The policy of the State of Florida recognizes high-level public administration as a profession and expects administrators to be competent and to practice managerial, political, and ethical roles. Conceptual frameworks of high-level administrators' credentials (knowledge and skills) and behaviors (managerial, political, and ethical roles) in public administration literature are reviewed. Operational definitions are developed for the concepts of professional credentials, managerial roles, political roles, and ethical roles. A model is presented which views a professional public administrator from two different perspectives: (1) knowledge and skills and (2) practices and views of managerial, political, and ethical roles. Hypotheses are developed for specific research questions. Survey instruments were developed and sent via the World Wide Web to State of Florida high-level agency administrators. The response rate was 32.9 percent. Overall, the sample was representative of the population, except that female respondents were under represented. Results indicate that Florida high-level administrators surveyed exhibit high professional credentials based on experience, education, training, political acuity, and public service attitudes. Results indicate that these administrators exhibit and place high importance on many of the expected behaviors or roles. Results fail to show the anticipated positive association between measures of professional credentials and professional behaviors. Results indicate little professional credentials and professional behavior differences in those administrators entering these high-level positions voluntarily (hired into the position) compared to those entering involuntarily (position was converted from the career service system). Overall, Florida high-level administrators exhibit the high level of professional competence and professional behaviors described in the public administration literature and prescribed in Florida public policies. Strengths and weaknesses of these administrators are discussed. Theoretical, policy, and practical implications of the findings are discussed as well as are the limitations and directions for future research. / 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, 2003. / October 20, 2003. / Senior Public Administrators, Ethical Roles, Political Roles, Managerial Roles, Professionalism, State Government / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances S. Berry, Professor Directing Dissertation; Charles J. Barrilleaux, Outside Committee Member; William Earle Klay, Committee Member; James S. Bowman, Committee Member.

Voluntary cooperative arrangements are being established among local governments for economic development purposes. However, there is a lack of empirical research that explains the conditions under which cooperative joint ventures are formed. Extending the Institutional Collective Action framework to the policy area of economic development, this dissertation explores how local government units overcome transaction costs that pose barriers to acting collectively. Survey research methods are used to collect data on intergovernmental relations from 425 local governments with a population of 10,000 or more in 12 metropolitan areas. A logistic regression model is used to test the extent to which a combination of community characteristics and intergovernmental network resources influence voluntary cooperation. The findings suggest that among the factors that influence the formation of joint ventures is frequent communication among economic development officials and planners, cooperative norms and trust, and the competitive development activity of local governments. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2007. / July 19, 2007. / Economic Development, Social Capital / Includes bibliographical references. / Tim Chapin, Professor Directing Dissertation; Richard Feiock, Outside Committee Member; Charles Connerly, Committee Member.

State legislatures face many challenges in obtaining reliable information about the policy choices they face and the effectiveness of previously established programs, and they have limited ability to enforce agency compliance with program directives. To help address these challenges, most state legislatures have created oversight offices and have endowed them with significant resources and access to information. These offices provide program evaluation and policy analysis services to their parent legislatures, and their work is intended to help improve legislative decision making and oversight. However, these intended benefits will not be realized unless legislatures actually use the information produced by these offices. Research utilization literature has identified steps that the offices can take to promote use in legislative environments. These steps can be categorized into two overall strategies—developing strong networks with decision makers, and astute marketing of research products. However, there has been little empirical information on whether these strategies are actually being used, or whether when used are related to increased satisfaction with and use of research products in the legislative environment. This study bridges this gap and identifies and analyzes the strategies that state legislative oversight offices are using to promote use of their work in the legislative process, and assesses how differences in the offices' networking and marketing activities is related to how their work is valued and used by key stakeholders—legislative staff in leadership, appropriations, and committee positions. The institutional design of the offices—whether they are located within auditing or legislative units—and the research standards they have adopted— whether they conform to Government Auditing Standards which stress organizational independence or other standards that stress utility to stakeholders—are found to be key variables related to both the offices' utilization activities and legislative stakeholder satisfaction and use of their work products. The study advances scholarship relevant to knowledge utilization and the policy process and provides practical information that evaluators and policy analysts can use to increase their value and impact and serve as an effective voice speaking truth to power rather than a voice crying in the wilderness. / 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, 2006. / October 24, 2006. / Program Evaluation, Policy Analysis, Legislative Oversight, Utilization, Legislatures / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances Berry, Professor Directing Dissertation; Carol Weissert, Outside Committee Member; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member; Earle Klay, Committee Member.

