Resume

• 2013

  Member

  American Society for Public Administration

• 2011

  Member

  Public Management Research Association

  Associate Editor

  Social Science Journal

  Research Fellow

  Local Government Workplaces Initiative - UNC

  Research Fellow

  Center for Organization Research and Design

  ASU

  School of Public Affairs and Administration

  Rutgers-Newark

  2019 Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching

  UAB College of Arts and Sciences

  2020 JPAE Outstanding Reviewer Award

  Journal of Public Affairs Education

  2018 Outstanding Early Career Scholar Award

  Center for Organization Research & Design at Arizona State University

  Pi Sigma Alpha Honor Society

  National Political Science Honor Society

  Pi Alpha Alpha Honor Society

  Global Honor Society for Public Affairs and Administration

• 2008

  Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

  Public Administration

  The University of Kansas

• 2006

  Master of Public Administration (MPA)

  Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration

• 2003

  Bachelor of Arts (BA)

  Political Science

  Rutgers University - Newark

  Introduction to Public Administration

  Administrative Theory and Behavior/Scope of Public Administration

  Administrative Ethics

  Open Government

  Intergovernmental Relations

  Human Resources Management

• Policy Analysis

  Qualitative Research

  Public Management

  Ethics

  Quantitative Research

  Research

  Public Policy

  Statistics

  Editing

  Public Speaking

  Mplus

  Data Analysis

  University Teaching

  SPSS

  Teaching

  Government

  Structural Equation Modeling

  Microsoft Office

  Higher Education

  Public Administration

  Social Equity and Popular Culture: Gender and Gender Identity on TV

  Social equity is an important element of public administration and policy

  and theoretically is as important as economy

  efficiency

  and effectiveness by the National Academy of Public Administration. Social equity

  which focuses on fair and just processes and policy outcomes

  has largely related to race and gender

  but its application to gender identity is coming to the fore as various states and localities adjust their policies related to identification. Advancing social equity requires difficult conversations as well as organizational and policy efforts. This article explores the role of social equity conversations—nervous conversations—and how they are portrayed on television. Two series of nervous conversations related to gender and gender identity

  in Modern Family and Grey’s Anatomy

  are analyzed via Gooden’s “Race Talk Strategies” framework. This analysis considers the effectiveness of these conversations as well as how portrayal of these conversations may influence social equity in the real world.

  Social Equity and Popular Culture: Gender and Gender Identity on TV

  Automation promises to reshape a variety of work contexts in the coming years and the public sector will not be immune. While technology broadly—and automation in particular—offers a range of potential benefits from standardization to operational efficiency to financial savings

  the potential tradeoffs and ethical impacts should not be neglected. This article addresses potential implications of automation as they apply to the public-sector workforce and its expressed values. Using data on state and local government employee demographics and occupations

  this article utilizes scholarly predictions to forecast the ways in which automation may impact the public workforce

  including the sector’s commitment to equity goals such as equal employment opportunity and the cultivation of a diverse workforce. Based on this analysis

  recommendations are offered for prioritizing these public service values in a swiftly changing context.

  Automation in the Public Sector: Efficiency at the Expense of Equity?

  Rules can be good. Really

  Representations of government and bureaucrats can reflect popular sentiment as well as inform beliefs about government (Holzer and Slater 1995; Pautz and Roselle 2010). As a result

  the ways in which government employees are presented in film are important. This chapter reviews previous literature on bureaucratic representation before turning to how governments are portrayed in the popular American sitcom

  Parks and Recreation. By focusing on three characters—Leslie Knope

  Ron Swanson

  and Tom Haverford—through the lenses of public service motivation and ethics

  the chapter presents the various ways bureaucrats are presented

  understood

  and characterized. These characterizations are sometimes consistent with popular notions about bureaucrats

  but other times

  they are not. Parks presents a careful

  nuanced view of public sector employees

  reflecting in many ways

  a more accurate depiction of those who staff government agencies.

  Bureaucratic Representation in Parks and Recreation

  This study examines the attributes of organizational rules that influence rule following. Rule following fosters organizational effectiveness by aligning individual behaviours with organizational preference. While a range of theoretical explanations have been offered for rule following

  the characteristics of rule design and implementation have received less empirical attention. Borrowing from the green tape theory of effective rules

  this study examines the influence of two particular characteristics—rule formalization and rule consistency—on rule following. Three studies

  which include two vignette experiments and a survey of two local government organizations

  provide the data for the research. The results suggest that rule formalization and rule consistency independently increase rule following

  with mixed evidence of interaction effects. The broad implication is that public managers must attend to both rule design and implementation to foster organizational rule following.

