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Robert M. La Follette
School of Public Affairs
1225 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706

Telephone:  608.262.3581
Fax: 608.265.3233


Last updated:
January 23, 2012



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Donald Moynihan

Donald Moynihan

Associate Director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs

Professor of Public Affairs

Office: 107 Observatory Hill Office Building
Phone: 608-263-6633
Fax: 608-265-3233
E-mail:

Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs
University of Wisconsin - Madison
1225 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1211

Donald Moynihan is Associate Director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs and Professor of Public Affairs. His research examines the application of organization theory to public management issues such as performance, budgeting, homeland security, election administration, and employee behavior. In particular, he studies the selection and implementation of public management reforms.

The Dynamics of Performance Management: Constructing Information and Reform

His 2008 book, The Dynamics of Performance Management: Constructing Information and Reform, is available from Georgetown University Press and Amazon.com. The Academy of Management's Public and Nonprofit Division named it the best book for 2009. Read reviews here.

He also has published in volumes and journals that include Public Administration Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Administration & Society, Governance, Public Administration, Public Performance and Management Review, Journal of Policy History, American Review of Public Administration, and Review of Public Personnel Administration. His article “Why Reforms Don’t Always Have to Work to Succeed: A Tale of Two Managed Competition Initiatives” won the 2002 award for best journal article from the Public and Nonprofit Division of the Academy of Management. Another article, “Capacity, Management and Performance: Exploring the Links,” was selected as the best article published by the American Review of Public Administration in 2003. His paper “The Role of Organizations in Fostering Public Service Motivation” won the Marshall E. Dimock Award for best lead article in Public Administration Review, 2007. The American Society for Public Administration gave him the Joseph Wholey Scholarship Performance Award for outstanding scholarship on performance in public and nonprofit organizations in 2009 and 2011. In 2011, an article co-authored with Pamela Herd in the American Review of Public Administration (“Red Tape and Democracy: How Rules Affect Citizenship Rights”) won the Wilder School Award for Scholarship in Social Equity in Public Policy Analysis. The University of Wisconsin-Madison gave him a Romnes Faculty Fellowship in 2009.

Moynihan is the co-editor of Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory and the co-editor of Public Administration Review for the Theory to Practice  section. He serves on the editorial board of Public Management Review, American Review of Public Administration, State and Local Government Review, and Public Performance & Management Review. He is a member of the APPAM Policy Council and a former member of the Board of Directors for the Public Management Research Association, and the Executive Council for the Academy of Management Public and Nonprofit Division, and the Executive Council, Public Administration Section of American Political Science Association. In 2011 he was elected to the National Academy of Public Administration.

A native of Ireland, Moynihan completed his Bachelor's of Arts in public administration at the University of Limerick, and his master's and Ph.D. in public administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Curriculum vitae

Research

Performance Information Project

Courses