City Managers, Job Satisfaction, and Community Problem Perceptions

The authors identified 146 city managers who have served in the same city for the past 20 years and asked them to complete a survey to determine the factors leading to their long service. As a part of the survey, the city managers were invited to express, in their own words, the reasons they had stayed in the same city for such an extended time compared to the average tenure for city managers. In the article that follows, the authors quote from the academic literature statements pertaining to practical issues of concern to city managers and the elected officials for whom they work, giving credence to the applicability of the academic literature to today's city management profession. Following the quotations from the literature, the authors present the heartfelt reflections of these senior city managers on their long careers in public service.

Section: Personal Satisfactionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Long–Serving City Managers: Practical Application of the Academic Literature

Hassett

Watson

2002

“…They may believe that their job is important business to the public, but how that affects their emotional display toward individual clients is unclear. When public managers are motivated to solve community problems and achieve the public interest, they make independent judgments about what is best for the community (DeSantis, Glass, and Newell 1992; Selden, Brewer, and Brudney 1999). They try to remain neutral and do not cater to any particular client.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivational Bases and Emotional Labor: Assessing the Impact of Public Service Motivation

Hsieh¹,

Yang²,

Fu³

2011

Emotional labor has become an important topic in the study of organizational behavior, but no research has examined how it is aff ected in individuals' motivational bases. Public administration scholars have started to study this concept, but empirical studies are still in their infancy. Focusing on a particular type of motivational base-public service motivation (PSM), this article assesses how PSM and its three dimensions (attraction to policy making, commitment to public interest, and compassion) aff ect two common emotional labor activities (surface acting and deep acting). Using data from a survey of certifi ed public management students, the results show that PSM is negatively associated with surface acting and positively associated with deep acting. Among the PSM dimensions, attraction to policy making is positively associated with surface acting; compassion is negatively associated with surface acting and positively associated with deep acting; and commitment to public interest is not associated with surface acting or deep acting.

“…This research sets the stage for investigating whether managers are “going through the motions” to engage the public (Wildavsky ) or whether they are committed to developing the capacity required to process and utilize electronic public input. Future research should seek to develop a deeper understanding of the value judgments and trade‐offs that public managers face (DeSantis, Glass, and Newell ) and the role of manager perceptions and beliefs in shaping the design, adoption, implementation, and integration of technology to advance public participation in governance.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managerial Ambivalence and Electronic Civic Engagement: The Role of Public Manager Beliefs and Perceived Needs

Zhang

Feeney

2017

This article addresses an important yet often neglected component of electronic civic engagement efforts: managerial ambivalence about public participation. We examine how managers’ beliefs about public participation and their perceived needs for participation in agency decision making work together to shape electronic engagement efforts. Based on observational data collected in 2010 and 2014 and data from a 2014 survey of managers in 500 U.S. municipal governments, we find that managerial beliefs about participation and their perceived needs for participation are two valid and separate constructs. There is a positive relationship between managerial beliefs and electronic engagement. Perceived needs for participation interact with managers’ beliefs to affect electronic civic engagement. A high level of perceived needs for participation reinforces the effect of managerial beliefs on electronic engagement efforts, but a low level does not offset the effect of managerial beliefs on electronic engagement.