Social Indicators Research

, Volume 15, Issue 1, pp 1–16 | Cite as

The needs of governments to produce services: A conceptual framework for its measurement

  • Doh C. Shinn
  • Phillip M. Gregg
Article
Received:

Abstract

This paper explores the notion of service needs from the perspective of government officials who produce services rather than that of citizens who consume those services. Specifically, the paper introduces a conceptual framework and an operational procedure that would make it less difficult for government producers to reflect the multi-dimensional and multi-directional characteristics of service needs in the process of service policy making.

Keywords

Policy Making Operational Procedure Conceptual Framework Government Official Service Policy 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Bibliography

  1. Allardt, E.: 1975, Dimensions of Welfare in a Comparative Scandinavian Survey (University of Helsinki, Helsinki).Google Scholar
  2. Andrews, F. and S. B.Withey: 1976, Social Indicators of Well-Being in America (Plenum, New York).Google Scholar
  3. Angrist, S.: 1976, ‘Subjective social indicators for urban areas’, Social Focus 9, pp. 217–230.Google Scholar
  4. Bahl, R.: 1982, ‘The fiscal health of state and local governments: 1982 and beyond’, Public Budgeting and Finance 2, pp. 5–21.Google Scholar
  5. Bell, R., M.Sundel, J.Aponte and S.Murrel (eds.): 1983, Assessing Health and Human Service Needs: Concepts, Methods and Applications (Human Sciences Press, New York).Google Scholar
  6. Blair, J. P. and N.Nachmias (eds.): 1979, ‘Fiscal Retrenchment and Urban Policy,’ Urban Affairs Annual Review 17 (Sage Publications, Inc., Beverly Hills, Cal.).Google Scholar
  7. Bradshaw, J.: 1972, ‘The concept of social needs’, New Society 19, pp. 640–643.Google Scholar
  8. Brudney, J. and R.England: 1983, ‘Toward a definition of the coproduction concept’, Public Administration Review 43, pp. 59–65.Google Scholar
  9. Brudney, J. and R.England: 1980, Citizen-Based Indicators of Community Performance: The Case of Norman, Oklahoma (University Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma).Google Scholar
  10. Buchanan, J.: 1968, The Demand and Supply of Public Goods (Rand McNally, Chicago).Google Scholar
  11. Campbell, A., P.Converse and W.Rodgers: 1976, The Quality of American Life (Russell Sage Foundation, New York).Google Scholar
  12. Clark, T. (ed.): 1976, Citizen Preferences and Urban Policy Making (Sage Publications, Inc., Beverly Hills, Cal.).Google Scholar
  13. Clark, T. (ed.): 1974, ‘Can you cut a budget pie?’, Policy and Politics 3, pp. 3–22.Google Scholar
  14. Daneke, A. and P.Klobus-Edwards: 1979, ‘Survey Resources for Public Administration’, Public Administration Review 39, pp. 420–421.Google Scholar
  15. Denver Research Institute, Center for Social Research and Development: 1974, Analysis and Synthesis of Needs Assessment Research (Denver Research Institute, Denver).Google Scholar
  16. Fitzgerald, R.: 1977, Human Needs and Politics (Pergamon Press, New York).Google Scholar
  17. Flew, A.: 1977, ‘Wants or needs, choices or commands’, in R.Fitzgerald (ed.): Human Needs and Politics (Pergamon Press, New York), pp. 213–228.Google Scholar
  18. Glass, J.: 1979, ‘Human need assessment surveys: selected methodological problems’, Journal of Health and Human Resources Administration 1.Google Scholar
  19. Glassberg, A.: 1978, ‘Organizational responses to municipal budget decreases’, Public Administration Review 38, pp. 325–332.Google Scholar
  20. Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services: 1978, User's Guide to Needs Assessment (Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, Tallahassee, Florida).Google Scholar
  21. Hatry, H. and L.Blair: 1976, ‘Citizen surveys for local governments: a copout, manipulative tool, or policy guidance and analysis aid?’, in T. N.Clark (ed.): Citizen Preferences and Urban Policy Making (Sage Publications Inc., Beverly Hills).Google Scholar
  22. Heiss, F.: 1980, ‘Listening to the City’, Urban Affairs Papers 2, pp. 1–10.Google Scholar
  23. Hoffman, W. and R.Clark: 1979, ‘Citizen preferences and urban policy types’, in J. P.Blair and D.Nachmias (eds.): Fiscal Retrenchment and Urban Policy (Sage Publications Inc., Beverly Hills).Google Scholar
  24. Horton, G. and V.Carr: 1976, Techniques for Needs Assessments (The Research Group, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia).Google Scholar
  25. Hughes, G.: 1977, ‘Monetizing utilities for product and service benefits’, in A. G.Woodside et al. (eds.): Consumer and Industrial Buying Behavior (North-Holland, New York), pp. 179–189.Google Scholar
  26. Kimmel, W. A.: 1977, Needs Assessments: A Critical Perspective (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.).Google Scholar
  27. Knox, P.: 1979, ‘Subjective social indicators and urban policy: a review’, Policy and Politics 7, pp. 299–309.Google Scholar