Fragmented local governmental units will cooperate to address needs that span across regional boundaries while retaining local autonomy. These efforts, referred to as institutional collective action (ICA), come forth when local governments voluntarily form institutional arrangements to address common goals. Multiple jurisdictions are seen as working together to enhance their own interests, while still contributing to the needs of the broader region. Such efforts allow local governments to augment the provision of their services and address citizens' demands where doing so on an individual basis may be more difficult, specifically when limitations exist that hinder governments from taxing and borrowing for service production. As with individual collective action, ICA is easier when the number of actors is small and homogenous, and when they share common goals. The costs of acting collectively must also be lower than the costs of individual actions. When these conditions are not met, barriers to ICA will exist leading to fewer incentives to cooperate. This problem creates a need for less voluntary mechanisms to address regional goals, while maintaining some measure of self governance. This research argues that regional special districts provide this mechanism. To explore this proposition, this dissertation investigates when and how local governments create regional special purpose governments. The specific focus is on county governments, and their choices to use multi-jurisdictional special districts when faced with barriers to institutional collective action. This question is addressed using descriptive and empirical analyses. To conduct the descriptive analysis, surveys were conducted among 18 special districts that explored the implications of barriers to voluntary cooperation on regional special district formation. The empirical portion of this study was conducted using data for 790 counties collected from the U.S. Census of Governments for the periods of 1992 and 2002. Logistic and Poisson regression analyses were used to analyze these data. The major lesson which was brought forth tells us that it is important to consider the implications of the service sector when examining special district usage. The consideration of barriers to institutional collective action revealed that conditions did not have uniform effects among the various service sectors. In order for various types to be used, regional needs had to exist; however, the extent of those regional needs were based upon specific contextual factors. / 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, 2008. / February 5, 2008. / Regional Governments, Urban Politics Government Institutions, Institutional Collective Action, Special Districts, Local Government Studies, Regionalism, County Governments / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; Patrice Iatarola, Outside Committee Member; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member; Gabriella S. Wolfson, Committee Member.

