Laurence J. O’Toole

• PhD, Syracuse University, Public Administration
• MPA, Syracuse University, Public Administration
• BS, Clarkson University, Chemistry

Larry O’Toole was the inaugural Head of the Department of Public Administration & Policy (2002-2008).  Professor O’Toole is a graduate of Clarkson University (B.S. in chemistry with high honors), with M.P.A. and Ph.D. degrees in public administration from the Maxwell School, Syracuse University.  He has lectured and conducted basic and applied research widely in North America, Eastern and Western Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.  O’Toole has held visiting appointments at the International Institute of Management, Science Center Berlin, Germany; the Joint Research Program in Public Administration, Leiden University and Erasmus University, The Netherlands; the Centre for Local and Regional Government Research, Cardiff University, Wales; and the School of Public Policy and Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China.  He was advisor to the Department of Governance and Technology for Sustainability, Twente University, The Netherlands and was appointed as Professor of Comparative Sustainability Policy Studies there.  He is also Research Fellow at the Danish National Centre for Social Research in Copenhagen.

He is past chair, Section on Public Administration, American Political Science Association and past President of the Public Management Research Association.  He has been elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a senior member of the Netherlands Institute of Government.  He has authored, co-authored, or edited 12 books, including most recently the co-authored Public Management: Organizations, Governance, and Performance (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and the co-edited American Intergovernmental Relations (5th edition, CQ Press/Sage, 2013), and has published more than 170 journal articles and chapters.  His research has been supported by numerous federal agencies, as well as the Danish Council for Strategic Research, the Economic and Social Research Council of the United Kingdom, and the European Commission.  He has also undertaken applied research aimed at improving public policy and public management for such agencies as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (for improving systems of primary care for those experiencing strokes), the U.S. Geological Survey (for improving policy and management of the nation’s wetlands), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (for addressing environmental threats to public health) – in this last-mentioned case field activities included working with and making recommendations to stakeholders and public officials in the U.S. as well as in such settings as Egypt and Botswana.  His current research focuses on public management and public program performance, particularly in networked settings.  These include public education, sustainable development, and health policy and management.

Professor O’Toole has received numerous awards for his teaching and research, including the Charles Levine Award from the American Society for Public Administration and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (2002); the Dwight Waldo Award (2005) from the American Society for Public Administration, for outstanding contributions to the literature and leadership of public administration through an extended career; and the John Gaus Award and Lectureship (2009) from the American Political Science Association, in honor of his “lifetime of exemplary scholarship in the joint tradition of political science and public administration.”

• Public management and public program performance
• Public management in networks
• Policy implementation in complex institutional settings

• PADP 6910 – Public Administration and Democracy
• PADP 8630 – Policy Implementation
• PADP 8710 – Ideas and Issues in Public Administration

• Policy implementation
• Public management
• Organization theory and administrative behavior
• Public management and democratic governance
• Public management and performance
• Intergovernmental relations
• Interorganizational analysis
• Environmental policy and management.
• Current research projects include work on public management and policy implementation; public management and program performance; implementation in networked settings; and the role of public management in delivering educational outcomes

Books published since 2006:

• American Intergovernmental Relations, 5th edition, co-editor (Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ Press/Sage, 2013).  Co-editor: Robert K. Christensen
• Public Management: Organizations, Governance, and Performance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). Co-author: Kenneth J. Meier
• Bureaucracy in a Democratic State: A Governance Perspective (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006). Co-author: Kenneth J. Meier
• Public Services Performance: Perspectives on Measurement and Management (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).  Co-editors: George A. Boyne, Kenneth J. Meier, and Richard M. Walker

Selected recent journal articles and book chapters:

• “Managing Risks in Public Organizations: A Conceptual Foundation and Research Agenda,” Perspectives on Public Management and Governance (forthcoming) (co-authors: Justin B. Bullock and Robert Greer)
• “How Should We Estimate the Performance Effect of Management?  Comparing Impacts of Public Managers’ and Front-line Employees’ Perceptions of Management,” International Public Management Journal 21, 1 (2018): 105-130.  Co-authors: Simon Calmer Andersen, Nathan Favero, Kenneth J. Meier, and Soeren Winter.
• “Management and Performance in U.S. Nursing Homes,” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 28, 1 (January 2018): 33-49.  Co-authors: Anna Amirkhanyan, Kenneth H. Meier, Mueen A. Dakhwe, and Shawn Janzen
• “Managing in the Regulatory Thicket: Regulation Legitimacy and Expertise,” Public Administration Review 77, 3 (May/June 2017): 381-94.  Co-authors: Anna Amirkhanyan and Kenneth J. Meier.
• “Isopraxis Leadership: Leader Confidence, Managerial Strategy, and Organizational Performance,” Chinese Public Administration Review 8, 1 (June 2017): 47-64 (co-author: Kenneth J. Meier)
• “Comparative Public Management: A Framework for Analysis,” in Kenneth J. Meier, Amanda Rutherford, and Claudia N. Avellaneda, eds., Comparative Public Management: Why National, Environmental, and Organizational Context Matters (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2017): 1-26 (co-author: Kenneth J. Meier).
• “The Future Role of Context: The International Research Agenda,” in Kenneth J. Meier, Amanda Rutherford, and Claudia N. Avellaneda, eds., Comparative Public Management: Why National, Environmental, and Organizational Context Matters (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2017): 195-211 (co-authors: Amanda Rutherford and Kenneth J. Meier).
• “Goals, Trust, Participation, and Feedback: Linking Internal Management with Performance Outcomes,”Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 26, 2 (April 2016): 327-343.  Co-authors: Nathan Favero and Kenneth J. Meier.
• “The Validity of Subjective Performance Measures: School Principals in Texas and Denmark,” Public Administration 93, 4 (December 2015): 1084-1101. Co-authors: Simon Calmer Andersen, Nathan Favero, Kenneth J. Meier, and Soeren Winter.
• “Networks and Networking: The Public Administrative Agendas,” Public Administration Review 75, 3 (May-June 2015): 361-71.
• “Globalization, Global Governance, and Public Administration,” in Soonhee Kim, Sheena Ashley, and W. Henry Lambright, eds., Public Administration in the Context of Global Governance (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2015): 3-8.
• “The Changing Character of the American Intergovernmental System,” in James L. Perry and Robert Christensen, eds., Handbook of Public Administration 3d ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2015): 23-37.
• “Public Management, Context, and Performance: In Quest of a More General Theory,” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 25, 1 (January 2015): 237-56. Co-author: Kenneth J. Meier.
• “Taking Managerial Context Seriously: Public Management and Performance in U.S. and Denmark Schools,” International Public Management Journal 18, 1 (January 2015): 130-150.  Co-authors: Simon Calmer Andersen, Nathan Favero, Kenneth J. Meier, and Soeren Winter.
• “Subjective Organizational Performance and Measurement Error: Common Source Bias and Spurious Relationships,” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 23, 2 (April 2013): 429-56.  Co-author: Kenneth J. Meier.
• “I Think (I Am Doing Well), Therefore I Am: Assessing the Validity of Administrators’ Self-Assessments of Performance,” International Public Management Journal 16, 1 (2013): 1-27.  Co-author: Kenneth J. Meier.
• “Managing Migration?  EU Enlargement, Local Government Capacity and Performance in England,”Public Administration 91, 1 (March 2013): 174-94.  Co-authors: Rhys Andrews, George A. Boyne, Kenneth J. Meier, and Richard M. Walker.
• “The Multiple Dimensions of Managerial Networking,” American Review of Public Administration 43, 3 (May 2013): 251-72.  Co-authors: Agnes Akkerman, Kenneth J. Meier, Rene Torenvlied.
• “Interorganizational Relations and Policy Implementation,” in B. Guy Peters and Jon Pierre, eds.,Handbook of Public Administration 2nd ed. (London: Sage, 2012): 292-304
• “Vertical Strategic Alignment and Public Service Performance,” Public Administration 90, 1 (2012): 77-98.  Co-authors: Rhys Andrews, George A. Boyne, Kenneth J. Meier, and Richard M. Walker
• “Negotiation-based Policy Instruments and Performance: Dutch Covenants and Environmental Policy Outcomes,” Journal of Public Policy 31, 2 (August 2011): 187-208.  Co-authors: Hans Bressers, Theo de Bruijn, and Kris Lulofs
• “Comparing Public and Private Management: Theoretical Expectations,” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 21, Supplement 3 (2011): i283-i299.  Co-author: Kenneth J. Meier
• “The Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing Primary Stroke Center Policy in the United States: Results from Four Case Study States,” American Journal of Public Health 101, 3 (March 2011): 561-66.  Co-authors: Catherine P. Slade, Gene A. Brewer, and Lauren N. Gase
• “Environmental and Organizational Determinants of External Networking,” American Review of Public Administration 41, 4 (July 2011): 355-74.  Co-authors: Rhys Andrews, George A. Boyne, Kenneth J. Meier, and Richard M. Walker
• “The EDA in Oakland: A Case That Catalyzed a Field,” Public Administration Review 71, 1 (January-February 2011): 116-20
• “Building Public Management Capacity,” in Anna Shillabeer, Terry F. Buss, and Denise Rosseau, eds.,Evidence-Based Public Management: Practices, Issues, and Prospects (Armonk, NY and London, England: M. E. Sharpe, forthcoming).  Co-author: Kenneth J. Meier
• “Wakeup Call: Strategic Management, Network Alarms, and Performance,” Public Administration Review70, 5 (September-October 2010): 731-41.  Co-authors: Richard M. Walker, Rhys Andrews, George A. Boyne, and Kenneth J. Meier
• “Beware of Managers Not Bearing Gifts: How Management Capacity Augments the Impact of Managerial Networking,” Public Administration (UK) 88, 4 (2010): 1025-1044.  Co-author: Kenneth J. Meier
• “The Ties That Bind?  Networks, Public Administration, and Political Science,” PS: Political Science and Politics 8, 1 (January 2010): 7-14
• “Alignment and Results: Testing the Interaction Effects of Strategy, Structure, and Environment from Miles and Snow,” Administration and Society 42, 2 (April 2010): 160-92.  Co-authors: Rhys Andrews, George A. Boyne, Kenneth J. Meier, and Richard M. Walker
• “In Defense of Bureaucracy: Public Managerial Capacity, Slack, and the Dampening of Environmental Shocks,” Public Management Review 12, 3 (May 2010): 341-61.  Co-author: Kenneth J. Meier
• “Implementation and Managerial Networking in the New Public Governance,” in Stephen P. Osborne, ed., The New Public Governance? Critical Perspectives and Future Directions (London: Routledge, 2010): 322-36.  Co-author: Kenneth J. Meier
• “Managerial Networking, Managing the Environment, and Programme Performance: A Summary of Findings and an Agenda,” in Richard M. Walker, George A. Boyne, and Gene A. Brewer, eds., Public Management and Performance: Research Directions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010): 127-51.  Co-author: Kenneth J. Meier