Empirical experiments in public reporting: Reconstructing the results of survey research, 1941-42
成果类型：
Article
署名作者：
Lee, M
署名单位：
University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
刊物名称：
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW
ISSN/ISSBN：
0033-3352
DOI：
10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00577.x
发表日期：
2006
页码：
252-262
关键词：
摘要：
During the first half of the 20th century, public administration developed a normative theory of public reporting. It called on government managers to contribute to an informed citizenry through regular reports to the public, especially annual reports. However, in the only known instance when this theory was subjected to comparative empirical research, a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley, conducted some methodologically credible experiments during the early 1940s. Her results demonstrated the ineffiectiveness of annual reports. However, rather than adjusting to accommodate this empirical information, leading organizations ignored them and continued pushing for annual reports. With the test results never published in an academic journal and the students dissertation left incomplete, they were soon lost and forgotten. Public administrations interest in public reporting declined during the second half of the 20th century, perhaps because of the lack of an empirically based approach.