Social Capital and Fire Service Performance: Evidence from the U.S. States

Andrews, Rhys; Brewer, Gene A.

doi:10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00708.x

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The findings for community capacity suggest that areas with limited or strong civic cultures and high numbers of community non‐profit and other civic organizations are important environmental factors to support public service outcomes such as innovativeness. Social capital has been shown to influence other outcomes, including performance (Andrews and Brewer ). The finding from this study is also in line with newer models of collaborative governance in which cross‐sector partnerships support innovative approaches to deal with wicked community problems (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limits on Innovativeness in Local Government: Examining Capacity, Complexity, and Dynamism in Organizational Task Environments

Walker

Berry

Avellaneda

2015

Public Administration

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Theory and evidence on the diffusion and antecedents of innovation in public organizations demonstrate that organizations respond to their environment and react by being more or less innovative. However, questions about the limits of responses to organizational task environments remain unexplored: in short, what is the appropriate level of environmental capacity and when does the environment become too complex or dynamic for innovation to occur? This study examines non-linear capacity, complexity, and dynamic environments in an archival panel of 405 English local governments using primary and secondary data from a number of sources. Findings indicate that non-linearities effect perceived innovativeness in relation to political and social capacity, and political dynamism in an inverted U shape, and in a U shape for community capacity. The implications of these findings for the study of public service innovation are considered.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limits on Innovativeness in Local Government: Examining Capacity, Complexity, and Dynamism in Organizational Task Environments

Walker

Berry

Avellaneda

2015

Public Administration

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“…Put another way, social institutions and attitudes condition the effectiveness of individuals and institutions in achieving performance goals. This expectation is acute in the context of public organizations that rely on the efforts of clients and other community members to co‐produce public goods, including fire and police services, social welfare and public health services, or education (Sharp ; Whitaker ; Schneider ; Andrews and Brewer ).…”

Section: Social Capital In Public Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Social Capital and Diversity for Performance in Public Organizations

Compton

Meier

2016

Public Administration

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Managers concerned with the performance of their organizations will exploit available social, administrative, and human capital resources. However, extant theory and mixed empirical evidence leave the effect of social capital on performance unclear. The gains from these norms of reciprocity, participation, networking, and trust may disproportionately benefit only some of their clients, leading to disparities in outcomes among diverse clienteles. We argue that in such contexts, management will put in place policies to counter these disparities. Indeed, our empirical evidence from the management of public education supports the expectation that an institutional commitment to diversity successfully mitigates the uneven effects of social capital on organizational performance. This finding carries important implications for public management and equity in public policy outcomes and may be of particular relevance to management of outcomes relying on co‐production.

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“…The vast majority of studies drawing on aggregate indices of social capital find that it has a positive impact on performance. Putnam's (2000) index of social capital is positively related to pupils' examination performance, public health, and low crime rates in the U.S. states -and fire safety (Andrews and Brewer, 2010). Rice and Sumberg (1997) correlate policy innovation in U.S. state governments with an index measuring political engagement (e.g.…”

Section: Aggregate Social Capitalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Capital and Public Service Performance: A Review of the Evidence

Andrews

2011

Public Policy and Administration

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The social capital present within local communities is increasingly viewed as an important source of co-productive capacity for delivering better public services. However, to date, research in the field of public administration has paid scant attention to the links between structural and attitudinal components of social capital, such as community organizational life, political engagement and levels of interpersonal trust, and the performance of public services. In this article, the relationship between social capital and public service performance is explored by reviewing the available empirical evidence on this topic. The existing evidence suggests that the strength and direction of the social capital performance relationship may vary by the different dimensions of social capital. Thus, further research in this area would have theoretical and practical benefits.

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Social Capital and Fire Service Performance: Evidence from the U.S. States

Abstract: The present study evaluates whether areas with high levels of social capital are likely to have better fire service performance. Copyright (c) 2010 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.

Cited by 15 publications

References 41 publications

Limits on Innovativeness in Local Government: Examining Capacity, Complexity, and Dynamism in Organizational Task Environments

Limits on Innovativeness in Local Government: Examining Capacity, Complexity, and Dynamism in Organizational Task Environments

Managing Social Capital and Diversity for Performance in Public Organizations

Social Capital and Public Service Performance: A Review of the Evidence

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