At the MGMT Lab, we are using both experimental designs and field work to explore ways for measuring and managing sustainability performance. Part of this challenge of urban sustainability is that we only dimly understand public perceptions of the appropriate role of local governments in pursuing these policy objectives. To better understand citizen perceptions, we are exploring how public managers frame performance information to communicate successes and failures in a way which overcomes politicization of the topic. One of the goals of this ongoing research program is to help managers make evidence-based decisions as they try to improve the sustainability of services and resources.
Measuring and Managing Sustainability Performance
Recent Research:
- "Performance, Satisfaction or Loss Aversion? A Meso-Micro Assessment of Local Commitments to Sustainability Programs," (2020, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory).
A normative assumption of government reform efforts such as New Public Management is that fostering a more innovative, proactive, and risk-taking organizational culture—developing what has been described as an “entrepreneurial orientation” (EO)—improves performance. But in arenas like urban sustainability, performance can be an ambiguous, multifaceted concept. Managers’ assessments of their own nimbleness, innovative thinking, and risk culture are also likely to influence how they interpret the risk-reward balance of opportunities to enhance organizational performance. This study examines how meso-level organizational decisions impact managers’ individual risk-assessments of sustainability initiatives. We do so through a combination of Bayesian structural equation modeling of US local government survey data collected over two time periods, and an artifactual survey experiment with empaneled local government employees. This multimethod design allows us to examine the role of organizational performance and EO—meso-level learning heuristics—in shaping the micro-foundations of managerial risk assessment. The organization-level observational results indicate that local governments engage in risk-seeking behavior in order to minimize their potential for losses of prior effort. Experimental results confirm local government administrators are loss-averse when asked to evaluate the merits of initiating a hypothetical sustainability program.
'Positivity and Negativity Dominance in Citizen Assessments of Intergovernmental Sustainability Performance.' A. Deslatte. - Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2020.
Understanding how the public assesses the performance of complex, intergovernmental efforts such as sustainability is critical for understanding both managerial decision-making and institutional design. Drawing from the performance and federalism literature, this study investigates the role that negativity bias play in citizen assessments of intergovernmental performance. The findings indicate that both negativity and positivity biases affect support for governmental involvement. Negativity bias is stronger when an experiment details hypothetical benefits delivered to low-income housing residents. The evidence also suggests partisan cues can overwhelm otherwise positive views of performance, a concept described in the psychology literature as negativity dominance.
'Elucidating the Linkages Between Entrepreneurial Orientation and Local Government Sustainability Performance.' A. Deslatte, W. Swann. - The American Review of Public Administration, 2019.
Linking strategic management to performance has been called essential for public managers to confront pernicious environmental and community problems in the 21st century. This article examines the role that an organization’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO) plays in the linkages between organizational capacities, strategies, and perceived performance. To investigate, we employ a mixed methods design using a nationwide survey of U.S. local governments and interviews with local government managers. Quantitatively, we find evidence that strategic activities such as performance information use, venturing, and interorganizational collaboration mediate the relation between EO and perceived sustainability performance. Interviews illuminate how managers proactively engage stakeholders, consider risk taking, build capacity, and pursue innovation in sustainability.
'Citizen Assessments of Local Government Sustainability Performance: A Bayesian Approach,' A. Deslatte - Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, 2019.
Citizens are increasingly critical information-processors, and government performance information has become ubiquitous to the tenants of democratic anchorage and support for public programs. Partisan motivated reasoning can lead to inaccurate or biased assessments of both the merit of specific policies and governmental performance. This article presents a case for the use of Bayesian inference for experimental work on information-processing. It examines whether provision of performance information on local government implementation of federally initiated sustainability efforts ameliorates the partisan motivated reasoning of citizens. Contrary to expectations, the study finds evidence of attitude-strengthening in the face of disconfirming performance as well as suggesting partisan cues may help citizens calibrate their evaluations.
'Handing over the Keys: Nonprofit Economic Development Corporations and Their Implications for Accountability and Inclusion,' A. Deslatte, A. Schatteman, E. Stokan - Public Performance & Management Review, 2018.
Public organizations have explored service-delivery with nonprofit organizations to help alleviate the strain on their long-term fiscal sustainability. This interdependence has ramifications for fairness and responsiveness in service-delivery that are poorly understood. This study utilizes surveys of U.S. cities at multiple time periods to examine the comparative use of nonprofit economic development corporations and their performance on smart-growth and social equity policy activities. This study first explores the roles played by the two most common types of local nonprofit organizations—nonprofit Local Development Corporations (LDCs) and Community-Based Development Organizations (CBDOs)—in use of performance information and accountability mechanisms. Use of LDCs is also negatively associated with land use policies intended to advance social inclusion.