MANAGING CITIZENS' EXPECTATIONS OF PUBLIC SERVICE PERFORMANCE : EVIDENCE FROM OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENTATION IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Search by :

ALL Author Subject ISBN/ISSN Advanced Search

Last search:

Image of MANAGING CITIZENS' EXPECTATIONS OF PUBLIC SERVICE PERFORMANCE : EVIDENCE FROM OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENTATION IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Journal Articles

MANAGING CITIZENS' EXPECTATIONS OF PUBLIC SERVICE PERFORMANCE : EVIDENCE FROM OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENTATION IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

James, Oliver - Personal Name;

Citizens' expectations of public service performance influence their attitudes and behaviour towards services, including satisfaction, choice of service and political voice about them. However, there has been little research on what sets expectations. This paper assesses the effects of prior service performance and information about prior performance on two forms of citizen expectations, positive expectations of what performance will be and normative expectations of what performance should be. In an observational study, prior performance is positively related to expectations of what performance will be. Prior performance is positively related to high normative expectations but is unrelated to low normative expectations. The resilience of normative expectations suggests that poor performance will trigger dissatisfaction and citizen response rather than lowering expectations creating passive acceptance. In a field experiment, performance information effects are found for positive but not normative expectations. Providing information about excellent performance raises positive expectations and providing information about poor performance lowers positive expectations; negativity bias is evident with information about poor performance having a larger effect. Performance information that is credible to citizens can be used to manage citizens' positive expectations but their normative expectations are less amenable to influence by this route.

Availability

No copy data

Detail Information

Series Title: Public Administration
Call Number: -
Publisher: Hoboken, United States : Wiley-Blackwell., 2011
Collation: -
Language: English
ISBN/ISSN: 00333298
Classification: -
Content Type: -
Media Type: -
Carrier Type: -
Edition: Volume 89, Issue 4, December 2011, pages 1419–1435
Subject(s): Local Governments
Public Service Performance
Specific Detail Info: -
Statement of Responsibility: -

Other version/related

No other version available

File Attachment

No Data

Comments

You must be logged in to post a comment