Gordon Kingsley
Professor, Director of Graduate Studies
Member Of:
- School of Public Policy
- Technology Policy and Assessment Center
Fax Number:404-385-0504
Office Location: DM Smith G05A
Related Links:
Email Address: gkingsley@gatech.edu
Overview
Gordon Kingsley is a Professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. Dr. Kingsley teaches classes in public management, policy implementation, STEM education policy, and theories of public policy. Dr. Kingsley’s research examines the development and implementation of effective partnerships across the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Current research projects explore the impacts of partnerships on organization structure and the development and allocation of scientific and technical human capital. This work is currently being conducted in two policy domains examining the following: 1) education with a focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education; and 2) transportation with a focus on privatization and contracting amongst engineering organizations and agencies.
His research appears in journals such as the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Policy Studies Journal, Public Administration Review, Public Organization Review, Public Performance and Management Review, Research Policy, Research Evaluation, Review of Public Personnel Administration, State and Local Government Review, Journal of Technology Transfer, and Evaluation and Program Planning. He has served as a consultant or researcher for the National Science Foundation, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Research Council, the Office of Technology Policy in the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Office of Science in the U.S. Department of Energy, a Science Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, USNet (a consortium of 15 state economic development agencies promoting manufacturing networks), the Ohio Department of Development, the Georgia Department of Transportation, Cosmos Corporation, and the Enterprise Innovation Institute at Georgia Tech.
Education:
- Ph.D., Syracuse University, Public Administration
- M.S., Columbia University, International Affairs
- B.A., American University, International Affairs and Economics
Interests
Research Fields:
- Policy Process, Leadership, and Pre-Law
- Program Evaluation, Public Management and Administration
- S&E Organizations, Education, Careers and Workforce
Geographic
Focuses:
Focuses:
- Europe
- United States
- United States - Georgia
- United States - Southeast
Issues:
- Regional Development
- Education
- Transportation
Courses
- POL-1101: Government of the U.S.
- PUBJ-8000: Joint GT/GSU PhD Program
- PUBP-2030: Organizations and Policy
- PUBP-3030: Policy Analysis
- PUBP-3230: STEM Education Policy
- PUBP-4010: Policy Task Force I
- PUBP-4600: Senior Thesis
- PUBP-6012: Fund of Policy Processes
- PUBP-6017: Public Management
- PUBP-6018: Policy Implement & Admin
- PUBP-6201: Public Policy Analysis
- PUBP-6402: Research Policy & Mgt
- PUBP-8520: Scope&Theory-Public Plcy
- PUBP-8813: Special Topics
- PUBP-8821: Special Topics
- PUBP-8823: Special Topics
Publications
Recent Publications
Journal Articles
- Understanding renewable energy policy adoption and evolution in Europe: The impact of coercion, normative emulation, competition, and learning
In: Energy Research and Social Sciences [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2019
- Effective Implementation in Practice: Integrating Public Policy and Management, by Jodi Sandfort and Stephanie Moulton
In: International Public Management Journal
Date: 2018
- Let sleeping bats lie: Analyzing institutional adaptation to environmental regulatory change through adaptive management theory
In: Journal of Environmental Management [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2018
- The influence of task complexity in shaping environmental review and engineering design durations
In: ASCE: Journal of Management in Engineering [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2018
Working Papers
- Streamlining Project Delivery through Risk Analysis
Date: 2015
All Publications
Books
- Engaging Civics A Congressional Simulation Workbook
Date: January 2006
Journal Articles
- Understanding renewable energy policy adoption and evolution in Europe: The impact of coercion, normative emulation, competition, and learning
In: Energy Research and Social Sciences [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2019
- Effective Implementation in Practice: Integrating Public Policy and Management, by Jodi Sandfort and Stephanie Moulton
In: International Public Management Journal
Date: 2018
- Let sleeping bats lie: Analyzing institutional adaptation to environmental regulatory change through adaptive management theory
In: Journal of Environmental Management [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2018
- The influence of task complexity in shaping environmental review and engineering design durations
In: ASCE: Journal of Management in Engineering [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2018
- How Information Matters: Networks and Public Policy Innovation by Kathleen Hale
In: International Public Management Journal
Date: 2012
- Searching for contracting patterns over time: Do prime contractor and subcontractor relations follow similar patterns for professional services provision?
In: Journal of Policy Analysis and Management [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2011
This paper compares over a 12-year period (1) patterns of contracting between a state transportation agency and its prime contractors providing engineering design services with (2) patterns between these prime contractors and their subcontractors. We find evidence of different contracting patterns at each level that emerge over time and coexist in the same contracting context. While patterns at the agency–prime level are characterized by repeated contracts, patterns at the prime–sub level indicate fewer repeats and more contractor turnover. Implications for outsourcing practice and theory are discussed. - The Development of a Relational Orientation to Consultatnts amongst Project Managers.