  Formalization and consistency heighten organizational rule following: Experimental and survey evidence

  The article presents a case study regarding the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act

  also called the Sunshine Law

  which was passed in 1975

  that promotes transparent practices regarding meetings in New Jersey. It presents a history of the meetings and recently

  the state legislature is considering the revision of the law. An assessment of recent open meeting practices within the State and a list of areas to possibly revise are offered. The key areas that need to be considered when revising the law is included.

  Open Public Meetings in New Jersey: History and Current Issues

  Pioneering work on competencies provided evidence that traits

  motives

  and self-concepts predict success in a particular job context. Research furthered this line of investigation by identifying competencies that apply across jobs. Together

  these competency studies introduced a question that endures today: “Are competencies situational or universal?” This research examines this question in the context of collaborative competencies. Given the contemporary emphasis on working effectively across boundaries

  this state-level investigation identifies differentiating competencies and behavioral indicators that both support and expand existing federal-level research findings on collaborative competencies. This study’s answer to the enduring question is yes: There are universal collaborative competency dimensions and context matters in terms of application and interpretation.

  Are Competencies Universal or Situational? A State-Level Investigation of Collaborative Competencies

  Much of the current literature on open public meetings focuses on public participation. We expanded upon this literature and address public meetings from the perspective of governmental transparency. Each state has an open meeting law that applies to its government bodies

  including the local governments in the state. Using transparency and public participation literatures and field research

  we developed a framework for analyzing open meeting laws and their capacity for fostering transparent practices. As a result

  we identified eight components that are most important with respect to transparency: notice and agenda; minutes; closed meeting sessions; public comment; video and audio recordings; electronic meetings; violations

  sanctions

  fines

  and attorneys’ fees; and physical space. Open meeting policies and practices from one state

  New Jersey

  are offered to illustrate the utility of this framework. Further

  a review of open meeting laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia resulted in wide variation as to how they approach these eight aspects of open meeting issues. The components of the framework we provide may be useful to municipal managers when considering an overhaul of their public meeting practices.

  An Analytic Framework for Open Meetings and Transparency

  The Master of Public Administration (MPA) classroom is ripe for teaching opportunities that link theory to practice. Film and television clips are one way to show “practice.” This article explores the use of NBC’s Parks and Recreation

  the popular sitcom led by Amy Poehler

  as a teaching tool that can be fun and beneficial for stimulating classroom discussion and fostering critical analysis skills. Through a content analysis

  it is established that the series includes a vast amount of material that can be utilized in the classroom. Fifty-seven percent of the series’ episodes are applicable in whole or part to help illustrate course concepts and theories

  exercise problem-solving skills

  or serve as a catalyst for critical thinking. Three specific examples of the utility of episodes in the classroom are presented. Through this research

  it is established that Parks and Recreation can enhance one’s teaching arsenal suited for the MPA curriculum.

  Linking theory to television: Public administration in Parks and Recreation

  “Bureaucracy and Dissent” or “The Ethics of Red Tape”? Linking Red Tape and Guerrilla Government.

  Much empirical red tape research utilizes the General Red Tape (GRT) scale

  which asks respondents to rate the level of red tape on a scale of 0 to 10 (Rainey

  Pandey

  and Bozeman 1995). Because “popular usage of the term ‘red tape’ requires no precision” (Bozeman and Feeney 2011

  3) and the GRT scale “assumes that respondents understand the terms to which they are responding” (101)

  evaluating red tape in this way may be theoretically disadvantageous. This article proposes a new measure—the Three-Item Red Tape (TIRT) scale—consisting of three items drawn from previous rules research on rule characteristics to which respondents characterize organizational rules by how burdensome

  unnecessary

  and ineffective they are. This measure has several advantages over existing measures: it includes several indicators; it does not include the term “red tape”; and it is drawn directly from Bozeman's (1993; 2000) operational definition of red tape. Using structural equation modeling to model survey data from two local government organizations (n = 1

  666)

  this article evaluates the theoretical and empirical validity of this TIRT scale

  compares it with the GRT scale

  tests its relationship with formalization

  which is known as a distinct concept

  and addresses implications of this scale on red tape theory.

