Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration 9789811699160, 9789811699177, 981169916X

Table of contents :
Preface
Contents
1 Opening Speech of the 1st International Conference on Behavioral Public Administration (ICBPA-2019)
2 Why Public Policy and Administration Need Psychology
Psychology and Policy at Princeton
From Social Cognition Research to Policy
Example from Research on Stereotyping and Prejudice
References
3 Behavioral Public Administration: Past, Present, and Future Aspirations
The Past
The Present
The Future
References
4 Behavioral Public Administration: Recognizing, Celebrating and Reflecting on Research Trends
So Where Do We Go from Here?
There are no Silver Bullets
Some Low Hanging Fruit Still to Pick
Conclusion
References
5 New Opportunities, New Challenges: Characteristics and Development of Behavioral Public Administration
Characteristics of Behavioral Public Administration
The Development of Behavioral Public Administration
New Opportunities of Behavioral Public Administration
New Opportunities: Great Academic Background
New Opportunities: Great Social Changing and Research Issues
New Challenges of Behavioral Public Administration
References
6 Toward Chinese Behavioral Public Administration
What Is NOT Chinese Behavioral PA?
What Is Chinese Behavioral PA, but NOT Appealing to Non-Chinese Scholars?
What Is Chinese Behavioral PA that Attracts Non-Chinese Scholars’ Eyeballs?
Conclusion
References
7 Bibliometric and Knowledge Mapping Analysis of Research Progress in Behavioral Public Administration
Introduction
Data Sources and Research Methods
Data Sources
Research Methods
Bibliometric Analysis
Analysis of the Number of Articles Issued
Regional Analysis of Research
Analysis of Research Institutions
Analysis of Coauthorship
Analysis of Keywords and Research Hotspots
Analysis of Research Fields
Conclusions and Future Outlook
References
8 Behavioral Public Administration: Three Ways Forward
BPA as Interdisciplinary Subject of PA and Psychology
BPA as an Interdisciplinary Subject of PA with Behavioral/Social Science
BPA as the Developing Trend of Public Administration
Discussion
References
9 Does Person-Job Fit Mediate the Relationship Between Public Service Motivation and Work Engagement? The Case of Chinese Civil Servants
Introduction
Theory and Hypotheses
Public Service Motivation and Work Engagement
Public Service Motivation and Person-Job Fit
Person-Job Fit and Work Engagement
Method
Sample
Measures
Results
Discussion
References
10 Implicit and Explicit Evaluations of Chinese Targeted Poverty Alleviation Policy: Experimental Evidence from Attitudes of the Rural Poor in Western China
Introduction
Method
Participants
Materials and Design
Experimental Procedure and Questionnaire
Results
Results of Explicit Attitudes toward TPAP
Results of Implicit Attitudes toward TPAP
Correlations for Implicit and Explicit Attitudes
Discussion
Appendix
References
11 The Exploration of Psychological Integration Mechanism and Behavioral Public Policy of National Identity of the Youth in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area
Development Trend and Challenge of National Identity of the Youth in the GBA
Theoretical Basis and Analytical Framework of National Identity of the Youth in the GBA
Psychological Integration of National Identity in Multiidentity Structure
Analytical Framework of Psychological Integration of National Identity of the Youth in the GBA
Path Exploration of Psychological Integration of National Identity of the Youth in the GBA
Mechanism of Psychological Integration of National Identity of the Youth in the GBA
Psychological Integration Action Mechanism of National Identity of the Youth in the GBA
Analysis of the Psychological Integration Mechanism of the Nationality Identity of the Youth in the GBA
Behavioral Public Policies as a Promoter for Psychological Integration and the “Return” of the Youth in Hong Kong and Macau to China
Decoding the National Identity of the Youth in the GBA from the Perspective of the Mechanism of Psychological Integration
Strategy Design for Enhancing the National Identity of the Youth in the GBA Based on the Integration Action Mechanism
Strong Effectiveness of the GBA Policy with Behavioral Characteristics of Integration as a Starting Point
References
12 Does Civil Servants’ Overqualification Influence Their Public Service Motivation? A Self-classification Perspective
Introduction
Hypotheses
Perceived Overqualification and Public Service Motivation
The Mediating Role of Perceived Insider Status
Method
Participants and Procedure
Measures
Results
Confirmatory Factor Analyses
Descriptive Statistics
Hypothesis Testing
Discussion
Theoretical Implications
Managerial Implications
Limitations and Future Research
References
13 The First International Conference on Behavioral Public Administration (ICBPA-2019) Was Successfully Held in 2019
14 The 2nd International Conference on Behavioral Public Administration (ICBPA-2021) Was Successfully Held

Citation preview

Zhixia Chen   Editor

Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration

Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration

Zhixia Chen Editor

Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration

Editor Zhixia Chen Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan, China

ISBN 978-981-16-9916-0 ISBN 978-981-16-9917-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9917-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Preface

I am so happy the book of “Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration” will be published, it is a new exploration and milepost since Herbert A. Simon “Administrative Behavior”. Behavioral public administration (BPA)or Behavioral public management (BPM) is one of the social science at the research perspective of psychological and behavioral science, using of relevant theories and methods to analyze and study related issues in public administration. In recent years, the development of behavioral public administration has received special attention from the international academic community, the relevant research has increased rapidly and become a hot topic. As the initiator and founding president of the International Association on Behavioral Public Administration (IABPA), I am honored to sponsor and preside over the first and second International Conferences on Behavioral Public Administration (ICBPA-2019, and ICBPA-2021). This book is a monograph written by some represent scholars in this field based on the first International Conference on behavioral public Administration (1st-ICBPA). The scholars who participated in the writing of this book mainly include (the rankings are in no particular order): Zhixia Chen, University of Huazhong University of Science and Technology; Susan Fiske, Princeton University; Bradley E. Wright, University of Georgia; Asmus Leth Olsen, University of Copenhagen; Chung-An Chen, Nanyang Technological University; Cheng Chen, University of Huazhong University of Science and Technology; Lijun Chen, Zhejiang University; Shuzhen Wang, Northwestern University; Chengzhe Fu, South China Normal University; et al. We especially appreciate the joining and support from the leading authority Pro. Susan Fiske and Bradley E. Wright, et al. Their contributions give great encourage to IABPA and ICBPA.

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We also thank the assistant in editing and proofreading some chapters from Mei Sun, Shuai Yuan, Shuo Liu, Qiong Deng, Jinyuan Guo, Muzafary Sayed Sami, et al. We also thank the support from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Finally, we appreciate the help from Springer two editors: Lei Wang and Sivananth S. Siva Chandran. Wuhan, China July 2022

Zhixia Chen

Contents

1

Opening Speech of the 1st International Conference on Behavioral Public Administration (ICBPA-2019) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zhixia Chen

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2

Why Public Policy and Administration Need Psychology . . . . . . . . . . Susan T. Fiske

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Behavioral Public Administration: Past, Present, and Future Aspirations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Asmus Leth Olsen

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Behavioral Public Administration: Recognizing, Celebrating and Reflecting on Research Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bradley E. Wright

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New Opportunities, New Challenges: Characteristics and Development of Behavioral Public Administration . . . . . . . . . . . Zhixia Chen

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Toward Chinese Behavioral Public Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chung-An Chen

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Bibliometric and Knowledge Mapping Analysis of Research Progress in Behavioral Public Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zhixia Chen and Qiong Deng

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Behavioral Public Administration: Three Ways Forward . . . . . . . . . . Zhixia Chen, Shuai Yuan, and Qiong Deng

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Does Person-Job Fit Mediate the Relationship Between Public Service Motivation and Work Engagement? The Case of Chinese Civil Servants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lijun Chen and Chuanxue Lin

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Contents

10 Implicit and Explicit Evaluations of Chinese Targeted Poverty Alleviation Policy: Experimental Evidence from Attitudes of the Rural Poor in Western China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Shuzhen Wang, Jingmeng Dong, Enping Zhang, Juan Wang, and Anli Dong 11 The Exploration of Psychological Integration Mechanism and Behavioral Public Policy of National Identity of the Youth in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Chengzhe Fu, Liao Liao, and Jinfei Xu 12 Does Civil Servants’ Overqualification Influence Their Public Service Motivation? A Self-classification Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Cheng Chen and Tian Chen 13 The First International Conference on Behavioral Public Administration (ICBPA-2019) Was Successfully Held in 2019 . . . . . 147 Shuai Yuan and Zhixia Chen 14 The 2nd International Conference on Behavioral Public Administration (ICBPA-2021) Was Successfully Held . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Bin Ren and Zhixia Chen

Chapter 1

Opening Speech of the 1st International Conference on Behavioral Public Administration (ICBPA-2019) Zhixia Chen

Distinguished leaders and experts, Dear teachers and students, Ladies and gentlemen, Good morning everyone!

Now, we are embracing the most pleasant season of this year, which coincides with the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China. Today, we also welcome the long-awaited First International Conference on Behavioral Public Administration in 2019 (ICBPA-2019). It’s indeed a great pleasure to see you here! As the initiator of this conference, on behalf of the organizers of this event, I would like to extend my warm welcome and sincere gratitude to all the scholars and experts who are here. Thank you for your support and interest in our work. I would like to show my great respect and deep appreciation to academician Susan Fiske, who traveled thousands of miles to China and who instructed me when I visited the Department of Psychology at Princeton 13 years ago. We are so honored to have you here! Your presence has brought so much warmth and competence here. Meanwhile, we are also honored to have Professor Steven Kelman from Harvard University, Professor Bradley Wright from Georgia University, Professor Asmus Olsen from Copenhagen University in Denmark, Professor Cheng Chung An from Singapore Polytechnic University and some other distinguished international scholars attend the conference and to share your valuable insights. Welcome! We also warmly welcome all the other distinguished guests and representatives attending the conference both from China and outside China. Thank you very much for your coming! Public Administration is an emerging science. Behavioral public administration combines the macro perspective of public administration with the micro and meso perspectives of psychological science. The aim is to apply the theories and methods Z. Chen (B) Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 Z. Chen (ed.), Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9917-7_1

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of psychology and behavioral science to public administration studies from micro and meso perspectives of behaviors and attitudes of individuals and groups. Therefore, behavioral public administration is a complement and expansion of traditional public administration. First, the causal inference paradigm unique to experimentation will add to the scientific nature of public administration disciplines. In addition, behavioral public administration focuses on the micro and meso basis of public administration, with special attention given to the attitudes and behavioral processes of individuals and groups. This means that behavioral management can compensate for the deficiency of traditional public administration theories, which tend to think about the big picture while neglecting small details. By introducing the theories and research methods of psychology into public administration studies, we can look deeper into related issues from micro and meso perspectives, thus ushering in a new era of public administration. Therefore, the convening of this conference will be of great historical significance in the development of public administration. Since the founding of New China, particularly since the reform and opening up, China has been consciously striving to create a “change that has not been seen for a thousand years”. Against the backdrop of this great reform, the rapid development of information society and advanced technology, including big data and artificial intelligence, poses new opportunities and challenges to national and government governance. On the occasion of this key advance period of national governance modernization, we decide the theme of this conference as “New Opportunities and New Challenges: the Characteristics and Development of Behavioral Public Administration”. Bearing in mind the concept of exploring the interactions between the government and citizens to enhance national governance capacity, we stand ready to overcome all the difficulties in our academic work and scale new heights through innovation. This conference will serve as a perfect platform where we can focus on a wide range of issues, including decision-making in public administration & behavioral nudges, social psychology and social governance, citizens’ perception, attitudes and behaviors, big data analysis on behaviors, and human resource management in the public sector. By discussing these issues, we can unveil the role of behavioral public administration in national governance. Today’s gathering is a high-level international convention. We warmly welcome international academic masters in behavioral public administration as well as many outstanding young talents from China and overseas. I hope today’s conference will shed some light on the future of our research. I wish all the participants can feel free to air your opinions and have an exciting exchange of ideas. I wish everyone to have a deep and comprehensive discussion about the theme of this conference so that we can gain academic inspiration and professional enlightenment, explore the future of behavioral public administration and public administration, and most importantly, modernize our national governance capacity. Finally, I sincerely hope that this conference will achieve fruitful results, and the event will be a complete success. In addition, everyone has a wonderful time here. Thank you!

Chapter 2

Why Public Policy and Administration Need Psychology Susan T. Fiske

It is an honor to help open this gathering, particularly since I’m probably the newest convert to this approach. I’m happy to describe our experience at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs and illustrate briefly, by applying psychology research to public policy. Specifically, I will give an example of how social cognition insights can inform policy and say why it matters.

Psychology and Policy at Princeton Psychology has been part of the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) ever since Nobelist Daniel Kahneman’s idea to incorporate this in the late twentieth century. The SPIA requires its master’s students to take a course, Psychology for Policy Analysis and Implementation. Illustrating what we do serves just as an exemplar, an existence proof of the useful relationship between behavioral science and public policy. To see this, consider the construction of the course. Course goal. This masters course aims to show how research on social psychology and decision making can shape policy formulation and implementation. Every time I look at the syllabus, I wish I were taking it. I do not teach it, but I envy the people who do. Here are some example activities with broad applicability both to the careers of our masters students (who go into government, nonprofits, business, education) and perhaps to your own students. Class with a mix of activities, as in a policy job. Students work with varied experts: faculty, experts, and post docs. They learn through lecture and discussion groups, individual and team projects, research and policy analysis, exams on facts, and papers on analysis. S. T. Fiske (B) Psychology & Public Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 Z. Chen (ed.), Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9917-7_2

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The mix of activities is good training for policy jobs. The students are exposed to a variety of experts who are guest lecturers. They always hear faculty who teach the course together. The post docs from various fields lead discussion sections. In this way, they are exposed to people with a variety of expertise and backgrounds. The activities in the course include both lecture and discussion groups. As in a real policy job, they have to be able to listen but also to be able to speak their own opinion. The course is leading them to be better decision makers and administrators. Course content. The course starts with research methods by discussing why experiments are performed and what can be learned from randomized controlled trials. Because policy analysis until recently was based almost entirely on classical economics, correlational methods dominated. Experiments of course help with causal inference, although often with a tradeoff for generalizability. In addition to methods, the rest of the course discusses psychological insights. The major themes examine people’s motives and their situations as important causal variables affecting choices and behavior in the real world. The course operates at the level of both individuals and organizations. Therefore, it is quite relevant at all steps of the policy equation. The course takes on the psychology of the decision maker, who is not the rational, deliberate thinker of classical economic theory. For example, the course talks about thinking fast and slow (Kahneman, 2011). When people are operating fast, on automatic, they are taking shortcuts; even when more thoughtful, they use information in biased ways. The course also contradicts classical economics by describing the psychology of incentives, which is quite different from the economics of incentives; sometimes they have opposite effects. Interpreting a payment as a bonus is completely different from interpreting it as a bribe. The role of interpretation is important for policymakers to appreciate (Fiske & Taylor, 2021). As a final example of a theme, people underestimate the power of situations, particularly social norms. People think that individual people act freely without being constrained by their social situation, but that is demonstrably not true (Ross & Nisbett, 2011). A prime example of these principles is behavioral nudges, which entail thinking automatically, changing behavior without incentives, and showing the power of the situation (Thaler & Sunstein, 2009). A later section will discuss behavioral nudges and then behavioral mapping as examples of these topics and why they are relevant in this course. The traditional tools of behavior change used by policymakers have been laws and incentives. For example, education and information campaigns in an ideal world would address a totally rational actor who gathers all the information. Sensible in theory, but in the real world with regular people, it does not work so well. As tools, laws and incentives, education and information are costly, cumbersome, and awkward and often encounter political roadblocks. Concrete example. Enter social psychology and behavioral economics, also known as judgment and decision-making research. One of our favorite examples is the nudge approach to organ donation (Johnson & Goldstein, 2003). If you poll people, almost all think it is a good idea to donate your organs if you die suddenly. However, fewer than a third carry an organ donation card. Therefore, there is a

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discrepancy between people’s ideals and their action, partly because the situation makes it hard to do. For example, where I live, the motor vehicle commission web page says you can choose to register for organ donation, but like most departments of motor vehicles across the United States, and maybe elsewhere, it is very awkward and very inefficient. The website is broken half the time. There are many barriers to implementing your attitudes when you have to take the trouble to choose your favored alternative. The default is no organ donation, so people have to opt-in if they want to override it. The nudge approach highlights the low selection rate when people have to opt in, as in my state. This does not get many people to agree to act on their attitudes; in countries with no-donation as the default, requiring opt-in (Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany), the percentage of people who opt-in to organ donation is very small (4–27%). However, the nudge approach changes the default: You have to opt out of donating your organs, if you do not want. The percentage donating, when that is the default, is 86 to nearly 100%, completely different in other countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Sweden). This is an example of choice architecture, where you set up a framework for choice, and where the default is the choice most people agree would be best. This is a case where most people agree that it is a good idea, so you are not manipulating them to do something they do not want to do. You are giving them the opportunity to do what they want to do more easily. Social psychology’s framework. A conceptual example of course material comes from social psychology’s basic framework dating back to field-founder Kurt Lewin, who said the behavior is a function of the person and the environment (Lewin, 1939, p. 878). In classical economics, the traditional approach, behavior is a function of the person, a rational agent, making a decision based on utility. In behavioral science approaches, behavior is a function of the person, who has certain cognitive capacities and motivations, and the situation, which is the individual’s understanding of the environment. If taken seriously, the traditional economic approach views the person as a rational actor who assesses the utility of the action. This has been an assumption in many areas of policy, politics, and other domains for many years. The behavioral science approach says people are not rational actors. They do not gather all the information available. Even when they gather much information, they do not combine it very well. The environment, the other variable, is a function of people’s understanding of the situation, not the objective facts. All of this is filtered through a flawed human being. These principles have practical implications in a technique for designing interventions, namely, behavioral mapping (Proshansky et al., 1970). Given a problem to solve, first define the framework for the problem, then diagnose what prevents the desired result: actionable blockages. Then, a cycle of interventions and evaluations is followed to test for outcomes and revise the intervention as needed. Success requires understanding social motivational dimensions, incentives, morality, identity norms, and reference groups—all concepts from social psychology that profoundly affect people’s behavior. The cognitive dimensions that are often

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neglected are people’s inability to control both inner thoughts and their behavior, their attention, and how they construe or model the situation. Conclusion. This course is full of information useful to policymakers (for other examples, see Shafir (2013), or any issue of Policy Insights from Behavior and Brains Sciences or Behavioral Science and Policy). However, our master’s students often resist taking the course. Ironically, in follow-up surveys of alumni, they rate it as their best course.

From Social Cognition Research to Policy Example from Research on Stereotyping and Prejudice Turning from teaching policy-relevant psychology to researching policy-relevant psychology, in this case, social cognition, consider an example from closer to my own research program. I study stereotyping and prejudice. What we have learned in the last several decades has implications for organizations and interventions in our increasingly diverse societies in a globalizing world. Basic psychological research offers policy gains. Hiring and promotion policies should favor the best people; to do otherwise is a waste of talent. Even so, hiring managers are only human, so they may pick and promote candidates who make them feel comfortable, usually someone similar to themselves (e.g., from their hometown) or their ingroup in terms of irrelevant categories (e.g., gender). Relying on their feelings or intuitions suggests they are following outdated standards by failing to guard against their own biases that may prevent them from recruiting the best person. Psychology shows that decision makers do not examine their own biases, and they do not receive feedback because subordinates cannot report the deciders’ biases (Fiske, 1993). However, these biases exist, and policies follow from understanding how to control these biases. Conceptual framework: Address levels of prejudice. One way to frame this issue is to think about levels of prejudice. When people think about prejudice and stereotyping, they often think about the most blatant, hot-headed, direct, and threatened kind of bias. However, in most modern societies, only some of the population has these angry, overt biases. Instead, focus on the majority of people who are regular members of society. Research suggests that most people have unexamined bias (Fiske & Taylor, 2021, Chap. 10). This comes from the structure of cognitive processing and from social norms. By some estimates, this includes most of us, even those of us who think we have no biases. By these same estimates, maybe very few of us are true egalitarians and do not have biases. However, this is extremely rare, and the odds are that you have unexamined biases because you live in society. We focus on unexamined, subtle biases and their

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implications because if these characterize the majority of decision makers, we want to know what to do about them. Blatant versus subtle prejudice. First, for comparison, consider hot-headed, blatant biases, which resent most outgroups and reject contact (Pettigrew, 1998a, 1998b). The source is perceived threat to ingroup economic position and its traditional values. This kind of bias predicts broad ethnocentrism in the US and the EU; people who hate immigrants also hate gay people. These strong biases resist change, prefer maintaining the status quo, and approve group-based aggression to protect it. Again, this small but hate-filled minority does not help societies advance, but there is no simple solution. We cannot truly address it here, but this extreme case exists, in contrast to the majority of people, who are in the vast middle with some bias, due to just taking cognitive shortcuts. Subtle, unexamined prejudice is characterized by three features: being more automatic than people think, more ambiguous than people think, and more ambivalent than people think (Fiske & Taylor, 2021, Chap. 11, for references throughout this section). This combination of characteristics makes it very difficult for individual decision makers to understand when they are biased, which has policy implications. Unexamined prejudice: Automaticity. The automaticity of prejudice is best seen in the experience of taking the Implicit Association Test (IAT; search: www.implic it.org). For example, people have an easier time pairing light-skinned faces with jobs such as doctors, engineers, scientists, lawyers, CEOs, nurses, professors, and darker-skinned faces with jobs such as janitors, garbage collectors, and taxi drivers. In people’s minds, dark skin and low-status jobs go together, and light skin and highstatus jobs go together. People have these associations in their heads if they are part of society because these are shared beliefs. They are automatic in the sense that these associations happen without thinking. Other automatic indicators of unexamined bias include instant categorization by race, sex, and age. People’s brains register these basic categories in a fraction of a second, without effort. Likewise, people instantly categorize other people into “us” or “them,” an ingroup-outgroup distinction. This matters because they also automatically associate the ingroup with positivity and outgroups with negativity. Furthermore, automatic stereotyped associations follow. Among other data, neuroscience suggests automatic emotional prejudices and patterns of brain activations implying alarm, disgust, and dehumanization in reaction to different outgroups. As relatively automatic as they are, all these categorical biases are avoidable by setting up the situation with goals that motivate people to think more about the other person’s mind and experience. Even the brain data too depend on people’s goals. If you have a goal to individuate the person, the brain activations that go with this instant categorization are changed. In short, stereotyping and categorization are more automatic than regular people think they are but less automatic than social psychologists thought they were at first. Unexamined prejudice: Ambiguity. Subtle bias is hard to detect and to control for another reason: The focus is not outgroup rejection but ingroup favoritism. We’re good; they’re less good. We feel pride, admiration, sympathy for us, but not them. We reward us but not them. Subtle prejudice is ambiguous in that most of this unexamined