Charter schools have now been in operation for two decades in the U.S., and for 15 years in Florida. Florida took the third place in the U.S. in the number of charter schools operated and the student enrollment in 2010. This study examined the assumed effects of charter school policy on the public school system: charter school effect on student achievement in charter schools and in TPSs, and segregation effects and stratification effects on charter schools and traditional public schools (TPSs). I applied three perspectives to investigate charter school effect on student achievement: School effectiveness theory, Market competition theory, and Social inequality theory. The racial/ethnic segregation effect and the socio-economic stratification effect were examined longitudinally and cross-sectionally. Datasets of primary and secondary public schools and county educational and demographic information covering 1998 to 2010 were obtained from multiple sources: the Common Core of Data from NCES, the Florida School Indicator Report, the Florida Department of Education, Florida Statistics Abstract, and Census Bureau. Hierarchical linear modeling was utilized to explore charter school effect in different organizational levels and hierarchical multivariate linear modeling was used to take into account the closely correlated relationships of the demographic compositions in public schools. The analyses of student achievement in charter schools and traditional schools indicated that charter schools and traditional public schools are significantly different from each other, and that the school characteristics were more influential on the school performances than county characteristics or the year effects, especially in the higher grades. Some charter schools achieved better in some subjects and grades in that they started at the lower scores than TPSs but grew faster during the period of 1998-2010. However, the charter school effectiveness turned out to be insignificant or even negative when control variables were introduced such as educational factors and demographic compositions. Market competition theory could not explain the variations in schools' FCAT scores, while social inequality theory explained them better. The findings of this study did not support the School Effectiveness Theory nor the Market Competition Theory in charter school movement. Instead, Social Inequality Theory was proved to be relevant to understand the differences in public school academic achievement. The analyses of segregation and stratification effects showed that charter schools were more racially and socio-economically segregated, and that they exacerbated the segregation and stratification in traditional public schools. The analyses of the Dissimilarity Index (DI) distribution among charter schools and TPSs revealed that the demographic compositions in charter schools deviate more from the county means than do TPSs during the period of 1998 through 2009. Charter schools had much lower proportion of free/reduced price lunch program students than TPSs in every school level, which was negatively related to the percentage of white students but positively to the percentage of black students. The years of charter school policy adoption in a county have similar effects on both groups: The longer it was since a county introduced charter school policy, the fewer black students and the more white students would enroll in charter schools. Overall, charter schools were likely used as pockets for white flight and self-isolation as well and exacerbated socio-economic stratification in public schools. The analyses of charter school DIs supported the warnings of white flight, self-isolation, and socio-economic stratification (Carnoy, 2000; Frankenberg, Lee, & Orfield, 2003; Rivkin, 1994). Findings of this study suggested that the increasing proportion of black students and free/reduced price lunch program recipients have enrolled in TPSs for all school levels along the years during the period of 1998-2009, but that the percentages of white students in TPSs have decreased year by year even though the rates are small. The analyses implied that charter schools were likely to locate around TPSs that had a higher proportion of a certain demographic group: The higher proportion of a certain demographic groups in a certain area would induce charter schools targeting these groups. Hierarchical multivariate linear models (HMLM) were introduced to detect the relative relationships between demographic groups. The multivariate analyses suggested that middle school charters were likely to locate around the TPSs with more white students and fewer Hispanic students, while elementary charter schools opened more around the TPSs with fewer black students. The location and targeting strategies of charter schools affected also the racial/ethnic distributions in high TPSs, even though the relationship got weaker. The proportions of free/reduced lunch program students in TPSs havd a consistently and significantly negative influence on the proportions of white students and a positive influence on the percentages of black and Hispanic students in TPSs. The academic performances of TPSs were highly and negatively related to the proportion of black students, while the relationship becomes much weaker to the percentage of white students and neutral to that of Hispanic students. The cross-sectional multivariate analyses suggested that charter schools created more racially segregated educational institutes in public education in Florida. The racial/ethnic compositions in TPSs were closely interrelated to the issues of the socio-economic stratification and residential division (Carnoy, 2000; Frankenberg, et al., 2003; Rivkin, 1994). The comparisons of the explained variance proportions by HMLM models and those of other models revealed that the percentages of white students were much more sensitive to the socio-economic and residential factors than the proportions of black students were, while the proportions of Hispanic students were much more sensitive to the charter school factors. The findings of this study highlighted the critical role of social context in public educational policies and the importance of policy design. This study rediscovered the old but important principle that charter school policy makers need to take into account the expectable but ignored or unintended consequences of the policy in public education system and the impacts of the policy on the non-choosers in TPSs as well. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2012. / March 20, 2012. / Charter School, HLM, Policy Analysis, Public School, Segregation, Student Achievement / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances Stokes Berry, Professor Directing Dissertation; Betsy Jane Becker, University Representative; Ralph Brower, Committee Member; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member.

In this dissertation I use an institutional framework to examine the contributions of George Washington to public administration theory and practice. The best way to understand current public administration theory is to examine its historical roots. Institutions are a part of culture, and thus, public administration's institutions have passed from generation to generation along with our other cultural beliefs and values. As the first commander in chief of the Continental Army, the only president of the Constitutional Convention, and the first president of the United States, Washington was frequently in positions to establish precedents that could later become institutions of American public administration. In my dissertation, I use grounded analysis and primary documents from archives to uncover Washington's theories and practices. I then match these findings to some of the most important institutions in American public administration. This research is important for three principal reasons. One, as the first administrator of the federal government, Washington was in the position to set precedent in public administration theory and practice. Two, understanding the historical development of public administration enhances our understanding of current public administration theory and practice. And three, there is a gap in the literature because current scholars have not studied Washington's contributions to public administration. In addition to uncovering Washington's general theory of public administration, I describe his contributions to theory and practice in the areas of military administration, education, Progressivism, financial management, and public-private partnerships. Washington's general theory is based on a combination of virtue ethics and utilitarianism. Using his theory, he helped originate institutions such as the federal budgeting process and the military's professional reading program, he serves as a role model for such institutions as civilian control of the military and government accountability, and he indicated the direction of such institutions as merit selection and public education. / 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, 2012. / June 22, 2012. / George Washington, Military Administration, Progressivism, Theory, Utilitarianism, Virtue Ethics / Includes bibliographical references. / William Earle Klay, Professor Directing Dissertation; Ralph Brower, Committee Member; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member.