In: Journal of Public Procurement [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2011
This paper explores changes in the attitudes of managers at a state transportation agency towards working with professional service consultants over time. The development of a relational orientation amongst agency managers is explored, i.e. managerial styles recognizing greater interdependence and emphasizing trust, partnership and collaboration over formal procedures and monitoring. Case studies of two points in time (2003 and 2007) are presented using semi-structured interviews and survey data. The evidence demonstrates growing patterns of interdependence and the structural and procedural adaptations made by the agency. Corresponding difference in means tests demonstrate patterns of change in relational orientation over time. - The impact of relational factors on contracting management in public organizations
In: Review of Public Personnel Administration [Peer Reviewed]
Date: September 2009
This study examines how public managers perceive the value of contractors who hire former agency employees. We find that contractors strategically hire former agency employees to ensure the accomplishment of contract work, potential renewal, and extension of the current project. Although it is unclear whether agency managers prefer contractors who are the agency's former employees to contractors who have no prior connection with the agency, it is clear that they tend to hire contractors who are more familiar with the agency rules, policies, and inside practices rather than those who are not. However, frequency of interaction with current contractors and contract management experience in the private sector do not have any significant effect on the favorable perception of the agency managers toward increasing contracting out. The findings have important implications for human resource managers, particularly when agencies expand and diversify sources of human resources to increase the overall capacity of agencies. © 2009 Sage Publications. - A systematic approach to institutional analysis: applying Crawford and Ostrom’s grammar
In: Political Research Quarterly [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2009
- Applicability of the Normative Model of Outsourcing in the Public Sector: The Case of a State Transportation Agency.
In: Public Organization Review [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2008
- The rebirth of patronage: Have we come full circle?
In: Public Integrity [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2008
- COSEE Partnerships: Building Lighthouses for Ocean Literacy
In: Current: The Journal of the National Marine Educators Association
Date: 2007
- Effects of contracting out engineering services over time in a state department of transportation
In: Public Works Management and Policy [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2007
- Managerial perceptions of privatization: Evidence from a state department of transportation
In: State & Local Government Review [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2005
- Best practices in consultant management at state departments of transportation
In: Transportation Research Record [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 2004
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has been experiencing a significant increase in the number of consultants that it is using, and there is an attendant need to manage these consultants better. Best practices in consultant management within state departments of transportation (DOTs) were examined, and the consultant program at GDOT was examined in detail. DOTs with innovative programs and with similarities to GDOT were identified, and site visits and interviews with relevant DOT personnel were conducted at the Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania DOTs. The results of the review of consultant programs and the detailed on-site interviews revealed that successful consultant management programs shared the characteristics of transparency, regularity, independence, and consistency. This finding will help GDOT reform its consultant management program to cope with the increased use of consultants and improve delivery of services to the citizens of Georgia. - Denying public value: The role of the public sector in accounts of the development of the Internet
In: Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory [Peer Reviewed]
Date: July 2004
The development of the Internet has required the combined efforts of government agencies, universities, and private corporations. The system as we came to know it in the 1990s is to a great extent the result of the interaction of technical considerations and the peculiar interfaces among the public, private, and hybrid sectors. Yet the stories of the creation of the Internet by participants are largely of a system that sprung wholly from the private sector. In this study we explore the distance between creation stories and creation processes in this large-scale technical system. Our goal is twofold: to understand the attribution of public and private values by participants and to understand how public values influenced the design of the Internet. An embedded case study design is used with which we detect four types of stories that function as myths of contemporary culture, which constitute a denial of public value in the creation of the Internet: (a) appeal to the heroic individual, (b) substitution of professional ethics for a public service ethic, (c) use of private sector myths by the public sector, and (d) appeal to entrepreneurs and the primacy of the private sector and civil society. In private, insiders tell stories about successful public managers in the implementation of the Internet. They have not received much diffusion and interpret the result as a realization of democratic values. The intent of the government to create a new marketplace, that is, "Cyberspace," is suggested as the peculiar form of public value created with the Internet. These stories highlight by contrast the difficulty in portraying the value created by public managers when the role of the government is enabling and indirect. - Engaging stakeholders in productive meetings to reform science education
In: Science Educator [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2004
- Networking for competitiveness: The role of informal linkages for small firms.
In: Small Business Economics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2004
- On becoming just another contractor: contract competition and the management of science at Sandia National Laboratory.