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prejudice is not about “I hate them.” It is about “I love us,” which is different. If I wave an American flag, and I love us, it is a little obnoxious. However, it is understandable ingroup favoritism: “I believe we’re good.” However, the implication is those other people are less good. In a zero-sum context, the side effect of ingroup favoritism is outgroup neglect. Unexamined prejudice: Ambivalence. The third feature of subtle bias is ambivalence. Bias is not just a single dimension of negativity. Stereotypes vary on a group’s perceived warmth and trustworthiness but also on perceived competence and agency. The result: Some mistrusted and disrespected groups are hated, unfortunately, of course. However, other groups are disrespected but liked. Still others are disliked, but disrespected. That is ambivalence. If you like somebody but disrespect them, then you do not hire them for an important job. However, you might have coffee with them because they’re fun. Or of you respect but dislike someone, you might hire them but never promote them because there is no social loyalty. In brief, stereotypes can be positive and negative mixed together, which are ambivalent. These two dimensions for different kinds of outgroups are systematic and predictable (Fiske et al., 2002). Distinct kinds of biases target older people and disabled people with pity, drug addicts and homeless people with disgust, and even rich people and entrepreneurs with resentment. These different types of bias emerge all over the world with similar reactions to the rich or the old, for example. However, in different countries, different ethnic groups may be viewed with disgust, pity, or envy, depending on that culture’s history. Here, the point is that a decision maker checking for bias will find different types of bias, many of them ambivalent. Anyone interested in obtaining the best available talent will want to know what potential kind of bias might be operating. Unexamined prejudice: Why does it matter? If subtle bias is relatively automatic, ambiguous, and ambivalent, this makes it harder to detect and prevent. Automatic processes are not conscious; ambiguous bias appears to be harmless ungroup loyalty; and ambivalent biases may include partially positive stereotypes. Even so, unexamined prejudice is important to detect because it predicts behavior that will undermine harmonious and efficient societal relations. Moreover, it wastes talent, and overcoming it is the right thing to do. These unexamined forms of prejudice—more automatic, ambiguous, and ambivalent than people think—predict awkward interactions, which matter a lot in everyday dealings that people have with each other. When interactions are awkward for all these reasons, there is discomfort, anxiety, and avoidance. This can distort highstakes interactions such as job interviews or public performance—or even on-thejob performance. Unexamined bias can be communicated nonverbally, for example, causing a self-fulfilling prophecy, instead of accurate information. Subtle bias affects decisions not only about employment but also about educational evaluation and other judgments. People favor the ingroup, and by the way, they neglect the outgroup. Unexamined prejudice comes from internal conflict. Knowing the origins of subtle bias suggests what policy will be effective and how to design interventions. Subtle bias comes from an internal conflict between one’s own ideals and cultural

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messages. Many people have ideals, norms against prejudice, personal values against prejudice, or believe they do not express it. However, at the same time, there are unconscious cultural influences from the media and from people’s own experience with people who are different from them. Although they would like to be unbiased, stereotypes pop into their heads. For most well-intentioned people who want to treat other people fairly, this can cause confusion. There is an internal tension when you do not live up to your ideals. These subtle things matter a lot. In addition, they matter to who gets hired, who gets promoted, who gets the apartment next door. All these things are affected by it. Therefore, the implications are that if these kinds of predominant forms of prejudice are hidden, they predict everyday forms of discrimination. Unexamined prejudice: Summary. Hidden biases are (a) automatic, without intent or consciousness; (b) ambiguous, favoring the ingroup; and (c) ambivalent, combining (dis)like and (dis)respect. Unexamined prejudice comes from internal conflict and predicts discrimination in everyday interactions. The policy implication is that if individually unexamined, then the individual cannot be expected to know that decisions are biased. Therefore, the organization must act. This means that the organization has to pay attention in an aggregate way across the pattern of hiring, for example. Unexamined prejudice: Policy implications. Organizations should monitor patterns and practices of hiring and promotion to uphold fairness and reward the best talent. Policies can nudge people to get used to outgroups by arranging to expose people to a variety of peers with whom they must cooperate for success at school or at work. Education and information may be less effective because most decision makers would not be aware of having a problem with diversity. As a policy implication, organizations should monitor the patterns of hiring and promotion because the individuals involved may mean well but may be biased. Various interventions within the organization can help make the best use of the available talent. Nudges can expose people to diversity; educating them about prejudices might make them more aware of all their own biases. Discussions might share whatever egalitarian norms and values people have. Our most effective tool is the constructive contact that different kinds of people have with each other (Pettigrew, 1998a, 1998b). If the boss says, this is your new team, employees may be doubtful because they come from different groups. However, if the boss says you have to get along, they will do it. It creates opportunities for intergroup friendship. It does not mean that they necessarily happen, but the opportunity, that is the kind of situation that you want to have. After studying this for seventy years, we know that intergroup contact requires certain conditions to work well: (a) The two groups of people have to have equal status in the situation, because if one comes in superior and the other is inferior, they will not bother to learn about each other. (b) The authorities in question have to approve it. If the authorities say part of our mission is for these groups to get along, for us to have a diverse organization, that works better. (c) The interactions have to be significant.

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They cannot be trivial. In the diversity business, we know superficial interactions— food, festivals and flags—are not enough. It has to be a serious interaction. (d) Finally, the most important one is that they have to have shared goals. Constructive contact can improve intergroup relations, but meeting all four conditions is rarely possible. Fortunately, worldwide evidence indicates that when immigration and housing policies create diverse neighborhoods, people eventually adapt (Bai et al., 2020; Ramos et al., 2019). Although uncomfortable at first, after a few years, people’s wellbeing returns to previous levels. The psychological mechanism of this mere exposure is assimilating the newcomers, seeing all groups as overlapping and therefore similar. This creates lasting change.

References Bai, X., Ramos, M. R., & Fiske, S. T. (2020). As diversity increases, people paradoxically perceive social groups as more similar. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(23), 12741– 12749. Fiske, S. T. (1993). Controlling other people: The impact of power on stereotyping. American Psychologist, 48, 621–628. Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J., Glick, P., & Xu, J. (2002). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth follow from perceived status and competition, respectively. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 878–902. Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. (2021). Social cognition: From brains to culture (4/e). Sage. Johnson, E. J., & Goldstein, D. G. (2003, November 21). Do defaults save lives? Science, 302, 1338–1339. Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Macmillan. Lewin, K. (1939). Field theory and experiment in social psychology: Concepts and methods. American Journal of Sociology, 44(6), 868–896. Pettigrew, T. F. (1998a). Reactions toward the new minorities of Western Europe. Annual Review of Sociology, 24(1), 77–103. Pettigrew, T. F. (1998b). Intergroup contact theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49(1), 65–85. Proshansky, H. M., Ittelson, W. H., & Rivlin, L. G. (1970). Environmental psychology: Man and his physical setting. Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Ramos, M. R., Bennett, M. R., Massey, D. S., & Hewstone, M. (2019). Humans adapt to social diversity over time. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(25), 12244–12249. Ross, L., & Nisbett, R. E. (2011). The person and the situation: Perspectives of social psychology. Pinter & Martin Publishers. Shafir, E. (Ed.). (2013). The behavioral foundations of public policy. Princeton University Press. Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2009). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. Penguin.

Chapter 3

Behavioral Public Administration: Past, Present, and Future Aspirations Asmus Leth Olsen

The Past Behavioral public administration denotes the combination of public administration and psychology. It is a very simple idea that has a very long history but has only recently gained popularity in the field of public administration. In many ways, Behavioral Public Administration began as the ‘Ugly Duckling’ by Hans Christian Andersen. In the beginning, the Ugly Duckling is a duck born into a duck-family, but he does not truly fit in and the other ducks do not truly want to acknowledge him. I am going to give you some evidence that Behavioral Public Administration was around from the beginning of the field of Public Administration. Herbert Simon received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1978 for integrating psychology into economics. He successfully conceptualized bounded rationality, which gave us a model that could provide some criticism of rational choice theory (Simon, 1955). However, he actually had a more controversial program that, in addition to providing a model of human behavior, also said that we need to completely change how we study public administration: We need to integrate psychology into Public Administration (Olsen, 2015). Writing in Public Administration Review in 1947, he argued for this integration: “For the man who wishes to explore the pure science of administration, it will dictate at least a thorough grounding in social psychology… Administration is itself an important area of human and social behavior… The research worker in administration must consider himself not merely a person whose work is related to social psychology, This article is a slightly revised version of a speech given at The 1st International Conference on Behavioral Public Administration, October 2019, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. A. L. Olsen (B) Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] URL: https://www.asmusolsen.com © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 Z. Chen (ed.), Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9917-7_3

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but a person who is a social psychologist concentrating in a particular special area of human behavior” (Simon, 1947). In 1947, the PA field was relatively young and had not yet matured. Accordingly, Simon’s idea had the potential to shape the field from an early face. His proposal was not just that we need to have another view of humans through bound rationality. We need a completely new research program. A program that in many ways is similar to Behavioral Public Administration, namely, a full integration of psychology and public administration. Unfortunately, Simon failed with this greater plan. Henry (1975: 380–381) notes Simon’s failure as he takes stock of the development of public administration since 1947: “Simon’s call for a pure science put off many scholars in public administration and political science alike… Simon’s urging that social psychology provided the basis for understanding administrative behavior struck many public administrationists as foreign and discomfiting…” Unfortunately, Simon won the Nobel Prize for integrating psychology into economics, but his simultaneous call to integrate psychology into public administration was largely ignored. One criticism of Simon is that he provided us with many interesting theories, but he was not the most empirical guy, and in many ways, he left the field in the late 1950s. He ventured into economics and later computer science. He left the field, but maybe if he had made more empirical experimental research that could spread as a standard, he could have been more successful. If we dig deeper, we can actually also find experimental Behavioral Public Administration in the early days. A completely unknown woman, Miriam Roher, was doing Ph.D. at Berkeley in the early 1940s, but unfortunately, she did not hand in her dissertation (Lee, 2006). Therefore, we only know her work from published papers during her years as an active student. What I think is interesting about Roher is that she actually had what Simon maybe lacked, namely, the experimental and empirical side. The work she did at the time comes very close to the heart of behavioral public administration, as it is today. Her experiments were about the very simple puzzle that government wants to inform citizens about what is going on, but citizens have very limited knowledge. The basic question is as follows: Can we use behavioral science and information campaigns to change citizens’ knowledge about what is going on in government? She started by stating a critique of the usual way of doing this in the 1940s. At that time, local governments in the US made pamphlets, that is, simple reports about performance, that citizens were provided on the mail. A government report was a report of what the city had been doing over the past year. Roher was concerned about this method. She thought that the citizens would ignore it because it did not match citizens’ psychology and how they digest information about public affairs. Therefore, she did an experiment. Perhaps we would have done the experiment slightly differently today, but she had the vision of experimental research. She polled many citizens in Palo Alto in California just before a government report was circulated to every household. Then, she polled the people again after the report was distributed. Comparing the two polls before and after the intervention, she found no substantive change in knowledge about local government affairs.

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Then, she said; well, we need to learn from advertising. Advertising knows more about psychology than the government does. Therefore, she put in ads over eight weeks in the local newspaper informing citizens on page one about what was going on. She then ran a third survey after this intervention to show that these ads actually improve citizens’ knowledge. Unfortunately, her work was mostly ignored by her peers, and she never finished her dissertation. Interestingly, we have on record that Herbert Simon, who was the same age as her, saw her present at a conference in 1941 and commented on her work. So we know that these two people have been in the same room and that they, in many ways, had the same vision. Her vision was a more experimental and empirical behavioral public administration. His vision was getting the theory right. She never handed in her dissertation, and five years later, she is described as a freelance writer and pamphleteer, that is, the person who makes pamphlets, so not exactly a full professor. Unfortunately. Of course there is an interesting gender dimension to this which points to the difficulties of women to make an academic career in the 1940s. However, it is also an example of how a scientific field can come very close to changing its course but for random reasons do not do so. The field of public administration could have become more experimental and psychological, but it would take much more time for that to happen.

The Present Behavioral Public Administration is now about to determine that it is a beautiful swan—but is not quite sure yet. Ugly duckling has been in the pond for a long time and has not recognized it as a swan. Now we are slowly starting to figure out, that we are actually a beautiful swan. We are slowly starting to recognize this, but maybe we are not quite sure yet if this is the right way to go. With good colleagues I have aimed to (re)introduce the agenda of Behavioral Public Administration (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017). In many ways we are just restating Simon and Miriam’s ideas. Perhaps with a stronger emphasis on experiments, we can call that the Miriam Roher part of the ideals. In Grimmelikhuijsen et al. (2017) “… We describe behavioral public administration as the interdisciplinary analysis of public administration from the microlevel perspective of individual behavior and attitudes by drawing on recent advances in our understanding of the underlying psychology and behavior of individuals and groups.” We manually code papers that rely on psychological theories of public administration and documentation and increase over the past 10 years. However, we are still at below ten percent of the published papers in the top journals (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017). We can also see an increase in the number of experiments. However, compared to psychology, we have produced very few experimental studies in public administration.

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However, let us look at the future; how do we become this beautiful swan? There are some opportunities, but there are also some difficulties and barriers. I think the most obvious barrier is the barrier, I also personally experience, which is that I am not a trained psychologist. I have taken some courses in political psychology and so forth, but I am not a trained psychologist. The problem is how we avoid being merely a group of amateur psychologists.

The Future How can Behavioral Public Administration fully become a beautiful swan? What do we have to offer? Why could we not just close down public administration? I actually think we have something important to offer. I think there are two important things we need to focus on. First, we need to integrate microlevel Behavioral Public Administration with existing traditional Public Administration that relies on meso- and macrolevel evidence. Second, we need to actually solve real-world problems and engage in the policy debate. Let me elaborate on both. First, how do we ensure that all these new experiments in public administration can be combined with all the existing evidence to make something new? Behavioral public administration in many ways provides us with a micro foundation. Existing work in public administration, I would say, is mostly meso- or macrolevel research or evidence apart from a strong tradition of studying individual motivation and public service motivation. We need to find good ways to bring experimental microstudies of individuals into a model that also meso-level organizational structure and the macro administrative culture of nations and regions (Jilke et al., 2019). Let me give you one example of how this can be done. We have relied on psychological experiments and theories to use a dice game paradigm to study dishonesty (Barfort et al., 2019; Olsen et al., 2019). The dice game gives us a benchmark to see if people are honest because we know the probability distribution of a die. Psychology provides us with some good measures and some interesting insights into basic differences between individuals. The basic individual difference here is that some individuals are dishonest and some honest. If we do these experiments with Danish students, then some of them are cheating, but there are also some of them who are highly honest (Barfort et al., 2019; Olsen et al., 2019). These are individual differences. It is a basic psychological insight. Now we need to put this together with something from our world of Public Administration. At the meso-level, we know that there are organizational differences in dishonesty as well. The public and private sectors can have different ways of being dishonest. At the macrolevel, different countries have different levels of dishonesty. Does individual-level dishonesty match selection into (non)corrupt public service around the globe? If we look at India, a highly corrupt country compared to Denmark, some have found that those who cheat in the dice game in India prefer to work in the public sector (Hanna & Wang, 2017). However, if we do the same in Denmark,

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then honest individuals actually prefer to work in the public sector (Barfort et al., 2019). I think this is one example of bringing together some experimental microlevel dice games done in the lab to understand individuals and using it to explore selection patterns and preferences for selection in a society at the macrolevel. I think another way to be sure that behavioral public administration becomes a beautiful swan is to ensure that we try to actually solve real world problems and engage in the policy debate. The psychologists are clearly better at running theoretical experiments. However, we also need to determine how these experiments can relate to important problems, that policy makers care about or that society needs us to answer right away. In that sense, we have to be an even more applied and less of a basic science because that is not where our comparative advantage is. It also matches what Simon actually wanted public administration to be: an engineering science for the public sector. One example of this is from my own research, where we have an important problem that actually starts out as being a nonissue, which is that crime is decreasing (Larsen & Olsen, 2020). The problem is that if we poll citizens, they actually think crime is rising. In other words, a societal issue is being solved, but no one recognizes it. How do we solve this paradox? Well, we sent out leaflets, classical information campaigns, to more than 4000 households. In Denmark, there is actually a dramatic decrease in the number of burglaries. In the treatment intervention, citizens obtain information about the actual development of burglaries. In the control group, citizens obtain information about other aspects of the problem or other topics. We had a specialist in graphics produce the leaflets to make sure they were very attractive and nice. The leaflets did work short term. People who received the intervention about burglaries having declined had improved knowledge of this if we looked just one week after the intervention. However, behavioral science also tells us that people are exposed to many other ways of updating their knowledge about problems in the world; therefore, many people may be much more affected by episodic events, news stories, etc. What we can see is that 25 days after the intervention, we were actually back to, where we started. There was no difference between the treatment group and the intervention group. This means that information campaigns can work, but if we rely on behavioral science, we can also understand the limits of when and where they work. Sending a leaflet is not enough if the information will be crowded out by input, which is more salient. This is a good example of how Behavioral Public Administration can help solve real world problems. I hope and believe Behavioral Public Administration will be a foundational part of Chinese Public Administration research in the twenty-first century. Thank you for your attention!

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References Barfort, S., Harmon, N., Hjorth, F., & Olsen, A. L. (2019). Sustaining honesty in public service: The role of selection. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 11(4), 96–123. Grimmelikhuijsen, S., Jilke, S., Olsen, A. L., & Tummers, L. (2017). Behavioral public administration: Combining insights from public administration and psychology. Public Administration Review, 77(1), 45–56. Hanna, R., & Wang, S. Y. (2017). Dishonesty and selection into public service: Evidence from India. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 9(3), 262–290. Henry, N. (1975). Paradigms of public administration. Public Administration Review, 378–386. Jilke, S., Olsen, A. L., Resh, W., & Saba, S. (2019). Microbrook, mesobrook, macrobrook. Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 2(4), 245–253. Larsen, M. V., & Olsen, A. L. (2020). Reducing bias in citizens’ perception of crime rates: Evidence from a field experiment on burglary prevalence. Journal of Politics, 82(2), 747–752. Lee, M. (2006). Empirical experiments in public reporting: Reconstructing the results of survey research, 1941–42. Public Administration Review, 66(2), 252–262. Olsen, A. L. (2015). Simon said we didn’t jump. Public Administration Review, 75(2), 325–326. Olsen, A. L., Hjorth, F., Harmon, N., & Barfort, S. (2019). Behavioral dishonesty in the public sector. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 29(4), 572–590. Simon, H. A. (1947). A comment on “the science of public administration.” Public Administration Review, 7(3), 200–203. Simon, H. A. (1955). A behavioral model of rational choice. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 69(1), 99–118.

Chapter 4

Behavioral Public Administration: Recognizing, Celebrating and Reflecting on Research Trends Bradley E. Wright

I am grateful to be afforded this opportunity to recognize, celebrate and reflect on the behavioral public administration movement. I am one of many that have long advocated for better incorporating the theory (Kettl & Milward, 1996; Wright, 2001, 2011) and research methods (Bozeman & Scott, 1992; Perry, 2012; Wright & Grant, 2010; Wright, 2008; Wright et al., 2004) from other fields to strengthen our understanding behavior in or interactions with government organizations. So I am excited about the recent developments associated with the Behavioral Public Administration (BPA) movement and the new generation of scholars that have embraced and led these changes. The resulting increased use of psychology theories (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017) and stronger research designs (Li & Van Ryzin, 2017) have strengthened the field immensely. While there is much to be excited it is also important to take this opportunity to reflect on recent developments with an eye toward the future and how we can draw even more from other disciplines to strengthen our research. BPA has drawn heavily on both psychology and economics just as the research practices of these fields have come under critical scrutiny as a result of controversial studies, well-publicized fraud cases, unexpectedly high rates of hypothesis confirmation and the low rate at which study findings can be reproduced (Camerer et al., 2016; Fanelli, 2012; Open Science Collaboration, 2015; Pashler & Wagenmakers, 2012). Even experimental studies are not immune to these problems (Camerer et al., 2016; Simmons et al., 2011) and the existence of well known psychological phenomenon like social priming are now in question (Chivers, 2019). So while we reap many benefits from using stronger designs and theories, we also must head warnings of “methodolotry” by placing too much importance or confidence in specific research designs and practices (Moynihan, 2018). All research designs have their advantages and disadvantages so

B. E. Wright (B) University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 Z. Chen (ed.), Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9917-7_4

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as we strengthen the field we must also keep in mind that method variety is not only helpful but also the norm when studying organizational behavior.1

So Where Do We Go from Here? There are no Silver Bullets Although research in psychology and economics provide good role models for public administration, they also illustrate the inherent difficulties associated with both conducting and evaluating research. Psychologists and economists continue to conduct research to identify the wide variety of research practices that might increase Type I errors and contribute to the lower than expected ability to replicate findings such as how missing data is handled, the number and type of statistical tests conducted and the lack of transparency in the methods. These researcher degrees of freedom are not only very common (John et al., 2012) but many of these practices have often been justified as ways to strengthen our confidence in the findings (Simmons et al., 2011) and can be difficult to avoid (Stanley & Spence, 2014). While this research has identified the important trade-offs in the degrees of freedom researchers have when conducting, analyzing and reporting their research, it also illustrates how difficult it is to reach clear and agreed upon best practices (my experience as a journal editor and reading the literature suggests that it can be very difficult to get statisticians to always agree on the most appropriate analyses to conduct). Take for example the most basic of recommendations, the need to conduct replication studies. Although we were all taught that no single study is perfect or should be seen as definitive, there isn’t agreement on how or even whether to do them. While these are important efforts, we must keep in mind that direct replications do not necessarily mean that the original research findings or their interpretations are correct (Leek & Peng, 2015; Streobe & Strack, 2014).2 When studies are able to reproduce the findings using the same data or replicate the findings using the same measures and analyses with data collected from similar samples, the replication study may duplicate some of the practices used by the original study that can inflate the chances of Type I error or reproduce the results in the same narrow set of conditions that are required for the relationship to exist. Conversely, studies that are unable to replicate the original study’s findings may have introduced new study weaknesses or have studied the relationship under different conditions that weaken the relationship studied in the original research. Conceptual replications (trying to 1

Recent estimates suggest that experimental and quasi-experimental research only reflect a small percentage (11.5%) of the publications in top management and organizational behavior journals (Podsakof & Podsakof, 2019). 2 For a more in-depth and insightful debate, look at the discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of the “Many Labs” replication project in volume 45, issue 4 of Social Psychology (2014).

