Red tape is one of the most often-mentioned nuisances citizens experience with government. However, there is a dearth of red tape research focusing on citizens. Therefore, the primary goal of this article is to analyze the effect of red tape on citizen satisfaction. The secondary goal is to go beyond testing a linear relationship between red tape and citizen satisfaction by examining individual factors that may moderate this relationship. In order to analyze the red tape=satisfaction relationship, we have designed an experiment in which 179 subjects participated. Experiments are still relatively rare in public administration, but are increasingly seen as a rigorous and useful method for theory testing and development. We found that red tape has a strong negative effect on citizen satisfaction, and that this effect is weaker when citizens have high knowledge of political processes. We conclude with implications and a future research agenda.

A frequently cited recommendation of public service motivation (PSM) research is to use PSM in the context of HR marketing. However, empirical evidence demonstrating the usefulness of addressing PSM in the recruitment process is limited. Moreover, we know little about the relative importance of PSM for public employers' attractiveness. We address this gap using an experimental research design to investigate whether public service motivated individuals differ from extrinsically motivated individuals in terms of their attraction to organizations that emphasize either "traditional" public or private values in their employer branding. Our findings indicate that public service motivated individuals are attracted neither to public nor to private

To this day, the question what motivates public sector employees is central in public administration research. This exploratory study aims to delve into this question, arguing that different types of motives coexist and that different groups of individuals might be motivated by different motivational profiles. We use cluster analysis among public servants ( N = 475) working at two municipalities in the Netherlands to explore these notions. Our findings show that different clusters of employees with different motivation profiles are indeed present in the data. In addition, they provide some indications about who the individuals in the clusters are in terms of demographic characteristics. These findings help, among other things, to explain the mixed findings of previous studies investigating sectional differences between public and private employees’ work motivation, and to identify specific human research activities tailored at individuals’ reward preferences.

Attention to government transparency has increased greatly in the past 15 years. For instance, US president Barack Obama 1 stated, 'We're not going to change America unless we change the culture that has dominated Washington for far too long. And that means shining a bright light on how Washington works.' Subsequently, the Open Government Directive, which President Barack Obama issued in 2009, has highlighted the importance of transparency for policy makers, politicians, and scholars. Institutional transparency has gained 'quasi-religious significance' (Hood 2006), and has become a key feature in modern governance (Erkkilä 2012; Etzioni 2010; Keane 2009). Moreover, transparency is seen as a way to increase trust in government (Grimmelikhuijsen 2012; Porumbescu 2015a), state legitimacy (De Fine Licht 2011), citizen participation (Porumbescu 2015b), and to reduce corruption (Bauhr and Grimes 2014). Two societal developments have contributed to the strong appeal of transparency nowadays. First, the rise of the Internet and communication technologies has greatly increased the amount of government information accessible to the public (Meijer 2009). The information technology revolution and the consequential vast increase in the amount of information stored and gathered by government have also increased the importance of transparency: if more information can be stored, there is more potential for disclosure and increased transparency. This partly coincides with a second development: the rise of New Public Management (NPM) as way of organising governments (Hood 1991). Public sector reforms inspired by NPM urge a greater degree of transparency of government services and activities, with the idea that

The implementation of a quality and patient safety accreditation system is crucial for hospitals. Although control systems—such as accreditation—can contribute to quality improvements, they also run the risk of unintended consequences. As a result, ways should be found to avoid or reduce these undesirable consequences. This study aims to answer this call by exploring the association of different approaches to the enforcement of rules (punishment, based on monitoring and threats of sanctions; and persuasion, based on dialog and suggestion) with compliance. To test the relation between perceived enforcement and compliance, this study used survey data collected from medical specialists (N = 92) of a large academic medical center. The findings indicate that the same system is interpreted differently and that only a perceived persuasion approach is related to higher levels of compliance. This effect is fully mediated by affective commitment. No direct or indirect effects on compliance were found for a perceived coercive approach. These results suggest that control systems can be perceived in different ways and that the implementation of a control system does therefore not automatically lead to negative and unintended outcomes.