A conceptual framework for analysis of goal ambiguity in public organizations

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory

Volumn 25, Issue 1, 2015, Pages 71-99

  Rainey, Hal G ^a   Jung, Chan Su ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA   (United States)

^b CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG   (Hong Kong)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84922552153     PISSN: 10531858     EISSN: 14779803     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jopart/muu040     Document Type: Article

References (89)

1. Allison, Graham T. 1983. Public and private management: Are they fundamentally alike in all unimportant respects? In Public management, ed. James L. Perry and Kenneth L. Kraemer, 72-92. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield.
2. Barton, Allen H. 1980. A diagnosis of bureaucratic maladies. In Making bureaucracies work, ed. Carol H. Weiss and Allen H. Barton, 27-36. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
3. Blau, Peter M. 1955. The dynamics of bureaucracy: A study of interpersonal relations in two government agencies. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.
4. Blumenthal, Michael W. 1983. Candid reflections of a businessman in Washington. In Public management, ed. James L. Perry and Kenneth L. Kraemer, 22-34. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield.
5. Bohte, John, and Kenneth J. Meier. 2000. Goal displacement: Assessing the motivation for organizational cheating. Public Administration Review 60 (2):173-82.
6. Boyatzis, Richard E. 1982. The competent manager: A model for effective performance. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
7. Bozeman, Barry. 1987. All organizations are public: Bridging public and private organization theories. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
8. Bryson, John M. 2004. Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement, 3rd ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
9. Buchanan, Bruce. 1974. Government managers, business executives, and organizational commitment. Public Administration Review 34 (4):339-47.
10. -. 1975. Red tape and the service ethic: Some unexpected differences between public and private managers. Administration and Society 6 (4):423-38.
11. Carpenter, D.P.. 2001. The forging of bureaucratic autonomy: Reputations, networks, and policy innovation in executive agencies, 1862-1928. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
12. Chun, Young Han. 2003. Goal ambiguity in public organizations: Dimensions, antecedents, and consequences. Unpublished PhD diss., Univ. of Georgia.
13. Chun, Young Han, and Hal G. Rainey. 2005a. Goal ambiguity in U.S. federal agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 15 (1):1-30.
14. -. 2005b. Goal ambiguity and organizational performance in US federal agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 15 (4):529-57.
15. Daft, Richard L. 2012. Organization theory and design, 11th ed. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
16. Dahl, Robert A., and Charles E. Lindblom. 1953. Politics, economics, and welfare. New York, NY: Harper and Row.
17. Davis, Randall S., and Edmund C. Stazyk. Forthcoming. Developing and testing a new goal taxonomy: Accounting for the complexity of ambiguity and political support. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. doi:10.1093/jopart/muu015.
18. Dess, Gregory G., and Alex R. Miller. 1993. Strategic management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
19. DiMaggio, Paul. 1987. Nonprofit organizations in the production and distribution of culture. In The nonprofit sector: A research handbook, ed. Walter W. Powell, 195-220. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
20. Downs, Anthony. 1967. Inside bureaucracy. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.
21. Drucker, Peter F. 1980. The deadly sins in public administration. Public Administration Review 40 (2):103-06.
22. Favero, Nathan, and Justin B. Bullock. Forthcoming. How (not) to solve the problem: An evaluation of scholarly responses to common source bias. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. doi:10.1093/jopart/muu020
23. Feldman, Martha S. 1989. Order without design: Information production and policy making. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.
24. Franklin, Aimee L. 1999. Managing for results in Arizona: A fifth-year report card. Public Productivity and Management Review 23 (2):194-209.
25. Frederickson, David G., and George H. Frederickson. 2006. Measuring the performance of the hollow state. Washington, DC: Georgetown Univ. Press.
26. Gilmour, John B. 2006. Implementing OMB's program assessment rating tool (PART): Meeting the challenges of integrating budget and performance. Washington, DC: IBM Center for the Business of Government. Retrieved from http://www.businessofgovernment.org/sites/default/files/GilmourReport.pdf (accessed February 28, 2014).