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replicate findings of a previous study using different designs, measures and settings) pose their own difficulties (Simons, 2014). As a result, some scholars have been more critical of the role that replication can be realistically expected to play and argue that meta-analyses may be a more effective way to strengthen our confidence in research findings (Stanley & Spence, 2014; see also Crisp et al., 2014). Unfortunately even meta-analyses are not immune to problems associated with researcher degrees of freedom that can alter the results or their interpretations (Lakens et al., 2016). Similarly many of the other frequently touted ways to increase our ability to trust and replicate research findings such as pre-registration turn out not to be easy or as effective as proponents have claimed (Adam, 2019; Ofosu & Posner, 2020; Olken, 2015). So while there is a lot we can learn from this research about the importance of transparency and the potential costs associated with various research practices, we must also take care not to replace one form of methodolotry with another by suggesting that there is a “one best way” to conduct or properly evaluate research.

Some Low Hanging Fruit Still to Pick Although public management research has already benefitted greatly from making better use of the theory and methods from psychology and economics, there are also other research in these fields we can benefit from. In particular, we could benefit from drawing on literature that has identified how research findings often vary across studies as a result of differences in the study design, setting or measures. While the failure to replicate findings can lower the confidence in and usefulness of our research, replication failures can also have considerable value when they help identify boundary conditions and build new theoretical insights (Redish et al., 2018; for a great example, see Latham et al., 1988). Existing research, for example, suggests that the type of experiment, samples and measure we use in our studies will not only increase our ability to replicate our research findings but also improve our ability to correctly interpret and successfully apply our findings in public organizations. Past research, for example, has found that the type of experimental designs also have important implications for our confidence in and our interpretations of the study findings. One important distinction that may be especially relevant for the study of BPA is between lab and field experiments. While lab studies often have the potential for greater internal validity due to their ability to isolate the effects on the dependent variable by affording greater control over conditions and the salience of the independent variable, field studies have stronger external validity by studying the effects of the independent variable in natural settings where other relevant factors may weaken their effects. As a result, promising findings produced in controlled lab environments often weaken and disappear when tested in the field. When studying employee performance or decision making, the effect sizes found in lab studies are often almost twice as large as those found in field studies (Vanhove & Harms, 2015). Although field studies can be difficult to conduct, such designs are not only becoming more prevalent but can also give us greater confidence that the research findings can

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transfer into practice and be seen as more relevant to public organizations (Hansen & Tummers, 2020; Hauser et al., 2017). Research has also raised important concerns about experiments that rely on the use of hypothetical situations or vignettes. While vignettes can be a useful tool to study variables or situations that are difficult to manipulate, such designs also make it difficult to manipulate or establish the salience of the variables or situations being studied. As a result, such experiments may have very low external validity because participants may respond vary differently to a vignette than actual work settings where they are more likely to face consequences or other relevant factors may weaken or even reverse their effects (Collett & Childs, 2011). For example, recent research in public management found that government employees are either not likely to discriminate against and even prefer ethnic minorities when making hiring decisions in hypothetical situations but do seem to discriminate against those groups in field experiments looking at actual behavior (Wulff & Villadsen, 2020). Given that a large percentage of experiments being conducted in public administration rely on vignette experiments (Bouwman & Grimmelikhuijsen, 2016; Li & Van Ryzin, 2017), our research findings would likely be more accurate and more relevant if we not only do more to both better recognize the weaknesses of such designs and, even more importantly, reduce our reliance on them. Similarly, existing research in psychology and economics suggests that there are important differences in the research findings of studies that measure behavior and those that use attitudes and intentions as a proxy for behavior. Currently many of the experiments conducted in public administration to inform our understanding of behavior do not measure behavior or adequately recognizing important weaknesses of using proxies for behavior. Even though behavioral intentions are stronger predictors of behavior than attitudes or risk perceptions, on average intentions only explain less than a third of the variation in individual behavior (Rubenstein et al., 2018; Webb & Sheeran, 2006) and factors that predict behavioral intention often do not predict actual behavior (Mesmer-Magnus & Viswesvaran, 2005). Take, for example, the social priming literature investigating the relationship between public service motivation (PSM) and ethics. While such experiments have shown support for a positive relationship between PSM and employee ethical intentions (Meyer-Sahling et al., 2018), they have failed to find a relationship between PSM and ethical behavior (Christensen & Wright, 2018; Olsen et al., 2019; Peng & Li, 2019; Wright & Christensen, 2021). While these findings may just highlight the difficulty of replicating social priming studies (Chivers, 2019) but they can also help illustrate some of the difficulties faced when evaluating research. It is possible, for example, that the findings linking PSM and ethical intentions (Meyer-Sahling et al., 2018) may better capture the true relationship because of its use of both a much larger sample size and a sample that consists of government employees (as opposed to student samples used by the other studies) as government employees are the population that we really want to learn about (Lu et al., forthcoming) and may be more sensitive to the prime

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(Weingarten et al., 2016).3 But even if the conflicting results can be attributed more to differences in sampling than measurement, past research has shown that intention is not a strong predictor of behavior and the effect size found by the study was small enough that our confidence that social priming or PSM can translate into meaningful levels of increased ethical behavior in organizational settings requires future research that can link it to actual behavior. Studying attitudes and perceptions are important in their own right but to the extent that we purport to study behavior than we should do more to recognize the limitations of and reduce our reliance on measures that often provide unreliable proxies for behavior.

Conclusion In conclusion, it is important to recognize and even celebrate the ways in which public management has benefited greatly from the behavioral public administration movement. Not only because of the increased use of psychology theories (Grimmelikuijsen et al., 2017) and experimental and quasi experimental designs (Hansen & Tummers, 2020; Li & Van Ryzin, 2017) but the more recent push to incorporate other important methods like confirmatory factor analyses and meta-analyses (Belle & Cantarelli, 2017; Cantarelli et al., 2016; Ding et al., 2021; Harari et al., 2017) as well as advocating for more field experiments (Hansen & Tummers, 2020; Hassan & Wright, 2020), more appropriate samples (Lu et al., 2022), greater research transparency and other strategies to aid replicating our work (Walker et al., 2019). While I caution the field to avoid methodolotry (Moynihan, 2018) and putting too much importance on any specific research design or proposed solution to the reproducibility crisis in social science, I am encouraged by the breadth and depth of the efforts to strengthen the field. To that end, future research should also do more to prevent weaknesses in our research by recognizing how research findings often differ across studies as a result of differences in the study design, setting or measures. In particular, evidence suggests that reducing our reliance on vignette experiments, increasing our use of field experiments and doing more to measure the behavior of public servants will not only increase our ability to replicate our research findings but also improve our ability to correctly interpret and successfully apply our findings in public organizations.

References Adam, D. (2019). Psychology’s reproducibility solution fails first test. Science, 364(6443), 813. Bellé, N., & Cantarelli, P. (2017). What causes unethical behavior? A meta-analysis to set an agenda for public administration research. Public Administration Review, 77(3), 327–339. 3

Social priming effects can elicit greater association and goal activation in people who are more sensitive to the prime and care more about the outcome being primed (Weingarten et al., 2016).

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Bouwman, R., & Grimmelikhuijsen, S. (2016). Experimental public administration from 1992 to 2014: A systematic literature review and ways forward. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 29(2), 110–131. Bozeman, B., & Scott, P. (1992). Laboratory experiments in public policy and management. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2(3), 293–313. Camerer, C. F., Dreber, A., Forsell, E., Ho, T.-H., Huber, J., Johannesson, M., & Wu, H. (2016). Evaluating replicability of laboratory experiments in economics. Science, 351(6280), 1433e1436. Cantarelli, P., Belardinelli, P., & Belle, N. (2016). A meta-analysis of job satisfaction correlates in the public administration literature. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 36(2), 115–144. Chivers, T. (2019). What’s next for psychology’s embattled field of social priming. Nature, 576(7786), 200–202. Christensen, R. K., & Wright, B. E. (2018). Public service motivation and ethical behavior: Evidence from three experiments. Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, 1(1), 1–8. Collett, J. L., & Childs, E. (2011). Minding the gap: Meaning, affect, and the potential shortcomings of vignettes. Social Science Research, 40(2), 513–522. Crisp, R. J., Miles, E., & Husnu, S. (2014). Support for the replicability of imagined contact effects. Social Psychology, 45, 303–304. Ding, F., Lu, J., & Riccucci, N. M. (2021). How bureaucratic representation affects public organizational performance: A meta-analysis. Public Administration Review. Fanelli, D. (2012). Negative results are disappearing from most disciplines and countries. Scientometrics, 90, 891–904. Grimmelikhuijsen, S., Jilke, S., Olsen, A. L., & Tummers, L. (2017). Behavioral public administration: Combining insights from public administration and psychology. Public Administration Review, 77(1), 45–56. Hansen, J. A., & Tummers, L. (2020). A systematic review of field experiments in public administration. Public Administration Review, 80(6), 921–931. Harari, M. B., Herst, D. E., Parola, H. R., & Carmona, B. P. (2017). Organizational correlates of public service motivation: A meta-analysis of two decades of empirical research. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 27(1), 68–84. Hassan, S., & Wright, B. E. (2020). The behavioral public administration movement: A critical reflection. Public Administration Review, 80(1), 163–167. Hauser, O. P., Linos, E., & Rogers, T. (2017). Innovation with field experiments: Studying organizational behaviors in actual organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, 37, 185–198. John, L. K., Loewenstein, G., & Prelec, D. (2012). Measuring the prevalence of questionable research practices with incentives for truth telling. Psychological Science, 23(5), 524–532. Kettl, D. F., & Milward, H. B. (Eds.). (1996). The state of public management. JHU Press. Lakens, D., Hilgard, J., & Staaks, J. (2016). On the reproducibility of meta-analyses: Six practical recommendations. BMC Psychology, 4(1), 1–10. Latham, G. P., Erez, M., & Locke, E. A. (1988). Resolving scientific disputes by the joint design of crucial experiments by the antagonists: Application to the Erez-Latham dispute regarding participation in goal setting. Journal of Applied Psychology, 73(4), 753. Leek, J. T., & Peng, R. D. (2015). Opinion: Reproducible research can still be wrong: Adopting a prevention approach. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(6), 1645–1646. Li, H., & Van Ryzin, G. G. (2017). A systematic review of experimental studies in public management journals. In O. James, S. Jilke, & G. G. Van Ryzin (Eds.), Experiments in public management research: Challenges and contributions (pp. 20–36). Cambridge University Press. Lu, X., Wang, W., & Xu, H. (2022). Who can serve as the proxy for public employees in public administration experiments? A cross-sample comparison. Public Management Review, 24(6), 819-839. Mesmer-Magnus, J. R., & Viswesvaran, C. (2005). Whistleblowing in organizations: An examination of correlates of whistleblowing intentions, actions, and retaliation. Journal of Business Ethics, 62(3), 277–297.

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Meyer-Sahling, J. H., Mikkelsen, K. S., & Schuster, C. (2018). The causal effect of public service motivation on ethical behavior in the public sector: Evidence from a large-scale survey experiment. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 29(3), 445–459. Moynihan, D. P. (2018). A great schism approaching? Towards a micro and macro public administration. Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, 1(1), 1–8. Ofosu, G. K., & Posner, D. N. (2020). Pre-analysis plans: an early stocktaking. Perspectives on Politics, 1–17. Olken, B. A. (2015). Promises and perils of pre-analysis plans. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29, 61–80. Olsen, A. L., Hjorth, F., Harmon, N., & Barfort, S. (2019). Behavioral dishonesty in the public sector. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 29(4), 572–590. Open Science Collaboration. (2015). Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349(6251). Pashler, H., & Wagenmakers, E. J. (2012). Editors’ introduction to the special section on replicability in psychological science: A crisis of confidence? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(6), 528–530. Peng, S., & Li, H. (2019). Dishonesty in the name of noble cause: Do public service motivation, prosocial motivation, and employment sector play a role? Presented at the 17th Public Management Research Conference, Chapel Hill, NC. Perry, J. L. (2012). How can we improve our science to generate more usable knowledge for public professionals? Public Administration Review, 479–482. Podsakoff, P. M., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2019). Experimental designs in management and leadership research: Strengths, limitations, and recommendations for improving publishability. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 11-33. Redish, A. D., Kummerfeld, E., Morris, R. L., & Love, A. C. (2018). Opinion: Reproducibility failures are essential to scientific inquiry. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(20), 5042–5046. Rubenstein, A. L., Eberly, M. B., Lee, T. W., & Mitchell, T. R. (2018). Surveying the forest: A metaanalysis, moderator investigation, and future-oriented discussion of the antecedents of voluntary employee turnover. Personnel Psychology, 71(1), 23–65. Simmons, J. P., Nelson, L. D., & Simonsohn, U. (2011). False-positive psychology: Undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant. Psychological Science, 22(11), 1359–1366. Simons, D. J. (2014). The value of direct replication. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9(1), 76–80. Stanley, D. J., & Spence, J. R. (2014). Expectations for replications: Are yours realistic? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9(3), 305–318. Stroebe, W., & Strack, F. (2014). The alleged crisis and the illusion of exact replication. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9(1), 59-71. Vanhove, A. J., & Harms, P. D. (2015). Reconciling the two disciplines of organisational science: A comparison of findings from lab and field research. Applied Psychology, 64(4), 637–673. Walker, R. M., Brewer, G. A., Lee, M. J., Petrovsky, N., & Van Witteloostuijn, A. (2019). Best practice recommendations for replicating experiments in public administration. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 29(4), 609–626. Webb, T. L., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Does changing behavioral intentions engender behavior change? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 132(2), 249. Weingarten, E., Chen, Q., McAdams, M., Yi, J., Hepler, J., & Albarracín, D. (2016). From primed concepts to action: A meta-analysis of the behavioral effects of incidentally presented words. Psychological Bulletin, 142(5), 472. Wright, B. E. (2001). Public sector work motivation: Review of current literature and a revised conceptual model. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 11(4), 559–586.

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Wright, B. E. (2008). Methodological challenges associated with public service motivation research. In J. L. Perry & A. Hondeghem (Eds.), Motivation in public management: The call of public service (pp. 80–98). Oxford University Press. Wright, B. E. (2011). Public administration as an interdisciplinary field: Assessing its relationship with other fields of law, management and political science. Public Administration Review, 71(1), 96–101. Wright, B. E., & Christensen, R. K. (2021). Additional intervention evidence on the relationship between public service motivation and ethical behavior. Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, 4(1). Wright, B. E., & Grant, A. M. (2010). Unanswered questions about public service motivation: Designing research to address key issues of emergence and effects. Public Administration Review, 70(5), 691–700. Wright, B. E., Manigault, L. J., & Black, T. R. (2004). Quantitative research measurement in public administration: An assessment of journal publications. Administration & Society, 35(6), 747–764. Wulff, J. N., & Villadsen, A. R. (2020). Are survey experiments as valid as field experiments in management research? An empirical comparison using the case of ethnic employment discrimination. European Management Review, 17(1), 347–356.

Chapter 5

New Opportunities, New Challenges: Characteristics and Development of Behavioral Public Administration Zhixia Chen

Behavioral Public Administration (BPA) or Behavioral Public Management (BPM) is an interdisciplinary of psychology and public administration (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017). As a sub-discipline and a direction of the research of public administration, the research and practice of BPA or BPM guided by behavioral science has penetrated into the broad fields of policy construction, policy analysis, organizational decision-making, public satisfaction evaluation, and public perception. It is currently the most important development direction of public administration. But the understanding of BPA and its exact characteristic may need more deeply exploration. Besides, how to enhance it? How to develop it? Where will it go? These are all urgent questions.

Characteristics of Behavioral Public Administration Integration of Public Administration and Psychology. According to Grimmelikhuijsen et al. (2017), the characteristics of BPA are the integration of public administration and psychology. It introduces psychological theories and methods into public administration from the micro-level perspective of individual behavior and attitudes. Using psychological insights can be beneficial to our understanding of various important phenomena in public administration research and practice (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017). This definition based on their literature review indicates the key contents and characteristics of BPA. Narrow and Broad Concept. While the applause and agreement of the current understanding of BPA, however, I have some supplements that psychology not only explores human behaviors from individual perspective but also from group and Z. Chen (B) Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 Z. Chen (ed.), Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9917-7_5

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mass perspective, especially for social psychology. Then, they have also mentioned psychology and behavior science but only mentioned psychology in the definition which induces some debates and misunderstanding. Therefore, it is the common and a kind of relatively narrow understanding about BPA. The concept of BPA can be divided into narrow and broad. The narrow concept focuses on using a psychological method (e.g. experiment) to discuss administrative problems. Meanwhile, the broad concept focuses on the research of public administration from the perspective of human behavior and attitude (cognition, affective, attitude, behavior), individual & group, mass (macro, meso, micro view). Its broad concept of behavioral science involves psychology, management, sociology, economics, etc. Behavior and Attitude. In the perspective of psychology, behavior and psychology once have the same meaning and can be replaced, including the minds and spirit world of human being. Public administrative issues are mainly explained through behavior and attitude (cognition, affective, behavior). BPA is the Interdisciplinary analysis of public administration from the perspective of behaviors and attitudes by drawing on recent advances in our understanding of the underlying psychology and behavior of individuals and groups. The Scientific Methodology. In the research of BPA, experiment method is most common used. Compare to other research methods, experiment can give causal interpretation and have powerful convincingness. What I want to add is, although experiment is the special and most valuable method, lots of other methods are also worth to be both eclectic. Actually, observing, case study, archives, survey, measurement, experiment, etc., all these methods are widely used in psychological studies. Significant for Public Administration. Actually, psychological theory and methods can be used in almost all areas of public administration. For example, in the college of public administration, some scholars focus on e-government (mass communication, online behavior), others focus on land management, and some scholars focus on technological management, but all of the other directions can and should take some perspective of psychology. BPA not only emphasize individual’s behavior but also the group’s behavior. BPA is a significant part of public administration, and it brings a new paradigm of public administration together with a new research direction of public administration research.

The Development of Behavioral Public Administration Until now, it is hard for us to say that BPA is a subfield. But as time goes by, it will indeed be a subfield of public administration. Actually, the concept of BPA is not a new concept, it has a short but long history. Although the concept proposed of BPA by Grimmelikhuijsen, et al., (2017) bring it to a new process, the related exploration and accumulate has a long journey. Early 20th century, the controversy about the scientific nature of political science and the emergence of behaviorism political science. After world war II, Simon administrative behavior emerged. In the 1970s, the school of public policy and the school of public were deeply influenced by

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Fig. 5.1 “Behavioral public administration” in public administration review, 1996–2015 (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017)

administration behavior. Later, numerous studies in the field of public administration adopted empirical research methods (Fig. 5.1). BPA is like old wine in a new bottle. Some familiar memorable theories or studies are old wines, such as Hawthorne Effect (Elton Mayo, 1920s); Simon’s “administrative behavior” and bounded rationality, series studies on decision-making processes in administrative organization (Simmon, 1959); Kahneman’s (1979) studies on cognitive biases and prospect theory: an analysis of decision under risk; Thaler’s Nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness (Thaler & Sunstein, 2009), and so on. And some new concepts are new bottle. There are now many scholars who combine psychology with public administration to study BPA (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017; James et al., 2017; Olsen et al., 2017). When talking about the history and the development of psychology, we say psychology is a young and old science, maybe this could be also how BPA is perceived. There are lots of scholars that give us good background and we have also done literature where we found that scholars have already researched the BPA. Using the key words including cognition/effective/attitude/psychology/behavior and experiment (Fig. 5.2), we get 1000+ papers and the top scholars such as Gregg G. Van Ryan, Mary K. Feeney, Donald Moynihan, Bradley Wright, Sangmook Kim, Justin Michael Stritch, Stephan Grimmelikhuijsen, Sebastian Jilke, Asmus Olsen, Lars Tummers, Sanjay K. Pandy et al. The current research gives us a view that why different BPA can be a subfield. Many scholars have researched this area and it is not just pregnant, it could be a new baby as many scholars give current topics for research. Especially, some scholars recently give great theoretical contributions (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017; James et al., 2017). The detail area and contents include public policy and administration, social administration, public human resource management, public organizational behavioral, public service and performance, diversity management et al. (see Figs. 5.1 and 5.2).

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Fig. 5.2 Statistical results of high frequency keywords visual clustering analysis

Public Policy and Administration Governance, Management, New public management, Public administration, Strategy, Decision-making, Policy, State,Police, ..

Public Organization & HRM Leadership, Organization, Affectuve Commitment, Culture, Motivation, Human Resource Management, Public Service Motivation, Performance,

Citizen Behavior Citizen Satisfaction, Co-production, Citizen Participation, Bias, Collaboration, Identity, Trust, Well-being ,

Public Administration Performance

Social Governance Democracy, Citizen Participation, E-government, Local Government, private organization, public service, Managers, Rules,Volunteers,

Fig. 5.3 The current main topics of behavioral public administration

Combine Psychology and Management: My Academic Road I have the conduction academic background of psychology, sociology and management, public administration. I graduated from major of psychology and management, and have once worked in psychology, sociology and public administration department. I have collaborated with Pro. Susan Fiske, Pro. Eisenberger, and Pro. Einarsen Asland, etc. During the past years, I and my colleagues have tried and explored to do some researches which combine psychology and management/public administration.

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These include studies on ambivalent attitudes & ambivalent sexism such as ambivalent sexism, marriage, and power-related gender-role ideology (Chen et al., 2009), ambivalent sexism in close relationships (Lee et al., 2010), etc. Figure 5.4 shows the main handicap and mechanism of how ambivalence sexism influence women career development. At the same time, we use psychological methods to explore citizens well-being (Chen, 2012; Chen & Li, 2013; Chen & Yu, 2017), social attitudes (Chen et al., 2014), political trust (Yu & Chen, 2019), leadership behavior (Zhao et al., 2019; Chen & Wang, 2017). On the study of leadership behavior, we proposed the Mathew effect of leadership behavior toward employee organizational behavior and test this theory with empirical evidence (Fig. 5.5). We also explore leadership ostracism and its mechanisms. All these explorations includes three parts: City administration, social governance, Leadership and organizational behavior (Fig. 5.4). These studies are not only a supplement to the existing research, but also some beneficial explorations of BPA. By hard exploration, I and my colleagues initiated the first team who pioneered the system study of behavioral public administration research combing psychology and public administration in China.

City City Administrat Administrat ive ive and and City City Happiness Happiness City Governance

BPA BPA Research Research Perspective Perspective Social Goverenance

Social Social Psychology Psychology and Society and Society Adminitration Adminitration

Fig. 5.4 The three main parts of our team research

Organizational Governance

Leadership Leadership and and Workplace Workplace Behavior Behavior

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Social Handicap Gender Stereotype Family Handicap marriage ideology mate selection criteria marriage gender role norms

Ambivalent Sexism

Self Handicap family-career orientation achievement motivation career efficiency Organizational Handicap organizational culture with ambivalent sexism

Family Power & Status Work-family conflict Career develpment

Job performance

Fig. 5.5 The mechanism of am bivalence sexism toward women career development

Transformational Leadership

Supervisor Organizational Embodiment SOE

In-role Performance Affective Organizational Commitment

Abusive Leadership

Out-role Performance

Fig. 5.6 The Mathew effect of leadership behavior

New Opportunities of Behavioral Public Administration New Opportunities: Great Academic Background The great academic background gives great support and new chance for Behavioral Public Administration, which include the proposed concept of BPA and numerous

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previous studies, community of scholars. Many scholars have paid attention to BPA, such as Grimmelikhuijsen et al. (2017), which suggests that BPA has become an independent research field. There are also numerous previous researches include BPA research areas, theories and research methods. The typical studies include nudge, behavioral insight, cognition bias in public administration, etc. In addition, there are community of scholars which include research center/lab, connection and association have done some researches. All these provide a great academic background for the development of BPA.

