Local Government Professionals under Stress: In Pursuit of Economic Development, Efficiency, and Equity

Nalbandian, John; Bannon, Joseph J.; Chapman, Jeffrey I.; Matzer, John

doi:10.2307/975523

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…Managers, contrary to expectations, are not significantly more likely to use professional-technical sources, nor are they more likely to ignore the informal and personal means of citizen input. These results tend to support suggestions by some researchers (e.g., Nalbandian 1988;Newell & Ammons 1987) that the dichotomous "traditional politics/administration" theory of the relationship between elected officials and managers bears little resemblance to the actual roles played by mayors and city managers.…”

Section: Inform Ation Source Modessupporting

confidence: 83%

“…While managers still tend to describe their proper role as being administrative rather than political, over time they have engaged more and more in direct citizen contacts, direct council relationships, and in policymaking (Greene 1982;Newell & Ammons 1987). Nalbandian (1988) and others have argued that city managers increasingly have begun to act as independent agents and interact directly with groups and individual citizens. As Svara (1985) indicates, separating administrative duties from policymaking no longer is possible.…”

Section: Past Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Information Gathering Practices of City Officials

Traut¹,

Rainey²

1992

ARP

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The pressures on city officials warrant much more research into their evaluations of the sources of information available to them. In more complex times, are they turning more to technical and professional informational supports? How does their reliance on such sources compare to their use of other sources such as the media and contacts with the public? Do mayors and city managers differ on such questions, as one might expect? Using a more elaborate set of questions about this topic than used in previous research, this survey of mayors and city managers in Florida asked them to rate the importance of the information sources they use in decision making. The results permitted comparisons of a public responsiveness model of information-use and a professional-technical model, which usually have been treated separately in previous research. Results indicate that the mayors and city managers showed marked similarities, with the vast majority concentrating on contacts with the public. Far fewer find professional and technical sources and media sources particularly useful. City managers thus showed less reliance than we expected on technical-professional sources, except for some tendencies to do so (1) more than mayors, (2) more in larger cities, and (3) more when they feel government should be less active. The study thus supports researchers who have suggested that city managers play a stronger political and public relations role than idealized conceptions of their role suggest More importantly, it contributes some useful findings about information use by city officials and suggests important avenues for further research.

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Section: Inform Ation Source Modessupporting

confidence: 83%