Pro-environmental behavior (PEB) has received considerable attention in business and other social sciences disciplines. However, no study has examined the link between workplace and non-workplace PEB; almost no research study has focused on public employees' workplace PEB; and little is known as to how salient public organizational characteristics influence public employees' PEB. Building upon the existing theories in other disciplines, this dissertation examines the extent to which PEB exists in public organizations, and investigates how PEB is influenced by several salient characteristics of public organizations, i.e. public service motivation (PSM) and civic participation categorized as civic engagement and cognitive engagement. Data were collected by means of self-report surveys from public employees of two city governments in Florida-- Tallahassee and Lakeland. Confirmatory factor analysis and multiple and logistic regression analyses were employed to test the proposed model. The findings indicate that public service motivation positively influences non-workplace PEBs. Civic engagement negatively and cognitive engagement positively influences the workplace and non-workplace PEB. The barriers as moderator significantly influences the positive relationship of PSM and workplace and non-workplace PEB, the negative relationship of civic engagement and workplace PEB and positive relationship of cognitive engagement with workplace PEB. Among organizational factors, green culture and transformational leadership support workplace and non-workplace PEBs. The findings demonstrate that public organizational characteristics potentially influence employee environmental orientations not only at workplace but also in non-workplace settings. / 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, 2012. / June 20, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references. / Kaifeng Yang, Professor Directing Dissertation; Gerald Ferris, University Representative; Ralph Brower, Committee Member; James Bowman, Committee Member; Richard Feiock, Committee Member.

What is green governance? Governance is generally defined as steering rather than rowing the changing processes of policy decisions and actions across the boundaries of the private, public and civic sectors (O'Leary, Gerard, and Bingham 2006a). Increasingly, this concept of governance has been widely employed in policy areas such as service delivery, emergency management, education and environment (Biermann et al 2009).Green governance promotes sustainability through both governmental and nongovernmental entrepreneurism as well as through partnerships and collaborations. Three important but little understood elements of adoption of governmental programs and policy tools on local sustainability and climate protection are: mobilization of entrepreneurs in the community and within government to promote innovation that alters citizens behaviors to encourage sustainability (Krause 2011), political institutions to structure incentives to promote sustainability in the community or governmental operations (Cook 2010; Keohane, Revesz and Stavins 1997), networking to link local governments within a metropolitan region, and inter-organizational coordinating across governmental authorities, for-profit and nonprofit entities to promote energy and environmental sustainability (Schneider et al. 2003; Krause 2010). In the U.S. only a minority of communities have made substantial progress toward green governance. For instance, Jepson (2004) shows the variance of sustainable development which has taken action in terms of thirty-nine policies and techniques in U.S. cities. On the face, it appears that there are substantial obstacles to collective action toward local green governance (Carolyn and Schneider 2003; Krause 2010; Feiock et al. 2009). A critical question this dissertation addresses is how to explain the variation across communities, and how some communities have overcome the barriers to green governance and others not? One approach to understanding the transition to green governance is based on market supply and demand logic. Property rights theories argue that governance institutions emerge in response to scarcity and changes in relative prices (Libecap 1989; Alchian and Demsetz 1973; North 1990). Demand for new institutions is generated by the potential efficiency gains (Alchian and Demsetz 1973). This simple model provides a powerful and parsimonious explanation for institutional change but it neglects the role played by political institutions. Feiock and Lubell advance a political market model that highlights the role of political institutions (Feiock 2006; Lubell, Feiock and Ramierez 2005; 2009). One limitation of the Feiock (2006) and Lubell (2005) approach to political market explanations is emphasis on formal political institutions to the exclusion of the role of network relationships as informal institutions. This dissertation modifies and extends this political market model to advance an explanation of local green governance transition and to test it empirically. In other words, the primary concern here is about the "institutional political market explanation for green governance innovation". Cities are the central actors for framing values and diffusion of knowledge in ways that can complement command-control regulations and market competition. Cities shape public and private sector energy efficiency and conservation through a wide array of activities and responsibilities including transportation, land use regulation and building code policy decisions (Coenen and Menkveld 2002; Krause 2010). They also support energy conservation innovations and greenhouse gas mitigation programs through their own utilities as well as through programs that jurisdictions coordinate with utility companies. Thus cities play a critical role in fostering energy efficient technologies, improving existing and new construction building efficiencies and establishing energy system integration to enhance sustainable community developments. While extensive literature exists on the transfer of technologies and partnerships (Bozeman 2000; Link 2005), far less research exists examining the role of local governments in sustainability. Therefore, the investigation of local governments' roles affecting the variation of green governance is itself a unique contribution, raising questions about the motivations and capacities of municipalities to play that role. / 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, 2012. / March 26, 2012. / Environmeal Policy Innovation, Green Governance, Political Institutions, Political Market Explanation, Regional Networks, Sustainabile Communities / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; John T. Scholz, University Representative; Frances S. Berry, Committee Member; Kaifeng Yang, Committee Member.