New Opportunities: Great Social Changing and Research Issues The opportunities include the great social change and research issues. The development of big data technology and artificial intelligence provides us abundant research means and enables us to observe behaviors and attitudes more accurately. The modernization of China’s governance system and capacity provides BPA with a broader research site and more application space. And society governance provides more new research topics for BPA. The great change of the world and the development of Public administration research give great opportunities to BPA, include the broad research areas on public administration decision making and nudge; public sector management; social psychology and social governance; public policies and initiatives; public service motivation; big data analysis of behavior; government performance management; citizen perception, attitude and behavior; organizational and leadership behavior; research methods of behavior administration. In terms of public administration and decision-making, the research can focus on individual or group decision making, policy acceptance, civic behavior decision making and public health. In terms of the public sector human resource management, the research can focus on public service motivation, leadership member exchange, employee performance and employee organizational behavior. In terms of the social psychology and social governance, the research can focus on innovation of social governance, social mentality and social psychology, rural revitalization. In terms of public policies and initiatives, the research can focus on policy implementation, social security and public integration. With regards to big data analysis of behavior, the research can focus on public opinion expression in new media, bigdata driven research on class stereotype, using big data to test political attitudes and government trust, using big data to test public performance. In terms of government performance management research, it can focus on government performance assessment, government’s ability, citizen’s performance bias. In terms of citizen’s cognition, attitude and behavior, the research can focus on social satisfaction, government trust, public participation and public satisfaction, citizen risk perception. In

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terms of organizational and leadership behavior, the research can focus on transformational leadership, ethical leadership, spiritual leadership, abusive leadership, leadership ostracism and civil servant’ stress, well-being, dishonest behavior, citizen behavior, counter-production behavior, etc. The research methods of BPA include multi-methods, meta-analysis and mapping the knowledge domain.

New Challenges of Behavioral Public Administration In terms of the new challenges of BPA, the development of BPA will definitely face lots of difficult and challenge, it mainly includes identity crisis, puzzlement of research methods, unique research fields and unique theoretical basis, etc. Researchers would first grapple with the identity crisis in that are they dealing with old wine in a new bottle? Or is it a new branch of public administration? Or is it a research direction of public administration? Secondly, this challenge can go further even to raise a fundamental question of whether BPA has its unique research methods? Thirdly, one of the critical aspects of this field is whether BPA as unique research fields are likely to emerge. If it happens, which research area would be most worth to explore? Researchers would have to find answers to the questions mentioned above. Lastly, it is essential that as researchers we discern whether in BPA, will there be a unique theoretical basis? In this manner, does public administration have its unique theoretical basis? All these are some fundamental aspects that BPA scholars should try to explore and solve. Acknowledgements This research was funded by key Projects of Chinese National Social Science Fund Grant 20AZD019; 17AGL014, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology Special Funds for Development of Humanities and Social Sciences Grant HUST2019.

References Chen, Z. (2012). City happiness index and its measure. City Problem, 4, 9–13. Chen, Z., & Li, Q. (2013). Influencing factors and measurement of urban residents’ happiness index. Urban Problems, 09, 52–58. Chen, Z., Wang, H. (2017). Abusive supervision and employees’ job performance: A multiple mediation model. Social Behavior and Personality, 45(5), 845–858. Chen, Z., & Yu, Y. (2017). The influence of urban residents’ social management satisfaction on residents’ well-being. Urban Problems, 11, 78–86. Chen, Z., Fiske, S., & Lee, T. (2009). Ambivalent sexism, marriage, and power-related gender-role ideology. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 60(11), 765–778. Chen, Z., Wang, X., Sun, L., et al. (2014). Social psychological attitudes and demands reflected in important public events on network—An analysis of 120 network public opinion cases appeared during 2007–2012. Journal of Intelligence, 03, 101–106.

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Grimmelikhuijsen, S., Jilke, S., Olsen, A. L., et al. (2017). Behavioral public administration: Combining insights from public administration and psychology. Public Administration Review, 77(1), 45–46. James, O., Jilke, S. R., & Van Ryzin, G. G. (2017). Behavioural and experimental public administration: Emerging contributions and new directions. Public Administration., 95, 865–873. Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica, 47(2), 263–291. Lee, T. L., Fiske, S. T., Glick, P., & Chen, Z. (2010). Ambivalent sexism in close relationships: (Hostile) Power and (Benevolent) romance shape relationship ideals. Sex Roles, 62(7–8), 583– 601. Olsen, A. L., Tummers, L., Grimmelikhuijsen, S., & Jilke, S. (2017). Behavioral public administration: Connecting psychology with European public administration research. In The Palgrave handbook of public administration and management in Europe (p. 1121–1133). Palgrave Macmillan. Simmon, H. A. (1959). Administrative behavior: A study of decision-making processes in administrative organization. Administrative Science Quarterly, 2(2), 244. Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2009). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. International Review of Economics Education, 8(1), 158–159. Yu, Y., & Chen, Z. (2019). The impact of public service accessibility on political trust and its mechanism. Journal of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Social Science Edition), 33(02), 28–37. Zhao, M., Chen, Z., Glambek, M., & Einarsen S. (2019). Leadership ostracism behaviors from the target’s perspective: A content and behavioral typology model derived from interviews with Chinese employees. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1197.

Chapter 6

Toward Chinese Behavioral Public Administration Chung-An Chen

Among all speakers, I am the only Chinese, ethnically speaking. So I feel obligated to address the issue of “Chinese” public administration. So what is Chinese public administration (PA)? Some people say it is a politically correct slogan. So does “Chinese PA” exist? Perhaps it does. There are answers from generic management. For example, Hofstede (2007) says that Asian scholars need to have more confidence in Asian management in the twenty-first century. Child (2009) says that research needs to take into account the Chinese context. Barney and Zhang (2009) argue that “Chinese management research” means applying and refining theories developed elsewhere in a Chinese context. Therefore, we can infer that “Chinese PA” does exist, and Chinese behavioral PA should be more carefully studied. Then, how should Chinese behavioral PA look like? Perhaps we can discuss this issue from the following perspective: What is NOT Chinese behavioral PA? What is Chinese behavioral PA NOT appealing to non-Chinese scholars? What is Chinese behavioral PA that attracts non-Chinese scholars’ eyeballs? I believe that answers to these questions can improve Chinese scholars’ interaction with international researchers and help them with publications in reputable international journals.

What Is NOT Chinese Behavioral PA? Therefore, let us answer the following question: What is NOT Chinese behavioral PA? More precisely, there is something like “you think it is Chinese behavioral PA, but it’s actually not”. What is that? There are some common features in this category. First, researchers use data collected in China. Second, researchers develop a fancy model, especially one with moderation, mediation, and several causal paths. Hypotheses are C.-A. Chen (B) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 Z. Chen (ed.), Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9917-7_6

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similar to what Western (especially US and UK) scholars have tested and theories that endorse hypotheses are identical. Researchers then argue: “Although similar studies exist in the (Western) literature, we lack evidence from China.” With minor exceptions, findings are pretty much the same as what Western scholars have found. In cases where researchers obtain a unique finding, they fail to provide convincing explanations. The following please find the example

How PSM, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and performance are correlated is an issue based on common sense. Chinese scholars can replicate this causal study using data collected in China and claim that “this how PSM predicts job satisfaction has never been done in China. They find that “Oh! PSM does predict job satisfaction in China”. Then, so what? We have already learned it long ago without any China-based proof.

What Is Chinese Behavioral PA, but NOT Appealing to Non-Chinese Scholars? Next, I want to talk about another issue: What is Chinese behavioral PA, but NOT appealing to non-Chinese scholars? First, let me ask you a question: Do you know whether GeorgiaGain has made the Georgia government a career choice for youngsters? You don’t know, right? Do you care about it? Prof Bradly Wright may care about it very much, but I bet you don’t. Why? Because it is not your business. Similarly, non-Chinese scholars have no reason to care about a pure Chinese public management issue if that issue is “not their business”. More precisely, non-Chinese scholars ignore a Chinese PA issue if (i) a Chinese issue has a very marginal implication for PA practice in their hometown or (ii) a Chinese issue fails to improve/refine existing PA theories. Let me give you one example about a Chinese issue not appealing to non-Chinese scholars: Can Administrative Examination and Approval System Reformation Improve the Local Government Performance? With China’s accession to the WTO in 2001, it required the separation of government and enterprises, and the abolition of those administrative examination and approval matters

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impairing fair competition and market opening boosted the AEASR process. Moreover, the 19th National Congress of CPC pointed out that “We have taken moves across the board, achieved breakthroughs in many areas, and made further progress in reform. We have pursued reform in a more systematic, holistic, and coordinated way, increasing its coverage and depth.” The third plenary meeting of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party even has stressed the need to transform government functions, adjust and optimize functions of government institutions as well as allocate the functions of macro-management institutions in a reasonable way, which are deemed to be a significant task of deepening reform of the Party and state institutions. As an integral part of the

First, the “administrative examination and approval” system (部门审批制度) is unique in China. People in other countries do not have a similar practice. Why should they know anything about this system? So the topic is not attractive at all. In addition, scholars are not in any way interested in what was talked about in the 19th National Congress of CPC. They care about practices that people in other countries can learn.

What Is Chinese Behavioral PA that Attracts Non-Chinese Scholars’ Eyeballs? After talking so much about “what is not right”, let me say something about “what is right”. Scholars are encouraged to try the following ways. The first one is international comparison. Researchers in general use existing data from large international projects, such as the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) or World Value Survey, for comparison. Of course, researchers are encouraged to collect their own data in various countries as long as they have good interpersonal networks. When doing comparison, researchers choose a topic, compare the results in 2–3 countries, and provide reasons that explain differences in these countries. Reasons are usually embedded in cultures and institutions. Percentage of perceived sector mismatch in the US Currently private (n = 775)

Currently public (n = 775)

Total (n = 968)

Preferring private (%)

76.8

39.0

69.2

Preferring public (%)

23.2

61.0

30.8

Total (%)

100

100

100

Percentage of perceived sector mismatch in the New Zealand Currently private (n = 501)

Currently public (n = 194)

Total (n = 695)

Preferring private (%)

86.6

59.8

79.1

Preferring public (%)

13.4

40.2

20.9

Total (%)

100

100

100

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Percentage of perceived sector mismatch in Taiwan Currently private (n = 1073)

Currently public (n = 157)

Total (n = 1230)

Preferring private (%)

44.1

25.5

41.7

Preferring public (%)

55.9

74.5

58.3

Total (%)

100

100

100

Source Chen et al. (2019)

Chen et al. (2019) use ISSP data to compare the preference for a public service career in the US, Taiwan, and New Zealand. It is quite apparent that, according to the results, East Asians are much more interested in a public service job: a majority of public servants in Taiwan (74.5%) want to stay in the public sector, in contrast to only 40.2% in New Zealand. However, why? The data cannot tell you, and it’s your job to explain why there is such a huge difference. Perhaps we need to trace back to Chinese people’s cult of exam and New Zealand’s radical administrative reform that removed long-term employment. The second is looking for a local concept that inspires non-Chinese scholars. Researchers first observe the cultural and institutional setting and, based on this, propose a PA concept or crystallize a PA concept. Researchers then ground this concept in solid literature or a mature theory (e.g., career entrenchment, selfdetermination theory, bureaucracy, and Chinese psychology) and then measured this concept with a few items or a multidimensional construct. If possible, the researchers can associate this concept with outcomes or antecedents. Non-Chinese scholars find relevance because this kind of study is theory-driven. Let me give you one example. Please see below. This is from one of my studies (Chen & Hsieh, 2017). We know Chinese people have some traditional values, such as showing unconditional respect to the authority. Why don’t we focus on “submission to authority”? This concept is attractive, as it is one of the bureaucratic features, and those who do not know much about Chinese cultures may be interested in it. Then, we try to measure it. We may find some answers in the literature of bureaucracy and Chinese psychology, of if you want, you can develop your own measures. Finally, you can test whether submission to authority is a “good Chinese value” that enhances job satisfaction and organizational commitment. After all, that’s what managers would expect in a public sector bureaucracy (Table 6.1). I can give you another example. We know that Chinese people are particularly interested in a public service job. When they enter the public sector, they don’t want to leave. Is it because they are super eager to serve people? Maybe, but in even more cases, they are “forced to stay” even if they don’t truly like their public service jobs. What are those reasons? You may want to look around and get come clues in your daily life. For example, one may need to sacrifice a lot, such as social prestige, pension, and job security, if he/she leaves the public sector. Additionally, one may not be able to switch to the private sector after working in the government for too long, as the skills trained for the government are not applicable to the private sector. This forms government career entrenchment (Chen & Xu, 2020). We can propose

6 Toward Chinese Behavioral Public Administration

39

Table 6.1 OLS regression Job involvement

Organizational commitment

Public service motivation

Submission to authority

0.153*** (0.00)

0.228*** (0.00)

0.198*** (0.00)

Male dominance

−0.116*** (0.00)

−0.133*** (0.00)

−0.110*** (0.00)

Age

0.017*** (0.00)

0.05 (0.19)

0.017*** (0.00)

Gender (male)

−0.033 (0.51)

0.008 (0.88)

0.124*** (0.00)

Education

−0.011 (0.78)

−0.034 (0.43)

0.062** (0.01)

Independent variables

Controls

Source Chen and Hsieh (2017)

this concept and measure it using a multidimensional construct, as shown below. We can also apply this construct to other related concepts, such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and performance (Table 6.2). The third is challenging a proposition developed in the Western context. Researchers focus on a well-accepted proposition developed in the West. For example: High-PSM individuals are more likely to choose a public service (or public sector) position than a nonpublic service position. Based on the existing literature, researchers propose a counter proposition. For example: High-PSM individuals may NOT particularly prefer a public service position in China. The literature used to endorse this counter proposition must be well grounded in theories. For example, a public service position in China signifies prestige and privilege. According to motivation crowding theory (Frey & Jegen, 2001), PSM may be crowded out by material rewards. Researchers then test the proposition using data collected in China. Actually, two Korean scholars have done that. They find that PSM does not predict Korean students’ public sector preference (Lee & Choi, 2016), in contrast to findings based in Western society. They attribute this finding to Koreans’ belief that those who pursue a public service career are interested in prestige, not the chance to serve people (Table 6.3). The last is developing a hypothesis that is unseen in the Western context. More precisely, researchers do not “challenge” a Western proposition by providing a counterargument. They simply offer a “new” proposition. . A typical example of “challenge” looks like this: public service positions in China may not be particularly attractive to those who have high PSM. . A typical example of “new” looks like this: public service positions in China attract those who have low levels of PSM. Those who pass the public service

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C.-A. Chen

Table 6.2 EFA Scale items

EC

1 Emotionally, I feel hard to say goodbye. A public service career has become a part of my life

0.70

CI

LA

ER

0.10

2 It is quite pitiful to leave people and most things around here 0.53 in the government

−0.10

3 The received training will no longer be useful if I leave government

−0.55

4 The accumulated public sector tenure will be wasted if I leave government

−0.68

5 The accumulated interpersonal network will be wasted if I leave government

−0.72

6 Leaving the government for a new career is always risky and 0.17 difficult

0.56 −0.12 0.41

7 I haven’t updated my knowledge and skills for a long time. I don’t think I can find a good job if I leave government 8 I am used to dynamics in the government. I am afraid I cannot adjust well in the private or non-profit sectors

0.72

9 A public service position signifies pride and face in Chinese society

0.12

0.96

10 A public service position means reputation and it glorifies my family name

0.73

11 After all, a secure job in the public sector allows me to take 0.21 care of my family (including parents)

0.24 −0.14

12 The actual pay and fringe benefits are quite attractive in the public sector Eigen value

1.27

Proportion explained (%) Cronbach alpha

1.09

0.32 0.39

1.52

3.45

10.57 9.08

12.70

28.75

0.57

0.63

0.71

0.74

Notes N = 404. Factor loadings < 0.10 are not shown. EC = emotional cost, CI = career investment, LA = limited alternatives, ER = extrinsic rewards Source Chen and Xu (2020)

exam, accordingly, have lower levels of PSM than those who fail in the public service exam. I actually test the second proposition using data collected in Taiwan. The proposition receives strong statistical support (Chen et al., 2020) (Table 6.4).

6 Toward Chinese Behavioral Public Administration

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Table 6.3 Binary logit model predicting public-sector choice Variable

Model 1 (PSM)

Model 2 (work value)

Model 3 (prosocial)

Combined model

PSM COM

−0.02 (0.04)

−0.03 (0.04)

CPI

−0.06 (0.06)

−0.10 (0.06)

SS

0.07 (0.04)

0.05 (0.04)

Work value Extrinsic value High income

−0.44* (0.20)

−0.20 (0.26)

Job security

0.57*** (0.17)

0.49* (0.23)

Advancement

0.01 (0.13)

−0.12 (0.17)

−0.10 (0.16)

−0.12 (0.19)

Intrinsic value Interest in job itself Helping others

0.30* (0.12)

0.25 (0.17)

Contribution to society

0.15 (0.12)

0.21 (0.17)

Prosocial behavior Blood donation

0.06 (0.80)

0.03 (0.05)

Monetary donation

0.00 (0.94)

−0.03 (0.04)

Volunteering

0.03 (0.02)

0.04 (0.02)

Source Lee and Choi (2016)

Table 6.4 Propensity score matching and t-tests Unmatched

Matched

Fail

Pass

Sig

Fail

Pass

Sig

PSM

4.76

4.65

**

4.75

4.65

**

Volunteering

16.05

14.68

**

15.96

14.68

**

Source Chen et al. (2020)

Conclusion A few days ago, a student asked me days ago about the use of “Xue Xi Qiang Guo.” This app is a “must” for Chinese public employees. She wondered if public employees, after using this app, become more prosocial. Let us think about the following questions: Is this a Chinese PA topic? Of course the answer is yes. Then, do you think non-Chinese scholars would be interested in this topic? Perhaps, but it depends on how you frame it. Can you use any existing theory to frame this

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topic? Perhaps theories about socialization? Or motivation crowding (brainwash as external intervention vs. intrinsic motivation)? How would you design the research? Experimental design? This is just one of the many examples for you to think about. If you have more interesting ideas, perhaps we can brainstorm for possible publications.

References Barney, J. B., & Zhang, S. (2009). The future of Chinese management research: A theory of Chinese management versus a Chinese theory of management. Management and Organization Review, 5(1), 15–28. Chen, C.-A., & Hsieh, C.-W. (2017). Confucian values in public organizations: Distinctive effects of two interpersonal norms on public employees’ work morale. Chinese Public Administration Review, 8(2), 104–119. Chen, C.-A., & Xu, C. (2020). ‘No, I cannot just walk away’: Government career entrenchment in China. International Review of Administrative Sciences (Avaiable online). Chen, C.-A., Bozeman, B., & Berman, E. (2019). The grass is greener, but why? Evidence of employees’ perceived sector mismatch from the US, New Zealand, and Taiwan. International Public Management Journal, 22(3), 560–589. Chen, C.-A., Chen, D.-Y., Liao, Z.-P., & Kuo, M.-F. (2020). Winnowing out high-PSM candidates: The adverse selection effect of competitive public service exams. International Public Management Journal, 23(4), 443–464. Child, J. (2009). Context, comparison, and methodology in Chinese management research. Management and Organization Review, 5(1), 57–73. Frey, B. S., & Jegen, R. (2001). Motivation crowding theory. Journal of Economic Surveys, 15(5), 589–611. Hofstede, G. (2007). Asian management in the 21st century. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 24(4), 411–420. Lee, G., & Choi, D. L. (2016). Does public service motivation influence the intention to work in the public sector? Evidence from Korea. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 36(2), 145–163.

Chapter 7

Bibliometric and Knowledge Mapping Analysis of Research Progress in Behavioral Public Administration Based on 1999–2018 SSCI-Top Journal of Public Administration Zhixia Chen and Qiong Deng

Introduction Behavioral public administration or public administration psychology (public management psychology) is a new interdisciplinary subject that aims to use the principles, perspectives and methods of psychology to study issues in the field of public administration from the micro level of individual attitudes and behaviors. It is a supplement and perfection of traditional public management (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017; James et al., 2017a). Behavioral public management has three iconic elements. First, the object of analysis is individual citizens, groups or civic organizations, government employees and other public management subjects. Second, it focuses on the attitude and behavior of the object. The concepts, theories and methods of psychology and behavioral science are integrated into public management research (Olsen et al., 2018; Zhang & Li, 2018). In general, the research topics currently involved in behavioral public management can be summarized as the two-round interactive content of “government behavior-citizen experience” (Zhang & Li, 2018). Experimental methods are the main research method of behavioral public management, including laboratory experiments, field experiments and survey experiments (Blom-Hansen et al., 2015; Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2016; Li, 2018; Margetts, 2011). Behavioral public management, as a cross-disciplinary research field, is currently and will continue to be a hot and frontier field of public management research. Recently, top international journals such as PAR (Public Administration Review), JPART (Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory) and PA (Public Administration) have published monographs on behavioral public administration. Z. Chen (B) · Q. Deng Huahzong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 Z. Chen (ed.), Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9917-7_7

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In fact, the study of behavioral public management is not a sudden emergence, and its “single fire” has already existed (Simon). In recent years, the “Prairie Fire” of behavioral public management research has gradually formed, and the concept and subject direction of “behavioral public management” have emerged in response to the trend. Four scholars, including Grimmelikhuijsen, systematically combed through the three top public management journals JPART, PAR and PA and found that in the past 20 years, articles borrowing methods and perspectives from psychology to study public management issues have been on the rise, with 1807 articles published in PAR 216 of the papers containing “Psychology” in the title, abstract, full text or literature, accounting for 12% (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017). Four scholars, such as Battaglio, focused on the two major research themes of behavioral public management, namely, cognitive bias and boosting, to discuss behavioral public management (Battaglio et al., 2019). James et al. (2017b) summarized and prospected the research progress and development trend of behavioral public management. Domestic scholars Zhang and Li (2018) summarized the content, methods and development trends of behavioral public management; Li (2018) introduced the progress of foreign public management experimental research. Although the abovementioned scholars have combined and elaborated on behavioral public management from their respective perspectives, the degree of systematization and visualization of related literature analysis is still insufficient, and there are also some omissions in the overview of related topics. At the same time, compared with the booming research of behavioral public management abroad, domestic public management researchers have a very limited understanding of the frontier research of behavioral public management and have not yet set foot in related research. In view of this, this article is based on the relevant literature from 1999 to 2018 among the top 20 public management journals in the SSCI catalog journals in 2018, using bibliometric methods, with the help of professional visualization analysis software Vosviewer, to analyze foreign behavioral public management research literature Quantitative analysis and visualization of major indicators such as the amount of articles, research countries (regions), research institutions, researcher cooperation status, research keywords and research fields, etc., trying to comprehensively outline the development context of behavioral public management, sorting out the research status, and analyzing Research hotspots and development trends in order to provide meaningful academic mirrors for domestic behavioral public management research.