27. Ginger, Clare. 1998. Interpreting roads in roadless areas: Organizational culture, ambiguity, and change in agency responses to policy mandates. Administration & Society 29 (6):723-57.
28. Goodsell, Charles T. 2011. Mission mystique: Belief systems in public agencies. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
29. Grizzle, Gloria A. 1982. Measuring state and local government performance: Issues to resolve before implementing a performance measurement system. State and Local Government Review 14 (3):132-36.
30. Heinrich, Carolyn J. 1999. Do government bureaucrats make effective use of performance management information? Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 9 (3):363-93.
31. Heinrich, Carolyn J., and Gerald Marschke. 2010. Incentives and their dynamics in public sector performance management systems. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 29 (1):183-208.
32. Jung, Chan Su. 2013. Navigating a rough terrain of public management: Examining the relationship between organizational size and effectiveness. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 23 (3):663-86.
33. -. 2014. Why are goals important in the public sector? Exploring the benefits of goal clarity for reducing turnover intention. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 24 (1):209-34.
34. -. Forthcoming. Organizational goal ambiguity and job satisfaction in the public sector. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. doi:10.1093/jopart/mut020
35. Kelemen, Mihaela. 2000. Too much or too little ambiguity: The language of total quality management. Journal of Management Studies 37 (4):483-98.
36. Krause, George A. 1999. A two-way street: The institutional dynamics of the modern administrative state. Pittsburgh, PA: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press.
37. Krause, George A., and Kenneth J. Meier. 2003. Politics, policy, and organizations: Frontiers in the scientific study of bureaucracy. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press.
38. Latham, Gary P., Laura Borgogni, and Laura Petitta. 2008. Goal setting and performance management in the public sector. International Public Management Journal 11 (4):385-403.
39. Lee, Jung W., Hal G. Rainey, and Young H. Chun. 2009. Of politics and purpose: Political salience and goal ambiguity of US federal agencies. Public Administration 87 (3):457-84.
40. -. 2010. Goal ambiguity, work complexity, and work routineness in federal agencies. The American Review of Public Administration 40 (3):284-308.
41. Lee, Thomas W., Edwin A. Locke, and Gary P. Latham. 1989. Goal setting theory and job performance. In Goal concepts in personality and social psychology, ed. Lawrence A. Pervin, 291-308. Hillsdale, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum Associates.
42. Lerner, Allan W., and John Wanat. 1983. Fuzziness and bureaucracy. Public Administration Review 43 (6):500-09.
43. Lewis, David E. 2008. The politics of presidential appointments: Political control and bureaucratic performance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
44. Lindblom, Charles E. 1959. The science of muddling through. Public Administration Review 19 (2):79-88.
45. Lipsky, Michael. 1980. Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public services. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
46. Locke, Edwin A., and Gary P. Latham. 2006. New directions in goal-setting theory. Current Directions in Psychological Science 15 (5):265-8.
47. Locke, Edwin A., Dong-Ok Chah, Scott Harrison, and Nancy Lustgarten. 1989. Separating the effects of goal specificity from goal level. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 43 (2):270-87.
48. Lowi, Theodore J. 1979. The end of liberalism. New York, NY: Norton.
49. Lynn, Laurence E. 1981. Managing the public's business. New York, NY: Basic Books.
50. March, James G., and Herbert A. Simon. 1958. Organizations. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
51. Meier, Kenneth J. 1980. Measuring organizational power: Resources and autonomy of government agencies. Administration & Society 12 (3):357-75.
52. Meier, Kenneth J., and John Bohte. 2007. Politics and the bureaucracy, 5th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson-Wadsworth.
53. Meier, Kenneth J., and Laurence J. O'Toole. 2013. Subjective organizational performance and measurement error: Common source bias and spurious relationships. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 23 (2):429-56.
54. -. 2006. Bureaucracy in a democratic state: A governance perspective. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
55. Merton, Robert K. 1957. Social theory and social structure. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
56. Meyer, Marshall W. 1979. Change in public bureaucracies. Cambridge, CA: Cambridge Univ. Press.
57. Miner, John B. 2005. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Amronk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
