Includes bibliographical references. / Mary E. Guy, Professor Directing Dissertation; John Reynolds, Outside Committee Member; Frances S. Berry, Committee Member; Ralph Brower, Committee Member.