Data Sources and Research Methods Data Sources The literature data of this research come from the top 20 journals with impact factors of “Public Administration” included in the 2018 WebofScience (Social Science Citation Index, SSCI, Social Science Literature Index). The deadline for literature search

7 Bibliometric and Knowledge Mapping Analysis of Research …

45

is December 31, 2018. The specific process of document collection is as follows: First, in the WebofScience core collection, set the search column as the publication name, enter the journal name in the search bar, set the time span as “1999–2018”, and repeat the operation to get each journal 1999—All published documents in the 20 years of 2018. Second, the results were retrieved with words such as “psychology”, “cognition”, “affective”, “attitude”, “behavior”, “motivation” or “experiment”. The category of literature is limited to “Article” and “Review”, and the field of study is limited to “Social Sciences”. A preliminary screening of 3 research studies on behavioral public management. It should be noted that the reason why “experiment” is used as the retrieval word is that the experiment method is the main research method for the public management of behaviors, and words such as “psychology, cognition, perception, affective, affection, attitude, motivation and behavior” are used as retrieval words mainly from the perspective of psychological research. Finally, manual screening is performed to remove articles that do not use psychological research methods, concepts or theories or are only “afffection”, “affecting”, “behavior”, “behavioral” but not confined to the research category of behavioral public management. Table 7.1 summarizes the screening results of all journals. As seen from Table 7.1, 2279 related studies were preliminarily screened through literature retrieval, and the remaining 1008 were finally screened manually. Among them, the most published journal is Public Administration Review, with 208 articles, accounting for 20.63% of the total published articles. The second is the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, which has published a total of 166 related papers, accounting for 16.5% of the total publication volume. Public Administration Review and Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory are both top international journals in the field of public administration. The large publication volume indicates that behavioral public administration research has been increasingly noted and recognized by mainstream academic journals.

Research Methods Bibliometric analysis is based on the literature, using mathematics, statistics and other disciplines to analyze the laws and characteristics hidden in the carrier of knowledge and literature. It is mainly used in disciplines such as information science and philology. This method mainly analyzes the cowords of the quotations, keywords and subject words of the literature. There are also an increasing number of studies on reproducing the process of knowledge development and structural relationships through scientific knowledge graphs (Chen & Liu, 2005; Zhong & Li, 2008). Therefore, this article uses the principle of coword analysis to analyze high-frequency keywords in the literature and draws a map of scientific knowledge to explore the research hotspots and topics of the foreign behavioral public management discipline in the past two decades. There are many kinds of software for drawing scientific knowledge maps, and the most commonly used are VOSviewer, UCINET, CiteSpace and Paject (Chen,

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Table 7.1 Summary of literature screening in each journal Serial number

Journal title

Preliminary screening number

Final screening number

1

Public administration review

310

208

2

Journal of public administration research and theory

230

166

3

Governance

16

5

4

Climate policy

79

19

5

Journal of policy analysis 168 and management

85

6

Public management review

164

72

7

Policy sciences

77

22

8

Journal of European public policy

127

12

9

Public administration

157

78

10

Policy studies journal

162

42

11

International public management journal

106

62

12

Regulation and governance

68

17

13

American review of public administration

188

93

14

Review of public 104 personnel administration

62

15

Public policy and administration

14

2

16

Journal of social policy

93

12

17

International review of administrative sciences

91

24

18

Environment and planning C-politics and space

28

6

19

Journal of comparative policy analysis

30

6

20

Journal of accounting and public policy

67

15

Total

20

2279

1008

7 Bibliometric and Knowledge Mapping Analysis of Research …

47

2017). This article chooses to use VOSviewer software to draw the knowledge graph. VOSviewer software was developed by NeesJanvanEck and LudoWaltman of Leiden University in the Netherlands. It has the advantages of a friendly interface and strong graphic display ability. It can visualize the knowledge graph of related research fields through label view, density view 4 map, cluster density view and scattered view. Presenting, characterizing the cooperative relationship and structure among authors, institutions, and countries, reflecting the research status of related knowledge fields, and discovering the overall research and cutting-edge hot spots. This study will use the bibliometric method combined with VOSviewer software to analyze the status quo of behavioral public management research.

Bibliometric Analysis Analysis of the Number of Articles Issued The description of the trend of the number of articles published in a specific topic journal can grasp the importance of the topic from a macro perspective. Figure 7.1 shows the changes in the volume of publications on behavioral public management research in sample journals from 1999 to 2018. As shown in Fig. 7.1, the number of papers related to behavioral public management has shown an increasing trend in the past 20 years. In 2000, the number of relevant papers in the field of behavioral public management was only 15, and in 2017, it increased to 124, and the number of papers increased by 7 times. According to the growth trend of the research literature on behavioral public management, the development process of behavioral public management can be roughly divided into three stages. (1) The budding stage (1999–2005). At this stage, 110 articles on behavioral public management were published, with an average annual publication volume of 15.7 articles. The size of the absolute number of published articles cannot accurately and objectively reflect the attention of behavioral public management research, but the comparison of different stages can reflect the development trend of the research process to a certain extent. From a quantitative point of view, this stage can be regarded as the embryonic stage of behavioral public management. As a new frontier field, behavioral public management has not attracted enough attention from the academic community, but the spark of behavioral public management research has been ignited and gradually aroused increasing attention. (2) Growth stage (2006–2012). At this stage, the total number of articles published was 327, with an average annual publication of 45 articles. Compared with the embryonic stage, both the overall number of articles and the annual number of articles were significantly improved. This stage is the growth stage of behavioral public management, and the number of publications is increasing steadily. An increasing number of public management scholars have begun to use psychological theories

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140

124 107

99

100

90

80 58

60

66 63

74 77

40 43 15 12

20

21

26 22

2003

40

2002

Number of Posts/Article

120

30 27 14

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2001

2000

1999

0

Year Fig. 7.1 Publication of research on Behavioral Public Administration from 1999 to 2018

or methods to study public management topics. However, the concept of behavioral public management has not yet been proposed. (3) Forming stage (2013–2018). At this stage, the number of articles issued was 571, which exceeded the total number of articles issued in the past 14 years. The average annual number of articles issued was 95.2 articles, showing a blowout. From the change trend of the number of posts, this stage can be regarded as the forming stage of behavioral public management. Among them, the landmark document is Grimmelikhuijsen, Jilke, Olsen and Tummers and four other scholars published in the “Public Administration Review” (PAR) in 2017, “Behavioral Public Administration: Combining Insights from Public Administration and Psychology”. The four scholars proposed defining behavioral public management as public management and the cross-discipline of psychology and proposed four characteristics of behavioral public management, marking that behavioral public management has become an independent branch of public management. Since then, the research literature in this field has gradually shown a prairie fire.

Regional Analysis of Research By calculating statistics on the source countries (regions) of behavioral public management research, we can grasp the research pattern of behavioral public management discipline at the national level. A total of 1008 papers were selected from 60 countries or regions. Table 7.2 lists the top ten countries (regions) in terms of the

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49

Table 7.2 The top ten countries (regions) and the status of the publication volume of behavioral public management from 1999 to 2018 Country (region)

Number of articles published

Percentage of total papers (%)

The United States

598

59.33

Netherlands

81

8.04

The United Kingdom

75

7.44

Denmark

66

6.55

Korea

55

5.46

China

49

4.86

Australia

32

3.17

Germany

29

2.88

Canada

26

2.58

Belgium

25

2.48

number of articles published in Behavioral Public Management, among which the United States takes the lead with 598 articles, accounting for 59.33% of the total number of articles published, and has an absolute advantage in the field of Behavioral Public Management. The Netherlands and the United Kingdom ranked behind with 81 articles and 75 articles, respectively. In addition, Denmark, South Korea, China, Australia, Germany, Canada and Belgium have issued articles. This is enough to show that behavioral public management research is spreading to the global public management field, which is a concern of global public management researchers. Using the Vosviewer TAB view function, you can visually display the publishing relationship between different countries (regions). Figure 7.2 shows the text label view of the countries (regions) in which behavioral public management publishes. The United States is in the middle of each country and is related to other countries, indicating that the United States is in the leading position among these countries. The United States is the birthplace of public management and has always been the forefront of public management research. The relatively high number of publications indicates that the academic circle of public management in the United States pays more attention to behavioral public management, which also indicates the rapid development momentum of behavioral public management.

Analysis of Research Institutions Academic research often relies on certain research institutions. Statistical analysis of core publishing institutions can reveal the academic strength of this research field. The top ten research institutions in the field of behavioral public management are selected for statistical analysis. The results are shown in Table 7.2. Judging from the frequency of papers published by various research institutions, the overall difference

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Fig. 7.2 The text label map of the countries (regions) issuing articles on behavioral public management from 1999 to 2018

between institutions is not significant, indicating that there is no research institution occupying an absolute leading edge in the field of behavioral public management, and the strength of each institution is relatively scattered. The institution with the largest number of papers published is the University of Georgia, with 55 papers but only 5.62% of the total number of papers. Aarhus University and Arizona State University followed closely behind 42 and 36 papers, respectively. From the perspective of the regions of research institutions, among the top ten research institutions, the United States occupies 7 seats, and two European countries have three universities on the list, namely, Aarhus University in Denmark, Utrecht University in the Netherlands and Iraq. Rasmus University. The visualization function of VOSviewer was used to analyze the co-occurrence of the publishing organization to obtain a visualized cooperation network diagram, as shown in Fig. 7.3. At the same time, it is gratifying that there are some cooperative research trends among these institutions. For example, there are some cooperative studies between the University of Georgia and the University of Texas and Indiana University; Utrecht University in the Netherlands and Aarhus University in Denmark, Rutgers University in the United States, Bocconi University in Italy and other institutions have good cooperative research; the University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the City University of Hong Kong, Nanyang Technological University, etc. also have a certain degree of academic cooperation in research (Table 7.3).

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51

Fig. 7.3 Coverage map of the cooperative network of behavioral public management institutions from 1999 to 2018

Table 7.3 The top ten research institutions and publications of behavioral public management from 1999 to 2018 Research institute

Number of articles published

Percentage of total papers (%)

University of Georgia

55

5.62

Aarhus university

42

4.29

Arizona state university

36

3.68

Utrecht university

33

3.37

Ohio state university

30

3.06

Indiana university

28

2.86

Erasmus university

26

2.66

University of Illinois

26

2.66

Rutgers university

26

2.66

University of North Carolina

25

2.55

Analysis of Coauthorship Coauthored papers are considered an important form of scientific collaboration. According to statistical analysis, 979 papers in the existing literature were completed by 1572 authors, each paper was completed by 1.61 authors on average, and the

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average number of papers per author was 0.62. Using VOSviewer to conduct a cooccurrence analysis on the authors of the literature, this article uses 10 articles as the threshold to obtain the top ten authors and their affiliated institutions in the number of public management articles (see Table 7.4). The most published article is Professor Gregg from Rutgers University, who has published 18 related studies. Among them, the article “Citizen Attitudes Toward Transparency in Local Government” published in “American Review of Public Administration” in 2007 has been cited 556 times (Piotrowski & Van Ryzin, 2007). These results show that the core author group of behavioral public management research has not yet formed, and the mutual cooperation between researchers needs to be strengthened. Among these authors, 7 cooperative research groups represented by authors such as Feeney, Walker, Kim, Pandey, Yang, and Taylor appeared, and research teams centered on Moynihan, VanTyzin, Tummers, Stritch, Grimmelikhuijsen, etc. or research team. For the number of individual researchers’ publications, the lower publication amount indicates that the main body of behavioral public management research is still dominated by instantaneous authors, and no researcher can be called the leader or mainstay of behavioral public management research. It should be noted that the author ranking of this article is based on the statistics of the top 20 journals in public management. Some authors are not on the list or have a small number of papers. Perhaps this is because some scholars published behavioral public management papers in other journals, such as psychology or economics, so the ranking in this article is only for relative reference (Fig. 7.4). Table 7.4 Top 10 authors of behavioral public management publications from 1999 to 2018 Ranking

Author

Affiliated institution

Number of articles

1

Gregg G. Van Ryzin

Rutgers university

19

2

Donald Moynihan

Georgetown university

18

3

Bradley E. Wright

University of Georgia

17

4

Sanjay K. Pandey

George Washington university

16

5

Mary K. Feeney

Arizona state university

15

6

Adrian Ritz

University of Bern

14

7

Sangmook Kim

Seoul national university of science and technology

13

7

James L. Perry

Indiana university

13

8

Nicola Bellé

Bocconi university

12

8

Robert K. Christensen

Brigham Young university

12

9

Stephan Grimmelikhuijsen

Utrecht university

11

9

Sebastin Jilke

Rutgers university

11

10

Asmus Leth Olsen

University of Copenhagen

10

10

Lars Tummers

Utrecht university

10

7 Bibliometric and Knowledge Mapping Analysis of Research …

53

Fig. 7.4 Coverage of cooperation among authors of behavioral public management research from 1999 to 2018

Analysis of Keywords and Research Hotspots Keywords are an important reference index for bibliometric analysis, through which we can have a certain understanding of the research content and direction of the paper. WebofScience includes Authorkeywords and extended KeywordsPlus. Extended keywords are independent of document titles and author keywords and are automatically indexed by computer technology based on the titles of references. Extended keywords are considered to be able to describe the content of articles from a deeper and broader perspective. Based on this, the Authorkeywords and extended keywords (KeywordsPlus) of 1008 retrieved papers are statistically analyzed in this study. There were 3055 keywords in the retrieved papers, and keywords with the same meaning were merged. The keywords are ranked from high to low according to the number of co-occurrences. Table 7.5 shows the top ten keywords in behavioral public management research co-occurrences. Figure 7.5 is made from the label view function of VOSviewer. The size of nodes and fonts in the graph depends on the weight of the node. The greater the weight, the larger the font and node. It can be clearly seen from Table 7.5 and Fig. 7.5 that the areas where nodes such as “performance”, “public service motivation”, and “perceptions and attitudes” are located are important research areas. Through further merging, sorting, and analysis, the main research hotspots of behavioral public management are summarized as follows:

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Table 7.5 High-frequency keywords of behavioral public management from 1999 to 2018 Ranking

Keywords

Word frequency

1

Performance

259

2

Job satisfaction

177

3

Government

144

4

Management

129

5

Public service motivation

126

6

Behavior

118

7

Model

92

8

Sector

77

9

Perception

73

10

Organization

69

Fig. 7.5 Text view of research hotspots of behavioral public management from 1999 to 2018

(1) Performance research The job performance of civil servants is one of the research topics widely discussed in experimental research on individual government behavior, and another concept related to it is job effort. Research on individual work effort and work performance mainly focuses on various factors that affect the work effort and performance of employees in the public sector, such as the clarity of work tasks and the importance of tasks (Anderson & Stritch, 2016), public service motivation (Pedersen, 2015),

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transformational leadership (Olsen, 2015), perception of social influence (James & Moseley, 2014), performance-related pay, and whether remuneration is public (Belardinelli et al., 2018; Belle & Cantarelli, 2015; Bellé, 2013, 2014). In addition, there are more studies on related topics such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, and job motivation. (2) Public service motivation As one of the important concepts of public management, public service motivation is one of the successful examples of the intersection of psychology and public management. It has naturally become a hotspot and focus of behavioral public management. Behavioral public management studies on public service motivation can be summarized in two aspects: one is the measurement of public service motivation (Esteve et al., 2016; Kim & Kim, 2013; Perry, 2000), and the other is the relationship between public service motivation and related variables (Christensen et al., 2013). At present, there are three main methods for the measurement of public service motivation in academic circles: the comparison of remuneration preference, public service behavior research and public service motivation questionnaires. Among them, the comparison of compensation preference and the study of public service behavior are indirect measurements, while the public service motivation questionnaire is a direct measurement. Perry referred to Bandura’s three-factor interaction theory (environmental events, cognition and other personal factors, behavior) and proposed the process theory of PSM, and divided the key variables of the PSM process into four aspects: social historical background, motivational environment, and individual Characteristics and behaviour (Perry, 2000). Research on the relationship between public service motivation and related variables is the main content of empirical research on public service motivation. Some studies have found that public service motivation and job satisfaction (Belle & Cantarelli, 2015), organizational commitment (Bellé, 2015), job performance (Christensen et al., 2013), turnover tendency (Bellé, 2014), etc. There is a significant correlation. For related keywords, there are government, public sector, intrinsic motivation, self-determination, and personal-organization matching. (3) Individual perception and attitude Perception is a psychological concept that refers to the cognition produced by the brain after external objective things act on the human senses. Generally, perception is often used to express people’s direct impressions of external things and characteristics. Related keywords are attitude, justice, trust, democracy, reform, policy, democracy, willingness, opinion, etc. Individuals’ perceptions of the organizational environment and organizational characteristics are important research topics of organizational management. In the current experimental research on individual government behavior, research on various perceptions of public sector workers also accounts for a certain proportion (Royer et al., 2003; Walle & Ryzin, 2011).

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In these studies, some explored how individuals’ perceptions in the organization affect their behaviors, such as how the perception of the social impact of public sector employees affects their work performance (Bellé, 2014), how the perception of partners’ reputation affects the willingness to cooperate with them (Royer et al., 2003), how the manager’s ethical perception affects their decision-making (Walle & Ryzin, 2011), etc. In addition, a considerable number of studies have examined the factors that affect employees’ perceptions in organizations. For example, some studies have explored the factors that affect employees’ sense of organizational support, including support provided by the organization (Jakobsen & Andersen, 2013), organizational code of conduct, ethics leadership and so on (Thaler & Helmig, 2016). Researchers have also discussed how the main body of work norms affects public sector employees’ perception of workplace fairness and management legitimacy (Feldman & Tyler, 2012; Tummers & Knies, 2016) and how different management methods affect employees’ perception of management reliability (James, 2011; Pedersen & Stritch, 2018). (4) Public management and social governance This kind of theme keyword mainly involves public management, social governance, informatization, public participation, public service, cooperation and participation. Mainly concerned about the concrete practice of public management and social governance, informationization and e-government (Piehler et al., 2016), public participation in social governance (Azhar & Yang, 2019; Tummers, 2017), multiinterest cooperation (Esteve et al., 2015), decision-making (Jilke et al., 2016), social prejudice (Andersen & Hjortskov, 2016; Marvel, 2016), etc.

Analysis of Research Fields It can be seen from the statistical results of high-frequency keyword visualization cluster analysis in Fig. 7.6 that the current research fields are roughly divided into five categories: one is social governance, and the specific content mainly involves social governance, public management, public participation, policy transparency, government trust, public services, social change, social justice, efficiency, social networks, poverty, social welfare, health, social decision-making, etc.; the second is human resource management in the public sector, including job satisfaction, organizational commitment, leadership-member exchange, transformational leadership, procedural fairness, organizational support, employee evaluation, work pressure, employee turnover, etc. The third major part is public service and government performance, which specifically involves citizen participation, public service, policy transparency, expectations, satisfaction, red tape, corruption behavior, etc.; the fourth part is organizational behavior and work performance, which specifically involves individual-organization matching, self-determination theory, public service motivation, self-efficacy, work performance, work results, evaluation tools,

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Fig. 7.6 Visualized clustering map of high-frequency keywords

etc.; the fifth part mainly involves differences management, such as gender differences, ethnic differences, representative bureaucracy, social networks, public ethics, activity representatives, etc. (Table 7.6).

Conclusions and Future Outlook In recent years, research on behavioral public management has continued to increase, and the number of related papers has been increasing. This paper uses bibliometrics and Vosviewer scientific knowledge map software to influence the top 20 journals in public management disciplines in terms of publication volume, research country (region), research institution, research cooperation status, research keywords and research fields. From the overall and macro level, the status quo of behavioral public management research is combed and visualized, and some relevant research conclusions are drawn. At the same time, it also pointed out that behavioral public management, as an interdisciplinary subject of psychology and public management, is still in the development stage, and there are some areas that need to be improved. Behavioral public management is the frontier and hotspot of current public management research, and its scientific research methods (mainly experimental methods) and microfoundations have gradually been recognized and favored by public management scholars. The vigorous development of behavioral public management has provided

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Table 7.6 Research topics and keywords distribution in the field of behavioral public management Research topics

Keywords

Social governance

Governance; Management; New public management; public management; participation; public paticipation; strategy; transparency; trust; welfare; reform; system; public service; reinventing; government; risk; justice; innovation; leadership; Accountability attitudes; beliefs; climate change; collaboration; collective action; confidence; consensus; cooperation; collective action; community; confidence; consensus; decisions; decision-making; design; determinants; diffusion; dynamics; economics; efficiency; emperical-analysis; equity; fairness; framework; health; identity; impact; institutions; justice; knowledge; law; leadership; legitimacy; lessons; local government; networks; opinion; organization; policy; political-participation; political-science; politics; poverty; power; preferences; psychology; pulic opinion; risk; state; strategy; support; system; technology; values; welfare; welfare-state

Human resource management in the public sector

Affective commitment; antecedents; citizenship behavior; civil-service; commitment; consequences; culture; diversity management; empirical-examination; employee attitudes; federal -agencies; federal-government; goal ambiguity; human-resource management; job satisfaction; leader-member exchange; motivation; normative commitment; organizational citizenship behavior; organizational commitment; organizational justice; outcomes; perceived organizational support; performance; performance management; personality; political environment; procedural justice; psychological empowermemt; pulic sector; red-tape; social networks; social-exchange; turnover; social motivation; work

Public service and government performance

Bias; citizen participation; citizen satisfaction; citizens; corproduction; corruption; democracy; e-government; engagement; expectations; experiment; field; local government; managers; mechanical turk; model; participation; perceptions; perceptions; performance information; perspective; private organizations; public participation; public services; quality; red tape; rules; satisfaction; services; socialization; transparency (continued)

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Table 7.6 (continued) Research topics

Keywords

Public sector organizational behavior

Bases; behavior; China; choice; employees; field experiment; fit; future; government; incentives; intrinsic motivation; issues; job-performance; matter; measurement scale; method variance; models; person-organization; person-organization fit; private; productivity; public service motivation; sector; self-determination; self-efficacy; transactional leadership; work motivation; work outcomes

Differentiated management

Achievement; active representation; agencies; bureaucracy; discretion; diversity; employment; enforcement; ethics; gender; organizational performance; organizations; police; race; representative bureaucracy; service; stress; women

some enlightenment for the development of public management disciplines and the formulation of public policies in our country. First, judging from the number of articles published in behavioral public management in the past 20 years, the overall trend has been increasing. Especially in recent years, the literature of behavioral public management has been published in top public management journals such as PAR (Public Administration Review), JPART (Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory), PA (Public Administration) The number of publications has been increasing year by year, reflecting its rapid development and important academic influence in this field, indicating that the discipline of behavioral public management has gradually become an important branch of the discipline of public management, and the research prospects are worth looking forward to. Its development process has roughly experienced three stages of germination, growth and formation. It is currently entering a new stage of rapid development. It requires joint efforts and continuous exploration of the academic community to accelerate the further expansion and deepening of related research topics. Second, behavioral public management research institutions are mainly European and American universities. Countries such as the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Denmark publish relatively more articles; the University of Georgia, the University of Osshu, Denmark, and the University of Arizona publish relatively more articles; VanRyzin, Feeney and Moynihan are relatively high-volume authors. At present, research institutions with a high volume of publications are mainly concentrated in European and American countries. Chinese scholars have done little research. It is urgent to pay special attention and improve corresponding research capabilities and strive to occupy the academic high ground to strengthen the international discourse power of Chinese scholars.