  A New Measure of Red Tape: Introducing the Three-Item Red Tape (TIRT) Scale

  Rules help ensure consistent employee behaviour

  yet rule bending occurs in public organizations every day. Previous research indicates that rule bending is influenced by organizational structure and personal characteristics (DeHart-Davis 2007). This present study considers the influence of organizational norms on rule bending by exploring the impact of ethical climate

  which signals to employees the best course of action when faced with situations that are ethical in nature (Victor and Cullen 1987

  1988). To investigate this relationship

  survey data from employees of a large American local government are analysed. Results from a structural equation model show that three ethical climates – ‘organization interest’

  ‘team interest’

  and ‘rules/SOP’ – significantly influence rule bending. Findings suggest that organizational norms play a critical role for employee behaviour and public managers can consider rule bending and ethical climate as impetuses for organizational change.

  Ethical Climate and Rule Bending: How Organizational Norms Contribute to Unintended Rule Consequences

  Exploring Determinants of Governmental Transparency: The Case of Proactive Dissemination

  Transparency and Local Government Websites

  Most research has conceptualized red tape as being a pathological subset of organizational formalization. This article argues that focusing on a single dimension of organizational structure as a red tape driver is unrealistically narrow. Specifically

  the article advances hypotheses as to how organizational centralization and hierarchy affect perceived red tape

  in addition to formalization. This reasoning is tested using survey data from employees of three local government organizations in the southeastern United States. All three hypotheses are supported: higher levels of organizational formalization

  centralization

  and hierarchy are associated with more red tape. Open‐ended comments also indicate that red tape is not solely perceived as related to formalization. The findings imply that red tape is a multifaceted perception of organizational structure rather than perceived pathological formalization.

  More than Pathological Formalization: Understanding Organizational Structure and Red Tape

  Codes of ethics seek to inspire public servants to work ethically

  yet ethical misbehavior by public officials appears often in the news. While there exists a lack of consensus about whether ethics education leads to behavioral changes

  public administration programs typically include ethics instruction anyway

  as either a separate course or sprinkled throughout the curriculum. Student engagement is critical for ethics education

  and audiovisual media are known to increase engagement and active learning. Parks and Recreation

  a popular NBC sitcom

  is proposed here as a useful source of ethics case studies and scenarios that instructors can use to supplement their ethics instruction. A content analysis of the series indicates that more than 35% of the episodes contain ethical content

  much of which may be beneficial for the classroom. Three episodes are explained in depth and the utility of the show for ethics education is explored.

  Teaching Public Ethics with TV: Parks and Recreation as a Source of Case Studies

  Rules are essential components of organizations

  especially given their foundational role in inducing organizationally preferred behavior and reducing behavioral variability among its members. Despite the existence and prevalence of these centrally important tools

  rule deviation occurs. This study proposes to understand the ways in which emergency medical service (EMS) professionals break rules for prosocial purposes—to help patients. In particular

  this research seeks to understand how specific organizational and personal attributes influence rule-breaking tendencies. Results indicate that aspects of ethical climate are significantly related to prosocial rule-breaking (PSRB) tendencies

  whereas empathy is not. In addition

  this study finds that other characteristics

  such as a conformist personality

  risk taking

  expertise

  and experience on the job influence PSRB. These findings contribute to the literature on rule deviation and EMS practices and shed light on the complexity of decision making in frontline public services.

  Patients

  Protocols

  and Prosocial Behavior: Rule Breaking in Frontline Health Care

  Erin L.

  University of Alabama at Birmingham

  Birmingham

  Alabama Area

  Graduate Program Director

  Master of Public Administration (MPA)

  University of Alabama at Birmingham

  Assistant Professor

  Birmingham

  Alabama Area

  The University of Alabama at Birmingham

  Birmingham

  Alabama Area

  Associate Professor

  University of Alabama at Birmingham

  Board Member

  ASPA Section for Women in Public Administration (SWPA)

  Digital Media Editor

  Public Integrity

  https://scholars.org/scholar/erin-borry

  Member

  Alabama Chapter

  Scholar Strategy Network

  Board Member

  ASPA Section on Ethics and Integrity in Government (SEIGOV)

  Editorial Board Member

  Public Integrity

  Board Member

  Southeastern Conference of Public Administration (SECoPA)

  Conference Program Co-Chair

  2018 Southeastern Conference for Public Administration (SECoPA)

  Board Member

  Academic Women in Public Administration