Cops, Teachers, and the Art of the Impossible: Explaining the lack of diffusion of impossible job innovations

In their now classic Impossible Jobs in Public Management, Hargrove and Glidewell (1990) argue that public agencies with limited legitimacy, high conflict, low professional authority, and weak agency myths have essentially impossible jobs. Leaders of such agencies can do little more than cope, which is also a theme of James Q. Wilson (1989), among others. Yet in the years since publication of Impossible Jobs, one such position, that of police commissioner has proven possible. Over a sustained 17-year period, the New York City Police Department has achieved dramatic reductions in crime with relatively few political repercussions, as described by Kelling and Sousa (2001). A second impossible job discussed by Wilson and also by Frederick Hess (1999), city school superintendent, has also proven possible, with Houston and Edmonton having considerable academic success educating disadvantaged children. In addition, Atlanta and Pittsburgh enjoyed significant success in elementary schooling, though the gains were short-lived for reasons we will describe. More recently, under Michelle Rhee, Washington D.C. schools have made the most dramatic gains among city school systems. These successes in urban crime control and public schooling have not been widely copied. Accordingly, we argue that the real conundrum of impossible jobs is why agency leaders fail to copy successful innovations. Building on the work of Teodoro (2009), we will discuss how the relative illegitimacy of clients and inflexibility of personnel systems combine with the professional norms, job mobility and progressive ambition of agency leaders to limit the diffusion of innovations in law enforcement and schooling. We will conclude with ideas about how to overcome these barriers

An analysis of gender differences in public administration doctoral dissertation research

Using data provided in ProQuest: Dissertations and Theses: Global (PQDTGlobal) database from 1890 to 2016, in this study we explore gender differences in historical and contemporary trends in public administration doctoral dissertation research in the United States. Our analysis reveals that not only has the number of women completing doctoral dissertations in public administration increased throughout the years but gender differences also exist relating to the subject matter that public administration doctoral students have focused on in their dissertations. Moreover, we find gender differences in the types of institutions (public, nonprofit, or for-profit) where public administration doctoral students receive their degrees

Exploring individual predictors of variation in public awareness of expressive and instrumental nonprofit brands

Expressive and instrumental functions provide a way to classify activities that take place in the nonprofit sector. These functions also provide a way to better understand individual\u27s philanthropic involvement with certain types of nonprofit organizations. Despite the usefulness of these classifications, only a few studies have explored demographic, social, and ideological differences in individuals\u27 philanthropic involvement along expressive and instrumental dimensions; and, no studies have explored differences in public awareness of nonprofits along these dimensions. Such awareness, though, could likely be an important precursor to an individual\u27s philanthropic involvement. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore whether variables known to be associated with variation in philanthropic involvement are also associated with variation in awareness of, what we categorize as, expressive and instrumental nonprofit brands. Using data from a survey of public awareness of, and attitudes toward, nonprofit organizations in San Diego County (n = 1002), our findings show that individuals are more aware of instrumental nonprofit brands than they are of expressive nonprofit brands. However, there are important individual differences to consider. We discuss the theoretical relevance of our findings and offer several practical recommendations for nonprofit administrators