In: Public Performance & Management Review [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2004
- Privatized administration of the national laboratories: Developments in the government-owned, contractor-operated approach
In: Public Performance & Management Review [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2004
- Strategies for Effective Consultant Management at the Georgia Department of Transportation
In: Georgia Engineer
Date: 2003
- Locating critical components of regional human capital
In: Policy Studies Journal [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2001
- Examining Red Tape in Public and Private Organizations: Alternative Explanations from a Social Psychological Model
In: Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 2000
A number of recent empirical studies have examined red tape in public and private organizations. Consistent with the heavy emphasis in the public administration literature on the distinctive institutional context of public organizations, most of these studies focus on the system rather than the individual. In this study we seek to uncover the blind spot regarding individual differences in extant theoretical models for explaining red tape. We develop and test a social psychological model for red tape using individual differences in alienation. The study's results show that alienation is as strong a predictor of red tape as are sector and size. Based on these results, we conclude that theoretical models for explaining red tape as well as practical strategies to ameliorate red tape will fall short of their goals if the individual is ignored and the focus is exclusively on the system. - Value mapping social capital outcomes in state research and development programs
In: Research Evaluation [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 1999
- Interfirm collaboration as a modernization strategy: A survey of case studies
In: Journal of Technology Transfer [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 1998
Interfirm collaboration (IFC) has been explored by organizations seeking a vehicle for the industrial modernization of small and medium-sized manufacturers. This paper offers five models of the impacts of IFC networks based on a survey of 123 case studies. The models examine the association between impacts of IFC with variables describing the origins, activities, and structures of networks. Impacts are measured through aggregate assessments of business expansion, bottom line savings, increases in projects, increases in membership, and increases in other benefits. We find that business expansion is associated most strongly with factors related to the origins of projects. Increases in membership and other benefits are most strongly associated with structural factors. Finally, bottom line savings and increases in projects are most closely associated with both origin and structural factors. - Risk culture in public and private organizations
In: Public Administration Review [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 1998
- Charting the routes to commercialization: The absorption and transfer of energy conservation technologies
In: International Journal of Global Energy Issues [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 1997
- Decision participation in public and private organizations
In: Knowledge and Policy [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 1997
- Lessons learned from inter-firm collaborations: a survey of case studies
In: Firm Connections
Date: 1997
- Manufacturing partnerships: Evaluation in the context of government reform
In: Evaluation and Program Planning [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 1997
- Manufacturing partnerships: evaluation in the context of government reform
In: Evaluation and Program Planning [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 1997
- R&D value mapping: a new approach to case study-based evaluation
In: The Journal of Technology Transfer [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 1997
- Reflecting on reform and the scope of public administration
In: Public Administration Review
Date: 1997
- Using technology absorption as an evaluation criterion: Case studies from a state research and development program
In: Policy Studies Journal [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 1997
- Technology transfer and absorption: an ‘R & D value-mapping’approach to evaluation
In: Research Policy [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 1996
- Commercial interactions with federal laboratories
In: Materials Technology
Date: 1995
- US energy conservation policy: Themes and trends
In: Policy Studies Journal [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 1992
- Decision process models and organizational context: Level and sector make a difference
In: Public Productivity and Management Review [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 1991
- Atlanta Conference 2011 Program Committee
- PUBLIC & NONPROFIT SECTOR-ABSTRACTS
- Risk Culture in Public and Private
- State and Local Government Review Vol. 37, No. 3 (2005): 228-41
- Technological Jurisprudence in the Formation of Informal Networks of Knowledge Exchange in a State Transportation Agency
- The Implications of Non-Linear Phenomena In Management and Policy Implementation
- Tracing the Influence of Policy Inducements and Embedded Relations on the Formation and Operation of Partnerships
Chapters
- Knowledge Management through Informal Knowledge Exchanges and Communities of Practice in Public Organizations
In: Public Administration Reformation: Market Demand for Public Organizations [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2014
- Research Value Mapping and Evaluation: Theory and Application
In: Handbook on the Theory and Practice of Program Evaluation [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2013
- Chapter 5: Current evaluation framework and existing evaluation efforts
In: NOAA’s Education Program: Review and Critique. Committee for the Review of the NOAA Education Program [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2010
- The Art of Partnering Across Sectors: The Influence of Centrality Strategies of State R&D Projects
In: Advancing Public Management: New Developments in Theory, Methods and Practices [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2000
- Citizenship on the Net: The Case of Environmentalism
In: The Information Revolution: Its Current and Future Consequences [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 1998
- The Use of Case Studies in R&D Impact Evaluations
In: Evaluating R&D Impacts: Methods and Practices [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 1993
Conferences
- Mapping Knowledge Resources for Government Learning on Public-Private Partnerships
Date: 2013
This paper investigates the value of various knowledge resources for supporting government agencies in preparing their staff to work on public private partnerships for infrastructure (PPP). Recent trends suggest an increase in government interest in PPPs, but challenges involved in some projects of this kind have brought the role of market-based actors in PPPs into “question.” Analyzing the priorities that transportation experts assign to knowledge sources in the United States (U.S.) provides an indication of the sources that are likely to assist capacity-building for improving the government position in PPPs. This paper includes an overview of the theoretical foundations of the inquiry, analysis of twenty-two semi-structured interviews from professionals working on PPPs in the U.S., and a discussion and conclusion of implications. - Experiential Learning and the Evolution of Outsourcing in a State Transportation Agency.
