Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: An increasing consistent narrative of the emergence of
the importance of leadership is being told in Public Administration.
The leadership literature has offered us a broad understanding of the
nature and kinds of leadership as well as its effectiveness in
conjunction with task characteristics, organizational characteristics,
and environmental factors. In particular, transformational leadership
and transactional leadership have been considered to be two distinctive
leadership styles that are qualitatively different in terms of their
relational bases, operational objectives, and situational contexts.
Though there is a rich body of leadership literature that often
presents both normative and prescriptive discussions of various leadership
styles, there is still lack of empirical research that addresses how
different leadership styles affect the performance of public agencies.
In particular, there is little known about how various leadership
properties such as political, policy, and administrative capacity of
leaders shape different leadership styles. We do not have much
empirical evidence that demonstrate the contingency perspective that
addresses the ideal “fit” between leadership styles and various
organizational factors such as organizational tasks and leader’s
boundary-spanning activities, internal organizational factors, and
external political environment. We argue that leadership style,
particularly its fit with the agency’s internal and external factors,
is essential to the governance quality and the performance of public
agencies.
Extending the typology of transformational and transactional
leadership, we posit four different leadership styles based on the
level of risk-taking propensity and the nature of administrative
(internal) or political (external) propensity and then empirically
examine how these public agency leaderships affect the level of agency
performance. For an empirical examination, this paper uses data
collected from the 2002 National Korean Minister Survey (KMS), a mail
survey with 387 Korean civil servants of 19 departments.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The inherent tension between efficiency of public service delivery and citizen participation has been long debated by students of public administration (Waldo 1948, Gawthrop 1997, Denhardt and Denhardt 2007). Can the values of efficiency and democracy be reconciled in agency service provision? Does increased citizen input impede agency efficiency? Or, on the contrary, they reinforce each other? To evaluate the effect of citizen participation on efficiency of agency service provision, we study the practices of seeking citizen input of two agencies across the 50 states – Corrections and Child Protection Services. The Government Performance Project (GPP), a non-partisan research program funded by the Pew Center on the states, provides data on quantity and quality of citizen input in setting agency budget/policy priorities. Based on the survey responses, first, we developed a citizen input index. We account for different forms of citizen input and the extent to which it has been utilized by the agencies. Second, we examine how the citizen input practices vary within the same type of agency across states. Finally, we evaluate the effect of citizen participation on efficiency of agency’s service delivery and factors affecting it.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: What happens when agency becomes unshackled from identity? Who or what can have agency? As a response to the crisis of agency in media, this study is an exploration of agency as traced through a quick history of sociology. We begin with Althusser, however, it could be argued that there are proto-forms of agency in the work of Marx and Durkheim, as well as that of Gabriel Tarde (1888). Althusser’s notions of structure and agency also greatly influenced Bourdieu’s concept of the habitus. Later, Foucault described subjectivity in a tug-of-war with ubiquitous power. Thus, I trace the progress of agency as it emerges in relation to Bourdieu’s habitus and Foucault’s discourse. Judith Butler’s theory of performativity is also conceived as a radical form of agency. Extending the dislocation of agency and identity further, however, I explore the role of uncommodifiable anger (Artaud), and the breakdown of the individual voice in the work of Kierkegaard—the emergence of a “demonic writing machine” (Hodge, 2000)—in destroying identity. This broaches the question of text as agent divorced from identity. Can this question be reconciled with reference to the agency of objects in Actor-Network Theory (Latour, 2005)—companies, computer networks and texts themselves? How does Actor Network Theory relate to Rose’s (2007) technologies of government? How does the agency of non-humans compare to that of the cyborg (Haraway, 1989)? The discussion comes full circle to Tarde and the fact that he considered the problem of unshackled agency a century ago.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Using fours years of lobbying reports and the results of interviews, we examine how Bay Area agencies use their resources to lobby the state and federal legislatures and compare each agency?s agenda to issues identified in planning documents and by k

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This research investigates how divided government and inter-chamber conflict affect Congressional statutory controls over agency discretion for federal administrative agencies created during the 1946 - 1997 period.