58. Moore, Mark H. 1995. Creating public value: Strategic management in government. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
59. Moynihan, Donald P. 2008. The dynamics of performance management: Constructing information and reform. Washington, DC: Georgetown Univ. Press.
60. -. 2010. A workforce of cynics? The effects of contemporary reform on public service motivation. International Public Management Journal 13 (1):24-34.
61. -. 2014. The problem at the VA: Performance perversity. Los Angeles Times, June 1.
62. Niskanen, William A. 1971. Bureaucracy and representative government. Chicago, IL: Aldine-Atherton.
63. O'Toole, Laurence J., and Kenneth J. Meier. 2011. Public management: Organizations, governance, and performance. Cambridge, CA: Cambridge Univ. Press.
64. -. Forthcoming. Public management, context, and performance: In quest of a more general theory. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. doi:10.1093/jopart/muu011
65. Pandey, Sanjay K., and Bradley E. Wright. 2006. Connecting the dots in public management: Political environment, organizational goal ambiguity, and the public manager's role ambiguity. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 16 (4):511-32.
66. Perrin, Burt. 2006. Moving from outputs to outcomes: Practical advice from governments around the world. Arlington, VA: IBM Center for the Business of Government.
67. Perrow, Charles. 1970. Organizational analysis: A sociological approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
68. Pitt, Douglas C., and Brian G. Smith. 1981. Government departments: An organizational perspective. London: Routledge.
69. Radin, Beryl A. 2006. Challenging the performance movement: Accountability, complexity, and democratic values. Washington, DC: Georgetown Univ. Press.
70. Rainey, Hal G. 1993. Toward a theory of goal ambiguity in public organizations. In Research in public administration, Vol. 2, ed. James L. Perry, 121-66. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
71. Rainey, Hal G., and Barry Bozeman. 2000. Comparing public and private organizations: Empirical research and the power of the a priori. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 10 (2):447-69.
72. Rainey, Hal G., and James Thompson. 2006. Leadership and the transformation of a major institution: Charles Rossotti and the internal revenue service. Public Administration Review 66 (4):596-604.
73. Rainey, Hal G., and Paula Steinbauer. 1999. Galloping elephants: Developing elements of a theory of effective government organizations. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 9 (1):1-32.
74. Rainey, Hal G., Robert W. Backoff, and Charles H. Levine. 1976. Comparing public and private organizations. Public Administration Review 36 (2):233-46.
75. Ring, Peter S., and James L. Perry. 1985. Strategic management in public and private organizations: Implications of distinctive contexts and constraints. Academy of Management Review 10 (2):276-86.
76. Ripley, Randall B., and Grace A. Franklin. 1982. Bureaucracy and policy implementation. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press.
77. Schwenk, Charles R. 1990. Conflicts in organizational decision-making: An exploratory study of its effects in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Management Science 36 (4):436-48.
78. Scott, W. Richard., and Gerald F. Davis. 2003. Organizations and organizing: Rational, natural, and open system perspectives. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
79. Simon, Herbert A. 1964. On the concept of organizational goal. Administrative Science Quarterly 9 (1):1-22.
80. Von Mises, Ludwig. 1944. Bureaucracy. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
81. Wamsley, Gary L., and Mayer N. Zald. 1973. The political economy of public organizations: A critique and approach to the study of public administration. Lexington, MA: Heath.
82. Warwick, Donald P. 1975. A theory of public bureaucracy: Politics, personality, and organization in the state department. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
83. Waterman, Richard W., Amelia A. Rouse, and Robert L. Wright. 1998. The venues of influence: A new theory of political control of bureaucracy. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 8 (1):13-38.
84. Watkins, Steve. 2014. OMB to press for new benchmarks. Federal Times, June 6.
85. Weiss, Janet A., and Sandy K. Piderit. 1999. The value of mission statements in public agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 9 (2):193-223.
86. Wildavsky, Aaron. 1979. Speaking truth to power. New York, NY: Little, Brown.
87. Wilson, James Q. (ed.). 1980. The politics of regulation. New York, NY: Basic Books.
88. -. 1989. Bureaucracy. New York, NY: Basic Books.
89. Wright, Bradley E. 2004. The role of work context in work motivation: A public sector application of goal and social cognition theories. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 14 (1):59-78.