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Third, in terms of research topics, the current behavioral public management research topics mainly include public service motivation, public management decision-making, social governance and public management, citizen performance evaluation, government transparency, corruption, citizen trust, job satisfaction, public service motivation, organizational behavior and human resource management of civil servants. Future research needs to further expand and deepen related research topics. For example, it can further explore related topics such as urban informatization management, reform and innovation, group behavior, public servant image, and government trust from a psychological and behavioral perspective. It is worth mentioning that China is currently in a period of social transformation and development. Intricate management phenomena and continuous government reforms have provided abundant research materials for behavioral public management research. At the same time, it is expected that the research results of behavioral public management will provide a useful reference for China’s social reform and policy making. Fourth, from the perspective of research methods, observation methods, survey methods, test methods, and experimental methods are some of the main research methods of behavioral public management research. The experimental methods were mainly questionnaire experimental methods. In the future, you can explore and try to use visualization such as electronic Decision theater and other research methods of psychology such as neurocognition, etc., thereby enriching the research methods of behavioral public management. Experimental methods are the only scientific method that can reveal the causal relationship between variables. Compared with foreign scholars who often use experimental methods, the current research methods mainly used by domestic public management scholars are case methods and questionnaire survey methods, and experimental methods are used less often. China is in a stage of social transformation and has provided a wealth of research cases for the public management academic community. Scholars should try to use experimental methods to study Chinese issues to make the research conclusions more reliable and powerful.

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Chapter 8

Behavioral Public Administration: Three Ways Forward Zhixia Chen, Shuai Yuan, and Qiong Deng

It is exciting to find that the research based on psychology and behavioral perspectives has drawn more attention and became a hot topic in public administration research, which has aroused heated discussion from scholars and policy makers, and relevant researches have been surging (Bhanot & Linos, 2020; Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017). Grimmelikhuijsen et al. (2017) conclude these combining insights from public administration (PA) and psychology as Behavioral Public Administration (BPA). Undoubtedly, the concept of BPA is of great theoretical significance for the development of PA. Although BPA is not a new thing (Hock et al., 2012; Scott, 1997; Tybur & Griskevicius, 2013; Van Ryzin, 2011; Wright & Grant, 2010), it has been developing rapidly in recent years especially since Grimmelikhuijsen et al. (2017) put forward this concept. However, as a new trend and field of PA, the development of BPA is susceptible to some structural issues (Bhanot & Linos, 2020). While BPA has gained in popularity, it inevitably causes some criticisms and reflections in its research topics and methods. For example, some scholars pointed that BPA focused on the micro-level and neglected the big questions of public governance (Moynihan, 2018), and it just revealed cognitive biases with little effective suggestions in governance (Bhanot & Linos, 2020). Other scholars claimed that behavioral strategies are usually used in simple scenarios and have not been used to solve complex problems (Hansen, 2018). Then, it is too narrow to focus on individual behaviors in the public sectors and psychology theories and experimental methods (Hassan & Wright, 2019), which limits the expansion of BPA research in theory and practice, and the construction of BPA knowledge system (Battaglio & Hall, 2020). Indisputably, the criticisms and reflections point some issues of current BPA researches, which are benefit to its future development. However, some of them may due to the misunderstanding and/or incomplete understanding of BPA and BPA Z. Chen (B) · S. Yuan · Q. Deng Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 Z. Chen (ed.), Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9917-7_8

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movement. In our opinion, BPA is a concept with rich connotation, the definition given by Grimmelikhuijsen et al. (2017) that most researches based on is only a relatively narrow understanding of BPA. It does not exactly conclude the whole characteristic of BPA which only emphasis “from the micro-level perspective of individual behavior and attitudes” (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017). Most importantly, in the early period, compared with producing many empirical works, conducting a thorough discussion about the concept and connotations of BPA, and clarifying its contents and disciplinary boundaries need to be prioritized and targeted (Slagle & Adam, 2018). Therefore, this paper attempts to discuss the concept of BPA with reflection and construction, clarify its contents, disciplinary orientations and missions, and point out its future development direction, which would promote understanding of BPA and respond to current criticisms and questions about it. Based on the development process of BPA and extant literatures, we propose a definition of BPA with rich connotations beyond Grimmelikhuijsen et al. (2017), and a need to carry out a bold reflection and transcendence. Generally speaking, this paper holds the view that the connotations of BPA can at least be interpreted from the micro, meso and macro perspectives. In the narrow understanding of BPA, it uses the theories and methods of psychology to form a micro level theory, which can be regarded as a supplement to the traditional PA theory and methods (James et al., 2017). From a broader perspective, BPA includes psychology but beyond psychology, it is not only an interdisciplinary subject of PA and psychology but also the interdiscipline of PA with behavioral and social science. From the perspective of discipline development, BPA is one of the important future directions of PA.

BPA as Interdisciplinary Subject of PA and Psychology Grimmelikhuijsen et al. (2017) reviewed previous literatures published in the international journals of PA (JPART, PAR, PA) from 1996 to 2015, and found that the literatures on interdisciplinary analysis of PA from the micro perspective of individual behaviors and attitudes, defining BPA, are increasing in recent years. They defined “behavioral public administration” as the “interdisciplinary analysis of public administration from the micro-level perspective of individual behavior and attitudes by drawing on recent advances in our understanding of the underlying psychology and behavior of individuals and groups”. In their views, BPA is an interdisciplinary subject of PA and psychology, which applies on the theories and methods of psychology (Bertelli & Riccucci, 2020), and from the micro-level perspective of individual behaviors and attitudes to further explore the psychological mechanisms behind the concept, attitudes and behaviors of citizens and public employees (Hassan & Wright, 2019). Their definition about BPA has developed into a mainstream in the current studies. However, we agree with a remind that confine BPA at “individual” and “micro level” behaviors is only a relatively narrow understanding of BPA, and would like to expand it in much more rich meaning and deep understanding.

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BPA provides a new research perspective and theoretical reference for PA scholars, which enables them to extend the interpretation of PA issues to the psychological level, and make new explanations about traditional PA issues, for example, cognitive biases in public policy and governance decisions-making (Bellé et al., 2018), how to inspire PSM (Pedersen, 2015), the effect of benchmarks on citizen judgments of local government performance (Charbonneau & VanRyzin, 2015), whether government initiatives will arouse the citizen coproduction (Jakobsen, 2013), controlling discretion and society equity (Cárdenas & Ramírez de la Cruz, 2016), change-oriented training and public frontline employees’ behaviors regulation (Morten et al., 2019), transparency and citizens’ trust in government (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2013), policy transparency and policy understanding and support (Porumbescu et al., 2017) and so forth. In general, BPA mainly focuses on the limited rationality, unconscious thinking process (rapid thinking), cognitive illusion, emotion, personal choice, individual decision-making and various psychological inspiration and prejudice in action (Battaglio et al., 2019). Experimental methods, one of the specific psychology research methods, has become the common research methods of BPA (Battaglio & Hall, 2020; Dai & Chen, 2019; James et al., 2017). BPA focuses on the topics with certain difficulties that have both theoretical and practical significance, the introduction and use of experimental methods increase the ability for researchers to answer these questions (Hassan & Wright, 2019). The experimental methods are characterized by its strong internality and causal exploration mechanism (Blom-Hansen et al., 2015; James et al., 2017), and the research on the causal mechanism between different variables is a long-term thorny problem faced by PA scholars (Blom-Hansen et al., 2015). Experimental methods allow scholars to illustrate and verify the questions that are difficult for traditional PA scholars to answer, for example, the influence of administrative burden on citizens’ support for government programs (Keiser & Miller, 2020), citizens’ emotional responses to bureaucratic red tape (Hattke et al., 2019), the causal relationship between PSM and ethical behaviors of public employees (Meyer-Sahling et al., 2019), the causal mechanisms of representative bureaucracy (Sean et al., 2016) and so on. Currently, BPA researches mainly focuses on the micro individual behaviors based on the perspective of psychology and behavioral science, and this research area has gradually become an important branch of PA. However, we endorse with an important caveat, its influence on the meso/macro level of groups and societies cannot be denied (Ewert et al., 2020). Social psychology and applied psychology not only focus on individual but also group, mass and public psychology and behaviors. Scholars and policy-makers should extend its capabilities in society governance, and explain the micro-foundations of macro-level theories (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017). In fact, as a subject with extremely permeability, psychology has formed a series of interdisciplinary subjects with social sciences, for instance, management, education, sociology, economic, political, journalism and communication, advertising, linguistics, cultural anthropology psychology, etc. (Fiske et al., 2010; Mayers, 2002). The achievements of those interdisciplinary subjects provide theoretical insights for BPA. In other words, even in the narrow sense of BPA, its research perspective and

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contents are not limited to micro, but should cover micro, meso and macro PA issues (Bhanot & linos, 2020), such as organization, department, policy and other topics (Ewert et al., 2020). Correspondingly, its research methods should not be limited to experiment (Bertelli & Riccucci, 2020; Hassan & Wright, 2019), and observation method, social survey method, psychological measurement, field research, case study, social network analysis, behaviors big data analytics, and EEG can be employed to researches and address PA questions. Therefore, although BPA can be defined as the interdisciplinary subject of PA and psychology, it covers micro, meso and macro levels, involves the behaviors and attitudes of individuals and groups, this definition is similar to but broader than Grimmelikhuijsen et al. (2017).

BPA as an Interdisciplinary Subject of PA with Behavioral/Social Science It is only an intuitive and incomplete observation and generalization for this new branch if BPA is defined as an interdisciplinary subject of PA and psychology from the micro-level perspective of individual behavior and attitudes, actually, this definition has also drawn some criticisms (Bertelli & Riccucci, 2020; Bhanot & Linos, 2020; Hassan & Wright, 2019; Moynihan, 2018). Actually, BPA should “draws more widely from behavioral and social sciences and is based on pluralistic methods and evidence” (Ewert et al., 2020). Generalized behavioral science refers to all fields and disciplines that attempt to describe, explain and predict human behaviors, these disciplines nearly include or involve all social sciences, especially economics, political science, sociology, anthropology and psychology, as well as some parts of biology, engineering, history, law, linguistics, management, operations research, philosophy, public policy and systems science (Intriligator, 1990). Behavioral science focuses on the factors that affect human behaviors, such as attitudes, beliefs, environmental barriers and inducers, it is of great significance to understand complex behaviors from multiple perspectives (Tung et al., 2012). Behavioral science has been integrated into many subjects of social science, forming behavioral science theories based on different disciplines, providing a theoretical basis for understanding and predicting human behaviors (Bertelli & Riccucci, 2020). Therefore, BPA could draw on the theories and methods in different fields related to behavioral science, and which contributes to break through the limitations of theoretical construction and experimental methods in existing researches. The emergence of BPA is the result of coupling of triple needs logics including the needs for subject development, the needs for society governance and the needs for demonstrating subject value. The orientation and mission of BPA determine that while focusing on micro individual psychology and behavior research, BPA should try to combine micro-meso-macro research (Ewert et al., 2020), and widely learn from the theories and methods of behavioral and social science instead of limiting the

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research perspective to psychology. Therefore, BPA is the interdiscipline of PA with the behavioral and social science, the discipline foundation of BPA goes beyond psychology, and is based on the theory insights of psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, management, ethics and other disciplines related to the study of human psychology and behaviors. It also includes the disciplines of organizational behaviors, administrative behaviors, political behaviors, criminal behaviors, etc. (Intriligator, 1990). Hence, its disciplinary basis includes social science and natural science, and it is an interdisciplinary group. In other words, the theoretical insights of BPA should move beyond psychology and absorb the theoretical results of psychology and behavioral science. Especially, in the era of information and knowledge explosion, interdisciplinary integration has become the general trend of social sciences development, hence BPA should strive to absorb multi-disciplinary theories and methods to consolidate the theoretical basis of PA and conduct real social science researches. From this point of view, BPA movement is actually a positive effort and autonomous action to promote PA into a real social science. According to this understanding, behavioral public policy (BPP) research provides evidence. BPP is the core content of BPA research, which is the policies that are designed and conducted based on the principles and characteristics of behavioral research (Galizzi, 2014). BPP attempts to influence the micro basis of individual decision-making (Jilke et al., 2019), and tries to guide citizens to make right choices by using the behavioral choice model of cognitive science. BPP draws lessons from psychology, behavioral and social science, and behavioral economics, integrates the theories of management, sociology, law anthropology, biology, and other fields can usefully influence citizens’ behaviors as well to guides and standardizes citizens’ behaviors. The rise of BPP can be traced back to the researches about employee savings behaviors conducted by Madrian and Shea (2001) and Thaler and Benartzi (2004). In 2010, the British government set up a “Behavior Insight Team” firstly and then many governments followed suit, and even the business communities began to introduce behavioral science. In 2017, Thaler won the Nobel Economics Prize, which made BPP get more attention and application, especially the “Nudge” proposed by Thaler and Sunstein (2008) has repeatedly been proved to be an effective behavior guidance strategy (Benartzi et al., 2017), and which could even be called the third way of governance. Nudge has achieved remarkable results in promoting pension savings (Carroll et al., 2009), increasing enrollment (Bettinger et al., 2012), energy conservation (Asensio & Delmas, 2015), improve vaccination rate (Milkman et al., 2011), health behavior advocacy (Hanks et al., 2012; Bhargava et al., 2017), organ donation (Abadie & Gay, 2006), charitable donation (Zarghamee et al., 2016), traffic behavior regulations (Chen et al., 2017). In addition, BPA and BPP also provide a strategy for the guidance of citizen behaviors in the prevention and control of COVID-19 pandemic (Favero & Pedersen, 2020; Lunn et al., 2020; Michie et al., 2020). These BPP researches reflect the reference and integration of PA to behavioral and social science such as psychology, sociology, behavioral economics, education, medicine, journalism and communication, etc.

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BPA as the Developing Trend of Public Administration From a more broader sense, BPA is the important research trends and direction of PA. It is an expansion in contents and a remedy in methods for the deficiency of existing PA researches, which helps it to meet the standards of a scientific subject. BPA is not completely new thing, Simon is a pioneer in this field. Influenced by “Chicago School”, Simon proposed that for those who want to explore the scientific nature of PA at least need to have a solid foundation in psychology (Simon, 1947a, 1947b), and he tried to bring behaviorism into the PA research (Simon, 1947a, 1947b). Although his advocacy didn’t get the positive responses from the PA scholars at that time, some scholars put forward the same advocacies (Honey, 1957; Mosher, 1956; Truman, 1945; Verba, 1961), they also appealed for absorption of psychology in PA researches, and then, some researchers used psychological theories and methods to explore PA issues (Frederick & Barry, 1979; Kim & Walker, 1984; Staw & Ross, 1978). Behind Simon and peers’ efforts are their pursuits of improving the scientificity of PA research and becoming PA a real “administrative science”. As a social science, PA also faces with the challenge of becoming a scientific discipline, however, it has been restricted by the incompleteness of research contents and the unscientific research methods for a long time. Fortunately, BPA promotes the scientization of PA both in research contents and methods. At meanwhile, its strong adaptability to different fields and topics of PA, and the increasing number of researches also indicate its vigor and vitality as the trend of PA research. Therefore, BPA is not only a new branch of PA, and more importantly, it may provide development direction for PA. First of all, BPA helps PA to cover and combine the research topics from macro to micro. The essence of public governance is human-oriented governance activities, and the solution of public problems is essentially the stipulation of human behaviors. The primary feature of BPA is to interpret public governance from the perspective of individuals and groups (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017), and to conduct governance from the psychology and behaviors. No matter how extensive the research topics are involved in the traditional PA research, it is an indisputable fact that the topics are much “extensive” than “refined”. However, public governance is not only a top-level design, but also a more refined governance, which needs to combine the macro and micro perspective. BPA focuses on the psychology and behaviors of individuals and groups, which makes up for the lack of micro research in PA, and helps to deepen the researches. More importantly, traditional PA mainly focuses on the government, and relatively ignores the role of citizens in public governance (Jakobsen et al., 2019). BPA focuses on the interaction between government and citizen, which not only focuses on the government, but also pays more attention to the citizen experience in the process of governance, and conducts the researches from the perspective of citizens. Secondly, BPA responds to and satisfies the research method conditions of becoming PA as a “science”. When we reflect on the development of PA, it seems that as a discipline with strong practical orientation, PA has the inherent needs to

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become a social science, however, it lacks scientific research methods for a long time. The experimental method, as one of the main empirical research methods, has not been introduced into the traditional PA research before (Blom-Hansen et al., 2015). BPA takes experimental methods as the main research methods and combines behavioral science research methods, which promotes the empirical research and scientific research of PA. BPA use scientific tools such as experimental methods to explore the cause and effect of public governance problems, which meets the requirements of “science” basing on experience and empirical methods such as experiments, makes up for the lack of causal inference in PA research, improves the transparency and replicability of PA research, and helps PA researches base on facts and evidence (Fiske et al., 2010). Therefore, PA is becoming a real science, BPA endows PA with the status of “science”. Thirdly, BPA shows strong applicability in many research fields besides some classic fields such as public policy, public sector organizational behavior, public sector human resource management, government performance, political psychology and behavior nudge. Table 8.1 shows some selected BPA researches about different fields and topics published on top public administration journals in recent years, which suggests various fields of PA can use the theory and methods of behavioral science and research perspective to carry out relevant researches. The research theme includes Emergency Management, Non-Profit Organization, Energy and environment Management, Educational Economics and Management, Political Science, E-government, Public Policy, Human Resource Management, etc. Almost all the sub-topic of public administration can be explored from the perspective of behavioral science. And the research methods include qualitative and quantities analysis with varied data source such as case study, survey, measurement, experiment, etc. All the above active explorations have shown the broad adaption of BPA research on different theme of public administration. More and more scholars have accepted and tried to take the perspective of BPA in their academic study and make great theoretical and practical contributions. For example, using a quantitative data-collection method based on a survey approach, following the social cognitive theory and expectation confirmation theory, Alruwaie et al. (2020) examines the factors that influence citizens’ continuous use of e-government services; Chatterjee and Sreenivasulu (2019) discuss personal data sharing in the era of artificial intelligence; Kallis et al. (2010) use a random telephone survey to explore the influence of public and private on citizens’ attitudes to water conservation; Based on the three acceptance theories, Zeng and Cleon (2018) identifies factors affecting the adoption of a land information system. Fourthly, as mentioned above, it is a fact that academic researches about BPA have been flourishing in recent decade (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017). Conducting a systematic analysis of all articles published in PAR, JPART and PA, Grimmelikhuijsen et al. (2017) identified the articles that made substantial use of psychology and found that the number of psychology-informed articles in three journals all are small but growing in 1996–2015, especially, the amount of articles published in PAR increased significantly at the rate of 0.4% per

Trust in emergency management authorities and individual emergency preparedness for tornadoes (RHCPP)

User roles for emergency management Social media in social media: understanding actors’ behavior during the 2018 Majorca Island flash floods (GIQ)

Choi and Wehde (2020)

Villodre and Criado (2020)

Topic

Theory

Individual emergency

Social cognitive theory

Trust theory

Public manager in Theory of times of crisis collaborative network

Title

Being a public manager in times of crisis: the art of managing stakeholders, political masters, and collaborative networks (PAR)

Author

Wal (2020)

Subject

Emergency management

Table 8.1 Selected BPA topics in different PA area Method

Qualitative analysis

Qualitative analysis

Qualitative analysis

Results

(continued)

Results show a diverse set of audience roles that emerge during crisis and post-crisis stages

This study finds a nuanced relationship between individual emergency preparedness for tornadoes and trust in emergency management authorities

This article identifies three key competencies paramount to public managers in times of crisis: managing stakeholders, political masters, and collaborative networks

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Non-profit organization

Subject

Title

Woronkowicz et al. (2020)

Entrepreneurship among nonprofit arts organizations: substituting between wage and flexible labor (PAR)

Roud and Trust and emergency management: Gausdal (2019) experiences from the Arctic Sea region (JTR)

Author

Table 8.1 (continued)

Nonprofit entrepreneurship

Emergency management

Topic

Organization theory

Trust theory

Theory

Questionnaire survey

Case study

Method

(continued)

Nonprofit arts organizations are innovative employers, responding to changes in their resource environments by adjusting their mix of wage and flexible labor while also providing outlets for freelance arts workers to pursue their chosen line of work

In each phase of emergency management, trust has a critical role to play such as improving coordination, communication, reliability and learning

Results

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Energy and environment management

Subject

Regulatory transformation: lessons from Connecticut’s department of energy and environmental protection (PAR)

Esty (2016)

Baldwin (2020) Why and how does participatory governance affect policy outcomes? theory and evidence from the electric sector (JPART)

Nonprice incentives and energy conservation (PNAS)

Asensio and Delmas (2015)

Participatory governance

Regulatory transformation

Energy conservation

Why do nonprofit performing arts Nonprofit organizations offer free public access? performing arts (PAR) organizations

Kim et al. (2018)

Topic

Title

Author

Table 8.1 (continued)

Experiment

Questionnaire survey

Method

Participatory governance theory

Mixed-methods

Evolving theory Qualitative analysis

Theory of energy policy

Benefits theory and resource dependence theory

Theory

(continued)

Information exchange among participants has a direct effect on utilities’ energy efficiency plans