  28. Lucy, W., D.Gilbert, and G.Burkhead: 1977, ‘Equity in local service distribution’, Public Administration Review 37, pp. 687–697.Google Scholar
  29. MacRea, D. and J.Wilde: 1979, Policy Analysis for Public Decisions (Duxbury, Belmont, Ca.).Google Scholar
  30. May, P.: 1982, ‘A Technique for measuring preferences for spending reductions’, Social Indicators Research 10, pp. 389–405.Google Scholar
  31. McIver, J. and E.Ostrom: 1976, ‘Using budget pies to reveal preferences: validation of a survey instrument’, Policy and Politics 4, pp. 87–110.Google Scholar
  32. Millar, A., H.Hatry, and M.Koss: 1977, Monitoring the Outcomes of Social Services (The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C.).Google Scholar
  33. Milrod, J.: 1976, ‘Human service needs assessment: three nonepidemiological approaches’, Psychologie Canadienne 4, pp. 260–269.Google Scholar
  34. Mueller, E.: 1963, ‘Public attitude toward fiscal program’, Quarterly Journal of Economics 77, pp. 210–235.Google Scholar
  35. Murray, H.: 1938, Explorations in Personality (Oxford University, New York).Google Scholar
  36. Murrell, S. A., P. J.Schulte, G. L.Hutchins, and J. M.Brockway: 1983, ‘Quality of life and patterns of unmet needs for resources decisions’, American Journal of Community Psychology 11, pp. 25–39.Google Scholar
  37. Murrell, S. A., JBrockway, P.Schulte: 1982, ‘The Kentucky elderly need assessment: concurrent validity of different measures of unmet needs’, American Journal of Community Psychology 10, pp. 117–132.Google Scholar
  38. Ostrom, V. and E.Ostrom: 1978, ‘Public goods and public choices’, in E.Savas, (ed.): Alternatives for Delivering Public Services (Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, pp. 7–49.Google Scholar
  39. Plant, R.: 1980, Political Philosophy and Social Welfare (Routeledge and Kegan Paul, London).Google Scholar
  40. Rapp, C.: 1982, ‘Needs assessments: who needs it?’, Journal of Social Welfare, 8, pp. 49–60.Google Scholar
  41. Rich, R. (ed.): 1982, The Politics of Urban Services (D.C. Heath, Lexington, Mass.).Google Scholar
  42. Rich, R. (ed.): 1982, Analyzing Urban-Service Distributions (D.C. Health, Lexington, Mass.).Google Scholar
  43. Royse, D. and K.Drude: 1982, ‘Mental health needs assessments: beware of false promises’, Community Mental Health Journal 18, pp. 97–106.Google Scholar
  44. Scott, D.: 1976, ‘Measures of citizen evaluation of local government services’, Policy and Politics 4, pp. 111–128.Google Scholar
  45. Scott, D.: 1974, Citizen Evaluation of local government services: Some Measurement Questions (Institute of Government and Public Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles).Google Scholar
  46. Shapek, R.: 1975, ‘Problems and deficiencies in the needs assessment process’, Public Administration Review 35, pp. 754–758.Google Scholar
  47. Shinn, D., P. Gregg, and R. Davies: 1982, ‘Developing subjective measures of public services for cutback management’ (mimeographed paper).Google Scholar
  48. Shinn, D.: 1981, ‘Subjective indicators of the quality of public services’, Policy Studies Journal, pp. 981–989.Google Scholar
  49. Smith, G.: 1980, Social Need, Policy Practice and Research (Routeledge and Kegan Paul, London).Google Scholar
  50. Stipak, B.: 1980, ‘Local government's use of citizen surveys’, Public Administration Review 40, pp. 25–39.Google Scholar
  51. Strauss, R. and G.Hughes, 1976, ‘A new approach to the demand for public goods’, Journal of Public Economics 6, pp. 191–202.Google Scholar
  52. Vernez, C.: 1976, Delivery of Urban Services: Production, Cost and Demand Functions, and Determinants of Public Expenditures for Fire, Police, and Sanitation Services, Rand paper-P5659 (Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, Cal.).Google Scholar
  53. Warheit, G. J., R. A.Bell, and J. J.Schwab: 1977, Needs assessment Approaches: Concepts and Methods (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.)Google Scholar
  54. Williams, A.: 1974, ‘Needs as a demand concept’, in A. J.Culyer, (ed.): Economic Policies and Social Goals (Martin Robertson Co., London), pp. 60–76.Google Scholar
  55. Wilson, L. A.: 1982, A Survey of Opinion in Tempe, Arizona (Center for Public Affairs, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona).Google Scholar
  56. Wilson, L. A.: A Survey of Opinion in Tempe, Arizona (Center for Public Affairs, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona).Google Scholar
  57. WolfJr., C.: 1979, ‘A theory of non-market failures’, Public Interest 55, pp. 114–133.Google Scholar
  58. Zautra, A. and L.Simons: 1978, ‘An assessment of a community's mental health needs’, American Journal of Community Psychology 6, pp. 356–361.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© D. Reidel Publishing Company 1984

Authors and Affiliations

  • Doh C. Shinn
    • 1
  • Phillip M. Gregg
    • 1
  1. 1.Center for Community and Regional StudiesSangamon State UniversitySpringfieldUSA

Personalised recommendations