Studies of local emergency management and homeland security collaboration have rapidly grown in the public administration research. Local governments are viewed as key actors in the U.S. to coordinate national counterterrorism efforts and provide functional activities relevant to emergency management. However, the discussions about why local governments collaborate based on the analysis of different types of collaboration in this area are still limited. Through using the mixed-methods approach, this dissertation develops a framework under the perspectives of organizational internal factors, organizational external factors, and emergency management/homeland security capacity to empirically study the determinants of collaboration in the context of emergency management and homeland security at the local level according to three types of collaboration: vertical, horizontal-interlocal, and horizontal-intersectoral collaborations. The ICMA 2005 Homeland Security Survey data is used to conduct the empirical analysis. This research also interviews city and county local emergency management managers in Florida to understand their 1) motivations behind each type of collaboration, 2) definitions of collaboration, 3) perceived obstacles of collaboration, 4) practical collaborative activities in both vertical and horizontal contexts, and 5) opinions on the influences of organizational internal and external factors on collaboration. The findings of this research show that factors related to resource shortage in money and information, mutual understanding, financial resource dependence on higher levels of government, and the adoption of national standard have different impacts on different types of collaboration. Organizational attention is a critical factor to all three types of collaboration. Local emergency management/homeland security capacity can be a significant determinant and mediator. From the practical point of view, horizontal collaboration is more common than vertical collaboration. For local governments, seeking resources and training opportunities can explain most parts of vertical collaboration. However, in the horizontal context, a local government not only plays a part as a resource-seeker but also as an assistance-provider to their governmental and non-governmental partners. In sum, this study helps us to gain a theoretical and practical understanding of local emergency management and homeland security collaboration in the United States. / 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, 2012. / March 12, 2012. / Cross-sector Collaboration, Intergovernmental relations, Local Emergency Management, Mixed-Methods Approach, Vertical and Horizontal Collaboration / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances S. Berry, Professor Directing Dissertation; Carol Weissert, University Representative; Richard C. Feiock, Committee Member; Kaifeng Yang, Committee Member.

While there is a robust business management research field on rater motivation related to personnel appraisals, almost no research in the public sector exists on this topic. This paper makes the case for a theory based, on the public sector, and offers a preliminary model of rater motivation focused on the performance appraisal context. Expansion and empirical testing of comprehensive models of rater motivation is also offered and comparative perspective is sought by accounting for organization culture differences between the U.S. and Korea public organizations. The rater motivation theory, in this study, is built using three primary factors related to how accurately a supervisor is willing to conduct a performance appraisal: 1) incentive structure (incentives and disincentives), 2) felt accountability, and, 3) public service motivation. The main interest is how the three primary factors affect the outcome of perceived performance rating accuracy of the raters. In addition, this study also examines the variations in perceived rating accuracy depending on the existence of a reward system for accurate appraisers and a forced distribution rating system. The logics of Vroom's expectancy theory and Skinner's reinforcement theory are used in explaining the relationship between variables. The findings suggest that all three determinants of rater motivation positively affected perceived performance rating accuracy of the raters. Also, it was revealed that the presence of a forced distribution system negatively influenced the rating accuracy. The availability of reward systems for accurate appraisers also had a positive influence on perceived rating accuracy but was only partially supported. Contradictory to this study's expectation, raters in U.S. generally perceived lower rating accuracy than Korean raters. Overall, the findings contribute to developing a preliminary comprehensive model of rater motivation designed for the public sector, and they have implications for both the public administration literature and practice. / 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, 2013. / March 20, 2013. / Felt accountability, Motivation, Performance appraisal, Public service motivation / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances S. Berry, Professor Directing Dissertation; Gerald R. Ferris, University Representative; James S. Bowman, Committee Member; Kaifeng Yang, Committee Member.