The article identifies five core elements of regulatory excellence: integration, innovation, incentives, investment, and implementation

Environment and health-based information treatments motivated 8% energy savings versus control and were particularly effective on families with children

Performing arts nonprofits receiving grants from local governments, foundations, and corporations offer more free access

Results

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Understanding motivations of Higher education mega-gift donors to higher education: a qualitative study (PAR)

Education policy innovation

Worth et al. (2020)

Topic

Testing the effectiveness of “Managing for Results”: evidence from an education policy innovation in New York City (JPART)

Wang and Yeung (2019)

Educational economics and management

Title

Author

Subject

Table 8.1 (continued)

Theories of donor motivation

Self-cognition theory

Theory

Qualitative analysis

Panel data

Method

(continued)

The identification of additional subcategories under the broad category of impact is a significant contribution of this study and adds nuance to our understanding of mega-gift donors to higher education institutions

The EZ had a significant and positive effect on school performance as measured by proficiency rates in standardized mathematics exams

Results

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Political science

Subject

Assessing the organizational culture of higher education institutions in an era of #MeToo (PAR)

Dolamore and Richards (2020)

Sexual harassment

Gender pay gap

Topic

A framework to assess an organizational culture responsive

Representative bureaucracy theory

Theory

Political ideology and social services Political ideology Contracting out contracting: evidence from a regression discontinuity design (PAR)

Exploring the antecedents of the gender pay gap in U.S. higher education (PAR)

Rabovsky and Lee (2018)

Alonso and Andrews (2020)

Title

Author

Table 8.1 (continued)

Quasi-experiment

Questionnaire survey

Questionnaire survey

Method

(continued)

Left-wing controlled local governments exhibit a marked aversion to private sector involvement in service provision and a clear preference for in-house service provision

The preventing and addressing sexual misconduct framework as a tool to assess and cultivate an organizational culture that is responsive to these concerning trends

Female representation among the associate and full professor ranks, as well as in executive management positions (including the university president), will be negatively associated with gender pay gap differences

Results

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Subject

Title

Do political similarities facilitate interlocal collaboration (PAR)

Do politicians see eye to eye? the relationship between political group characteristics, perceived strategic plan quality, and strategic consensus in local governing majorities (PAR)

Author

Song et al. (2018)

Meyfroodt et al. (2019)

Table 8.1 (continued)

Political group characteristics

Political similarities

Topic

Method

Coalition theory Questionnaire survey

Theory of Questionnaire institutional survey collective action

Theory

(continued)

The idiosyncrasies of public decision-making groups can impede high levels of strategic consensus, but strategic plans can attenuate this effect by fulfilling a boundary-spanning role

Political solidarity, formulated by chief elected officials of municipalities and council members, can broaden the scope of interorganizational collaboration by mitigating institutional collective action problems at the local level

Results

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Subject

Public goods, private partnerships, and political institutions (JPART)

Bertelli (2019)

Public–private partnerships (PPPs)

Ideology, unionization, and personnel Ideology politics in the federal budget process (JPART)

Bolton (2020)

Topic

Title

Author

Table 8.1 (continued)

Political institutions

Personnel politics

Theory

Questionnaire survey

Questionnaire survey

Method

(continued)

BOTs are less attractive as the tenure of the longest-serving veto player increases, when veto players are more frequently replaced

Administrations advantage organizations with which they are ideologically aligned and that agencies with higher levels of union penetration see increased budgeted personnel levels, particularly during democratic presidencies

Results

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Citizens’ continuous use of eGovernment services: the role of self-efficacy, outcome expectations and satisfaction (GIQ)

An experimental study of public trust in AI chatbots in the public sector (GIQ)

Can behavioural interventions increase citizens’ use of e-government? evidence from a quasi-experimental tria (GIQ)

Alruwaie, El-Haddadehb & Weerakkody (2020)

Aoki (2020)

Faulkner et al. (2019)

E-government

Title

Author

Subject

Table 8.1 (continued)

Digital services

AI chatbots

E-Government services

Topic

Method

Theory of planned behavior

Trust theory

Quasi-experiment

Experimental online survey

Social Cognitive Questionnaire theory survey expectation confirmation theory

Theory

(continued)

Results indicated that the in-tervention significantly increased customers’ use of the online service by 14.1 percentage points, 95% CI [9.1, 19.2]

The public’s initial trust in their responses would be lower in the area of parental support than in the area of waste separation, with a moderate effect size

Prior experience, social influence, information quality, and service quality, personal outcome expectation, and satisfaction, are significant predictors of citizens’ intention to use eGovernment, when they are regulated, through citizens’ self-efficacy

Results

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Public policy

Subject

When the information flows: media professionalism as a signal of institutional trust at the state capitol (GIQ)

Metzler (2018)

Collaborative governance

Mass media and politics

E-tax filing

Topic

Vannoni (2019) A behavioral theory of policy Tobacco control feedback in tobacco control: evidence from a difference-in-difference-in-difference study (PSJ)

Multiplex network analysis for complex governance systems using surveys and online behavior (PSJ)

Exploring the interrelationships between technological predictors and behavioral mediators in online tax filing: the moderating role of perceived risk (GIQ)

Akram et al. (2019)

Hayes and Scott (2018)

Title

Author

Table 8.1 (continued)

Behavioral theory of policy feedback

Expectation confirmation theory

Theory of planned behavior

Theory of planned behavior

Theory

Case study

Social network analysis

Questionnaire survey

Questionnaire survey

Method

(continued)

The introduction of tobacco control measures makes the public more inclined to further regulation

Online network measures may complement survey-based measures, but likely reflect different aspects of the overall policy network

This study finds that legislators relied on professionalism to signal a media organization’s understanding of their institutional role

Results suggest that the relationships between PFB and satisfaction as well as between PFB and continuance intention are contingent on the users’ levels of perceived risk

Results

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Human resource management

Subject

Can public leadership increase public service motivation and job performance? (PAR)

Ministerial leadership and endorsement of bureaucrats: experimental evidence from presidential governments (PAR)

Lee and Park (2020)

Schools and attitudes toward economic equality (PSJ)

Gingrich (2019)

Schwarz et al. (2020)

Title

Author

Table 8.1 (continued)

Ministerial leadership

Public leadership

Economic equality

Topic

Public service motivation

Public service motivation

Attitudinal feedback

Theory

Experiment

Questionnaire survey

Questionnaire survey

Method

(continued)

Civil servants’ attitudes toward ministerial leadership are asymmetric in nature

Network governance leadership has the strongest positive relationship with both PSM and job performance

The social environment of schooling affects adults’ attitudes to fairness and Conservative vote choice, but that policies targeting these social environments have weak effects

Results

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Subject

Title

Does perceived societal impact moderate the effect of transformational leadership on value congruence? evidence from a field experiment (PAR)

Management innovation and policy diffusion through leadership transfer networks: an agent network diffusion model (JPART)

Author

Jensen (2018)

Yi et al. (2018)

Table 8.1 (continued)

Management innovation and policy diffusion

Transformational leadership

Topic Experiment

Method

Theory of policy Social network diffusion analysis

Psychological empowerment theory

Theory

Leadership transfer networks channel performance innovation between locations where managers served/serve, especially when the institutional environments are similar between the locations

Transformational leadership positively affects value congruence in public service organizations, but only when employees see that their jobs impact the well-being of other people and society

Results

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year. Besides, we combined the literatures containing the word including “psychology/cognition/perception/affective/affection/attitude/motivation/behavior” in top 20 PA journals from 1999–2018, and found that the annual papers published increased from 15 in 2000 to 124 and 107 in 2017 and 2018 (from 1.5 to 12.4 and 10.7%), with a total of more than 1000 articles, which suggests that BPA literatures is booming. The topic mainly includes government, public policy, employee behavior in public sector, citizen attitudes and behavior. In this course, some important international journals such as PAR and JPART have successively developed special issues to discuss the development frontier of BPA (Virtual Issue: BPA, JPART, 2016; Symposium: BPA, PAR, 2020). At meanwhile, “Journal of Behavioral Public Administration” started publication in 2018, and “The 1st International Conference on Behavioral Public Administration (ICBPA-2019)” was held successfully in China. Some BPA research centers and government think tank have been set up, which has attracted the participation of researchers from different disciplines. We are truly excited that BPA, as a developing subject, is being recognized and accepted by mainstream PA, which shows that BPA is becoming the common purpose of PA scholars rather than a short-lived minority topic. From the above analysis, BPA will be an important trend of PA, it not only will have great achievements, but also finds the golden key to solve its long-term historical problems of PA. Therefore, BPA is not only the mission of the scholars with psychological background, importantly, all PA researchers who even without psychological background should keep open, actively accept and participate in the BPA movement. In other words, BPA is not only the minority interest of few scholars within the discipline, but should become the common mission of all PA researchers. Only through the joint efforts of psychologists and PA scholars in different fields can the development of BPA and PA discipline walk out a road of scientific prosperity.

Discussion For the sustainable development of a new discipline, it is principal to clarify subject concept and extension, and define positioning and mission. Based on it, this paper indicates that BPA is a concept with rich connotations, and puts forward triple perspective interpretations on it. BPA is the interdisciplinary field of PA and behavioral science, and it combine micro, meso and macro level PA topics from the perspectives of individual, group, mass, public and society behaviors and attitudes. This definition can be understood from three perspectives: from a narrow point of view, BPA is an interdisciplinary subject of PA and psychology; from a broader perspective, BPA is an interdisciplinary of PA and behavioral and social science; in a more broader sense, BPA is an important school and development direction of PA. The main difference among triple understandings are showed in Table 8.2, they together contribute to overcome the one-sidedness and limitation of the current academic understanding of BPA, response to the existing criticisms about BPA, and further points out the direction and mission for BPA.

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Table 8.2 Comparing the traits of three perspectives understanding

Conceptual core

Narrow understanding

Broader understanding

More broader understanding

PA + Psychology

PA + Behavioral and social science

Research trends and direction of PA

Subject scope Psychology

BPA

PA

Behavioural and Social Science

BPA

PA

BPA

PA

Theory basis

Psychology

Psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, management, ethics and other disciplines related to the study of human psychology and behaviors…

Multi-disciplinary theories

Themes

Public administration psychology

Psychology and behavior in PA

All PA issues from the perspective of psychology and behavior

Main methods

Experimental methods, observation method, social survey method, psychological measurement, field research, case study, social network analysis, behaviors big data analytics, and EEG

Various methods

Various methods

Researchers

PA scholars with psychological knowledge

PA scholars with All PA scholars multi-disciplinary knowledge about human psychology and behaviors

Representative researches

Grimmelikhuijsen et al. (2013), Pedersen (2015), Bellé et al. (2018)

Porumbescu et al. (2017), Migchelbrink and Van de Walle (2019), Morten et al. (2019)

Cárdenas and Ramírez de la Cruz (2016), Zeng and Cleon (2018), Chatterjee and Sreenivasulu (2019), Alruwaie et al. (2020)

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As a new branch and direction of PA, BPA shows strong development momentum. But it is far from a discipline because its internal and external systems are patchy. Therefore, in this stage of development, it remains more pressing to point out the development direction of BPA. That is, construction matters rather than criticism. In other words, a proper response to criticisms and queries on BPA is that BPA is still like an “infant child” and needs to form a sustained impact by enhancing sense of identity and absorbing a group of followers (Moynihan, 2018). Hence, this paper appeals to PA scholars and practitioners to cooperate and promote the complementarity of theoretical research and practical application, which will be benefit to increase the contribution of BPA in public governance, and enhance the influence of BPA in PA. (This research was funded by Huazhong University of Science and Technology Special Funds for Development of Humanities and Social Sciences Grant HUST2019)

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Chapter 9

Does Person-Job Fit Mediate the Relationship Between Public Service Motivation and Work Engagement? The Case of Chinese Civil Servants Lijun Chen and Chuanxue Lin

Introduction With the implementation of the “The Eight Rules of Political Bureau of the Central Committee” and the further deepening of the reform of the cadre and personnel system, the personnel management of the public sector is becoming increasingly strict. The work motivation of employees is insufficient, and the attractiveness of agencies and institutions is relatively reduced. In some areas, a certain scale of staff is lost. The engagement of public sector employees has become a new challenge. What factors influence civil servants’ engagement? Studies have shown that pay and promotions have a direct impact on the engagement of employees in the private sector, but this clearly does not apply to the public sector. To better explore the factors that affect the behavior of public sector employees, scholars’ perspectives have gradually turned to public service motivation (PSM) research. Public service motivation was first proposed by Perry and Wise, which means “an individual’s predisposition to respond to motives grounded primarily or uniquely in public institutions and organizations.” (Perry & Recascino, 1990). Since then, scholars have continued to study the impact of public service motivation on different factors, such as government employees’ behavior and performance (Liu et al. 2015). Will the public service motivation level of public sector employees affect their engagement? The existing research literature shows that when public sector employees have a higher motivation for public services, it will reflect a higher degree of organizational identity or position identity, and when employees are more approve of the work they do, it also leads to higher engagement (Kim et al., 2013). Scholars have found that person-job fit has an impact on public sector employees’ job satisfaction, OCB, and turnover intention (Kristof, 1996). The degree of engagement mainly measures the working behavior and attitude of employees. The core connotation is L. Chen (B) · C. Lin School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 Z. Chen (ed.), Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9917-7_9

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the individual’s self-effort, which is combined with the work role and then expressed through the individual’s work attitude, work behavior, and work role (Khan, 1990). Therefore, to verify whether public service motivation will affect the professional behavior of civil servants, this paper introduces the intermediary variable of personjob fit, proposes corresponding hypotheses, and tests them through empirical analysis (Kahn, 1990; Quratulain & Khan 2015).

Theory and Hypotheses Public Service Motivation and Work Engagement Bakker (2015) proposed that public service motivation may be used as a moderating factor in the relationship between job resources and work engagement. To this end, he constructed a theoretical model of public service motivation and personal performance based on job resource-requirement theory (JD-R theory) and guessed that there may be a certain connection between public service motivation and professional engagement and that it may have an impact on important organizational results. In China, scholars have conducted a large number of studies on the outcome variables of public service motivation. These studies can be divided into two categories: work attitude and work behavior. Public service motivation and employees’ work attitude. Scholars from various countries have conducted much research on whether public service motivation affects employees’ job satisfaction. Research confirms that civil servants with high public service motivation have higher job satisfaction, and at the same time, they agree more with their organization (Zhu & Wu, 2012). Engagement is a variable describing work behavior and attitude that affects employees’ job satisfaction degree and willingness to leave. Therefore, in terms of work attitude, public service motivation is related to professional engagement. Public service motivation and employees’ work behavior. Naff and Crum (1999) found that there is a negative correlation between public service motivation and turnover behavior and a positive correlation with OCB. Public service motivation is also significantly related to individual performance. Employees with a higher level of public service motivation show higher confidence and performance when working in key positions (Perry, 1997). More dedicated employees tend to have a higher level of organizational commitment. Organizational commitment is negatively correlated with employee absenteeism and employee turnover, so employee engagement has a predictive effect on turnover intention (Schaufeli et al, 2002). From the perspective of work behavior, public service motivation and engagement are related. Therefore, based on the views and conclusions of the existing literature, this article concludes that there is a close relationship between public service motivation and professional engagement and makes the following assumptions:

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H1: Public service motivation has a positive effect on work engagement. Higher public service motivation will improve the level of work engagement.

Public Service Motivation and Person-Job Fit Since Perry and Wise introduced the theory of public service motivation, an increasing number of studies have focused on the influence mechanism of public service motivation on work results. Most of the existing studies expect that individuals with high public service motivations tend to choose public sector employment because their values are consistent with the mission of public organizations (Christensen & Wright, 2011). Traditional research on person-job fit mostly complements the perspective of complementary fit, which includes the concepts of demand-abilities fit and needs-supply fit. The former examines whether an individual’s ability meets the work needs of public service agencies, while demand–supply fit focuses on whether there is a match between the individual needs of employees and the organization’s important resource supply. Both of these aspects embody the connotation of the concept of Person-Job Fit. Later, scholars discovered that person-job fit also includes Supplementary Fit, which is the degree of consistency between job characteristics and personal cognition. On this basis, Scroggins (2003) proposed the concept of self-concept job fit, which mainly refers to the degree of consistency between personal self-perception, job task characteristics, and job behavior requirements. As an important part of personal self-cognition, public service motivation is closely related to person-job fit. In addition, PSM can also be regarded as a job characteristic belief that affects person-job fit. Karen (2006) first studied job characteristic belief as an antecedent variable of person-job fit. He defined it as an attribute of a particular job that the individual expects or perceives. Applicants’ evaluation of the attractiveness of a job must be based on the available information, regardless of whether the information is complete or not, and their belief in job characteristics comes from the integration of this information. After empirical testing, Karen found that job characteristic beliefs are positively correlated with person-job fit and can predict person-job fit well. Therefore, public service motivation is closely related to the job characteristics of the public sector, and this article proposes the following hypotheses: H2: Public service motivation has a positive effect on person-job fit. Higher public service motivation will improve the level of their person-job fit.

Person-Job Fit and Work Engagement “Person-job fit” appeared in the late twentieth century and is a component of the theory of person-environment fit, which mainly describes the degree of matching

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between individuals and their jobs (Chuang & Sackett, 2005). The related research on person-job fit shows that it has a significant correlation with many kinds of employee behaviors and attitudes, such as employee performance, job satisfaction, turnover intention, and absentee rate (Caldwell et al., 1990). The theory of behavioral science believes that the higher the degree of fit between the characteristics of the work and the employees’ cognition, the higher the level of dedication the employees will show. Work characteristics can be divided into external characteristics and internal characteristics (Herzberg et al., 1957). External characteristics refer to external conditions such as salary conditions, while internal characteristics include self-affirmation and growth and the affirmation of leaders and colleagues. Demands-Abilities Fit and Needs-Supply Fit correspond to the external characteristics of work, while Self-Concept Job Fit corresponds to the internal characteristics. Both types of characteristics will have an effect on engagement, and the intrinsic characteristics will have a deeper effect. Both types of characteristics affect engagement, and internal characteristics have a deeper impact. Kristof (1996) emphasized that the important influencing factor of employee attitude and behavior lies in the fit between organization and work and personal characteristics. Saks (2006) studied 102 employees of different companies in different industries and found that the matching of personality traits and job characteristics will have an important impact on employee engagement. Hackman and Oldham (1975) found that the characteristics of an individual’s existing job are directly related to personal feelings. If the job characteristics and personal attributes match, it will have an impact on the productivity and satisfaction of employees and will cause employees to have different psychological states, which will affect personal attitude and behavior, including turnover behavior and job satisfaction. Based on the above analysis, this study believes that personal fit has a significant impact on employee engagement, so it proposes the following hypothesis: H3: Person-job fit has a positive effect on employees’ work engagement. A higher person-job fit will improve the level of their engagement. Studies have shown that personal characteristics and environmental factors influence each other, and personal characteristics will make individuals perceive whether the environment fits themselves after employment, and this cognitive fit can be regarded as a mediating variable (Edwards et al., 2006). According to the above concept and dimension of person-job fit, the connotation of this cognitive fit may be similar to that of person-job fit. Stazyk’s (2010) research confirms that personaljob matching plays a completely mediating role in the relationship between job satisfaction and PSM. Therefore, this article proposes the following hypotheses: H4: Person-job fit plays a fully mediating role between the two variables of public service motivation and engagement. Public service motivation affects person-job fit, and person-job fit affects work engagement. Therefore, the theoretical model of this research is shown in Fig. 9.1:

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Fig. 9.1 Mechanism diagram of the influence of public service motivation on engagement

Method Sample In this study, 807 questionnaires were randomly distributed to public departments in eastern China through random sampling, of which 726 were valid questionnaires. All the interviewees are public sector employees. For ease of filling, the questionnaire survey was conducted in Chinese. The statistical data of the descriptive characteristics of the sample population are shown in Table 9.1. Male respondents accounted for 47.9%, and female respondents accounted for 52.1%. In terms of age, they are mainly young and middle-aged people. Among Table 9.1 Overall sample characteristic data table Gender Age

Education

Years worked in the public sector

N = 726

Frequency (person)

Rate (%)

Male

348

47.9

Female

378

52.1

Under 25

32

4.4

25–35 years old

311

42.8

36–45 years old

236

32.5

Over 45 years old

147

20.2

College degree and below

13

1.8

Bachelor’s degree

583

80.3

Master’s degree

128

17.6

PhD and above

2

0.3

Less than 3 years

86

11.8

3–5 years

107

14.7

6–10 years

156

21.5

11–20 years

172

23.7

21–30 years

163

22.5

More than 30 years

42

5.8

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them, 75.3% were 25–45 years old, and 42.8% were 25–35 years old. In this study, the interviewees had a bachelor’s degree or above, and most of the interviewees had worked for more than 3 years.

Measures All the scales used in this study have been selected and adapted to meet the requirements of public sector managers and have been applied to the public sector. A fivepoint Likert scale (1 = “completely inconsistent” to 5 = “very consistent”) was used in this study. Public Service Motivation (PSM). Based on its definition, Perry constructed a fourdimensional measurement system through empirical analysis. These four dimensions, in turn, were attraction to policymaking, commitment to the public interest, compassion, and self-sacrifice. This scale has been tested and validated by many scholars at home and abroad and has also been revised and applied locally (Liu, 2019). Other scholars have made corresponding adaptations on this basis, and although most scholars have used these four dimensions for partial revision, scholars have also used only five of these tests to indicate public service motivation (Kim, 2005; Wright et al., 2012). Based on Kim’s simplified version, the questionnaire was translated into Chinese and further discussed with public officials. The questionnaire questions were polished and adapted. The new scale still contained 5 items and was validated by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.798. Person-Job Fit (P-J Fit). In this paper, we use the fit scale developed by American scholar Wesley Scroggins, which consists of three dimensions and 12 items. Based on the discussion with management experts, this study selected 2 items from each of the three dimensions and reorganized them. The new questionnaire consisted of 6 test questions and was analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis. The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.680. Work Engagement (WE). This paper uses the engagement questionnaire developed by Hewitt Company, which is divided into three dimensions (May et al., 2004; 2011). Considering the actual situation of the public sector and the influence of social approval on the results of the questionnaire, the paper revised the original test question “I will not leave the company easily” to “I have never considered leaving the company”, and the question “I rarely consider job hopping” was deleted. The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.848. Control variable. The study controlled for respondents’ gender, age, education, and working hours. The inclusion of these control variables helps to eliminate differences that may be due to demographic or job factors, skill factors, etc.