Date: 2006
This study examines organizational adaptations during a period of rapid scale-up in the outsourcing of a professional services associated with a core competency of the agency. A case study of a state transportation agency examines the outsourcing of engineering and design services to the private sector. Normative models of strategic outsourcing in the private sector have been influential in shaping the political and economic environment of the agency. Such models have also influenced studies of the managerial capacity of public sector agencies for contracting out. We assess the utility of this model to the organizational adaptations pursued by the agency over a 12 year period. The case study draws includes data from semi-structured interviews with agency managers as well as contractors. We contrast the narrative findings with social network graphs of the growth of contracting relationships over the twelve year period. - Rich Networks: Evaluating University High Schools Partnerships Using Graph Analysis
Date: 2006
- STEM Partnerships that Spill Over
Date: 2005
- Partnering across cultures: Bridging the divide between universities and minority high schools
Date: 2004
- The Georgia Tech Student and Teacher Enhancement Partnership (STEP) Program: A set of models of graduate students working in high schools
Date: 2002
- A history of technology transfer programs at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority: Strategic plans and program tasks
Date: 1992
Working Papers
- Streamlining Project Delivery through Risk Analysis
Date: 2015
- Implementing Communities of Practice in the Georgia Department of Transportation
Date: 2014
- Implementing Communities of Practice in the Georgia Department of Transportation. Final Report.
Date: 2014
- Developing Strategic Systems Supporting Communities of Practice in the Georgia Department of Transportation. Final Report.
Date: December 2011
- Project Development Improvement and Streamlining: Assessing the Effectiveness of Process Improvements in Consultant Management. Final Report.
Date: August 2008
- Alternative Approaches to Evaluating STEM Education Partnerships: A Review of Evaluation Methods and Applications of an Interorganizational Model. Final Report.
Date: March 2008
- Searching for Patterns of Competitive and Relational Contracting over Time: Do Prime and Subcontractor Networks Follow Similar Patterns?
Date: 2006
This paper explores and compares two sets of contractual relationships over a twelve-year period: the patterns of contracting between a state transportation agency and its prime contractors providing engineering design services, and between the prime- and sub-contractors. We find evidence that patterns of relational and competitive contracting may co-exist in the same contracting context. While the patterns of agency-prime contracting are indicative or relational contracting, the patterns of prime-sub contracting imply relatively more competitive processes. Implications for policy and theory of outsourcing are discussed.
- Final Report on Aggregate Analysis of CMC
Date: February 2005
- Developing Data and System Resources for Consultant Management – Preparatory Assessments for the Standardization of Cost Proposals and Contract Templates.
Date: 2005
- Executive Summary of the CMPII Project
Date: September 2004
- Developing Assessment Models for CONACyT: A Review of International Practices in the Measurement of Research.
Date: 2004
- Relative ‘Effectiveness Measuring’ in Industry-Oriented Research Technology and Development Policy: A Report for the NetherlandsMinistry of Economic Affairs.
Date: May 2001
- Contractor Change at the Department of Energy’s Multiprogram Laboratories: Three Case Studies
Date: January 2001
- Eligibility and Graduation Requirements in Science and Technology-led Economic Development Programs: An Evaluation of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Technology – Task B.
Date: 2001
- Innovative local economic development programs
Date: November 1999
- Lessons learned from inter-firm collaborations: a survey of case studies
Date: October 1997
- Implementing pollution prevention policy in the U.S. Army: A study of industrial ecology and ‘noise’ factors
Date: 1997
- Case studies of inter-firm collaboration: A survey
Date: December 1996
- Establishing the building blocks: An evaluation for the ‘Foundation Forum in Inter-Firm Collaboration’
Date: November 1995
- Industrial development for the Niagara Mohawk service area of 2020
Date: 1989
- Assessing Compliance Burden from Implementation Of Title V Permitting Rules and Regulations: Impact on the Adoption of Innovative Pollution Prevention Technologies.
Thesis / Dissertations
- Leading the horse to water: evaluating technology transfer and technology absorption from state-sponsored research, development and demonstration projects.