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Results Table 9.2 lists the results of the descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and Cronbach’s α for each variable. The mean PSM score (m = 3.79) was higher than the midpoint (3.0), indicating that the respondents had a higher level of public service motivation. Engagement (m = 3.49) and person-job fit (m = 3.09) also have high averages, but the person-job fit is relatively closer to the midpoint (3.0). According to the correlation analysis of variables, engagement is correlated with gender and education, while person-job fit is highly correlated with age and working time. Considering the possibility of collinearity, the data were tested by the Haman single factor test, and a total of four unrotated factors were extracted. The variance contribution of the first factor was less than 40%, so the collinearity problem was not serious. To verify that the hypothesis of the model among the three groups of variables is the optimal model, Amos 24.0 is used for the confirmatory analysis. The results show that the model hypothesis of the three groups of variables (PSM, person-job fit, engagement) fits well, chi-square test (CMIN/DF) = 2.523, RMSEA = 0.046, NFI = 0.971, CFI = 0.971. To evaluate the differences among groups, an independent sample t-test and oneway ANOVA were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the influence of each factor on PSM was not significant. However, gender and educational background, age, and working time influence engagement and person-job fit, respectively (Table 9.3). To test hypothesis 1, a structural equation model was established, as shown in the figure. The relationship coefficient was 0.59, and the influence of public service motivation on engagement was significant (p < 0.001). To verify the mediating role of person-job fit, a structural equation model with engagement as a dependent variable and person-job fit as an intermediary variable was established. As shown in Fig. 9.3, the effect of common service motivation on person-job fit is significant (p < 0.001), and the coefficient a is 0.69, so 2 holds. Additionally, person-job fit has a significant effect on engagement (p < 0.001), and the correlation coefficient b is 0.85, so hypothesis 3 holds (Fig. 9.2). By definition, if the variable x affects the variable y by affecting the other variable M, then M is called the intermediate variable, then y = cX + E1 , and m = aX + E2 (where E2 is the constant), y = c’ X + bM + E3 . According to the results of structural equation modeling, a = 0.69, b = 0.85, and c = 0.59 can be obtained: Person - job fit = 0.69 ∗ PSM + ε

(9.1)

Engagement = 0.85 ∗ P - J fit + ε

(9.2)

Engagement = 0.59 ∗ PSM + ε

(9.3)

Standard deviation

0.81

0.60

1

0.110** −0.063 0.007

−0.046 −0.095*

0.806**

−0.253** −0.033

−0.103**

–

2

0.00

−0.224**

–

−0.069

−0.037

0.064

−0.070

–

3

−0.025

−0.060

0.093*

–

4

0.475**

0.4711**

(0.838)

5

0.603**

(0.680)

6

(0.848)

7

Notes The table shows the reliability of the scale for three sets of variables (the value of the alpha coefficient for Cronbach) a The gender is encoded as 0 = male; 1 = female b Age is encoded as 0 = under 25 years old; 1 = 25–35 years old; 2 = 36–45 years old; 3 = 45 years and over c Education is encoded as 0 = Junior college and below; 1 = Bachelor’s degree; 2 = Master’s degree; 3 = PhD or above d Work years are coded as follows: 0 = less than 3 years; 1 = 3–5 years; 2 = 6–10 years; 3 = 11–20 years; 4 = 21–30 years; 5 = 30 years or more * p < 0.05; **p < 0.01

3.49

7. Work engagement

0.72

3.73

3.09

5.PSM

6.P-J Fit

1.43

2.48

4.Work yearsd

0.84

0.42

1.69

1.16

3.Educationc

0.50

2.Ageb

Mean

0.52

Variable

1.Gendera

Table 9.2 Analysis of mean, variance and correlation of each variable

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Table 9.3 Comparison of measurement models Model

X2

df

IFI

CFI

RMSEA

SRMR

1. One-factor model: PSM; Person-job fit; Work engagement

1091.257

104

0.703

0.702

0.136

0.230

2. Two-factor model: PSM, Work engagement combined

1289.414

103

0.749

0.748

0.126

0.194

3. Three-factor medel: Person-job fit as a partial mediator

797.518

101

0.853

0.852

0.098

0.062

4. Three-factor model of hypothesis: person-job fit as a complete mediator

227.067

102

0.971

0.971

0.046

0.038

Fig. 9.2 A test chart of the relationship between public service motivation and engagement

Because the influence of three groups of variables a, b and c are significant, and a * b = c, then according to the test of mediation, the mediation variable person-job fit plays a full mediation role. So hypothesis 4 holds.

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Fig. 9.3 A test of the relationship between public service motivation, person-job fit and engagement

Discussion In this study, by introducing the intermediary variable of person-job fit, the relationship between public service motivation and engagement of Chinese civil servants is studied. Based on structural equation modeling, person-job fit plays a completely mediating role in the relationship between public service motivation and engagement. The results of the empirical analysis provide two contributions to the study of public service motivation. First, the results confirm the hypothesis that public service motivation has a significant effect on employee engagement, and there is a positive correlation between them. Second, this study finds the internal mechanism by which public service motivation influences employee engagement; that is, public service motivation influences employee engagement through the mediator variable of person-job fit. Therefore, this study explores the antecedent variables of engagement and provides new evidence for related theoretical research (Bakker, 2015). The findings of this study provide a theoretical explanation for the unprofessional behavior of some civil servants in the public sector, from the microlevel to public sector managers and researchers to study how to improve the level of civil service engagement to provide new ideas (Perry & Vandenablele, 2015).

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In the related research on engagement, scholars often use the job demand resource model (JD-R model) to explain engagement behavior. According to the model, all jobs have the characteristics of job demands and resources, and the individual’s engagement is the result of assessing these job demands and resources in his mind (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008). Therefore, in the JD-R model, good work resources will have an incentive effect, resulting in engagement behavior (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). However, in this study, when individuals have higher levels of public service motivation, they also have higher levels of engagement. The variable of person-job fit is a good description of the key contents in the JD-R model. The results of this study show that individuals’ job-dedication behavior in the public sector is more influenced by content such as spiritual motivation. This kind of motivation is not the external motivation brought by the resources in the JD-R model but is more likely to come from internal identity. This paper advances the specific field of engagement research in the public sector (Bakker & Albrecht, 2018). In the relationship between public service motivation and person-job fit, public sector employees with higher public service motivation are often expected to have higher job performance because their values are more in line with the spirit of the public sector (Petrovsky & Ritz, 2014). Therefore, scholars often think that public service motivation is the driving factor of the employment choice of public sector employees. According to Neuman’s research on public service motivation and person-job fit, civil servants’ career choice is influenced not only by public service motivation but also by mixed motivation (Neumann, 2016). Other scholars have found other evidence of career choice or motivation in the Chinese context (Liu & Tang, 2011). The results of this study provide some support for the view that public service motivation affects employees’ employment choices. Since the study sample is employed, the possibility of their public service motivation being promoted after entering the public sector is not excluded. However, the academic debate about whether public service motivation is dynamic or static still needs further study and proof (Liu, 2019). Scholars’ research on person-job fit, personal-organizational fit, and personal behavior (including performance, engagement, etc.) provides a discussion space for the results of this paper. For example, van Loon (2017) found that person-job fit is a completely mediating variable between public service motivation and in-role behavior in person-organization fit. However, Albrecht et al. (2018) showed that the degree of an individual’s recognition of organizational resources, engagement climate, and work resources had a significant effect on individual engagement. This research supports the conclusion of van Loon’s research, which shows that Chinese civil servants attach more importance to their ability, cognition, and so on. However, this study does not examine whether civil servants attach importance to the resources given by the government. In future studies, more detailed and potential discoveries will be made by more detailed studies of common service motivation, person-job fit, and engagement (for example, by exploring the subdimensions of each variable). In engagement research, the paper explores the influence of civil servants’ political outlook (party

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member/nonparty member), work unit level, work welfare, and organizational identity on their engagement. We will explore the mechanism of the engagement behavior of civil servants in a more comprehensive way. Finally, this paper empirically verifies that person-job fit plays a completely mediating role between the two sets of variables, but this may only be one of them; there may also be other factors that influence the relationship between the above variables. Therefore, how to clearly define the influencing factors of civil servants’ engagement and build relevant theoretical models are questions that need further research and exploration by scholars.

References Albrecht, S., Breidahl, E., & Marty, A. (2018). Organizational resources, organizational engagement climate, and employee engagement. Career Development International, 23(1), 67–85. Bakker, A. B. (2015). A job demands-resources approach to public service motivation. Public Administration Review, 75(5), 723–732. Bakker, A. B., & Albrecht, S. (2018). Work engagement: Current trends. Career Development International, 23(1), 4–11. Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2007). The job demands-resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22(3), 309–328. Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2008). Toward a model of work engagement. Career Development International, 13(3), 209–223. Caldwell, D. F., Chatman, J. A., & O’Reilly, C. A. (1990). Building organizational commitment: A multifirm study. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63(3), 245. Christensen, R. K., & Wright, B. E. (2011). The effects of public service motivation on job choice decisions: Disentangling the contributions of person-organization fit and person-job. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 21(4), 723. Chuang, A., & Sackett, P. R. (2005). The perceived importance of person-job fit and personorganization fit between and within interview stages. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 33(3), 209–226. Edwards, J. R., Cable, D. M., Williamson, I. O., Lisa, S. L., & Shipp, A. J. (2006). The phenomenology of fit: Linking the person and environment to the subjective experience of person-environment fit. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(4), 802. Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1975). Development of the job diagnostic survey. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60(2), 159–170. Herzberg, F., Mausnes, B., Peterson, R. O., & Capwell, D. F. (1957). Job attitudes: Review of research and opinion. American Journal of Sociology, 12(2). Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. The Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692–724. Karen, H. E. (2006). Job characteristic beliefs and personality as antecedents of subjective person-job fit. Journal of Business and Psychology, 21(2), 193–226. Kim, S. (2005). Individual-level factors and organizational performance in government organizations. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 15(2), 245. Kim, S., Vandenabeele, W., Wright, B. E., Andersen, L. B., Cerase, F. P., Christensen, R. K., et al. (2013). Investigating the structure and meaning of public service motivation across populations: Developing an international instrument and addressing issues of measurement invariance. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 23(1), 79–102. Kristof, A. L. (1996). Person-organization fit: An integrative review of its conceptualizations, measurement, and implications. Personnel Psychology, 49(1), 1–49.

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Liu, B. (2019). Public service motivation in Chinese context: A systematic review. Public Administration and Policy Review, 8(05):3–17 in Chinese. Liu, B., Tang, L. P., & Yang, K. (2015). When does public service motivation fuel the job satisfaction fire? The joint moderation of person–organization fit and needs–supplies fit. Public Management Review, 17(6), 876–900. Liu, B., & Tang, T. L. (2011). Does the love of money moderate the relationship between public service motivation and job satisfaction? The case of Chinese professionals in the public sector. Public Administration Review, 71(5), 718. May, D. R., Gilson, R. L., & Harter, L. M. (2004). The psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 77, 11–37. Naff, K. C., & Crum, J. (1999). Working for America: Does public service motivation make a difference? Review of Public Personnel Administration, 19(4), 5–16. Neumann, O. (2016). Does misfit loom larger than fit? Experimental evidence on motivational person-job fit, public service motivation, and prospect theory. International Journal of Manpower, 37(5), 822–839. Perry, J. L., & Recascino, L. W. (1990). The motivational bases of public service. Public Administration Review, 50(3), 367–373. Perry, J. L. (1997). Antecedents of public service motivation. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 7(2), 181–197. Perry, J. L., & Vandenabeele, W. (2015). Public service motivation research: Achievements, challenges, and future directions. Public Administration Review, 75(5), 692–699. Petrovsky, N., & Ritz, A. (2014). Public service motivation and performance: A critical perspective. Evidence-Based HRM, 2(1), 57–79. Quratulain, S., & Khan, A. K. (2015). How does employees’ public service motivation get affected? A conditional process analysis of the effects of person-job fit and work pressure. Public Personnel Management, 44(2), 266–289. Saks, A. M. (2006). Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21(7), 600–619. Schaufeli, W. B., Salanova, M., González-romá, V., & Bakker, A. B. (2002). The measurement of engagement and burnout: A two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. Journal of Happiness Studies, 3(1), 71–92. Scroggins, W. A. (2003). Selection, meaningful work and employee retention: A self -concept based approach to person -job fit (Order No. 3091122). Available from ABI/INFORM Collection; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global A&I: The Humanities and Social Sciences Collection; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global A&I: The Sciences and Engineering Collection. (305312115). Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/305312115?accountid= 15198 Stazyk, E. C. (2010). Public service motivation and job satisfaction: The role of fit and mission valence. In Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.5465/ AMBPP.2010.54496989 van Loon, N. M., Vandenabeele, W., & Leisink, P. (2017). Clarifying the relationship between public service motivation and in-role and extrarole behaviors: The relative contributions of person-job and person-organization fit. American Review of Public Administration, 47(6), 699–713. Wright, B. E., Moynihan, D. P., Pandey, S. K., & Lavigna, B. (2012). Pulling the levers: Transformational leadership, public service motivation, and mission valence/commentary on “pulling the levers: Transformational leadership, public service motivation, and mission valence.” Public Administration Review, 72(2), 206. Zhu, C. K., & Wu, C. (2012). Public service motivation and job satisfaction of public sector employees in China. Journal of Public Administration, 05(001), 83–104 in Chinese.

Chapter 10

Implicit and Explicit Evaluations of Chinese Targeted Poverty Alleviation Policy: Experimental Evidence from Attitudes of the Rural Poor in Western China Shuzhen Wang, Jingmeng Dong, Enping Zhang, Juan Wang, and Anli Dong

Introduction As the largest contributor to global poverty reduction, China has launched a targeted poverty alleviation policy (TPAP) in recent years (Ahlstrom & Ding, 2014). As a policy instrument, TPAP has aimed at the poor in various difficulties. Its rationale is to take targeted measures to help people lift themselves out of poverty. Prior studies indicate that the poor’s attitude toward poverty alleviation policies affects the progress and effects of poverty alleviation (Hedegaard, 2014; Quadagno, 2003; Svallfors, 1997), showing that the poor’s policy attitude is more important in the evaluation of anti-poverty policy. Policy attitudes include implicit attitudes (more real and intrinsic attitudes) and explicit attitudes (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995; Ringe, 2005). Although some studies have assessed people’s explicit attitudes toward poverty reduction policies (Hedegaard, 2014; Qi & Wu, 2018; Quadagno, 2003), the implicit attitudes of the rural poor toward TPAP are still unknown. The aim of the present study is to explore implicit and explicit attitudes toward TPAP by means of implicit social cognition experiments. According to implicit social cognition, individuals’ attitudes can be divided into implicit attitudes and explicit attitudes (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). Implicit attitudes are defined as “introspectively unidentified (or identified) traces of past experience that mediate favorable or unfavorable feeling, thought, or action toward social objects”. They are relatively realistic and stable attitudes, as well as automated S. Wang (B) · J. Dong · E. Zhang · J. Wang · A. Dong School of Public Administration, Northwest University, Xi’an, China e-mail: [email protected] S. Wang Research Center on Peoples Livelihood Security and Social Governance of Shaanxi Province, Xi’an, China © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 Z. Chen (ed.), Frontier Research in Behavioral Public Administration, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9917-7_10

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processing (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995; Marks & Wilson, 2000). Unlike implicit attitudes, explicit attitudes are attained by conscious and rational processing. Policy attitudes, as one category of social attitudes, also include implicit and explicit attitudes of individuals (Cameron & Lai, 2018; Ringe, 2005; Tyers, 1990). Implicit and explicit attitudes are either mutually related or independent (Beute & De Kort, 2013; Dovidio et al., 2009; Gebauer et al., 2012). Previous studies have mainly used questionnaire surveys to measure individual attitudes toward policies, by which attitudes are easily affected by social expectations, such as willingness of the investigator, or by individuals’ responses (Ringe, 2005). Therefore, questionnaire surveys cannot reflect individuals’ intrinsic attitudes toward a given policy (Gainous et al., 2008; Makin et al., 2012), which indicates that the poor’s implicit attitudes toward anti-poverty policies need new measurements. The implicit social cognitive process emphasizes that past unconscious experiences influence current emotions and actions (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995; Hahn & Gawronski, 2015; Ouimet & Radomsky, 2011). To examine unconscious experiences, implicit measurement methods are usually employed. The extrinsic affective Simon task (EAST) has been used to evaluate implicit attitudes (De Houwer, 2002, 2003). The experimental task includes compatible and incompatible conditions. Compatible conditions refer to processing contents consistent with one’s own attitudes, which require fewer reaction times (RTs) for processing. Incompatible conditions refer to processing contents inconsistent with one’s own attitudes, and the RTs are thus expected to be longer than those of compatible ones. In EAST, implicit attitudes toward a person or an object are represented by the differences in RTs between compatible and incompatible conditions (De Houwer, 2002, 2003). Based on the rationales of EAST, the present study employed it to measure implicit attitudes toward TPAP. Social policies include three categories: selective policies, contribution-based policies, and universal policies (Titmuss, 1968). Selective policies tend to generate gains only for recipients. Contribution-based policies bring benefits to recipients as well as potential benefits to contributors. Universal policies are extended to the entire population (Campbell, 2011; Hedegaard, 2014; Titmuss, 1968). Under the circumstances of China, TPAP has covered the poor only and is one of the selective policies. To effectively assess attitudes toward TPAP, simplifying the contrast between attitudes toward TPAP and other policies, such as universal policies, is necessary. In China, the universal health care policy (UHCP) provides medical insurance for all Chinese individuals and is one of the universal policies. Therefore, the present study has only focused on selective policy (i.e., TPAP) and its counterpart, the universal policy (i.e., UHCP). Being proximate to the recipients of selective policies affects one’s attitudes toward those policies. Being proximate was defined as either having one’s own experiences as a recipient, having close family members who receive the benefit, or having close friends who receive the benefit (Hedegaard, 2014). In addition to being proximate, attitudes toward policies are also influenced by personal interests that policies provide (Cassino et al., 2007; Hedegaard, 2014; Qi & Wu, 2018). In the present study, TPAP specifically benefits the poor, thus building the poor’s implicit

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and explicit attitudes toward TPAP. UHCP provides medical insurance for all Chinese citizens, thus building ordinary farmers’ implicit and explicit attitudes toward UHCP. To better understand the poor’s attitudes toward TPAP, UHCP is used as a control policy in the present study, and UHCP recipients, ordinary farmers, constitute a control group. Based on previous studies (Campbell, 2011; Cassino et al., 2007; Corrigan & Rüsch, 2002; Hedegaard, 2014; Qi & Wu, 2018; Titmuss, 1968), attitudes toward policies are influenced by personal interests provided by policies, and TPAP is closely related to the personal interests of the poor; thus, we propose two hypotheses. First, the poor have positive implicit attitudes toward TPAP, while ordinary farmers have positive implicit attitudes toward UHCP. Second, the poor, with more positive attitudes, and ordinary farmers have different explicit attitudes toward TPAP.

Method Participants All participants, living in S and B Counties of S Province, two counties of Western China, were recruited according to the Chinese poverty line in 2010 (i.e., population living less $1.25 in purchasing power parity terms per day, which is currently used by the Chinese government). The subjects include the poor (N1 = 96, 55 males), whose mean age is 48.75 years old and mean education is 7.98 years, and ordinary farmers (N2 = 110, 56 males), whose mean age is 46.41 years old and mean education is 8.95 years. The difference in age between the poor and ordinary farmers was not significant (t = 1.203, p > 0.05), while the difference in education years between the two groups was significant (t = −3.440, p < 0.01). All participants had normal or corrected-to-normal vision, no color blindness, and no history of nervous system or psychiatric illness. The institutional review board of Northwest University approved the study. The data of participants were collected during the 15 months (Feb. 2018~Apr. 2019). All subjects gave their informed consent to participate before their experiments. None had ever participated in a similar experiment before.

Materials and Design In EAST, which measured implicit attitudes toward policies, concept words were colored words (TPAP, UHCP, flowers, insects, meaningless letter strings “XXXX”) and presented in blue and green. Attribute words were white words and included positive and negative words. Positive words (favorite, great, acceptant, good, approving) and negative words (inferior, terrible, opposed, bad, rejective) were presented in

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white and chosen from previous literature and Liu Yuan’s word frequency dictionary (De Houwer, 2003; Greenwald et al., 1998; Liu, 1990). In the EAST paradigm, relative to TPAP and UHCP, flowers and insects were used as positive and negative references, respectively, while “XXXX” was used as a neutral attitude reference. All words in the experiment were presented in Chinese (see Appendix). There was no significant difference in keystrokes for positive and negative attribute words and no significant difference in word frequencies between two attribute words (ps > 0.05) according to the dictionary by Liu (1990).

Experimental Procedure and Questionnaire EAST Subjects were seated in front of the computer at a distance of approximately 60 cm from the screen, starting the experiment after confirming their understanding of the experimental procedure. The experimental task was presented using Inquisit 3.0 professional software. Subjects were instructed to respond by their forefingers. RTs were collected by the computers. The EAST experiment consists of four blocks of presentation. The first block presented attribute words in white. Subjects were required to judge the positive or negative words displayed in the middle of the screen. If the words were positive, they responded by pressing the key “F”. If the words were negative, then they pressed the key “J”. The second block presented five concept words, which were randomly presented in either blue or green in the middle of the screen. Subjects only needed to judge the color of words. If the words were green, then subjects pressed the key “F”. If the words were blue, then they pressed the key “J”. The last two blocks were joint tasks. The tasks of the first two blocks were combined, and the data from the last two blocks were used for statistical analysis. The response buttons for green and blue words were counterbalanced between subjects. The subjects were informed that a red cross would appear underneath a word if they made an incorrect response during the experiment. In these cases, subjects needed to correct it before moving ahead. Data of colored words from the combined tasks were used for statistical analysis. The experimental procedure is summarized in Table 10.1.

TPAP Attitude Questionnaire Explicit attitudes toward TPAP of participants were measured by a self-designed TPAP attitude questionnaire (see Appendix) by referring to previous studies (Grumm et al., 2009; Rudman et al., 2001). The questionnaire used a 7-point scale consisting of 10 questions (5 positive items and 5 reverse items). A higher score indicates more positive attitudes.

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Table 10.1 EAST experimental procedure Blocks

Categories

Trials

Key “ F”

Key “J”

1

Practice

20

White positive words

White negative words

2

Practice

20

Green concept words

Blue concept words

3

First combined task

40

White positive words or green concept words

White negative words or blue concept words

4

Second combined task

40

White positive words or green concept words

White negative words or blue concept words

Results Results of Explicit Attitudes toward TPAP To test for the differences in explicit attitudes toward TPAP between two groups, an independent sample t-test was conducted. The results (Table 10.2 and Fig. 10.1) showed that the scores of explicit attitudes toward TPAP of the poor were significantly higher than those of ordinary farmers (p < 0.001). Table 10.2 Statistical results of explicit attitudes toward TPAP for two groups Group

N

M ± SE

MD ± SE

The poor

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59.440 ± 1.366 7.174 ± 1.757 4.082